Heron Lake Plateau Breakaway

One of the good things about growing up was that freedom was a thing!  There were more times when they were allowed to wander on their own, where even Vasa escaped the clutches of her siblings (or they avoided her, just in case she was up to trouble again).  This was one of those times.  She'd galloped along in the snow, quite enjoying the rush of the wind through her fur as she darted along without much of a target in mind.

But there were still limits.  She'd pretty much run out of room to well, run.  Her pace slowed, and she stared across the partially-frozen river that separated the territory from the Isle.  Though if there was some chaos among the pups it was probably her fault, it was minor things that weren't really some huge breech of the rules.  Going past the borders?  Yeah, even she wasn't quite up for that yet.  She sniffed around, trying to figure out who'd been by -- if there was anything interesting to investigate.  Not really much there, just a lot of family and stuff.  Some day she'd get to go adventuring too. Hmm.

Vasa turned and trotted towards at a shallow angle away from the borders.  Winter totally seemed more boring than summer and stuff.  The snow was totally hiding all the interesting things to investigate.

Fin was feeling grumbly that day as she went on her afternoon walk, per Dr. @Raven's orders. While the whole physical therapy thing did seem to be helping, the Blackthorn apparently preferred to forget that fact when it came time to actually work out. It was all well and good in theory, but in practice? Bleh. She'd rather be napping.

Fortunately, the monotony of her walk was interrupted by a speck of black crossing her path. Fin squinted a little, looking to see if there was a splash of white on the girl that would distinguish her from her sister. Seeing none, the silver woman grinned. It was the feisty one. Awesome!

"Hey Vee!" Finley called, resisting the urge to pick up her pace. She wasn't supposed to over exert herself. Just a nice walk. God this sucked.

Trot, trot, trot she went.  She still was kind of looking behind her in case something interesting in the world beyond happened to happen.  It wasn't.  Instead, the thing that drew her attention was a call from inside the territory.  Though Finley's voice was obviously familiar, she still froze, looked that way, then finally galumphed towards her.

Vasa danced once around her because she was still in zoom zoom mode, Hey!  Whatcha up to?  Anything fun? She tipped her head at that final question.  That's what this whole thing was supposed to be about, right?  Adventures and exploring!  Sort of by herself -- or without siblings so far at least.  Just taking off the training wheels kind of adventuring.  Sure, adults in general (especially parents) could be pretty boring sometimes, but maybe Fin would surprise her.  Not that things were particularly interesting just right here.  But maybe she missed something!  Okay, Vasa wasn't gonna just run off if the answer was no because she'd probably not hear the end of it for a while, but...

Fin smiled as Vasa turned and darted towards her, then proceeded to bounce about in typical happy puppy fashion. Raven's kids were getting older, but not yet old enough to love their childish energy and excitement. But that wasn't entirely surprising - her Wildlings hadn't lost theirs either and they were an entire year older than Raven's bunch. Oh hell, Fin was bridging seven years old herself and some days, she still felt that level of unbridled enthusiasm. It really knew no age, but that's besides the point - she loved it.

"Nope! Not up to a thing, fun or otherwise," Fin confessed, following Vasa with her nose as she bounced around, attempting to nudge and to sniff and impart other wolfish affection, but mostly just wagging her head back and forth as she tried to keep up, " I was hoping you were doing something fun and I could tag along."

Her ears drooped a little as she slowed to a stop for a moment, Oh.  She sort of headbutted Finely's shoulder then, thinking.  What was she supposed to do if both of them were just kind of being bored?  Hmm.  I was just running and looking for interesting stuff. I guess I'm not really much help then.  And she probably shouldn't try to drag an adult into her mischief -- things would just end up more boring, wouldn't they?  Maybe that was just because she was totally used to her dad being a bit of a buzzkill since Quixote kind of wanted them to stay alive and in one piece (shock!).  She tilted her head, So unless you wanna do that... Um. I dunno, there's probably some sort of adventure, but the snow should go away, then it'd be easier.  But Vasa had no clue what might be found now.  The territory was being pretty boring right now, and she'd probably have quite a bit of time to complain about not being able to find awesome sticks and bugs and other things.

It seemed the pup had nothing exciting up her sleeve, which was a shame, but not a disappointment. Between the two of them, they could come up with something. Finley smiled as Vasa complained about the snow and an idea formed in her head. "Are you kidding me?" she replied, putting on an expression of exaggerated incredulity, "Send the snow away? Well how would we pretend to be snow sharks if there was no snow?"

Vasa was very obviously about to totally go on about how all the cool things that were around were hidden away for -- wait, how long was winter again?  Either way, there was a definite pause to her preparing-of-tirade, blink blink.  Wait, what was she suggesting?  Snow... Sharks?  Oh, I bet if I tell that to Owen, he'll go hide up a tree! she cackled.  Brothers were totally weird, and though she just assumed all boys her age were just like him, that just happened to be Owen's personal and particular brand of strange.  Strange that she couldn't avoid poking at because yeah, siblings.  You just like dive through it or somethin'?  She sort of bounced in place a bit, testing the multiple layers of snow that had built up under them.  Some might be easier than others...

Vasa seemed intrigued by her comment. Finley grinned at her as she reacted, bringing up her brother with a devious cackle. Fin liked all of Raven's kids the same and appreciated the personality quirks that made them individuals, but the Blackthorn could appreciate Vasa's mischief on a very personal level, so she couldn't find it in herself to feel bad for the torment that was likely in her great-nephew's future. This was what sisters were for, after all.

"You make it sound so lame and boring," Fin chided teasingly as she gestured with her head for Vasa to follow and set off towards a new destination. "You don't just dive through it - you swim through it! And you sneak, and you creep, and you jump and you stalk and all kinds of shark-y stuff. We just need to find some snow that's a little fluffier than this." And she knew just the spot. I've decided it is so.

I thought I had responded here like two weeks ago, oops.

Her mouth shaped into a now-enlightened but silent, "oh" as she pondered how that very well might be.  She ran through a few more additional options in her head, also wondering just how well swimming through snow might work...  Could she just appear out of nowhere chomp an ankle, and drag them into the white void?  That might be more of a crocodile-type thing though.  Owen still gets to be victim of it later.

Well, where would that be?  Most of the stuff I've run across has been like this.  It's just... Everything, kinda.  She hadn't really thought that it would be any different elsewhere, but usually she stopped paying attention to the snow itself after the first ten seconds of going somewhere.  It was just kind of there and she hadn't sunk into it and disappeared unexpectedly so she wasn't wise enough to think about it.  Certainly at some later point she'd get sucked into a snowy vortex of doom and shriek loud enough for even Towhee to hear, but that's for some later thread.

"Hey, hey, fear not, I know of a place," she reassured her young padawan with a smirk, "We just need a biiiig opeeeennnn... Thataway!" Fin woofed as she sprang forward, breaking into a canter as she lead her charge away from the heart of the territory and towards the outer borders where the land was more open and the snowdrifts could pile up.

It took ten minutes because that's what I decided. Fin smiled up at the bright blue sky overhead as she stopped upon the terrain. "This should be good," she announced confidently as she reached out a paw to poke at the snow. The crust broke beneath her pads easily and with a quick glance around, she spotted a nearby drift that looked like it would do well for her demonstration.

She looked down at Vasa wordlessly and gave a nod towards the drift as though to say watch and learn, and then she dove towards it - disappearing into the white in a cloud of flakes. She was gone from view for a few seconds before she popped up again, just enough for her muzzle to sit just above the surface of the snow. She glanced sidelong at Vasa and grinned before she began to "swim", slicing through the drift like... Well, like a shark in the water. Because snow sharks.

Okay! she chirped, eagerly following after.  Vasa was already totally plotting what kind of evil ways she could use this newfound information.  Certainly she wouldn't use it for good -- that would be boring.

The youth, too, stopped and studied the snow in turn, trying to memorize its consistency so that she'd be able to find similar, unmarred areas later as needed.  It would be very important, after all.  Couldn't let victims siblings know what kind of trap she might be leading them into, after all.  Then attention went back to Finley as she dove in, while she watched attentively, ears pinned forward.  Interesting!  Seemed simple enough... Probably.

Okay!  She gave it some though, a sharp nod.  RIGHT.  Time to go for this nonsense!  And fwoomp, she went! Except... She didn't poke her nose back up.  Vasa had just outright disappeared, and from roughly even with the surface of the sea snow, it was hard to see the hole she'd left.  Instead of snow shark, maybe she was more like snow-moray-eel, hidden away in her cavern.  There were some noises of her shuffling about, but no sign of distress.  Or was there? She was probably just being a twit.

Fin had forgotten how much fun this was. She needed to show her kids sometime. Though, they might not really care for the game. They were all getting a bit old for things like this, which was a small bummer. But, it just meant that she and Twig would need to make a new batch of them whenever her time came. Just replace the boring old kids with new, fun ones!

Vasa would do in the meantime. Fin sharked her way in a half circle and paused to watch as the girl went diving into the snowdrift. She laughed as the black pup disappeared into white, then began to shark her way over to where she'd vanished. She continued to smile for a few moments longer until the girl continued to not resurface, at which point she began to frown. She hadn't just killed her kid's kid had she? Oh hell, Raven was gonna be pissed.

"Vee? Y'alright?" she called, sharking a little closer to where Vasa had disappeared.

Apparently somewhere beneath the spot Vasa had chosen, there had probably been a dead bush that decayed away or maybe a labyrinth of above-ground-below-snow tunnels dug by some small prey item because she was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to collapse that much.  Either way, if there was any forensic evidence, the youth had pretty much smashed all  of it.  Hopefully nobody was using those tunnels if that's what it was!

One of the sides of the hole she'd made had sort of collapsed down on her, and part of the previous noises was her trying to backpedal out so her head would be free.  She just stupidly stayed there a moment, blinking at it.  Yeah, if Owen had that happen to him, he'd be screaming like a banshee.  Vasa apparently wasn't aware enough though to actually say something about it -- her dad would have been hovering around and would have dragged her out by her tail by now.  She was just starting to get herself back together and remember what she was going to be doing when Fineley called.  Um.  Yeah.  It's really deep...  She tried poking her head up and eventually some black ears would be easily visible.

Fin frowned when she heard Vasa's voice, but still couldn't spot her. It was at least reassuring that she could speak, and also that she said she was fine. But it wasn't until Finley spotted two little black triangles peeking out above the white that she began to laugh with relief. And with humor. Because it was kind of silly.

"I see that," Fin commented as she began to shark her way over, "Hold on, let's get you out of there." With some effort, she managed to shark a nice crevice in the snow over to where Vasa was buried. She figured as long as she was able to clear out the snow between herself and the pup, she could shark her way back to more level ground and Vasa could follow in the path she cleared. Assuming she didn't bury the kid in the attempt.

"Alright, you're gonna follow me, but keep your eyes shut for a second until I tell you when," she instructured before using her forelegs to start clearing away the snow that divided them.

If Vasa had been on her own, chances are she would have stayed stuck for a bit and just sulked.  Yeah, it wasn't quicksand so she probably would be able to find her way out on her own eventually, but having help was faster and at least since Finley found the whole thing funny, it killed the sulking aspect a little too.  That was probably good.

Okay, she also wasn't the greatest at following instructions when it came to something that kept her kind of on the sidelines.  Though she had her eyes tightly shut for maybe five seconds, she totally had to dare to peek because of course she did -- even if that would be more typical of a slightly younger pup but dangit she was nosy.  Now whether or not that meant she'd end up with an eyeball full of snow... Find out next post or two, dun dun dun.

Fin didn't pause to see if Vasa actually heeded her warning or not, she just went ahead and began digging the girl out. It didn't take too long for her to break down the wall between them. Once she did, she couldn't help but pause a moment to giggle at the sight of Raven's dark-furred daughter looking a lot more like her white-furred one. She decided not to mention it though, and instead reached for the girl's scruff to pull her out of her hole so she could follow along the path Fin had made to lead them to clearer ground.

At first it didn't seem like anything was happening.  Digging noise was happening, sure, but it took a few moments before Vasa realized maybe she should close her eyes now.  At some point a chunk mini-avalanched on to her, and she shook her head to try and knock it away.  Yeah, she ended up a little bit frosted.  Flocked like a Christmas tree or something.  Vasa looked a little sour for like a second or two -- but at least Owen wasn't around -- but hey, the rescue was ongoing.

It wasn't like she enjoyed being hauled around by her scruff any more.  She was getting a little big for that.  Like months ago.  Her front legs splayed outwards a second before her brain caught up and started trying to get her out of the snow, helping herself along as best she could.  At some point the ground had to become less fluff and more solid, though, otherwise Finley was secretly a wizard or Jesus or something.

Jesus was going a little far, but Fin would happily take wizard even though she wouldn't know what it was that had earned her the title. Things like that didn't matter much to her. She kept hold of Vasa's ruff until it seemed like she had pulled herself out enough to make her own way, then she let go, turned and led the way out through the path she'd made.

Finley paused to give her coat a good shake once she was back on solid ground. She looked back at Vasa with a grin and asked, "So. Snow sharks! Fun right?" She was pretty sure the girl was not going to agree. After all, things hadn't gone very well for her. But you never know, she could go diving right back in for round two as Finley would've herself at that age.

Vasa too shook out her fur, though not all of it felt like leaving -- she'd been pretty well buried for a little bit there -- but it was back into the realm of reasonable so honestly she didn't care too much.

Whether or not she wanted to go back in, though... Still kinda up in the air. Hah!  I didn't get to do much.  I'm good at sinking, not swimming i guess.  But whatever. She could try again as long as the snow lasted.  Vasa flicked her tail, pondering, Happen to know any more spots like this?  I might have some plans y'see.  And they probably shouldn't be done where there's big tracks across it.  She'd shifted from just being happy to sort of devious again.  Yeah, plans and they were totally not going to involve her siblings, nope.  Okay, whether or not she'd actually get around to it was a whole different thing.  It was entirely possible she'd just get distracted and then the snow would melt and she wouldn't care any more.

Finley probably ought to have questioned Vasa on what exactly those plans were. She certainly looked devious as she said it, which was a pretty good sign she was up to some mischief. But, Fin liked mischief, so she didn't inquire. She just offered her assistance like a good Aunt. Or.. grandma. Or.... really obsessive best friend to Vasa's actual grandparents.

"Absolutely! Just follow me," she said, turning, "I'll make sure we don't get too close and disturb the landscape." Fin reassured her with a grin as they made their way across the terrain.

Last post from me! <3