Larkcall Lowlands dig a little deeper and it's crystal clear

An eerie fog rolls in from the nearby forest, so thick you can barely see your own nose.
AW, but @Risaela ????? :B

As per usual, the inky Kael was patrolling the lowlands, seeking for something to occupy his attention. The sun had rolled into the sky at a leisurely pace, for the darkness was holding on much longer than it had in the warmer months. He was told this was normal—that it was a part of the seasons changing. Daylight would decrease, which meant Cyril would have limited time to explore during the day. But it did give him an opportunity to practice his night skills, so it wasn’t completely awful.

However, despite the arrival of the sun, the morning mist remained. It hung close to the ground, dreary and unsettling. He moved slowly, each step carefully calculated as he scanned his surroundings. The fog appeared to be moving in from the woods in the west, pooling into the open tundra; suffocating him. It swirled around his paws at first, cascading around his lanky legs as it rose, thickening with every step he took. A lump formed in his throat as the fur on the back of his neck stood, his brows furrowed. He wanted to turn back—to return to the monadnock where he could be above the thick fog—but he didn’t know which way was which. All around him was a thick blanket of dove grey, making it impossible for Cyril to figure out how to get home. 

(This post was last modified: Nov 01, 2017, 02:10 AM by Cyril.)

-has 303295 replies to do but ignores them all for Ryril <3-
I cannot believe they're six months old!! @Cyril

Risaela loved to explore - she always had and she always would. The memory of her mother's corpse was put to the back of her mind most days, though she did deal with those few and far between where all she could see was Kisla's dead, faded green eyes. That was just what happened when one was traumatized at an early age. Still, she coped with it quite well for someone who had only been on this earth for six months. But she had seen how poorly Inna had dealt with their mother's passing, and she knew that she couldn't go that path as well. There were so many things to be happy about and thankful for, even without Kisla there.

Though, to keen observers, they might notice the ghosts haunting Ris' moon-shaded eyes.

The pup wasn't so much a pup anymore - she was about as tall as she was going to get, though she had a bit of filling out to do. Her long legs carried her much more quickly over the fields, which she had developed quite the love for. The wall of fog rolling in only made the experience more fun, as her ghostly figure essentially melted with it. And it kind of added an element of uncertainty to the whole adventure. The girl smiled, watching her paws to make sure she didn't trip, but just so happened to glance up and catch a hint of shadow in the mist.

"H-hello?" she called, that damn stutter still plaguing her even now. Though, of course, it wasn't nearly as bad as it used to be. "You lo-lost?" As though she, herself, wasn't lost. It was simply that she was happily lost.

He realized, as he glanced over his shoulder, that he could no longer see the towering monadnock in the distance. The fog had settled around him, making it unfeasible to navigate through the tundra, so he stopped. His toes curled into the soft terrain, his brows pinched together as he glanced around, worry weighing heavily in the pit of his stomach. The swirling mist refused to let up as it continued to thicken to a point where Cyril could barely see the tip of his nose.

His best option was to wait it out. Eventually the sun would warm up the tundra enough and the fog would dissipate. However, as far as he knew, it could have been night. How long had he been in the fog? Minutes, hours, days? What if he never found his way back to the monadnock?!

H-hello?

His head spun around, his yellow eyes falling into slits as he tried to pinpoint the location of the voice.

You lo-lost?

It couldn’t be… He blinked, frustration growing in the pit of his stomach as he stumbled backward in a feeble attempt at retracing his steps. The stuttering voice sounded like it was coming from somewhere in front of him, but he wasn’t sure. He didn’t answer, his tongue laying heavy between his teeth as he continued to back up, hoping that he was distancing himself from the voice…

Ris had gotten herself turned around and couldn't see the shadow anymore, and everything was so quiet that she couldn't be sure she had seen one in the first place. It was just occurring to her that she might have called out to no one when she felt something big bump into her flank. It wasn't a hard hit - it just startled her, and she jumped before whipping her head around to find a familiar scent and spotting familiar black fur...

...and looking up and up. Huh.

"Woah," she commented, tipping her head up a bit to meet his sunflower yellow eyes. It was almost like seeing the sun cut through the fog. Much better than her monotonous coloring. "You g-got real big, Cy-Cyril!" Her tail started to swing behind her, excited to see someone she considered a friend out here. He was kind of one of the things that made the Lowlands awesome - even if he was pretty darn mean sometimes.

It had been so long since the boy had encountered the silver-eyed parasite. The time between his last encounter with the she-devil had been peaceful, but apparently the universe had other plans…

His backward steps were halted by a small, furry body. A groan was immediately expelled from his body as he turned around quickly, his yellow pools narrowed into sharp slits as the girl spoke, her familiar (annoying) voice cutting through the fog with ease. You g-got real big, Cy-Cyril! Well, duh. He was growing. So was she. Was that not what puppies did? He rolled his eyes dramatically as he took a step away from her. Out of all the wolves he could possibly encounter in the lowlands it had to be her.

Ugh.

“Yeah?” He countered, a single brow arched high into his ebony forehead as he stared down at the girl. Why was she even out here? Was the forest not good enough for little Bug? Instantly the boy thought of fleeing the scene; however, he was not entirely sure of where to go. The fog was impenetrable; he did not know west from east, or north from south. He could wander, yes, but that would most certainly guarantee that he would end up lost.

She wasn't sure why he disliked her so much. Ris had always tried to be kind to Cyril, whenever they happened to run into one another. The littler wolf had always been privy to his negative emotions, though she had attempted to overlook them. However, it seemed that the dark-pelted boy was determined to keep their relationship in the most negative of lights. And Risaela wasn't even sure what she had done wrong in the first place - all she had done was be herself. Again and again, she had been punished for it.

Why?

It didn't make any sense. But regardless, the young wolf could tell that this was a fact of life. This boy - the first pup she had met outside of her pack - hated her, and that was all there was to it. But Risaela Tainn-Baranski was not one to just accept things like that, even if they did seem to be set in stone. If at all possible, she did want to fix things between them. So she decided to ask.

"How come you hate me?" The question came out gently and casually, without a stutter. Silver eyes met gold directly, her head canting a bit to the side. She wasn't sure that she wanted to know, but as per usual, she couldn't help but ask anyway.

There is a family of deer nearby. Hunt Opportunity

He had not been expecting the silver-eyed bug to be so bold.

She had changed since the first time they met—her bubbly personality diminishing to a dull roar. For awhile he thought it was his fault. That his rudeness and clipped tongue had caused the girl to be a shell of her former self. He realized, however, that there was something else. Her eyes had lost their former shine which meant something else had happened—something bad. The smudge, however, did not question her on it as it was none of his business. And, truthfully, he didn’t care.

But now, as the question hung in the air between them, he did care. Part of him felt bad for being so blunt (and rude) toward her. Everly had told him to apologize, but he didn’t want to. Why did he have to be nice to everyone he met?

A small frown creased his dark features as he gave his head a quick shake, his ears falling to the side as he met her mercury gaze. I don't hate you, Bug, he mumbled in response, his frown deepening as the words dived off his tongue. He shrugged, hoping the answer he had given was enough, but with Risaela he knew it probably wasn’t.

It was true that Cyril had had little-to-no impact on her actual personality. Of course, she wanted to get to know him and be friends with him, but for some strange reason, it almost felt like a mountain stood between them. Perhaps it was that they were opposites, or that she had made a bad first impression, or something along those lines. There was just hardly anything more that she could do that she hadn't done already.

The answer he gave was hardly reassuring, and normally wouldn't be enough to satisfy the girl's curiosity, but it was adequate for now. So, the smaller wolf gave a nod of her head and offered him a slight smile in return. "Okay," she acquiesced, her own ears falling to the sides. "I d-don't hate you, either."

Now that that was out of the way, she glanced around them at the fog, clearly willing to drop the subject. "I th-think I'm lost," she admitted with a slight, sheepish wag of her tail as she glanced back at Cyril. Had his eyes always been so yellow? "Do you know wh-where we are?"

Okay.

Okay.

His brows were still pinched together, uncertainty clawing at his stomach. The silver-eyed bug was all over the place. He was perplexed that she had accepted his answer so swiftly and without further protest. Perhaps growing up had changed the river cub… or whatever had happened to make her so damn sad all the time. I d-don’t hate you, either. He shrugged, dismissing her words. Even if she did, he wouldn’t have been surprised. He hadn’t been very nice to her (like, ever) so he did not expect her to like him. She wasn’t as awful now as she had been in the past, but he still wasn’t fond of her. But, perhaps time would change that—like time had changed her.

Lost. Right. Back to the fog. A frown cut across his dark features as he glanced around to discover that the fog had not let up since they started talking. Dammit! He wanted to play it cool, like he knew where they were and how to get Bug back to the forest she hailed from, but he couldn’t. The fog was too thick and the boy had no idea where they were. So he shook his head, his shoulders sagging in defeat. No, I don’t, he mumbled softly, his yellow gaze falling back to her pale figure.

He was completely oblivious to her oogling his yellow eyes because was too worried about how they were going to get out of all this fog…