Empress Riffle gotta take advantage of the one summer night

All welcome!
Just past midnight, Light snow, 16F/-9C

Sing it again now

At this point Viorel had become confident that he had explored enough of the surrounding area to know that they picked a good spot. That wasn’t to say that he had seen it all, far from it. But a few more weeks of daily scouting would make quick work of becoming a master of the terrain. As per usual he was taking advantage of the quiet of the night, allowing his dark pelt to blend into the shadows. This was the best time for him to search, search for signs of his family, anything interesting, some sign that they weren’t the only Valles here.

He had been hopeful that they would all turn up, after all, he, Andrey, Vayko, Sharlee, and Aunt Modesto all had. Where was everyone else? But it had been almost two months since they all arrived, and the world was beginning to warm and thaw and they still hadn’t found anyone else. Tonight he was exploring closer to home, or what was soon to become their home, not feeling the motivation to make too far of a trip. Eventually his slow lope following the creek brought him to a patch of rapids he hadn’t seen before. Yellow eyes swept over the jagged rocks and rushing water carefully, wondering if this was a sign to turn back or if he should keep going.

Lets make it happen

Perhaps it was a leftover from her journey, but Vanadis found herself late to bed and late to rise more often than not. It was fine. She liked the quiet well enough, and it gave her time to consider things on her own time. She wasn't antisocial by any means, quite the opposite, really, but the quiet nights spent surveying the creek' quickly changing landscapes were never unwelcome. Thanks to the recent thaw there was always something new to see, even in areas she'd otherwise explored.

She thought it would be much the same tonight, but Viorel's recent trail was enough of an excuse to shake things up. Altering her course to fall in line with his, the woman searched the horizon for his familiar form, calling out once it came into view. "You're up late." Halting as she neared, Vanadis' gaze flickered past him, noting the rapids with interest before returning to settle on Vi. "Planning on a swim?

This was the farthest Leviticus had come from his and @Sawyer's makeshift base, but his paws were getting desperately itchy despite how much he was enjoying the area. He would turn back soon, but he wanted, nearly needed to push just a little bit farther...

The sound of moving water met his ears and piqued his curiosity. A river, especially a noisy one, would be an excellent marker to leave off at as well as a good excuse to keep exploring. He picked up the pace, given a little boost of excitement at the prospect, and then better yet, caught wind of something else not too far ahead; other wolves.

Levi's ears picked up and his tail began to wag. Perfect!

"Hello?" he called ahead, stopping himself from outright running toward the voices he heard only so as not to start off on the wrong foot with them accidentally. Levi had definitely received more than his far share of wallops from strangers and pack mates alike by being overeager and startling or otherwise unintentionally antagonizing them.

"Take it easy Slick," he whispered under his breath to both steady and bolster himself before what would hopefully be a beneficial encounter.

(This post was last modified: Feb 28, 2021, 08:41 PM by Leviticus.)

Sing it again now

Viorel was surprised to hear the pawsteps of another approach, but was put at ease when the scent of Vanadis reached him. Glancing casually over his shoulder towards her entrance he greeted her with a lazy smile and a chuckle, ”It seems like I’m not the only night owl in our group then Archer.” He shouldn’t have been so surprised he supposed, they had met the first time before the sun had even risen, why would this be any different?

Glancing back at the freezing rapids he made a dramatic sneer, ”Nah, I think I’ll pass for now. But, you’re more than welcome to take a little dip.” Viorel did miss swimming, it had been a big part of his life when he was growing up, but he would wait for everything to warm up a little more. It didn’t help that it was still snowing a little, the flakes gently falling into the water and being swallowed in the rush. Yeah, he would wait until the summer before braving that mess for sure.

The Valle wolf had been about to sink down into a play bow, propose a little wrestling session to see who could get who into the river - playfully of course, he would never really shove Vanadis in - when they were interrupted. The greeting echoed across the small clearing, bouncing against the charred trees in their vicinity and caused his ears to perk. Turning towards the voice his yellow eyes squinted in an attempt to see who had spoken, but in the dark couldn’t make them out. Glancing back towards Vanadis with a shrug he called back, ”Hello?” He almost laughed, the situation was a little strange.

Lets make it happen

Viorel had an easy way of speaking, as if he weren't shuffling his brain for words in an attempt to hide himself from the world. He was, in her eyes, open, and inviting, and very much not like many of the wolves she'd known in her lifetime. It was a suprisingly welcome change, and she appreciated his company. "Darn. I guess I'll just have to be extra sneaky when I carry out my nefarious deeds at night, then." A chuckle slipped out from between her lips as she considered what 'nefarious' deeds might entail. They'd probably have to be synonymous with her floozy duties, or else she wouldn't have the time.

Her pale brow quirked at the offer, as a playful smile full of intent passed over Vanadis' maw. "Gentleman first?" She might have had a thought or two about pushing him in, but it never came to fruition, as an unfamiliar, "Hello?" fell into the air. Her head cocked to the side, and she shot Viorel a questioning glance, before she too searched for the source.

The lilted greeting was returned, and Levi let himself pick up the pace, just a teeny bit, to get to the now-warned strangers. His flank brushed against one of the dark black trees as he bounded onward, the bark braking off and showering both the pristine snow and his fur with charcoal. He'd yet to notice that he was more or less covered with the sooty material in sporadic streaks where he had touched the trees as he traveled upward through the mixture of new growth and wreckage, unaware that their odd color did not mean they were simply a different species. Thus when he finally slipped into view, he likely looked a touch messy.

"Hi," he greeted again, with an almost-sheepish smile. It had been a while since he'd come across another wolf that wasn't on their own like him, and it just then occurred to him that he might be intruding. He didn't like the idea of anyone's first impression of him being 'rude as heck,' so he braced himself to be told to leave sooner than later.

"I'm Levi. What um, what're ya up to?" a decent way to find out, no?

(This post was last modified: Mar 06, 2021, 10:19 PM by Leviticus.)

Sing it again now

Salt and pepper eyebrows shot up in surprise, ”Nefarious eh?” He might have teased her a little more, quizzed her on what exactly she was getting up to late at night when they were interrupted. Still, he put the idea away in the back of his brain for later when they walked home. He certainly wanted to get to know her better, and if she was up late at night causing mischief Viorel wanted a paw in on it. As long as it wasn’t too harmful of course. Having time for only one more quip before they were intruded upon he winked, ”I’m not that gentle.”

But, there was not much time for flirting it would seem. And he wasn’t even sure that he should be flirting with Vanadis, given the agreement he had made with Clover for the coming spring. But, that had just been out of pack duty, hadn’t it? Thank god there wasn’t time to dwell on that conundrum as the stranger practically tumbled into view.

Viorel couldn’t help it, he really couldn’t. For just a second he stared in shocked silence at the stranger covered in soot and the sheepish smile on his face. And then he started laughing, hard. He didn’t mean to be rude, but it was just such a ridiculous sight to see this cream coloured wolf - Levi he called himself - all smudged up and just appearing in the middle of the night. Tears formed in the corners of the Valles eyes as he struggled to catch his breath before he could manage, ”What are we up to? What are you up to all covered in black gunk?” Then, after sucking a few more breaths he composed himself, a little. "I'm Viorel, and this is Vanadis."

Lets make it happen

Her brow rose and her smile deepened at Viorel's quip, but there wasn't much time to ponder whether he had crossed over the line into flirting, or whether he was just being fun. Perhaps she'd consider it more later, but for the time being her attention would have to remain solely on the matter at hand.

The wolf that appeared was quite.. unexpected. He was young, dirty, disheveled, and from her perspective, completely unabashed by it. There was a strange sort of absurdity to the situation, that perhaps Viorel sensed too, because he began laughing. The cream-hued female had to bite her lip to keep the giggles from bubbling out of her throat, because she didn't want the poor guy to think that they were laughing at him. Really it was just the state of his coat, and the sudden change in mood, and not really anything to do with him at all.

Shooting Viorel a look that said, 'Quit it.', though perhaps it was a little too playful to be taken seriously, she turned her attention back to the stranger. "It's nice to meet you."

Without an idea of what he looked like, Levi was of course caught off guard by the strange man's swift response to his presence. His smile vanished immediately, mossy eyes wide with shock as they blinked back at the others. What... what had he done wrong? His cheeks heated, and his stomach squirmed inside of him.

Maybe this was a mistake.

The guy choked out something of an explanation, and Leviticus' brows furrowed in confusion as he tried to understand. Black gunk? He wasn't covered in... Levi raised a limb and examined it quickly; nothing was out of place that he could manage to see, and so he switched to the right and-

What was that?

Levi studied the smudgy black trail that twisted and blotted its way through his fur, turning a full circle as his nose followed his eyes from shoulder to flank, all the way to a wet clumping of black stuff caught in his tail.

The girl had said something too, but his mind wasn't able to grab hold of it. He was far too confounded with his change of coloration. Turning to fully face the others once more, ears clasped down against his skull, Levi looked from side to side then took a step back. He briefly considered bolting.

"I um," his voice was soft, nearly a whisper; he looked almost afraid as he continued, "I don't... I don't know what that is."

(This post was last modified: Apr 01, 2021, 02:00 AM by Leviticus.)

Sing it again now

Vanadis’ look was maybe meant to say stop, but it still had a playful sense about it so it was hard for Viorel to take it seriously. Still, his laughs quieted down from full guffaws to a few quiet chuckles as he was trying to compose himself. He was almost at the point of having tears form in the corners of his eyes when he finally released a shaky breath and got the laughter under control. If the woman wasn’t here to keep him in check he probably wouldn’t have tried that hard.

A less judgemental wolf may have felt bad when Levi’s smile fell away, but that didn’t run very often in Valle blood. It didn’t phase him, until the cream coloured man started looking wildly around at his own body, and then a few more chuckles slipped out of his jaws. Not nearly as loud or as long as last time, but a couple of them couldn’t be held back.

He had no idea why this Levi man was afraid, it honestly didn’t make any sense. Raising his eyebrows his tone was almost sarcastic, ”Shouldn’t you like...wash it off or something?” If he didn’t know what it was then how did it get on him? Had he been rolling in something? Maybe Vanadis would be nicer than Viorel was being.

Lets make it happen