Kettle Pot Pond Save My Soul

Special tag for @Piety but anyone is welcome to join!

It had been months since she’d seen her family and she felt like she was <i>dying</i>. Not literally, but it was something that ran across the young girl’s mind. She felt so lonely and tired and hungry! She wasn’t able to catch anything big so for the past few months she’d had to stick to what she could catch and had taught herself to; hares and smaller rodents if she could find them. But these were still meager portions and as such she had grown very thin. Her hips jutted out and her knees and joints looking knobby. Her pelt was dirty and didn’t have the sheen that it once had when she’d been healthy. Just looking at her one never would have guessed she came from a proud and long family and was the heir to an important heritage.


But, even though her appearance was meager she hadn’t been broken. No, she was still her normal self because if Adeltra Archer was anything it was strong in will. It was why she hadn’t given up immediately when she’d gotten lost after than horrible storm, why she hadn’t crumbled with fear when the branches were snapping and twirling and the wind was screaming so loud she couldn’t think clearly. The little princess had been terrified, sure, but she didn’t give in. Of course this fact may have been what had gotten her lost in the first place, but she hadn’t given up and that was what mattered...right?

She’d come across this lowland some time before and had been traveling what she assumed was south. Of course it could have been north for all she knew. Oh, she was all over the place! She plopped down at the edge of the pond she’d come across. Or...was it a lake? Again she wasn’t quite sure, it seemed like it was too big to be a pond but too small for a lake. Maybe a pake? Was that a thing? Curse her curiosity!

It remained cold in the north, much to Cyril’s dismay. He hated how the ground crunched beneath his paws and his breath formed in little clouds above his nose. His fur was growing thicker as the days went by, which meant his knees no longer quivered when he left the comfort of his den. The sky was still grey and moody, which meant the threat of a snowfall was on the horizon. While the smudge wanted to remain atop the monadnock, observing the lowlands from afar, he had grown restless with the cooler temperatures. The best way to keep warm was to move, which lead him to the lowlands…

He did not have a path in mind. The boy just kept marching east, his lanky legs carrying his growing body at a leisurely pace. The air was a little warmer on the tundra, but not by much. His brows furrowed as he kept a watchful eye on the forest in the distance, for he was not interested in having another encounter with the silver-eyed bug.

As he approached the pond a dark figure was situated at the water’s edge, causing his nose to wrinkle and his curiosity to spike. His first thought was Oksana, but the girl’s scent did not match. She smelt alone—and looked it too. Her fur was dirty and unkempt; her bones threatening to poke through her stretched skin.

He frowned.

“You okay?” He called out, hesitantly, as he stepped forward, his ears sweeping back against his skull.

“You okay?” a voice asked from behind and she sprung to her paws, wheeling around and planting her wide amber-yellow gaze on the boy. He looked like he was her age, which she found very interesting because she’d never met anyone her age other than her brother and sister. He wasn’t bad on the eyes but that was something far from the focus of her attention.

She paused for a moment then a smile slowly crawled onto her maw, still pink and healing scars along her muzzle crinkling with the pull of her skin, and plopped onto her butt with a laugh. “Oh gosh, you scared me,” she said, trying to slow her rapidly beating heart. She took a few deep breathes then once again leveled her gaze with the other boy’s. There it was, her naturally strong presence. She didn’t back down, she didn’t shy away and avert her gaze. Hell, she didn’t even slouch. However, the wag in her tail and the smile on her maw assured of the fact that she was anything but snoody. “Do you always sneak up on girls from behind Mr…?” she asked, trailing off at the end hoping that he would fill in the space for her.

(This post was last modified: Nov 14, 2017, 02:20 AM by Adeltra.)

He had not meant to startle the girl. A frown creased his pointed snout as he stumbled backward, his head falling to the side as she turned to look at him. She looked like him—and Wraith—but with peculiar amber-coloured eyes. And she was much prettier than the Kael men.

But that was besides the point.

The point was this girl looked sick and tired AND! she was all alone.

He had not been expecting such a light-hearted response from the ebony girl. His brows narrowed suspiciously as his features softened, adopting a more concerned look. Uh, I’m s-sorry! Smooth, Cyril, way to stutter… I didn’t mean to scare you! Truthfully he was worried about her, for she looked like she had been on her own for far too long, but the proud boy wasn’t ready to admit that just yet. He blinked at her next set of words, a crooked smile working it's way onto his dark features. Cyril. His ears cupped forward, his tail swaying low behind his hindquarters. Sometimes, he added with a bright, cheesy grin pulling at the corners of his mouth.  

(This post was last modified: Nov 14, 2017, 02:50 AM by Cyril.)

It seemed like they had managed to startle each other, but while her expression morphed into a lighter one his could only be described as concerned. It made her heart squeeze a little bit, not in appreciation but in what was perhaps...shame? Was she so lowly now that her simple <i>appearance</i> required the concern of someone else? She couldn’t fault him for it because, frankly, she knew she looked rough but it still was a bit of a blow to her self-esteem. She shook her head at him and his apology, “You’re fine! It’s my fault, really. I should have been paying more attention,” she replied. It was the truth and one would think that she would have grown more wary after being on her own for so long. 


Her auds swiveled forward to catch his words. Cyril, she repeated in her head. What an interesting name! It was definitely different from what they had back at home....or maybe that was just because he was new to her. With his cheeky reply to her question her tail gave an extra hard thump on the ground. Someone with a personality! This was going to be fun! “Oh good, I thought I was special for a second,” she jibbed, adding some cheek of her own. “I’m Adeltra,” she replied, adapting to the fact that he hadn’t given a last name. She thought it was only good manners to go along with what the other wolf was doing. If they gave a name you gave a name, if they only gave a first you only gave a first and thus the world went round. “Do you live around here?” she asked. The scent of a pack clung to his pelt but that didn’t necessarily mean his pack was close.

He smiled at her dismissal, his shoulders sagging in relief. The boy still felt bad (which was very out of character for him) for startling her, but he was glad she had taken it in stride. Nah, he responded, his head falling to the side, the pond can be pretty distracting. Hard to pay attention to everything all at once. He shrugged, his features still soft as he took a hesitant step toward her in a feeble attempt at closing the gap between them.

… I thought I was special for a second. His cheeks flushed crimson at her comment and the boy was immediately thankful for his dark fur. He gave a dramatic roll of his eyes as he stepped up beside her, although he was sure to maintain a respectful distance between them. May be you are, he hummed absentmindedly as he prodded the surface of the pond with a forepaw, his yellow gaze fixated on the cool liquid. Adeltra. His ears twitched at the name.

It suited her.

He nodded at her question as he returned his yellow gaze to her dark figure, his tail swaying behind him. Yeah, over there, he answered quickly as he motioned over to the monadnock in the distance, his chest swelling with pride. What about you?

“Maybe you are,” he replied looking a bit bashful and she made a mental note maybe to not go too far with her jibes. Sometimes she could be a bit...forward and her sense of humor wasn’t always something that could be grasped quickly.

He nodded to her question and her brows rose in interest. Her eyes traveled to what he was pointing at and her eyes widened to the size of saucers. “You live on that big rock?” she said, gaping a little bit. She looked him over, imagining him scaling that big thing like some sort of deer. It was certainly something to picture.

To his question she shook her head, “No, I don’t even really know where here is to be honest. I live in a place called Willow Ridge, but I got lost in a big storm a few months ago. I’m just trying to find home,” she revealed with a shrug. Her heart gave a painful squeeze as she thought of the Ridge. She just wanted to curl up under a willow tree and take a nap in the sun, or play with Rom with Momma and Daddy nearby.

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

You betcha! He chirped in response at her question, a wide grin pulling his lips away from his ivory canines. It was a typical response Cyril got when he showed strangers where he lived, for they seemed absolutely dumbfounded by the idea that wolves could live atop the rock. It was kind of like a mountain… just smaller… and if mountains came singular rather than plural. But the little smudge couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. You can see everything from the top! Which was why he liked it so much. It was the perfect vantage point.

Oh. He blinked, his brows pinched together once more, a soft V forming in his forehead. You’re in Larkcall Lowlands, up in the north! The name Willow Ridge sounded familiar, but he couldn’t recall where he had heard it before… My Ma might know where that is? He couldn’t imagine getting lost from the monadnock—Adeltra was handling it a lot better than he would be! Cyril didn’t know if he would have survived on his own for that long and he was impressed by the thin girl beside him. She wasn’t in the best shape but at least she had survived. That was all that mattered.

“You can see everything from the top!” he exclaimed. This peaked her interest. Maybe they were closer to her home than she realized and if she got up there, maybe she could see which way it was to the Ridge! But her new friend would have to take her there and she knew it was a big no no to bring people into the packlands that weren’t in the pack without the leader’s say so. 

When he said that his mother might know where her home was she thought her heart might stop right then and there. “Really! That would be so great, do you think you could call her?” she asked, lurching to her paws suddenly filled with seemingly boundless energy. If his mom knew where her home was she could be at the Ridge in no time!

(This post was last modified: Nov 14, 2017, 03:56 AM by Adeltra.)