Windsong Fjord A coat full of contraband

For @Reyes only please. || RE: Violent thunderstorms overtake Relic Lore. || Afternoon, Thunderstorms, 47°F, 8°C

up in the hills,
it's cold and brutal

Hawthorne Riverflow

So perhaps the young girl had bit off more than she could chew this time around. Lust for adventure had certainly gotten the best of her young paws. Did she ask for an adult to come with? No. Did she tell anyone where she was going? No. Now look where she was - some wild new place that had steep trails and a big body of water below her high up position. She would have said the view was nice if the rain hadn't started pouring down with thunder rumbling in the sky.

Hawthorne was motivated to keep going, though. She could find her way out of this mess! As thunder cracked overhead her brows dug together. Orange eyes focused on the trail in front of her only diverting to steal a glance at the water below. The young Riverflow knew that water was good. It supplied something to drink and surrounded her home. Certainly if she kept following the water she would wind up somewhere safe perhaps right back home even.

She wondered how much longer she had to go. This place seemed so big and unending. Would she make it home before sunset or would she get too tired to keep going?

No matter how far he was removed from the lands of his birth, the thunderstorms (and the rain that came with them) would always set Reyes on edge. He wouldn’t go so far as to say he hated them, because that was a strong word only reserved for the lowest of the low (looking at you, Savion), but it was a damn near thing. His tail straight out, ears flat against his head, the wolf had long since abandoned his hunt, moving back towards where he’d left Askan when they’d split up earlier in the day. Divide and conquer, and all that.

His desire to move was so strong, he was so focused, he almost slammed right into the little grey wolf right before him on the trail. As it were, he dug his dark paws into the mud and slid, grey eyes wide as he slid, woofing in alarm to warn the other before he finally slipped to a stop.

“Querido dios de mierda, that was close,” he hissed, eyes flickering to the running water below. At least he hadn’t sent either of them tumbling into the rush below. Wasn’t certain he could get them back out. “The fuck are you doing out here, huh? Weather is fucking terrible!”

@Hawthorne -- Thanks for making it!  Reyes has a potty mouth when he's stressed.  8D;;

(This post was last modified: Oct 07, 2017, 02:08 PM by Reyes.)

Hawthorne Riverflow

She sucked in a deep breath when a dark figure appeared. It was too big to be her mother and the voice was far from familiar. As they slid to a stop her tail quickly hid underneath her as she took two steps backward in order to avoid his form. Orange eyes grew wide as she looked up at the scarred male.

Hawthorne was no expert on language but that guy sure said a lot of words she wasn't sure were real words. "I-I-I" She stammered as her tongue almost felt slack in her mouth. This was some form of stranger danger but hadn't the girl back at the springs been nice? They were friends and maybe this guy with his fancy words wasn't so bad either. "I'm lost!" She blurted out almost surprising herself. Perhaps it was the rain soaking her pelt that had her feeling so vulnerable or perhaps it was the fact she was faced with a strange new man.

"I was explorin' and then and then I got here." Hawthorne tried to explain in order to better answer his question of what the fuck she was doing out here. Her tail gave a few stiff wags beneath her body as a tooth smile tried to work its way onto her face.

Ah, shit. He got the kid all thunder stuck. Reyes rolled his ears back as the thunder continued to crack overhead, the rain falling down all around them and making the mud all the slicker. Dios mio, getting back to where he’d left Askan was going to take ten times longer now that he’d gotten caught in the weather – and he had no one to blame but himself. He couldn’t really blame it on the girl; in her defense, it was him that had almost plowed her right off the edge. It almost made him feel responsible for her. Almost.

“Exploring, huh?”

She looked a wee bit bigger than the pups at Wild Rye. She was probably old enough, though if she wasn’t a loner’s pup, she was damn far from home. The closest pack was the rye fields, and there were others in the area, but damn, this kid was far from home. “Well, we ain’t got a lot of choices right now, kid. I got a bit of shelter up further this way, where the fuck ‘m headed to get out of this goddamn rain.” His tail lashed. The rain was cold. His ears hugged closer to his skull, trying to keep the dampness out. “Don’t suppose you were tryin’ to get somewhere close.”

"Exploring, huh?"

Her head frantically nodded, throwing droplets of water here and there. He seemed less scary when he wasn't almost running right into her. Looked like Mom or Nauja but with different colors eyes and some things on his face. If she compared him to one of the wolves back home, well, it was a lot easier to want to be cooperative and talk to him instead of acting like a log.

She had met a stranger before who used the word kid. Actually, they had used kiddo but the words seemed really close to each other. That had been Little Crow who wasn't really a stranger in Hawthorne's eyes. Crow was nice from what the grey and black child could recall about their interaction.

Hawthorne wanted to ask what the strange F-word meant but she shoved it down for later. "Uhh nah." The Riverflow didn't actually know where she was trying to go. Her adventure had stretched out further than expected and led her into no man's wolf's land. It had given her the adventure she was looking for, though.

"I'm Hawthorne." She said without much formality to it. This wasn't usually how she met new wolves but she thought he still deserved to know her name.

“Ah, damn. Figured as much.”

Reyes exhaled sharply through his nose, furrowing his brows again as he glanced around. It would have been too much luck, really, to run into someone and find somewhere closer to go. Instead, he found someone lost – it was like Cotton, only smaller, and a girl. But the rain had washed off any smell of other wolves, and she seemed a little awkward like his favorite yearling. And shit, he kinda missed that kid.

He glanced back at the pup. Where was her ma? If he asked, he’d have to take her back. “I’m Reyes,” he said instead, giving himself another futile shake. God, the weather was gross. “If you don’t have any place to go, you can come with me. Back north. Me and my mate found a good hollow – room for a third, ‘long as you aren’t gonna be obnoxious.”

phone post~ will fix any typos when I'm home

He was pretty nice, but then again Hawthorne was lost in a storm and he was offering a way out. She was almost sure that would have made anyone look nice. But this wasn't anyone. This was Reyes - as he had just introduced himself.

Her tail gave a few wet whips of excitement. "I won't be obnoxious, promise." Hawthorne didn't think she was obnoxious at all but for the sake of things she'd be on her all time best behavior.

"What's your mate like?" She asked with wide curious eyes but made sure to show she was still ready to follow him wherever. Nothing wrong with a little talking while walking.

“Okay, okay.”

Kids always said that. Time would tell if she was actually capable of not being a brat – Marisol had a habit of revealing her inner nature within a day, so he had a feeling he’d know Hawthorn’s true nature soon enough. He set off in the direction he had come in – Reyes was pretty sure he was going the right direction, anyways – and would have been content to travel in total silence, but it seemed the youngster didn’t feel the same away about it.

“Askan? He ain’t so bad. Kind of grumpy, I guess. Likes kids though, so you’re in luck.” He paused. “Should we be lookin’ for your Ma on the way?”

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

She couldn't but smile softly, tail swaying. Askan did sound like a pretty good guy. Granted she could do without the grumpiness but at least Reyes had told her about it prior to the meeting. Hawthorne knew she shouldn't be complaining or acting picky. The scarred male was being kind enough to even take her back to their location. Grumpiness or not she'd make the best of this situation.

The question caused a soft huh to slip by her lips. "Probably not, Ma's likely sleeping or trying to find something to hunt." Her shoulders rolled showing a bit of disinterest. Hawthorne really couldn't recall her mother doing much more than that most days. Of course, the child also usually spent her days around Arwyn and Elyan.