Following his encounter at The Sunspire, Ovaltine had skirted the northern border of the large lake, careful to keep far enough away from (yet another!) pack that was nestled close to the spire he had visited. He then met a river, and instead of crossing it, decided to follow it north. It wound this way and that, meandering like rivers tend to do. Eventually, the drifter came upon a quiet—and in his mind—serene forest, thick with moss, rocks, and low-hanging branches. Perhaps to some it was unsettling, but Ovaltine found it quite the opposite.
As he did whenever he came to a new place, Oval wondered whether or not it had been christened. Perhaps it was "Moss Wood" or "Wandering Wood." The latter was better liked by the loner, if only because of the alliteration. How he did love the way it felt upon the tongue. Ovaltine's feet kept moving along the river, green eyes flitting around this new place, filled with wonder and appreciation.
This forest was perfect for a little adventurous get-away. Lately, Charon had been busy with serious things and he was really in need of an adventure. Even though he thought he was growing a little too old for it, and wanted to practise being grown-up for when he'd be crowned leader of Stavanger Bay, Charon lavished the thought of chasing dragons and beating up bears (the imaginary kind, not the monstrous kind). "Come on, Drake," Charon called out in reflex while he trotted through a dark, narrow pathway surrounded by moss and low-hanging branches. He halted when he realised that it had been months since he had decided that he was too old for Drake, and had said good-bye to his troll friend, and suddenly Charon felt a little lonely, longing for childhood and longing to play with Drake again. But Drake was gone.
Charon found a river not long after while he sniffed the ground for dragon tracks. This would've been so mcuh more fun were Osprey here, he thought to himself. He wondered if he was really getting too old for adventure, that he wasn't having as much fun as he told himself he would have.
When Charon saw another wolf approach, headed straight for him, he halted. "Are you adventuring too?" Charon asked him without thinking, and moments later he felt kind of stupid. If he was intended to become Beta of Stavanger Bay, he really needed to start growing up, Charon told himself, while he secretly hoped that the stranger was, indeed, out adventuring and wanted to share in an adventure with him.
A younger wolf approached Ovaltine, and the loner quirked a brow at him. He was by no means a pup, though he had some filling out to do. "I'm always adventuring," Ovaltine replied with a grin. "Name's Ovaltine Driftwood. Do you know if this place has a name?" he asked. He was here to gather information (as he always did) and store it away in his mental filing cabinet.
When the wolf answered that he was always adventuring, Charon smiled and didn’t feel so silly anymore. He introduced himself as Ovaltine Driftwood – a last name that seemed fitting for a wolf that was always adventuring, and Charon wondered if he had made it up himself or if was a happy coincidence – and Charon answered: ”So, you’re a loner? I’m Starchaser. Beta of Stavanger Bay.” Well, maybe not quite yet. Charon decided to use his adventure-name Starchaser, but without the knight and sir and all the formality. It seemed fitting an introduction for a wolf he’d met while adventuring.
Ovaltine asked if he knew the place had a name, and Charon shook his head. ”No, this is my first time here. Though if I’d have to make one up, I’d name it like… Creepy Woods, or something. But it’s probably got a more sophisticated name ‘cause they tend to be more fancy than just that.” Charon looked at Ovaltine, not apologetic in the least that he could not offer the asked-for information, and suddenly found himself curious for the place’s name, too.
"Indeed I am," Ovaltine replied easily to the loner comment.
Starchaser. That was cute. He'd have to keep that one around (in case he ever came across something needing a name). Not only that, but the younger lad seemed to be a Beta of his pack already. Or he simply told others that. But who was Ovaltine to judge or second-guess him? Perhaps the pack was a whole slew of the younger type, just establishing themselves. He couldn't know for sure. Unfortunately, it didn't seem that his acquaintance knew the name of their present location. Not to worry, since their were other follow up questions that could be asked.
"Stavanger Bay... And where is that?" he asked, paying no mind to the fact that the name of this place would not be gathered today. There was time aplenty in the world, and Ovaltine would take what he could get. It would only add to his knowledge of this region, something he was thirsty for.
Charon looked around the moss-covered place and suddenly found himself wondering for its name too. Darned curiosity and all. He wondered if the name was something with 'creepy' or a synonym of it at all. Maybe it was called 'ancient woods' or something like that, or maybe it wasn't even a 'woods' at all. Then again, a place was only called what other wolves called it; the official name was just the one that most wolves used.
Charon was popped from his thoughts by Ovaltine's question about Stavanger Bay. "It's at the ocean," he said, even though anyone could've guessed that; "Sorta to the north and then to the west, I guess, compared to other places. To the west of Totoka River. It's, uh, a big river and it's got lots of splits and stuff, and goes out to the ocean. You'll notice when you see it, just the biggest one about." Charon looked at Ovaltine to see if his comments had hit home at all, considering he tended to go on about insignificant details. Charon used to blame others for not understanding, but over time he'd come to understand it wasn't always everyone else's fault. Just most of the time.
Ah, the ocean. Ovaltine had smelled it from afar, though hadn't gone to visit it just yet. Instead, he'd stayed inland, sticking to the land rather than the water. Starchaser continued to explain where his pack was, spouting directions, landmarks that Ovaltine hadn't heard of, and giving the drifter a general idea of where he lived. It was good enough, and Ovaltine replied as any gentleman would. "Thank you for the detailed information," he said with a tip of his head.
"Might there be anything I can do in return?" More often than not, Ovaltine didn't offer such services, but perhaps there was a little something he could do for the eager young Beta (if that bit was true at all). It wasn't always the case that strangers were willing to help him out, so Ovaltine tried to return the favor when possible.
Charon smiled brightly when Ovaltine thanked him for the information. He was always eager to help where he could, even if his motives were not always the best. The freckled adolescent and, in his mind, soon-to-be Beta, looked thoughtful when Ovaltine asked if he could do anything in return. Charon thought for a moment, considering asking for something disproportional (not because he thought to ask for something too much, but because only too-much-things popped into his head), but then he thought of something he could ask that matched up to what little information he’d given.
”What do you know about non-coastal places?” he asked, ”I know a lot about the Coast area, but not so much about this place and places around here, or the mountain ridges. D’you know about them, and, like, what packs there are over there?” It’d help Charon to know more about the surrounding areas and packs, even if he wasn’t officially an Outrider.
Ovaltine bobbed his head to affirm the young man's question. Much of his life had been spent gathering names, places, directions, and creating a mental map of the world around him. It was a never-ending game, considering the world seemed to go on forever in all directions. Sure, it did seem to stop at the ocean, but that was only one of four directions, and the north and south seemed to sprawl on forever and ever. But the boy had not asked of the ocean, he had asked of everything else. Of the world to the north, south, and east of his home.
"I've been to many places in the past few weeks," replied Ovaltine. "I first visited a mountain called 'Nova Peak,' which is led by Scimitar. Then I met with a member of Redtail Rise, though he did not give his name. After that I stumbled upon some wetlands, though I'm not sure of their name." Ovaltine had also run into a lone wolf there, but it seemed of little importance to the information he was currently coughing up. "Then there was Bearclaw Valley, where I met a lady named Scarlett. I passed through some flatlands, met with a young one-eyed girl in Blackfeather Woods. Backtracked a little to visit The Sunspire, and I was greeted by a lovely dark lady. And now, here I am in these spooky woods."
Charon settled in for a listen when Ovaltine confirmed he'd been to many places and seemed ready to share where he'd visited. He had never heard of Nova Peak nor Scimitar, but Redtail Rise was a familiar name to Charon. Wasn't that where Gunnar had fled off to instead of sticking around to help his pack? Charon couldn't help but wonder if Ovaltine'd met up with Gunnar, but there was no way of knowing, and anyway, it seemed like uninteresting information if all Ovaltine remembered about the guy was that he didn't give his name. Didn't sound like Gunnar not to introduce himself, anyway.
It surprised Charon that Scarlett was now of a different pack: Bearclaw Valley. He wondered what had prompted her to leave the Glacier for a moment, but then he remembered that she had not seemed too happy with her pack mate either, that day Charon barged in. Maybe he had prompted her to leave, and he wondered about it.
Charon mentally noted Blackfeather Woods and the Sunspire, though he did not yet know their locations. Hadn't Ame been from the Spire? Whatever the case, Charon decided to inform further after one specific fact shared by Ovaltine: "Where's Bearclaw Valley?" He hoped it was nearer rather than farther from the Bay, but he feared it might not. Duskfire had been rather far off, and there were many packs here. Charon wasn't sure why -- after all, he preferred to stick to his own truth rather than the one Scarlett probably believed, so the less wolves that knew, the better -- but he somehow felt like he wanted to see Scarlett again. Maybe not to apologise, but at least to... Well, he wasn't really sure why.
"Two or three days east, depending on how fast you’re trying to get there, which route you take, and what kind of stamina you’ve got," Ovaltine replied. There were so many factors that went into the time it took to get from one place to another. He was interested to know why Starchaser wanted to visit that place, out of all the others. Perhaps it was the name that interested him, or maybe he had heard of it from somebody else.
And yet, the drifter did not inquire. If the boy wished to tell him more, he was welcome to it, but Ovaltine would not pry. Starchaser seemed like the kind of kid who would answer if asked, but Ovaltine wasn't the kind of wolf who would ask unless he thought it would bring him knowledge of consequence. "I’d recommending going south around the mountains to get there, if you’re itching to see it for yourself." That was the way Ovaltine had gone, preferring to keep off the steep crags of mountains that lay between here and there.
Two or three days East was a pretty long journey, and Charon decided to put off a visit to Scarlett for now. Whatever, she probably wouldn't even recognise him anymore, and she'd found a new home, so she wasn't with the Duskfire Glacier losers any longer. The Stavanger Bay youth nodded in thanks of the explanation. "Thanks. I might visit it later. Scarlett's a -" He paused briefly, realising he had no clue what she even was of his anymore, "- friend of sorts. Didn't know she moved."
"Do you know a lot of stories from adventuring?" Charon asked next. "I mean, you don't have to tell any if you don't want to and all, but I'm a Chronicler, so I'm always up for hearing some more stories!" Charon eagerly looked at Ovaltine, hoping dearly that he had any (new) stories to share.
Ovaltine tipped his head to the side when Charon fumbled over what to call Scarlett. Perhaps the boy had a crush on her, or Scarlett had one on him. Or perhaps they were just at odds in some way that made him unsure of whether or not she was a friend. Charon then asked for a story, which Ovaltine found amusing.
"You know," he said,
"Scarlett asked for a story, too." He had told her the story of the wolf and the cougar, one that she'd seemed somewhat pleased with.
"I'll tell you the one that I told her." (Remedy doesn't feel like typing it all out again, so you can reference
this post, haha.) Once Ovaltine had wrapped up the story, he fell quiet, letting the younger male digest the tale and see what he thought of it. Everybody seemed to have a slightly different interpretation, which was all well and good with Ovaltine.
Charon received the same story as Scarlett did. Charon figured Scarlett probably would like stories about rainbows and unicorns and happy wolves more, since she seemed to always pretend to be happy and cheery and helpful towards anyone who needed it. In reality, she wasn't all that, he knew. It was just a mask.
The story swayed from one side to the next. Charon thought the cougar deserved to die for leading the wolf on, but he didn't say so.
"Thanks for the story," Charon said.
"Do you wanna explore this place a bit more? Maybe we'll find a cool name for it." Charon looked at Ovaltine expectantly, waiting to see if he would join Charon, or if they'd go separate ways from here.
want to fade/end soon? :)
I'll fade out with this one. :)
"Sure," Ovaltine replied. Although the drifter wasn't really one for naming things, he could at least amuse the boy for a time. For now, he let Starchaser lead the way, happy to follow along wherever he decided to go. Ovaltine did not have any kind of agenda or strict time limits. As winter drew closer, the male knew he would need to seek shelter in a pack... but that was months away, and he could always retreat to a different area entirely if this one proved to be less welcoming.