Iridescent Lagoon Carry on

Stella returns to the Lore on her way home. AW, but I'd like to try and make this a quick thread!
Current health condition: 70%, please ignore health bar

The shadow of a bird of prey slipped across her path, as the pale-gold young woman marched along a thin trail. Or perhaps it was a vulture, she thought to herself. A doggedness haunted her steps. Stella's search for Kip, or anything else for that matter, had been largely fruitless. Though at first she had taken this as motivation to redouble her efforts, as the days grew longer and the waters dwindled away, she knew it was time to admit defeat and return home. Not quite a year old, the petite girl had grown thin and weary spending roughly wo months' time alone and on the road. To her, it felt like an eternity.

There was a deep magnetism that guided her steps, and she did not need to think about the way. She could have found it with her eyes closed, she felt. Her destination was her birthplace after all, the home she shared with her family. A beacon of love and security in a lonely, harsh landscape. Still, there were knots in her stomach as she thought of what she might find, what sort of reunion awaited her - what version of sanguine awaited: optimistic and positive, or bloody?

With a flick of her head, Stel banished the most pessimistic of her thoughts along with a fly which had so rudely lighted upon her brow. More pragmatic thoughts were not so easily sent fleeing, though.

Have I been gone too long? The thought had lodged itself somewhere in her mind not long after she'd left, burrowing and growing with each day. Roughly two months had passed since she'd seen her family, seen the cove. Would she still have a place among them, or would it have dwindled away like the water and shade had done?

She was back in the Lore now, but home was still too far for comfort, she simply wished to slake her thirst and continue on. The hope of water had drawn her here but she found nothing but mud expanding out from the edge of the shore in a sticky, flat alien landscape. She wrinkled her nose, noting that even the scent here seemed particularly uninviting. Stella couldn't help but feel as if she was intruding, as if the very landscape was urging her to keep moving.

(This post was last modified: May 17, 2022, 03:06 PM by Stella.)

Set a few days after he joins WR, thread in progress but Avella already told him he could stay

He had been a steadfast supporter of Avella since he reunited with her and joined her pack. He was just grateful that she wanted to see him again and had not been entirely perturbed by his appearance after their tryst that may or may not have resulted in the children that would be delivered any day now. He was making his way a little beyond the territory of the Ridge in search of a hunting trail that he could call a party to hunt or perhaps some smaller game that he could catch and offer to the woman he had quickly become so enamored by. His brother, his mother… hell, most of his family would tell him he was being foolish, but it felt like anything but.

There was potential there. He just knew there was. He was saddened to see that the lagoon had dried up completely in his absence. The last time he had been there, it had been a steadfast source of water and food because of the fish that had swum in it… and now… well, now it did not. His ears perked up as the scent of another flooded through, and he caught sight of the girl who looked to be barely more than a pup if even that, a frown on his features as he watched her wrinkle her nose.

“I’ve been wondering when it is going to rain… I keep hoping the water will return but at this point I’m not sure how that’s to happen.” So much water had already faded so how were they supposed to fill all of the missing bodies of water back up? “Are you new around here?” He asked curiously as his head tipped to the side.

sorry baby girl but i can't tonight

Stella had her eyes fixed on the landscape, her paws scraping across the dried mud, but she'd missed his presence somehow. She had not really been paying as much attention to her surroundings as she ought to, probably. Who was she kidding, there was no probably about it, she was properly lost in her thoughts. She drew to a halt as his voice met her ears, listless sunlit eyes casting around the area until they settled upon the large white wolf, and she regarded him for a moment.

The casual matter-of-factness of his statement and the tiredness in her bones sapped any dramatics from her reaction, and after a moment she gave him a dejected nod, plodding nearer so that she wouldn't need to squint in the sun to see him properly. "Yeah...there was a big lake here when I passed this way before," she answered. "I came from up in the mountains, and I'm on my way back there now." The girl's tone was conversational, overlaying a poorly-hidden nervous edge to her voice. It had been a long time since she'd been home and even a chatty stranger was some comfort. Maybe she could learn a bit about the state of things here if she talked to him. But she kept her answer vague for the time being. She didn't know this guy or what his whole deal was, so she wasn't about to tell him all about the Cove. "What about you?"

She didn’t seem as surprised to see him, noting the dejected nod she offered with a soft frown. All of the wolves he’d met lately had been put in such a dour mood by this drought. If it ended soon then he’d feel much better about his prospects and he’d certainly never take hydration for granted again. “It was a smaller lake but still there not too long ago… it seems nature’s finally taken it back. The nearest water to here is still far.” He frowned at that realization too, and he worried about the pack surviving while needed to traverse such long distances for a basic need.

“I’ve never been to the mountains but I hear they are beautiful.” He offered, bridging to her homeland despite having never been. “I’m from a pack not far from here… I was looking for some prey to hunt. Our Alpha is pregnant and I wanted to catch her something more hydrated… I hadn’t realized the lagoon had dried up as a water source.” He explained, the true light of his predicament rising to the surface. “My name is Camden… you can call me Cam, though… most everyone does.” He considered everyone a friend until proven otherwise, and that meant she was a friend and she could call him Cam.

sorry baby girl but i can't tonight

The nearest water was still far. That bit of news made her ears and tail droop. She watched as her mood was mirrored in his and offered a wistful smile as his words moved on to the mountains, nodding again. It was hard not to warm up to someone who complimented the mountains of the lore. Yes, she thought they were beautiful too - peaks that soared to scour the skies themselves and sank their roots deep in hidden vales and lost lakes. It was her home and she longed fondly for it. Her paws itched to be on the move toward her destination, but as the older white wolf went on about his alpha and his quest to feed her in her time of need, Stella felt a tug of empathy for the man.

"Hi Camden, nice to meet ya," she was glad he gave his nickname too, but she felt it respectful to use his full name at least when making introductions. If this was a friendly soul from another pack in the Lore, her papa would probably want her to represent the Cove well. "I'm Stella Vuesain-Kipley of Sanguine Cove." She didn't feel ready to tell him everything about their pack, especially when it had been a couple of months since she'd been home, but it felt right to make some sort of proper introduction. And maybe, just maybe, he'd know of Kip's name. It was a long shot, but the name was all Stella had left of her ma.

"We could try to hunt together if ya want to?" the statement ended in the upswing of a question. Ashen paws shuffled again. "I'm okay with small-ish prey, at least," she offered.

(This post was last modified: May 20, 2022, 04:54 AM by Stella.)

He didn’t miss the way that her ears and tail drooped at the mention of how far water was from their location. He didn’t want to quash her hope but she deserved the truth if it was water she was looking for. Still he managed to catch a smile on her features and it brought him some measure of hope that this interaction would not be dragged into the dumps by the dour conditions they were being forced to live in.

Stella. She gave her full name and the name of a pack. He didn’t really know much if anything about them at all, but he offered a dip of his head in greeting. “The pleasure is all mine, cher.” He rumbled back, keeping that soft smile on his features as a result. She even offered that they could hunt together. She was young but he didn’t measure that against her own hunting prowess. Some of the best hunters he knew showed their skills at a younger age after all, and he tried not to cast anyone judgement until he had seen them in action.

“I am also better with small than large… perhaps we could find some rabbit warrens? Or even some voles?” Though he doubted they would find the latter with the muddy nature of the lagoon-turned-bog.

sorry baby girl but i can't tonight

The response was friendly, though she wasn't sure if he was trying to make her feel better or what. Still, the girl appreciated it. Stella had been fighting so hard to prove herself (mostly to herself, of late) and it was an unexpected blessing to have that weight temporarily removed from her shoulders by someone else's easy acceptance. She wasn't sure how to articulate the feeling, but she could tell that there was perhaps some kind of kindness here, even among strangers.

She gave (what she hoped was) a cool shrug, but her smile was grateful as she agreed to the hunt. "Voles an' rabbits are both good. You know where some might be?" The girl's ashen ears and tail flicked, betraying her eagerness, waiting for him to indicate a direction she could follow. The flat mud plains extending around them seemed unlikely, but she didn't know where else to start.

The word 'cher' had stuck in her mind, catching the slight inflection he placed upon the unfamiliar term. She wasn't sure what to make of it, so instead she ventured to say "My name's pretty long though, you can just call me Stella if ya like. Are you from the Lore?" For all her attempts to come off as indifferent, she still strung together too many questions at once, swept along by her own curiosity.

Camden hoped for better luck with their food than there seemed to be with water. He smiled softly and nodded at her question. “There’s a system of warrens just south of here that I like to hunt in.” He confirmed with a wink in her direction before he started to move, motioning with his head for her to follow. Stella was a good name. He thought that for her, it was very fitting. He hummed and nodded at the question even though the answer was opposite.

“Not from here, but I’ve been here since the spring. I reside in a pack not far from here called Willow Ridge.” He motioned towards the direction from whence he had come. “What about you? Are you from here? Is that what you call here, the Lore? That sounds kind of funny.” He stated it in more of a word ramble type of way, lacking any kind of judgement and more curiosity. He had settled roots here, but he truthfully still did not know too much about the area. That was something he ought to change, and likely change fast.

sorry baby girl but i can't tonight

Stella nodded, giving her shoulders a roll as she smiled. Somewhere that he liked to hunt regularly? That sounded promising, at least. And like a good place to know if future travels ever brought her this way again. "I'll follow you then," she agreed readily, hoping the demands of her stomache would not give away how hungry she was. Travelling on her own had usually meant meeting the bare minimum, forgoing any larger prey so she could keep on the move, not that she was very adept at hunting anything larger anyway. Even a vole did not go unappreciated.

She took note as Camden mentioned his pack and the general direction he indicated. It was good to know about the other packs in the area, she thought, and she knew Pa would want her to represent the cove well. "Yeah, I was born in Sanguine Cove, up the mountain pass," she answered. "I've been out looking for my ma, Kip," she added quickly, perhaps too quickly. There was no need to indicate a direction where her home lay, for Mount Dire loomed over all of the lore, an unmissable landmark. His last comment drew an amused smile from her though, she'd never really thought about it. "The old locals call this whole region the forest of Relic Lore, or just The Wildwood." she explained. "At least the ones I know do. I dunno why, really." Why was the sun called the sun? It just was.