Horizon Ridge wash the spider out

The fog that rolled off of the water had permeated parts of the forest, and now lingered between the trees. It was amorphous; chilled like one of the clouds above that hurried to block out the sun. The slick-legged girl breathed it in through her teeth, and grit them tight when the chill reached the root.

A scowl draped across her pointed features. Salt was upon the air, and like some sort of demon, she rejected it; coiling herself against the trees and sinking low, to creep away. Bayou had found this new home and been granted access - but she had never seen the ocean before. The strangeness of these foreign scents and flavours would continue to repulse her; she was far too cowardly to experience something so new, so soon.

With a low hiss at the rolling mists Bayou retreated, sliding along through the forest and pressing herself against the soil, as if to physically remove herself from the fog's indeterminate path.

Thistle Cloud had not been here long, only a few days, but she found herself searching out the companionship of another member. Someone she could speak to, perhaps who was as new as she or mayhap one who had been there longer. If she were to look deeper, one would know that she was indeed wary of meeting her packmates, having been raised with just her family for the first almost two years of her life.

She did not venture towards the ocean as she was apt to do more often than not, rather she pitter pattered towards the forest that hugged her new home. A place she felt very comfortable, being that her mother and father had raised her in a forest home. As she walked she became accustomed to the darkness that shrouded the area and the cold dank fog that seemed to sink it's mire into her very bones, though this was a given being near the sea so it did not bother her.

As she walked she froze for a moment as she saw another slink and shrink throughout the fog and the darkness. It made her nervous, so she stood poised ears erect watching and waiting to see if it was indeed another wolf and if they were friend or foe.

Intent was there, always, to find a filled pit of food and pilfer it; but the spider had to be quick. She had to be careful, even now. The dip-and-sniff of her long face could cause suspicion to arise and she was not built for confrontation.

And her affiliation with these wolves had just begun. To be thrown out in the heart of winter was not what she wanted; so Bayou had to play nice. Her behaviour was of tantamount importance.

So when the sounds of an approach reached her, the spider skittered to a halt. Her long legs braced against the earth, bowed at the elbow, and Bayou folded eagerly against the soil in earnest. There was no way for her to know where the stranger came from; only that they were suddenly nearby.

The spider did what she could to appear small, pious, and curled her tail across her belly. It was in this pose that she waited for the stranger to make themselves known - in this fog, the newly acquired soul would not be seeking them out.

As she watched the other just disappeared and she shook her head side to side to make sure she was not just missing the other one. She sighed and looked back towards the way she had come and then looked forward again, wondering should she go back or should she go forward. She picked the latter realizing that if it was someone from another pack, it was her sworn duty to do her best to keep them away. With wary steps and eyes and ears forward she walked towards where she had last seen the shadow of another.

As she came closer she almost stepped on another wolf and quickly jumped back with a slight bark. "Goodness Gracious! You scared me why are you laying there like that, it is not safe!" As she stood breathing heavy at having been frightened she took a moment to look at the other and as she did a pity rose in her so deeply it made her ache. She knew the signs of poppy abuse all to well having seen it first hand in a former traveler. her mother had always warned her that what could heal you could also harm you terribly, and it was obvious that this little waif before her was harmed.

"I'm sorry I spoke sharply to you, I am Thistle Cloud. You smell like Horizon Ridge so I greet you kindly being that we are of the same pack. She smiled then at the other wolf and waited.

The physical connection of a limb against her back made her rise up. Abrupt, and hissing with a yellow-toothed sneer, Bayou arched her body like a feline who had been stepped on. She whipped her head about and gnashed her fangs, her lips lifted and breath sucking back the fog.

"Goodness Gracious!" The stranger squealed, and Bayou pulled away from her. Hearing words, but finding no information within them that was worth remembering, thus it went in one ear and out another. She buckled low again and slid away from the stranger. Pushing with her narrow paws and slipping back amongst the fog that she so heartily disliked.

From the girl's vantage point, Bayou was a smudge of shadow surrounded by the salty fog of winter. Her snout barely permeated the thick soup that rolled around the two of them, and upon it was a toothy grin.

"Yes, well, we are the same." But not the same, not at all, non! "I am in no need, so be gone with you." She all but hissed in the stranger's direction, and then pulled herself away with a low growl.

Winter was here and there was much to do, if Bayou was going to survive it.

Thistle Cloud's eyes went wide, and she backed up but she returned the snarl albeit a little softer so as to make the point she did not wish to fight with the other but she would if she needed too. She did not like to be snarled at or teeth gnashed at. It put her in a bad mood and she did nothing to this other one to deserve such treatment.

Thistle Cloud watched the other slide away like a creature of the fog. A lowly insect that did not deserve to lie abed. She closed her black lips over the snarl and stared in horrifying fascination as the other slunk into the fog and all she could see was a nose. Her pity rose forth to cover the revulsion she felt at the other's ones vacant gaze. What possible happened to this young one to make her so, so very strange.

"Well that is certainly rude. You know it does not take much to be mannerly after all. You could have at least let me know your name, but fine if you so wish I will leave, but you must ask my nicely not demand that I do so. Thistle Cloud chuffed under her breath in displeasure at being spoken to so rudely, when she had been nothing but polite.

Mouse-over for translation!

The spider did not expect such a rebuke, and for a moment her fangs were hidden; the lips sliding black and wet across the teeth. Her tail lashed behind her. Stirring the fog but doing little else.

Who was this stranger? That they didn't understand a simple plea - perhaps the most polite that Bayou could manage at this point, with her tongue eager to spit venom - that they refused and relented in her view.

A moment later she was laughing. It started as a tiny hiss of a noise; air through teeth, and then an off-kilter giggle that dissipated through the fog, becoming one with it. Bayou sank back against her ragged haunch and watched the girl. Her face barely outlined by the creeping and encroaching weather, so that only her sickly yellow eyes remained. A cheshire smile curled upon her pointed face.

"Who asks for such ajouman from me? A girl, a little girl!" A new peal of giggles rolled from her now, rasping and tired, quick to form a bout of coughing that briefly hid her smile. When the spider was composed enough to speak again, the look of glee had slipped from her; she was dejected, and far sharper, coiled against the ground and ready to spring at the fool who refused to leave.

"Ba ou madichon pou timoun, I do not have time for please and thank-you." There was a warning there for the stranger, hidden behind foreign words that the shadow knew would go unnoticed. Perhaps that was what she would do - summon something to wreak havoc amongst these insufferable creatures.

Thistle Cloud's eyes were beginning to become accustomed to the fog and she could make out the shapes and such of the other wolf. She saw her pack mate lashing her tail, but she refused to back an inch. After all she had not been the one to be rude.

Thistle was taken aback as the other began to laugh. And she knew right then that this was a very disturbed individual and it made her pelt itchy with distaste. Poppy could do that though, it could make one veritably crazy and kill you slowly while allowing the voices to permeate your mind and take over your soul, it was a sad sickening way to go and this puppy as she was a puppy it was obvious was going to go that way.

A language she did not know rolled off the tongue of the sickly wolf and for a moment she felt bad that she had spoken rudely thinking that perhaps the other just could not understand her, until she called her a little girl. At that comment Thistle Clouds ire was up and she snapped back "I am not a little girl I am older than you obviously both physically and dare I say mentally. I only asked for manners befit all living creatures. It is not take a lot to say please and thank you.

Again a language unknown to Thistle came off of the other's lips and it made her a little antsy. She was certain there was an insult or something of that nature hidden therein the words, but as she could not understand them she could not truly no or give reproach if it was needed. Thistle Cloud harumphed quietly and said softly "Everyone has time for please and thank you. If you can sit here and argue with me about saying please and thank you then you could have of course already said them and be done with such a spout of disagreeable temperament.

The girl continued to harass her and Bayou, feeling herself growing more restless, was on her feet and pacing.

She cast a wrathful eye upon the stranger as she exited the thickest of the fog. Her body slid up close to her tanned figure, very close. Her hot breath spilled forth, causing the fog to curl as if to creep between her gaping teeth.

"Non, you have no authority over me, girl." Bayou chirped as her body rounded the stranger's corners; this was a clear lie, of course. A falsity. Bayou had only recently joined - and she wasn't even a year old, a fact that this fool pointed out - so she wasn't even eligible for a proper rank.

But rank meant little to the wraith.

"I do not ask for company."

It would be her final word. Teeth were bared again, this time accompanied by a squealing growl that rolled in pitch and consistency. A terrible sound, in all honesty. Perhaps it would be enough to ward the girl away. Bayou could not puff up the way other wolves could - she lacked the girth, and her fur was slick with all kinds of grime. She was a sleek beast.

A spider eager to skitter back to the forest.

Thistle Cloud's eyes narrowed and she backed up from the little wraith of a wolf and growled back showing her teeth just as savagely. "All you had to do was ask me nicely to leave you be instead you have insulted, and reprimanded and you are no more than a few months old I am not stupid. It is also impolite to growl and snarl when someone is just telling you something. But since you so anxiously want away from me, Go I will not stop you.

Thistle cloud backed up further and stood her ground watching the other wolf waiting for her to depart. Thistle was not going to turn her back on the insufferable little beast that stood before her with grime and filth. She was a nice wolf most of the time, however she also knew very well how to take care of herself and she would if she needed too. Her eyes were slits as she watched and listened her body tense and hard wired ready for action if the occasion called for it, though she hoped that it wouldn't and the other would just continue to skitter on her way like a low bellied snake.

A sneer crossed upon her lips, but Bayou said nothing as the girl-child retorted.

There was no reason to waste her breath, as an opportunity to leave was presented to her. The girl bared her teeth; hissing through them in a manner that caused her face to crunch and grow ugly. Bayou only smiled.

The smile was somewhat hostile though; a warning.

Without further conversation from her, the spider slipped off to one side - and then doubled back, to slink amongst the fog until such time as the clouds swallowed her up.

[exit bayou! sorry for taking so long.]

NO problem real life tends to make us all busy :)

Thistle Cloud watched the other's face become deformed in twisted evil and felt bile rise up in her throat. What kind of wolf did she share a home with? It made her incredibly uncomfortable and she made a mental note to never trust this one.

She watched in distaste as the other scuttled into the shadows like some sort of insect or beast and she sighed after the younger wolf was no longer in view or hearing. She would have to ask Pied about that one. With one last glance she turned and headed towards her own den, the lust for adventure and exploration completely darkened out by the nights events.