Noctisardor Bypass Yeah... that's right... I'm a gay robot.

When the lake had unfrozen, Spook had noticed every once and a while ripples would spread out from a place where there was no bird, no sign of something big on top. Fish maybe? He hadn't exactly gone and caught a lot of fish before... It wasn't Arbiter's thing, so she hadn't taught him to do so. Mostly he'd just chased them in shallower creek waters. They were very good at dodging someone very inexperienced at hunting the slippery creatures.

But this time he totally saw something break the surface from below before vanishing! And it had totally weirded him out. It probably was quite a sight if anyone saw the whole thing. He'd done a full on Wile E. Coyote double-take, he spun towards the water, froze, and stared, alert. Perhaps he was expecting a crocodile. A second or two passed, then he started pacing back and forth a maybe five yard section of lakeshore, watching the water, expecting more movement, but nothing came. The lake was calm aside from some distant ducks and a couple of leaves and other things floating on the surface. Certainly nothing interesting. Nothing happened. He started to look away, but then looked back quickly just in case. Nope. A controlled exhale. He looked back the way he'd been going, ears tipped back, and he continued on in hopes nobody had seen any of that.

Pheiros hadn't seen any of that. He had seen his friend but he was too far away at first to really be able to tell what he was doing. Plus he was excited to find him while out and about today. He had been feeling sort of down over the whole Ursus man probably not really being a friend and obviously too scared to go back to the valley and figure out for himself. He figured Arbiter was right about him, so going back would probably mean trouble, and he was not interested in causing any of that. 

So his exploring outside the borders had become less frequent; he never started out with a whole lot of confidence but lately, he had even less, especially when too far from the pack. 

He had picked up Spook's scent a short distance from the lake and followed it until he saw the other boy's form ahead. He picked up speed, eventually switching from a trot to a playful lope. When he reached his friend, he smiled and greeted him with an amiable: Hey! He slowed to walk at Spook's side. Whatcha doin'? he asked, still smiling. Maybe he was up to something fun.

I'm cool with this being dated either before or after pups were born, so LMK which you want!

So did he dare to go out there and try to swim and find whatever it was? Uhgh. It sounded... Not necessarily lame, but definitely not ideal. Again, he was no expert fisher wolf and didn't think he was going to have a good time flailing around out there. He just wanted a better idea of what it was. Pinkie swear! Fishies can stay alive.

As such, Spook didn't notice his friend coming closer until he was trotting right on up. It didn't startle him, but it was obvious he'd been entranced by what was out there from the sharp sudden awareness and change of attitude. He wagged his tail a bit. Hey! It was always good to see Pheiros. And despite his confusion at the lake monsters, he grinned in his usual awkward way. Uh. Something keeps happening in the lake but never when I'm looking. It's driving me crazy. I don't know if it's like a bird or a fish or some kind of crazy thing or what. He sounded kind of stupid, didn't he? But really, all he wanted to do was see it -- and that brief glance he'd had wasn't good enough. Spook paced back and forth once, then looked back to the water again. That didn't summon the thing either.