Velo en Cascada What Lies Beneath

Broken Clouds 55.4 ° F, 13 ° C / @Starhale <33

It had taken many days to get here. The mountains had been unforgiving, their rocky paths seemingly hardly forged and made of stony twists and turns that made her way hard to navigate. The nights had been cold. The days had been lonesome. The winds had been fierce and untamed. But the view from the top of what lied on the other side had been breathtaking and luring enough to encourage her to continue on. Eventually she'd scaled their descent and crossed into a land quite unknown to her, as mysterious as what the future had to hold. The forest here was thick and damp and she welcomed the relative protection its ancient landscape provided. It was the sound of water that Lyanna felt inclined to follow, and she did until her way through the forest brought her to the river's roaring rapids and eventually to a nearby stream that cascaded down a steep, rocky overhang.

The pads of her paws were rough and sore but the mud-and-algae covered banks here felt wonderful underfoot. The girl paused for a moment to survey the area carefully for danger and, having seen basically nothing, she padded over to the water's edge. She lapped up a satisfying drink before taking a good look at the reflection of her face in the shadowed water. Filthy. Her fur was a mess and there were bits of foliage tangled in the lengths of her tawny coat, caked with mud. Wading out into the shallows of the pool, a chill coursed down her spine as it enveloped her lithe form. It was then that she discovered the little gem that existed hidden beneath.

Lyanna pressed forward through it and found herself in the quiet peacefulness of the secluded cavern. It didn't take long to look over its every detail, and finally she reckoned this would be a good place to get some rest. Nestling herself away, back pressed against a cold wall, she laid her head on her paws and listened to the sounds of the water falling.

(This post was last modified: Jun 17, 2018, 05:45 PM by Lyanna.)

Starhale had made a promise, and was not in the business of breaking that promise. She had collected—and buried—a great number of small prey items she could catch. But thus far, it was not enough for her. Hero had said to impress his leaders; who couldn't take down a couple of rabbits by their lonesome? She needed something more... to set her apart.

In that timeframe, she had encountered very few. She minded her own business, and the others typically minded theirs. What else was one to do? Starhale had a mission to accomplish...

But that mission was given a brief detour, as she stared at her own features but one hour after Lyanna had. She grinned at her muddy complexion, thinking, it could be worse; though it could also be better. Road-worn and travel-weary, Starhale desired some time of true respite. With these coyotes around, sleep was hard to come by; every hour she woke up, and the sound of a snapping branch could rouse her. Starhale felt that wading into these waters was safe enough, but as she bathed herself if only to rid herself of the scents she carried, she found she entered a place in the meantime. A cave.

Starhale was given pause as she was suddenly out of the water entirely, eyes scouring the landscape. So tired was she that she missed entirely the frame of another wolf pressed against the earth, but Starhale did the exact same thing in the opposite corner. Exhaustedly, she slumped to the earth. Tomorrow, Hero, she thought to herself. Tomorrow I will bring to you and yours the grandest Hors d'oeuvres you and yours have ever had... her tail thumped against the earth as she thought it; she was a woman without guile, and had meant what she had told him.

<333

Some time had gone by since her arrival and subsequent period of recuperation. Lyanna wasn't really able to put a finger on how long it had actually been, as the waterfall and cool, relative darkness of the cavern had lulled her. She'd listened to the roar, the splashing and splattering, and the drip-dropping of the condensation that frequently fell from the cave's ceiling. Now and then she'd close her eyes and drift off into shallow stretches of sleep, but, for all of her exhaustion, she couldn't seem to get any real rest.

The white noise of the falls had disguised the approach of the stranger who had managed to happen upon the hidden hideaway. It wasn't until the girl came traipsing through the cascade that Lyanna knew she was even there, and at that point the unknown soul had her full, wide-eyed attention. She watched as the wolf's dark form plopped down, back against the opposite wall, her own presence seemingly unnoticed. In a moment of confusion, she looked around as if she'd missed something before returning her golden gaze to the cavern's newcomer. Should she say something? The girl looked young, Lyanna honestly didn't want to scare her. Her curiosity was piqued.

"-Perfect place to get some rest, no?" Her form was as still as glass and neutral in all respects.

So caught up in her exhaustion was Starhale that she did not hear the others approach, obvious though it might have been made. So she was given quite a scare when a voice boomed in the cavern (boomed being a severe exaggeration); Starhale lurched upward, paws scrabbling against the stony earth to no avail, slick still from her swim. Buh!! She greeted firstly, the sound more shocked than unfriendly. Her ears splayed atop her head as she looked with owlish eyes at the tawny she-wolf, and after ascertaining the other had not really been trying to scare her to death, she sighed and slumped down in defeat.

If death came to her this day, so be it!

No, no—she was being entirely too dramatic. But that was what happened when one was this tired... It's... not yours, is it? She hadn't detected any smells that meant the place was claimed. seemed pretty coyote free, she breathed the words airily, exhaustedly; if the place was claimed by another wolf, and she could not find any shut-eye today, she was not sure what she would do.

Having caught the girl off guard, Lyanna watched as she jumped up in a hurry. It wasn't her intention to scare her and the last thing on her mind was doing any harm, but the dark-furred wolf's reaction was understandable nonetheless. She took note of the pretty star marking between the girl's eyes.

"Not mine at all," she replied softly, a tired smile on her face to reassure the stranger that she was harmless. "I haven't seen even one of them around here - I think we're safe." The cold hardness of the wall against her back was a stark difference from the warmth that shone in her eyes. "I'm sorry if I startled you, I didn't mean to...It seems like we both had the right idea, tucking away in here." The drip-dropping of the condensation lining virtually every surface punctuated the constant humming flow of the waterfall that concealed them both from the world outside. Her tawny fur was still damp at best, a sensation she didn't necessarily mind though the chill of it coursed through her bones here and there.

She was not sure what to expect, but as ever she was optimistic that this wolf would be a good one. She was not disappointed, and her tail waved at the other's response, frankly relieved to hear the place was under no ownership. She had been so worn and exhausted, she might have feasibly missed it, but she was on a quest to find the best critters for Hero's leaders. First, though, she needed some decent shut-eye; one could not hunt without it. With these coyotes prowling, it made it relatively difficult.

There was kindness in the others voice as much as it was in their eyes, and Starhale visibly relaxed. She was tired, dog tired. Those coyotes moving in groups really put a damper on her plans, and her nights rest. That's okay, Starhale forgave the other immediately, sensing her Genuity. Have you heard about the coyotes at all? They're real bold. Not good for a loner like me she breathed, Even worse for my sleep schedule. This place... it seemed hard to reach for them, she admitted.

The exhaustion reported by the young girl who laid across from her was easy to see. It was in her pretty hazel eyes, in her posture, and in the tone of her weary voice. Lyanna was tired, too, so it was an easy thing to appreciate. In a way she was thankful that she wasn't the only worn-down thing around.

"Well, I was first told of the coyotes' presence here on the other side of the mountain by a boy who warned me about them. He said that there were many...I was lucky enough for a while, didn't have much trouble with them. But now it seems like they're everywhere I go," she offered with a sigh. It was true. She'd had her first run-in with them across the mountain, her second in Red Fern Forest. She'd been fortunate so far in avoiding any sort of confrontation with the pesky - and dangerous - beasts; she could only hope that her streak would continue when she eventually left the relative safety of their little hideaway. "...Maybe you're right - about this place being hard for them to reach." She gave the dark furred girl a kind and encouraging, if not weary smile.

"So you're a loner, too, huh? Do you have plans to settle down?...I'm Lyanna, by the way."