Velo en Cascada with the hands of a sinner

@Cancer - I haven't had a Cade thread in ages!

Talking with Lilya and Uncle Cloud about Inna had been helpful, and Ris did feel much better. She wasn't sure what had caused Inna to change like she had, but Risaela couldn't stand to be around the negativity right now. And she knew that Askan and Reyes had made their own pack down south, so she didn't think going to say hello to them would hurt anybody. Especially because she wasn't leaving forever, like Inna seemed to think she was going to do. In all honesty, she had wanted to go see Aleksei and Jessie first, but Kana and Rey were still fresh in her mind from her conversation with Sachiel.

But she had never gone south before - not really - and she was surprised to find that they had just as much river as Hearthwood did. It was so beautiful, and she couldn't help but to follow one of the little offshoots down to try and see where it led.

A lot of this particular little stream was frozen over. Even when it dropped off into a small falls, Ris was surprised to find it iced over on the edges. The silver girl made her way down the cold stones to the bottom, curious to see such a large section of falling water. Sure, Hearthwood had a couple of smaller ones, but none were this big. At least, not what she had found. One paw reached out to touch some of the frozen sides - it was so odd to see water that should still be moving just suspend itself in midair like that.

Winter was beautiful.

Cancer was out and about exploring the reaches of his latest hostel. It would be good for him to learn as much as he could about the lay of the land, especially if things didn't pan out the way he wanted them to. One never knew when they would need to make a flawless escape, after all. Especially when they were as abrasive as Cancer was.

This brought him to the frozen falls, and the pup currently investigating them. He stopped in his tracks, caught off guard by seeing a wolf so young all on her own. His nose even gave a few twitches, second-guessing what it was picking up. She smelled like pack, but none were around. Yes, he was certain of it. A little run away, maybe?

"You lost?" he chuffed out, blue eyes narrowed as they watched the girl. This wasn't something he needed, but now that he'd saddled himself up with a pack, he couldn't ignore it either. If he left an ally's pup to get herself killed, it'd be just as bad as if she ran her mouth and gave the wrong impression to her parents. He was stuck, and so he aimed to resolve the issue as he normally did; curtly. If he had to, he'd just drag her back to @Askan and @Reyes so that they could figure out what to do with her.

The girl gave a bit of a jump at the unknown voice, turning to fix silver eyes on bright blue. Like Lilya's, her mind said instantly. It wasn't often to see a wolf with eyes that color - most seemed to have shades of green or yellow or orange. Or multicolored, like Lil Lil, Sachiel, and Aleister. Ris got over her initial surprise at the stranger's approach rather quickly, a small smile forming on her lips and an easy swing settling in her tail.

"N-no," she responded truthfully - in all honesty, Ris hardly ever considered herself truly lost, but she supposed other wolves might think differently. "I'm just ex-exploring a 'lil bit before I go see K-Kana and Rey. This thing's real pretty." She rose up on her hind legs and placed both forepaws on the hanging ice.

Risaela tilted her head and glanced back at him, her tail still wagging lightly behind her. "M'name's Rissy. What's y-yours?" she asked, dropping back down and turning to face him again. Even with all that was going on in Hearthwood, meeting new wolves was certainly one of Ris' favorite things to do. It never failed to brighten her day. "Are you lo-lost?"

She didn't look scared of him. Really, she looked naive as fuck, but she sounded scared and as she continued to stutter over her words he cocked a brow at her. The names Kana and Rey meant nothing to him, yet anyways, but he correctly figured his alphas would know. Exploring was likely to get the girl into all kinds of trouble if not wipe her from the face of the earth altogether. Hopefully it would be easy to convince her that she'd had her fill and she knew the way to her friends. Then he could get back to solitude.

Cancer sharply inhaled as she placed her weight against the sheet of ice, a few rapid steps bringing him toward her as he was about to snap at her to get down. Before he could, however, she had all four paws back on the snowy ground and he relaxed. The frozen falls looked quite thick, but it would be his luck that he'd be around when they snapped and gonged her in the head.

"No, I'm not lost," he snorted, "I'm an adult, I don't get lost. You should have someone with you. Don't you know it's dangerous for a kid to be alone?"

Clearly not. He had to wonder if she had parents at all. His mother had never let him far from her sights when she was alive, but then he'd been born into a pack where his own kin were likely to end him. Maybe his sense of danger was over-exaggerated, but he couldn't help what his life experiences had proven to him thus far.

"What's up with you anyways? Bite your tongue?"

Ris frowned when he moved to approach her, more confused than anything else. And why did so many wolves have to be so short-tempered or easily-irritated with her? "I'm not lost," she repeated stubbornly, setting her jaw and narrowing her eyes just a bit. "I'm al-alone all the time." As if that made it any better. Ris didn't blame any of the adults at Hearthwood for not watching her in particular - in all honesty, she was probably the most capable of the pups to take care of herself. Some days it felt like she spent more time outside the territory than within, and that wasn't a good thing. But it was her life, and as long as she was safe and came back, she didn't think it was a bad life to live.

But then he asked the question if she had bitten her tongue, and she tilted her head, one ear falling to the side in confusion. The child remained quiet as she thought it through, trying to figure out why he had asked such a thing, before it clicked. Oh. He must be talking about her talky thing.

"Words're hard," she said breezily, her tail giving an easy swing behind her. "'s how I t-talk. I can't help it. B-but I'm n-not stupid," the girl asserted, feeling the need to defend herself even if she hadn't been verbally attacked. It was just a little embarrassing, being called out like that, and on something that she didn't quite understand herself. "Just d-different."

She was alone all the time, eh? Yeah, she must of been a little bit like him. At the least, it wasn't altogether at home for her. He was pretty certain that healthy, happy families wouldn't let their half-years wander freely without any kind of supervision. Heck, he could've killed her already, if he was some kind of maniac.

Or maybe they were the kind of assholes that paid less attention to the kind that was d-different, not caring if they made it or not. Whatever. It wasn't his problem, right? I can't help it, she had claimed, and the voice whispered just like you can't help me.

Okay, this was really annoying now.

"Well, if your pack does decide to give a shit, I'm not gonna be the last one to have seen you alive. Where's this Kana guy at? I'll take ya there, if it's not too far."

(This post was last modified: Dec 20, 2017, 07:59 PM by Cancer.)

Her pack did care about her, and she knew that. But there were more important things to do at the moment than argue, and the child wagged her tail a bit more as the black wolf talked about Kana again. He was going to take her there? That was so nice of him!

”There’s s’posed to be a pa-pack around here somewhere,” she explained, her head dipping down in a subliminal sign of respect and appreciation as she padded up to him. Huh. He wasn’t actually all that much bigger than she was. ”Kana m-made a pack with Rey. They’re both r-real big, black wolves. B-bigger than you,” she explained, wondering if he had seen them around.

Ris perked her ears suddenly, recalling something rather important that he had not yet divulged. ”I still d-on’t know your name,” she said sheepishly, her stutter calming down now that she wasn’t as nervous or defensive. Words were much easier like this.

Around here? Good, then this hopefully wouldn't take too long. He lifted his head, peering off into the thick of the forest as his mind searched what he knew so far of the area. Hopefully, the kid wasn't miserably mistaken and completely off her mark. When she went on, and he looked at her again, she was suddenly closer and his ears snapped back against his head as his snout lifted. A scowl would've crossed his features if he were a less mindful wolf. She better not touch him or some shit.

Taking a step backward, he took in the rest of the information she had, until it all clicked.

"Wait," he barked, all but trampling over her last sentence, the question of his name once more failing to register with the teen, "you mean Askan and Reyes?"

Man, they could've been on their way already! Now he felt like the dumb one, not catching on sooner, so he made sure to let her know it was her fault.

"Y'know, nicknames are cute and all, but if you want someone to know what the hell you're talking about you should use their real names. C'mon, I'll take ya to 'em."

His agitation was palpable, but at this point it seemed pretty clear the pup was immune to his abrasive personality. With a flourish of his tail he turned on his heels and headed off, back to his pack.

Boy, this guy was rude. Ris arched an eyebrow and planted her paws on the ground in front of him, effectively halting their walk as she stared up at the older wolf. ”It’s not nice t’interrupt p-people,” she chided, ears flicking back and jaw set stubbornly. Risaela wasn’t a particularly temperamental wolf, but she knew how people were meant to be treated, and she was included in that people.

”Kana and R-Rey said I could call them th-that,” she continued, but she did feel kind of stupid for not realizing the problem sooner. But apparently he knew where they were and Ris was willing to put their differences aside in order to get to Askan and Reyes sooner. ”I was littler when I m-met them, and I c-couldn’t talk as good as I do now,” the child tried to explain, even though she knew she wasn’t the best talker even now. ”I didn’t think ‘bout it.”

He was nice to take her to them, even if he was rude. But dangit, she really really really wanted to know his name. ”W-wait!” she halted again, stopping in front of him to try and make him stop. She didn’t touch - not a lot of wolves liked touching, and so she generally tried to avoid that with strangers. ”You h-haven’t said your na-name yet.”

A young deer has been separated from the rest of its herd. Hunt Opportunity