Turtleback Lake [BWP] It's no better to be safe than sorry

@Namir , backdated to the 5th
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Elias wasn't in the wandering mood these days. He much preferred to remain within the confines of the Keep, close to @Nineva's den in case she needed anything. He did his best to give her space, to-politely- shoo away nosy welldoers , but aside from that he didn't have much on his agenda. Every once and a while he'd limp away and do his part to ensure that the borders were marked, but really all he wanted to do was to return to the two most important ladies in his life, his...Nin and their daughter.

So what he was doing out on the gravelly shore of the lake? Maybe, just maybe he was feeling a little cagey these days. Sometimes his paws got a little sore, the joints got a little stiff from sitting around too much, he wanted to avoid that if possible, so really he was hitting two birds with one stone. He'd be back soon enough, but hopefully he'd return with a spring in his limpy-step.

And so he lurched along, only coming to a stop to look out at the islands that were dotted across the water's surface. He'd never been very good at swimming, his bird paws didn't make very good paddles, but he idly wondered if Ellery would ever want to try. When she was big enough of course, as things stood she was still quite small and squirmy, but the apple of her parent's eyes nonetheless.

(This post was last modified: Jul 05, 2018, 12:20 AM by Elias.)

She kind of felt like she was going in circles. Well, not literally, because she hadn’t stayed near the mountain, nor climbed up the mountain, nor circled back to the mountain, but… She’d been here, last year. Last summer. Still looking for Desideria then, but really, what had changed? The Crow was seeking, always seeking – except this time, she didn’t even know what for.

At least while she waded in the lake, she kind of forgot. Floated around in the water, enjoying the coolness against her skin, a sharp contrast to the warmth of the sun’s rays pricking against her tawny fur. The Crow sighed, taking a moment to enjoy it – until she realized she was not alone. There were new packs here, sure, but she’d been pretty sure she hadn’t trespassed anywhere.

Eyes narrowed, the wolf starting folding her legs, slipping down further into the water as she waited, watched Elias with narrowed eyes.

There was something moving in the water, causing ripples to spread out across the lakes surface. For a moment Elias thought nothing of it, assumed that it was a fish, doing fishy things out of sight but- he was a little blind and stupid wasn't he? He must have been, otherwise he would have noticed that he had company a lot sooner than he did. He stood a little straighter as his tail began to wag vigorously behind him. Out of habit, mostly, but Elias always tried his best to appear friendly, to make first encounters a little less tense, awkward.

"Hey!" He greeted once he'd limped a little closer, the water tickled his ankles. A smile tugged at his lips as a thought occurred to him, it was so silly he couldn't pass it up. After all, it wasn't every day he thought of something funny. "Water you doing?"

A good comedian wasn't supposed to laugh at his own jokes, but poor Elias really couldn't help himself. It wasn't as if he was doing anything wrong, he'd been so worried lately, about this and that, that he'd barely taken the time to just...find enjoyment in something, anything really. Hopefully that would change, that trend would die, but for now he just laughed till his eyes crinkled around the corners. Oh, that was pretty good.

“I—”

Namir didn’t want to laugh. Namir very much did not want to laugh. The joke was utterly stupid, and the best – neigh, the wise – thing to do would have been to regard it with cool ambivalence. Instead, a snorting laugh bubbled free in her chest before she had the chance to stop it, leaving the younger wolf looking rather shocked. When was the last time she’d laughed?

Had she ever laughed?

Surely, she must have. At some point.

Namir, rather caught out and having lost all elements of surprise, rose back to her full height (not that there was much of that to speak of) and shrugged her shoulders. “Water felt awful nice,” she drawled. “Then I was spyin’ on ya. Didn’t remember there bein’ packs here before, so…” She trailed off with a shrug. Frankly, she hadn’t had much of a plan at all – just watch Elias, decide from there. “What’re y’doin’? Besides makin’ awful jokes.”

It was awful. Except that didn’t seem to make it any less funny. She snorted again at the memory.

The scent of a large band of coyotes is on the breeze.

Elias couldn't help but grin when she laughed at his joke. What made it even better was that it was obvious she didn't want to, that she'd tried to hold it in, only for it to spill forth in an undignified-if not a little charming- snigger. His tail arched high behind him as he waved it back and forth, a sure sign he was rather pleased with himself. Mission accomplished.

The stranger clambered to her feet before Elias had the time to insist that it was okay, that she could remain seated if it was more comfortable for her. Maybe she felt a little spooked that he was so tall, it was hardly his fault-but she was quite small wasn't she? Even standing at full height the top of her neck barely reached the crook of his neck.

"We're a new addition." Not a welcome one ,clearly, but they were there nonetheless. She went onto poke fun at his joke, even though she had clearly laughed. So who was the worst one here? Elias for making the joke or her for laughing? Elias liked to think they were on even terrain. "It wasn't that bad."

Though...maybe it was. She had him second guessing himself now. His ears flattened a little as he frowned, all deflated, like the wind had been knocked out of him.

"Sorry if I bothered you, just wanted to say hi."

And of course, for the second time along these shores coyotes deemed it mandatory to ruin any and all of his attempts to make friends. He sighed deeply as their scent reached his nostrils, there were none in sight but it was worrying nonetheless. Elias supposed he would have to warn the others, even if he didn't really want to talk to them at the moment....

"What do you want to do?" He asked her, of course, in typical Elias fashion worrying about a stranger he had only just met.

(This post was last modified: Jul 05, 2018, 10:20 PM by Elias.)

“Yeah. Think the other one is, too. Been a lil’ bit, though.” A year. More? Time was’t exactly her strongest point. She thought she’d been up this way last sunny season though. Heck, she thought she’d have trotted back off to Crow’s Crossing long before now, too. Time was a funny thing.

She might have dwelled, but the blond wolf was almost insistently peppy. She quirked a brow, rambling on. And as much as Namir might have wanted to comment on the bad joke (that was pretty hilarious, all told), they were rudely interrupted. By more coyotes. Her ears fell flat against her skull. “Oh for fuck’s sake. Are they fuckin’ everywhere in this goddamn forest?”

She thought she’d leave them behind on the mountain. Sure, it was hot, and coyotes needed water too, but damn it all. It was fun for a little while. Now it felt like being followed. Constantly. “Well. We’re downwind. Got that goin’ for us.” She hummed, realizing she was still in the water. “…y’ever wash out your scent before, Blue Eyes?”

Not a half bad idea, if she did say so herself.

The other one? Did she mean Driftwood Surge? Elias was willing to take her word on it, the stranger seemed to know what she was talking about and didn't seem the sort to be pulling his leg. Or so he hoped. Understandably, she didn't seem very impressed by the sudden appearance of coyotes. As a loner they had to be a real meance to her, it had been bad enough with Nin on the other side of the mountain, he hated to think what it was like dealing with them alone.

His ears tipped forward in interest as she proposed a temporary solution to their coyote problem. She was certainly full of surprises wasn't she?

"I uh..haven't, no..." He trailled off as his brows squished together. To his credit he didn't need to ask why, it was pretty self explaintory. The coyotes wouldn't bother them if they didn't know they were there. In theory, at least. "What do I need to do? He was willing enough to go along with her scheme, if she told him to jump he'd ask how high.

Well, at least Blue Eyes wasn’t asking why. He had that going for him, at the very least.

Namir motioned for the pale wolf to join her deeper in the water. Keeping her voice low, she started to explain. “First, y’ gotta get soaked. All of ya, even the head.” That wasn’t her favorite part. She was an okay swimmer, but the fear always still sparked in her heart when she ducked under. Still, she had to illustrate. So she did, disappearing under the surface for a few moments with only ripples in her wake. When she resurfaced, she was careful to do it slowly, not sending droplets every which way.

She waited for Elias to do the same before continuing. “Okay. Now we’re gonna bathe in th’ mud on th’ shore, kay? We ain’t really gonna have time t’ chitchat after that, ‘cos it works best when wet. Once it dries, we’re gonna start t’ smell like wolves again, an’ if we don’t wanna scuffle, we better be outta here by then. Sound good?”

Elias watched, wondering where she learned to do this. Masking one's scent might prove useful on a hunt but...it all seemed rather sneaky, didn't it? He was curious but Elias knew better than to pry, it would have been awfully rude and honestly, some things were better left unknown. So he nodded and watched her shuffle down into the water till she was submerged. A moment later she resurfaced and waited expectantly for Elias to do the same.

He had to wade out a little further than the stranger but once he was deep enough he folded himself down, closed his eyes and held his breath. It wasn't pleasant, wolves weren't meant to swim underwater but it was only for a moment. By the time he came up for air the stranger directed him to move to the shore to...roll in mud. It sounded rather...distaseful, uncouth but...It was a necessary evil and for some reason, he trusted the stranger to do right by him.

"Got it."

Carefully, Elias waded back to shore and found a nice muddy spot. Here goes nothing....

(This post was last modified: Jul 18, 2018, 11:06 PM by Elias.)