Fireweed Rise I keep cruising

The girl had set out with a pep in her step, wings on her heels. Finally, finally! She was going to see what all the fuss was about, see if the reality lived up to the images she had painted in her mind - trees that touched the sky and the old bear den, the mountain lit pink with the fading sun. Apparently she had an aunt that lived up there somewhere, (or had once upon a time). The smile could not be wiped from her face, through rain or shine, wind or foul weather. They were finally out! Unattended! No more boring lectures about pangur and this plant, that plant, no more puppies pulling on her ears or tugging on her tail.

She was free!

As the trees gave way to the open expanse, she couldn't see the red flowers Valiant had spoken so fondly of, the ridge to her right that made up the back of the serpent looked just like any other. For a moment her smile faltered, she had followed the directions to a T, this should be it... But she couldn't let Avery see her doubting herself. "We gotta be close now!" she chirped, rather upbeat given the circumstances. When her brother didn't answer she turned back, brows drawing down when she realised he was no longer on her heels. "Hey! @Avery!" she bellowed, not much caring who she disturbed in the process. "HEYAVERIIIIEEEEEE!" she tried again. If she had to turn around and find him, he would know about it!

Avery wasn't really sure about this whole 'out on their own' thing. He thought it was supposed to feel liberating, like an adventure. After all, this was the farthest they'd ever been from home. But in reality it was just nerve wracking. It seemed like they were in the middle of nowhere, nothing looked right, nothing smelled right, he hadn't had a good meal in days, and every little weird sound kept him up at night and he just felt tired and hungry and cranky and so done with it all. Dragging his heels, Avery started to fall behind. And in typical Victoria fashion his sister kept soldiering on ahead, and he couldn't be bothered to keep up. Until she started hollering. Avery winced, did she need to be so loud?

"Shhhhhh!" He shushed her as he rounded up the snowy slope to meet her, "Vic, cut it out!" He whispered. "I'm not deaf, I can hear you just fine. Me and everybody else in the forest, I'm sure," He whined. That was just what they needed, all the locals rushing over to see what the commotion was about.

He walked back and forth in front of her, pale yellow eyes studying the ground as he ranted, "None of this looks right. I think we're lost, sis, we should just turn around and go back, before we forget the way." He paced the other direction, looking at the twin pairs of pawprints the duo had left behind in the snow. He lowered his nose, sniffing at them and already tracing back along their old pawprints. Avery's glanced back at her over his shoulder, "Look, we can just follow our tracks home and forget about this whole stupid Relic Lore thing," He snuffed, "It's just a bunch of nice bedtime stories, it's not like we're actually gonna find anything anyways."

Her brother's rebuke was met with a rolling of her eyes. "Stop bein' such a sissy, there's nobody here!" she deliberately raised her voice just to grate on his nerves. Sure it was her fault they got turned about, coming in from the south, rather than the north as they should. "I reckon we're nearly there, honestly, and if you want to go home it'll be quicker to keep going this way..." Their tracks would only last so long and they had already been gone weeks longer than they thought it would take them to get here.

"C'mon, I'm sure we're nearly there! We gotta at least say hi to Rook before we go slinkin' home..." Ooo, but her words weren't working, he was already facing the wrong way! And they'd already come so far! Her mouth set in a grimace, she had really wanted to avoid this but she needed to make him turn around. With a huff she charged at him, jaws open wide hoping to clamp down on his tail and tug it hard enough to turn him around. "We're not goin' home now! Not yet!" Besides, the clouds overhead looked like they were threatening to drop snow any minute. "I bet those tracks disappear before the sun goes down!"

(This post was last modified: Nov 06, 2016, 04:30 AM by Victoria.)

Avery pouted. He wasn't being a sissy. He was being quite reasonable, as far as he was concerned. Sure, there were mountains, but there were mountains everywhere, who was to say these were the right ones? First Victoria reckoned they were in the right place, and within a few breaths she was now sure of it? Well, he wasn't convinced.

"Say hi to Rook? Say hi to Rook??" Avery sputtered. She was delusional! "There isn't gonna be any Rook here! I'm telling you, we've gone the wrong way!" This madness had to stop. The only thing that was out here was bear shit and moose, he was sure of it. And he was pretty sure if he stayed out here much longer, he'd be turned into bear shit soon enough.

"Great, just, great." Avery circled around, head craned upwards to watch as snowflakes filtered down from the heavens, landing on his face before quickly melting. He had to admit, she was probably right about that. Their only way out of here would soon be covered. His hindquarters sank, plonking himself on the ground. "We're stranded here. I'm gonna starve to death out here. No, freeze. If a bear doesn't eat me first, A stinkin' bear is gonna eat me and you're over here going on about Rook!" Avery sobbed.

A yipping cry rose up from the distant hills. "Oh great! Scratch the bear, I'm gonna be coyote food!" Avery groaned, falling to the ground with his paws thrown over his face.

Shallow water has trapped several fish in a small pond. Hunt Opportunity

As her brother threw himself on the ground she couldn't contain her exasperated sigh. "The bears'll be asleep by now." Surely, right? and the distant yipping of coyotes was met with a snort, "Even we can take them scavengers on..." and like that she was struck with an idea. Was it calling to its family because it had found some food? Sure they were small but she was convinced they could run them off if they worked together! But no, that wasn't gonna work. Avery was a mess and all she could do was groan.

Exasperated, she turned her head this way and that... The pond that came to sight couldn't really be called more than a puddle under normal circumstances but it was deep enough that it hadn't frozen over yet. Maybe there were some slow moving frogs that she could catch for him? Maybe if he ate something he'd feel a bit bitter? Leaving her brother to wallow in his self-pity, she got closer to the pond edge and her face lit up with a smile, things were never bad for long. "Hey, hey @Avery!" her tail was whipping at a happy tempo at her rump, "Ya hungry are ya?" she teased, using a paw to flick water in his direction, "Reckon these'll taste okay?" She was still dancing around the edge of the pond, trying to figure out the best angle of attack. They weren't huge fish, but the Balik children weren't huge wolves either.

Avery simply lay on the ground, moaning and groaning about his current lot in life. He was so tired and weak he was sure even a coyote puppy would be too much for him at that current moment in time. But his self indulgent whining didn't last for long before Vic had already started off again. "Hey! Wait up!" Avery called after her, jumping up and chasing after her with surprising agility for someone who was supposedly dying of starvation. He followed Vic to the little watering hole, ducking and wincing as she splashed at him, shooting her a glare in return.

"Hmm..." Avery hummed as he considered her question, looking at the fish trapped in the pond. Well, pond was a little generous. It was more like an oversized mud puddle with overgrown guppies wallowing in the bottom of it. "I bet they taste like dirt," He answered with a wrinkled nose. He didn't really want to get his paws wet, either. Still, it was better than nothing. He walked up to the edge, toeing the edge of the water and barely stepping in so that the water didn't even cover his front two paws. He leaned as far forward as he dared, jaws poised open over the surface, looking much like he expected the fish to jump straight into his mouth.

(This post was last modified: Nov 07, 2016, 12:07 AM by Avery.)

Vic did a good job of covering her grin when @Avery finally came after her. She loved her brother dearly but sometimes he was such a drama-queen. He was probably right that they'd taste like mud, "I guess so, but it's either that or snow and I'm getting a bit sick of snow," she countered with pep, eyes watching the fish mull about, skittering to her side of the puddle as Avery's toes encroached on their space. A quick glance showed her brothers gaping jaws and the temptation was too great. Almost reflexively, both front legs slapped the waters surface right up to her chest, eyes tightly closed, her own jaws opened to snap at the water she had splashed with such force.

Fishless, the girl gave herself a shake, eyes opening only to catch multiple glimmers of silver flailing on the snow. "Hey it worked!" she declared proudly as if that had been her intention all along. Racing to the nearest fish she made short work of it, retaliation from her sibling the furthest thing from her mind with dinner served so effectively. If she had to go back and get more she would, tan eyes sought out her sibling, hoping to see him picking up the rest of the fish that had been evicted from the puddle. One would do her until she was sure he was full.

@Victoria

Weren't the fish supposed to do something? He wasn't really sure, they weren't like deer or squirrels, and he never liked like getting wet enough to bother figuring out the whole fishing thing before. Avery waited, and waited. And unfortunately for him, something did happen through the catalyst that was his sister. 

It felt as if entire contents of the pool launched at his face, soaking him from head to shoulders. Avery sputtered, vigorously swinging his head from side to side as he tried to clear the water from his eyes and nose. "Hey!!! What- What the was that for?!" He gasped, blinking watery eyes as he looked around for Victoria. What had worked? 

"You could've warned me before you-" He started but didn't finish, yellow eyes instead catching the drab greyish brown fish flopping on the snowy bank. He swooped in on one of them, grabbing it by the whiskered head and crunching down hard with needle sharp canines until the flopping ceased. He was right, they tasted like mud and whatever else had been stewing at the bottom of the pond, and as much as he preferred his food warm rather than ice cold, he really couldn't complain. Food was food, and he hungrily chewed down his first fish, bones and all, before starting on a second.

"Hey, arn't chu gonna have s'more?" He mumbled through mouthfuls of fish as he looked to Victoria. 

Vic smiled knowingly when her brother's complaints were cut short, the satisfying crunch of scales and bones filling the void where his voice had been only moments before. She considered going back to the puddle for round two, but the sun was getting low in the sky, and while the yattering of the coyotes may have died down, but that didn't mean they weren't still in the area. "Nah, I'm full, you eat up! We better start looking for somewhere to sleep tonight." She urged her brother gently to hurry up and finish eating. There were hills to the east that might provide some shelter for the two young wolves (and it would provide her with an opportunity for a late night excursion to see if she could figure out just where they were).

If he took too long to finish up, she would try to steal the last bite right out of his jaws as an incentive to come after her as she headed towards the heights. With any luck they would find a nice little (empty) cave to curl up in together, at least until Avery nodded off. She was too full of optimism to sleep. There was a tangibility to her final destination all of a sudden, and she had to know for sure.