Secret Falls The Return

Afternoon | Partly cloudy, slight breeze | High humidity and cold in the shade of the trees and the nearby river | Speech Thoughts

Doon wasn't quite sure if this had been the same forest he'd visited and was trying to get back to. Earlier he'd come up from the south but had since meandered a wide and almost circular route to the north and east. It sure felt right to him though, the same thrill came through him as he'd felt before and the air smelled similar though he didn't lean on that sense much, he wasn't sure where he'd be coming back to or even how large the area was and the air could deceive him.

Finding a river Doon decided to follow it upstream into the foothills of the distant mountain range, it still baffled him how there could be so much water in one place and felt better with so much water nearby. It wasn't long though before the river turned violent as Doon got nearer to it's source the land became rougher and the twists and turns and narrowness of the river began to form some serious rapids. Doon came to a bend in the river that was so white and violent and the shore so steep that he was afraid if he tried to drink he'd be dragged away and his soul would forever wander the river, never able to find rest.  As it was Doon decided to give the river it's space in the interest of staying alive.

The bend here did remind a bit of a goose neck, the water as white as it was and bent as it was. Doon tilted his head to get a better perspective, he'd only seen the plump white birds once or twice where he'd come from but had since seen them quite often after coming north.

(This post was last modified: Feb 03, 2022, 10:39 PM by Doon. Edit Reason: considering the weather )

The weather had certainly taken a turn that day, almost feeling like a heatwave after the bitter cold snaps that had gripped the area in its recent weeks. Not that Jack would be found complaining, especially as "complaining" was a trait that seldom came to her. Perhaps it was that same stubbornness and rigidity that prevented her from following the scent markers and trails to other wolves, a refusal to ask for help in the trying times she'd found herself in.

At some point, she deduced this was not her birthplace, something in her bones and the faint recesses of her memories told her so. Perhaps it mattered little; there would be nothing waiting for her there regardless. All of her family remained in the south, in the vast open plains and canyons, weather hot and dry. At least there, she knew how to hunt properly. Adapting to the forested and thick conditions of the lands she traveled through to arrive here was… difficult, to say the least. At this point, her pelt hung off of her like it didn't fit quite right, maintaining a shaggy, dull, and matted look to it. It didn't help that the sadness that ebbed at the back of her mind made her not care. Curse her brother and that greedy hide of his. With a low growl to herself, Jack pushed the thought of her family out of her mind, back into the shady depths they belonged. There were other things to focus on.

Ever vigilant, sky blue eyes scanned the river as she happened upon it, tongue lolling out between open jaws. If she could find a good spot to get a drink, it might lighten her otherwise dreary mood. And almost as if on cue, her eyes landed on another further downstream, something that rather shocked her. There was a double-take and rapid blinking, as if to clear her eyes. Was she going to be haunted by her home forever? If she was correct, the stranger belonged to packs of smaller, lighter-built wolves from where she grew up. What on the gods' green earth were they doing here? All she could do was stare, unsure if this was a hunger-caused apparition or hallucination.

"... Hello?"

Just going to consider it as snowy as it should be from here on out XD sorry to mislead earlier with the temperature

The speed with which the river wound it's way through the land prevented all but the calm edges in the bends from icing over, the volume of the rapids also kept Doon from hearing the newcomer approach. His eyes, wandering the section of river nearest him kept him from seeing the wolf approach through the snow and the trees. At the greeting though Doon's ears perked up and twisted on his head toward the followed shortly by his head. A wolf, female, though hard to tell at this distance, was standing some distance away in the cold half-light allowed through the cloud cover. Most remarkable of all she seemed somewhat familiar, not like they'd met before Doon would know if he'd met her before, but something seemed familiar about her.

Doon, head slightly lowered, took a tentative step toward the newcomer, "Afternoon, ma'am. How're you doin'?". Doon wasn't sure what to make of the situation, the woman seemed as confused as he was. Doon shuffled his paws about, not really sure what to say, the strange familiarity still hanging over him though he didn't want to address it directly for some reason. Opting for lightening the mood Doon pawed at a snow drift and said, "You hate this snow stuff? I was hopin' to head south though I might try north to avoid gettin' into the worst lookin' of it in them mountains."

Then it got the better of him, "I'm mighty sorry for the strange question, but we met before?"

Speech,Thoughts. Feel free to give me a friendly reminder/bump if I've forgotten to post or a plot we've talked about!
DMs are always open.

No worries ^_^!

Maybe it was the hope for some form of familiarity, while trying to carve a place out for herself in an entirely new and unfamiliar world. She was a woman of structure, and now she had none. Otherwise, Jack had no idea why she had bothered to even call out to the stranger. Her mind went back to the idea that she was simply seeing things, an apparition ready to appear when she least expected it. There were many superstitions in the area she grew up in, of ghosts and hauntings, along with warnings of how hunger and thirst could make a man see things that weren't there. But as the stranger took a tentative step towards her and spoke, the idea of spirits evaporated into thin air.

As he spoke with a drawl, it brought the ghost of a smile to her features, gone in a second. Opting to approach if only to hear him better, she trotted along the bank, stopping several feet from the stranger. "Afternoon, stranger." She spoke with a dip of her head, a drawl to her voice similar to his own. "It ain't my favorite, that's fer sure." The tawny woman looked away from the stranger, only for a moment to glance around at the piles of deep snow, still building as the winter months pushed on.

At his question, dark ears flicked forward. "No sir, don't reckon we have," she spoke before letting a pause hang in the air. "Well, s'pose we coulda crossed paths at some point, but homes a wide-open space." Home in this instance wasn't directly speaking of her old band and where they resided; home was the canyons and deserts and plains that littered where she had spent the majority of her life. And if she assumed correct, likely where he spent at least a portion of his time.

The woman's approach caused Doon to tense slightly, but only long enough for him to hear her response and, at the sound of her own drawl so much like his own, a large smile broke across his face. "Well ain't this just the hawk dropping it's kill in my path! You from my neck of the woods then huh?" The woman's coat color seemed like it'd be one he'd seen around Leslie Canyon, though Doon hardly ever used that as a determiner of origin, there were a great many numbers of color he'd seen coming north and they all meant no never mind to him. This woman seemed larger than himself though and he couldn't remember any packs near his birthplace growing em that large so he ruled out having ever met her.

The drawl and such a warm welcome so soon after coming so far from home brought to mind all the warm memories he had of his youth, all those times that him and Loess would get into trouble and all their adventures. As soon as the woman actually said the word "home" though it brought up those other memories and killed his grin as soon as her drawl had put it there. "S'pose you're right, home's a right large place and that's the truth of it. Though," Doon's smile returned in part, "it's right nice meetin' someone from my neck of the woods in this hellish cold. Death's own pack sounds like they're out in them woods howlin' their huntin' song when that wind picks up enough."

After superstitiously scanning the woods for the sign of any unnatural shade Doon turns towards the woman again, "I ain't introduced myself have I? Name's Doon, what's yours? What brings yourself so far from home?" The question seemed a might personal after having just been approached by this woman but the memories of home had already broken down a few barriers in this case, Doon hoped.

Speech,Thoughts. Feel free to give me a friendly reminder/bump if I've forgotten to post or a plot we've talked about!
DMs are always open.