Chanting Chase Underneath the Big Top Trees

“Good, good. That’s good,” Reyes hummed, tucking the name away in a safe place. Grizzly Hollow, south of here. Victoria and Avery, siblings. This was all excellent information, and quite frankly, more than the loner expected from his travelling companion. He might be a bit awkward (at the best of times) and lack some specific social skills, but he had to give credit where credit was due. Cotton had the sense to figure out where they’d all been going. Perhaps he hadn’t planned on splitting up from the duo, but it strengthened Reyes’ belief that he’d be able to deliver the boy back to his friend, and into the safety of a pack.

Hopefully. Cotton’s previous hesitance about group living was not forgotten, but the swarthy loner could hope a friend would ease the boy’s woes.

“Alright, well-- Think we might be barkin’ up the wrong tree, searching out here. Your chica is probably further south, yeah? If you got separated and she couldn’t find you, makes sense she’d go there, right? I mean, that’s the place she told you about.”

If anything, they should probably move a little further south to look for the woman, and hope they ran into her. The forest was only so big, after all, and if not her…maybe someone who’d seen her.

Everything Reyes had said made sense. And if Cottongrass were to agree with the older man's explanation, he would be proud to admit that he was agreeing because he actually understood it and not because he knew it would make things easier. But he still couldn't bring himself to just say okay and waddle after Reyes to wherever he thought they should be looking for Vic. Not yet, anyway.

Because he had a thought, one little thought that wiggled and squirmed in the back of his mind. And he was really, really bad at ignoring those types of thoughts. Because what if? What if the unexpected happened and Vic wasn't at Grizzly Hollow when they found it? Or what if Vic went to Grizzly Hollow and was coming back for him as they spoke, and that if they left now, they would miss her? Scenario after scenario kept on popping up and he found that he didn't like any of them.

"I know..." He started, voice trailing off as he tried to pick what he wanted to say next. Something to silence the worry inside of him, and something that wouldn't make Reyes sigh or grumble. And well, this was going to be it, Cottongrass' big argument and ramble about what he thought they should do next. "But could we keep looking around here? At least for a little while, like just today! And then after, after we could, we can uh, branch out." Confrontation wasn't his strong point, but at least he tried.

(This post was last modified: Feb 24, 2017, 11:00 PM by Cottongrass.)

Sometimes, Reyes had to wonder why he took on this charity case to begin with. It wasn’t to say that Cotton was a particularly bad kid – as far as traveling companions went, he really couldn’t complain about the yearling. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. The loner had the distinct ability to gripe about anyone and anything. However, he didn’t have anything that awful to say about the white wolf. Growing a spine usually wasn’t something he’d complain about in the first place. But…

…well, going around in circles seemed like a dumb ass idea to him. He supposed it wasn’t entirely out of Cottongrass’ realm, in that regard.

“Alright, niño. Sounds like a plan.” The heavy sigh that followed directly afterwards made it rather clear that it wasn’t Reyes’ choice in plans, but never let it be said he was an unreasonable man. If the yearling needed to spend the day wasting his time to find nothing at all to convince himself that his friend really wasn’t here, so be it. That’s what they’d do. Tomorrow, they could branch out and get the hell out of this snowy wasteland.

Seems like a good place to fade, unless you had something else in mind? :)

Well, it sure didn't sound like a plan when Reyes said it like that. But oddly enough, Cottongrass found that he didn't mind his traveling partner's moodiness. He was too focused on the fact that Reyes was giving him more time to try and find Vic before making them move along.

With a smile on his face and a swish in his tail, he vowed to start his search now. And he was going to do it right! Which unfortunately meant no yelling, because he really did think it was the most efficient way... But he had other ways of finding Vic now. Like sniffing everywhere he went, taking care to go around trees in his way, and a whole lot of other important stuff he couldn't remember but he'd still do. He was pretty sure he'd prove all of Reyes' doubts wrong, that his friend would be somewhere in the forest and they just needed to look some more. Cottongrass would be nothing but thorough in his search.

And if Reyes still wanted to be moody, well...

"I'll make it up to you!" He chirped, a smile bright on his face as he peered over his shoulder at the older wolf. While he didn't actually know how he might make the search worthwhile to his friend, he'd probably think of something sooner or later. Maybe food? Or a whole day of not talking? He'd figure it out later, when the search for Victoria wasn't so pressing.

Without another word or a moment of hesitation, Cottongrass faced forward and continued through the forest with his head down and nose twitching.

Fade.