Heartleaf Creek were the sky to fall

Hagar continued along, aimless but perfectly content. Once again he was somewhere new, where the terrain was different and novel plants fought against the ice and cold to still survive. His eyes strove to take it all in, to enjoy all this new after nearly three years of exactly the same. After all, he would need to settle again eventually. Perhaps even soon. He was losing his bulk, having to hunt alone for each and every meal.

The stout beast came to a halt, feeling a tickle in his snout. It crept closer and closer to his leathery nose until - a sneeze burst loose, loud as a gunshot in the relative silence of the wood.

He sniffled, wiped at his nose once, and kept moving.

(This post was last modified: Dec 21, 2021, 05:45 PM by Hagar.)

Avella knew that if she wanted her dream to come true she would have to be more proactive about it. She couldn't sit around Willow Ridge waiting for wolves to come to her. Nope, she would have to go scouting dor them. She'd told Scully she'd only be gone a couple of days and she hoped those days would be fruitful. She was used to traveling by herself since she'd done it plenty of times but she still couldn't wait to get back to her brother. That was one reason why she was so undecided about how far to go.

Her travels had brought her to Heartleaf Creek. She'd been there before a couple of times so she wasn't that worried about getting lost. In fact she thought it might be a good place to find herself a snack. That was until she heard the loud sneeze. At least that was what she thought it might be but she wasn't exactly sure. The loudness of the sound didn't bother her but she knew she had to find out what it was. Making her way toward it she wondered what she might find.

It wasn't too long before she came upon another wolf, "Was it you that made that sound?" She asked as she came close enough to speak with him

Hagar didn't expect company to appear, her scent carried away from him by the winter wind. Her voice caused his ears to jump to attention, head turning to see who the words belonged to. What he saw was striking, perhaps as much so as the dancing, colored clouds had been. A wolf peered back at him with two distinctly different-colored eyes; one a shocking the blue, the other a stark silver. He'd never seen an animal with heterochromia before, and certainly not a wolf.

It took him a beat to register what exactly the query had been.

"... yes."

His answer was simple, and it was the only word uttered by the man. Still his curious gaze did not leave her face, the only mottled colors on an otherwise blank canvas.

The masked Archer regarded the man in front of her as she waited for a response. The way he looked at her made her slightly uncomfortable merely for the fact that no one had done that before. She wiped her away with her paw thinking maybe she hadn't fully cleaned her face after her last meal. Then he spoke uttering only one word. It was enough to confirm that it was him that had made the sound.

Still he stared.

"Are you alright?" She asked because whatever it had sounded like Avella still recognized it as a sneeze.

Even after he spoke he was still staring. Avella wasn't one to be self conscious but he was making her feel that maybe she should be. "I'm sorry but is there something on my face?" She asked concerned. She was after all trying to make a good impression.

It was fairly evident she wasn't used to someone reacting in such a way to her unique features, which left Hagar's mind with more questions. Was it not out of place here, just as the colored clouds were apparently not completely novel, simply new to him? Regardless, she asked him another question, and he nodded to answer that, "yes," he was just fine. He might have even tacked on a thank you for her concern, but she sent another query his way.

"... your eyes. Does that... run in your family?"

Was it as simple as how his father had had green eyes, along with his father before him, back as far as anyone could recall?

"Thats a relief. I thought we might have to find a healer," she joked. Seriously though it was good to know that he was alright and that things weren't worse like he had a cold or something. She was still confused about why he was staring at her and just stopped wondering deciding to just ask. The answer wasn't what she was expecting at all. It was her eyes that was causing him to stare. The same eyes she'd been looking at her whole life and hadn't thought there was anything special about them. He had a question of his own then.

Avella paused for a moment as she thought of all the Archers she'd ever met before shaking her head. "A lot of them have silver eyes and my mom has blue ones but none have eyes like mine," she answered thoughtfully but now she had a question of her own.

"You haven't ever seen eyes like mine?"

It was as though she hadn't considered it before. Odd, how something so remarkable to him could appear so commonplace to another. She asked him another question, and this time Hagar shook his head no.

"Never."

It was said without connotation. He would have stayed silent then, out of things to say, but something occurred to him. Thought we might have to find a healer. That could possibly mean...

"Are there packs, nearby?"

You discover a half-eaten deer carcass. +5 Health

Avella was genuinely curious if there was another wolf out there like her. Maybe if he'd traveled to many places he might have run into them. She knew from her travels that she hadn't run into another or Maybe she'd just never thought about it much since she'd spent her whole life seeing her eyes in her own reflection. Then he answered and she was a little surprised by his answer.

"Oh...I thought there would others out there like me…," she trailed off not completing the thought. For a moment she was kind of stuck on that idea until he spoke again. This time he was asking about packs. Yet another surprise. Avella saw the opportunity in this.

"There's one that I know about. It's not too far from here but if your looking for a pack to join I'm looking for wolves to join my brother and me."

He seemed nice she hoped that he might consider joining her and Scully. She hoped that her brother would be able to get along with him if he did decide to come back to the Ridge with her.

His tail picked up to wag as she confirmed that yes, she knew of one - and then she thickened the plot. Wanted to lead her own way through the world, did she? It was certainly not an unfamiliar concept to Hagar, siblings finding the homes they were born into too stifling and consequently leaving to start a pack of their own. The only problem was that a choice he'd never had to make before had been presented and he really didn't see any downsides to either. So, he scrubbed his brain for a pro that both did not present.

Hagar sat back on his haunches, brows knitting as he thought a moment before speaking. When finally he did speak, his answer was resolute.

"... I suppose it makes sense to go where I'm needed more?"

The way she'd phrased it, it sounded to him as though it were currently just her and her brother. Maybe that was a false assumption, but an already-established pack likely could take or leave a new member. Even two wolves working together, that was still hard - @Moore's company helped, but there was plenty of prey they still couldn't safely take down, leaving them largely to rodents and scraps.

"I will need to speak with my friend."

It didn't occur to him that he and this stranger might have anything more to discuss - and certainly he would not be expecting stipulations.

(This post was last modified: Jan 06, 2022, 05:54 AM by Hagar.)