Shadewood o’ death

After Ashlar’s unceremonious burial, Masquerade couldn’t leave the slough quickly enough. She thought to return to the seashore to bathe herself, though her beeline northwest brought her to a stream. It sufficed. She spent an entire hour scrubbing her furs in the icy rapids before leaping clear on the far bank. With @Riley in tow, she ducked into the nearby stretch of trees to rest.

She woke the following morning, surprised she hadn’t had any nightmares about either Avicus or her ill-fated lover. Masquerade gently peeled away from her sleeping mate and spent a few minutes stretching. They weren’t far from the rill, so she padded back toward it to take care of her dry mouth.

In the silence that fell after she’d taken her drink, Masquerade could hear the distant crash of the surf. Closer at hand, of course, was the trickle of the freshwater stream. There was a chorus of birdsong somewhere behind her, further west. She turned her face in this direction, tipping her ruddy snout into the air to sift through the scents.

This is set on the 15th and open to anyone! :)

The woman had left and returned to this place once more. Not knowing where she was going or what she planned to do with her life. The only thing that was apparent was the grumbling of her stomach, she hadn’t ate in days it seemed but she came up to a small stream of sorts but what caught her eye was another wolf. Letting out a low chuff before continuing she hoped this wolf wasn’t hostile and she hadn’t just waltzed into a territory despite not smelling any borders

Her body followed suit and Masquerade found herself venturing deeper into the trees. She hadn’t gone more than a few steps before she stopped again, picking up a new scent on the wintry breeze. Her ears twisted and splayed as she peered around the woods, trying to pinpoint the she-wolf’s location.

When she spotted her, Masque licked her lips a little apprehensively. But not counting poor deceased Ashlar, this was the first wolf she’d come across since disembarking the rise, at least up close. She couldn’t resist the opportunity to approach the pale stranger.

Hello, she greeted in her deep timbre, pausing for just a second before wondering, Do you live around here?

The woman seemed friendly enough and she dropped her tensed body language only slightly as the girl spoke spoke. Her coloring was different from the wolves she’s seen her this far but then again she wasn’t a normal looking wolf herself. “No i actually don’t know where I am.” Or what she was doing apparently. “I came to these lands once before but left to find my family.”

But they had been gone by the time she had came back. So here she was again clueless as ever just living day by day.

For several beats, Masquerade wasn’t sure what to do with either part of that response. She knew where they were only in the sense of their relative distance to Redtail Rise, which probably didn’t mean much of anything. And she certainly didn’t know the whereabouts of a stranger’s family.

Her voice was deep, soft and slow as she said, Well, I’m new to this particular area too. I wouldn’t mind some company if you’d like to explore these woods with me. How long has it been since you saw your family? She paused before adding, Oh, and I’m Masque.

“I’m Elwyn.” She felt foolish for not giving her name first and foremost but couldn’t be helped now. “Oh, interesting.” So the woman didn’t know what this place was either which was fine. “Well I have nothing else better to do.” Which was true, she was alone with no family or pack to go back to.

 This woman smelt as though she did but she didn’t want to pry. “I left them when I became two years old, to find my place in the world. However I missed them terribly so I went back but they had moved in by the time I got back was sometime round a year ago.”

The stranger—Elwyn, Masque repeated in her head—was rather talkative. As they fell into step with one another and headed west into the woods, she volunteered more details about her situation. The similarities to Masque’s own left her mouth dry.

Gently shoving aside the absurd idea that the rise might do anything except prevail, she found herself asking, Do you regret it? Leaving them in the first place? Or was finding yourself worth it?

Masque’s golden eyes combed their surroundings, one of her recent conversations with Riley resurfacing in her brain. She’d lost out on Wealda but she’d been so certain that she was destined to be an Alpha female anyway. Now that part of her felt so remote—remoter than the rise itself.

The trees here were some of the broadest, tallest ones she’d ever seen. Masquerade paused at the foot of a towering oak and craned her neck to stare at the bare branches forking across the winter sky. Her breath sighed out of her in a cloud of curling vapor.

She stared for another minute or two, then realized Elwyn hadn’t answered. Masquerade dropped her eyes and saw no sign of the woman who had been walking alongside her just moments ago. Blinking, nose working, she spun in a slow circle. She tried to catch her scent to track it but it had faded.

She didn’t believe in ghosts, though Masque stood there for a very long time, wondering. Goosebumps broke out across her body, causing her fur to stand on end. She let out another misty breath before suddenly breaking into a lope, keen to find her living, breathing mate. She would not speak a word of this encounter.