Emberwood you just don't have any--what's the word--talent.

Two days since departing the Peak in search of recruits for Kiwi's forming pack, Yami had pretty much given up on searching for recruits for Kiwi's forming pack. She had abandoned that particularly task in favor of a new one, which was trailing after the herd of deer that she'd found. She'd happened across the trail at the Southern edge of Dawnlark Plains. It was an old one, perhaps a week or so old. But Yami had decided to follow it anyway, hopeful that she might be able to catch up to them. There was a good chance they might be headed towards a forest where they could find some shade to escape the heat. Maybe they'd loiter there for a bit and she could get to them.

What she did after catching up to them remained to be seen, of course. She was just one wolf and she had finally accepted that deer needed to be hunted by packs. The last time she'd attempted to use the promise of food as a recruiting technique, it had failed miserably. But still, not all wolves were as fuckin' weird as weirdo had been. So there was a chance. And in any event, that was a problem for the future. They were still a few days ahead of her, after all. For now, she simply trotted through the aspens, eyes peeled to catch every sign she could that the herd had been through this way.

Fear no more the heat o' the sun whispered some random voice rising from the fathomless silence of Saarthal's mind, fear no more the heat o' the sun nor the furious winter's rages. The heat was getting to her. The heat, the ugly piss yellow colour of the sun (godforsaken thing) creeping over everything, crawling into all the crevices and burrows and nooks and holes - she wondered, absentmindedly, if this sunlight was light from the past in the sense that it was time-travelling light, as it'd had to travel all the way from the sun to this soil she was clambering so clumsily over; all those light years, all that time it took to get from the sun to this planet, and god, why was it still so bloody hot if it'd travelled so many light years to get here? how? why? - it was enough to drive the sanest of all wolves insane. And if Saarth had learnt anything from her very limited time on this planet, it was that she was far from sane, whatever that meant. Indeed, in the grave, one no longer needed to fear this heat, this goddamn "fucking sun should just fuck off," she mumbled, cursing, kicking at the ground, watching apathetically as leaves and twigs spat ungratefully into the air, rustling loudly, probably alerting everyone within a five mile radius that she was here. Fucking forest. Oh, how she wished she were dead; she should've flung herself off that cliff, she knew she should've. Fucking pussy. Ugh. 

Just a cameo unless someone notices (tags) him!

Heading north seemed to be the only option available to the ghost; he'd climbed down from the mountains and rested in the lair for a few days, but upon being disturbed by a child, he decided it was in his own best interest to keep moving. There had been no signs of the void creature who had assailed him since his awakening by the creek, but that didn't mean Mou - and by proxy Maegi - was safe in any way. Every little sound, shift of wind through the trees, foreign scent - it all brought to mind flashes of despair and a growing paranoia, so the ghost kept on moving.

He took note of a heavy canine presence to the east of his position, and tempted fate as he drifted north. When he came upon the moody mountain and its accompanying forest, Mou was hesitant, growing concerned the further west he tread, so he doubled back and ducked in to the emberwood. It was here he found some strong wolf scents, as well as an easily discernible trail leading deeper therein. The rustling of the underbrush startled him almost immediately, and so he lunged in to the shadows and stalked along with utmost care - eager to slip away unseen by whatever creature was bludgeoning their way between the trees.

Yami paused to sniff at one of the pale white tree trunks. It was heavy with the scent of the deer she was tracking, she assumed because it had rubbed against it. Satisfied, she turned to continue on, but was quickly distracted by a voice. Her eyes narrowed as alarm began to rise and she blurted out a "Who's there?" before thinking better of it. There was a lot of profanity being said, and in a tone that seemed angry. Her hackles raised warily as she prowled ahead, searching for the one who had spoken, even though she ought to have thought better of that too and just turned and left.

A voice rang out, slicing through the thick, hot air like a knife and causing vague alarm bells to go off in the back of Saarthal's mind. But then she promptly realised she didn't care, reminded her idiot mind that nothing mattered and cast her gaze around her surroundings to search for the wolf behind the voice. "Who're you?" Saarth grinned to herself, imagining all sorts: ragged, scarred pirate wolves; dark, broody, handsome types; beautiful dominatrix. Ah. The wonders of the universe. Bracing her shoulders, she plodded forward recklessly, fully aware of the racket she was making and enjoying every second of it. "Are you cute?" Saarth teased, pausing to examine the trunk of a tree (it was emitting a rather strange smell). Weird. 

The voice spoke again, helping Yami to zero in on the stranger's location. She trotted along the base of a small ridge, following the ground as it slowly arched upwards until she was on the same level as the stranger. She spotted the woman quickly once the land was no longer obscuring her vision. Her back was to her, but her head was turning as she asked a super random question. Yami quirked a brow as she shifted her posture slightly to one that was more neutral, though guarded. And, let's face it, it also showed off how hot she was.

"Obviously," Yami answered, quirking a brow as she sized up the stranger, "What's it to you?" That was sort of an odd thing to care about right off the bat when meeting a stranger. I mean, she usually wanted to know upfront, but she just looked instead of asking aloud.

"Cocky." Saarthal noted in amusement and turned around, appraising the stranger quickly, checking her out; an impish smile, roguish in nature adorned her face. "Hmm...I like it," she took a few steps forward, tongue swiping across her lips. The stranger was attractive, made more attractive by her sort of brash confidence - Saarth liked that a lot (probably too much) in women - and when she tilted her head just a bit, the light of the sun shone just right, bringing out the patterns on her pelt and the curious gold of her eyes. 
"Nothing - it's a hot day, I was bored, I wanted a distraction, you know, as one does - preferably in the form of a cute girl, 'cept I didn't expect to get so extremely lucky and come across one with attitude," Saarth grinned lazily, eyes glittering as a lopsided smirk danced loosely over her features, "and now I'm swooning and utterly disarmed."

There was something creepy about the stranger. Yami frowned as her question was met with a few strings of comments that would've made perfect sense but for the fact that they were being spoken by a woman. Her frown deepened as the stranger wound her way closer, causing Yami to take a step back as her discomfort grew. Homosexuality was something alien to her, and her inability to understand it made her instantly wary, instantly fearful, and instantly aggressive.

"What is wrong with you?" she asked, her face contorted with confusion and disgust, "You eat some spoiled meat or something?" Now that she had heard of--wolves going wackadoodles after eating bad meat and acting like they had a few screws loose. Maybe that was what had happened to this loon.

Saarth saw the hostility before she heard it, noted it in the contortion of the stranger's face and the deepening etch between her brows but it still didn't prepare her for the knife-like words or the repulsed aggressiveness with which the words had been flung. She flinched as if struck (having never been one of the lucky ones able to hide their emotions behind perfect masks), and then embarrassed and flooded with a familiar (but still nauseating) shame, Saarth retreated, giving the stranger the space she so desperately sought. 
Saarthal knew she shouldn't have felt so taken aback by the stranger's reaction, should've expected it, really, but she hadn't and so who was to blame but herself? She could still salvage things, laugh it off - but the damage was done, memories repressed and buried resurfaced, danced in the forefront of her mind; her stomach churned and she felt distinctly sick. For fuck's sake. 
But instead of running off to a river to drown herself and throw up as she so desperately yearned to, Saarthal mustered up a smile. Glancing at the stranger again, resigned, she said: "No, unfortunately this particular quirk of mine was something I was born with, although-" and here she found some sardonic sense of humour, a defensive mechanism more than anything else, "-I would gladly eat spoiled meat if that's what it would take to acquire it - a day or two of diarrhoea is nothing to suffer through compared to being subjected to a lifetime of dick-only diet." Here, Saarth's heartbeat stopped ringing in her ears, the nausea tentatively subsided and she found herself precariously regaining a precious bit of mental footing. "I think I would rather die," she continued, almost drawling, lips tugged into something that was not quite a smirk, but not quite anything else, almost a curl, and then with a questioning tilt of her head, enquired teasingly, almost mockingly, "wouldn't you?"

Yami could tell she'd upset the girl. Her attitude softened a little because of that, but she was still wary. She backed off at least, though the words that came next did little to ease Yami's discomfort. She frowned still as the commentary turned into a question--one that she chose to disregard in favor of getting away from this stranger and this situation.

"Yeah, I gotta get going," Yami murmured, stepping away from the woman towards a path off to the right. She didn't really have anywhere to go, but she also didn't have anything to say, and the trail she'd been on wasn't getting any stronger with time.

The girl didn't say much, didn't snap or retort or defend her views or question her ignorance or whatever, but muttered something about leaving and left. Saarth watched her go, hackles almost bristling but slumped down, exhausted when the girl was deemed far enough away. Saarthal's good feelings toward the stranger had vanished entirely, replaced by a sort of glum depression. Ah - well, whatever, this was the way of things after all and it was mostly her fault for having forgotten that. With a shake of her head, Saarthal turned and went the opposite way, eager to get as far away from the stranger as humanly possible.