Firestone Hot Springs go down to the gallows at midnight

When they had settled in for another night along the winding stretch of river, he slept briefly. While the days had been warm, it was hard not to acknowledge that the nights stayed cool, as though even now the fringes of the cooler seasons still tickled and pulled at his coat. It wasn't the chill that woke him so much as it were the pull to be mobile; restlessness had stirred in him since the coast for no particular reason he could pin down, and the miles they wore onto their feet did little to satisfy it.

Certain @Nyx was in the throes of some sort rest, he had slipped away during the cloudless night to sort his thoughts. The river was easiest to cross at a broad, shallow point, and he did so with little effort expended. A quick shake of his coat later and he moved along the gravel and mud laden bank before climbing up and out... to be greeted by the smell of sulphur to turn his stomach briefly. It too was a threshold easily met; the appeal of hot springs were a welcoming sight.

Long legs traced their stony edges where they erupted from earth, the pools having revealed themselves mere minutes later from beyond the river. Moonlight cast itself across the all but still pools; a chilly gust of wind prompted him to slip in at last to warmer, comforting waters. He drew himself lazily up as he circled back to the stony ledge and sighed, resting his chin on the damp warmth that emanated from below. It would have been easy to let his guard down here but he refrained, ears working this way and that to draw in the sounds of night.

tags are for visibility rather than inclusion.

Every once in a while, Maia went out. And sometimes, she didn't return the night of.  Tonight was one of those nights, as she had picked a random direction and taken it, unaware that it was actually near the same trajectory taken in her approach of the mountain.

That time, though, she'd missed the hot springs.  It was the wierd smell that first made her pause, and she wrinkled her nose at the unpleasantness. It almost made her turn around.... but curiosity kept her going.

Thank goodness, because this place was cool.  Not literally of course, the opposite there, but in a sense of unlike anything she'd ever seen, wow.  She skirted one of the boundary pools, staring at the water that bubbled forth.  She fought the temptation for about a millisecond before reaching out a paw to touch it, then drawing it back with a high yelp as the water scalded her.  Holy shiznit that was hot!

Long minutes passed in relative silence and slowly, his guard began to drop. This did not occur without some difficulty; he was still very much out in the open, very much left exposed and perhaps at a disadvantage for anything with a nefarious purpose. But when his guard dropped, he was swiftly lulled towards a blissful state that left him hazy.

At least until a yelp sounded off nearby.

Eyes suddenly open and his body tense, Dirge worked to find where it had come from. It was not hard to discern that the cry had not been Nyx, which left the matter of who and the bewilderment of why at that late hour. His gaze happened upon her just a couple of pools over in the next moment, moonlight illuminating her withdraw.

"Hey," he chuffed, "that one's hot."

Amusement puffed at his lips as he regarded her, not surprising that his gaze had returned to a state of being half-lidded. But recognition didn't follow; they had met before a time and a world ago by any account he kept, and his focus then had been to hit the open road quickly. But that road had brought him back around... and how the things had changed.

thanks for picking this up! ♡

<3!!

She brought her scalded pads towards her and began to groom it, wincing at the tender feeling that immediately set in.  Luckily it was a minor burn, but she took a solid two steps away from the water now.  Who knew water could hurt like that?!

Her ears tilted when she heard a voice state the fact as though it were obvious, and she frowned, mildly embarrassed.  "I knew that."  Wait, no, that seemed worse.  "Well, at least, now I do."  She added somewhat churlishly, staring at him with annoyance as soon as she'd located him.

"You look familiar.". He should; she had only met a few strangers so far.  But her teenage memory was fleeing and their meeting had been brief.

She knew that? His brows raised as his amusement forced its way out in a snort at the heels of her correction. That was enough for him to decide to hoist himself out of a less warmer pool, lest he wanted to continue being lulled. The air was unsurprisingly chiller now than it had been before his dip, and Dirge shook the excess water from his coat as she spoke again.

"Do I now? That's interesting," because he didn't recognize her. But fairly, there were only a handful of wolves he thought to remember, if only for whatever tangible connections he had to them. At least out of the water, he could assess her better, but even under his gaze, he did not recall. She was neither Nyx nor Hydra or any other sibling he claimed; apparently she hadn't left an impression.

He almost made that comment, but his tongue stayed fast behind his teeth. He followed up with a question instead.

"What's your name?"

It was pretty obvious he didn't recognize her back, but she let it slide, because obviously she wasn't gonna be bothered by something as dumb as that.  Obviously.  

Ok, it made sense she didn't remember him since he was kinda a dillwad but she was awesome, he should know exactly when they met.

"Maia," She said, trying to keep her tone aloof and cool but really only managing to sound irritated.  Her paw burning wasn't much helping that whole situation either.  "Who're you, some kinda crazy hot pond expert?"

Maia. Maia, Maia, Maia; he thought that name over for a moment but nothing jumped to life from memory. Perhaps she only thought they had met, he decided, feeling that the most likely of any scenario he had found his way into as of late. And on the off chance they had crossed paths, well, maybe he couldn't have been expected to remember everyone. Somehow he may have thought it better not to recall every passing face he had seen.

"Well not particularly," he hummed to her question, then eyeing the pool she had touched. "One would think the steam enough of a giveaway to warn others off, but some lessons are best learned from mistakes I suppose. Your paw all right?" He hoped it was at least, it wasn't like Dirge was some sort of magic medicine man capable of healing such things. But perhaps Nyx would know; all he knew was to tell the difference between edible and inedible.

"Well.." she puffed up for a minute, then shook her head.  "You know what, no.  I'm not gonna even let you pretend I shoulda known or make me feel dumb, because that is not normal.  Who sees mist on water and thinks 'oh, wait, this might be stupid hot water, better not mess with it'!  Not normal!" She reiterated, pointing to the hot spring emphatically with her injured paw.  They didn't have any of those where she'd grown up, and she might feel dumb for not realizing, but she wasn't going to let on to him.

"It's fine, see?" She set it down..... oh no, immediate regret.  It burned like nothing she'd ever experienced... it was only a surface burn, but the pain was awful.  Way worse than a cut or a bruise.  She managed to hold an almost straight face for a minute or two, but then caved.  "Ughhh, nope, ow!  How long does it hurt like this?"  The part of her that was peeved at cracking in front of him was smaller than the part that felt he might know a thing or two about it, and she'd take any tips at making this hurt less.

She was trying to save face, but all it did was further his amusement with the situation. Perhaps pride really went before a fall among other things, but as she spouted and defended that her senses betrayed her his patience was rewarded. Yet it was difficult to categorize it as a reward; injuries were really not means to draw win and lose with.

To look at her paw better, he closed in the distance between them, carefully minding the scalding pool as he skirted past it. The warmth of it was hard to ignore, almost inviting with the chill that had set upon him. It may have intrigued him more had he been alone, but his focus remained steady on her ill-favored limb. Dirge admittedly did not know whether it seemed bad or good, though the former seemed apt; his ears fanned back thoughtfully as he appraised.

"For a while I'm sure," he decided, "perhaps we ought find a cooler pool to take the sting out of it. Worth a shot at any rate," and assuming she would tolerate his company to seek one out. His gaze shifted to meet hers questioningly—did it seem a fair proposal?

"Yeah."  She conceded somewhat peevishly still, not quite sure how she felt about this guy and his condecending tone and apparent mastery of all things random hot water.  The fact that he was an attractive guy and she had just pretty much made an idiot of herself in front of him didn't help matters.  

Its cool Maia, he isn't even worth it, she thought silently, trying to soothe her damaged ego even as she limped along after his lead.  No way she was puttin any weight on the burned pad.  "Do you live here then? Seeing as you know everything about it and all."  She figured he was a loner, which was both kinda cool and kinda not in her mind.  Maybe no one else could stand him laughin at them either, she thought contrarily.

"I wouldn't say I know everything about it," he commented, "but no, I don't live here. A hot spring seems a terrible place to stay long term." Notwithstanding relaxation for those capable of handling it, it seemed to have plenty of pitfalls. Not minding the notion he doubted prey abundant there.

He kept an easy pace, giving wide berth to the next set pools they passed. Wouldn't have done either of them any good if his newfound companion decided to topple into them, though it seemed unlikely she would. Instead, he thought as he drew his gaze to the darkened horizon, perhaps a change of venue would be best.

"Think you could make it to the river? We'd find cooler waters there for certain." Unless it was too far out of her way, of course. No telling if she belonged to any one place in particular, but he hadn't bothered to investigate that path yet if he would at all.

Maia tended to think of strangers she met in terms of self-given nicknames, and if Tegan was rude boy, this dude was high-and-mighty-and-better-than-everyone dude.  And a total hottie, but that was totally besides the point.

Still, curiosity was starting to wear the edge off of her, though her burning paw was a constant reminder of her own mistakes so far.  "Yeah? Where do you live then?" She asked outright, for the first time losing the defensive uptick in her voice.

Then whoop, it was back.  "Um, yeah.  I could make it all the way home if I wanted," she answered, once again slightly churlish.  But it was waning with the eager prospect of dipping her poor paw in cold water, a thought that sounded more amazing as time went on.

She flipped between tones with the experience of someone keen on keeping up an appearance, or so he thought. Gods forbid she let on that she had something to bother her, though admittedly he imagined that list was a short one. But like a duck to water, the change of tones rolled off like water, and he persisted in their easterly trek towards the river. Crassly, he considered telling her to see to it herself, but the ever burdened gentleman—if he could have been considered such—did not rest well with leaving her company.

"Wherever my head rests for a spell is home enough for me," he commented, not daring to discover how she may take that. For as social as they were, those who purposely set themselves apart were strange. But they existed, those particular, peculiar dispersals. The she-wolf seemed smart enough to draw her own conclusions from that.

"But I presume your home mustn't be far off from here, yes? Unless you too are the sort who doesn't like to trouble themselves with staying confined to one particular place." She was out ranging in the evening, alone, though she had seemed better kept than the likes of himself and Nyx.

Well la tee dah wasn't he the coolest ever.  Well.  It was pretty cool that he could live on his own like that, but Maia kept her admiration to herself.

"It isnt far no." She responded, then wondered if she shouldn't keep her mouth shut on specifically where.  She didn't know this wolf, and if he was a loner, that meant he was kinda weird right? She felt a little prickle of indignation at his imagined view of pack life.  While his tone probably hadn't held any superiority, she wasn't above assuming.  "My sister and brother live there too.  It's an awesome pack."  Awesome?  She second guessed the adjective as soon as it left, but it was already said.  Well... it was true at least.

Well, at least she had pride for her home. He briefly entertained the thought of whether or not it was really all that well adjusted, and if it truly were, how nice it must have been. It was the sort of thing that Dirge did not see entirely plausible, if only for the history of how unpleasant it was to have family around. The scornful sort, where malevolence was laid openly, though he knew such opposites existed in the world. It was one of the more unattainable feelings he thought to exist.

It was on that note he had opened his mouth to comment on the pleasantries of her luck when his ears fanned forward at the faintest sound of water. The river was still a ways off, yet a narrow stream headed to disembogue surprised him. The time he had ever spent in the flatlands was minute and it settled in immediately, half as much as his surprise spirited itself away.

"Seems you're in luck in more ways than one," he said finally, picking his pace up towards the water. It cut deeply into the earth, but nothing neither of them could handle slipping in and out of. It would beat the alternative of making the trek to the river in full while trying to nurse a good scalding.

wrapping this!! THANK YOU it was delightful, maybe they will run into one another again!

He obviously didn't know what pack she was talking about, so couldn't much agree with her, but would it hurt him to show some kinda interest? 

At this point, honestly, she was just lookin for reasons to be annoyed.  Until he spoke, and she figured out what he was referring to.

"Finally!"  She went for the water at a rushed limp, ready to submerge and be done with it. She'd probably stick around for a bit before making the walk back, and if Dirge stuck around too she'd make some small talk.  Maybe say thanks.... maybe (she would, grudgingly, as he left.  Her parents raised her, after all).