Secret Falls the only certainty in life

Welcome to anyone!  Mid-morning, thunderstorms since dawn.  This will be a territory discovery when the wolves find a cave in the thread!

The rain might suit him well, but the thunder certainly did not.  Each time the sky flashed and crackled overhead, the dark wolf winced and moved a little quicker, paws splashing through the slop of the sudden downpour.  In truth, there wasn’t that much rain coming down from the sky – but the summer heat had baked the earth solid, and the water rolled over the surface before it could soak in.  Puddles splashed with each step, coating his underside in mud as Reyes moved faster, seeking shelter from the storm.

With such a ruckus overhead, he did not hear the roar of the falls until he was almost right upon them.  Nails dug into the ground as he slid to a stop, earth slick beneath his feet as he scowled upwards at the pouring water. “Dios mio,” he muttered under his breath, brows knitted in a fierce scowl.  “What is it with all the fucking water around here?  Where’s a wolf supposed to get dry?” he demanded of no one in particular, tail lashing like a bullwhip behind him.

When it became evident the sky was not about to answer his queries, Reyes huffed and moved closer to the crashing water.  Oft times there were caves in stone walls like these – if he could find one, perhaps he could wait out the rain.

sorry couldn't resist this

As the girl grew and matured, she became less and less affected by circumstance. That her long, pale legs were coated thinly in mud and the rain washed over her eyes did not much matter to her. She had crossed over the threshold of her home and into the world and explore, and come hell or high water, that was what she would do. Her spirit remained undampered as she scampered over the saturated ground, and as the lightning cast its harsh illumination over the forest, she found a sort of beauty in it. The sky would then grumble after this thought as though it did not agree, and she would grin to herself at the silly notion.

Caution did not infect this mood of hers, and she did not try to hear or smell through the sheets of rain. Despite all those who had gone missing, gobbled up by the vast world, Ember had yet to witness true harm. It would not steal her away, this felt to be a truth so unshakable that it could be etched into stone. Another flash of glaring light and she caught glimpse of dark fur and a furrowed brow. She was not startled, and did not act warily. Without hesitation she directed herself toward this stranger, ears straining to make sense of whatever his mutterings were.

"You look sour!" she shouted out in hopes of being heard over the chaos the sky was unleashing. A smile was pretty much a permanent fixture on her face, but it now turned wry as she teased, "Letting a little storm beat ya down?"

“It’s fuckin’ raining, chica, what do you think?” What kind of wolf wanted to be out in the rain, anyways? Took an awful lot of time to get dry again, especially if the sun didn’t deem it necessary to poke back out from behind the clouds. That was how a man got a skin infection – Reyes has seen the look of a wolf with mange, and frankly, he had no desire to experience the medical condition firsthand.

The smile was met only with a deadpan look, brows furrowed as the dark animal tried to keep the rain out of his eyes. Ears were flipped in a similar attempt; even in the downpour, he could smell more than a single wolf, a single smell on the girl. She was a pack animal; no wonder she was so unconcerned with the weather. She had a den to go back to, she had packmates to warm her up if she got too cold.

Reyes moved further forward, peering up at the rock wall beneath the fall, squinting into the darkness. “You gonna help, or you gonna stare, eh? There’s an echo back here – either there’s a cave hiding or I ain’t a wolf.”

@Ember -- Eeee I love writing Reyes so much, thanks for joining. :3

There is a family of deer nearby. Hunt Opportunity

His retort was swift and certainly proved her right. Having quite a bit of practice with unpleasant thanks to @Nalda, the girl was not phased by the snap in his voice nor the cuss that so effortlessly left his lips. Rather, her head tilted ever so slightly to the side as she pondered what 'chica' meant. Was that another swear word? Using the terms generally was one thing, but her brows furrowed as her mind determined that he better not be calling her names.

"Depends on what 'chica' is," she replied back, gold eyes an ocean of molten calm as she watched him curdle. There definitely was a cave there, or at least the possibility was quite expected by the young girl. She'd already found several small spaces at the height of the falls on random ventures with her siblings. He could keep himself warm if he was gonna fling out personal attacks, though.

Maybe it didn't mean anything bad; she was well aware that was an equal possibility. So her posture and voice had remained open while she awaited explanation, clearly not even close to the rush he was in.

“Dios mio,” the wolf muttered under his breath, ears folding back against his head. Sometimes he forgot he’d gone so far north – wolves only spoke one language up here, and it’s not the one his mother taught him. His ear flicked, and he sized the young woman up for a moment before huffing out another breath. “Girl. It means girl, honestly.” Thought so little of him, and they’d only just met! There were so many worse things he could have flung – he had no reason before, but the wolf’s patience was beginning to fray.

Reyes was already beginning to question the wisdom of inviting the stranger along to help him find something warm.

The loner’s persistence paid off quickly, for slipping behind the rushing what revealed a large, open area. The falls provided a natural curtain, blocking the cavern from even the most prying eyes, and the wolf gave a satisfied sigh. Here. He could wait out the rest of the storm here. A bright green moss blanketed the stones, leaving them soft instead of slippery – some even looked large and flat enough that a wolf might curl up and have a nap there, if he really wanted.

“So, you gonna stand out there in the rain or what?”

Girl, huh? Hernears flicked back and irises roamed to the right as she fit the translation back into its original sentence. Girl, yeah, that made sense.

"Okay cool," she replied, her sunshine returned as she all but hopped after him. She noticed too what had been muttered, how the words were unfamiliar and swiftly the girl who was at many times lucubrate-proned became curious and questions began to bubble to the surface of her mind.

The man disappeared into a crevice of darkness and he hardly needed to extend that unenthusiastic invitation for her to follow. The water fall clipped her shoulder, but just as the rain could not deter her the young woman hardly noticed the drenching of her leg. Stepping inside, she realized it wasn't a crevice at all but a great wide cavern, far more glorious than anything she'd discovered.

"Wow, hey, this is pretty rad," she remarked, turning a slow 360 as she ventured past the threshold. "Its like, got beds and everything!"

She flopped onto one of the flatter, moss-coated surfaces, tail thumping heartily against the cavern floor as her neck craned this way and that, her gold eyes taking it all in the best the waterfall-reflected light would allow her. Every now and then, the storm outside would strike the earth with its bolts, and their hiding place would be alight with wavering diamonds of varying brightness.

"So chica and meeohs-deeohs is that like, slang?"

Reyes fell into silence as the younger wolf decided to finally join him; only the general dimness of the cave hid the roll of his eyes. Yeah, duh, he wanted to say, but held his tongue. That would earn him more questions – and frankly, he was certain they were all questions he did not want to answer.

At the very least, her idea to bed down seemed…sound. Soon enough, the older wolf followed suit, finding another large, flat patch several wolf’s lengths away. After inspecting the stone, he circled several times before flopping down gracelessly, curling his legs up close as he stared outwards, their shelter only illuminated when lightning crackled against the sky. If there was one downfall to this cavern, it was surely the echo of thunder. Reyes could swear it was rattling around in his bones by the time the yearling spoke back up.

“Huh? Meeohs-- Shit, kid, it’s dios mio. It’s a curse. ‘My god,’ my mama always used to say, when we--” He shrugged. This girl didn’t need his entire life story. “Es español, chica. Y’know there are other languages, right? In different places. My mama, she spoke it almost exclusively – pack wolves spoke this nearby. Inglés. English. Yeah? And further east, it’s different. What did they call it? Frawn-say?” he muttered, brows knitting as he butchered the pronunciation. It was rolled off with a shrug. “Lotta world beyond this forest, mocosa. Just gotta look.”

As he corrected her horridly mixed up pronunciation, Ember repeated what he'd said once more underbreath. She cut the words off sharply at the m when it was explained that they meant a curse. Ember didn't necessarily look down on swearing, but tried to avoid using any cusses herself.

Her ears cupped forward as the rest of his explanation flowed forth, the man being a bit more gracious with the information than his rough disposition might have hinted he would be. Her eyes were widened with interest. No, she didnt know there were other languages. The only reason she knew the word at all was that she'd before heard the expression 'watch your language.' Apparently, she spoke English. Did mother know thats what they spoke? Probably, @Iopah knew pretty much everything.

It wasnt until his last statement, however, that a true reaction fell across her features. Knitting her brow, that glowing dial seemed to darken as she looked down upon the verdant moss beneath her. She wanted to ask what a mocosa was, but what came out of her mouth instead was "looking's dangerous."

What had this man left behind to come this far? A wife, children, his mother? Who was his absence harming, what was this rainy respite with her costing others? It was suddenly difficult to remain chipper, and that bothered her too. Uncomfortable, she shifted in place and tried to shift her own gears.

"What's your name? I'm Ember."

It wasn’t the cursing that upset the girl but, curiously enough, mention of a world outside her own. Reyes snorted softly under his breath, glancing away back towards the curtain of water. It wasn’t as if he’d confessed to some crime, venial or otherwise. Travelling was hardly a sin. Idly, he thought the opposite was quite true – staying in one place? A waste of life, and time, and energy. If there was ever a sin, a crime against wolves, that was it.

He might have been content to wait out of the storm in silence, had @Ember not piped back up. “Ember, huh? Ascua.” The swarthy male hummed softly, rolling it around in his mind. Pretty name, he thought. Her mother liked her well enough. “I’m Reyes.” He paused for a moment, ears twitching. Hadn’t introduced himself for a long while, had he? Wasn’t even his full name, but--

Well, no going back now. “So, chica, you’re from around here, then. A pack. There any others round these parts?” he asked, glancing back out towards the world hidden under water. His tail twitched. He needed to know where to avoid, largely. Reyes was not a wolf interested in pack life – he hadn’t been in the past three years, and didn’t see it changing any time soon.