Underground Sea trapdoor

tag for @Kyna but anyone is welcome~
early morning/overcast

Initially, before he met with his flame, his trip south was supposed to be temporary. It appeared, however, that Greer did not do so well with temporary, for he still remained atop the mountain. His sister had told him to seek out his mountain girlfriend and bring her home if needed, but the longer he remained in the rocky terrain, the more he felt at home.

Of course, home was wherever Kyna was. He could not imagine being anywhere but at her side.

He could try to convince her to follow him to the north and join his sister’s pack, but the Archer knew it would be useless. The scarlet wolf belonged in the mountains and he could not drag her away from them—not to a place where she would never truly be happy. Once winter released its hold on the lands of Lore and the snow began to melt the shadow would bring his flame north to meet his sister, but not to stay. There was potential here, for both of them.

As the morning sun hovered on the horizon the long-legged Archer meandered through the heights. The shadow was restless; winter was wearing him down. Greer had never been fond of the snow, for the frigid substance had nearly claimed his life during his first year. Despite his stint in the tundra Greer had not grown accustom to the cold and he was impatient for the arrival of warmer weather.

The last time he had found himself in the cave his sister had gathered the men of Willow Ridge to try and take leadership away from their uncle. However, the attempt to overthrow Nicolò proved unsuccessful, which prompted Morganna to relocate. Craw and Wraith followed eagerly with Greer not far behind, who had been desperate for a change. His lips twitched at the memory as he climbed down the stone path, seeking refuge from the cold air above. The sounds of his steps echoed around him, disturbing the silence. His legs folded beneath him as he situated himself at the water’s edge, a hard line forming between his brows as he studied the mirror-like surface. Parts of the underground lake were frozen, but the majority of the blue water remained untouched. The cavern had been one of his favourite places to escape to when he had been under Elettra’s rule and he was pleased to find it had not changed since his move north. 

Possibly one of the best things about being on the mountain now - besides the end to a crippling loneliness that had suffocated the girl nearly her whole life nbd - was that every part of the terrain was so delightfully new to her. Even as she traversed the world making her way to Relic Lore, it all seemed to be the same trees and grass and river and lake and sky and cloud and oh my god, boring. On her own the shadowy yearling had never wanted to scale any snow-capped rises she'd seen, imagining that trying the feat alone was something like inviting death into her life. It took her red-coated friend to show her that it was possible.

And now that she was here she spent her time regularly committing their surroundings to memory. Or at least attempting to. It seemed every time she opened her eyes at dawn there was more out there than she had left at night. Take, for example, this cavern that opened up into the foothills. She stood at the wide mouth that begged her entry, sniffing cautiously along the walls as she stood safely in the open. It was dark down there, and it smelled like water. And wolf.

Iyes knew Kyna had a friend on the mountain - that scent had to be him. There really wasn't anyone else here. Gently she eased her way into the cave, holding her side firm to one wall so as to not block the light from the outside that lead her way. Her orange eyes adjusted quickly to the darker setting, observing as the cave widened and revealed a large pool of partially frozen water and the shape of a wolf like a night without the moon.

The yearling moved closer, allowing her pawsteps to echo through the cavern to alert him of her presence. He was on his stomach close to the edge of the water, silver eyes trained on his ink-black reflection like he was trying to determine who was the fairest of them all. A crooked smirk crossed her muzzle, remembering a story her mother had told her long ago. She left a respectful distance between them, standing at the edge of the water with her tail swaying a friendly flag. "Mirror, mirror?"

adopt thea?

@Iyes <3

Despite having the strawberry blond at his side, solitude was something that the shadow still sought frequently. He had always been this way, since he was nothing but a tuft of inky fur. The Archer had isolated himself from both his brothers and his family, entertaining himself and using the time alone to practice his stalking. The shadows was where he had always excellent; lurking in the background and observing. He did not do well with confrontation or conversation, and avoided both as much as possible. The spotlight never appealed to Greer, which was why he fretted over Kyna’s plans to form a pack in the mountains.

He would have liked to take her home to Whitestone, for he knew that she would learn to appreciate the place with time. But he knew he could not take her away from the mountains. She was born of the rock and she would die from the rock—there was no separating her from the stone. Greer was adaptable. He had left the safety of the willows for the vulnerability of the lowlands but, over time, he had grown to appreciate the advantages that came with the monadnock. He knew he could do the same here, as well. It would just take time.

The smell that disturbed his thoughts was one that frequented the mountain, although he could not place a name or face to it. His flame often carried the same scent, as well, so Greer assumed that it was one of the wolves she was rallying up to join them. His ears twitched at the thought, but nothing else stirred. He waited until the yearling made her way into the underground, her presence filling up the area despite the distance she put between them. A faint smile cracked his features at her voice but he did not speak. Instead, he offered a shrug in response, his mercury gaze tearing away from the still surface of the water to meet her fiery pools.

There are several fresh rabbit tracks in the mud. Hunt Opportunity

The shadow was still as the grave, though something resembling a smile appeared on his muzzle to suggest she wasn't unwelcome here. Looking to meet her gaze, he offered her a shrug, one which she mirrored as she donned a sheepish grin. "That's from a story my moms told me when I was young," she said, as if she weren't just barely past the ripe age of one-years-old. She lowered herself to her haunches, taking a haphazard seat on the cold stone floor. "It's about a wicked and beautiful wolf who would stare into her reflection in a magic pond called a mirror, and ask it who was the fairest of them all. It was her, until there came another more beautiful to cast her down." 

Realizing that she seemed to have implied he was the wicked and beautiful wolf, Iyes cleared her throat and let her gaze fall from his pale silver eyes to the water that bore their reflections. "Have you heard it?" There, that ought to divert the course of his thoughts. Especially if she was gonna divulge to him the rest of the details of that story and the eventual fate of a wolf so lovely and cruel. After a beat she let her bright eyes return to his, mustering up a friendly grin as a lightbulb turned on over her head. "Oh! And I'm Iyes, by the way."

adopt thea?

sorry for wait i suck <3 @Iyes

His mercury gaze did not waver from her obsidian frame as words expelled from her mouth, filling the cavern and disturbing his silence. This time, however, he did not mind, for the story she shared was rather amusing. Elettra had never shared such stories when he had been nothing but a soft tuft of black fur, but he had also never been around to hear them. Greer had often entertained himself and shied away from both his siblings and mother, keeping to himself and not acknowledging their presence. Stories and fables never intrigued him; it was the silence of the night and the lulling sound of the wind between the willows that called to him.

It did not mean that he was not interested in the tale the raven wolf was telling to him, his brows lifting at her final words. After a moment a crooked grin cracked his stoic features and a single word rolled off his tongue, paired with another soft roll of his shoulders. “No.”

He blinked at the introduction but was not sure if he was to store the name for future use. Iyes, he repeated, mentally, just in case he would need to remember the wolf before him. She smelt familiar but he was not sure if this was one of Kyna’s recruits. Perhaps she was fond of the mountains, too. “Greer,” he introduced after another short pause, his tail giving a short, friendly wag. His silver gaze retreated to the mirror-like surface of the lake, his lop-sided smirk still perched neatly across his features. “Greer wicked,” he mused before returning to the raven, his eyes twinkling with youthful mischievousness: “Iyes wicked?”

She was only modestly surprised that he hadn't heard the story before, though Iyes was not necessarily a stranger to regional differences in the type of company she had kept from her birth in the middle of no where to her arrival in the Lore. Growing up he must have heard stories from his neck of the woods (and perhaps, she wondered, if that was where he got the speech patterns from too) because after all, he was from - um... well. At least not where she was born. As far as she could tell. The male was a mystery to her, though she had to imagine she was something of the same to him; the ink-cloaked yearling rarely asked many personal details of any wolf and divulged her own sordid past just as often.

Greer, however, did allow one detail to be shared between the two of them under the protective shroud of the cavern's shadows. He was wicked, disagreeing with her assumption that the connotation was perhaps too negative to share. The assumption lingered, for as he posed the question whether the trait referred to her too Iyes felt her teeth touch together. The word no poised on the tip of her tongue in response. But she stopped herself, because it wouldn't exactly be true.... and perhaps if there was no one else to hear, she could trust him with that secret. Canting her dark muzzle to the side Iyes watched the silver pools of his eyes closely, and preceded her response by displaying a toothy and crooked grin. "Yes, very wicked."

How wicked? Iyes caught the playful twinkle in his pale eyes, and gave in to the temptation. Quick like lightning from a storm cloud she reached forward to swipe the surface of the entirely still lake with one dark forepaw, disrupting the settled mirrored surface in a single swoop. If he wasn't quick, she would splash him with a spray of wicked water straight from the source.

adopt thea?

The obsidian yearling did not seem to mind his few words; she did not fill the empty space around them with unnecessary conversation. He appreciated the lengthy silences between them and did not attempt to shorten them. Not yet, at least.

He had come across her scent a few times while surveying his new surroundings and while the strawberry blond had never mentioned her name, Greer was positive that she was one of the wolves Kyna was recruiting. So far, he approved. She reminded him a lot of his scarlet mate and she had not given him a reason to object her presence. His lips cracked at her response, a low hum of approval bubbling from deep inside his chest. He almost rolled his eyes, but he kept his silver gaze fixated on the dark yearling, a single brow raised.

The amusement, however, was short-lived. With lightning speed the girl slapped the surface of the water, the fur on his neck bristling as a cascade of water was sent in his direction. He shuffled the side, but not soon enough. Water splashed against his chest and his nose as he regained his composure, his eyes crinkling in amusement as his mercury gaze returned to her dark frame. His demeanour quickly changed as he shot the fiery-eyed girl a dark look, a grimace rolling onto his lips. Before he could change his mind, Greer launched himself at the water, hoping that once he connected with water he would send a tidal wave over his dark companion. 

Ha, got eem! The crooked smirk in her eyes extended on to her black muzzle as she successfully gave the male a slap-full of water right to the kisser. A voiceless laugh rocked her sides while he shuffled out of the way, dripping water into what was once a blissfully untouched cave. Slowly the laugh gained traction, erupting into a loud and happy trill which echoed through the shadowy enclosure. Her amber eyes turned a playful look on Greer, beckoning forgiveness from friend to friend - only to find the amusement that had been apparent in his silver eyes before had gone out.

He drew back and she froze, wondering with wide eyes what it was that his silence meant in this moment. Iyes prepared for the worst, whatever that might have been - hurt, or anger - and as he moved she flinched, eyes shutting briefly. But he didn't move in her direction. Peeking one eye open she saw him launch for the water, only milliseconds too late to do anything about it. Her jaw dropped as she realized what she'd been suckered in to, her voice a crescendo as she cried, "Nooo-" until a thick wave of water slapped her in the face, cresting over her skull and on to her back while droplets flew in to her eyes and mouth.

Scrambling up on four legs, she coughed and shook her fur out roughly before turning a gaze burning with impishness on the male. Waggish thoughts rolled around in her mind to formulate a plot of recourse. She licked away a droplet of water that descended down her muzzle and simpered, "Hm, nobody told me there was a sea wolf who lived in this cave." It was a good thing that sea wolves liked water, 'cause Iyes decided to take a page from the book of the aquatic beast himself. He thought he'd escaped the splash zone, had he? Crouching low to build up tension in her muscles she pushed against the wet floor of the cave, cannonballing directly into the space beside Greer.

adopt thea?

thank you so much for that video

For a moment he regretted his actions as he was flying through the air, the cold cave air sifting through his dark fur. He had never been one to engage in play—it was why he had isolated himself from his brothers at a young age and entertained himself. Greer did not know what had possessed him to throw himself at the water but it was too late now. The water was fast approaching and there was no turning back.

SploooOSH!

Water cascaded around him as a wicked smile sprawled across his dark features, his legs pushing furiously against the water as he reached for solid ground. He turned to the fiery-eyed girl, a single brow arched as he studied the aftermath of his attack. The shadow was pleased to discover it had been a success as he noticed the water dripping from her dark frame onto the stone floor of the cavern. Sea wolf? He snorted at the comment, his silver eyes rolling in response.

Greer should have expected what came next.

An eye for an eye; a splash for a splash.

He should not have let his guard down so quickly…

The dark girl launched herself forward, mimicking his previous movements and throwing her body at the water beside him. He scrambled backward but the water slowed him down and he stumbled, his hindlegs buckling beneath him. Despite being unable to escape her cannon ball a wide grin was still etched across his dark features, his ears pinned forward as the corners of his eyes crinkled in amusement. Once he realized that resisting was futile Greer allowed the wave of water to wash over him. He was already wet; there was no escaping. A low growl bubbled inside his chest, but not with anger. His amused expression told a different story.

(This post was last modified: Apr 27, 2017, 05:21 AM by Greer.)