Shadow Mountain it's the only shade we know

for sweet @Indra, taking place in a small cave at the base of shadow mountain/wapun valley

shit.

terance hadn't meant to go this far this late. in fact, he should've turned around ages ago. but he was following after a wounded deer that honestly lived way longer than he expected. by the time it peeled over the weather had taken a turn for the worse, and terance was too far from home to lug it all the way back to sunspire. shit. 

instead, he pulled the thing into a small den at the base of the mountain range, snow pelting his back. when he had made his way into the cave finally, he shook out his coat, ears flattening. shit. what was he going to do? just wait this out? he hoped no one would worry about him-- surely the storm would stop sooner or later... and he had food... ah, damn it. terance didn't know what he could do at this point, so he just drug the deer into a corner and went and curled up in a different corner. nothing he could do but wait-- and noticed just how nice and spacious this place really way. a spot of luck, he supposed.

thank you for starting <3

once more indra had quit the valley, but this time she left following the game trail of a hind - the very same hind that she and blondine had failed to secure weeks prior. the scent led her well out of bearclaw's region and into relatively unknown territory. at length she found her efforts frustrated by a light dusting of snow - snow that, as she got further away, seemed to accumulate at a much more rapid rate than she had anticipated.

forced to find shelter the girl made for the crags, hardly able to see feet in front of her as the snow fell in heavy, sodden drifts. she came across a small enclave and dove into it with her limbs a-shudder, only to come across a dark shadow in the corner of the hollowed cavity.

she bristled immediately, alarmed by the unknown presence -- she lowered her head and her lips curled back in a defensive snarl as she backpedaled, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the aphotic atmosphere. at once the scent of a kill, and a familiar scent, rifled through the cold air -- indra's ears splayed forward and she bobbed her head, trying to separate the beast from the spilling darkness.

"terance?"

suddenly, terance was not alone. a silhouette crashed into the crave with him and, when it noticed him there it immediately recoiled. their lips curled and a low growl filled the space, terance straightened up right away, ears pricking. and at the same time, he recognized her. "indra," he replied softly, letting out a breathe, "jesus you had me going-- thought you were gonna rip my head off." thank god she didn't, terance really wanted to get home in one piece... and soon. 

he blinked, eyes adjusting still. sure enough, it was indra, terance eyed her curiously for a moment, his nose twitching. "what are you doing out here?" he asked, but the same could be asked of him.

as the girl waited for her sight to adjust, she studied the stone haven around them. in the back, tucked by the gloom and barely visible, was the resting haunch of a doe. scarcely more vivid against the darkness was terance's pelt, though it reflected some dim-blue light off of it, and she could see the startling emerald of his sharp gaze.

the cave slowly swam into focus. like her, he had been startled by her abrupt arrival. a parsed smile gently lifted her lips at his exclamation, but it was quick to fade.

"god, you scared me. i was following something. i didn't know it would storm like this." the redleaf girl gestured outside, where snow fell in thick thrums and obscured the world in a dull and lightless grey. "what are you doing here?"

he gave her a small smile, sighing softly. "sorry," he replied with a roll of his shoulders. at least nothing had come of both of their frights-- just a little bit of raised shoulder fur. slowly, his heartbeat slowed. his nose still twitched as he adjusted. "i was too," he said, nodding to the deer-- which she'd already noticed, "it was wounded, took a while for it to actually die... and by the time it did the storm had hit, i didn't mean to get this far from home." he gave another soft sigh, he really just wanted to be home. was it snowing this hard at sunspire? was wraen okay? was rannoch? liffey? seabreeze? he hoped so.

"guess we're holed up until it passes," he added, slowly sliding back down onto his stomach-- it was more comfortable.

indra looked at the doe he had felled; she had come with nothing, but he had managed to secure his victory. she was jealous, but not in a resentful way -- more like, she admired it. she had always been a dismal hunter, and it showed well by the thinness of her frame.

she cast a dour look to the gloom that roiled outside -- indeed, the snow fell so thickly now she hardly knew how she could ford through it. already inches of thick snowflakes had nearly concealed her pawprints, and the world was a strange dark-yellow as the storm descended over the mountains they habituated.

"i guess.. we are.." she admitted, unsure of how she felt being locked up. he didn't seem like bad company -- he hadn't been anything like ithrik or the cold man that had pointedly looked at her lack of a tail. he certainly seemed affable enough, but indra was a jaded woman, and set down on her haunches quite a distance away. as far a distance as the cave afforded, to be precise.

"that's a good catch." the redleaf girl offered by way of conversation, well aware she was far from the brightest company.

terance looked at the doe with a small smile. "thanks, i didn't do too much work... just a lot of following. it's sick or wounded or something," he replied with a small shrug, his gaze resting back on the redhead. he watched her curiously for a moment before giving a soft chuckle, moving to rest his head on his paws. 

"know any good stories?" he asked her, tail tapping gently against the ground, "gonna be here a while, might as well keep entertained."

indra looked out past the blasted lip of stone that concealed them, and into the stormy valley below. everything was indistinguishable -- the valley had lost its shape and landscape and been replaced a cold and stormy white.

she didn't know any stories, and her lips pursed as she thought of wolves in her life that might. skowl would definitely have known a story; her expression darkened as she thought of her last encounter with him. blondine might have known a good yarn or two too, but she was not here.

indra sighed and brought her gaze to terance somewhat dejectedly. "no.. not really." she said with a frown, feeling a little disappointed she could not provide him with some sort of lore to pass the time. "do you?"

she didn't.. that was unfortunate. terance had grown up listening to stories... he had a good bit of them, and thanks to wraen and osprey he also had a good knack for telling stories. but it was always more fun to listen, terance wasn't really the talking type-- though surprisingly, since his move to sunspire, he'd become more outgoing in that manner. he blamed seabreeze, who was just all too easy to talk to.

well, here he went.

with a shrug, terance gave her a small smile. "if you're into corny stories, i've got plenty," he replied tail still tip-tapping against the cavern floor, "but... we can make one up, together." and so he'd rope her into this too. "gimme an animal," he instructed her, head raising.

indra settled into the stone carefully, feeling the cold seep around her. she tilted her muzzle so that terance was in her peripherals, and held him there just so. in the dim light of the cave he was scarcely more visible than the shadows that sat astride him, but he was there -- and much better company than the cold front coming in.

she didn't mind corny stories, but she didn't know any. as he asked for an animal her gaze slid to the cave ceiling and she hummed to herself as she deliberated. "hmm... how about... an otter?" she said, turning an ear towards him as she awaited a great yarn.

an otter! interesting choice, terance knew just the story-- actually, he didn't even need to make one up. ah... but it stung a little bit. "ever heard of the constellation hydra?" he asked her with a small smile, a sad one. had he ever told her the story of hydra? he couldn't remember... he didn't think he had. somehow, he felt that hydra would've liked it-- or maybe hated it. he wished he'd told her.

it didn't matter, he could tell it to indra and pretend, as he so often did when dealing with the cerberus.

she shivered as another gust of wind blew in. as much as she wanted to keep her distance as wide a swath as possible, the cold forbade it -- she scooted along the stony flank of the den and looked at terance in time to see a fleeting smile rid his lips.

only, indra didn't think it looked too happy. before she could quizzically draw an answer for him he had continued, and the smile was gone. he asked if she had ever heard of the constellation and indra's brow scrunched - hydra was an unfamiliar arrangement of stars to her. "no, i haven't." she admitted, her head tilted as she awaited explanation.

not surprising. since his leave from moonspear, terance found that less and less wolves actually had any kind of care about the stars. he was okay with that, everyone had different interests... but truly, it was strange to him. different, more like. "i'd show you but..." he nodded to the weather outside-- which was not suitable for star gazing at all. oh well, another day. he didn't bother explaining his expression-- he hadn't realized he'd made it, and didn't connect indra's own quizzical expression with that. it didn't matter anyway.

"so, there's a whole bunch of history and language stuff that i won't bore you with-- but basically, otter in greek can sometimes be used as the same word for a water serpent, a big ol' snake. and the most infamous serpent of all times is hydra-- and actually is the longest constellation in the night sky, which is really neat," he shared, tail waving. he hoped all this boring history stuff at least kind of grabbed her attention... the story was much more exciting, but she needed some context on why the hell he was suddenly talking about a fucking snake.

indra followed his gaze and craned her neck to view the miserable scene outside: cold, cheerless onslaught of snow. the sky was not even visible between the ashen haze. she drew her attention back to him and settled, trying her best to imagine what he spoke of.

in truth indra was not the most imaginative of wolves -- a life of practicality had essentially bludgeoned the whimsy out from under him. she nodded and canted an ear as he continued, wanting to show she was at least interested in what he had to say, even if she could not see for herself the stunning constellation he described. not wanting to interrupt she simply offered a thin smile that seemed to say continue.