Sheepeater Cliff Looking towards the sky

If I don't answer quickly I apologize. I am going to Disney tomorrow and I won't be back until Sunday. :3

Erika was not sure how she ended up in Kintla Flatlands, but she enjoyed the scenery. She ended up on a Cliffside overlooking the vast sea of grass that waved in the soft breeze. The zephyr in question was southerly, suggesting an increase in warmth as spring melded into summer. The clouds being blown by the wind were white and fluffy, and none of them any shade of gray. She smiled at the thought. No rain coming, a nice breeze and the sun hitting the earth gently. A perfect day.

She rolled onto her back at stared at the clouds. Her mother sang her a song about clouds when she was little, but she only remembered the chorus. Calling back on the words, she began singing.

"Et on montera, montera, montera
Mais je volerai un peu de plus en haut
On montera dans les nuages car la vue est plus jolie
Ici en haut ma chérie
Ça ne sera pas longtemps maintenant, ça ne sera pas longtemps maintenant."

This is open to anyone, correct? If not let me know and I can delete this! ^^ @Helena he got a bit sidetracked heh

Loping along at a leisurly pace, Dante stared at the lands around him, trying to take them in. It truly was a breathtaking sight. He liked to savor these things, unlike his companion who had dashed on ahead. It was she he was going to meet up with once more, but when he caught the scent of another mingling with hers, he stopped, considering. He wanted to get back to her before her exuberant nature got her into trouble, but it would be nice to meet another from the area. Dante didn't have many friends but it was his opinion that once could never have too many acquaintances.

Helena's a smart wolf, she can keep herself out of trouble for that long, he thought finally, shaking his head. After all, she had been a loner before meeting up with him and made it along just fine. A while longer wouldn't hurt and she knew where he was.

Decision made, he changed course, widening his stride until he was flying (at least for him) through the grasses. He slowed as the scent grew stronger, though, not wanting to alarm the one he was approaching. He reached a cliff and looked up it, wondering whether he should go up. He could hear a voice above singing a strange but pretty tune, a female with a lovely voice. Dante hesitated for a moment, not wanting to disturb her, but then steeled himself. "Hello up there!" He called, his voice raising only enough to get his words up to her. This way if she wasn't the social sort he could move on pretty easily from this position.

I am back. :) And yes, it is open.

Erika kept singing the song, trying to recall the verses and the melody of it. It was pointless however, she didn't even know the title. She just called it "Clouds" for the sake of it. The French-Canadian was going to sing another song when a call interrupted her:

"Hello up there!"

The male voice echoed in the cliffs, almost awakening her from her stupor. Rolling over onto her belly, she looked down at the wolf who had called her. He was large with a gray coat, white underbelly and a black back. He looked and sounded friendly enough, but she hid her face from him regardless. "Bonjour, Monseiur." she called back.

The language of the song she was singing was completely foreign to Dante's ears. Thus, he shouldn't have been surprised to hear her greeting also thick with foreign influence. He wondered briefly where she hailed from, to speak so differently from others he had met around here. That wasn't really his affair, though, so he dropped the curiosity.

"Hello! Mind if I join you?" He couldn't see her face, but she seemed amicable enough, and it looked like the rise had a nice breeze. It was a bit hot down below, the wind blocked by the cliff, and Dante could use a break. He'd been running these territories a lot of late.

She froze for a moment when he asked to join her up on the ledge. If he did come, that would mean he would most likely see her face, or ask to see it. And who knows how he would react? Most of the wolves she met her reacted negatively, be it fear or defensively, like Jinx. She rarely got a different reaction, only twice to be precise. Erika took a deep breath. Vous pouvez le faire, vieille fille. Voici à l'espoir qu'il ne sera pas faible et tomber de la corniche quand il vous voit.

"Of course you may, Monsieur." she called back.

Dante continued to look up, listening for a response. For a moment, he wondered if she was going to tell him to beat it. Not that he would blame her for that, it was a beautiful day, and some didn't appreciate strangers cluttering the air with talk. However, it didn't seem like that would be the case, for a response came only a few moments later.

Dante rounded the cliffs, figuring there must be a path on the other side that led up there. After all, she had gotten up. It was only a short time before he found one and climbed up. As he reached level ground, he approached slowly, stopping a ways away. The breeze was nice up here, and he closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the way it reached through his pelt. "It's beautiful up here", he said offhandedly, not really directing the words to anyone in particular. With a sigh he sat down. "My name is Dante. May I ask yours?"

She waited for the wolf to scramble up the cliffside, admiring the view as she did. The path up was tricky, so it did take him a few moments to reach where she lay. As he sat nearby, she turned her injured half away from his view, hoping to obscure it. He gave his name, Dante and asked to have hers in return. She politely said "My name iz Erika." and let watching the sky. If he wanted to strike up a conversation, so be it, but she would rather sit and watch the sky's constantly changing patterns.

"A lovely name. It is nice to meet you Erika." Dante smiled, then turned to admire the view, not noting the way she hid her face. It didn't seem she was in the social mood, so he was content to let the day win out. The break was nice and the silence companionable rather than awkward. However, after a time, his curiosity won out. He wasn't used to being the more conversational in a group.

"If you don't mind me asking, do you reside in a pack here?" He wouldn't mind if she shot down his questions. After all, he had disturbed her quiet. She had every right to be annoyed with chatter. The question was innocuous enough.

The two were silent for a while, both admiring the view from the cliffs. She was content to just sit there quietly until Dante struck up a conversation. He inquired on her status here, but asked the question in such a way that left her open to decline. She was not one to refuse such an innocent question, so she answered. "I belong to ze Silvertip Mountain pack. It'z off to ze southwest." she gestured to the outline of the mountain peak.

Dante heard her answer with interest. "Mountains, huh? This land has quite a few of those it seems." Not that he minded. He hailed from the mountains, they actually made him feel much safer than the open plains he had traversed before coming here. "So you have a predilection for high places?" He got up and walked over to the cliffs edge, looking down, then out. "They do make for beautiful vantage points. Smells like summer," he added, taking a deep, appreciative breath.

"I am training to be a naturalist, so I tend to stay in high places to observe ze weather." She admitted, sweeping her gaze across the flatlands that rolled below them. She wasn't much for high places since she was born and bred underneath trees and flat land, but it was helpful for her to climb up to high peaks. And the high places gave her a clear view of Teekon Wilds, which was a beautiful place from up above. "Zough, I do like ze views."

"A naturalist? What exactly does that entail?" Dante asked, curious. In his old pack there had been four ranks: Commander, General, Warrior, and, if you were lucky, Scout. The Obscurum were of the mind that strength was all that mattered, spurning the rest. He knew that Healers existed in other packs, but Naturalist was not one that he had ever run across.

"The views are wonderful." He agreed, smiling, then hesitated to speak again. He didn't want to get to personal if she was uncomfortable with such things, but he really wanted to ask. Heck, the worst she could do was not answer. "Pardon my asking, but where do you hail from? I have never heard one speak as you do. If the question offends, I apologize." He would hate if it were something she was annoyed with answering or self conscious about. He liked her voice, though. It was unique.

Erika's brow raised quizzically. Un autre loup qui ne sait pas ce qu'est un naturaliste? La superficie par ici est beaucoup plus sauvage que retour à la maison." She thought with sudden contempt. A lot of the wolves she met on this coast came from packs that never had a naturalist, sometimes they went along without a healer! How did they survive? "A naturalist is a wolf zat studies ze weather and ze lunar cycles in order to see 'ow zey impact ze pack." She explained simply. True it was a bit more complicated than that, but there was no point in going into the details and history of it with him.

Once again there was the question of her origin. She did not blame them for asking, but it got so tedious sometimes. She sighed and answered him. "I am from a place far east of 'ere, where ze sun rises from ze ocean instead of setting into it. We speak two languages zere, Français or French, and ze language I am speaking to you now. We call zis 'la langue commune', ze common language."

"That makes sense, sounds like an important task." The weather was a force that affected all and could be deadly if not properly watched or dealt with. Dante was less sure on the lunar cycles, but then again, he wasn't very well a Naturalist,was he? If she knew the significance, obviously then she deserved to hold the rank.

She didn't seem angry at his question, just annoyed. Dante would take it. Obviously she was posed the question often from her reaction, but she answered kindly enough, so he didn't worry about it. Wow that seemed a long ways away. He wanted to ask how she had gotten here, but he knew he wouldn't really appreciate that sort of delving were it him answering, so refrained. If she had wanted to elaborate, she would have. Instead he focused on the other part. "That language, Français, that was what you were singing in, was it not? It's beautiful." Dante's home too had had another language, long long ago. Apparently when they had left their ancestral home though the language had died out, and now only a few words remained to tell of the tongue, Dante's family name being one of them. He mourned the loss a bit... it would have been neat to switch between as effortlessly as Erika did.

Erika rested her head on her paws, gazing towards the shore. She had slipped away from the conversation for a brief moment and thought of the new pack, Wheeling Gull Isle. There were two packs on the shore now, and that was trouble. Maybe Majesty could employ diplomacy instead of fighting, but from what she had heard of Horizon Ridge's pack members, particularly this Ragnar, it was bound to fail in some way.

She was distracted by her thoughts when Dante asked another question, this time about the song she sung before. "Zank you." she smiled at the compliment "And yes, it iz a song my mother sang to me when I was a pup, zough I do not recall all of ze lyrics."

Figured I'd give a tie up here. If you wanted to respond to tie up, or wished to keep it going, I'm up for either, but poor Dante was running out of conversation XD

"That you recall that much is impressive. With such songs your homeland must have truly been a gorgeous place." He was enjoying this meeting, despite their brief conversation. She seemed much like him, not one for idle chatter. But he probably did need to move on. The sun was passing and he would need to find someplace with cover to stay for the night.

"It has been very nice meeting you, Erika, but I should probably be moving on. I will leave you to your peace and your songs." He smiled at her in a friendly way before turning to go.

Yeah, we could end here. :) Thanks for the thread.

She nodded softly, in total agreement with the loner. The disfigured wolf was fortunate to have recalled so much. It has been three years since she last saw the marshy, fog cloaked forests of her home. Three years since she saw her brothers, her father, her mother. She supposed that she kept the memories of the songs alive to keep them alive in her mind.

Both of them were not up for much conversation, a breath of fresh air to Erika. So many nosy wolves lived around here, it was nice to get a break every once and awhile. The loner stood and smiled at her, giving his farewell before turning to go. "Au revoir." she said to the exiting wolf. "'ave a safe journey, wherever you are going."