Perilous Void rebel heart

Striking out on his own in the middle of winter was perhaps not the wisest idea. In fact, his mother had even told him what a dumbass he was being. He bristled at that. He wasn't a dumbass, Mako was aware of the risks and took them anyways, a sort of challenge to his own strength and tenacity. Besides, there were things out there he wanted to see, this almost mythic land of Relic Lore. While his mother called the coast her home, and the sea still ran in his veins, Mako was born here and that was not a tie that was easy to ignore.

Mako found his way back easily enough even with the heavy blanket of white that enshrouded the land. The monadnock had been found empty, nothing more than an abandoned cairn in the middle of an ocean of white. Slightly disappointing, but not overly upsetting to the boy. Their stay in the tundra had been brief, and he cared little for the featureless landscape. 

As the young Coho's path curved south, it seemed his good fortune since leaving the coast finally ran out. Strong winds pushed his broad form this way and that, and even with his thick winter coat the cold managed to seep in and set his teeth chattering. If he couldn't get out of this blizzard soon, he knew it might spell the end for him. The spirits were very obviously displeased with him.

Cursing his luck under his breath, Mako dragged himself forward, one paw before the other trying to make what little progress he could. He very nearly missed the tear in the earth that opened up in the ground before him, a dark streak between the snow. It would have been a nasty thing to fall down, but his eyes narrowed as he regarded the chasm. This near-accident could very well save his hide.

Steeling himself with a deep breath, Mako carefully clambered down into the earth's maw. His eyes blinked owlishly as he adjusted from the blinding white of the blizzard to the almost complete darkness of the cavern.

Her visit to see Uncle Askan and his pack had been fun, and she already missed the new friend she had made there. Maybe she could return later on and find him again - perhaps bring him some kind of present in celebration of their new friendship? That certainly seemed an appropriate thing to do. Friends were a rare commodity these days, and Ris was determined to keep the ones she had - even if they didn't particularly fancy her as a friend in return.

They'd come around.

Snow had crunched underfoot as she had made her way across the place where the lowlands met the woods. Seeing Aunt Jessie was next up on the agenda, and it took a while to make her way back to Wild Rye Fields. Especially from the Edgy place. She dearly missed the feeling of the wind on her face.

But not this much of it.

The snow had been blinding, and it was hard to maneuver, and her nose felt like it was falling off of her face. The opening in the snow had almost gone unnoticed, and she actually did slide a few wolf-lengths down before she caught her balance again. But steep terrain and freezing paws were a recipe for clumsiness, and she half-clambered, half-tumbled all the way down to the bottom. A yelp punctuated the end of her graceless descent, and she found herself wide-eyed as she tried to adjust to the change in lighting.

Well, that had been weird.

"H-hello?" she called almost instantly, shaking her head to rid her chin of the stinging sensation brought on by the fall. After all, this might have been some poor animal's den that she'd fallen into. That certainly would've been rude of her.

While Mako's eyes were still adjusting to the shadows, he allowed his other senses to take stock of his surroundings. The air was damp, while the smell of mold and guano the only thing he could detect. His ears found a slight trickling sound, and his head turned towards the source of the noise. Squinted amber eyes found a small glittering streak of water leading the way into further darkness. How deep this thing went, Mako wasn't sure, nor was he entirely sure he wanted to go any deeper. The thought of the darkness closing in around him from all sides sent a shiver down his spine. He could very easily get lost down there.


He shook his head, turning away from the lurking depths of the cave. He was just waiting out the storm down here, and didn't need to concern himself with whatever lay deeper within the earth's crust. Mako pulled himself close to the wall of the cave, out of the way of the falling snow and winds and huddled down for what could very well be a long wait.

Mako had nearly drifted off to sleep when he heard a clattering sound, causing the boy to jolt upright and stare as a wolf practically fell from the heavens. His fur bristled as he rose, ready to fend off whoever it was from his makeshift shelter. But her little voice held him back from launching an attack. It was just a girl.

Trying to sooth his startled nerves, he stepped closer towards her. "Hey." He called back in response. "Nice job nearly cracking your dome open." While the darkness might have concealed his features, there was no holding back the smirk from his voice.

There is a rabbit's nest nearby. +1 Health

Oh! So there was someone else in there. A male, from the sound of it - not too far off. Blinking rapidly to clear her vision, Risaela shook the snow from her fur and glanced around the strange hole she'd fallen into. The little silver wolf perked her ears when her eyes landed on the holder of said voice - an absolutely huge wolf, like Ayti, but not as dark or as old. Maybe someone closer to her own age? Or like Cancer?

"'S rude t-to make fun of people," she chided, her teeth chattering a bit from the cold. Maybe the fall had put her in a bit more of a foul mood, but she really didn't want to be picked on for falling down like that. It hurt. The girl lowered her head and ears a bit as she approached the boy, silver eyes not leaving his dark amber. Usually, she wouldn't be so on-edge - it was simply that she was a bit startled, and she wasn't sure if she was trespassing or not.

"Um..." she continued, pressing close to the wall so that she could avoid the snow that was still falling in through the opening above. Woah - that was really high up! "I'm R-Risaela. Rissy. Is this your cave?" she asked, looking up at the humungous wolf before her. She tried a bit more of a friendly approach, albeit still relatively hesitant. "Because it's a n-nice cave! Very... uh... dark? Oh! And rocky." Her tail wagged slowly against her hind legs, her ears flicking from lowered to perked and then down again as she waited on the larger wolf to respond.

Mako watched her carefully, he'd obviously caught her off guard as much as she had him. He snorted and shrugged his shoulders as she told him off for being rude. He'd never been terribly concerned with manners, and likely wasn't going to start worrying about it now. None-the-less, she continued on and introduced herself. She seemed nice enough, maybe a little spacey. Obviously she didn't take very great care to look where she was walking. 

Mako couldn't help but bark out a laugh at her assumption that he owned this damp, musty cave. "Huh?" He snorted, shaking his head roughly. "No, it's not mine. I just came down here to get out of the storm." He answered. His own tail swished easily behind him. "Rissy, huh? The name's Mako." The boy introduced himself. As she came closer he couldn't help but notice how little she was. It was hard to tell if she was just young, or living in a land of giants for the past year just made her seem tiny in comparison. 

"Say, what's a pipsqueak like you doing out in a blizzard like this?" He stepped forward, circling around her as he checked her over. Maybe it was her own good fortune she fell down this hole, rather than risking getting frostbite up there.

This guy wasn't super mean, but he wasn't super nice, either. He talked to her not like she was some kind of pissant, and he also didn't treat her like she was a child. This was a rather nice middleground, she believed. Kind of like they were equals. It also probably helped that she wasn't in his cave, because wasn't that a thing? That wolves didn't want other wolves on their space? It was a kind of foreign concept to Ris, who hadn't ever really experienced a harsh reaction to being on another pack's territory. But she'd been told, and she tried to learn.

A smile spread across her maw when he introduced himself to her in return - even using her offered nickname. That was her favorite name, too. It was the happiest-sounding one. "M-Mako's a cool name!" she told him, taking note of his own swishing tail. Her own picked up a bit more tempo. This guy was being kind to her - seemingly genuinely, as well. "It's n-nice to meet you," the girl tacked on at the end, politely dipping her head before standing up a little straighter.

Oh... well, the circling thing was a bit weird, but she made no move to turn around with him. Her tail did still, however, and the fur on her shoulders rose a bit in unease. "Um... I'm gonna go s-see my Aunt J-Jessie. Out west." She hadn't asked permission to do so, but from how much she was out of her own territory these days, she figured nobody would worry too much. A stubborn set of her jaw came out, however, at the pipsqueak comment. "Maybe you're t-too big," she argued, inadvertently pouting as she turned silver eyes over toward him.

@Risaela

Mako snorted again as she complimented his name. This girl just seemed to be full of compliments. As he finished his contemplative circuit around the girl, he stopped in front of her again as she continued on. His ears pointed upwards in shock at her revelation about traveling to see her aunt. Even in the scant light of the cave it was be plain to see Mako's amber irises with how wide his eyes were at that moment. 

"Out west? In this weather? And you're all by yourself? What are you thinking?" He asked incredulously. Sure, he was tempting fate himself making this journey on his own, but little Rissy here was certainly courting with imminent disaster. Just moments ago he'd watched her haphazardly tumble down into this cave. He couldn't imagine what other disasters she might walk into. He thrust his chin upwards. "I'm just the right size for not getting buried in the snow, at least!" He huffed indignantly in his own defense. "You're gonna get yourself killed!"

Geez, this guy was so dramatic. She wasn't gonna get herself killed - that was silly. It was just a little snow, so if she didn't get super wet or anything, she'd be okay... right? But maybe she was wrong. She was wrong about a lot of things, she had come to find. So maybe this Mako guy wasn't being all that silly. Maybe he knew more than she did about winter and stuff. This was only her first one, after all.

"I'm by myself a lot an-anyway," she tried to defend, flicking her ears backward awkwardly. But she realized that might sound bad for her family, and so she instantly tried to remedy it. "B-but it's my fault - I like exploring a-and I don't ask anybody to g-go with me," the girl continued on, swishing her tail back and forth a couple of times. "Why're you b-by yourself? Where're you g-going?"

Mako blinked at her rather unconvincing defense. Just what did this girl, who by his impressions and observations, hadn't even made it through her first winter think she was going to do out on her own on such an undertaking? She seemed serious about it, in only the naiive way a child could be when they were in way over their head but didn't have the experience to realize it. Someone would have to make sure she didn't get herself killed out there. And from the looks of it, that was a burden that was falling on his shoulders.

His jaw was set in a firm line, nostrils flared for a brief moment as he made up his mind. "Going to take you to your auntie as soon as this blizzard clears, apparently." He answered firmly, banking no room for disagreement.