Cricket Creek Bog funkytown

@Jhala

The brute had taken a few lax days after his spar with Hydra, moving on until he passed another set of mountains. He is certain they are the ones the girl mentioned to him but he kept going well into the hinterlands before he decided the life is no longer meant for him. He misses the wolves he called family and the pack he'd been in since birth -- nothing he is ever going to get back -- and he can only try to mimic the things he's lost. When he finds a river leading further south, away from the coast, he follows it until he comes to a marsh that surprises him.

Most of the water is clear and he does not hesitate a drink when he needs it. He straightens his shoulders when he picks his wet muzzle out and shakes out his paws to free them from mud. The leathery portion of his nose twitches for scents nearby but the weight in his chest keeps him moving forward.

frustrated, jhala took to the wilds. she'd return, no doubt, but she needed a quick breather. she let @Reek know she was headed out and would return soon, but didn't bother to let anyone else know. from a distance, she spotted the gray male. he looked a bit like her, if she'd been printed with black and white ink only. though she couldn't quite see his eyes from this far away, the alphess could only hope they were friendly-- she was thirsty.

she approached with her eyes narrowed, though held no clear dominant or submissive posture. her tail was held still and waved slowly, ears pricked up in caution. she didn't speak-- not right now-- but offered a light bob of her head as she moved to take a drink. she cares little for the mud around her feet, but is aware of it's hinderance if she needed to take off.

He picks up her scent before he sees her and when she does come into view, he's more than impressed. Her size mimics his in weighs and he can't help but can out his chest upon her approach. She doesn't get close enough to have a conversation but she notes his presence and continues as if he isn't there at all. Coq watches her for several silent seconds, licking at his muzzle to bide the time until she's had her fill of water. Even his tail idly swishes back and forth to further present his lack of aggression.

The old male stands back and waits, patiently content to let her lead their encounter, should there be one at all.

he remained where he was, and after she'd lapped up enough water to quench most of her thirst, she raised her head and licked her maw, eyeing him curiously. she brought up her front paws a few times, testing their suction to the mud, before taking a few steps forward, noting his passive body language. she thought of feyre and embry and the last encounter they had, her nose twitching in vague irritation. they could use another set of paws, and this man looked more than capable of handling himself in a battle. she wondered if it was worth it, weighing her options for a few heartbeats, before ultimately deciding he looked friendly enough to try.

"jhala," she barked, dipping her head again. it was an invitation-- albeit small-- and she hoped he would accept it.

She isn’t terribly threatened by his presence as she takes her thirst and then resettles her gaze upon him. One brow quirks to see what may come of this and she decides quickly to introduce herself. The brute takes a few steps forward in the mud, trying to find harder patches of ground to stand on, to return the gesture. “Coq,” he tells her and looks down at his feet, frowning at the mud caking between his toes. “I don’t normally do this but what do you say we get outta here?” he says with a smirk of his muzzle, picking one soaked paw to watch a clump of mud fall back to the ground.

coq seemed like an easy enough name to remember-- even for jhala, who had trouble remembering the names of strangers. she nodded, and then cocked her head as he began to stare at his feet. her own eyes flitted gently to her feet again, since he seemed so bothered by it. she didn't truly mind the grime, but that certainly didn't apply to anything. it wasn't until he suggested that they 'get outta there'  that jhala let loose a loud snort.

"like I--" she shook her head, "where do you wanna go, dude?" she did a few more quick-steps-- the sound of the mud actually becoming kind of satisfying to her-- and eyed him curiously. she kind of hoped this wasn't leaning a certain way, but she didn't want to make assumptions-- maybe he had something actually super fun to do.

A crooked smile spears across his muzzle as she snorts and then stammers over her words. He hadn’t meant to be flirtational with his words but he’d gotten a genuine response that makes their encounter a little easier. He shakes out his fur before he tries to bound forward again, but this time away from Jhala and the muddy ground. “I just want solid ground,” he says over his shoulder and playfully bounces away until he’s mostly through the wet ground and somewhere where he can set his paws and not collect more mud.

damn. nothing super fun. regardless, she wouldn't care where they conversed, so she nodded and followed him to a more solid ground, shaking her paws a bit to get loose pieces of dried mud free. "so what're you doin' here?" she asked with a slight tilt of her head, "like are you from around here?" she figured that was a good place to start, if anything she could learn a bit more about the packs nearby-- maybe one they could destroy form an alliance with. the only pack she was aware of was silver creek, and they avoided that pack at all costs.

He takes several steps on the hard ground. It’s only slightly damp but he soon finds grass he can shake his paws against the rid himself free of the trap. When he turns around to see her doing the same, he realizes his smile is still plastered on his features. Coq wrinkles his nose a little as she asks a few questions. “Just passing through,” he comments. He’s traveled quite the ways from his starting point and he knows when he gets as far as he’s going, he’ll have no need to go back. “I’m from further north, several weeks travel. Our home wasn’t safe anymore,” he adds with a shrug.

"i feel that," jhala breathed, thinking unpleasantly back on the grotto and the plague that was kesheph and her religion. several weeks travel was a bit further than the grotto though, and she began to wave her tail in general thought. "what happened?" she asked, hoping not to invade but unable to help her curiosity. she wondered if there was a war, or an illness, or-- ooo-- a love affair gone wrong? the possibilities were endless. she eventually settled (not very gracefully), and as her butt plopped onto the ground she eyed coq to hear his answer-- not that he would even bother to give her a full answer.

Jhala makes herself comfortable on the ground, settling her rump and inquiring more about his story. The stories of lone wolves have been grounding points for them for a long time—whether they ran into someone out in the world or were on the borders, asking for a home. It isn’t a sad story or one that’s all that exciting but there’s some point of it that’s enough that others have to do. He’d been one, longer ago, but if he can get by based on his natural instincts, he’ll be fine in the long run. “Humans, mostly. The last few years they are a more frequent annoyance,” he explains though he only masks the true problem. More and more have been killed by the monsters, diminishing their numbers considerably over generations.

her ears perk, notable interest written on her face. "humans?" she repeats with the end turned up, like a question. "i've never actually seen one-- what'd they do?" she then asks, imagining-- once again-- more answers. she'd heard mostly negative stories, something about a word called gun and something about machines-- though she'd never truly encountered one before. she'd take his word on it regardless.

"we don't have many here... if any, you're really the first wolf i've ever met to have encountered them firsthand," she adds, feeling the need to expand if he was still new to the wilds. her ears cup forward a bit, nose twitching in curiosity. this was new information to her, and though she wasn't all that book-smart, jhala did find joy in learning about new things. today, humans.

His lack of surprise gets bigger and his smile widens, shrugging his shoulders a little. “My family claimed  a great length of river generations ago but over the years, the humans had more and more of a presence and we’ve lost a number. There were only four of us when we departed ways but in our good days we had more than twenty through the whole place,” he explains. The four of them had been together for a while with no hope of growth and prosperity. Some things he’d rather keep to himself.
 
“That’s good. The last thing I want is anymore human,” he adds then though his eyes widen a little. “And I feel like I’m kind of at the end of my travels. It’s been a while.”

though coq didn't exactly mention what the humans did, jhala didn't pry. a pack of twenty though, now that caught her attention. she tried to imagine it-- it'd be a while since she was in a pack that large. the ridge and the grotto and now the glade were all relatively small packs. "that's awesome-- i haven't seen that many wolves in one place in a while..." she trailed off, tail tapping against the ground, eyeing him. his next comment, however, was what really grabbed her, and jhala nodded.

"are you going to settle in the area?" she asked, keeping her hope under wraps. her ears flick again, pricking forward.

Coq frowns as she continues along though it seems there are some spaces missing between his information. He opens her mouth to speak but nothing comes out and he quickly snaps it shut, considering the question and realizing he’ll have to be more direction. The mud on his ankles have begun to harden and stick to his fur and he wrinkles his nose, brushing off the sudden distraction in a way to bid a little time. “Maybe, I don’t really know what’s around here though.”

jhala nodded, shrugging. she didn't have much to tell him... truthfully she wasn't even positive where they were right now. she knew that silver creek was somewhere south of the glade, but otherwise the glade was all she knew about. she smiles a bit as he begins to shake the mud from his legs, assuming his frown had something to do with that rather than her blatantly skipping over part of her story. she did that sometimes-- but sometimes she just focused on whatever was most interesting and forgot the rest, it wasn't on purpose.

"i might know of a place... are you any good at fightin'?" she asked with a quirked brow, flopped ear moving backwards as she awaited a response.