Duck Lake i like to think i'm Ibiza

Let me know if you need the location changed! :3 @Adeline

 

To avoid the headache of running into yet another singing woman, he left the territory. Just for a short while, he promise, for it wasn't Saltwinter itself but the idea of borders. He had never been one for exploring, yet, as his life had progressed so did a nomadic lifestyle develop. Traveling in the opposite direction of the great sea, he passed multiple packs along his way but stopped at none — that was no longer his need. Instead, he took his time simply looking, smelling, taking in the new direction in which he was to discover. Only one did he truly bring his journey to a halt when the wetlands merged into a marsh; a place that defied so many of his previous assumptions that he could not resist sniffing out. To say the least, his paws were not dry for some time after that. The hum of insects were faint but notable, and the collapsed trees that sank into the mud, sticking out of the earth this way and that way reminded him of spikes. Such a curious place, indeed.

When the wet lands no longer interested him, he moved on towards a smaller yet definate replica of the mass of water he had grown used to. Yet, it was not the same. This was a lake, unlike the sea he had come to know. There were certiantly no crabs, for sure, and to his relief. The boy came to a rest, taking large glups of the chilled water. Winter was coming, he knew. It would be his first winter — without any of his original family. Yet, nothing about the statement pained him. Half of them were rotting in the ground; the other half was simply gone. Not often he wondered where his sisters were, except at that moment in time.. he could not help but wonder. Odette had fled, he knew, yet where to was a mystery. Most likely dead, and if not, by winter if she had not already found a home. Adeline had been a ghost in the background since before they had left; he struggled to fully comphrehend what her name actually was. It waa horrible, to say the least, but he would not pretend to missed them. Peregrine, he had mourned and now missed, but a family he never got to know was something he left buried at the darkest corners of his mind.

Adeline had strolled through her favorite forest, and came upon their new borders. She lowered her head, sniffing the ground, but found no new scents to alert her that anyone was nearby. She was growing inquisitive of the world surrounding her, and so for the first time, she stepped out of the the territory without anyone to accompany her. She was still in the same forest, it was simply the part that was beyond their home. She felt safe enough, not feeling as though she would go far.

She explored for a little while until she came to the edge of the forest. Before her sat a lake, surrounded by flat lands and grass. She could if anyone was coming, but there was only one figure on the horizon, and it happened to be at the very lake she wanted to go to. Squaring her shoulders, she decided not to backtrack, and instead moved forward, her gait smooth and confident as she strolled up to the edge of the water, several yards from the male. She glanced in his direction, waiting to see if he would show any aggression. She made sure to keep her injured, but healed, shoulder away from the stranger. It was her first encounter with a wolf she didn't know outside of the pack lands, and she wasn't sure what the standard greeting was. Was she supposed to hostile? Friendly? Take a cue from him? She couldn't imagine being overtly aggressive for no reason, and so she waited.

At the scent of another, the youth looked up, momentarily surprised. His brow slowly furrowed, simply confused by her existence mere feet away from him. Whoever she was, she seemed a similar age as Jackrabbit himself. He really hadn't encountered anyone his age, for even the Fireshits had been the slightest bit older than him. Yet, he masked his shock with a blunt call across the span of distance they were at. "Don't you have anything better to do than watch me drink?" He scowled, though his voice did not come out as strong as he had hoped. This bothered him; nose wrinkled in discontent at his inability to speak with the usual tone that drove others away. There was no problem with himself, he was sure, yet in the presence of the female, he found a stir inside his voice; the way he spoke unable to bring the words with the right meaning to his tongue. She was just a silly, random girl; nothing special about her features other than she looked a female version of him.

She looked a female version of him.

At the sudden revelation, eyes flickered to the water where his reflection lay, and back to the girl, back to the water and back to her. Odd, he wondered, for one of his coloring had been hard to find in his travels; he had always assumed he was one of a different species unlike the rest. However, there was a slight suspicion at the back of his brain, one that itched relentlessly until he could not hold back the movement; and he found himself trotting towards the girl, eyes intent as he searched her features. It was curious indeed, and perhaps if he could jog his memory and recall that he even had another sister, he would have connected the dots. That was not the case, however, for Adeline had been a ghost to him long before his mother had been eaten. Many days, he found that the existence of his closets sister, Odette, often slipped his mind; there was no reason a girl whom he had no emotional connection with should remain taking space up in his conscious. Adeline was no exception to his selective memory. 

Without much consideration for the girl's privacy, he thrust his nose in her general direction, an abrupt action that no doubt would shock the stranger as much as she shocked him. Whatever her deal was, she would very well spit it out or simply leave him be, he had no interest in having his brains puzzled while Kjalarr was counting on him to put up his end. 

Her ears perked as he spoke, and then laid flat on her head as she processed what he had said. While his voice hadn't been overtly aggressive, his words were enough to make her realize he was not friendly. She frowned, but didn't respond to him. Instead, she averted her eyes, looking down into the water instead of at him. But, she didn't leave. While she was unfamiliar with the ways of the wild world, as she liked to think of it, she knew enough that he had no claim on this territory and couldn't really make her leave. 

Refusing to look at him anymore, she lowered her body to the ground, her muzzle close to the water so that she could lap up her fill of the cool liquid. She was content to ignore the hostile male, and almost forgot he was there, which was a mistake. The next thing she knew, he was next to her, extending his nose towards her. Adeline bolted up with a growl, her hackles raising in defense of the intrusion of her personal space. She flashed her canines at him as a warning, but didn't make any move to attack. Get away from me, she ordered him. She knew her fighting skills were nill, and didn't want to put herself in a position to have to defend herself against someone more adept. Was he? There was only one way to find out, but she didn't want to. 

She gave no thought as to his coat, or who he was, as she had no idea. She hadn't thought about any of her siblings in a very long time. Adeline had the ability to compartmentalize, and shove the hurtful feelings way back into the back of her mind. It was rare that they showed their ugly heads.

short post, sorry!

Clearly, she did not like being sniffed. Abruptly pulling away from her at her outburst, the boy himself skidded back to a stop. Ears fell back against his skull, thoroughly unamused at her decision to challenge him. Didn't she know how wolves even worked? Sniffing was a perfectly normal thing to do, however, her weirdness wasn't. "What's your problem?" The boy narrowed his eyes, yet, he did not scowl. There was clearly something irreversibly glitchy with her; probably something wrong upstairs, if you catch my drift. "Chill," The boy opted to relax, realising there was nothing a little girl could do to him. Plus, he was not about to be seen having a fit with some strange psycho girl in the middle of nowhere. However, the boy had an appearance to upkeep. He could also not be seen as some kind stranger, generously seeking her out to ask if she was okay just by the goodness of his heart. No, he had standards. Once the cocky smile returned to his face, his hackles lowered; "Plus, you probably get scared from your own sneeze, much less be able to attack someone like me," He looked at her with amused eyes, thoroughly undermining whatever capabilities she may have. He, on the other hand, had survived cannibals, death, life and psyco-child-murderers. The kid was invincible, at least, to his belief. 

The strange male jerked back, satisfying Adeline a little, though it didn't much show outwardly. But, then he had the audacity to ask her what her problem was. Her problem? He continued by telling her to chill, and then had the gonads to basically tell her that she was a scaredy cat. 

Adeline had had just about enough of this crap. She stood up straight, hackles raising as she growled at him. The only wolf here with a problem is you! she said angrily. I'm supposed to just let you come into my personal space after you snapped at me for just looking at you? she asked, getting up into his face. Sounds like you need a reality check, boy. Adeline had never showed this much anger in her life, and she wasn't even aware of where it came from. But, there was something about him that put her off. However, she felt she would dishonor her Dad by simply stepping away like a coward. Steady was no coward, and had not taught her to be one, either. 

Other than what her Dad would think, Adeline had no worry about what others would think, including the male in front of her. He was probably some pampered, spoiled, child that was used to doing whatever he wanted and getting away with it. Adeline conveniently forgot that up until this point, she had hardly left the protection of her home, so one might call her a little sheltered, too.

He was going to get nowhere with this girl. She was all rant but nothing to back it up; he had seen it before, and she was just.. smh. Now, he could either let her scream in his face about her own idiotic behaviour, or he could just maybe not deal with a teenage girl with clear and explosive social problems. The choice was not difficult. "Right. Well, feel free to keep opening and closing your big mouth while simultaneously making yourself look like a whiny little girl with clear social behaviour issues to someone who doesn't cringe at the sound of your voice. Good luck," He stared at her face, purposely leaning in in the tiniest fraction, unblinking with words he had rehearsed during her twitchy-freaky-tantrum episode. If this was what girls were like all the time, he was done with girls forever. They just weren't worth it. Knowing this, it was a baffle to him that people even went out and got mates. How did they tolerate each other? Jackrabbit's understanding of girls was quite limited and therefore reduced his perception of them on the display of emotions exhibited by the girl before him. Plus, Maude and Ondine had really done a number on him too. Girls were freaky, he decided finally. At this moment in time, Jackrabbit silently thanked whatever God was listening that he had grown certain genitalia instead of others. 

Pivoting, he simply walked away. He didn't really want to stick around and be seen picking on a little girl in the middle of nowhere. He had an image to keep up for goodness sake. 

"Maybe next time don't go outside if you can't handle real life, princess," Jackrabbit called from over his shoulder but did not stop. What a headache. Really, what irresponsible adult had let her outside? The next time someone tried to get her name, she'd probably have an existential crisis and flop over frothing at the mouth. She probably wouldn't be missed, he thought to himself grinning as he departed the scene. It was those kinds of wolves who just really put a stink on life as a loner. Always having to run into sketchy, hyperactive nut cases was quite frankly, not worth his time. Skipping along, he would not think of the freaky girl for quite some time. At least, not until he figured out who said freaky girl was. Then it would all make sense.

my apologies on jack being a horrible person/brother