Iridescent Lagoon Where's North From Here?

Lacey’s stomach let out an audible growl.

How long had she been lost for now? She’d lost track of the days, and was lamenting her situation. She was hungry and cold, something she’d never experienced before—at least, never for an extended period of time—and it absolutely sucked.

She grumbled as her stomach loosed another audible gurgle, as if chiding it for making so much noise.  Lacey had tried to catch food, and succeeded a couple of times. In those moments, she’d been proud of herself, and rightfully so. There she was, on her own, providing for herself; surviving! But there were lulls between those times of success where she couldn’t twist and turn fast enough to follow a darting hare, or dig quick enough to pull out a rodent scurrying into its burrow. It was in those moments, where her pride flew out the window, that she remembered exactly how she got here.

Chasing a black and white critter. The spray. The hissing. The running. The smell.

Lacey frowned—pouted, really—as she shook her head. Whatever that damned thing was, she’d be avoiding it and its kind for the rest of her life, lest she experience another stinky surprise. She couldn’t think of anything worse than running into another one of them.

Well, maybe running into two of them, but that was beside the point.

Laid out on her belly, toes skimming the water, the young Rigel let out a long, deep sigh, scowling the whole while. Just a short rest before she got back to walking. Yeah, that’s all she needed—a small breather, a moment to rest her aching, throbbing paws.  Then she’d be up and ready to go again, to try to fill her belly, and maybe not keep wandering in what felt like constant circles.

(This post was last modified: Nov 23, 2017, 10:57 PM by Lacey.)

Treyah hadn’t expected the heavily laid trails around the lagoon, there were no clearly defined borders but it was clear others were frequenting the area, three, maybe four wolves? And she supposed it wouldn’t hurt her to make their acquaintance. After all, maybe if they kept an eye out for Lacey and Sachiel down this way, it’d save her taking such lengthy journeys in her search for the missing pups.

Whoever was living here must have been out for the time being, or so she thought before she spotted the wolf laying on the banks of the lagoon. She approached with an easy wave of her tail, the reality of the encounter not quite registering until she caught the familiar dark muzzle of the very wolf she had been seeking. She let out an excited squeal, "Lace!" before barreling straight towards the girl with every intention of tackling her in greeting, even if it meant they both ended up in the water.

A lynx has left behind the remains of a deer. +5 Health

Truth be told, Dread had no intentions of really exploring outside of the borders today. The dark wolf had been content to simply do a few patrols and maybe take a nap at some point. But when he came a fresh trail of Treyah leading outside of the borders, he figured he’d join the girl on whatever excursion she was on.

So trailing after Treyah, Dread slowly zigzagged after her as he took in new sights and smells around him. He hadn’t really explored much when he was down here last time, after getting into a scuffle with a pack wolf a little further north. There wasn’t much point in exploring when there was the possibility of running into her again. Though he suspected if she was still around, it was highly unlikely she’d remember him.

Hopefully.

Eventually, he did caught to Treyah enough to hear her excited cry of “Lace!”. Lace? As in Lacey? The pup Treyah had mentioned was missing? Picking up his pace, Dread came across Treyah bounding towards a tawny coloured wolf. But he went still when he noticed they looked as if Treyah was about to tackle them into the water. Even though it was still technically autumn and it wouldn’t be absolutely freezing cold, the water would still be fairly chilly. And Dread wasn’t sure if any of the wolves in the Draw were healers or knew anything about healing.

“Treyah, Wait-!”

Lacey huffed another great big sigh, as if plucking herself up off the floor. It was time to get moving again, she’d already lingered long enough by the lagoon—no doubt everyone would be miserable if she remained lost forever! A Draw without Lacey Rigel … how sad. She had to get back, had to make sure none of them were too mopey or miserable. They kind of needed her, didn’t they?

“Lace!”

Her brows knit, her body stiffening.

“Treyah, wait-!”

Treyah?! Lacey sputtered a what? as her head whipped around, giving her barely enough time to see a blurry, tawny figure bounding straight towards her. The tackle was spot on—perhaps a little too well aimed, because the air in Lacey’s lungs was suddenly not there any more, whooshing out from her in one explosive wheeze. Her legs flailed in the air, she felt herself tumble, and then the lagoon was rushing up to meet her.

She squirmed around in the water, trying to figure out which way was up. Her lungs were burning and her eyes were stinging from the freezing cold. Finally, her head broke the surface and she gulped air desperately, hacking and coughing out water and spit.

Oh, she would be well within her rights to be furious! She’d just been unceremoniously full-body shoved into a lagoon after being gone for however long she’d been stumbling around in the dark! And yet, her tail was slapping against the water, wagging furiously as she tried to awkwardly paddle towards Treyah. She was here. That meant home was here. That meant Lacey Rigel had done it by herself … somewhat.

She’d found her way home.

Wheezy sputtering became hoarse laughs of glee.

She’d done it.

(This post was last modified: Nov 29, 2017, 05:49 PM by Lacey.)

There was a strange smell to the girl but it wasn’t going to stop her now as she bounded right into the pup with more force than she realised. Tennebrae’s words were lost on her as the two became airborn, the cold water rising up to meet them as they unceremoniously splashed into the murky water below.

Wow, it was a lot deeper than it looked.

As laughter filled the air, Treyah joined the chorus, paddling back towards the bank, laughter only morphing into a high pitched shriek as something brushed against her legs. It was quickly gone and she returned to a laughing trying to convince herself it was just a plant. But she couldn’t see to be certain, so she bounded closer to push the younger wolf in front of her out of the water. ”Something touched my leg!” she offered a hasty explanation as she continued to shove the younger wolf. ”I’ve been looking for you all over!” and what was with that smell? It was on her now too and it seemed even a quick dip in the water wasn’t enough to make it budge.

Despite his concerns, Dread couldn't help but laugh as the two girls tumbled into the water. It was obvious that Treyah was more then just happy to see Lacey - Dread would almost say she was absolutely ecstatic to see the dark faced pup. And really, after how worried Dread had seen Treyah, he could completely understand her actions.

As Dread drew closer, to see if either girl needed help getting out of the water, the whiff of something...bad made his nose wrinkle slightly but the male ducked his head in order to hide it. There was not much point in offending Lacey, after such a happy reunion.

"Well, talk about making a splashing entrance." With a roll of his eyes, Dread made sure he wasn't in the way, so the two girls could get out without any trouble, as Treyah tried to push Lacey out of the water. "Glad the water didn't dampen the mood though."

The exhilarating joy of finding family was something she’d never really be able to put into words. The relief of knowing she was home, the joy of knowing she was loved, the underlying guilt she’d never admit to for making them worry so much. All sorts of emotions collided at once, and the hiccuping laughter was threatening to transition into wobbly, apologetic sobs. Lacey focused on the good—she wouldn’t cry like a baby over this.

At Treyah’s shriek (and her explanation), the Rigel chirped with a teasing sing-song voice, grinning the whole while. Bet ’sa fish tryna eat you! She cackled gleefully as she was pushed, front legs scrambling as she pulled herself from the lagoon, shaking her pelt instinctively to send a flurry of water droplets flying.

Lacey whirled around, dropping into a bow as she tried to crawl closer to Treyah, tail swishing wildly behind her. She stretched out a front paw, as if to try and pull her friend onto the shore. But, she wasn’t the only one there, was she?

Someone she didn’t recognise was chiming in, and Lacey stared at him with an almost scrutinizing gaze before her face cracked into another smile. Naw, ‘m not scared of a little water.

'Cause nobody can save me

Treyah Tainn

The hair along the back of Treyah's spine may have tingled at the mention of a fish trying to eat her but she didn't outright panic in front of the pup (or Tennebrae for that matter, she really doubted he'd ever let her live it down if he saw her freaking out over something as small as a fish brushing past her leg). Treyah added her own shower of water to Lacey's, noting that the water hadn't seemed to be enough to wash whatever that lingering scent had been. "Could you imagine how big its mouth would have to be to try and eat me? But fish aside, we've been looking for you everywhere! What happened? Where have you been? We gotta get you home, your parents have been beside themselves!" It never crossed her mind that maybe the girl wouldn't want to come.

He stared right back as Lacey eyed him up and down, not backing down from the scrutinising gaze of the pup, he grinned back as her as she smiled widely and chimed that a little water didn't scare her. Biting back a snarky reply to Treyah's clearly rhetorical question about the fish, Tenebrae decided to simply be a silent bystander for the moment, knowing how important this would be to Treyah.

Treyah was right when she said they had to go home, to show Lacey to her parents and show she was safe. But he was curious as he wandered closer to the edge of the water, allowing Lacey to answer the tawny girl's questions without feeling too crowded. Maybe he could spot this fish Treyah was talking about, see how big it was - or how small.

Though he wasn't the best fisher, nor did they really come out here to hunt, he pondered for a moment in trying to catch it. It'd definitely be a bonus if he could, hough he wasn't overly concerned in actually catching the thing, if it was in there. Lacey had been found - that was the best sort of gift right?