Kingsfall oh boy

Set before meeting Askan! Also lol I guess Teshi likes food a lot idk.

Lone wolves had two tenets they followed: eat all the food and don't start fights if you're outnumbered. It generally wasn't hard to follow the second rule, since Teshi was purposefully a pacifist. He also had trouble running into any other wolves out on unclaimed territory. Though he was glad for his solitude because it meant no one would be around to try to prove their masculinity or chase him away from their dead deers, he also greatly missed sharing companionship with a group of his fellows. He had spent long enough with the Warbler Forest tribe that their touchy-feely ways had rubbed off on him; his coat felt cold without the friction generated by their constantly near presence. But being alone was almost worth the trade-off of also being left un-maimed.

It was the second tenet that was harder to follow. How could anyone "eat all the food" when there was rarely food to be had? Or rather, there was rarely food just laid out for one to have. Eating all the food required quite a lot of effort when one traveled alone; he wished someone else would cook dinner for a change. But the bachelor life he had to endure for now, while he searched for that special someone (read: pack) to share adventures with. His heart fluttered at the thought.

He had come upon this forest, ancient and imposing, late the day before. He'd dug a little nest for himself in the roots of a fallen tree and slept until late morning. Now it was afternoon, and he had been exploring since he'd woken up—"exploring" was his positive spin on what others would call "unsuccessfully hunting."

He was feeling rather disheartened, though his naturally perky gait hid that rather well, when he heard rustling under a nearby bush. He dropped to the ground abruptly. It seemed to be moving away from him, so he leaped up and crashed through the bush, his judgment addled by hunger, to emerge in a cheerful clearing. Silence fell around him, and he cursed himself for having scared away a potential light snack. He pouted at the bushes surrounding him, and he suddenly saw a rather attractive sight. Fat, dark berries hung from each plant, drawing him forward like sirens.

Now, he'd never been taught the difference between "good berries" and "bad berries." He didn't even know there was such a distinction. In his mind, food was food, and if he could fit it in his mouth, it was going in his belly. So without second thought, as though being controlled by some hunger demon, Teshi reached out his muzzle and began gulping down the fruit.

He realized after a few that he didn't much enjoy the taste, and the nauseous tide of hunger in his belly had subsided, so he was able to resist ingesting many more. He was now in much need of a nap. He left the plants behind, noting dimly where they were, and wandered back in the general direction of where he had slept the night before. Curiously, he was having trouble getting his limbs to move. His whole body felt heavy, and he could hardly lift his head. He had never been so darn sleepy. He must have stood there for a while, trying to move his body, because it slowly dawned on him that the light was gaining a twilit quality. There was a log nearby; it looked soft and inviting, like the world's nicest log. He picked up his legs, moving stiffly because he now couldn't bend any joints, and marched towards it.

And so it was that Teshi found himself, as the sun began to fall, claiming a rather obtrusive place on top of a log as a bed. His legs dangled off either side because he'd forgotten how to arrange his body into a proper sleeping position. It was darn comfortable, that was all he knew.

Teshi!! Definitely already too cute <3

It was getting late.

The sun above was already setting, drifting slowly just out of sight beyond the horizon and transforming the night sky before his very eyes. He could see the stars. They were nothing more than mere pin pricks of light against a dusky backdrop of blues, purples, pinks, and oranges. It was beautiful. And usually Cottongrass was oblivious to the world above. He was just some kind of burning train wreck as he rushed through his life without a care.

But this time it felt different. Almost special if he really thought about it.

Because soon he would have no choice but to return to Wild Rye Fields. That his days with Aytigin were the nicest he ever had but he wasn't a lone wolf any more. He couldn't do whatever he wanted when he wanted. The least he could do was seek out his friend one last time and say goodbye. And maybe he could convince the older wolf to come back with him or something. Or they could figure out a way to meet each other half way instead of having to spend an entire week traveling just to say hi. But so far these were only thoughts swimming in the back of Cottongrass' brain. He had yet to see actually see Aytigin and express all of his amazing ideas.

But he would soon!

It was something he didn't doubt as he bustled on through the forest, a bounce in his step and a swish in his tail as he went. Because any moment now he would find Ayti in the thick expanses of towering trees. And it probably would have made a whole lot more sense to look in pack territory for the darkly-furred wolf. But Cottongrass could barely handle his own pack that was full of familiar faces, much less one full of strangers. He just focused on putting one happy paw in front of the other.

Because he was pretty sure someone was close. Could tell by the creaking of wood and the way the forest seemed to move around whoever it was. And his wishful mind said it was Aytigin. That there was no way it would be anyone else and he sort of just went along with the good feeling.

"Ayti!" He barked, the nickname warm and familiar on his tongue as he rounded one last clump of trees to where the scent was strongest. His muddy white paws skidded to a stop and already his tail was wagging so hard it had the rest of his fluffy rear wriggling and squriming with the movement. "I was just—" Looking for you was what he was about to say. But the words suddenly died on his throat when his yellow eyes settled on the pale fur of someone was definitely wasn't Aytigin.

Cottongrass could only stand there like a deer in the headlights. His wide, owlish eyes stared in shock while the smile on his face froze in place and his tail hung awkwardly mid-sway in the air behind him.

There is a moose carcass that has been scavenged by coyotes nearby. +15 Health

LOL noooo I don't want to disappoint Cotton!

The world was a dream. With colors as radiant and sharp as the ones that existed right now, how could it not be? Was it possible for such beauty to exist in real life? What is reality anyway?

He had woken a short time ago. Teshi couldn't tell if his eyes were open or closed, but he could see, or maybe he was imagining, the forest around him. Each shape stood out starkly against the others as he swiveled his focus from item to item. It seemed to be all he could concentrate on right now: just one thing at a time. And why not? Everything was just so... beautiful. Created and existing exactly as it was meant. Was he... was he that beautiful? It took all his effort to move his eyes down to his right paw, where the splash of brown-red marked it. Hey, little birdie. He was smiling fondly, though from the glazed look in his eyes, it was obvious he had very little control of his own body at this moment and made the expression unconsciously.

Everything turned blurry suddenly as he swung his head around to the side, his attention having been caught by a noise nearby. (Nearness, another construct imposed on them by... whoever invented ideas like that. What was near? Couldn't he say he was technically near this log but also near that sound? At what point did they become—what was the word—far?) The noise manifested into a ghost that appeared from the thicket of trees and yelled, "Eighty!" at him, as though commanding him to do something with the word. But what? He missed the apparition's next words as he was puzzling out the first. He tried to sit up, and then everything was reeling around him, and he felt a lurch in his stomach as he fell off the log.

Teshi staggered to his feet, realizing now that something was absolutely wrong with his body. With a more concrete standard to compare himself to—ghost wolves were still wolves—he could see that his brain was behaving abnormally. He tripped backward, trying to give himself some privacy behind the log and failing terribly. If he were more coherent he might have been embarrassed. As it was, he was definitely uncomfortable with how the situation was developing.

"I really hope you're a ghost," he sighed.

Whoever it was was definitely, definitely not Aytigin. It felt like the universe did everything it could to ensure that the wolf before him and his friend were polar opposites in almost every sense of the word. Because the stranger was pale and lanky with none of the dark hues Aytigin had or even half of the male's brawn. And they were clumsy, too. At one point Cottongrass could only watch as the wolf stumbled about until they rolled right off the log they had been perched on, tumbling to the forested ground without so much as a squeak.

And Cottongrass tried to not feel too disappointed. That really, the stranger couldn't help that they weren't the wolf he had been looking for. But he found that he could only stare at them as his mood continued to dip downwards. Because wow, this was awkward! All kinds of uncomfortable that had Cottongrass really wanting to just turn on the spot and run away. But before he could even think of moving, the stranger was talking. Saying words that had his mind whirring away and he was already being absorbed into a conversation he had no hope of understanding.

Because why would the stranger think he was a ghost? And how did they even know what a ghost looked like or acted like? There were just more and more questions piling up in the back of his mind that he couldn't just ignore. So unable to stop himself Cottongrass' eyes scanned the immediate area while he couldn't help but fidget. Maybe they were just talking to someone else? But he already knew that he was the only other wolf around. Atop his head his ears twitched nervously and his smile became a careful frown, tongue darting out to lick at his lips while the scene became more clear with each passing moment. He had no choice but to face the stranger who wasn't Aytigin head on. So with his gaze level on the wolf's lanky form he finally blurted out—

"But I'm not, though." And the moment he said it he was already cringing away. Because there was—without a single doubt!—a million more ways he could have said that and they were all better then what had just come out. His ears splayed back against his head and he took a waddling step backwards.

There were already so many things not going well in this interaction.

Teshi found that if he stood still, he could pretend he was halfway to okay. His eyes still felt like they wouldn't open all the way and his limbs felt unattached to his body, but least now his stomach wasn't heaving and he wasn't falling all over the place. His front legs were splayed a little more widely than usual, so he still looked slightly off-balance, but he couldn't tell so he wasn't self-conscious about it. His ears flicked forward as he forced himself to listen to the other being's reply.

Hoo boy, wasn't it known that ghosts tended to believe they were still alive? The spirit seemed rather skittish; maybe it was new. That would explain why it didn't think it was a ghost, too. It was the newest spirits who were most confused about what they had become. Teshi squinted one eye, as though to test if he could see through the wolf to the tree trunks beyond. He couldn't, but that was hardly confirmation of the other's realness. He knew there were other ways to test for a spirit's presence. The Warblers had taught him.

"Okay, okay," he said offhandedly, as though he believed the other wolf's answer.

Teshi took three slow steps forward, clenching his teeth as his stomach turned over. The important thing was to be nonchalant, to pretend as long as the spirit did in order to lull it into revealing its true nature. He wobbled a bit on the last step and decided he'd moved forward enough. It was crucial that he keep up this casual manner when addressing the ghost, so he leaned a bit to one side, affecting a conversational air as though he and this wolf were old friends.

"So... You live around here?" He was swaying a bit, though to his befuddled mind he was coming across totally normal. Good one, he complimented himself.

The stranger said okay, okay like they believed him and Cottongrass went nod, nod like he believed them right back. And some small part of him was soothed. Like the worst of it all was over and now the two of them could coast right on to smooth territory or something. He watched as the stranger wobbled towards him, stopping a few steps short but still being plenty close as they settled. Cottongrass' head cocked and he took a step back, big paws crunching on dirt and twigs alike.

He considered insisting that he wasn't a ghost. Like, just really driving the point home because he was pretty sure he wasn't dead. But the wolf before him beat him to the punch when it came to opening their mouth and saying words. He found his attention being dragged along for the ride while his ears gave another twitch on top of his head.

"No." He said, unsure of what he wanted to say but he was already saying it. "I live further to the, uh—" What the heck was the opposite of east? Was it south? He was pretty sure it wasn't south because that just didn't sound right. "West, way west." Cottongrass finally managed, head bobbing along to his words because he was sure of it. Sort of. And before he could help himself he found himself still just talking. "But my friend does, though!" Aytigin lived around here and it was sort of the entire reason he bumped into the stranger in the first place.

Behind him his fluff white tail started to wag. And while the stranger didn't have the same earthy smell Aytigin had, maybe they still saw him. It would be very hard to miss an impossibly tall, heavy set wolf who had the softest smile in the world. Or so Cottongrass believed.

Teshi watched the creature carefully, squinting the one eye at it again. His mind, sharpened to all the colors and shapes around him only ten minutes ago, had dulled and was sluggishly processing the words that were being thrown at him. His body had taken on an abnormally tingly feeling, like his muscles had been invaded by small insects. It took almost his full concentration just to keep his body upright; he hadn't even noticed when the ghost took a step back. He listened to the wolf—or "wolf," depending on your beliefs—struggle to remember where it now lived.

Yep, it was typical ghost behavior to be forgetful. He remembered the Warbler pack mentioning something to that effect when they'd told him about the spirits in their forest. This sure was an animated spirit though, the way it was nodding its head along to its words. A slight frown creased Teshi's forehead as he also recalled being told that ghosts tended to be unearthly still, as though they'd forgotten how to move their bodies... Much like he had forgotten now. But no, Teshi wasn't a ghost. That would just be ridiculous. These thoughts bubbled slowly through his brain, and it took him a second too long to process the other wolf's afterthought.

"But my friend does, though!" Interesting. Teshi could work with that information.

"Oh, okay," he responded empathetically, inadvertently giving a small wink as though he were in on the joke. He bit back a grimace as the movement caused his head to spin again. When he'd gotten the feeling under control, he continued, testing the spirit, "What's your friend's name and what does he or she look like?"

He noticed the other wolf's wagging tail and was thrown off again. This really was the most animated ghost he'd ever heard of. But he knew of trickster spirits that were too good at playing the part of the living, and he was resolved not to fall for this deception.

The stranger blinked one eye at at him and it was sort of like Cottongrass' brain was suddenly melting. Because why? Why was it only with one of their eyes and why did they sound like that? And his first thought was that something must have got in the stranger's eye or something. Because mosquitoes were out and the little buggers never showed any mercy to humanity. It would probably even explain the way the wolf's face crumpled like something was wrong. But Cottongrass found that he wasn't too sure.

Like the edges of reality were bending and warping around him. But no matter how much Cottongrass wanted to settle into the soothing, all-consuming panic of yet another existential crisis—there were more things afoot. He couldn't just ignore the stranger's interest in his friend. How else was he supposed to find Aytigin before he had to get his furry little butt into action? Wild Rye Fields was far away and he wasn't going to hike all the way back just to explain his abrupt absence before disappearing away.

Behind him his tail started wagging and a smile spread across his features. Because maybe they did see his Hearthwood River friend.

"Aytigin." He said, answering the first part of the question because his friend's name was Aytigin. It was a mouthful but it was a happy mouthful. "He's big! And heavy, like heavier than me." And it was true that Cottongrass was a stocky little wolf but he was nothing in comparison to Ayti. The other wolf was a cuddly mix of padding and muscle. His ears twitched forward and he continued to talk in earnest. Because he thought Aytigin was the best and deserved all the praise in the world.

"He's dark, too. With this brown fur—" His tail wagged even harder and the movement had his hindquarters swaying along. "You should see his smile!" He said, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice while he gave his front paws a giddy little stamp. Aytigin had a good smile. And it wasn't exactly like the features that drew him to other wolves he met in the past like golden eyes with a feathery voice or bright fur with a personality that rivaled his own in its adorableness. But it was pretty similar to them and he had yet to notice the differences that kept them separate in the back of his mind.

His question seemed to appease the spirit, who cracked a smile and wagged its tail again. Thank the sky this was turning out to be a rather friendly ghost rather than a demonic spirit he'd heard nightmare stories about. Although, sometimes demons took on angelic forms. Another trick he'd heard of. He wasn't letting his guard down, just in case.

"Eighty-gin." What a weird name, but hey, points to the ghost for creativity. It went on to describe this "Eighty-gin" in some detail, and Teshi found himself frowning again. This ghost was pretty talkative too. Most spirits, he'd been told, tended to be confused when they came back to this world and were fairly reticent in nature. They acted rather than spoke. Or rustled terrifyingly in the bushes as you walked by them at night. But again, some spirits reacted differently to this world. He had one last challenge to try.

"Oh yeah? Let's go see this... friend." He thought he was being clever, giving this next test. The ghost was sure to reveal itself soon, although Teshi was already convinced he was in the presence of a spirit. "Lead the way."

He gestured graciously with his muzzle to indicate that the spirit should go ahead of him towards its "friend." Either the spirit would be goaded into devolving into its more demonic form and attacking, because it would feel pressured by this challenge, or it would lead him into danger, because it had wanted to kill him all along. Teshi prepared himself to deal with either scenario, although his brain was still fuzzy and his body was slow. He didn't even entertain the idea that he could be easily pushed off a cliff in this current state.