Frogspawn Swamp The Stars Are A Mired Swamp

The sky was kissed with an array of constellations and Cassian had made an awful habit of attempting not to memorize them; but, instead chose to associate them with the animals he’d seen around the area. His head was laid between his paws at the given moment, tail spread neatly onto the lush, grassy fields of the Frogspawn Swamp. A single claw from his upper left paw jutted its way into the marshy soil, etching out what he believed to be a frog. It may not have looked like a frog to anybody else, but to him it was. Big, beady eyes, coupled with that annoying little sac that jutted out of their flabby chins whenever they were croaking. He couldn’t be bothered with the details of their webbed fingers so he kept it clean and simple.

  It looked more like a rock with eyes and a sentient desire to no longer exist, but nobody ever said he was an artist.


  Then, he rolled over, onto his back, staring up at the night sky without the hindrance of having to shift his head up and down time and time again. The wolf’s tongue lolled out of his maw as his brown, wandering eyes searched for a frog up there. Somewhere. Come to think of it, anything could be made with these stars if he looked long enough, right? Ah, that just took the fun out of it! His stargazing would have kept going on for the better part of the next hour had it not been for one of those same creatures he’d been searching for up in the cosmos making its way on over and landing atop his chest. Staring down at it with a curious, tilted, haphazard grin, Cassian barked once. To warn the little guy, just in case he was on the denser end.

  The frog did not move. A fearless foe, indeed.

  “You’re a brave little fella, aren’t you? I would eat you, but I’m not really in the mood for frog right now. So, count yourself as one of the lucky ones, little guy.”

  CROAAAAAAAAAAAK

  An annoying sound in other circumstances, but for now it elicited laughter from the wolf. His brown eyes shone with joy and only then did the frog hoist itself up and off of his chest. Rolling back over, Cassian shook himself vigorously for a handful of seconds before getting up from his resting spot and to the edge of the riverbank that ran through this swamp. A few laps and his thirst was satiated. It was nice, being able to enjoy the scenery and the way that the wind brushed up against his fur, but it wasn’t good to be in one spot for too long. Especially as a loner with no pack to abide by. Though, there was charm in that, too. There were no rules. No drama. It was a set of life that would be nice if his instinctual desire to muddy a group with his presence wasn’t so festering. So strong. So obligatory.

  The flow of the river here wasn’t all too strong. There were no strong winds, it only went in about ankle deep, and for now he chose to swim in it. Enjoying the rush of the cool currents sloshing their way over him. Maybe he’d be lucky enough to have a fish spill itself into his maw? That’d happened only once in his lifetime before and it had made his entire week. A story nobody would believe, but he’d lived through it, so he believed it and that was all that mattered!

Fennec hadn’t intended to be out this late, but she’d gotten restless and needed to take a walk. T swamps had always reminded her of her conversations with Wraen and, slightly more recently, her aspirations to be a “witch”. Neither of these had stood the test of time.

Still, she did take pleasure in the spooky atmosphere. Fennec always had a soft spot for a place that felt haunted.

A frog croaked nearby and she froze, hearing the following plop that signified its return to hiding. Well damn. A snack might’ve been nice, but fish and frogs were definitely not her preferred prey. She couldn’t even listen for them.

She reached the edge of a river and heard a gentle splashing. At first she thought it was a rather stupid fish proving her wrong, but it didn’t take long to encounter the scent of wolf.

And here I thought I’d be the only swamp-dweller tonight. She stated sardonically, listening attentatively to every movement as she sat down near the edge of the water. She wasn’t sure how much distance was between them, but she wasn’t about to get in the water and sink her chances of defending herself or flight.

Footsteps reached Cassian's ears. They were wet, dilapidated, and the weight they held didn't quite sink into the swamp at the rate that his own dense, weighted paws did. Yet, despite that, they did demand the wolf's attention. It didn't take all too much to garner it, all things given, but the presence of another wolf was more than enough to tether it away from some measly frogs. Albeit, not quite enough to stretch it away from the wolf's loving gaze to the sky and the secrets she held buried within her bosom.

"You thought wrong, haha! That's okay though, I think. Your eyes are weird, I've never seen a pair like them before. They remind me of....that weird stuff that comes down onto the ground sometimes that makes it hard to see. I dunno what exactly it's called, but that's what it reminds me of!"

A simple glance over was given to the soul that entered this space. Notably, not his space. None of this belonged to Cassian nor would it ever. Maybe one day in the near future it would be claimed by a pack but even then it would eventually fade with the brushing of time. If there ever were a reason for him to join one of those territorial groupings it would be to just explore without the fear of being mauled alive. Hopping from one pack to another didn't seem like something that was entirely feasible, but the amusing thought of doing such a thing struck a chord with the wolf.

Silence struck between them. Cassian didn't like silence.

"The sky looks nice today. Well, it looks nice every day, but today it's different. There's a lot of sparkly things up there. Way clearer than normal, too! Sometimes, I make a game of making out things from those sparkly things. Things I've seen. Things that come up in my mind sometimes, too. Oh, and sometimes, if I stare super, duper long, I can see things that I don't even really know. Weird how that works, huh?"

A glance was tossed aimlessly to the wolf. Name. They had a name, right?


"My name is Cassian! I don't know about the last name, but it doesn't really matter, I think! What's your name? Why are you here? Are you hungry? You look frail. Tiny, too. There was a frog here earlier, but I didn't really want to sink my teeth into it. Big, beady, innocent eyes it held and I couldn't bring myself to do it! If I knew you were around though, I might've. You're really quiet! How do you do that? Oh! Seems like you could use a good few meals, haha! Do you think if you ate a frog you'd start croaking like they do? I think I don't because of how big I am, but if you didn't digest it well enough I think you might let out a few before it fully broke down! Well, I'm not super big, but compared to you...I am. Not big enough to eat you though so don't worry about that."

This had to be the most bizarre encounter Fennec had ever had in her life. She didn’t think she’d ever been met with such a blunt introduction, but it turned out that the entry point was hardly the strangest the wolf had to offer. And she was still trying to sort out a response to that.

Oh. Oh shit. Oh god how do I turn it off?

There was no mute button. This man was off to the races and nothing was going to stop his headlong charge into an absolutely inconceivable string of sentences. How the fuck did point a line up with point b, let alone d over here? And did someone drop something on this guy’s head? He could be concussed. The healer in her actually wondered at the possibility as she tried, a few times, to open her mouth and respond before giving up and just letting him finish.

The tide finished washing over her and carried every single question he’d asked with it. She’d stopped paying attention, to be honest, because she’d been so distracted by the fact that he just kept going.. It was fucking impressive. Something something frog? And some comments about her being weird and small, maybe. Nothing new there.

I think you might have eaten a few too many frogs. Or whacked your head a few times going for them. You sure you’re okay? She asked instead, wondering immediately if she’d just opened the floodgates once more. It was a little worth it just to find out.