@Rahzie
In the southern reaches of the woods, the trees spread out and the ground became moist. The further she went, the more boggy and wet it got, until she was ankle deep in swampwater. She could hear the buzzing of insects all about her. Large dragonflies darted about, hunting down smaller bugs like midges and flies. Where there were flies there were frogs, sitting on lilypads, tongues reaching out to nab one of the insects. And where there were frogs, there were herons, striding in the water, eyes cold and predatory, waiting to impale an amphibian on their razor-sharp beaks.
Meldresi also knew that swamps contained a myriad of herbs to find. She wasn't looking forward to striding into the fetid waters at the moment, who knows what laid under the surface! She was content to go around its circumference, to see how big the swamp was.
It wasn't long before she saw a large opening a few feet away from the swamp. Curious, she walked over, seeing that it was three wolves wide and probably another three tall. It was dark in there, the sun only illuminating a bit of the cave. She stuck her head in, wondering if she could see any other forms of light inside.
"Blech," The coywolf grumbled to herself as she stepped in yet another bit of squishy, boggy mud. She had been traipsing through this dark forest for a few hours, now, out of some sort of morbid curiosity, but was starting to regret her decision after coming upon this swampland. Rahzie's tail lashed and large ears flicked against the onslaught of insects trying to bite at her, and at one point, a particularly stubborn dragonfly ended up between her teeth when she snapped at it. The small-framed woman was not fond of insects, however, and spit its mangled body into the mud, smirking at her little victory.
And yet, despite the annoyances of the bog, she did not turn back. The eerie feel of the woods intrigued her. She wondered briefly if it was haunted - and the thought only excited her further.
Eventually a scent caught her nose - fresh, a female wolf. And... somehow, held a hint of something recognizable. Different, but... just slightly familiar. And it did not take long for her to find the source. A dark-colored frame came into view, partially hidden in the shadows of a cave that she appeared to be looking into. Rahzie arced around her, keeping a bit of distance for the moment, brown eyes narrowed. "Whataya looking for?" The coywolf queried, her tone a mix of casual, curious, and suspicious.
At the sound of another wolf approaching, Meldresi stepped back from the shadows of the cave. She turned towards the voice, only to see another coywolf staring at her with a mix of wariness, curiousity and suspicion in her eyes. "I am not really looking for anything." She replied, turning back to the cave. "I just wanted to see what's inside."
A thought ran through her head, what if she could convince this wolf to join her pack as well. You can't have a pack with only two wolves. She turned her gaze back to the coywolf. "Care to join me?"
When the black wolf stepped back out of the shadows of the cave, Rahzie studied her for a moment. The coywolf could tell that male wolves were probably all over this woman; she was exceptionally beautiful. "I am not really looking for anything." Rahzie's eyes followed the dark woman's back into the shadows of the cave. "I just wanted to see what's inside." So, just another explorer like her? "Fair enough," Rahzie said plainly, taking a slow step towards the shadows.
"Care to join me?" Rahzie's eyes turned back to the other woman, curious. Her words seemed to imply just to join her looking around, but the coywolf got a sense that there was more motive behind them than that. For now she chose to ignore it. "Sure, I guess," She responded, turning her eyes to the cave once more, and taking another step closer. Her nose twitched as she once again noticed the hint of something familiar about this woman's scent. Then it hit her, and once again her eyes shot to the dark woman. "You- you must be part of the mountain pack. Silvertip." Rahzie stated, sure of it now. Little did she know they had recently moved away from the mountain - she didn't quite make the connection between the newly-formed pack of Ouroboros Spine and it's origins.
The priestess was about to step into the dark cave when the coywolf asked of her origins. Silvertip? Not anymore. "We are no longer Silvertip Mountain." She informed the hybrid, one paw in the darkness of the cave. "We are Ouroboros Spine now, though...I may be leaving soon." She admitted to her as she stepped deeper into the cave.
Not checking if the coywolf was following, she continued through the downward sloping tunnel. Her eyes squinted a bit when she saw a soft blue glow ahead. Light? All the way down here?
[size=x-small]ooc: Keeping it vague in reference to Mordecai, since I'm assuming this thread happens after she meets him.[/size]
"We are no longer Silvertip Mountain. We are Ouroboros Spine now, though...I may be leaving soon." "Huh." Rahzie paused mid-step into the cave, letting this new information sink in. She knew that strikingly handsome male Kaname had been part of Silvertip when they met a couple weeks ago. And only a day or two ago she had met Mordecai, who was from Ouroboros. No wonder this woman's scent was mildly familiar. The coywolf had first thought it just reminded her of Kaname, but no, it was also similar to Mordecai's, she realized now. So the pack had migrated. Interesting.
"I may be leaving soon." As Rahzie followed a few steps behind the dark woman, it took her a moment to get to thinking about that bit of what she had said. The shadows had completely engulfed the coywolf when she spoke in response. "Any particular reason for that?" Rahzie was a little suspicious that it was less of her leaving and more of her being kicked out, for some reason. Maybe it was just the creepy-ness of the woods and the cave getting to her. Suddenly, her eyes caught a hint of a blueish glow further down into the tunnel. Now that was extra creepy. And extra interesting. "What's that?" The coywolf asked aloud without really expecting the other woman to have an answer.
"Our alpha...she is..." Meldresi wondered how much to say about Jinx's condition. The disease her queen was suffering from was one of the scariest things a wolf could meet in this life. A disease that ruins your mind, making you forget everything and everyone you loved, and makes you mad. Thank god it hadn't spread, or Ouroboros would be no more...
"She is sick. Deathly so. And her mate, the beta, is dying as well. Lecter, who she had only met in the last few days, was old, very much so. He might have died in a few months if his mate wasn't dying as well. From the smell on him, he was killing himself with a poisonous mushroom laced in poppy. Poor old man.
Meldresi didn't answer Rahzie, since she had no way of answering a question she had no answer to. She only pressed forward, guided by the light which got brighter and brighter until the tunnel opened up into a magnificent cave. Meldresi looked around in awe. Glowing tendrils coming from the ceilings, emitting the soft blue-green light that led them inside. The priestess went up to one of them, sniffing it gently. What was this...
It looks like this:
![[Image: glowworm-cave-Vaughan-Flanagan.jpg]](http://nz-nz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/glowworm-cave-Vaughan-Flanagan.jpg)
[size=x-small]ooc: I did some brief research on glowworms and such to try and be accurate, but let me know if I'm assuming too much :)[/size]
Rahzie's eyes slowly widened as the dark-coated woman explained her pack's situation. As the seriousness of the issue sunk in, her brows furrowed and lips turned down in a grimace. "...yikes," The coywolf said after a moment, not sure what else to say. Losing both the Alpha, and the Beta? She could see why this woman was considering leaving. Best case scenario, the pack dynamic would comletely change. Worst case... it could fall into chaos as wolves fought to decide who would lead. Even she, who had never been a part of a true pack, knew as much.
As they approached the faint blue glow and it grew stronger, the other woman did not respond to her rhetorical question. She hadn't expected her to, and soon she was lost in the eerie magic of the glow. The coywolf was beyond intrigued. This was like nothing she had ever seen before. She climbed up a small pile of rocks, reaching towards one of the longer tendrils hanging from the ceiling. She, like the other woman, sniffed at it first, curiously, and examined it. It seemed like just a long thread with a droplet at the end. "It looks like a little star," She whispered to herself, in awe. Slowly, she reached her nose out and touched it.
It was cold, like a droplet of rain, but stickier, and immediately Rahzie's face screwed up in disgusted surprise and she rubbed a paw across the bridge of her muzzle a few times to wipe it off. "Would not recommend touching it," Rahzie called over to the other woman. "Pretty too look at. Kinda gross to the touch."
Meldresi examined the tendrils with a wary curiousity. Why were they glowing n that manner. She hadn't seen anything like it in her life. She jerked back in surprise when Rahzie jumped back, rubbing her muzzle where she had touched the tendril. The coywolf described the feeling as weird and gross. "Don't get anything in your mouth or nose. It might be poisonous..." In nature the bright and colorful plants and animals were most likely the most dangerous. She wasn't certain that these were but it didn't hurt to be cautious.
The priestess looked around, searching for another tunnel. The cavern here was wide, but where there other places to go? She walked around, searching for some opening that they could squeeze through. "There must be something else here...."
"Don't get anything in your mouth or nose. It might be poisonous..." Rahzie narrowed her eyes at the warning, not having considered that possibility. The coywolf gave her nose one last wipe with her paw for good measure, then jumped down from the small pile of rocks and rinsed her paw in one of the little pools of water on the floor of the cave.
In the soft blue-green glow, Rahzie watched the other woman search around the edge of the cave for a moment. As she speculated aloud that there had to be something else, Rahzie's large ears pricked and swiveled. The silence in the cave was almost like a pressure on her ears, relieved by the occasional sound of a droplet of water falling from the ceiling into one of the many pools. And then, very faintly, almost indistinguishably, came the sound of tiny claws on rock. Rahzie's ears focused their opening on where she thought it came from, and slowly prowled towards it. A second scatter caught her attention again, and then her eyes found it.
"
Oh shit, look at you!" Rahzie mused to the ten or so inch long
creature on the cave floor. Its body was shaped like a lizard, but it's skin was slimy and smooth - with calico brown and gold markings. It's sides expanded and fell with quick breaths, and big beady eyes snapped around warily. "
Hey, uh... I'm sorry, what's your name?" Rahzie called to the other woman over her shoulder, not taking her eyes off the salamander. "
Come check this big guy out!" She felt a little giddy, like a pup exploring and finding new things. But this cave
was pretty incredible.
The priestess' ears pressed back at the sound of an expletive. She must have been startled by something. Who knows what could be in a cave, hidden from the surface? She walked over to the coywolf, wondering what she could have found. "My name is Meldresi."
Meldresi peered over the shoulder of the coywolf, blinking curiously at the amphibian at her paws. "How curious." While she had seen salamanders before, she never thought they would live below ground. "There must be water nearby..." She said, instantly sniffing for a water source somewhere.
Rahzie bent down and curiously sniffed at the salamander as Meldresi approached and introduced herself. The coywolf glanced up and her as she said her name. It had a certain... lilting quality to it. Matched her obvious graceful beauty. Much different than Rahzie, who had a much more... "hot mess" kind of look about her, and a sort of sharp name, a lot like her personality.
But the lithe woman only touched upon this thought before returning her attention to the creature in front of her nose. It's sides moved quickly now, almost like it was panicked. Rahzie smiled almost wickedly and snorted at the creature, finally frightening it out of it's daze. It scattered away into the shadows.
"There must be water nearby..." Meldresi said and Rahzie lifted her head, watching the salamander go. She was right, the coywolf thought. All the pools on the floor, the fact that there was a salamander all the way down here... Her large ears pricked, also listening for any hint of rushing water. "Yeah, must be," She mused softly, focused on her ears. When nothing came to her immediately, she began to pace forward, ears on the swivel. She paused mid-step, realizing her rudeness, and turned her gaze back to Meldresi. "My name's Rahxethe, by the way. Rahzie for short, usually."
Hearing the soft patters of the salamander as it scuttered away, she turned towards the sound. Her eyes met the eyes of the coywolf. She nodded at her introduction. "It's nice to meet you, Rahxethe." She spoke the words without a stutter. It was common for her to speak the full name of a wolf she met unless they either insisted they say a nickname, or she was close to them.
Her indigo eyes searched for the little salamander, trying to sniff for its damp smell. "Where did it go? It might be heading towards the river or lake down here." She knew from experience that most amphibians liked to head from land to water if they were ever caught by a predator or disturbed.
Rahzie blinked in confused surprise when Meldresi used her full name. The coywolf wasn't sure how to feel about it - whether she liked it or didn't. She hardly remembered the last time anyone had called her anything besides Rahzie. Rahxethe was a little difficult to twist the tongue around for some. After a moment, she decided that she didn't mind Meldresi calling her by her full name.
"Where did it go? It might be heading towards the river or lake down here." Rahzie caught a glimpse of the other woman's dark blue eyes looking for the salamander she had just scared off in the glow of the cave. The coywolf immediately cupped her large ears towards where the salamander had gone off to, and trotted lightly in the direction of its escape, following the echoes of scratchy little claws.
All at once her ears tensed, and Rahzie focused on what she thought she heard. Yep - that was the sound of water rolling over rock and into itself. "Here," Rahzie called softly back to Meldresi, though she hadn't quite found it yet. "I hear something, over here." She closed the space between herself and the cave wall, and trotted along it for a few paces before coming across a crack hidden in the shadows. The sound of moving water came more audibly when she put her ear close to it. "I don't know if I can even fit through here..." She grumbled, but the wiry woman was not going to get discouraged just yet. "But if we can find a way through, there's definitely a water source on the other side of it."
Meldresi followed the wry coywolf, ears scanning the tunnel. It was a bit futile, mainly because Rahxethe had much larger ears compared to hers. Soon, they got into a dead end, but it promised something. There was water in here, running water. A river? Maybe it led to a lake?
"We should walk around, maybe go to another tunnel and see if we can hear the water again." It might not be possible to reach the water, but it would give them the chance to explore the caves more by walking around.
Rahzie was minorly frustrated at being so close and yet unable to reach the water source, but nodded slowly as Meldresi simply suggested that they look around some more. She gave up on the crack, and pricked her ears to look for something else. It was very interesting looking around these caves and the coywolf wouldn't mind having to explore some more.
The coywolf's brown eyes glanced over at Meldresi. The blue-green glow was stunning on her sleek black fur. Rahzie decided suddenly that she wanted to know more about her companion. "So," Rahzie started slowly. "You said you're probably going to be leaving your pack soon. Where are you gonna go? What are you gonna do?"
She skirted around the edges of the cave wall, her ears almost pressed against the rocks. If they could locate the water, maybe this could be where her pack could commune. Once she had a chance to look around more, maybe she could find more tunnels. More entrances. That way, she could live here without bothering those birds.
The priestess jerked away from her thoughts when Rahxethe questioned her on her motives. Not in a particularly accusing way, just a conversation starter. But something the priestess could warp to her desires. A pack needed wolves, no? Even if she was half-wolf, Meldresi didn't descriminate like others. "I was thinking that perhaps...." The dark female turned her head towards Rahxethe. "Perhaps I could start a pack of my own here."
ooc: sorry for the short reply, posting from mobile!
Rahzie's ears pricked at Meldresi's words as she stopped in her tracks, one striped paw lifted until she slowly set it down. The idea didn't really surprise her that much - it made sense that the priestess might be exploring outside of her pack's borders to maybe found her own. And the coywolf was immediately intrigued. Somehow, founding a new pack appealed to her much more than joining an established one. Maybe because she knew that if she did the latter, she would have to start from the bottom of the totem pole. And it wasn't that the lithe woman thought she wasn't capable of rising ranks in a wolf pack, it was just... she was aware both that she couldn't stand being treated like a subordinate and she knew not everyone would take so kindly to a half-breed. So far, Meldresi had treated her with respect and as nearly an equal...
After a moment, the coywolf's eyes narrowed slightly. This could be an opportunity... But she would have to test the waters first. She needed to know more before she could even come close to making any promises. "Really," the coywolf responded unhurriedly. "What kind of wolf would your pack recruit?" It wasn't necessarily subtle that Rahzie was both interested and also testing the priestess.
The sound of rushing water was getting louder. Her ears perked up, seeing a tunnel skirting off towards the direction of the sound. She moved forward slightly, not wanting to leave Rahzie behind and drop their conversation. She had a potential pack mate right next to her. She needed to play her cards right.
It seemed to her, that Rahzie was interested in joining her pack. Good, it made recruitment easier when the wolf was intrigiued as well. "Someone who isn't easily scared of dark places. This forest is a bit..much for some." She said, recalling the fear Red had. "Someone who is willing to listen to and respect others' beliefs. I am a priestess, my pack will have some attributes of my religion, but I won't force it upon anyone." Faiths that are forced on others never hold sway for long. You must ease it into someone, slowly and gently. That's what she hoped to do for her pack, but she would never oppress them with Mephala's teaching.
She turned into the tunnel, eyes seeing movement nearby. "But, I will take in wolves of any caliber as long as they conform to those criteria. I don't discriminate." The priestess knew that the last part was most important to Rahzie. Hybrids were often shunned by their purebred kin for something they couldn't even control. But Meldresi didn't mind if someone was part dog or coyote. The person mattered, didn't they?
Meldresi stopped, her paws dampened by the water. It was, indeed a river. It wasn't a fast one, but it did look deep. So this is where the salamander came from. She peered into the water, partically aided by the glow of the mushrooms. "I wonder if there are fish in there." she murmured. It would be a close and accesible resource for her pack to have.
Rahzie followed Meldresi as the priestess followed the sound of the water, but the coywolf was no longer interested solely in the source. Her thoughts were now focused on Meldresi's response to her question. "Someone who isn't easily scared of dark places. This forest is a bit..much for some." Rahzie had never been scared of the darkness here. Sure it was eerie, but that's what made it interesting. It wasn't her ideal home, but... with these caves, it could do. "Someone who is willing to listen to and respect others' beliefs. I am a priestess, my pack will have some attributes of my religion, but I won't force it upon anyone." The coywolf could have guessed that Meldresi was a priestess. The way she carried herself, her dark beauty and allure... It wasn't surprising.
"But, I will take in wolves of any caliber as long as they conform to those criteria. I don't discriminate." "You're one of the few," Rahzie muttered. Indeed, that one bit was important to the half-breed. Her thoughts turned back to the mention of Meldresi's religion, and was curious as to what god she followed that seemingly had led her to such a dark and foreboding place. But that was a question for another time.
Rahzie's thoughts returned to the physical world when she stepped a paw in water and it nearly came out from under her on the slippery rock underneath. She quickly regained her balance and took a step back. "I wonder if there are fish in there." "Maybe," Rahzie said with a shrug when she recovered from her near fall. "It'd be hard to get at them though, the rock's pretty slippery."
It was sad to her that not many could be so tolerant of others. She never discriminated on race or upbringing, though she was when it came to religion. But that's what happens when you are raised by priests. Either way, she hoped that her tolerance of hybrids would make her pack grow stronger by accepting more people into her pack. Though time would tell.
Rahzie slipped on the rocks, declaring the idea of fishing here unsafe. "Perhaps we could lure them out somehow." She mused to herself. "But that is a thought for another day." She said, turning to Rahzie. Fishing plans could be thought about another day, when she was certain her wolves were following. Besides, she had another, more pressing matter to think of. "Have you considered joining me, Rahzethe?"
[size=x-small]ooc: I'm ready to wrap this up in the next couple posts if you would like to archive this. This can suffice as my last post if we just fade :) Maybe we can start another one (a pledge thread?) where Meldresi explains her religion?[/size]
Rahzie nodded as Meldresi concluded that fishing would be done another day. Her thoughts, too, were on a different matter. Was she ready to join a pack? That was what she had left her mother and brother for, wasn't it? Somewhere in the woman's subconscious she knew that her motive was to prove herself as strong and capable. She would never admit such - for doing so would make her seem weak, in her mind - but instead, carry herself as if she was without question both of those things.
"Have you considered joining me, Rahzethe?" It was as if Meldresi read her thoughts and asked the same question she was asking herself in that moment. The coywolf started a little at the coicidence. "I-..." She began, then stopped herself from speaking before thinking, trailing off. Her orange-tinted eyes studied the priestess for a moment. "Maybe." The coywolf concluded, this time a little more coyly. "You'll have to tell me more about this religion of yours."
Yeah! Could you start it please? I'll get to it as soon as I can.
"Of course." She had time to spare. The priestess never thought that this would be easy, anyway. If she really wanted a loyal wolf in her pack, she needed to show them why they should respect her opinion. Jinx had done that, and even as she was dying her packmates still stayed loyal to her. She wanted something like that.
"Shall we explore more and continue our conversation?" She offered before turning back towards the chambers, eager that she was slowly approaching her goal of creating a pack dedicated to Mephala.