Hideaway Strath she knows when she cries for peace, she means someone else's blood

She wakes with stiff limbs and tired eyes and she is sure, if she tried, she could sleep for days. At least, that’s what her body wants. Her mind, however, sends a thousand different thoughts and a thousand different scenarios through her mind despite how hard she tries to block them. It does not make sense to think about what could have happened, what she could have done, but she can’t stop them from rolling in one after the other. She could share her anxieties with another but the only one she might even tell isn’t around anymore; he’s probably dead if he faced the same wolves she faced the day before.
 
Mallaidh thick swallows the lump in her throat as she uncurls herself and moves slowly and carefully through until she finds the nearest water source. Her saliva-thickened matted fur on the back of her neck is an ugly reminder of what happened, what could have happened, and she wants to shed everything. Astik hadn’t gotten much from her the night before and as long as she doesn’t have any other signs seen by anyone else, no one has to know. Carefully, she lowers her aching body into the small stream. The cool water is nice against her joints. She finds a spot a few feet down the stream a little deeper where she can safely roll to her back and shed everything from the day before.

It was a nice warm day and the sun was shinning, a great day to blow off some stream Seri thought. She raced around the territory here and there. Rolling around and sprinting on her own. She didn't have any friends within the territory, other then maybe her Aunt, but an Aunt isn't a friend. At least on her aunt. Seri appriciated her care, but she wasn't quite as fun. After racing around for some time Seri went off looking for some water to cool off in. Upon finding the river that flowed through the territory she sprinted for it. 

Comming to a sudden hault when she realized that there was another wolf in the water. This wolf looked somewhat similar in age to Seri maybe smaller. Panting Seri asked to be polite "Do you mind if I join you?"

The water soaks through her thickening fur and she rolls this way and that, dipping her nose every so often and feeling the water make it all the way to her skin. With water in her ears and nose, she doesn’t notice the approach of the other young wolf until the words gargle through her ears. Mallaidh snaps her attention back, feeling water slosh off her face and mane, before straightening up as if she’d been caught red handed doing something she shouldn’t doing. The girl glances to her left, right, and then back at the pale colored girl with a confused look.
 
“I was just kinda… bathing, I guess,” she tells her, uncertain of the words spoken a moment and using the awkwardly growing interaction to explain her actions.

Seri seemed to startled this other young pup. She rose from the water rather quickly and responded with an answer that didn't quite answer Seri's question. But her answer didn't mean no to Seri either. So Seri's took a few steps into the water to join this other pup to bath as it were. She introduced herself by saying "My name is Seri. Whats your name."

The other decides to get into the water, though she keeps her distance. Mallaidh’s ears fall back against her head but the girl introduces herself and returns the question, leaving the Fearghal a little uncertain. “Mallaidh,” she says carefully, licking the water from her lips that begins to drip from her fur. She then braces her feet and shakes out her fur, sending the thickening mane this way and that and realizing she feels a little bit better now that she’s drenched the scents away from her coat.

The other pup introduced her self as Mallaidh before shaking her pelt and sending water dropplets through the air. A few hit Seri, but she didn't mind and rather enjoyed the feeling of the cooling water. She giggled a little bit with a smile and proceeded to take a drink of water. After that she licked the remaining water from around her lips and let out a releaving sigh.

"Nice to meet you." she proceeded to say. Even though Seri had just been running around and expending her energy she still though it would be fun to play with this other pup, similar in age to her. Still in somewhat shallow water she bowed down into a playful possition. Her chest just barely in the water. "Do you want to play a game?" she asked with anticipation.

She doesn’t say anything at first, watching from her distance as the other girl drops down into a playful bow. Her whole body jerks, uncertain what to do, before she’s able to relax and realize there’s no ill-intent. Still, Mallaidh does not bow in return but she does not attempt to flee. She does use her paling eyes to scan the area for anyone else before realizing they are still alone. “What kind of game?” she decides to ask, looking with a mix of curiosity and skepticism, as if Seri has something hidden behind her.

Something seemed of to Seri about Mallaidh. Unlike most younger wolves she didn't seem to be energized or excited about anything. When Seri bowed down to her she seemed more scared then the expected emotion of excited or playful. This whole encounter we strange to Seri, partly because she had expected different reactions, but also because she questioned if she expectations she had were valid. Being alone for most of the time and with adults the other part of the time she couldn't say for sure if she was like other younger wolves. Seeing Mallaidh's responces she decided to simmer down to match her alittle more closely.

She changed her stance from a playful bow to a relaxed sit. Even though Seri had calmed down it didn't change the fact that deep down she had so much pent up energy. "Whatever game you would like. It could even be a work or thinking game if you're tired and don't want to move around too much. Maybe a simple questions game..." she suggested thinking of what the two might find in common with this compromise.

Seri starts to feel uncertain and defensive, causing Mallaidh’s ears to fall back on her head. Her own defensiveness flares as the other girl moves and settles to sit in the water instead. She licks her lips apprehensively and shuffles her feet until she’s out of the water, hesitating to answer when she doesn’t know what she wants to do. Her brain won’t let go of the attack the day before, or running into her parents when she got home and she can only hope that don’t figure out what happened. They worry enough about her missing brother that she doesn’t feel it worth them worrying unnecessarily over her.
 
“I don’t wanna talk,” she murmurs, mostly to herself. She doesn’t feel the urge to run or play like she normally would, especially meeting another so close in age. Her spirit has long since been fleeting, leaving her empty and confused. The world is a monstrous place, she realizes, and no amount of games will replace the innocence. “We can play hide and seek,” she says, this time with a little more oomph behind it. “You hide.”

At first it seemed that Seri wouldn't make any head way with Mallaidh when she turned down Seri suggestion of a word game. Seri thought that she might give up on trying to make this into a friendly outing, until Mallaidh suggested they play hide and seek. It was almost a shock to Seri and her tail began to wag slowly as she stood and got out of the water knowing that she couldn't verywell hide under the water.

With Seri's coat and her surroundings it didn't seem as though she would be able to camaflauge. She would have a better change of not being found if she tried to be completely out of sight either under a bush or behind a tree. "Ok... Um... count back from 20." She said waiting for Mallaidh to close her eyes and allow Seri the time she needed to hind under a bush a few yards into the tree line that stood a ways back from the water.

The girl agrees to the game and Mallaidh stares at her for a moment, remaining quiet as she’s instructed on how to start. After a long moment, she huffs quietly to herself and turns to her left, stepping out of the water. Out of curtsey, she turns around completely and closes her eyes to give the other puppy a chance to run off while she begins to count out loud.

Mallaidh turned around and began to count and Seri sprinted off into the tree line not too far behind the two. She sniffed around quickly aware of the short amount of time she had to conceal herself from the dark pup vision. She didn't want to hide behind something, it would be to easy to just pass what she was behind and then see her to the side. No she would need to hide under or in something. Running up to a few bushes she decided against it seeing as how their green coloration would clash against her bright white fur. 

Then almost at the last second she found a small hole and scampered into it. She had found a fox den, that was luckily for the pup abandon.

Sorry Mallaidh isn't very nice right now. They should meet again later!

Mallaidh moves a few feet away and stares at the ground for a long moment. Numbers roll over in her head and she’s well past twenty before she realizes it. Her brows knit together as she looks over her shoulder. The other girl is gone and she doesn’t see a speck of white in the distance but Mallaidh turns around and takes a few paces forward before she realizes she never wanted to play at all. Her ears droop back against her head and she looks off in another direction, disappearing the complete opposite way of Seri until she’s long gone from the game.