Hidden Tree are we there yet?

// @Clover ^^
Gonna keep vague on the timelines, but I'm setting this one a tiny bit before the Vayko thread

It almost seemed impossible that he'd find such a fortunate spot to sleep the night before. The den was hidden well within the depths of a tree, and Riven could only assume that there had been a pack here at some point or another. There was a perfect spot for him to curl up and hide from the wind and snow, and he'd avoided freezing his tail off. So, that was a win.

He was still hungry. Still alone.

But was he really alone?

There had to be more wolves out here than just his previous pack. Perhaps more openminded, caring wolves. Different wolves with differing viewpoints and beliefs. After all, the world was already so much bigger than he had originally imagined, and so the wolves he was going to meet had to be diverse and interesting as well!

He yawned and stretched, letting the dim sunlight warm his fur from above as he set out to find a stream. There, he could get a drink, and maybe find something to eat.

Clover walked with her muzzle practically in the snow, nose sniffing intensely for any trace of small prey. So far she had been very unsuccessful that day, not even able to smell a rabbit, never mind attempt to catch one. The snow made it so difficult for her to hunt as she was not very skilled at it in the first place, but she could hunt well enough to not starve. Usually. Her stomach grumbled at the thought of going the entire day without so much as a morsel to nibble on, ears flicking backwards towards her skull at that very thought. No, she would keep trying until the sun itself fell below the horizon.

When her haze of fervent sniffing found the scent of another wolf she stopped dead, chin lifting so she was looking up from the snow. The cool wind blew through the trees, and brought with it the unmistakable musk of wolf. She lifted up her head to normal height, spinning to the right as she narrowed down the source, paws moving forward with barely a thought. Two noses were better than one, and they were probably hungry too, so maybe with their combined efforts they could find something to eat. That is, if they were friendly, of course.

The pale form of the other wolf finally came into view, partially blending into the white landscape, though not nearly as much as her, and she came to a halt. Her tail waved behind her in joy at tracking down the other, also quite small, wolf. Maybe she was better at hunting than she thought. "Hello!" She called out with a woof, ears pricked forward in intrigue, hoping that they would be friendly enough for some casual conversation, and possibly even a hunt.

(This post was last modified: Jan 17, 2021, 09:20 AM by Clover.)

As much as he appreciated nature in all of her forms, Riv had to admit that he was getting a bit tired of all of the snow. Torres Fields had been fairly far south, and had certainly never gotten this cold. He was rather lucky that his mother had been half Arctic and blessed him with a more dense coat than the majority of his packmates had possessed.

It wasn't long after he woke that Riven was approached, and much to his delight, it didn't seem to be an aggressive encounter. She was lovely, thick-furred and dark-eyed, and a bit smaller than himself. He wasn't sure what she might want from him, but he certainly wasn't going to turn down a pleasant wolf, for just about any reason. Perhaps they could help one another for a while.

"Hello," he greeted in return, a small smile on his maw and his tail setting to a slow wag.

He responded with a friendly greeting in return just as she had hoped, and she gave a tentative sniff of the air, noting that there did not seem to be any strong other wolf scents clinging to his fur. But that did not necessarily mean he was alone. "Are you travelling with anyone?" She asked with a curious tilt of her head. "This weather can make it difficult for one to survive by themselves."

It had been her intention of finding a group of others to stick close with till at least the winter passed, but from there she was not quite sure where her journey would lead her. Being alone was not something she liked, and she could not help others as well if she was by herself. Finding medicinal herbs in all this snow was hard enough without having to worry about her next meal either, so being part of a group was helpful in many ways. "I'm Clover by the way!" She said with a smile, tail wagging cheerfully behind her.

This woman practically oozed kindness, and it relaxed the tension in Riven’s stressed body. There was no reason to be afraid of her - that much was rather obvious. But it was a little odd that her first question was whether or not he had companions. ”I’m alone,” he confirmed, albeit a bit unwisely. After all, she could have a dozen other wolves nearby ready to tear into him if he were by himself.

Somehow, he didn’t think that was the case.

Still, being alone was a fitting punishment for himself right now, he thought. He deserved this, even if it made things more difficult.

”My name is Riven,” he replied with a slow wag of his tail. ”Are you alone as well?”

Clover gave a sad smile at his response of being alone, knowing just how hard it was, not just socially but also physically, especially during the winter season. She was a social wolf, and thrived in the company of others, so being alone, even just for a few months, had been difficult for her, but she had adapted enough to get through it. Now that she had found a group, even though some were a little more standoffish than she would have liked, she could feel her spirits lifting from just the few interactions she had with them.

Her ears pricked up as the blonde boy offered up his name, and a question of his own. She shook her head, "No, I'm in a small group with a couple others around your age. We've only been together for a couple days." It had been a bit of a rocky start, and was still a little tense if she was being honest, but they all seemed to get along relatively well enough for the time being. "Are you just travelling through?" She asked curiously, head canted to the side.

The woman seemed sympathetic toward him. Riven wasn't sure how to feel about that - on one hand, he appreciated her concern. On the other, pity was not something he was familiar with receiving, and it felt... bad. As much as he would love to be part of a group, he wasn't sure that he was ready just yet. But he was glad for her, that she had fallen in with a group during these difficult months.

"That's good - I'm glad to know that there are others around here. It seemed pretty barren, for the most part," he told her, and then nodded his head. "Yes, I'm heading north." That was what he'd been instructed to do. Likely to walk himself to his own death, because the saints hadn't wanted to kill him themselves. "Perhaps we could help one another out, since we're here?" Hunting would be preferable - it was important to feed themselves, and he was... quite a bit lighter than he should have been.

Riven was right about the lands being unusually barren. For a while she had not seen, smelled, or heard another wolf, and it seemed only now that she was stumbling across other wolves. It was quite peculiar, and she could not think of any good reasons as to why the surrounding area had been seemingly abandoned, as come spring the forests and valleys looked as if they would rich and plentiful in food and plants.

Her smile brightened considerably when he mentioned his plans to travel North, tail giving a few wags behind her. That's where her home lay, though it was far, far to the North; the journey had taken her multiple months through various types of terrain. "I travelled down from the North, my birth pack resides far away in that direction." She was unsure if he would stumble upon her birthplace given the large distance to travel, but if he did she knew he would be welcomed with open arms.

Clover nodded at his offer, always happy to help out when she could with the skills she had. While the blonde boy seemed a little thin and maybe a little worse for wear after travelling alone in winter, he did not seem hurt, so she figured her healing knowledge was perhaps not the best thing she could offer up. But surely he was looking for something to eat, and while she was not the best hunter, with two wolves surely they would have more luck in finding food. "That sounds like a wonderful idea! I was searching for something to hunt before I came across you, perhaps you would like to join me?"

"There's further North than here?" Riven questioned, eyes round and startled. This wasn't as cold as you could get? There were even more cold places? It was mind-boggling - how did anyone even survive up there? Though, he supposed, her fur was a lot thicker than his - much more similar to his mother's dense coat.

It was kind of surprising the half-Arctic female had lived so far south, come to think of it. Was the heat just as bad as the cold, for her? Riven remembered getting tired more easily than most of the other wolves with thinner fur, especially in the dead of summer, but he couldn't recall it ever being a huge problem.

He wasn't much of a hunter - that was not his department - but he knew some of the basics. Being that you have to use your teeth and be faster than your prey. And Riven was very fast. "I'd love to," he told her, stretching before padding over to the other small wolf. "Do you have a direction in mind?"

She grinned at Riven's question, nodding her head in response. "Yes, it took me a long time of travelling to reach here." Many months, in fact, but it had helped that the cold had not fully stepped in when she had begun her journey, or she might have very well frozen during the night trying to sleep curled up by herself. Her thick arctic coat could only do so well against the cold, and having another body to help stay warm could be the difference between freezing to death and making it through the night.

Happy that Riven had agreed to hunt with her, she turned her gaze to the trees around them. "We might have some luck finding a rabbit burrow near the roots of some of the larger trees." She was not willing to take down a deer with just the two of them, especially as they were both on the smaller side, but if they worked together they could catch a rabbit or two. Clover glanced back at the blond boy, wanting to wait for his confirmation before beginning to sniff out any rabbit trails.