Firestone Hot Springs I heard there’s a dreamland

Snow was falling as the day came to an end.  The sky still had a dull glow somewhere near the horizon but the clouds muted the light.  It was dreary, and it didn't look like the morning would be much different.  Mal had gone wandering after a couple of scent trails at the edge of his forest and here he had yet again ended  up losing them in the stench of the hot springs.  Part of that being because he wasn't too into going too close.

The cold weather made it almost tempting for him to finally set a paw in the hot water -- as it were, the snow didn't last very long around the springs itself.  Even where he was standing the snow was far thinner than where his tracks were a few yards before.  It wasn't like winter was going to get any kinder anyway...  Should he?

He hesitantly walked to the edge of one of the pools, sniffed, and crinkled his nose.  Maybe not.  He turned away, frowning, but didn't walk far.

Assumptions relating to @Mango given the a-okay by Summer.

Squinting against the gently falling snow, delicate little flakes clinging to her lashes, Keyni was still alone and very much without a pack. But hopefully not for long. She and the ruddy wolf Mango, whom she had met purely by chance, seemed to have gotten on rather well together. Even if it was working as a team, to treat the fallen White Knight. The chipper male had even been nice enough to mention Never Winter Forest, and the small band within. He hadn't mentioned a location or names, which was fine by her. Memorizing his own scent was plenty enough for the infinitely patient tundra mix to go on.

Doing her best to follow his trail (at her own pace of course), she hadn't exactly been completely on track. Travelling through the snowy conditions made keeping to his scent difficult, while a whole new array of odors tangled in amongst it. The stench of sulfur that had been irritating her nose for several hours now, didn't help either. Her leg brushed against the rocky ledge of one stone rimmed pool, the heat emanating from within offering the tempting promise of relief from the airs icy bite. But resolved and wise to the consequences of such a dip, Keyni kept her distance. As she did so, the silhouette of another, gently cloaked by the snow and mist, flitted by. She turned her head with cupped ears, intrigued.

He couldn't bring himself to actually touch the water. He'd been fussy from the start about it, but in the shift in his attitude over recent weeks, it was just far too unappealing.  There just wasn't any reason for it -- maybe if it seemed fun, but nah, solo didn't sound fun at all so he wasn't going to do the equivalent of ruining his suit.  He'd just leech the ambient heat and try to scrub off any lingering smell that he dragged home with him later.

As he turned away, he then spotted someone nearby.  Hm.  Squint.  Might as well investigate.  If it turned out to be a Moonspear or Nightwalker wolf, they were pretty far from home, so probably not them. So he strode over, curious.  The diluted figure didn't fully saturate, even when he could see her clearly.  She was slightly bigger than him and totally unfamiliar -- but given their surroundings he was going to have to deal with just visuals for now, as he stopped at a conversational distance and still mostly smelled sulfur.

Hell, Mal was still trying to figure out who he was -- every meeting was still a bit of an experiment.  The way he had stopped had posed him in a not regal but at least put-together way, a change from previous months.  With a tip of his head and a flick of his tail, Mal mused, Well, you're an unfamiliar face.  I don't normally find too many people here though.  He was still trying to figure out what sounded cool.  But some of his last attempts had ended up going way off the rails for other reasons.

Through the mist, as the other came closer, the details emerged. He was clearly male, with a patchy patterned coat of light colors. His mismatched eyes struck her and despite his unique appearance, there was something oddly attractive about him all the same. Keyni was not one to get hung up over such thoughts, even if the season was toying with her hormones and testing her restraint.

Keeping her shoulders relaxed, she gave a soft wave of her tail, tipping her snout  courteously to him. "As are you..." She returned in her smooth voice. There was not a note of tension or sarcasm there. Just a polite, calm sense of inner strength. "It is no wonder. This would have been a lovely place, if not for the smell. It's...my first visit to the area." She admitted with a small little smile.

Mal on the other hand was pretty unopinionated when it came to other wolves -- or at least was right now.  There had been too much time spent panicking over things that he really hadn't taken the time to listen about what his gut said about girls or guys or whatever.  Would he ever realize it? Maybe. Eventually.  But for now he was kinda blind to it.

But he could attempt to be charming nonetheless by being kind of amusing. Maybe?  He was trying to be amusing at least. Ah! But beauty is only on the surface. I don't think much lives here -- everything's a visitor.  Or at least all the holes I've seen are ones full of water, not edible things.  He'd given up attempting to hunt here a long time ago.  It was just this weird stopping point on his way to wherever.

But that also made her the most interesting thing here.  Are you just traveling through then? If you weren't here a few months back, all hell was breaking lose, so good timing if so.  If she'd been around then, that would have made her want a pack, right? So maybe he could bring up his own pack depending on how she answered.  He was still kind of a newbie at the recruiting thing -- members had more often just fell into his lap more than Mal trying too hard to make it happen.

His attempt at humor was met with a soft, contained chuckle. "So true. It is within that truly matters." She could easily have been referring to looks or the quality of the water in the pools for instance. Or both. "At least it provides some warmth, if nothing else." Wisely, Keyni turned her back to the pool closest to her, allowing the heated air to rise up and wash over the exposed span of her back, while keeping her sensitive black nose directly away from the stench. Her jade eyes fluttered shut for a half second while a pleasant shudder ran up her spine.

Opening her eyes again, Keyni gave him that same small trace of a smile. "Yes...yes I am. But let me back track...I may misspoken." She watched the flakes continue to fall, only to melt instantly as soon as they touched their fur or came in contact with the rising steam. "I'm...not entirely new to the Teekons. The earthquakes had begun shortly after I arrived. I was...cut off from my pack." She avoided the details of the landslide involving Asterism Grove. "Long story short, I'm back to square one again...but I did have a destination in mind." She turned to meet his bi colored gaze, head tipped to the left slightly. "Neverwinter Forest. Do you know of it?"

A slight tip of his head as he watched her, If you find a second use for it, feel free to let me know.  As she lingered around the warmth, it did prick at the back of his mind. An idea for later, maybe, kind of fuzzy and not quite figured out. It was a puzzle piece that was on its own.  

So maybe just kind of unfamiliar with this section of the Teekons then.  Interesting.  He was about to go and offer sympathies about losing track of her pack and all that when she kept talking... And mentioned Neverwinter.  Pause. What? Uh. Yeah. Really well. That's where I'm starting my pack. What are you... looking for it for? That had pretty well broken his train of thought. A rather owlish blink on top of it. His first thought was wondering if somehow he pissed someone off and didn't know it and now they were out to scold him or something. That didn't make sense either, so. What was up?

She gave an amused little hum. "I'll be sure to do that." She wouldn't go assuming if he knew that such warm water like this worked wonders on tense muscles. The only trade off was facing the chilled air and having your fur reeking of sulfur. An easy fix if you had access to some fragrant plants, such as lavender for instance. 

While Mal seemed curious and perhaps even a tad wary, if she were not mistaken, she remained perfectly at ease. What luck to run into the very fellow who was running the show! "Well this a pleasant surprise." She said. "You see, a while ago I bumped into a chipper young fellow by the name of Mango. Purely by accident, by the Sunspire mountain range. We assisted a wounded man together and he was kind enough to mention Neverwinter, where a pack is forming." She ducked her head down a little low, peering at him sheepishly. "I guess I...got off course a little."

Mal didn't think just relaxing was worth the bad smell. How long had he lived nearby and not put so much as a claw into one of the pools? A while.

As she spoke, the pieces fell together, confusion ebbed. Okay, not all of it, because he wondered how to make this sort of thing happen more often. He relaxed a moment, brightening a bit, Well I'm Mal, and you aren't far now.  You'll find the forest lurking on the horizon behind me, he said with a slight wag of his tail. Are you hoping to just come by to say hello or would you like to be convinced to stay a while? Though his grin was returning, it wasn't as selfsure as it was before -- he was still trying to gather his confidence again. If this worked out, he'd have to thank Mango for sure.

The sulfuric stench was starting to irritate her nose just a little too much, which she made clear with a gentle crinkling of her muzzle. She was loathe to leave the blanket like warmth that had enveloped her, but unless she wanted her most valuable tool out of commission for a while, she had best move on. Besides, with tundrian blood in her veins, her thick fur would keep out the worst of the cold. She shot Mal a suggestive glance, before beginning to move away from the spot. 

"Pleased to meet you Mal. I go by Keyni." She offered simply, but shared the grin he wore, though hers was much more toned down. "That depends...I would very much like to get a feel for the place first, if you don't mind." Surprising herself, she gently but playfully knocked her shoulder to his in a gesture of good humor. "But by all means, feel free to still take your best shot at keeping me around."

He dipped his head as she introduced herself properly. Keyni seemed to be a reserved sort, but at least not all stuck up or whatever. He could work with that. Her bump to his shoulder was pretty telling of that. Oh, I certainly will. -- So, Keyni, if this place is starting to lose its charm, join me on the way back to the forest? You can tell me about yourself, and I can answer any of your questions about the pack if you'd like? 

Then his grin turned a bit devious, but playful, I'm sure by the time we get there you'll be convinced.  But was his own charm working? Who knows. Mal liked to think so but his opinion wasn't super important, so he paid attention to her response. At the very least he hoped this would be fun -- even if at the end she decided to just say hi to Mango and leave. Mal, of course, hoped to keep her around, just in general.

OOC: Phone post.

"That'll work nicely." She agreed towards his suggestion of putting this place behind them. The comforting shelter of a forest...his forest, sounded much more appealing about now.

As the pair began to take their leave, Keyni found herself with one question. He had after all, said he was open to hearing about her, and so she would fill him in. "In my previous pack, I began studying herbs and medicine.  But it wasn't my passion. My...talent is perhaps a little more uncommon. I enjoy studying nature - more so the health of our environment." She paused to let him absorb this. "I also am skilled in the enhancing of the mind...the spirit." Hence her own naturally so mellow but steadfast demeanor. She tipped her head inquisitively. "Would that skillset be something you think your band could find use for?"

And so they headed that way, leading confidently at a nice conversational pace. Someone who studied nature? Hmm. Given all that's happened here in the last year, I think I'd be totally in the wrong to say no to someone who can figure out how the world around us is behaving. Maybe if you'd gotten here earlier you'd have been able to tell us what we should be expecting. Would being everyone's hero be a bit too much? He grinned. But seriously, knowing to prepare would have been an amazing advantage to have over everyone else around.

The other thing was a little weirder to him, but maybe he just didn't have a grasp on what she was really meaning. Have it turn out to be something obvious when he was looking for the abstract or something. Look, he knew he was kind of dumb about some stuff, so better to just ask, What do you mean by enhancing the mind? Like teaching people to think through things better or something else? I'm afraid you'll have to start with enlightening me. He didn't dare wink or anything, but did flash another grin that he tried to add a sort of sheepish edge to.