Whisper Caverns This Was a Home Once

For burly girly @Nineva who gets Daighre making faces at a cave~

Cloudy — -17°C, 2°F

Daighre couldn’t know for certain until he went inside but he was pretty sure he was looking at the gates of hell. It would explain the jagged stalactites and stalagmites that resembled teeth surrounding the entrance and the distant echoing coming from inside. Or maybe it was the exit to hell and it was just disguised as something unpleasant, something to discourage captors from wandering inside and escaping their punishment. He didn’t know—didn’t care—enough to continue his own line of thought.

And honestly? Daighre accidentally stumbling into hell would be the least of his problems. He had more important shit to deal with. Like finding his way back home and making everybody pay for the suffering they put him through. Eternal damnation would be nothing in comparison to the hell he would raise the second he crossed the borders.

His tail twitched and Daighre fought against the rising tide of anger in his system. Buried it deep inside of himself because he was saving it for the journey home. He could be patient. He could even be calm despite his old man’s beliefs. Now all he needed to do was keep heading east until he reached the mountains and then start heading south. (If only everything was ever that easy…) With one last glare directed at the cave entrance like the formation personally offended him and a muted growl—Daighre turned on his feet and moved to stomp away.

Nineva couldn't help but take a personal offense to the stranger's obvious disdain for her childhood home. While she had decided that the caverns had no place in her future, especially now that there were settlers at the lagoon, it would still always remain treasured within her heart. By this alone she assumed the wolf before her to be of lesser stock and constitution, likely controlled by his emotions rather than in control of them and therefor a weak, turbulent creature. Of course, this was all extreme conjecture, but Nineva was a wolf who worked off the information she had no matter how limited. Perhaps down the line she would change her mind as she had about @Elias, but then the odd-toed man had never sneered at her beloved caverns.

She slipped from the trees and into view, the white of winter causing the darker shades in her coat to stand out more starkly against the pale, dominant grey. Her blue eye blazed, but it was a fire without heat, its gaze more likely to cause frostbite than burns. He was young, leaving her to wonder why she was running into so many homeless yearlings. Turned out, sent out, runaways? She wanted to assume the latter, but refrained from doing so. Perhaps this anger he was showing now was a perpetual emotion, and maybe he had earned that rage. She had been wronged early in life too.

"Afraid of the dark?"

The girl appeared from beyond the treeline somewhere in his peripheral vision. Daighre considered ignoring her. The mountains couldn’t have been too much further and like hell would he spend any more time that he needed to in the wasteland so many wolves seemed to call home. But then she just had to open her mouth and he shouldn’t have been surprised at the stupid question that stumbled out, but he was. His paws ground to a halt, annoyance flashed in his orange gaze, and he couldn’t believe it, but he was turning to face the big freak.

Was he afraid of the dark? What kind of stupid question was that? Did he look like he was four months old? And really, he should have just kept walking because dumb questions like that didn’t deserve answers. But he didn’t want the girl thinking he was afraid of the dark and his mouth was moving before he put too much thought into it anyway.

“No.” He sneered. Disgust and annoyance was heavy in his tone but if she was going to get offended, maybe she shouldn’t have asked such a dumb question.

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

Nineva's lips curled slyly as he bore his agitation plainly. Her mismatched gaze did not shy away from his dial as he turned to face her, muzzle twisted sourly and vivid eyes spiteful. It was what the little shit deserved. What kind of wolf was he that he couldn't see the beauty within those deep caverns?

The answer was an expected no, and so she strode forward, eyes shifting off his countenance to regard the shadowy entrance. Her smile was muted but not gone as she appeared to be assessing the situation, as if actually attempting to seriously glean what could have crawled up his ass.

"Hmm," she hummed softly to herself, as though in thought, before curling around to approach him once more.

"Then, did it call you mean names?"