Fool's Gold Chasm skelfilegt

Your Treatbag Reveals: The night is extraordinarily dark and spooky sounds can be heard outside your den. Hope you're not afraid.
Backdated for 10/2

He had spent the day trying to locate the nearest local herd, content to monitor it through the fall and hopefully into the winter. The Chasm was not nearly big enough to scare off any traveling prey. As long as they did not pick them off recklessly.

All of this was to say he was exhausted, enough to have settled down shortly after dark. He had imagined he'd sleep the whole night through. Rinse and repeat the same day tomorrow. Only to be stirred awake. The world seemed overly dark around him now. Moreso than usual.

Then there was a thumping.

Followed by a scratching sound.

His fur bristled as he resembled a curled-up porcupine. His eyes attempted to see if somebody had come to bother him for some reason before he offered a harsher reaction.

had a dream so big and loud

JUMPED SO HIGH I TOUCHED THE CLOUDS

Enera was exhausted. She no longer had to run days back and forth between the territory in the lake, but now she was trying to keep the caches full. Smaller prey was growing scarce after the drought, and she had yet to locate anything bigger. She wasn't venturing far beyond their borders anymore either, preferring to stay close now that the pups were big enough to start wandering about. Even more, since they had that probationer that even she wasn't allowed to meet yet.

But apparently he'd passed whatever test he was taking and Woya had let her know it was okay now. The Rayvne girl still wasn't sure how she felt about it, but if Woya and dad felt it was safe, she would trust them.

Tonight she was out later than usual, enjoying the brief quiet, but when it became apparent it was going to continue growing dark beyond the usual, Enera decided to head to bed at last. Already she was likely to trip as she walked and the last thing she wanted to do was wake someone up this late at night.

The sounds continued. Thump, scratch, thump, thump, thump. Scratch.

And yet his eye would not make out anything. Nothing. Not a figure, not an out of place scent. So finally he stood up, full height amplified by the way his fur prickled. A few steps around revealed nothing. Still.

Scratch. Thump.

His path was set to walk into the yearling, if she didn't notice him first. A bit too hellbent on figuring out where the sound seemed to be coming from. Why did it seem that nobody else heard it? Nobody else had emerged to investigate with him.

Arguably that bothered him more.

had a dream so big and loud

JUMPED SO HIGH I TOUCHED THE CLOUDS

Enera was nearly to the den, so focused on watching where she put her paws that she didn't notice the sound until she very nearly bumped into another wolf. "Oh," she said, startled, stopping in place and backing up a step. "I'm sorry."

It was only then she heard the scratch-thump coming from the impenetrable darkness. She turned to look in the direction it came from, ears pricked and suddenly completely, utterly wide away. Her fur prickled. After listening for a moment she whispered to the man, "What's that?"

This was a pack member she hadn't met yet, but introductions could be made when they'd identified the source of the sound. It was too close to the den - and therefore the children - for Enera's comfort. This took priority.

He had not expected to meet others like this. Especially one of the yearlings, but often times things like this unified packmates. Her question was the same as his own though. Which promptly meant she hadn't been the source of it.

Don't know. He admitted with a heavy frown. It woke me up, but I don't think anybody else has been bothered by it yet. Which he struggled to understand, but maybe this was some local occurrence he hadn't experienced before.

You can head back to the den - or look with me. Whichever suits you. Regardless he was prepared to poke around once more. Even as the sound seemed to be slowing down. As if whatever made it had grown bored.

had a dream so big and loud

JUMPED SO HIGH I TOUCHED THE CLOUDS

Enera had hoped the man knew what the strange sound was, but she didn't have much confidence in it. Alas, he did not and she grimaced. "Let's hope the pups stay asleep; they don't need to be out here investigating when it's this dark." Hopefully that also meant the sound wouldn't inspire any nightmares, either.

The girl gave this new man a sideways look. "I'll come with you," she said. "If it's something to worry about, two are better than one." That, and she was invested in making sure whatever caused the sound stayed far, far away from her sisters and their adopted siblings. There was a lot at stake here. She glanced back to where she knew the den entrance was, though it was too dark for her to see. Hopefully Woya was in there, or Dad; they could keep the rest of the pack safe while she and the new guy chased whatever the problem was off.