Shadewood hella raw

tegan took the day to travel a little north and do some good ol fashioned exploring. so far he had found, ahem:

nothing. 

what a fuckin waste of time. tegan had been here before and it was totally lame. well, kinda cool, cause he liked trees and shit, but there wasn't anything like super cool here. so that sucked. he'd just have to head home. ugh, whatever. he started back, ears pricked and angled forwards as he kept a look out for anything suspicious, mint gaze focused ahead of him. crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, went the leaves underfoot. 

well, at least it was serene.

@Skydance <3

The farther that she walked, the more she was thinking she was heading the wrong direction.  The scents had thinned as she went this far down the cost, like the majority of the population in the region was left behind her.  Sure, Skydance didn't necessarily want to live in the wolf equivalent of a packed city, but this was basically the void.  If she wanted to live here, she'd have to go and start a pack herself and she wasn't exactly sure she was up for that.

She'd been pretty lucky so far.  The cold didn't bother her through her plush pelt, and a wide array of small critters had sustained her so far, but that availability would be dwindling as the world slowed under a frosty blanket.  They weren't quite there yet though, even if she had to keep it in mind.

Tegan wasn't the only one planning on turning around, her own carefully-picked footfalls making far less noise. She'd been in the middle of looping back the way she'd come from when she'd heard him tromping along not too far away so Skydance veered to meet him.  Maybe whoever that was would have a better sense of what was around here so she could head in the right direction.  Or not.  Her luck had mostly been "not."  She rounded a copse and he came into view -- a guy around her own age at least, not that weirder older guy way back ages ago.  Skydance stopped then called out to accompany a few amiable lashes of her tail, Excuse me?

oh shit. that was a baaaaad bitch. 

some hot ass yearling appeared literally out of nowhere, materializing out of thin air from behind one of the trees and calling out for him. oh fuck, take him out right there, he was so happy he could die. tegan was certain that this was one of those females that colt was saying you just knew had it. this bitch had it, and tegan muhfuckin wanted it.

but, cool as ever, his excitement for the broad before him was concealed to a mere prick of his ears, which cupped forwards in her direction. "what's up?" he returned, his own tail waving casually behind him, "you good?"

And then there was that moment where she was wondering if her ears were lying to her or if her brain just shorted out a second with the second thing he said.  It wasn't what she expected someone to say.  The more she was out here, the more she had to wonder just how far she'd walked from home because damn near every encounter had something weird.  But maybe she'd just misheard.  Either way, at least this guy was giving off some pretty normal vibes in comparison to certain others.  Thankfully.

Regardless, Skydance would continue to attempt to stay to prim and proper dialog -- or at least polite since she was basically expecting things to go far off the rails after the fist two exchanges.  She dipped her head formally, Yes, I was wondering -- are you from around here?  I think I've gone too far, it doesn't seem like there's many people around compared to the east.

he could've said something way weirder. that's all i'm saying.

"yeah," tegan returned with a bob of his head, "a few territories south-- and yeah, we're the only pack this far west." he had actually never really thought too hard about the second part all that much-- the plateau saw it's share of drama from within the borders, they didn't need the harassment of other packs. oh, well, he guessed that's why they left thee caldera to begin with. whatever.

"you looking for west, then?" he clarified. he wasn't positive he could point her in the right direction right now but... if they got outta this gah damn forest then he definitely could. "the coast is dope too." last time he checked, anyway, the place had been teeming with wolves. although drageda was the only pack he was aware of.

So it did seem like she'd gone too far, though it wasn't like the other side of the mountains had given her much luck.  I'm looking for where I might find more packs, wherever that is.  Sigh.  I haven't had great luck finding wolves that could give me the lay of the land.  It makes it hard to find out anything when they're odd ducks or not paying attention to the world around them.  How else could her luck have been explained?  She saw them but sometimes didn't get a response, or they were just weird.  Maybe her brain had just tripped over itself earlier -- this guy didn't seem too weird.  More like she was expecting in fact.  Now why hadn't someone like him shown up before?

But despite her ill luck, Skydance had to sort of keep some sense of humor about the whole thing or she'd go nuts.  She pirouetted, faux-examining herself as she did so, Unless you happen to see a sign telling everyone to ignore me, in which case I need it removed.  She stopped with a catlike final flick of her tail.

tegan perked up a bit at his newly found broads comment. "lucky day, i guess, i know this whole side of the country like the back of my paw," he beamed, bobbing his head to the side to motion to her to follow him. he, of course, chuffed in amusement at her self-examination, taking the moment of her distraction to take a good look at her. she was definitely one of those wolves that just had it. he was certain. 

"maybe that's your problem," he returned with a broad grin, and when she made to follow him he took her in the direction from which he'd come. and then he'd point her in the right direction. 

"i'm tegan," he introduced with a charming grin, glancing her way with a bright pair of seafoam eyes, "of the red hawk clan." easy enough stuff, tegan figured.

The one other bad thing about her spin was that it meant that she wasn't paying attention to what he was doing and at least for now remained oblivious to how he looked at her.  It wasn't like she'd necessarily notice even without it, though, there were certain things she was pretty naive about -- it wasn't like she was a particularly experienced wolf.  Well then if you know everything, by all means tell me what should I be checking out?  What should I avoid?  She'd been fumbling around so far and was still alive.  That was a good start, wasn't it?  Anyway, wouldn't hurt to tag along a little, would it?  Getting back on track would be nice.

She followed along near him, a step or two behind so that he could point the way, You may call me Skydance -- from Spirecrown, she said, keeping her more formal full title to herself.  It's not like she really went by it anyway since it was far too long to be wrangled in ordinary conversations.