Blackbeak Bluff Surfin' Dudes

Clark looked over the cliff. It made him shake all over, seeing the drop. It reminded him of how he didn't help. Of how he missed the chance to help, and his friend took the fall for his mistake. The wolf sniffed, the pain was coming up on him, sneaking up behind. 

Clark felt foolish for crying over the edge, he was meant to be this up and happy guy. Yet, here he was.

Just, when one thinks that he or she has seen all in the world, it put's it hand in the pocket and pulls out an unexpected surprise. A beautiful, golden clock, covered in runes and mystical symbols, a white dove, a string of colourfoul bandanas tied together, a card that you have just picked out of a deck or - in Wraen's case - a beautiful and very interesting place at the edge of the still green Barrow fields. 

She had found this steep cliff, when she had chased a rat, and only by a sheer luck (and sixth sense) had she ceased her chase few feet away, while the panicked rodent had not been too smart and steered right off the edge. There was a shrill squeak that was drowned by the sound of waves crashing against the rocks several feet downwards. Perplexed and curious she had drawn slowly closer, until she stood on the very margin that separated her from a very violent and painful death, if she was to fall down. And funnily enough the first thing that came to her mind - well, I am not getting that lunch, am I...

She had resumed her hunting elsewhere on safer grounds and happened to pass the same place again, when she was on her way to the temporary residence she and Maia had occupied. Now - instead of a rodent - there was a wolf standing there, and being in a good mood (it always is, when you have full belly), she made a little detour and approached the stranger. "Good day, to a fellow traveller!" she greeted him from afar, careful not to scare him. People, in her experience, could be jumpy, if taken by surprise, and being jumpy around this dangerous place was not the adjective you were looking for. "What has brought you here?"

Clark kept his gaze down. What was he doing? No one could have survived the fall...but he was sure. He was very sure. He had checked for a body. There had been no body. As he watched down, he almost slipped as someone spoke as he had been somewhat daydreaming. 

But, Clark kept his balance and put on a kind look. "Oh, hey there! It's a far drop, ain't it? Sure is cool, right?" He looked back out, over the ocean. "So cool..."

Wraen became suspicious the moment the guy stated the obvious about a long fall and a painful landing from the cliffs. And, though she herself was not standing on the edge, she took an inadvertent step back, just in case. 

"I am sure it is, but I also think that it would be wise, if you retreated a little or so. So that you do not fall?" she suggested carefully. "Unless, of course, it is, what you intend on doing?"

He shook his head. He didn't need to look down there. "Y-Yeah. That's a good idea" he shuffled back from the edge. He rathered not to get a closer look to the sea just yet...he'd rather do that at a shoreline. "I get distracted too easily." Clark looked away from the edge and to the other. Looking them over. "So, what might you be doing here?"

"Good," Wraen replied and watched in relief, when the man walked away from the danger of falling over the cliff. One could probably ask a question - why should she care about the stranger - but some part of her being would not be able to sleep soundly at night, with the knowledge that there had been someone she could have helped out, but had not. 

"Hunting," she lied smoothly, thinking that this was a very good excuse to lure the man even further away from the cliffs. "I was going to check out a mousing spot my sister told me about yesterday. It's not too far from here - you can join me, if you wish," she offered. "Name's Wraen, by the way. Who are you?"

Clark seemed to think them friendly enough. Why else would he decide to move away and trust their word...well besides it being common sense. And the most reasonable thing to do. His tail swayed gently in a friendly demeanor. "Hunting? Well not sure what you'd find here...gulls? I mean gulls taste nice." 

Mice too were good. Clark wondered if he had missed some mice along the way. Would have been a nice treat to have. "Clark. And I woud gladly join, should be a rad time."

"Splendig. I am sure it will be," Wraen replied, taking an inconspicious side-glance at the guy, to decide, if he could become a nuisance in form of possible danger in the near future, but he seemed to be a decent fellow through and through. Like clear stream with some underwater rocks, but nothing that would scream to her "get the hell away from him". Time would show, of course, if she had been right. 

"The usual chit-chat - how did you come here?" she asked him, walking paralell step-in-step with him.

"Splendiggity-dog" he said in response with his cheery manner as they began to move off. Clark kept right in pace with Wraen. Trotting along as they did, his gaze on watch for anything small resembling a mouse. "Looking for a friend. A close friend of mine."

If a stranger had a good sense of humor, it was always a good sign. Wraen chuckled at Clark's word-play and replied: "What does he or she look like? I have been in this area for a while now and met a number of people. Maybe I can help?" 

Clark paused for a moment at that question. The next second, words came tumbling out quickly. "Black pelt, orange eyes, a bit of red behind the ears. Male. Name's Freddie..." He paused again after catching his breath back. "A good friend of mine."

"I can't say that I have met anyone, who fits your description, but I will keep it in mind. Just in case," Wraen promised, knowing that it was very likely she would never encounter either Freddy or Clark again. "How did you part? Did something bad happen?" she inquired further, curious to find out the "status quo" between the two friends and part of the story that had led him here and his friend somewhere else.

Clark froze up on that. Did something bad happen? He thought back to the fall, the endless searching at the bottom of the cliff. Calling out his name, over and over and over. A short twitch in his eye before he was back. "Bad? Oh, no no. I'm sure he's fine. A little tumble never hurt no one, right?" he laughed a bit. "He's a close friend of mine, and he just went missing for a bit."

"Depends on, where that little fall happens," Wraen remarked, trying to make her comment as a wry joke, but also wondering, if she had misunderstood and the guy had gone through the rabbit hole and not tumbled down from a cliff. 

Clark's next words were more confusing than the first one. What did he mean by "going missing for a bit"? "Alright," Wraen decided that the more questions she asked, the more confused she got. "How long ago did he go missing?" 

Clark laughed at that, even if it seemed rather forced. To him, any mention of a fall off a cliff or his friend falling got him rather on edge, no pun intended. He just gently smiled at the question for a moment, before answering. 

"A few months now...I hope to find him soon, I think he just happened to wander off. He always liked to go off to new places..." he sighed at that. The new places that they could have seen.

Wraen did not say this aloud, but she had a feeling that Clark would not find his friend. From what she had gathered, the guy had either fallen off a cliff or wandered off and the bit about "few months ago" did not sound very good either. 50% chance of him being dead and 50% chance of him being far away in a totally different location. It would be irony of fate, of course, if that said friend was likewise looking for Clark. 

"Here we are," she was glad that they could conclude their conversation and get to some hunting. They had arrived to the place, which she had described as mousing spot earlier, and went off to sniff out fresh tracks. 

Last one from me. Thank you for the thread!