Stonewatch Timbers Take a Plunge

Hrun lay there, one golden eye open as he watched his brother’s dark figure disappear into the treeline. He did not get up and follow, and instead chose to stay still. A weird feeling bubbled within him, and the dark male wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Half of him wanted to stay there, in the warm silence of his sleeping spot. The other half urged him to follow his brother, as he had for the countless days that the two had been traveling together. Another golden eye opened as he studied the pawprints in the snow. A third half of Hrun, who apparently made up one and a half whole wolves, finally pushed him up from his sleeping spot. He pressed a paw into the snow, the same spot Maugrim’s paw had been. He was only slightly smaller than his twin, their paws more or less the same size, their prints making the same tracks.

The bright day gave the treeline a solid shape of green and white against the blue of the sky. Birds sang their song, but Hrun couldn’t help but to feel uneasy without the constant buzzing that had been home. Had he been wise to follow his brother? He’d always thought so highly of him, but it felt like now they were just… meandering. Hrun had come to realize he hadn’t really liked meandering. Now, though, he was stuck. Going home didn’t feel like a solution, and deep in the pit of his stomach, if he gave it more than a second’s thought, a small, but growing, anger bubbled.

Hrun distracted himself with other things. It was good that the two had a little time apart. The dark wolf turned away from the pawsteps that would lead him to his brother and instead picked another direction — not one they had come from, but someplace new. He could explore on his own, couldn’t he?

Even a few steps away, he felt uneasy. Imaginary strings pulled him in his brother’s direction.

Hrun pushed on, firmly planting his paws into the snow. He concentrated on their cold, on how they hurt if he thought too deeply about it. He did not need the buzzing of his home, if only because his mind was now constantly buzzing. He continued to walk, each step slow and careful as he firmly pushed his paws into the snow. Hrun considered each step, each print he made was deliberate, the shape they left behind perfect. This did not quell the mind-buzzing, but it dulled the noise. One step after the other, until Hrun found himself in front of a perfectly large pile of snow, freshly fallen from a tree.

He plunged his whole head into it, the cold becoming the single thought on his mind.

The snow was getting more and more dense; the air more and more chilled. Back home, it got cold as well, but somehow being next to the water made it more tolerable. Xulia hated this place - if there were ever a location she had no interest in overtaking, it was this.

Long limbs carried her with relative ease through the tall snow mounds. She found herself grateful in that regard, because if she were smaller, like her siblings, it would likely be more difficult. Poor Andrey in particular might be struggling, especially without her there to plow a path for him. Out of all of them, she was gifted with the greatest size, and she had no qualms about using it.

Today, she was following the paw prints. They were ones she didn’t recognize, and she was in the business of finding new wolves. Not least of all because she was seeking her own family, and these strangers might have information.

She did not expect to find him with his head buried in the snow.

He smelled relatively familiar, and she thought that she’d seen those markings before... ”Maugrim?” she questioned hesitantly, brows furrowed and head tilted to the side. The smell wasn’t quite the same as the boy she had met the other day, but he looked and smelled similar enough.

A nearby creek is full to the brim with fish. +3 Health

He was a wolf popsicle, who only thought and felt cold. It grew more unpleasant as each second ticked by. Not only was he cold, but he couldn’t exactly breathe easy under the snow. He held his position, his lungs contracting.

Maugrim?

Hrun pulled his head from the snow, a splash of the powdery white spraying everywhere as he gasped a breath. He felt reinvigorated, like a new wolf. A wolf who could do things! He wasn’t sure what those things were, exactly, but for the time being, the strange reset had felt good for his soul. He shook the snow from his pelt, a shiver that had been sent up his spine made his body tremble. After he was satisfied, he finally decided to pay notice to his new companion. “Greetings!” he loudly said, blinking awkwardly to get the sting of dirt and snow from his eyes.

He shook his head at her. “You are not the first one to make that mistake,” he simply said, sizing her up. He wasn’t sure if the woman was a threat or not, but he wasn’t about to make himself comfortable before he found out. She was bigger than him, her fur light creams and browns and russets. A stark contrast to his browns and blacks. Undeniably, Xulia was pretty, but in the same way that Hrun thought many females were pretty. All in their different sort of way, and this one was tall and willowly, slightly scarred.

“I am Hrun Aethelred. I am traveling with my brother, who you have mistaken me for… Maugrim,” he offered a wag of his tail as he tried to pinpoint some new information about the woman. The large wolf before him didn’t smell of many other wolves, so Hrun could only assume she was alone. That being said, it was rude to assume, and Hrun wasn’t exactly a wolf who left questions unanswered. “Do you find yourself without company?” he paused, his head giving the slightest tilt to the side. “That is, I mean to say: are you traveling alone?”

(This post was last modified: Jan 13, 2021, 02:50 PM by Hrun.)

Xulia's brows drew together as she watched the boy nearly suffocate himself in the snow pile. Her eyes widened a bit as he jerked backward, flurries spraying off of him in a nearly dazzling display, with the sunlight glinting off of them. It was completely beyond her comprehension why any wolf would ever want to shove their head into a pile of snow, nearly asphyxiate, and then seem like he was happy about it.

It was immediately apparent, once he'd pulled back, that he was not Maugrim.

He was louder, bolder. Looked at her instead of away - there was no submission in his stance, and Xules wasn't sure how to feel about it. He almost reminded her of Viorel, a bit. He said his name: Hrun Somethingorother. The last name had exactly 0% chance of being remembered - Xulia was bad enough at names as it was.

"He mentioned having a brother," she said aloud, taking account their differences. This one was shorter, and the marking on his forehead - weird - was a little lighter in color, if she was remembering correctly. But it was likely that their main differences were in their personalities. "I'm alone, yes." It would be evident on her scent, so there was no use lying. Besides, she doubted these two were dangerous.

Still, it was best not to underestimate.

He had golden eyes, like hers. Perhaps brighter. "I'm Xulia Valle. Please call me Xules," she introduced, offering him a small smile. That was what polite wolves did... wasn't it? "Why were you standing with your face in the snow?" Best to get the weirdness out of the way first, right?

“Yes.. Maugrim is forthcoming in details,” he murmured, mostly to himself. Hrun still wasn’t sure if he liked or disliked that about his brother, but regardless of what he did or didn’t like about him, they were family. They got along, and sometimes they didn’t, but more or less they’d been comfortable together. Enough to take on the journey of finding someplace else to call home, wherever that would end up being. Hrun did not look away, still uncertain on what to think about the woman. She’d said she was alone, and Hrun didn’t think her a liar, but he didn’t know anything about the wolves of this place.

Xulia Valle. Xules. At last, a name to the face. How quickly did his brother get around, to already meet a wolf without his presence? And, maybe more importantly, where was Maugrim now? Hrun could feel those imaginary strings pulling him back to his sleeping spot. Maugrim would certainly return for him, would he not? Or was he supposed to follow again? His stomach felt knotted again, he glanced in the direction he’d come from.

Xulia directed a question at him, successfully pulling him back. He looked at her blankly for a moment, not quite sure if he was interested in sharing his real reasoning. It had been odd, though, hadn’t it? He looked over at the pile, which now had a Hrun’s head-shaped hole in it. The thought crossed his mind to just make up something, but somehow that felt too childish. He and Maugrim were no longer children. She was asking an innocent question to a wolf who was doing an odd thing. He growled quietly, not considering that Xulia Valle would not consider that it was meant for him and not her.

“Mosquito Bay does not get thick snow,” he did not want to lie, he was no liar, “I thought the cold on my face could be…” a pause as he looked for the correct word. Good? Nice? Pleasant? “Refreshing.” Satisfied with his answer, he looked back to her and offered his own smile, which was the opposite of her’s: big and proud. “My assumption was proven to be correct.”

He fell silent again, watching her for just a moment before deciding, unannounced, to head in the direction of the sound of water. “Xulia Valle,” he called, expecting the woman to accompany him. “Why did you give me your name if you also ask me to use a different one?” His pointed ears perked forward and his sniffer wiggled. The water was near, but not near-enough. He was thirsty, and mouthfuls of snow wasn’t as satisfying as lapping up icy water. “It seems… redundant. Are you?

Redundant. I mean. Are you redundant.”