Twisted Slough twisted streets

For the attention of Arthendal, Fire Court and/or Malkaria wolves (@Malice, @Alder, @Eshamun), though all are welcome! :)

She had gotten herself into a right mess, and Cypher was now working to pull her rear out of the muck and onto some semblance of solid ground. It was a shame that her prior haunt had been claimed in her absence, but prime real estate like that was bound to attract a pack sooner or later. She had skirted around the rivers that were its borders, trudging blindly forward until she realized— too late— that she had arrived in a stinking, ghastly mire. "It's what I get for not payin' attention," she chided herself, wiggling her hips in an attempt to free at least one of her legs. "I'll be sweatin' and pantin' by the time this is over."

With a sick squelching sound, her right hind-leg abruptly came free, and she awkwardly scrambled to place it upon the solid earth with her forelegs. It wasn't the most comfortable of positions, but she needed the break, and so paused to pant and gather more strength to similarly pull the left out of the mud.

The pups were walking now - at least the Chaspen Brood - and that itself left Alder usually to nervous to leave even the tunnels. Duty called, however, and once he found himself out in the open, patroling his borders and weaving through the trees, he found himself very distant. The events that tended to happen on his borders should have warded him off; perhaps they had, but it was not inward he drew.

The King trotted over the borders after the scent of another wolf  on the wind- curiousity pulled him forward, and before he knew it he could hear a female muttering about ahead of him. The multicolored man pulled to an abrupt stop when he saw the dark woman trapped in even darker muck - just as Alder opened his jaws to see if she needed help, she lurched forward onto solid ground... Almost completely. Grinning, the one-eyed man called out to her, tail wagging high.
       
                               "Hey! Uh.... you need help?"

asherah had been inducted into the ranks of the priestesses, and eshamun knew she would do well. the next rite was close at hand; the ekar-aji also knew that the girl carried ar-khalba's children. surely they had been strengthened by the ta mitra; she knew of no miscarriages that had followed ingestion of the special drink.

for now the ruddy woman held a patrol, in silent communion with molech. the voices of a man and a woman caught her interest, and eshamun found herself drawing near unto the sounds, curious. her viridian eyes soon beheld a curious sight, but she did not give herself away, not wishing to speak with the odd pair -- not yet.

She used the weight of her body to add momentum to her sudden lurch forward, her last limb coming free almost in the same instant the male hailed her. "Well, hello there, sweet pea," Cypher greeted him, shaking the mud off each hind leg in turn. He was standing tall, proud, but she had no attachments to him and didn't see the point of posturing one's status in lands unclaimed. She was relaxed as she took him in, noting his size and rugged looks; He's been in a fight or two. Still, this didn't concern her in the least-- he'd no reason to attack her, and she didn't plan on giving him one.

"Know your way around this mess?" she questioned, looking at the slough around them. As to the other female, Cypher didn't notice her by either sight or smell; the scent of peat and muck was overwhelming, here.

As he spoke, the brown woman freed herself - so much for being a hero - and Alder offered a smile; he didn't notice her own body language, and they were too far from his lands for him to care. Her greeting prompted a wag of his tail, and before he said a word she was asking him if he knew his way around. 

                   "The Coast is to the North - I rule Royal Fire Court to the South, in Golden Glade. There are a couple other packs aorund there - anything in particular you're lookin' for?"

The smells of the muck overpowered Eshamun, and his narrowed gaze was focused on the stranger before him - he was ready to take the oppurtunity to try and recruit, to make a friend, to add skills to his family.

neither had noticed her, but the man's stance seemed unncessarily dominant, tail flung high. from where she was, she heard only the depth of his voice. she chose to draw near then, the amiablity of her stance countering his own, and realized she knew the male from an earlier meeting. "i do," she murmured gently through her accent. "hello again," eshamun went on, addressing the man with a quiet curve of her lips before focusing her attention on the woman again.