The Deep Forest Ghost in the World, Ghost with No Home

For @Sahalie
He's sitting on a lodged tree and hooting into the mist :>

The bark beneath his paws was rough and solid, crunching under his weight and giving way to splinters. His paw pads were scratched, his thickening coat kept catching on the tree's spiderweb of branches, and gravity didn't like him leaving the ground one bit. But it wasn't even a difficult climb, after all he had scaled a pine tree before and could do it again, it was the tree itself that didn't like him. His every movement was met with a crack or crunch of protest, and it kept moving. As he got higher and higher the tree's tilt seemed to get worse, leaning heavy towards the ground until Cottongrass felt ill. If it were easier, he would have scaled it already and hopped off in boredom. Instead it kept his attention, demanding a stubbornness that he forget he had.

The tree's stability was nonexistent, it's weight bearing down hard on the branches of neighboring friends. And just as Cottongrass gave another slow step - the entire thing lurched from under him. Somewhere in the distance he heard the sickening, deep crack of branches snapping and wood tearing. He paused, his grip on the tree's slender base precarious at best. But the tree stood standing, even if dipping towards the forest floor in a way unnatural. Above him, he heard the telltale hoo-hoo of a startled owl echo through the woods. It was a ghostly sound, haunting and deep in the dead silence. He gave up trying to reach the tree's top, attention now focused elsewhere.

He sat down on the tree without grace, the wood giving another deep groan of despair. But it didn't move and remained sturdy beneath his paws, and that was enough for Cottongrass to settle on its bark. He couldn't see anything from his perch a few feet above the ground. The entire forest was shrouded in a cold, damp fog that trickled between the trees. It didn't help that above him there was a canopy so thick it didn't allow sunlight to trickle in. He couldn't see the owl, and even when he strained his ears there was nothing but his own breathing. There was no flap of silent wings, no rustle of flight. He hooted into the quiet, admiring the way his voice broke the heavy veil and echoed.

But there was nothing but the early morning stillness to keep him company, now. And he was - for all intensive purposes - a very fat and awkward owl sitting in the trees. But maybe he was more of a baby owl, with his coat a freshly grown mess of downy fluff and wide yellow eyes poking out from beneath. For good measure he let out another hoot, the sound disjointed and warbling as his voice played between the trees.

(This post was last modified: Dec 27, 2016, 08:02 PM by Sahalie. Edit Reason: test )

lol just kinda assumed it was day time. lemme know if I should change that

It was the most curious sound: half owl, half wolf, echoing in the fog-white woods. The girl might have paid it no mind had she not developed an interest in bizarre bird calls and felt the need to scratch the itch in that part of her brain. It had the pitch and the shape of an owl call—two short bits followed by a longer, drawn out vowel sound—but the tonal properties seemed all wrong. It sounded much deeper than an owl, gliding between notes in the way a wolf might have done. Testing this theory as she ambled closer to the source, the girl let out her own awkward attempt at hooting. It wasn't perfect, but it certainly sounded more like the strange call than a regular bird and did not require her to invent a hypothetical, undiscovered species. The simpler the better.

This was a good mystery, she assured herself as she jogged through the mornings soupy atmosphere, one that would take her mind off of the doldrums of pack life without her usual friend and the mess she had made of things as a result. Honestly, at times it felt like her life had come to a halt. Yet all around her were the signs that time continued to pass with or without her consent: the forest grew ever orange-er in the leafy parts, which was why today she had walked into the thick clusters of evergreens in The Deep Forest for her walk.

The hooting reached its peak volume, however, without presenting the hooter himself. She was sure it was a he. Twisting around in the shadow of a half-felled tree, the girl hummed and hawed. "I coulda...sworn..." her voice wore the rising melody of curiosity, though she spoke aloud to no one in particular. Certainly not the hooter—no where to be found.

He wasn't expecting anyone to respond. And from atop his perch he teetered, a mess of startled and bewildered movement as he shuffled. The fur alongside his stomach grazed the tree's rough surface, blunt nails digging deep into the bark as he pressed himself prone. His legs bunched and he was more than ready to hop down and find whoever it was that had hooted back at him. But somewhere below there came a rustle of the movement, and his ears strained to pick up the soft patter of ambling paws.

He froze, yellow eyes settling on the dark form of the girl below. His head cocked, ears pricking forward as her confused voice drifted upwards to him. There was an awkward half-beat where he struggled to think of a reaction, because jumping down was easy. Staying poised with his paws bunched together beneath him, however, wasn't. He settled back down on his rump, once again causing the tree to stir with a deep creak. His claws dug into the tree, grip unsteady as he swayed for a dizzying movement. He blinked as the ground took to moving with him.

"Hoot." His response was simple, the onomatopoeia short and succinct on his tongue. All while his yellow eyes narrowed in amusement, head titled in curiosity. Behind him his tail wagged quick and eager, thumping against branches and tree alike.

my mood didn't want me writing much :| it's also been awhile since sahalie has met anyone "new"

The half-dead tree she had come to a stop underneath began to groan in a concerning way, and the girl immediately moved out from under it. Her head tipped as she tried to assess the situation: there was no breeze to move the tree, it didn't look like it was about to fall. Suddenly her eyes jumped upwards and she gasped, seeing the owl-wolf finally for the first time. It was just a pale boy with an amiable face up quite high on the tree. Her head tipped to the other side now, impressed by how far up he had managed. The girl herself was no good at climbing with her too-limbs and ample bulk. Only the widest, lowest of branches were available for her and mostly she would just hang on them rather than pulling herself up onto them. This angle here seemed particularly steep.

"Hoot yourself," she said, flicking her muzzle at him as if this were somehow a natural greeting. "Did life as a wolf get too tough?" Sahalie herself was quite content on the ground, and really had no idea what would inspire the boy to get into the tree, but it looked like a carefree place. He had his own thick body and proportionally-short legs to contend with for his size, yet there he was, hovering above her head perched on the tree. The boy was a loner, clearly with nothing better to do.

"You ain't afraid you'll fall?"

Hoot indeed, hoot indeed. If he had feathers to ruffle or wings to flap, he'd do that in enthusiastic greeting. But none he had, and he settled giving an easy laugh and bobbing along with her words. "Nope." He chirped. Was it in response to the comment about wolf life being too hard for him, or was it for her second question of being afraid to fall? He didn't worry too much about it and he bounced right on through the conversation. Because he preferred the second question over the first one, so ambiguous answers for the rest.

"I know my way down." He assured, but the longer he looked down the less sure he grew. His first thought had been climb down right now and prove her wrong, but he didn't think he would make it. But she didn't know that, right? He licked his lips and focused his yellow gaze back down on her. His paws shifted and he forced himself to keep sitting.

"Does it count as falling if you uh, jump?" The jump he had in mind was probably different than hers. Because jumping was kind of a voluntary reaction, and the one he had in mind was of a more involuntary and completely accidental reaction that was similar to falling. But words usually had more than one meaning. And he didn't have to fall unless he really wanted to, which made absolute sense in his mind. He'd fallen jumped down many trees before.

(This post was last modified: Oct 16, 2016, 03:14 AM by Cottongrass.)

many apologies. i will be a better partner now<333

The perfunctory "nope" raised her eyebrows and left her perplexed. She waited for some or any elaboration or response to her joke that masked an implied question of "What on earth is a wolf like you doing in a tree?" But nothing came besides assurances of his own safety. The girl snorted, deciding without much other evidence that this was one of those tough, adrenaline-junkie type of wolves who didn't ask for directions or consider themselves vulnerable. He was licking his lips, though, which might have been a sign of a crack in his otherwise bold exterior. "Oh yeah?" She retorted like a five-month old cub, her lips tight but otherwise subtly turned upwards at the corners. Part of her was amused at the idea of him wobbling off the creaky branch, but the other part of her was deeply concerned that he might hurt himself. A lone wolf like himself shouldn't be going out of his way to endanger himself so late in the season. A broken leg could be a death sentence.

She resolved to talk him down from the perch. "It's not about the take off," she said in a sing-song, cryptic tone to match her parody of existentialism, "It's about the landing" Sure, he could choose any time to disconnect himself from the tree branch in the air, but it probably didn't matter much if he landed flat on his face anyway. "If you can manage landing on your feet I'll catch you a rabbit," she giggled. Surely he'd be hungry enough, a pack-less boy like him could not refuse an offer of food. 

"Owls like rabbits, right?"

Oh wow. Oh wow.

He found himself launching upright to his paws in jittery excitement at her challenge. The tree beneath him swayed and he wobbled like a puppy learning to walk, but gravity be damned as he remained standing on his perch. He gave an aggressive, excited shuffle so he could stand more above her. And because he was also a five month old puppy he threw her words right back down at her.

"Y - y - yeah." The word kept getting stuck on the tip of his tongue but he shouted it with eager conviction all the same. Because free food always sounded good to him. He was more than ready to wiggle his way down the tree, his white tail wagging hard and fast behind him. His descent was far from graceful, big paws moving quick and clumsy with the tree protesting his every step. And branches kept snagging his winter coat - but he was going to get the job done in record speed. He'd stick the landing, make a new friend, and convince her to give him two rabbits. It was perfect.

But there was the loud, deep crack of a breaking branch and he found his paw landing on nothing but air. The ground lurched up at him at startling speed, his world tilting as gravity rushed up to meet him. He landed on his back with a resounding thump that had his bones clacking. It wasn't a far drop - he had been halfway down - but it was a drop nonetheless. The kind that made him give a breathless, giddy giggle because that was going to bruise him nice and tender. But he had no compunction.

His tail wagged slow and steady, thick legs skewed at awkward angles in the air above his body. That was going to hurt when the adrenaline faded. He wiggled on his back - scouting out just how far the dull throb of pain extended. It was just his shoulders and he heaved a sigh of relief. With that over he wiggled some more, neck craning to find the girl's brown paws and then head. She was upside down from his angle.

He offered her a sad, warbled hoot that had his voice cracking midway through. But his lips were quirked in a goofy grin and his tone of hoot was more for sympathy.

(This post was last modified: Oct 24, 2016, 10:29 PM by Cottongrass.)

cries because I apparently lied about being better and also cottongrass. cotton? grass? is adorable

Her head turned away and her eyes closed as the tree creaked with his descent. As if maybe her looking away would remove any pressure from the owl-boy to do any cool flips that would endanger himself. If she was not going to watch him, he'd just come down like a normal wolf, she assumed. Her ears twisted as she could hear, with certainty, the whoosh of the tree returning to its less slanted position without the weight of the wolf, followed shortly by a thud that made her wince. Screwing her eyes tightly shut, her nose turned back towards the boy, and opened slowly as he was wiggling towards her. "You landed on your back? Oh my god," she clucked like a worried hen, walking over to him with a concerned whine. 

He was giggling. Hopefully that meant he was fine.

It was too hard for her to maintain a motherly sternness, though, as she stared down into his rather hopeless, goofball face that begged for her and a hearty smile stretched across her mouth so strongly it made her cheeks hurt. She began to giggle as well. Sahalie had sort of assumed he was her age, but the owl-boy was really more like a cub. Not that she minded. There were adults who could learn a thing or two from the wildness of the pups. "Whattttt," she whined playfully, swiping lazily at his nose.

"C'mon, on your feet. Let me look you over before we go. Does your back hurt?"

@Sahalie <3

His eyes crossed as he watched one of her paws near his snout. And his teeth playfully clacked shut on nothing but air, right where her paw was supposed to be. But he wasn't actually that sure, seeing how his vision was doubled and blurry with the way his eyes were focusing. He shifted on his back for a better view of one her legs - his next target. His paw curled and he was ready to bat at her. Her voice interrupted the movement and he found himself frozen, paw dangling in the air midway between him and her paws.

His attention turned to her face, his eyes now uncrossed and drawing upward until he caught sight of her own yellow eyes. He blinked. Because really, he didn't get what all the fuss was about. Didn't everyone fall from time to time? Granted, he fell out of a tree onto his back... but he probably saw it in a different light than her. Since he wasn't dying and/or dead, didn't that mean he was good to go? But he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the attention she was giving him.

"Nah." Came his instinctive response, and as if to prove his wellness - he tried to roll onto his paws like she wanted. And immediately balked at the way his body screamed against the movement. He couldn't bring himself to stand and instead settled for sitting, heavily slouched and suddenly bashful. Because that hurt, more than he was ever expecting it to. He was going to be as stiff as a tree tomorrow, wasn't he? There was no hiding it now.

"Maybe a little." He admitted, the words sheepish on his tongue. It was then a thought struck him and he beamed at her. Suddenly giddy he stamped his front paws on the ground, and his tail thumped behind him. "Nothing some rabbit won't fix. Maybe two." He was all too pleased with himself and he couldn't help the eager look he gave her, lips quirking up at the edges. Because while he failed the initial requirements for free food, he was still going to try his hardest to push his luck.

The owlboy playfully tried to nip at her paw, and just like that a friendship was cemented in her mind. She couldn't help but like him: he was so lighthearted in ways that other wolves their age were not normally. Sahalie didn't have to coax anything out of him, he just was this way, and that seemed like just the sort of wolf she wanted to be with right now. The girl giggled, watching him closely as he tried to shrug her off but tried to comply with her demand. He seemed to stiffen suddenly, to hesitate, and out of habit her lower lip slid between her teeth. One of her eyebrows rose quizzically, but the girl withheld comment. By now the owlboy knew he was hurt, said as much, and there wasn't much worth in forcing the point. Sahalie wondered if she should attempt to bring the boy home and look after him, but figured she would save that question for later, because—

He brought out genuine laughter from her so easily, and it was hard for her to say no to his thinly veiled begging. "Mmm, I've always believed food fixes everything." Her girth was surely proof of that: while not fat per se, the dark girl surely bordered on "thick." "C'mon let's see if we can't find some," she batted at his face again as if to turn him in the direction she intended to go and began walking off, nose high in the air sniffing for any hint of meaty creatures.

However, while she knew it was best to remain quiet on a hunt it was hard to stop herself from talking. There were so many questions. "What's your name?" was, of course, the first one to casually slide out of her as she continued to poke the air with her nose. It was chilly enough now that hunts were getting harder. All the little creatures were pretty content to remain in their dens, and Sahalie had learned her lesson about jamming her head into rabbit warrens.