Umbra Copse Let the haunting begin

Dreadwood Haunt

Found a few hours southeast of where OakTree Bend’s Borders end, Dreadwood Haunt is marked by a large slanting tree that looks as if it is half dead. Underneath the tree is a spacious den, able to fit several wolves in if shelter from the harsh weather is needed or simply for a place to rest during the night. How it was cleared out, no one's entirely sure, though it is generally presumed to have been done by either water that has long since left, dug out by other animals over the years seeking shelter or both. If one were small enough or clever enough, they could hide beneath the tree’s roots or within the small dip before actually entering the cave and scare unwitting passersby.  

For @Ice

 


Threading through the forest, Dread had just wanted to explore the area surrounding his pack’s borders, to see what else the vast forest held. It couldn’t just hold his pack’s boundaries and what was held within those boundaries. There just had to be more out there. For a few hours, he angled himself to the south east, frolicking here and there in the snow that still clung to the ground on this cloudy day. And it would cling for a few weeks more, before spring took its hold and even then, he was sure the snow would still make itself known every so often, until true warmth had taken hold and scared away the cold. But the forest he had found himself in was thick and felt foreboding, as if it didn’t wish for young wolves to be lurking on its grounds. Or for anything to be in its woods at all. But Dread persisted.

Eventually, the dark pelted yearling came upon a clearing with a slanted tree in the middle, half rotted out and several roots sticking out at the bottom, exposed from the dirt they used to be covered in. but what really caught his attention was when he saw what looked like an opening of sorts beneath its roots, as if there was a small cave or a den being protected underneath its roots.

Though his curiosity was peaked and there were no smells emanating from it, like a bear’s, Dread was cautious in approaching the...hollow? Haunt? It certainly had a haunting quality to it, because for all the signs it could be a bear den, it could also have been a wolf den and for some reason, that made him uncomfortable. Maybe because it was within such a dark forest, small remnants of a fog clinging to the trees and his long legs, which made him wonder if a pack did ever reside here, he could see why they would leave. It had almost a suffocating feeling to it, filling one with dread (and didn't that thought make him chuckle slightly) and coaxing the ever curious wolves away from their home.      

Or was it because he had found it during winter, where everything looked bleak and in scattering colors of dulls greys, blacks and browns for the most part? Or that the white snow around it looked undisturbed despite the offering of a decent shelter away from the snow?

He wasn’t sure which one it was but he liked it.  

Deciding to go into the large hole once he had danced around the edge, to make sure there was nothing in it, Dread slipped into the den. It was surprisingly deep, with somewhat of a low ceiling but enough room that once he ducked passed the entrance and stood straight, the ceiling hung a few inches above his ears. He soon found out it was quite dark though, blinking into the darkness as he waited for his eyes to adjust.  

He needed to get out more. All he knew on this side was the forest of red ferns, the Spectral Woods, and some of the foothills. He had been ever further.. south, wasn't it? When they had killed the Aniwayans. He'd been up scouting around the falls.

But it was nowhere near as well as he had known the Grove, and the Wildwood.

It was still a pang of longing, of loss, each time he thought of those places—of the majestic, moss-covered trees stretching up towards the sky, of the new life peeking up through the fertile ashes.. the Fireweed Rise in all its glory, the whispering of the meadow.. and all the memories. All the pain and love, the joy and the misery, the fear and the deep, visceral hatred. Most of his life had been spent in the Heart—most of his life that mattered—and he, desperately, wanted to re-write those Chapters, but in this place.

How could he ever, though? Triell had left, Marsh was dead, Fenru was gone, Kisla was gone, Jessie was gone, Corinna was dead. He had Serach, he had Lena and Lila, and Tenebrae. New names, and nothing could ever be the same. There was no Marsh and no Indru to keep him steady, no Triell to grow up along with (Ice never kept up with his own age so the years separating them didn't matter).. he guessed the closest he came to what had been was adopting Lila and raising her like a Fenru. Tenebrae seemed too independent for that kind of tutoring.

Still, it was Tenebrae he followed that day, padding in his prints and trying to see what he was up to. Serach had laid some tutoring on him, after all, and fighting was on the agenda, but getting to know the wolf was equally important. He hummed slightly under his breath as he jogged along. They were going south-east, and the trail was far from straight. It looked like a handful of snowdrifts had suffered assaults. Each time the tracks deviated into such a thing it made him smile, and his heart grow warm.

The search ended in a peculiar fashion. A half-dead tree stump stood over a dark hole in the ground, and tracks were all along its rim. They smelled of his pack mate, and nothing led away from them, so he had to assume they had gone in. But why? Sure, it didn't smell of anything bad or dangerous.. but after his little trip into water when he rescued Morganna, he wasn't all too keen on another surprise bath.

He went over, so he stood upon its brink, and peered into the depths. He couldn't make anything out yet—he'd have to get down there and wait if he wanted his eyes to adjust. "Tenebrae?" he called into the darkness.

let the stars above shine in your soul

Dread had felt like someone had been following after him once he left the borders but with lifting his nose to the air, the scent that was in the air told him it was just Ice so he relaxed. It was nothing to worry about.and so for a brief while, he had forgot about his companion during his exploration. Once his eyes adjusted, though the surface of the walls were kind of jagged, like the entrance, he could see they still somewhat curved around like a wonky semi circle. As he stepped forward, he guessed the back wall was about about six or so metres from the entrance, at least and the ground got a slight slope to it, making it deeper as he walked further back. Surely it must have been a bear den at some point before it found some where better? Granted if it was a grizzly, it might be a tad squished but what did he know about what bears liked in their homes?  

Right until Ice’s voice called into the darkness, asking after him with his alias, Dread was lost in investigating. So Dread nearly jumped at the voice before remembering who it was and turning in the den to go back out. It was just Ice, he told himself. Not some ghost.  

“Hey Ice,” Ducking under the entrance again but stopping so only half of him was sticking out, Dread looked up slightly to see Ice standing on the edge. Deciding he didn’t want a kink in his neck from looking up at Ice as they talked, Dread took a step forward and jumped up onto level land again next to Ice. “That place is bigger on the inside then it looks from the outside.” After shaking his coat out, because it felt like there was dust on his pelt, Dread turned to stand shoulder to shoulder with him and looked back down at the entrance. “It’s a cool little hideaway if you needed a night or two away to think on things, if you need to. ” He noted, remembering what had happened shortly after he had joined and easily diminished the pack size. Though he didn't know the whole story behind with what happened, he thought that perhaps, if some had stopped and thought about what was happening, then there wouldn't have been such an exodus of wolves.

Then again, he didn't know those wolves so who knows. Maybe they would have still left regardless and were just waiting for the right time to leave.

(This post was last modified: Feb 26, 2017, 08:07 AM by Dread.)

So—

Another wolf-eating hole in the ground? And why did he keep finding them? Because, the one question worth asking when standing in front of a dark hole, into which your packmate went, is this: why did no tracks lead away from it? Was there some unseen, horrible force in there, gobbling up innocent creatures as they went to explore?

Or had it just snowed since anyone had went in there last, and the explanation was no more fanciful than that?

Ah, questions, questions.. at least it hadn't quite managed to chew Tenebrae up yet, because his voice came bounding back almost immediately, a little bit distorted by the close space. Soon after the wolf itself showed up, sticking out from the shadows. There wasn't a lot of space down there, maybe enough for a smaller wolf, but Ice wouldn't fit all in the sunlight. Tenebrae didn't either, really, and seemed to realize this himself because in one swift motion he leaped up again. "Oh?" Ice responded, peering into the hole and nearly getting a faceful of black tail when the youth shook out his coat. After a grimace and a half-hearted nip after the bushy appendage he resumed staring into the cavernous void, listening to his companion with about three-quarters of his attention. The rest was on the space before them.

"Mmh," he agreed, the life of the party, a man of words. A slight frown creased his forehead, and without saying anything Ice leaped down into the opening. He almost hit his nose on the rock wall, but managed to pull his head back just enough, though it wasn't very graceful. With a casual shrug—he was too old to be embarrassed—he ducked his head and padded into the dark space. After a few yards he stopped, and waited for his eyes to adjust. Tenebrae hadn't been all wrong. It was a large space, and strangely enough, it smelled empty. Nothing had used this as a regular haunt in a long, long time. And again, that question popped into his mind: why? If whatever had inhabited it had died, why hadn't something else moved in..?

The walls would give him no answers, but still, his curiosity was not satisfied. He trailed his nose over the cold stone, felt the rough, uneven surface, and the old stale smells of fur and rotted kills. They were embedded in the rock itself, their sources long since gone. He angled his head in whichever direction Tenebrae happened to be in, and raised his voice if he was still outside. "I wonder what made it, and what used to live here, and why it's unused."

let the stars above shine in your soul