Whitestone Monadnock That's not a Tree?

Quote:((OOC: First Rp here! It's cool I can use a lot of my experience of that one summer I spent in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut when I was a kid! Lol))

Weary silver paws led Arianna to the farthest point she had ever gone and then beyond. Tired and forsaken, but determined she felt the winds shift as she left her extreme northern home. The tundra still stretched before her, the bright golden grasses were still covered in snow. She wondered if there would be blueberries here in the summer too, just like in her old home. Or if Sixsix (Inuktitut for ground squirrel) could still be found this far south. She certainly won't miss the polar bears.

She had been traveling for several days now. She remembered stories of the Taiga forest marking the southern edge of the tundra and wondered what being surrounded by great pillars (of... what did the Traveler call them?) "trees") would feel like. She had lived all her life under the open sky, with nary a rock or bush to hide her from the great white bears. She at least blended well with the pale gray rocks and snow.

Hold on, what's this? Her crestfallen gaze had found a strangely shaped rock just as she was about to step on it. Flat against the ground, tufts of grass poking around it through the snow. Snow was already melting here? She looked up for the first time in a good while and found herself dwarfed by a massive pillar of rock, all similarly shaped to her first discovery. She had come from the sun side so hadn't noticed any shadow announcing its presence.

"Wha... what?" Arianna stood agape at the massive pillars all stuck together, some had fallen off into a pool of water. Was this the massive Taiga forest? These looked like strange stacked rocks, not what that traveler had described as trees!

Snow still heavily blanketed the rocks and earth but it was also much thinner, and even in some parts of the tundra muddy peat moss poked through the cold blanket.

Curiously she sniffed the stones. Not quite sure what this was, as a stranger in this land she had no story to tell her its name. Perhaps a local could tell her what they called this strange outcropping.

Marigold had snuffled around the snows at the base of the monadnock's opposite and deepest side. She knew Jethro had gotten into it with coyotes, but still she couldn't help the nagging feeling that perhaps he might have fallen here while trying to get back to them all. It had to do with what had happened to Auburn, but she chose not to acknowledge the connection. Instead, she focused on the problem of now - finding their missing leader, regardless of what had become of him.

The wind picked up and she lifted her head, realizing for the first time that another scent had entered the air. Mar froze in place, silver eyes snapping about in an attempt to pick up a visual.

"Hello?" she called out tentatively, a wary edge to her voice.

(This post was last modified: Feb 07, 2024, 04:24 AM by Magg.)

As Arianna looked up at the strange outcropping a voice broke through her thoughts. A ghostly wary greeting from the other side of this thing snapped her focus back down to earth. Her storm colored ears swiveled about trying to discern where the voice had come from.

She swung her nose this way and that trying to catch the stranger's scent and made a few steps around the rocks and down a steep side. The scent got stronger and her footsteps became louder.

"Helloo-oo?" She called back eagerly. Perhaps a new friend waited for her around the corner? Her excitement overcame any trepidation as she rounded the corner and her newfound "friend" came into view.

"Hello! How are you? What's your name?" She asked the other excitedly, her tail swishing back and forth.

The voice which called back to her certainly didn't sound threatening. Mar's ears lifted, but her muscles still remained braced, forever prepared like the wolf they held up. A bubbly face came into view, an arctic with soft, metallic marks scattered across her features. Young, as the others had been. It was likely this would be a one-off interaction then, Marigold couldn't help but assume.

"Hello," she greeted again, voice much more tempered than her unexpected companion's. Redundant, but she needed a second to process the rapid-fire questions. Perhaps it was being asked how she was that was most throwing. Mar wasn't sure she could recall the last time she'd been asked that by a stranger.

"I'm, normal," because 'okay' didn't seem right, "my name is Marigold. Who are you?"

How was she so happy, all alone in the middle of nowhere?

(This post was last modified: Feb 08, 2024, 12:33 AM by Marigold.)

Arianna tilted her fluffy head slightly as the response from the stranger wasn't what she was expecting. What did "Normal" mean as that kind of response? She must have put this stranger off somehow, but at least she wasn't getting her head bitten off. Maybe that was why her parents kept her from the borders and meeting new people.

"Marigold is a nice name." She replied as she turned her rapid attention back to the landmark, not really wanting to answer the whole "who are you" question. All she had was her name now, she didn't know who she was supposed to be anymore.

"What's this? Is this a tree? Are there others?" She still had a puppy like pitch to her attention and voice, a late-bloomer, a fresh loner.

The stranger commented on Mar's name while ignoring the request to share her own, and her silver eyes narrowed subtly in response. Why wouldn't an individual want their moniker known? Couldn't be for any benign reason. Already she found herself wondering what this girl had done and who she was running from. After all, it was difficult to be perpetually guarded without also becoming a little paranoid.

Then she asked if stone was wood and now it was Marigold's head that twisted with bemusement. She was reminded of Tulip, and nearly retorted bitterly, but she was also able to put two and two together and cool logic retained control. This young woman was from deep in the tundra.

"This is a rock, it's just odd is all."

Marigold swung her muzzle south then, toward the evergreen canopy that could barely be seen along the horizon.

"See the dark green? Where the sky meets? Those're your trees."

She left the third question unanswered, feeling a little like she was already giving the girl more than she deserved.