Blacktail Deer Plateau I See Clearly Now

@Malachi ?

Pearl decided she wanted to get to a high up spot to think. She wasn't doing much of that recently, and another encounter with a male would probably end disastrously. Probably not the best idea to see Casmir or his brother anytime soon. It would do some good to talk with someone her own age to talk with, or even older. She was considering talking to Blue. The mountain part of the territory loomed in front of her, filling her with the desire to climb to the top and beat the mountain. Pearl took her first step on the solid stone, the cold seeping through the tough pads of her paw willing her to start with leaps and bounds. Up and up she went, countless multiple rocks tumbling down the slope, certainly causing a mess at the base. A ledge jutted out a few feet above and to her left, beckoning her to stop there. She obliged, steadily climbing to reach it. 

From the ledge, she could see much of the roof of the forest, and the openness that lay above. The view was cool, but she thought she could go higher and see the full horizon. For now, though, she would settle for this while she rested and licked off the blood from a scratch on her shoulder, stupidly given by a rock. Pearl slowly sunk down and laid down, her paws and head over the edge, watching and thinking.

Thanks for starting (:

Life was slow on the Plateau, but Malachi did not stop to revel in the momentary peace. The shifting of leaves from green to orange marked the start of their decay: as soon as they fell, the cold times would hit. There remained work to be done, bellies to fill, territory to secure. Though the heavy summer storms seemed to have passed, he kept a constant watch on the patch of mountain he and Dante had marked as unsafe. The new marker spoke a warning, and Malachi added his own scent to the invisible obstruction to strengthen the signal again.

As he placed distance between himself and the swath of charred trees, a clattering sounded on the mountainside caused his fur to stand on end. Malachi spun to face the rock and lunged forward with a frantic glance skyward. A steady stream of stones tumbled down the mountain face and collected at the rocky base, and his breath caught in his throat at the sight of a pale form disappearing atop one of the adjacent ledges. For a heartbeat his voice refused to come as the memory Scarlett stole his thoughts, but he shook himself free and sent a sharp howl in place of the silence.

"Hey! Get down from there!" His fur still spiked his neck, and his muscles grew rigid in his approach. She wasn't in the zone of imminent danger, but by the rocks she'd sent tumbling down the mountainside, this part was no safer than the area they'd closed off to the pack.

A short howl rudely interrupted her thinking almost immediately after she had just gotten comfortable. Pearl wiggled her body forward a little more so she could see the wolf on the ground that she assumed was Malachi. He wanted her to get down from the ledge, probably because the mini-mountain of rocks she had caused at the bottom made it look unsafe. Problem was, she was liking it there and didn't want to get down, and that there probably wasn't a good way down. Pearl called back down to the multi-colored wolf, "Um, I kind of like it up here, I know it's a little dangerous, but it's a great place to think. Care to come up? I'm Pearl, by the way!" 

Inviting him up was certainly an odd gesture when he seemed so concerned. She proceeded to sit up and lean over the edge to get a better look at the male. He ended up being Malachi, as she thought, she recognized him from the hunt. At least this was someone to talk to, if she was able to get down from her perch without injuring herself.

Malachi craned his neck to catch sight of her, a task made easy when she moved to peer over the ledge. But the gesture only caused his stomach to lurch and he jerked forward, half expecting her to fall. The image of her crashing to the rocky floor flooded his mind, but when he blinked, she remained fixed at a dizzying height. Her refusal to listen etched a frown across his face.

A little dangerous. Sure, for now she'd only made a small pile of rocks, but what would she say when a larger one cracked and tore away half the mountainside? Would that be a little dangerous? "I'm fine here, thanks. Why don't you come down instead?" That made more sense than inviting him up. His muscles stiffened by the second as she seemed to inch closer to where her paws dangled over the drop. Malachi flashed his tongue across his lips, and didn't try to flatten his bristling fur. "I can name a hundred places that are just as good to think in as up there."

Pearl gave a small humph. "Ok, why don't you name them while I come down." She called out, turning back to the mountain side. Cautiously, the pale girl stepped off her ledge, and finding a good path down, jumped to it. With graceful leaps she carefully and methodically made her way down. Although being insanely careful, very close to the bottom she managed to place her front right paw on a lone pebble, causing her leg to go under her and fall on her face. Heart racing, she picked herself up again quickly, feeling a rush of blood and warmth flood her cheeks. With a quick glance at Malachi, she sprang from the spot and landed near him. Ah, the dirt. So much more welcoming. Trotting over to him, she wouldn't meet his eyes. "Sorry, going up is a lot easier then coming down. I won't go on the mountain again, sorry." She imagined she looked quite a mess, with the cut on her shoulder starting to well up again and being covered in dust. First impressions, yay. Way to go, Pearl.

He didn't humour her with locations; though he knew of a few, his word on that had mainly been a way to get her down. With his gaze steady on her descent, Malachi couldn't spare a thought to anything but her safety, anyways. She at least seemed to know her limits, or so he judged by how she moved from ledge to ledge with caution and ease.

But his breath caught when a loose rock snared her path, and before he could think Malachi covered the ground that separated him from the mountain's base. Pearl landed just as he pulled up, and he stopped for her to take the last few steps toward him. "Going up usually is." Trouble filled his eyes, and he searched her. He appraised the ooze of crimson on her shoulder with a flashing glance before he passed to her dirtied face. The clear look of shame in her lowered gaze made his stomach twist.

"No, no. It's alright." Guilt stabbed his chest, and his words betrayed him. "It's just, with the damage of the fire and all the rain, I don't want to take any chances." Now that she was safe on the ground, and the mountain hadn't crumbled away, maybe he had overreacted. Malachi felt an equal burn through his own two cheeks at the thought, and he cast his own gaze to the ground and scuffed the dirt with his forepaw.

She figured he was just protective of the pack, but she didn't know his age and therefore acted like a subordinate. But his concern and explanation almost betrayed superiority. The mention of a fire was new though. That did explain the blackened part of the forest she saw when exploring the territory. Her ears perked up and she looked back at him, who was also clearly feeling guilty. "There was a fire? I don't think I was here for that," she said softly. Judging by the damage she saw, they must have lost at least one or two wolves. There wasn't much she could do right now for Malachi but assure him. Pearl gave him a smile. "I'm ok, really." She offered, even though she could probably do with a swim and a visit to Blue.

He redirected his attention to Pearl and squinted, this time searching for any recognition. The problem with nightmares was their tendency to remain sharp even after a good amount of time had passed. His memory of the fire remained vivid, and it didn't take him long before he shook his head in agreement with her. "No, I don't remember you being there, and you'd remember if you were."

Malachi didn't quite believe Pearl's reassurance, but he forced a smile to pass over his face when she bore one for him. The curve of his maw never reached his eyes, and remained a pleasantry to keep up with social norm. "Maybe we could walk somewhere else. I owe you a thinking place, after all." And it would be good to talk with someone again, and amend for his hasty first impression. But then, he had found her sitting in solitude on a mountainside. Who was he to force his presence on her? "If you don't mind the company, that is."

"No, I wasn't, then." she said with a shrug. He gave smile in return, but it didn't reach his eyes. She felt a pull to cheer him up after the whole fiasco she had caused. She nodded gratefully at the chance to talk to someone her own age. "No, no, I'd be glad to walk with you." she said softly. She beckoned him with her head and tail and started walking. "I'm not sure I caught your name," the pale girl said. Maybe flirting would lighten the mood, but then again, it would probably make things really awkward. He probably would only want to talk, and she would aim to keep the conversation from turning out like the one with Casmir. Perhaps he would be more reasonable. His piercing blue eyes seemed to show signs of his past, a troubled one.

For a moment he wondered if she was simply being kind in allowing him to share her company. She didn't appear to hide any ills against him, but he'd been wrong before... Malachi stopped his thoughts before they could run their circuit again and shook himself of the hesitance. Pearl was a packmate brought in by Dante. He trusted the sterling man, and if Dante had agreed to give Pearl a place with them, then he would trust her, too.

If her words held any implications, they flew right over Malachi's head. His sensitivity ended at the hurting of others; if any women had flirted with him in the past, he remained blind to their advances. Pearl's question did bring a flash of sheepishness to his face, which he quickly covered with a nervous laugh. "That's probably 'cause I didn't give it. I'm Malachi." Self-conciousn awareness made him shift the conversation to her. "So where're you from then, Pearl?" He could guess, of course. The North. But he hoped she'd give him something deeper and more solid to work with, even if he would answer vaguely if she reversed the question on him.

His laugh made her smile. Malachi, that's what she thought his name was. She turned her head to him, ready to surprise him with the answer. "I'm from the plains in the West, actually," she said. Her pale fur was something her family had gotten somewhere up her dad's line. It was rare, certainly, but not as rare as some might think. Plus, her coloring did have darker tones on her legs and tail, and her green eyes were almost normal. She liked seeing the reactions of the wolves here when they discovered she wasn't from the north. But she couldn't place a guess on where Malachi was from. "You?" she questioned. He was certainly such an odd mix of color and build for her to even begin. 

She didn't hold his first impression to him -- she rather liked that he was so protective over others in danger. Malachi seemed like a great guy once she started to get him talking. Maybe she could take advantage of her interest in being a counselor by starting with him. Malachi must've had something or many things in his past for him to act the way he did. Everyone has reasons. But she wasn't going to force it out of him by any means.

"The West?" He felt a flush of heat, and Malachi was glad he'd kept himself from guessing. Still, he struggled to suppress his surprise, and after a moment he shook his head in a gesture to compose himself. "That's a place I wouldn't've guessed." Malachi had no bearing but the Plateau, and his expeditions so far had taken him no further than the southern tip of the flatlands. The ocean had stretched to the west of Duskfire, but what lay west of here he couldn't guess. He hadn't tried in fear of seeing Caiaphas again.

The wraith disturbed his memory, and remained a ghost there, though he tried to fix his attention on Pearl. "I'm from the North, but not as far as some." In his upheaval, he'd chosen at random to strike south. That was already over a year ago, but his family in the Vale remained strong in his memory. A hollowness twisted his chest, and he redirected the conversation to Pearl again. "Do you find there are many differences between the plains and here?"

She got the expected reaction, though something seemed to tug at Malachi's mind, grabbing at something that was triggered by the west. She worriedly looked at him, but continued the conversation normally as he was. "There are quite a few, actually. The main thing is the game, but also all the wide open space covered in only grasses. It's like Hoshor Plains, but it's flat for miles and miles on end. What about the north? Is that much different?" she gently inquired of him. The air about him seemed troubled, and he would most likely turn the question away. Pearl wanted to help him as best she could after causing more trouble. She would try.

Malachi squinted against the western horizon, where the flatland broke to titanous peaks. In recent dawns he had woken to a veil of fog draped over the distant land, so thick the mountains could have marched away in the night. Of course he had known their presence behind the shroud, and the afternoon sun always broke their veil. But maybe those mornings were what the plains were like, only without the expectation of anything on the horizon to appear from the abyss. Only endless grass and sky, and that was where his imagination frustrated to awe.

"That must've been quite something," he murmured, half to himself, before he averted his attention back to Pearl. Her return did not catch him off-guard, and he offered his response as veiled as the mountains behind the morning fog. "Not much. I lived in a valley surrounded by mountains. This is about the flattest land I've lived on." He'd lived here long enough to accept the landscape as home in the broadest sense, but even still he felt oddly exposed without the mountains on every side. "But you, coming from the plains. What made you choose to settle in a place so different?"

Malachi seemed to lapse out of the conversation a lot, which made Pearl worry. Was he like this normally? She wanted to ask the man shrouded in mystery what he was hiding. Instead, she answered his question in like form. "I came across it when traveling after my pack in the plains was no more." she said vaguely. The quietness that surrounded him enveloped her as well, until they were walking in silence through the vibrant forest. Even though the events of earlier had her rattled, Pearl was at peace just walking with Malachi. She appreciated the silence and enjoyed the surroundings.

Her response hardly satisfied, yet Malachi did not press, for her answer troubled him. Unless he asked what had become of her pack, he could only assume on what he knew: that Pearl had belonged to a pack, that that pack was no more, and that she had come to theirs alone. It was enough to make him hesitate in pressing further, and he settled on a hum of understanding before he let the conversation fall to silence.

Yet the silence was a much welcome change, and came more naturally to him. Pearl's presence refreshed him after his bout out solitude, and he walked in step with her. The only noise came from the occasional chatter of birds overhead, or the quiet murmur of the wind, yet that was okay with him.

fade soon?

Reasons for her answer were valid, but somewhat selfish. If he wasn't going to un-shroud himself from his vagueness, she was going to add some of her own to her personality. At least in her chatting with him. Give Malachi at least one reason other than getting her off a mountain side to talk to her.

And yet, walking in silence was much easier. It may feel different on his end, but to her it was a peaceful understanding. Noises didn't interrupt - they rather blended into the melody of the forest, their near silent footfalls joining in.

Fading sounds good (: Feel free to do so whenever! And thanks for the thread (and your patience between my replies <3)

He could have continued in silence for the rest of their walk, if not for the nagging promise he had left to fulfill. After all, he hadn't yet found Pearl a better place to think. In truth, Malachi would have chosen the same spot as she. Up a mountainside, perhaps not the cleft so near the burnt down woods, but one like it. Even with the fear of rockslides, and of the creatures that could be lurking in the deeper crags. The mountains were to be feared, but Malachi couldn't stay away from them.

Yet that made him feel like a hypocrite, so his thoughts remained stuck for suggestions, and he could only keep her walking for so long before he had to say something. Silence frustrated every attempt to organize some sage suggestion, and in the end he was forced to accept his defeat. With a small sigh he turned to her with his ears splayed sideways in embarrassment. "So, confession. I don't actually know a better place for you to think. I might have only said that to get you down from that ledge." And as if that gave her excuse to return, he hurriedly added, "but, you know, there are still plenty of places out there. We'll find something."

Pearl watched Malachi struggling for something to say out of the corner of her eye, which brought a faint smile to her lips. She heard the sigh and turned at the same time, taking note of his ears and grinning at his answer. She wasn't about to return to that particular part of the mountainside, but would probably seek out a nice spot on the edge of the plateau later. 

"Oh, I'm sure," she said with a laugh. "I've heard that the edge of the Plateau has quite a sight, but then again this makes me sound like I have a death wish," she suggested, turning back to him with a goofy smile. Not sure how long the walk would go, she rather accepted it in the moment and enjoyed Malachi's company.