Arbol Rosado We could take to the highway

@Huddy RE: The sky darkens with ash from a distant forest fire.

The distant smell of smoke woke her from the nightmare she'd been having. Her thoughts were quickly pulled away from the bright silver cages, from the blur of strange beasts, and into the present. Her stomach tightened with unease as she blinked through the darkness. Hudson lay beside her, as always, his sides rising and falling with each passing breath. Quietly, Sága lifted herself from her place at his side, intimately aware of the sudden loss of heat, but unable to consider it any further, for she was busy searching for fire. Bright eyes flickered up through the winter-bare cherry tree, whose gnarled roots had given them little shelter from the wind. Smoke rose from the west, billowing into the sky to blanket the stars overhead.

What could it mean? Was it a sign? If so, what was she supposed to <i>do</i>? Saga could have kicked herself for all the times she had second guessed herself since entering these lands. Confidence was normally so easy for her to come by, and without it she felt perturbed. Sága knew that there was something she was supposed to be doing or learning here, and by the Gods, she would not stop until she figured it out.

S for swearing in all of Huddy's posts because he cusses like a sailor

Well if you wanted honesty that's all you had to say

Hudson had been fast asleep, more pleasant dreams dancing through his head compared to his companion’s nightmares. He’d flickered in and out of consciousness as the vague movements she made in her fitful rest, but it wasn’t until he felt the chill bite at his side where her body had been that he actually awoke. He shivered, silver gaze blinking open sleepily as he raised his head, half the fur on his face flattened and snow clinging to it from where it had been laying. The man looked around for her, squinting against the cold until he saw her pale frame silhouetted against the vague moonlight.

He got to his paws with a yawn, walking blearily over to her until his side was pressed up against hers once more. “ ‘ts fuckin’ freezing,” he muttered, another shiver running down his spine. Ancestors, he hated winter. The smell of smoke finally registered in his senses and he looked up to the sky, a haze cloaking the air and making the stars blurry. He mentally sent up well-wishes to his ancestors. “Half tempted to follow wherever that’s coming from. A brushfire would probably feel better than this bullshit,” he said raspily, still partially in the clutches of rest.

Ashbash 2016 - Ian Schneider 

A movement from behind signaled Hudson's approach. Acknowledging his presence with the flick of an ear, she shifted slightly to allow him a place beside her. She truly hadn't meant to wake him, though the silvery woman couldn't say that she was disappointed to see him awake. Stifling a yawn, Saga waited for the inky man to settle before sinking back into the warmth of his side, offering only a small shiver in response to his statement. It really was fucking cold. "Didn't mean to wake you."

Her pear-colored gaze followed his sweeping off of his moonlit face to the sky above. An impish grin crossed over her features as she spoke, though it might have been hidden in the dark, it could be heard in her voice, "Honestly, I'd be half tempted to follow you." And perhaps if the circumstances were different she might have. "But the herds will be moving away from the smoke, so I guess you'll just have to make due with me." She teased.

Sága is currently travelling with Huddy, Aubine, Adelard, Rhaegara, Riven, Maugrim & Hrun

Well if you wanted honesty that's all you had to say

She mentioned that she didn’t mean to wake him and he shrugged, because what did it matter? He was awake anyways, so might as well join her. Ever since agreeing to join each other, the pair hardly separated. They would sometimes split during the day to sniff around and do their business, but they never failed to meet up back at their tree to snuggle up for the night. Really, the weather warranted it, or that was what he told himself. He didn’t deny that he might have had a little boy crush on the woman, because really, what wasn’t there to like? She matched his sass and banter but was also content to simply share space, she didn’t take his upfront attitude to heart and, the cherry on top, she was heckin pretty. Yeah, Huds had done good.

“Damn, foiled my plans of escape,” he said with a sly grin, his hueless gaze sweeping over to her for a moment before looking back up to the sky. “What woke ya up anyways? Normally ya sleep like the dead,” he teased, though underlying it was a genuine question.

Ashbash 2016 - Ian Schneider 

The grin that touched the corner or her eyes at the news of this feigned escape effort was genuine, though she forced them to narrow. "Right. Like you wounldn't miss me." They hadn't been together long, but she was sure that the Gods had put him before her for a reason, marked and fated to walk the same path, at least for now, and she was thankful. He was suprisingly good company, and well, he was all of those things Aubine had joked about her brother, which never hurt.

When his question fell into the otherwise silent air, she spoke simply, "Probably your snoring." Sága shifted her weight so that she could shove her shoulder lightly into his as a laugh bubbled up from her chest. She hoped that her actions be enough to imply that she was joking, and so she took a second to compose herself before continuing. "But, no. Really it was the smoke. I wasn't sleeping too well before it hit us, and I was afraid it might have been closer."

(This post was last modified: Jan 18, 2021, 06:57 AM by Saga.)

Sága is currently travelling with Huddy, Aubine, Adelard, Rhaegara, Riven, Maugrim & Hrun

Well if you wanted honesty that's all you had to say

She responded with the sass that he’d expected, implying that he’d miss her if he up and left and honestly, he probably. Not in any soul aching way, but in the way that someone misses a good friend and the memories they shared. He already felt like he was slipping into a routine with her and he wasn’t sure what to do about that. “Maybe, maybe not,” he grunted, trying to feign indifference but the small curl at the corner of his lips betrayed him.

Another little quip was given, but soon after she grew a little more serious and he angled and ear toward her as she spoke. For all intents and purposes what she was saying made sense, so he believed her. Wolves had an instinctual aversion to fire, one of the things known to be the most destructive and the hardest to control. It devoured everything in its wake and scarcely left anything behind. It was a monster all on its own. “We’re probably fine here. Sure, the trees are dry, but I feel like there’s too much snow for it to make it all the way and not put itself out. Not that I’ve ever been in a forest fire, just makes sense,” after all, snow was water and water was the enemy of fire.

Ashbash 2016 - Ian Schneider 

(This post was last modified: Jan 18, 2021, 07:23 AM by Huddy.)

She rolled her eyes at his feigned indifference, allowing him to have the win this time, for now she knew there would be a next time. Perhaps this was a dangerous game they played, having known each other for such a small amount of time, while also becoming relatively comfortable. Sága did not give her trust freely, but he had proved in some small ways that he had earned at least a portion of it.

As the topic moved on, hinging on more serious notes, Sága shuffled her weight, not awkwardly or uncomfortably, but in thought. "No. I don't suppose it will make it here." He was correct. The snow would not allow it. "I've never been in one, thank the Gods, but stories have been passed down through the generations of a fire that left my great-grandfather an orphan." The words weren't laced with heavy emotion, being so far removed from the incident, and having never met any of the wolves involved. "So my Grandfather has always been really cautious of dry forests and the like." She wondered how he was doing now, and if he knew of what had happened to his son's pack yet.

(This post was last modified: Jan 18, 2021, 07:53 AM by Saga.)

Sága is currently travelling with Huddy, Aubine, Adelard, Rhaegara, Riven, Maugrim & Hrun

Well if you wanted honesty that's all you had to say

Silence hung between the pair for a moment, snow crunching beneath the woman’s pale paws as she shifted in place. Hudson’s pale gaze scanned the area around them, checking for signs of movement while he waited for her to consider her response. When she spoke, it was to agree with his statement about the fire while also tell him a tale of her own. Apparently her great-grandfather had been orphaned to a forest fire. Man, that sucked. He didn’t even want to think about what it would be like to burn alive in such a thing, to live your last moments in unbearable agony. Man, he hoped he went in his sleep.

There was one thing he caught on to, however, other than her story. She used the term Gods, as in plural, and she’d used it before as well. He found himself curious about what she was referring to when she said that. “Watcha mean by ‘th' Gods’?” he asked.

Ashbash 2016 - Ian Schneider 

Her eyes flickered once more, away from the ash filled sky, and onto her companion, contemplating his question with care. Truthfully, the answer to what she meant did not come easy to her. She was no preacher, and even now, she would hold no sermon. There was too much to tell, and too little moonlight left to fully do them justice, but she would do her best to simplify. "They're old Gods. Storm Gods, War Gods, Gods of Wisdom, and Fate. They've been passed down our mother's line for longer than anyone can even remember." And then, to clarify, "Though their names have been lost to time, stories of their great deeds remain." She paused, not trying to bore him with endless details of a religion that he did not follow.

"You don't have Gods?"

(This post was last modified: Jan 19, 2021, 05:42 AM by Saga.)

Sága is currently travelling with Huddy, Aubine, Adelard, Rhaegara, Riven, Maugrim & Hrun

Well if you wanted honesty that's all you had to say

It was clear that she was carefully considering how to explain what she meant by her words, though he couldn’t tell if she was worried that he’d think or strange or if it was just a complicated subject matter. He chose to believe the latter because one’s belief systems were usually never just ‘simple’, they were a complicated, interwoven mesh of who that wolf was and what their surroundings were. His dark auds perked as she spoke, explaining that they were old, nameless gods of specific countenance, taught to her by her mother and her mother before her. That was, after all, how such things came to be. He’d never heard of such things where he came from. His mother had no belief system at all and the Ancestors had been taught to him by his father and grandparents.

“Do your Gods speak to you? My family doesn’t believe in Gods, but we listen to our Ancestors. Nobody is really dead after they’re gone, their spirit just goes to join the After, then depending on their achievements from their past life they may be reincarnated. Our Ancestors aren’t able to speak to all, only those who are greatly sensitive to their energies, but they guide and protect us,” he explained, looking up to the stars above once again.

Ashbash 2016 - Ian Schneider