Firestone Hot Springs mirror melts

@Bonario i almost tagged the wrong bonnie lol thank god i double checked

hot springs — like it couldn't get any hotter in summer. 

but Marija's body ached. she'd turn her neck and it hurt like hell! she'd mutter a swear and then pray to whatever higher power an apology for foul language before trucking through it. she was too young to be having these pains. was she.. dying? she'd ask herself. she hoped not! Mari had plans to have puppies eventually and live a long easy life, dying now would ruin all of that!

she'd managed to get this far, even with this wretched stench that invaded her nose from the steam that clouded her vision. a dip shouldn't hurt, no?

His time of hunting down the nearby deer and herds had taken him far. He put Kvarsheim behind him, without second thought, scouting ahead at the scents that dragged him onwards. The primal drive to conquer territory and rip apart the information of its ecosystem drove deep. It took him away. He'd not left their pack as a family, no, but his presence was absent for a time. The call of the wild was stuck in his eyes some days, sitting at the heart of their den and burning through stones with his sight.

Then they should have expected that he would inevitably have trailed off to satiate this need. His skin was not ready for settlement. There was a world, and he would cross it. Taste it. The birds cawing, the crickets roaring, the winds beating: it all dragged him into its grasp. Nothing would stop it.

Tracking through the whitewater gorge, he'd bounded across it where the river came to a narrow. A scent of something foul came from its direction, and beyond it, he was met with stone that started to layer. And in it, his vision fell upon something small. A creature strange. Immediately, he fell into a pinned stalk. His eyes locked, his ears perked. Her scent touched him through the sulfur. He found her look deformed. Petite.

something rose deep within Marija, the kind that churns the stomach and makes the heart race. the girl tore her gaze away from the water she'd nearly dipped into. while the wisps of steam that danced in the air clouded her vision, her senses told her — no, screamed at her — that something, or rather someone, was there.

she gulped the lump in her throat, and Marija froze in place, unsure of what to do. she couldn't smell anything but the insufferable stench, that made her give out a sickly cough. some of the wolves of this place were nice, cordial. but she wasn't sure that the pair of eyes that watched her even belonged to a wolf. and if it were that of a wolf, only the spirits watching her from above knew if this wolf was cordial or if Marija's nightmares would come to fruition. after what felt like hours of silence, she mustered the courage to speak.

who's there? it came across more as a croak than a bark. the damned lump had twisted her voice, and now she may have just embarrassed herself infront of a new face, or revealed her place to a new danger. she didn't know which one she preferred, so she prayed it wasn't heard and that the one beyond the clouds of disgusting gas was a friend and not foe.

Foul, disfigured creature. Did she believe she was fit here? Welcome? His hair stood on end, crossing over every stitch of thought in his mind and imbedding it to the fabric. So, she found herself here, in his lands, with what hair of guardianship? He saw none. None at all.

With a prowl, he came in from the right of her flank from the stones. What threat did he have? The leopards tail lashed and flicked, twitching at its end with flared hairs. He wanted to lock eyes with the creature. Closer and closer was his stalk; a bullet waiting on the trigger. He gave no answer to its speech. What was she? What was this scent? What was that face and nose? The draw for a closer look pulled him towards her with no means of stop. 

a yelp escaped her mouth once she'd been struck. the impact sent the dog tumbling into the hot springs much more suddenly than she had anticipated, and she finally had caught a glimpse of the stranger who had found a target in her.

and with that she wasted little time trudging through the water, no matter how much her soaked pelt weighed her down, to make distance between her and what a second glance at the figure that pierced through the mist was a wolf. words would do her no use, Marija decided. it seems to her she came across more doe than canine.

Hitting the edge of the waters quickly, his fur hiked and he raced the edges as if she were some kind of hunters prize. He dipped his paws in deeper, and yet when he touched it, he snorted and backed himself to a stop until he was staring ahead at her little frame and disfigured limbs. A small face, small ears, small tail, small legs, small body, small nose.

No more did he move after her, instead only watched her move across with fascinated interest with the peering of his eyes.

when the stranger stopped, she'd stopped too. well, not that she wanted to, but her legs gave out without much consideration as to what their owner desired. she could only gasp for air, for as smelly as it was it was better than nothing. a small distance aways stood her persuer, and whined.
and what was that for?