Cricket Creek Bog And pray for the thunder

ooc: 28th December

In the stillness of the early morning Wraen heard the very distant singing of the water. The sound was faint, but clear and gave her hope, because she recalled that along the shores there were at least two, places, where rivers finished their journey. If this was in any way similar and if she was to reach it, she would have a landmark to follow. By now her inner compass had stopped working and was just as confused as she was, which the right direction was. 

After a little deliberation she decided to take, what appeared to be an easier route, through a clearing that was covered in snow, moss and with small, gnarly and malformed trees. Only half an hour later, when her feet first broke through a thin layer of ice, revealing dark, ice cold water underneath, did she realize that this was in no way a simpler path. Without taking a careful notice of her surroundings she had ended up in the middle of a bog. 

"Oh, my..." Wraen sighed and cast a worried glance around.

hope you don't mind ivy!

Despite meeting Delight and hearing confirmation of her siblings' residence in a nearby pack, Ivy was reluctant to show up at their doorstep.  Huffing loudly, she glared at the cloud of breath in front of her.  She wasn't ready.  Instead, she'd spent her time between Cedar Sweep and the Bog just north of it.  Ivy was still too-thin, but she got by just fine.  A rabbit here and there kept her sated enough to move around and keep her body heat up.  She knew she couldn't survive many more nights and that was a bridge she'd have to cross when she got there.

Generally speaking, she'd kept on the borders of the bog.  Snowfall made it difficult to predict the partially iced-over landscape - she didn't have a huge margin of error to work with when it came to injury or frostbite.  That was a luxury afforded to pack wolves.  Or wolves who had a healthy weight.  Either way, she'd been strolling around the outskirts bog this early morning back down to Cedar Sweep, lost in her own thoughts, when she spotted something in the distance.  Ivy paused, one paw hanging in the air, as she narrowed her pale green eyes.  Hello? she called out, her tone colored with disbelief.  That was definitely a wolf out there, a grayscale coat with similar shades as her own, but she couldn't figure out why said wolf had ventured out there.  Some kind of elaborate plan involving a death wish, she assumed.

ooc: :)

Shit... what am I going to do now? Wraen asked herself, looking around her and spotting many more pools of water that were well and deceivingly hidden under caps of ice, that appeared to be solid, but was not. Where her foot had broken through, the shards of ice were very sharp and had scratched her skin as well. She carefully pulled the hurt paw out and retreated to a mossy mound, that seemed the safest place here. 

Before she had any chance to think about a good plan, how to manoeuvre her way out of the bog, she heard someone calling out to her. Quick look to the left, revealed her a gray she-wolf in the distance. And had she not been so far away, Wraen would have wondered about their similarities in the looks. "Hey!" she returned the call. "Do you live here?" If the other wolf was a native to these lands, perhaps she would be able to help her to find a safe path to the solid grounds.

Ivy took two cautious steps toward the stranger, at least relieved they seemed to be able to speak despite clearly having some kind of mental deficiency.  Who in their right mind walked across the bog in these temperatures.. by choice?  Sure, her skinny ass didn't have much problem navigating icy terrain because she was so damn light right now, but that didn't mean she'd traipse across for the hell of it.

Not exactly, she called in return.  Truthfully, Ivy was a vagrant at the moment.  She figured that carried negative connotations, though, and decided against labeling herself as a hobo.  Are you stuck? she asked loudly, certain she already knew the answer.

"I am stuck," Wraen replied, feeling no shame for the situation she was in and was not above herself to ask for help. Maybe she would get out of this bog with some wet feet, maybe it would mean a swim. Freezing and drowning were the worst case scenarios, but it did not feel to her that this would be the day she would die. Not today...

"And I would appreciate some help or encouragement at least, if I the scope of the trouble I have imagined is greater than it really is," she added, hoping that her plea would not be denied.

Confirmed: she was stuck.  Ivy heaved a sigh.  Dramatic.. but quiet.  Her eyes narrowed as she tried to see if the wolf had taken a clear path to get where she currenlty found herself stranded.  Unfortunately it wsn't easy for her to tell all the way out here.  If a perfect world she'd have taken a straight line and still be pointed in the direction she'd been heading.

The world was rarely so perfect.

The other female proceeded to plead for help or encouragement, neither of which were Ivy's forte.  Help, sure.  But encouragement..?  She gave the female a lovely roll of her eyes - something she likely couldn't see from her current position - and took another step forward.  Do you know which way you came?  Try to find your own pawprints in the snow.  You might be able to safely backtrack that way, she called back.  The yearling really tried to add a positive, upbeat tone to her voice.  Really.  She'd planned on waiting to see which way the other female went before skirting the bog in that direction to eventually meet up.  That was assuming a straight line, though.

"That sounds like a good plan," Wraen agreed, turning around and checking out the path in the snow that led to the small hillock she was standing on now. The problem was that, now that she was aware of the dangers that lied beneath the ice, she observed that along her way there had been plenty of potentially dangerous spots. 

"Hmmm..." she pondered, looking now in the direction, where the other wolf was standing. The distance between them was obviously shorter than the one she had walked earlier. If she was careful enough... "What do you think - if I jumped from one hillock to the other and moved towards you... I would get out of the bog sooner, wouldn't I? And there would be less danger for danger to happen than if the way I walked here."

"Good" was a very generous way to describe her plan.  It just seemed to be the most logical solution off the top of her head.  Deciding it best to not voice that thought, Ivy watched while the other female turned and studied the path she'd taken to her current predicament.  A moment later she realized the other female wasn't too keen on her idea.

She frowned.  Depends on how much risk you're willing to take, she called, trying once again to keep her tone far from the "sarcastic" or "bitchy" realm.  To Ivy, the stranded female knew she was able to get to her current location by taking her previous path, so wouldn't it make the most sense to take that path again if it had already been deemed safe?  Her frown deepend.  Then again, she wasn't around to see what had happened on the journey through the bog.  If you move quickly you should make it just fine.  An expert she certainly was not, but suggestions were all she had to offer at the moment.

"Laziness is the driving force behind progress," Wraen retorted to the girl and to, whatever doubts she had for the safety of the plan. She measured the distance between the place she was perched on and the place, where the she-wolf was standing. Then her gaze travelled from one snow covered mound to the other, choosing the best possible route.

"Wish me luck," she called out to the stranger. Meet you at the other end. And without letting herself to ponder any longer or think too much about the danger that she might get into, Wraen jumped swiftly from one mound to the next and daring to run over the ice, where there no mounds left between the last fifth of the bog and the solid ground.

"That wasn't so bad, eh?" Wraen told the girl, shaking her coat and looking over the location she had just left. "Name's Wraen - what is yours?"

.. what? she muttered harshly, brows furrowing.  Ivy thought laziness was a hindrance to progress, but she had to admit that she could see the other female's perspective.   She shook her head, wiping the incredulous look off her face lest it be taken as unfriendly.  Thinking too much about progress gave her a headache.  Or started her on a downward spiral to an existential crisis, whatever.

She wasn't quick enough to manage a half-hearted "good luck!" before her strange companion set off over the bog.  Ivy watched, her breath caught in her throat, as the gray female successfully jumped from one batch of solid ground to another, her paws just as swift as she yearling suggested.  Her pale green eyes relaxed when Wraen introduced herself after escaping her bog-induced predicament.  Ivy, she supplied with a small smile.  How long were you out there? she asked hesitantly.

"Lovely to meet you," Wraen dipped her muzzle politely in response and had a good up and down look of the girl. She was very beautiful, her light green eyes contrasting nicely against the silvery gray fur. Roughly the same age as well, but all young wolves came to a certain point in life, where they looked the same regardless of whether they were a yearling or a sturdy wolf, who had already seen many summers and winters pass.

"I have no idea," she shrugged. Few hours, half-a-day? The sun had not set already and she had begun her trek at dusk. "I am not from here though - ever heard of a pack called Moonspear? I got lost in a snow-storm and wandered as far as the pack that lives in that forest," she beckoned to the location, where Tindome wolves resided, but from the place, where they were standing, they could not see it any more. One stretch of forest, mountain and lake away. And bog as well.

They spoke for a while and then their paths parted - Wraen headed North, Ivy - wherever her destination in the world lied.