<Walk Through Woods> (Soul)

[Stan]

Morning found Achan far from other wolves, in a place where the trees grew tall and the fallen leaves crackled beneath his paws. A chill drizzle fell like a premonition of winter snows, and although it could not penetrate his thick coat, it left him with miserable cold nose and paw pads, and a mood glum as the iron-grey sky. The wolf sniffed through the dying scent of autumn at the spoor of other animals – a squirrel, the faint trace of turkeys. Tempting, impossible deer. He shook his head; the constant, thinning hunger of his belly would have to be quelled with smaller things. He could not hunt large prey without a pack.

A pack— a melancholy, distracting concept, so that he walked nose-first into a sticker bush and spent several minutes pawing them from his muzzle. The summer’s long lonesome days proved to him as well as the coming winter wind would how much a wolf needed a pack – how much he needed one. Time furthermore convinced him of how little he felt the need to be an alpha. He would have done best staying with his natal pack, raising his siblings. Achan snorted, shook his head, and returned his nose to the ground and earthly matters. Chewing thoughts would not fill his stomach with meat.

He chanced upon a deer path through the woods, and as the rain fell thicker he followed it; his coat picked up fewer burrs, that way. It led him to the crest of a hill, a place where the land tilted sharply down to a small creek. Trees leaned drunkenly down towards it from the slope, and rocks protruded like broken bones from the earth's flank. Down where the shallow waters made their laughing way, nothing stirred. Bad luck, thought Achan, disappointed to find no prey at this prime spot. Whines would bring no succor at his age, though, so he began to pick his way down for a drink of his own, his footsteps careful on dirt swiftly turning to mud.

[Soul]

ooc: sorry it took a while, but gah you made me have to think about how I rp lol so I dont look... ok I'll say it, like a noob [like I am]

Kristi sighed-- another boring bloody day to come, she thought as she wandered the forest aimlessly, sniffing the area every few minutes to make sure she wasnt lost, heading towards the creek, hoping she might be able to catch something to eat as well as a drink. There hadn't been many wolves here lately, nor many other predators, so she would have to catch and kill it herself, unless fortune favored her.

She glanced towards the sky, grey and growing darker with the minute, likely a storm on its way, she noted as turned her gaze back down to the trees ahead, casually skirting around them. A gust of wind blew towards Kristi from the creek, carrying the scent of a lone wolf.

A lone wolf? Kristi thought as she picked up her pace, rain battering her hard as she ran against it, clumsily avoiding trees and the occasional rock as it blinded her. The creek came into sight within minutes through cracks in the leaves, twigs snapping under her paws as she barged through the leaves, blinded by the sudden light..

ooc: not my best..

[Stan]

((No problem, and there's no reason to be embarrassed about being a beginner -- we all start somewhere, right? Thanks for the compliment, too. ))

The sound of something moving heavily through the woods stilled Achan’s progress down the muddy bank, made him squint against the rain across to the woods on the other side of the creek. He imagined it could be a prey animal, large but injured, which he could track until its wounds killed it and provided him a feast. The thought cheered him; that which emerged from the woods did not – this young female wolf, breath short from running, who stood at the top of the decline. She must have scented him; why else the hurry? He sniffed again for boundary-lines, tail tucked between his haunches, worried at the thought of a fight. He was neither large nor battle-hardened, after all.

The rain and his cold nose alone could not explain his inability to smell a pack, and he let his posture return to neutrality. He peered at the other loner with considerable ambivalence – then shook himself, water leaping skyward off his fur. What a fool, to mope about his lonesomeness and then to look upon company as if upon a rival! He smiled, although unsure if she could see the expression in the increasing duskiness of the storm, and called over the sound of the rain, “Hello! I hope I’m not intruding.”

He considered waiting for a reply; but she looked healthy, if thin, and not aggressive. Besides which, rainwater sluiced the ground out from underneath his paws, left his stance at best chancy, and made him wish to get onto firmer ground. Creeks could sometimes wash out unexpectedly; but he figured it safe, so soon after the start of the storm, to cross over. Thus, he began again to pick his way down, and made the last few feet in a slide, nearly on his haunches, ears back, but controlled. The water of the creek felt colder but cleaner than mud through his toes; isolation could not so easily be swept aside, so he wagged his tail and looked up at the female, ears perked.

Because he understood how quickly a loner could become wary of other wolves, no matter how forlorn about their life of wandering, he asked, “Do you mind company?”

[Soul]

[lol, your welcome I guess, yeah this is a lazy post but I'm just too exausted...]

Kristi wagged her tail alittle, slightly wary of the new wolf. She had been away from wolves for some time now, not many come here so close to winter, so it took her a while to find her voice. After an awkward minute or two, she smiled lightly and spoke to him, though she was unsure if he would here her or not, it had been a while since she last opened her mouth, excluding to eat, drink or howl. "Why shouldn't I? In fact I'd rather have someone to spend time with, it gets rather boring here..."

[Stan]

Achan’s ears flicked back at the lukewarm nature of the female’s response, unsure if she actually wanted an answer -- her rusty, soft voice made her tone hard to parse. She continued to speak, however, and it seemed her first statement had been merely stranger-to-stranger wariness. Now, it almost sounded as if she expected more than he was willing to offer. Achan cleared his throat and said, “Well, I’m just moving through, but I thought perhaps you know where prey congregates around here? Together, we might bring down something larger.” He wagged his tail at her, and, toes benumbed by the water but invitation acquired, stepped out of the stream and began to make his way up her side of the muddy slope.

He saw there would be problems from the first step he put to the mud: unlike the other side, here there were few large rocks and fewer plants to anchor the soil and his step. He paused, tail and head down; under normal circumstances, he would not have continued with such a risky climb. There stood the loner, though, and him with his proposition of company and a hunt to warm their cold and lonesome worlds. Achan called up, “I’m going to have to take this at a run, I think,” so as not to startle her, took a deep breath, and surged upward. Muscles in his haunches strained as he pushed with his hind legs against the slippery mud; his fore-paws dug and found no decent purchase, despite their long claws.

He made it halfway up the decline before it fell.

The mud came down on his face before he could cry warning; it clogged his nostrils and gritted in his eyes and made a slick, thick coat between him and the world. Gagging on the stuff, he scrabbled at nothing, thrown onto his side by the weight of the mud; in a mad rush moment, he found himself laid out in the chill wetness of the stream. There, at last, he found his feet, rose with his breath heaving from panic rather than pain. He checked himself -- unharmed, in what amounted to a frightening but small collapse. From his place in the ruined creek bed, he squinted against the rain to look at the bare, dampening slough which had once appeared to be a solid slope.

He wondered where, in all the drama he had caused, the poor loner had ended up -- he doubted she could have dodged the sudden fall of mud, after all.

[Soul]

Barely seconds passed before a second figure popped up out of the mud, a mere meter or two along the river, fur caked with mud, slick from the water running by. Shaking her apex to send the earth and water flying, the female laughed akwardly. After a few more seconds she smiled and said to him. "I forgot to ask for your name.. But I think that should wait until we are out of this damn river!"

Kristi started to wander down the river, going with the currant, only looking back to see if he was planning on following. When he didn't, she said to him, slightly irritated at him not showing much trust in her. Rolling her eyes in moderate annoyance, she spotted a chunky-looking slope a few meters down the rushing river. "I think there are more rocks down he-" She spoke as she started climbing, unable to finish as the ground under her gave way, sending the femme back into the running water. Forcing herself up, she finished her sentence. "here..."

It was obvious that, despite the land belonging to her, Kristi would be practically hopeless as far as getting their drenched selves out of the rushing currants of the river. Turning back towards the male, she slowly walked back towards him, fur dripping as the water that drenched it fell, cascading on the rushing, transparant surface.

Opening her maw again, she questioned; "So, shall we bother trying to get back onto my side of the river, or head back to yours and find a way across further along?"

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added in the last two paragraphs, slightly edited the others. I know this is very old, but do you think it would be a possibility to continue and maybe conclude?