Dragoncrest Cliffs You are supposed to be halfway around the world by now.

Awareness!

It had been a long trek to get this far, and to her surprise, she'd lost the trail. Okay, so it wasn't that surprising; by the third week, Pepper hadn't exactly been keen to see Happy. She knew she'd find him eventually, but the fact that he was making her do all of this work was just - ugh. Pepper had worked her way in to a tizzy within the first few hours of her departure, then calmed things down as she formed some kind of battle plan — but now, weeks later, it was just too irritating to think about the fool of a boy. Mostly she was mad at herself for caring so much. She'd never admit to caring about the fool, but here she was, trudging along the edge of the world, clinging to an uneven cliffside while the sky was rumbling threats at her from above. 

'Happy, you piece of sh-' the redhead was thinking, but was pulled from her irritation by the sound of the sky ripping; or at least that's what she thought was happening, because it sounded like a giant piece of velcro being pulled across the clouds, and then the waves of rain started up. She stood on the cliff and stared out to sea, a little speck of red upon a rocky outcropping, no trees in sight — and she could actually watch as the rain fell across the ocean and moved its way towards the coast. Within moments the downpour was atop her, as if to douse the flame of her spirit (or maybe wash out the vibrance of her coat, who really knew). Pepper did duck, but there was no avoiding the intensity of the thick, humid, heavy rain. She dove for the cover of the trees, but even the reaching arms of the nearest pine gave way to the sheets upon sheets of percipitation.

Soaking and shivering from her hideaway, Pepper groaned and glowered, and knew she'd have to wait it out.

>_>

Her eye twitched at the sound of thunder, irriation clearly evident on her face.  Banner knew that she should not have come out here.  Not all the way to the coast!  Oh, but she'd never been and it wasn't that far and she needed the excercise and all the other bullshit reasons she'd told herself before setting off earlier in the day.  The short female growled as she looked over the cliff and off into the sea.  Sure, it was a lovely sight, but was it really worth it?

Then the rain started.

No, this was most definitely not worth it.

She growled and frantically looked around for cover, which is what she should have done without a second thought when the thunder started.  There were a surprising amount of trees around, though most of them jutted out from the cliff at odd angles.  That wouldn't do her any good - she'd be more likely to accidentally tumble into the sea and meet a tragic (and depressingly lonely) death.  Banner started moving parallel to the cliff as soon as she felt the rain seep through her thick chocolate coat and start to saturate her skin.  Well, this was going to be an unnecessarily long day.  She shouldn't have wandered from Marauder's Keep.  It was safe there, though the tension among the pack's leaders was still palpable and awkward as hell for her to be around.  Why couldn't they just work out their differences already?  Everything seemed pretty cut and dry to her about the whole situation - just a misunderstanding.  Talk about it like adults and get on with life.

But things weren't that simple.  She sighed and spotted an upright tree a fair distance from the cliff's edge.  Perfect.  Well, except for that miserable-looking ginger-y wolf moping underneath.  Ugh, but she needed to get out of this weather.  If the other wolf didn't want her around, she'd just leave.  Banner shrugged and dashed over to the pine tree, offering the female beneath a polite woof in greeting.

The rain was pelting down, and usually that wouldn't have bothered her, but Pepper had been out and about for too long to find the beauty in it. The smell had been nice at first; before the rain even started and the clouds were clustering over the sea, with an easy breeze to waft the scent her way. The sky was always a curiosity to her - and the clouds, and the birds - but now, situated as she was in a growing puddle of mud and wallowing in her own perceived defeat, Pepper felt her irritation grow and so, glowering from beneath the tree bough, she was ignorant of the oncoming wolf.

Until of course the stranger made a noise, and she shot them a very unhappy scowl. It wasn't something she meant to direct at the dark figure at all - it was a look reserved for the damn sky and the damn rain and all the stupid weather, and maybe Hogan if she ever for the love of all things holy found him, and upon realizing this was a wolf and not a rain cloud, her face slipped in to something akin to passive shock.

The bristling sensation she felt across her body was brief, and anyways she couldn't exactly go all spike-ball-mode when she was slicked with rain. Instead she loosed a small sigh and turned to regard the dripping rain for a moment, and then mindfully scootched over so the dark wolf could get under the tree properly; it was the right thing to do. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Pepper murmured, I haven't seen rain like this in forever.

Normally the scowl thrown her way would have given Banner pause, but in the middle of a storm she really didn't give a damn.  The look only lasted for a split second, though, so she didn't bother responding.  It wasn't like she'd expected every wolf she came across to be enthusiastic to meet her.  Experience already told her that wasn't the case.  No matter, she'd make due with the situation.  If necessary, she'd just up and leave.

The red-toned female moved over to make room for Banner, which was as unexpected as it was appreciated.  The short female gave a curt nod to her newfound company before plopping down on her rear below the pine tree they now shared.  She heaved a sigh as she found herself beginning to relax despite the unfamiliar situation.  Though soaked through to the bone, Banner was grateful for the partially dry space.  Besides, her slick coat was basically clean now, right?  Er.. right.

"We needed it," she commented, only realizing how bland and stupid it sounded after the words had already come out.  Ugh.  Banner turned to the ginger female, her face twisted into some kind of weird half-frown, half-apologetic smile.  Hell, it probably made her look a like a grotesque weirdo.  "Er.. sorry.  I'm Banner," she offered quietly, her green gaze falling down to the ground between them awkwardly.

Banner. What a strange name. She didn't comment on that though, it wasn't right. Nobody had any say in what their parents called them - well, except for her, maybe, since she'd long ago adopted a different name to make up for being called Virga. Parents though, what could they be thinking? Pepper's face lit with a brief smile, a friendly expression, hiding away her curiosity, and she responded in kind: Pepper. Or Pep, or.. I dunno, I'm sure you can think of something, everyone does. 

Then again, it wasn't like they'd become best buds under here. The rain wasn't about the let up as far as she could tell, so they'd have hours to wallow and get to know one another — not that Pepper cared either way. Her brain was going through the various scenarios rather quickly, all while she was looking with a baleful eye upon the sheets of rain falling (thankfully) just out of reach of the pine branches.

I hope it ends soon, I was hoping to reach the mountains at the very least, which, okay, that was a lie, but she was trying to make small talk and Pepper wasn't exactly known for being a social butterfly. She knew how to identify sixty different plants, track a ridiculous number of animals, and maybe even judge the weather - not that this moment was a good indicator but glossing over that - but make her talk to a stranger for any lengthy period, and things went a little wonky. Pepper chose that moment to glance at Banner, try to get a read on her, but all she saw was a dark pit and the occasional shine of her eyes, so she looked back out at the rain. Or maybe I'll go to the beach.

She hadn't lifted her eyes from the ground between her paws, but Banner did appreciate that the female beside her didn't comment on how goddamned awkward she was.  She offered a couple thumps of her dark tail when Pepper gave her name, though she didn't respond verbally.  Pepper.  Oh, she hoped she didn't screw up and forget this one like she had with so many others.  Her mind worked more like a jumbled pile of randomly collected data rather than a neat, organized list.  Digging through that pile for one nugget of information had almost never worked out in her favor, especially if she were put on the spot.  But she could always hope for the best.

The ear closest to the gingery female flicked when the mountains were mentioned.  Banner assumed she meant the Sunspire Mountain range, mostly because it was the closest one to them.  Her gaze flicked back in the direction of her home while Pepper mentioned the beach.  Huh.  She hadn't made it out to any beach in this area.  The Marauder was a huge fan of water in general, so maybe she would take a venture down the coast one of these days.  With compnay, it could turn into a fun little trip.  Or some kind of unintended disaster with her luck.  Ah, well.

"I'm from the mountains - well, my home is among the willow trees at the foot of the mountains," she clarified.  "This is my first time visiting the coast.  Hell of a time to pick.." she trailed off with a light chuckle.  Banenr's gaze flicked over to her company under their inadequate cover but didn't linger when she found Pepper to be staring out at the drenched landscape.

Pepper smiled as the other wolf began to speak. She could hear a bit of unease within the other girl's voice, so she was mindful enough not to make her more uncomfortable by shifting her attention away from the rain. It wasn't the worst thing that could happen — although she had thought so prior to finding company — and, in fact, Pepper rather liked the rain now that she wasn't wallowing in it on her own. Its not so bad, she commented with a more cheerful lilt, her own tail thumping lightly.

Then, as she concluded, a silence spanned between them.

And it persisted...

Until the rain seemed to let up just a little, and Pepper grasped upon the slight change in tempo, greedy to find some sort of break in the quiet. Oh, look-at-that, maybe the day is getting brighter after all -- except then, the sky ripped, and the boughs above both their heads sort of sagged and sprayed them with a fresh array of heavy drops.

Only a few minutes had passed and it was already clear that Pepper was worlds better at this whole socializing thing than she.  Ah, but that didn't come as a huge shock.  Banner nodded in agreement that really, the weather wasn't that bad.  Just some rain, some thunder and lighting, and being caught away from home.  The cheerful tone of her companion's voice even made the air around the two feel a little warmer.  After all, she could be dismembered or dead or something truly awful.  With that kind of perspective, she was doing pretty damn good.

She didn't notice the silence.  Even if her mind hadn't been going a mile a minute fllting between thoughts she probably wouldn't have noticed the lack of conversation.  Silence was comfortable to Banner, much like curling up in a ball at the end of a long, cold day and cuddling next to a loved one.  Banner fit right in when no words were exchanged - she gave up any obsessive thoughts about how strange that was ages ago.  The ear closest to Pepper twitched when she heard an exclaimation about the weather turning around.  She perked up a bit, marveling at how timely it all turned out to be.

But then mother nature redoubled her efforts - and then some.  The short chocolate lady let out a very unladylike shriek when the braches above gave way to an unwelcome spray of rain.  Banner didn't move a muscle as she sat there.  It felt like her poor coat would never recover from this storm.  She'd have fur plastered to her body for the rest of her life!  Outrageous amusement bubbled up in her and before she knew it, the Marauder's whole body was wracked with laughter.  Pepper probably thought she had several screws loose, but hell if that bothered her right now.

The rain wasn't so bad, at least until it began to dump upon them and the surrounding area as if to make them drown in it; and the wiggling of the tree's protective arms above them made everything worse. A spray of rain and pine needles covered the both of them, soaking into their fur, and Pepper shrieked and shivered as everything got monumentally worse. She inadvertently hunched closer to the dark woman as if to protect herself, or maybe warm herself next to the equally soaked Banner, and then she heard her laughing. It was an infectious thing -- although Pepper didn't know why she laughted, because this was so far from funny, but soon enough she was also loosing some giggles and felt her insides warm with the affect. She tried to sit up a bit too, but slipped in the growing mud puddle at her feet - and realized at that moment, oh shit, the mud was spreading!

Aahh, gross! she managed between giggle fits, and then was scrambling out from under the tree. If there was a contest between being wet and being dirty, Pepper would prefer being soaked to the bone. Come on! We'll be glued to the roots unless we move, and it took some damp and graceless scrambling, but she escaped up the burm and stood out in the downpour waiting for her new friend to do the same.

Pepper's exclaimation caused her eyes to go wide.  Banner groaned loudly and wiggled her toes in the mud.  She couldn't hear it, but she felt the squelch of filth between her pads.  Ugh!  She stood up quickly and, due to the wet earth, took a second to struggle with keeping her limbs upright.  The only thing she hated more than mud between her toes was mud caked into her fur and she'd be damned if she went down in this mess!  Pepper was off in a scrambling flash of gingery fur to seek solid ground.  To hell with the rain!  They had bigger problems now.

Barking in the affirmative, Banner moved forward and dug her claws into the mud, which ended up being about as helpful as a rabbit fighting a bear.  She let out a strangled cry to go along with her frantic movements despite the grin that was still lingering on her maw.  The rain wasn't harsh enough to pose any real danger, but that didn't mean she'd enjoy being covered head to toe in a disgusting layer of muck.  A good ten seconds passed before she gained purchase on mroe solid ground and was able to haul herself out from under the tree.

Once she was up, she didn't stop.  Banner ran out into the rain and passed right on by Pepper with a playful yip.  The only direction she headed was away from the cliffs.  In this weather she couldn't afford to even glance at the dangerous slopes.  However, she didn't get too far away from her bright companion before one misstep sent her body tumbling down.  Momentum kept her going and she face planted into the ground with a pain-filled grunt.  Ugh, that was going to hurt for a while.

It was kind of fun, to be honest. This slipping, sliding, messy chase. As she was bolting, Pepper thought she heard something fall and hit the ground — hard — and she skidded through the rain to try and stop, and turn, and look around. The storm turned everything a dismal grey, and through the thick drops that fell haphazardly, soaking through her, she saw the plump dark figure of her new friend in the muck. At first Pepper thought it was part of a tree, because she couldn't really tell Banner apart from the rest of the murk around her, but the woman twitched and Pepper, gasping, galloped back to where her companion had fallen.

Are you alright?! Oh, oh dear, I hope you aren't hurt, as she sputtered this through the rain, Pepper tried to reach down and inspect Banner; at first she tried to pinpoint where her head was in the mud, and nudged at her with her nose. While she didn't know precisely what to do, she knew enough about simple injuries to check for conciousness and some broken bones. It was doubtful she'd be that hurt, but Pepper was briefly panicking. This was all her fault!

Banner found herself in a situation that was equal parts disgusting and embarassing.  Her embarassment, however, was secondary to the awful feeling of mud caked on her face, not to mention the dull taste of gritty muck on her tongue.  As soon as she felt a nose to her head, the Marauder let out a loud groan and threw herself on her side.  She sputtered and coughed, green eyes watering as she looked up at Pepper.  I'm.. ugh.. okay.. she groaned out.

After a minute she rolled back on her stomach and strugged until she was back up on all four paws.  I'm fine, she repeated quietly, more to herself than anything.  Banner now felt miserable because her thick coat was not only weighted down by the rain, but she also had a lovely layer of mud splattered on fer face, chest, and one entire side.  Good thing my fur is brown, she said to her gingery companion.  A strangled laugh later and she nodded to Pepper.  You'd better lead the way.  That would be best.