Meadowlark Prairie Misery is contagious.

November 28

Rumor had spread through the wood that their leader sought information on another pack, one that Revui did not know anything about. He left after that; eager to stretch his legs and have a break from the pack. He'd gone from captive to soldier but that didn't mean he was loyal to them—nor was he all that thankful—besides that, all the time spent in the pit had left him bitter. He needed to blow off steam, and the task sounded easy enough.

He roamed due-north of the forest; judging from his starting point by the pit, he emerged from the woods and soon enough found himself climbing across barren red rock. Not even the snow had touched the steppes yet (although there were silver clouds gathering overhead which threatened to vomit fresh snow soon), and the blustering November wind had a biting quality to it. Enough that he had to duck and move with its flow lest he waste energy fighting the pulse of it.

After a few hours of this he found himself somewhere white. In the warmer months the meadow would've been rich with life, deep and green and speckled with all manner of flora; now though, it was a wasteland. He paced through the heart of it and stopped on occasion to sniff the dirt, scratch at the soil, pull at one weed or another—but there were no signs of life here really, nothing tangible or useful.

Revui left gouges in his wake, and cleaved through the snow with his grizzled body, at least until the snow began anew and filled those gaps behind him.

Penn was feeling mighty proud of himself as he walked across the white landscape. This was the furthest he'd ever been from home and while it hadn't been difficult to get this far, it still felt like quite the accomplishment. He'd spent two whole nights on his own and he totally hadn't been scared. Except the first night. He hadn't cried though! Except... just a little. But! No one would ever know, because as I said--he had been alone.

The only bad thing was his hunger was starting to get to him. He'd been able to ignore it for a while, but it got harder as time wore on. Elwood had given him permission to be gone for a whole week and there was no way he would turn back early, especially not for something as insignificant as hunger. Besides, Penn fancied himself to be quite the impressive hunter, and he had all the stubborn determination it was possible to inherit from his Blackthorn bloodline. He totally had this.

And hey! Looks like he managed to find some help too! "Hey!" Penn called out to the dark shape that hulked through the snow ahead of him. He had never been taught not to speak to strangers. Not that there would've been any point to the lesson as being told not to do something merely guaranteed he would do it as often as he could. But it might've encouraged him to take a little more care of what strangers he did approach.

Oh well.

There wasn't much out here. Snow, trees, some leaf piles being quickly coated in a fresh layer of ice; no scents beyond the almost-minty flavor of the deep freeze slowly progressing over the landscape. Revui was large enough to fjord the snow piles easily enough, although some areas were deep enough to align with his shoulders at times and without the persistence of good food, he found that these patches took more effort and work to climb.

The wind was picking up—the icey, slushy snow had started its transition to something thicker and more concentrated. Soon the srea would be overwhelmed with worsening weather. Revui turned against an onslaught of bitter wind and huffed, a plume of hot air rounding along his cheekbone as it dissipated, and that was when he thought he heard a voice.

It was difficult to determine where it came from at first. The wind changed direction a few times, obscuring any scents, but after a few seconds of looking around Revui noticed a grizzled shape coming towards him. It was like watching a younger version of himself trying to fight against the elements—except they were smaller, trimmed of fat, and boisterous as they came upon him. Revui stiffened and his ears slanted on his head.

He huffed, watching the boy.

Penn's call didn't illicit a verbal response, but he did at least get the guy to stop. That was something at least. He paused briefly to give his coat a good shake, trying to free it of the ice and slush that clung to his silver fur. It didn't seem to be of much use, but it was more of a comfort thing than anything else. He trudged further forward until he was near enough to the stranger that he wouldn't need to shout, at which point he stopped and put on his friendliest face.

"You seen any prey around these parts?" he asked, forgoing the appropriate order of operations by skipping over introductions and getting right to the point of the interaction he'd initiated. He didn't really need to make a lifelong friend here--just a temporary one that he could use for information for a few minutes before he set off again on his own.