King Elk Forest the worlds to discover

aw, set just across the borders from SC :)

With widened eyes Laurel set her first few steps across the borders of Silver Creek. She'd been spending time with her caretakers mostly but of late, she had grown curious for the world outside of the Creek. It seemed a world full of mystery and magic!

There was only forest all around her, and she wondered if the whole world consisted of forest. Birds chirped, there was a peaceful sort of quiet falling over the world, and — "HELLO?!" screeched the little princess, breaking the silence and sending echoes through the forest. Hopefully she wouldn't have to wait 'til someone came to play with her!

He'd not yet been invited into the ranks of Silver Creek, and he had to admit he was more than a little anxious. Spring had her reasonings, though, he told himself. He was only proving his resolve by staying. It's not as if it had been very long anyway, he just wanted to complain. So he'd kept at his "border patrols", stalking about the edges like a hungry lion or a slavering fan girl. It was during this stalking that he came near to the King Elk Forest, Laika had pointed these out as the pack's hunting ground. He decided he'd take a look there, not to hunt as he hadn't technically been invited to, but just to walk the area.

He partially hoped he'd be able to chase out a lone scavenger and present his bravery and heroism to Spring or Laika. He was trotting through the trees, eyes trained and focused in an almost comical way as he looked for an invisible foe. He was pulled to a halt by a screech that sent birds flapping and silenced the forest. His ears turned and he raised a brow as he headed for the noise. The voice was undeniably young, a pup from somewhere. 

He approached slowly and carefully, not wanting to plow into an angry mother. As he emerged he caight sight of the little one, a tan little floof staring expectantly into the woods as if a playmate would magically appear. He supposed he was that playmate though, as he stepped forward and with a smile offered his own bellow. "HEEEEELLLLLOOOOOOOOO!" He didn't have the benefit of facing the forest, and instead had to extend his own call himself.

He waited to see if he'd startled her, a playful smirk on his face. He wouldn't approach if she seemed frightened, he liked pups alright. The good ones, anyway. The bad ones he kept away from. Which one would this little one be? She smelled of Silver Creek, even from this distance.

There wasn't a moment's doubt in Laurel's mind when she heard someone call back. She turned her head towards the source of the sound and was looking straight at another wolf. She wondered if this wolf was a stranger, a lone wolf, or someone from another pack. That would be pretty exciting, she decided, and so she set off towards him, skirting around a couple of trees and hopping over some debris on the forest floor in order to get to him.

"Hi!" the pup called out when she was close to him. "I'm Laurel. Are you a lone wolf?" She spoke those words with an air of danger, as if he might step right up and snap at her. She looked at him wide-eyed, waiting excitedly for the outcome of the question.

The tan floof turned their head towards him and large eyes blinked at him. The pup began to head over, twisting around the trees and leaping things. HeThe tan floof turned their head towards him and large eyes blinked at him. The pup began to head over, twisting around the trees and leaping things. He chuckled at the energy of youth, the bounding and the eagerness. Her voice, for the scent told him it was a she, soon rang out again in a high pitched cry. "Hello Laurel." He replied, chuckling at her question. There was something about the way that she said the words that made him decide against telling her he was interested in her pack. Let her think that she was having a dangerous adventure if she pleased, he was fine with playing the role. 

Her hazel eyes were wide as she looked up at him, interest and excitement clear on every hair of her body. He smirked at her, lifting his head slightly. "Of course I'm a lone wolf, do you smell any packs on me?" He chuckled deeply, in what he imagined would be a villainous way. Of course he meant her no harm, and truly didn't want to send her crying within the borders with a tale of a horrible lone wolf. He'd stop his teasing if she was frightened, he only hoped she didn't start crying. He'd be the one frightened then.

"My name is Heston. Why have you come from the safety of your home, Laurel?" He kept his voice at a deeper pitch, though only slightly so. "Don't you know it's dangerous out here?" 

Laurel stopped not far away from the lone wolf when he admitted to being a lone wolf. She gasped in excitement, eager to finally meet someone from the outside. Laurel stretched out her neck carefully to sniff the air close to him. She wasn't super sure how lone wolves actually smelled, though, as she only knew the scent of her pack and of Spring. She didn't smell that on him, though, so maybe he was a loner? He sounded kind of like a bad wolf, but everything he had said so far was pretty nice, so Laurel didn't really think he was bad at all (and if he was, well, bad guys were cool!).

Heston said it was dangerous and Laurel giggled; having never faced any real danger, she didn't really think it would be that dangerous. "It's not danger's here!" she countered. "Nothing bad's happened yet! But we can do bad things together, if y'want, Heston." She wasn't really sure what kind of stuff yet, but surely there was something or another that could be mauled or destroyed if they were looking for ideas.

Her gasp made him smirk, and he posed for her a moment, chin up and chest puffed out. Her sweet response to his attempt at warning and teasing her all at once made him snort. "Your mother's had trouble out of you since you were born, hasn't she?" He said with a smile, arching a brow as she mentioned doing bad things. What exactly did she think was bad? Certainly being here wouldn't be exactly considered good. She was still fairly young, he didn't know of any packs who liked their young ones to wander. He was here with her though and he'd not leave her unless she headed back within her own territory. 

"Bad things?" He repeated as he slapped his paws into the ground and adopted a playbow. His tail waved behind him, but he made his voice go deep and gravely. "I only do bad things, Laurel. It's the rule of a lone wolf. You have to be baaaad, all the time." He narrowed his eyes at her. "What does a pack wolf know about being bad? I bet you've always been a good girl." It was quite clearly a challenge that he could only hope wouldn't bite him violently in the ass. "Lone wolves like me...we scratch the bark from trees all the time. Break sticks, even dig holes wherever we please. Sometimes....I even chew on the roots of trees, just because I can." He hoped these "bad" things were enough to entice her. 

Should anyone happen upon them he was perfectly fine with explaining why she was gnawing roots or tossing rocks or whatever, but he definitely didn't want her to actually go and hurt herself on something and he be the rightful blame. What he'd said should be bad enough for a pup, right? Roots were bad to chew for the tree and your teeth. Holes were hazardous if not filled...and... breaking sticks made a cool noise...that was good enough, right?

Without realising it, Heston hit her right in the sensitive spot, what with her mother being gone. She decided to turn it round and be tough though and said, "I'm real tough, I don't need a mom anymore." She defiantly looked at him, daring him to deny this. He didn't even know her, so he didn't know how tough she really was.

Heston bowed down, getting more to her level and Laurel mirrored this expression. "I can be bad!" she said when he said a lone wolf had to be bad all the time. "I can be a lone wolf!" As long as Indra came along, she could, anyway! It wouldn't be any fun spreading chaos without her sis by her side.

But when Heston commenced speaking of the bad things he did, Laurel wasn't very impressed. She snorted and said, "That's not bad! Being bad is like... When you pee on someone's face when they're asleep, poop in their den, or kill their childrens and feed them to 'em without them knowing." Laurel was too inexperienced in battle or anything of the sort in the real world to know the impact or meaning of such words, of course — but at least she had a better grip on how to be bad than this guy.

Her words about her mother gave him pause, there was obviously a story there somewhere. He thought that perhaps her mother had forbade her from doing something she wanted to do, perhaps that was why she'd come out here. The little rebel. He couldn't know that she was Saena's child and that she no longer had her mother around anymore. "You're certainly tough." He said, nodding. "I wouldn't write your mother off that quickly, though."

She copied his bow and he smiled, laughing as she told him that she could be bad too, a lone wolf even. "Are you sure?" He asked, appearing skeptical of her claims. Sadly, she saw right through his attempt to show her what bad was, and offered her own take. The last one knit his brows together and he wondered where she'd have heard of something like that. The rest seemed typically puppy pranks.

"Those are all very bad things, you're right." He said, adopting a serious face. "Lone wolves don't always keep dens though, sometimes we don't sleep at all. As for the children, well, we're talking about bad little Laurel, not evil." He smirked at her. "You wouldn't want someone to kill and eat you, would you?" He understood that she was just a pup, that she likely had picked up all this from somewhere else and didn't truly understand.

He tried to think of something they could do to satisfy her. "Lone wolves battle each other too, see my scars?" He gestured to his leg and then turned his muzzle to the side so she could see them. "Would you like to practice battling? I promise I won't eat you if I win, and of course I will win." He lowered himself to the ground fully. "I'll even lay here, so you can reach me better."

As he said that she shouldn't write off her mother, Laurel snorted. Her mom had left, and though Laurel had once just missed her, she was beginning to think that maybe their mother left them on purpose. Why else was she gone? She'd not tell Indra, but after all the stories she was told she was starting to think that maybe they were better off without her. "My mom left," was all she answered in haughty manner, to clarify why she couldn't do anything but 'write off' her mom.

She didn't like the knowledge that lone wolves didn't always keep dens, because Laurel liked the feeling of sleeping beside Indra in their little den a lot. She looked thoughtful at that, but soon was distracted with what else he said. He asked her if she wanted to be eaten, and she rolled her eyes and answered, "Duh, of course not!", clearly missing the gist of what he intended to teach her.

He then said that lone wolves battled each others. His scars looked pretty cool, but Laurel wasn't very skilled in battle. Yet she wasn't about to chicken out, so she said, "Yeah!" and when he lay down on the ground she pounced at him. Little bites weren't aimed to draw blood, because all she knew was playfighting and she had never actually hurt another wolf, only bugs and small game (after it'd been wounded).

Her reply about her mother struck him, but he did not reflect it externally. All he needed was for her to take offense at a frown and then go running off into the wilderness. Or some other unpredictable pup thing. "I see. I left my parents, wanted to explore. I was older, though." The last was a sudden after-thought and he eyed her. He didn't instantly connect her mother leaving to Saena, how could he know how many wolves came and went? "Once my siblings had grown up, we all decided to do different things. My sister stayed, I think." He decided to move away from the serious talk, she'd likely get bored with it anyhow.

He chuckled as she rolled her eyes, impressed by her sassiness. She clearly missed the point, but her attitude was nothing to trifle with. She was self confident. He wondered if she and Amber were related, she had a similar but more developed sassiness. He realized if she was, she would also be related to Spring.

He lay on the ground but was not prepared for her to launch herself so quickly at his face. He uttered an oomph as she scrambled on her, puppy teeth pulling at his hair and ears. He struggled for a moment, realizing he was out of his league. How could he bat her off without hurting her? How gentle should he be? It had been ages since he'd played with a pup, since he was young himself.

Carefully he jerked his head back, nudging her slightly with his nose. "The lone wolves would certainly have trouble with you." He said, reaching for her tail to gently tug it if he could catch it. "I should have stayed standing." He lifted a paw and aimed to try and roll her over onto her back, muzzle still going for her tail as a distraction.

It was a little painful to think that she had no mom, because she had loved her mother. But she'd gone and she'd hurt Indra by doing that, so Laurel was mostly just mad at her mother. "Well, maybe she knew I didn't need her anymore," Laurel retorted and with that, the issue of her mother was closed in her mind.

She was quick to overpower Heston once he was on the ground and she lavished in the sweet victory while her teeth searched for any place at all to show him that she was pretty tough. It seemed to work, and it took him a while of rolling over until he finally managed to push her off with a paw. Laurel rolled on her back and she looked at Heston, tongue lolling from the side of her mouth.

She opened her mouth to speak but heard a call from the Creek's territory. "Oh! It's Spring, I gotta go!" She figured Spring might be worried, so may as well humour her. Laurel quickly scrambled to her feet and started towards the Creek territories, not even looking back once to her new cool lone wolf friend.

His ears flicked backwards at her words about her mother but he wasn't going to press at it. As they rolled and played he could tell she enjoyed the victory, enjoyed surprising him with her power. He pushed her away and checked to be sure he hadn't hurt her, watching her rolling with her tongue lolling as she panted. He smiled at her and shook his head.

"Well done. You fight a hard fight. I'll have to prepare more for the next time." It seemed she was going to respond when a howl when up from inside the pack. She quickly scrambled to her feet, remarking that it was likely Spring. He hoped the alpha wasn't terribly worried about the pup, he felt he'd done his part of keeping her out of trouble at least. She dashed away, headed for the call and he smiled at her retreating back. He did not call after her, just merely made sure she headed back into her own territory.

Once she had disappeared from his view, he left some markings on the ground to indicate he'd been here, and to indicate to other that Silver Creek was close, and watching.