Ocean's Breath Plateau until his feet bleed and

A slow smile formed on Speedy's face at the sound of Wintersbane's laugh and the teasing remark that followed. By now you should know that if I wanted to get rid of you, I'd just say so, she teased back, an eyebrow raised again and a smile still present. 

When he agreed to play, Speedy wagged more than just the tip of her tail and excitement filled her expression. He wanted her to hide first and said he'd count to ten. Okay, but a slow ten, she agreed. She needed time to throw him off her scent after all. Once he had closed his eyes, and presumably began counting, she immediately got to work. She walked a couple quick circles around him, trying to stay quiet and do it far enough away from the male that he wouldn't her her. Her hope was that it would make it a little more difficult for him to pick up trail. Satisfied in her deceit, she ran towards one end of the plateau looking for the perfect place to hide. She figured she didn't have very much time left, so when she found a tree with its roots sticking up from the ground she trotted over to it to inspect the potential hiding spot. Walking around to the other side, she saw that it was just big enough for her to fit inside. Crouching to the ground, she scooted under the roots and squished up against the dip in the ground that had allowed for the roots to be showing in the first place. Speedy hoped the color of the exposed roots would also help camouflage her, as they were similarly colored to her pelt. She then tried to quiet her excited panting as she listened for anything that might sound like approaching footsteps, anticipation building in her chest.

wintersbane lets out a small snort as she teases him back. she makes a fair point and one that he cannot dispute. she doesn't strike him as the kind to use trickery ...not when, thus far, she's been nothing but incredibly outspoken with him. "that is a fair point." he concedes with a soft smirk tugging at the edges of his lips. "a slow ten." he promises with eyes closed. he shifts his weight, and begins his slow count. "one ...two ....three... —"

"nine ...ten." the tundrian calls out to the wilderness around him, eyes opening as he reaches the end of the count. he'd heard her rustling around to and fro while tried to make it difficult for him to track her and he'd tried to make an effort not to focus upon it. her scent weaves this way and that as he bows his head to draw it in among the bracken that covers the forest of the plateau's floor. he remembered, in the few times he'd played it with his siblings, it being a lot more straightforward. ...but alas, kids weren't worried about covering up their scent, or trying to throw the seeker off the actual.

he starts down one path, picking out the freshest of ones as he would while hunting prey and starts down it slowly, pausing to make sure it continued. finding her actual trail hadn't proved too difficult for the tundrian and he paces it slowly as it grows stronger, glacial eyes scouring the landscape for any sign of where she may be hiding. she has an advantage that he, assuredly, does not. her pelage is made to blend into terrains like this ...his belongs to the blue-black and blue-ish moonbeamed rays of a starless night. it hadn't exactly occurred to him at first but it's going to be hard for him to find a decent hiding spot when it's his turn. lest the plateau's wall has a cave or cavern he could wedge himself into but he doubts he'd have that kind of time.

he approaches seeking like he does hunting: with an unbidden seriousness that leaves his body poised alert. ears cupped forth atop his skull, eyes scanning and black, leathery nose drawing in the scents around him. she is here, and at first skim of the landscape he misses her. and then he draws in her scent again and among the roots sees the wisps of her pelage from where she's pressed against it. "found you." he declares triumphantly with a lopsided grin tugging at the corners of his lips. "you know it occurs to me that i have a distinct disadvantage in this game." he points out to her.

She heard his approach not long after she had settled into her hiding spot, and perked her ears in the direction of his footsteps. Speedy had hoped her attempt to throw him off her scent would have taken him longer to figure out, but it seemed he had been able to pick up the freshest trail pretty easily, at least it appeared that way by how quickly he followed the trail to her hiding spot. She almost jumped when he announced that he had found her, but hid the surprise as she jumped out from under the tree roots. She landed in a playful bow before jumping up and lightly nipping his shoulder out of excitement (unless he stopped her), her judgement momentarily clouded in her hyped up state. 

After a quick circle, she sat down in front of Wintersbane, still wagging her tail, and asked, What disadvantage? The color of his coat hadn't even crossed her mind, and she was racking her brain to try and figure out what he was talking about. He seemed capable and intelligent, so what put him at a disadvantage for hiding?

Once they were ready, she looked at him with a devilish smile and said, Okay, it's your turn to hide now. She closed her eyes then, and waited a second before beginning her count in case he had something else to add. If not, she would start counting.

glacial gaze watches as she jumps out of her hiding spot and land in a playful bow before him. he does not expect her to leap up and nip at his shoulder, still riding her high of delight. for a long moment, wintersbane doesn't react one way or the other; for during that long stretch of seconds his mind almost blanks. he is a soturi and allowing things like that could easily be the difference between life and death when faced with an opponent ...especially if they whittle down his guard. but she's harmless. well, not perhaps harmless but the action itself was. it was innocent, a lapse and action created in the paramount of their game. her teeth hadn't even broken skin. no need to be an ass about it, he tells himself. he smirks at her but otherwise keeps his internal struggle on how to deal with the playful nip she gave to his shoulder ...internalized.

her question made him snort, a soft thing, not meant to mock. it incredibly innocent too. though wintersbane is glad he is the spitting, masculine image of his late mother it makes him better suited for the shadows and sweet moonbeams of night as opposed to the brightness of daylight...even shadows of the day offer little respite. light still manages to find a way to combat them. "well," the maned tundrians drawls on a breath. "i kind of stick out like a sore thumb during the day." he makes an errant sort of 'ta-da' gesture with his body, drawing her attention to his blue-black pelage.

she doesn't appear overly perturbed by it, however, and encourages him to hide anyway by announcing that it's his turn. the pressure to find a good hiding spot was on but part of wintersbane lacked confidence in his ability to do so. as her count began he rubbed his shoulder against several different trees, weaving this way and that knowing and accepting that he wasn't likely to win it. he finds the darkest hiding spot he can: a thick and dense dark green bush of some sort with enough room for him to fit his bulk beneath. he ducks beneath it, letting out a small hiss as it's spindly branches tug at tufts of his fur but hunkers down and waits nevertheless.

She nodded her head as understanding crossed her features. I see. You're coat is very pretty, but you're right, it doesn't offer much help when hiding during the day, she said, not even tying to hide her admiring gaze. It was good this was just a friendly game then and it didn't really matter how well he hid from her. 

She tried to listen to his movements while she closed her eyes and counted, but it was too hard to pinpoint where the sounds were coming from. Instead, she just continued her counting, and when she reached 10, she opened her eyes and said to herself, ready or not, here I come. She stood and immediately began sniffing the ground. She picked up his scent pretty quickly, but it lead her to a tree. Her brow briefly creased in confusion before she realized his tricky move. She smiled to herself and began searching out his scent again. When she found it, it began to lead her to another tree, but he didn't fall for the trick a second time, although it did make it a little more work to search out his real scent trail. She was eventually lead to a large bush and studied it suspiciously for a second. It was rather large and looked to be Wintersbane-sized. Moving closer, she caught a flash of silver and smiled. She walked around to the other side to find the male hiding there. She grinned and said, Gotcha, moving to jump on him out of excitement, but resisting the urge before her feet left the ground. Instead she moved into another play bow before popping back up and sitting down to fix him with an animated, golden gaze.

wintersbane has always been a vain creature ...there wasn't a time he could remember when he wasn't and he enjoys being complimented on his looks even if it is just 'your coat is pretty' and an admiring gaze. he doesn't remember much of arturo but he's glad that he took after lotte ...who he assumes was the looks of the ansbjørn-fearghal pairing. "i'll figure it out." a shoulder lifts in a lofty half shrug. it wasn't as if his life depended on being able to hide from her, after all.

it does not take her too long to find him ...and he doesn't expect to be hidden very well. he does the best he can with what he has to work with but it's not much and the shadows of the daylight are light touched even as they try to shrink away from the sun's greedy and grasping beams and he knows it's only a short matter of time before she glimpses him as he hears her footfalls approach his chosen spot. her gotcha marks his defeat and he belly crawls out from beneath the bush, pausing half-way out to lash his tongue against an upset patch of fur on his shoulder as a spindly branch tugs a small tuft loose. the sting and itch is brief and the swipe of his tongue — catlike perhaps — is quicker to soothe. he shimmies the rest of the way out and looks to her where she sits, looking at him with a lively glint in her eyes.

wintersbane feels a bit silly playing a game as an adult, even as he assures himself that it was educational for his plight to become a cubsitter. besides that, there was very little doubt in his mind cubs were bound to come up with games that would test his dignity to no end. cubs were incredibly imaginative, after all. "so... what now?" the tundrian inquires of his companion.

Speedy waited patiently while he crawled out from under the bush, not seeing a way she could help and assuming he probably wouldn't want help if she offered. She didn't miss the pause to dislodge some fur that had been caught in the prickly branches of the bush, and when he finally came to stand in front of her, she glanced to his shoulder and asked, Are you okay? the healer in her unable to let it go without making sure nothing needed to be addressed. 

Hmm, she said in response to his question. Is there something you would like to do? she asked after a second of thought. She had requested the first game, but enjoyed any type of play really. She wasn't sure the serious man in front of her played many games, but he had to have something he liked to do when he wasn't being all serious. After all, he had agreed to play hide and see with her, so the concept of play was clearly not completely lost in him. She was instantly very interested to see what he would suggest, and watched him with curiosity in her golden eyes as she waited for his answer.

wintersbane greets her concern with a soft expel of breath ...not quite a snort but not quite not a snort either. "i'm fine." he assures her. a spindly branch ripping out a tuft of fur stings but it's not concerning, in his books. and to complain about it, even though the stinging has ebbed away seems ...well... babyish to him. by the time he finishes assuring her he's alright it has already ceased to sting. their conversation switches back to his inquiry which she answers with a question of her own. he thinks about his response for a bit, figuring that his natural response of not really might not be taken too well. even though he would not have meant it to be an insult. his capacity for play has been used up during their short-lived game, admittedly. "i don't know." he replies instead, wondering if that means that it's time they part ways.

With a quick nod, she as accepted his statement that he was fine. She figured he would be. It wasn't as if a bush could injure someone badly enough to need medical attention, but it was almost an unthinking reaction to any expression of discomfort. But, he appeared fine, so she moved on. 

His answer was a little disappointing. She thought he would have come up with something, and she could have learned something else about him, but it seemed he either didn't want to keep playing or maybe didn't actually know. He could just be bored of their interaction, which was fine, but his answer didn't really offer much insight into what he was thinking. She raised an eyebrow and asked, You don't know...what? How to have fun? she asked. She was mostly teasing him, but she also kind of wanted to know.

wintersbane peers down at her after his eyes methodically scan the trees behind her. he is never one hundred percent at ease. be it his training as a soturi or because he has built a tall, mighty and impenetrable fortress within himself with hellhounds at it's gate. perhaps, he thinks, it is a bit of both. he never lets anyone in entirely, not close enough to truly grow attached. he thought he had let vela in that close ...but after the initial wave of guilt of leaving her he realized he hadn't. not really. he'd kept his ex-girlfriend at arm's length away, too.

speedy draws him back to the present, out of his contemplations with her questions. his glacial gaze flickers back down to her and a smirk tugs at the corners of his lips, followed closely by an amused snort. "more or less." he replies as his smirk morphs into a grin that could almost be described as wicked, with a noncommittal shrug of his broad shoulders. "i'm a wet blanket on fun. the cubs are going to love me." he jokes, poking fun at his own self. cubs were ...different, though. it is easier to play with them in his brief experience because all he has to do is follow their cues. they'd be the ones to come up with games and it was his job to encourage the lesson to be found within them...but this was a lot of assumption on the tundrian's part. he has yet to spend a lot of time around young cubs.

She chuckled a little at his answer, not at all surprised by it. Well, children will most likely just be glad to have your attention, so I don't think you have anything to worry about, she replied. Besides, you played hide and seek pretty well, she added with a playful eyebrow raise. 

She looked around while a big yawn parted her jaws. She wasn't sure what else they could do, and she was getting a little tired. Well, I guess you probably have better things to do than to play games with me all day, she said as a grin spread across her face. He had entertained her for long enough, and she was sure such a serious wolf had things to do. She had nothing really important to do other than to feed herself and maybe sleep for a little bit before continuing her wandering, so whether or not they went their separate ways now was totally up to him.

feel free to post once more or archive as is! thank you for the thread! :-)

she assures him that cubs will likely be glad just to have his attention and he takes it at face value, naturally assuming that she has had some sort of experience with cubs. "well," wintersbane draws, carrying a soft chuckle on his breath, "that's good to know." he remarks in regards to his hide and seek skills. no doubt a cub would want to play much longer than he, as an adult whom has long since moved past that stage in his life would want to ...but he'd figure it out. somehow. she yawns and mentions that he probably has better things to do than play games with her all day. for a moment, he hesitates, mostly because he isn't sure if she's trying to guilt him or not. he doesn't confirm nor deny, but he knows he should keep moving. he's still too close to the sea for his general liking. "it was fun." he offers her with a coy smile before he stretches to loosen his muscles and disappears into the shadows of the trees heading further east.

She smiled at him. Yes it was. Thank you for indulging me, she replied. He got up and stretched before taking his leave. Speedy watched him walk away and soon she was alone again. with a sigh, she stood up and made her way back to the forgotten fish. She picked it up and made her way from the plateau to a place nearby she knew she could eat without interruption.