Firefly Ravine Aue, aue

If Prialux knew she was too young to wander away from the packland, there was no indication. The truth was, she didn't know. The distinct absence of a dedicated parent in her life manifested in a wild spirit that didn't know right from wrong, or safe from unsafe, and though by nature she was a little bit skittish, Prialux had no idea that she was where she shouldn't be as she skipped along the edge of the willows, then deviated away along a sharp-edged ravine. There was a place to cross up ahead, but even Prialux knew where to draw the line, and stopped well short of it.

Wide-eyed, she stared down at the thick tangle of dark branches and rocks along the far wall of the ravine, and her thin tail whipped back and forth excitedly as she gave a loud whoop of, "Woaaaaah!"

normally, murgash preferred the sea-side affair: yet, even he had eaten his fill of rotted fish, and the glut of their carcasses showed no indication of abating any time soon. he pined for turf, not surf, and had made his way inland. he had trailed (pathetically and half-heartedly) what appeared to be an oft-used deer trail; yet poor hunter that he was, he lost the scent close to a swallowing ravine.

he stopped short of the crevasse, peering down somewhat curiously. it'd be fun to push someone down there, or maybe one of doe's puppies -- as he thought these things he heard a wild whoop that caused him to yank his head up sharply.

he peered up and down the ravine's edge until he spotted a small thing on the opposite side. he hoped it was food, but he was used to disappointment, and as he trotted closer he saw it was a puppy. his eyesight was so poor he could only make out her figure, but he offered a loud whoop in return: "whoo-ooo--huuu-OOOP!"

Woo-hooo-hooo-hooo-oop, went the ravine, and Prialux's eyes bugged out at the fact that it was talking back to her. How exciting! The little explorer's body practically vibrated with her excitement and she whooped again, immediately pricking her ears to listen for a response. It took her quite some time to notice the ratty wolf on the other side of the ravine. When she did—and she could barely pick out anything remarkable about him, and didn't know how ugly he was—she beamed sunnily.

There was a way to reach him, and the unabashed three month old, with her lack of inhibition or basic "that might be a rapist" sensibilities, instantly began picking her way toward it. Maybe he knew the Marauders and would come home with her! Bolstered by that thought, Prialux began to head out across the narrow path connecting the two sides of the ravine, and called a bright and happy, "Hi!" out to Murgash as she did.

while murgash had expected the child to rejoin his call with a chorus of her own, he had not expected her to approach him. he watched somewhat bemused as she picked her way along the crevasse, and he watched her with his torn ears askance as she nimbly flounced across the narrow bridge and brightily hailed him.

it was the first time he could recall any wolf being overjoyed to see him; he'd take it.

"hoi!" he called gruffily, despite the fact she was right underneath him and there was no need for an outdoor voice. "wot ye doin'?"

She picked her way across the ravine and ended up somewhere below Murgash's nose. Up close, he really wasn't much to look at with his strange patchy fur, the boils strewn across the barren plains of his shoulders, and his jaw half-cocked in preparation for catching rain as it fell, but if Prialux was put off by him, it didn't show in her grinning face. The fact was, she was rather blind to what he looked like on the outside. Prialux craved any and all attention, and gave plenty of hers in return, and there was no room in her for noticing the ugliness of the world or otherwise turning away from it.

Murgash wasn't so different from Stark or Tambourine or anyone else in her eyes.

He was different, though, that much she could tell from the moment he spoke. His breath washed over her in a sulfurous wave that she nearly made a face at—he wasn't ugly to her eyes but the smell was certainly unpleasant even to her, the most naive of children—but she forgot soon enough, and giggled in spite of it. "You talk funny!" she announced with her tail beating back and forth behind her. "I's spoooring," she shared with a twinkle in her eye, and then, because Prialux was quite polite, she asked, "whashoo doin?"

now that he had something that was genuinely interested in him, something that shone on him like a light, murgash didn't want to let it go. he was amazed at how unphased she was by him; how she did not seem to mind his lack of fur, his boorishness -- how she just seemed interested in him.

he didn't even mind that she said he talked funny; it was true, he did -- though in his perspective, it was all of these teekon wolves that spoke strangely. his tail started to wag, slow at first until it gained its own volition and swayed wildly like a tree branch in a storm. "oi'm esploring too. sey, wot's on de soide ye came from?"

Whap, whap, whap, went Prialux's tail as she beamed up at the stranger. She was tickled pink by his accent. Never had she heard such a brogue within the confines of Marauder's Keep, and the littlest DeMonte was rather taken with it. She waggled her ears at the rounded way he said "I" and cracked a grin when he uttered a somehow more abrupt version of "what". Prialux couldn't get enough, and her face even fell when he finished, in the moment suspended between spoken word and understanding.

"Murder Kee'!" she replied instantly. She'd not learned of the creed of her home and didn't know whether they were supposed to talk about it or not, which surely meant she must talk about it! "You wanna see?" Maybe he would stay in the Keep with her and Amara and Banner and Tambourine! She didn't know any of the other pack wolves, so she was most excited for the chance at another friend.

that was it; she was adorable: she liked him, she liked how he talked, she didn't mind how stinky he was, and also, she'd make a good present for big bossy stripeyman. murgash was just about to try to lead her from the ravine when she asked him if he'd like to see. murder kee? uh.. he wasn't sure he wanted to see anything named "murder kee". especially since usually, he was thing other things were trying to murder.

"uhh.." he shifted, looking over her and back where she had come. were there other wolves looking for her? "lissen kid - oi'm pinched for toime. are there otha wolfs with ye?"

Prialux didn't really know what pinched for toime meant, but she knew the answer to Murgash's second question, or thought she did. "I dunno!" she replied brightly, thinking herself very clever and very helpful, indeed. That was the truth, though. If there were other wolves looking for her, Prialux was wholly unaware of them. "Kavoo and Ero don' like me an' mama's not 'round and Banna wasn' wif me, neither," she reeled off the wolves she knew, screwed up her face, and then remembered the one that was missing.

"I dinnit see Tamoo, neither," she finished, shooting Murgash a toothy smile, though it was tinged with a hint of sadness. She liked Tamoo a lot and would've liked to hang out with him more, but he wasn't around. She didn't know he was out exploring and meeting other wolves, much like she was, albeit more safely.

as depressing as it was to hear someone didn't like a puppy, murgash, as the internet so eloquently put it back in 2013, aint got no time for that. he swung his head this way and that, scoping the vicinity for any would-be pupnabbing blockers.

the coast looked relatively clear and he turned back to his new friend with a bright beam that rivaled her own sunny disposition. "oi've got tamoo with me, follow ye old friend murgy and i'll show ye tamoo and the beach. ye know wot the beach is, kid?"

Prialux mimicked Murgash as he glanced around him, but she didn't know what they were looking for, exactly. That he was keeping a lookout for adults that might be looking for her was lost on her. No one was looking for Prialux, because she was just so sneaky that no one knew where she was! At least, she told herself that. The truth was that Prialux's trail was very, very easy to follow, and someone would come after her soon enough.

"How?" she asked gleefully when Murgash told her he had Tambourine. She'd seen the greyscale teen earlier in the day, but her logic wasn't so well developed, and the idea that Murgash had taken him somewhere in the few hours between was very plausible. "Wassa beesh?" she asked, voice awash in pure wonder, as she quite willingly stepped forward, proving she knew nothing of stranger danger and Murgash had very little work to do to whisk her away from home.