Snowforest Taiga según tu punto de vista

all welcome! backdated for beginning of august.
attn: @Alexandre, maybe?

would she be forgiven? that was a question whose answer could only be found with time, time that she would not spend idly awaiting trial.

no; if she’d found disfavor in her father, or perhaps even grandfather, then one of them would have to find her and share the news themself. yanín could not be less bothered by the situation if she so tried.

but that was in the past. 

the sound of a nearing storm was subtle encouragement to find a resting place. yanín hummed as she walked, otherwise quietly surveying the area for an abandoned den.

Scouting surrounding territories seemed like a good idea to him. Whitebark Stream itself often felt like a prison of his own making; the absence of the blue-eyed healer weighed on him as always, but lately it was more than that. Juniper still wasn't her usual self, and the Déorwine siblings unnerved him, somehow. He knew that their arrival probably meant nothing after speaking a bit with Célnes and finding it difficult to see a reason not to trust her.
As the foreboding clouds egged him on from the heavens, Taikon moved swiftly through the Taiga at a lope. He slowed only as he caught, and followed, the smell of a stranger. As he grew nearer, her humming made her position easy to target. When her form came into view, he was surprised to find a creature dappled with rust and chocolate tones. Hello there, miss, he said, giving a bow of his head.

strangely enough, yanín did not expect to be found, and was thoroughly surprised by the man’s entrance. she pretended for a moment that he went unnoticed, only giving him her attention after a brief introduction was made.

oh, hello, she replied, did i disturb you? poison thought that it might be nice to try a new persona; perhaps she could become a country woman, foraging for herbs. with this in mind, she made note to emulate her step-mother’s accent to the best of her ability going forward in their conversation.

Disturb? Taikon raised a brow, rather puzzled by this play at a meek attitude. What? No, of course not, he said, confused by the very idea. It was not as though he'd been doing much of anything other than wandering for the simple sake of wandering. He wondered, then, what she had been doing that would bring forth this response. Was she snooping? Was she one of Donovan's soldiers? She hardly looked the build.
I was just taking a stroll. I'm Taikon of Whitebark Stream, he told her, studying her expression to see what the odd duck might do next.

taikon’s careful, albeit subtle, examination made yanín think that he might be more curious than he was willing to share. he was unintentionally presenting her with a challenge, one which she planned to take head-on.

she decided to play more into her newly invented character by presenting subtle submission — half-tucked tail, slightly turned ears, a demure expression; would that be enough?

he made an introduction, signaling for her to do the same. chansonnette, de la jardin, little garden song would be her name. it’s nice to meet you, taikon.

Taikon blinked, hearing the name and becoming even more confused. What kind of monster named their child a sentence in French? Well, partial sentence. He supposed this was something that she couldn't help, and tried not to react beyond one of his ears swivelling sideways. The white male granted a small nod at her pleasant reply, his tail wagging once to signal his relaxed neutrality. She needn't be so submissive on territory that he had no claim to.
Your name, it's intriguing, he said, though he meant it's stupid, do you go by a short form? Chan, perhaps?
She was definitely a spy. There was no other explanation.

chansonnette seemed like the agreeable sort, probably passive or naïve, yanín decided. becoming someone so different from her normal self seemed intriguing enough. 

she nodded her head, giving taikon her most genuine smile. chan is fine, she told him, your name is also, eh, unique. where does it come from? did taikon have a story, too?

Chan's smile warmed him, largely shaking away his suspicions. She had an odd way to her words, an accent he couldn't place.
That I don't know, he admitted. His family had collected and studied other cultures and languages, so surely it meant something somewhere. Either that or his mother had come across the name during one of the raids. These were things he didn't think a stranger needed to know. My mother named me, he said, and even this tidbit left a foul taste in his mouth. His mother was nothing short of a... well, a word he didn't feel like thinking. His mother had also never bothered to tell him what his name meant. Frankly he didn't care.
Taikon looked up — the rain clouds were darkening over them. Were you heading somewhere safe? It feels like this storm might be bad, he asked, hoping that the young woman might have a good place to hole up. Though he hadn't heard thunder, it had been raining earlier and the air pressure foretold of something nasty coming.

my mother named me — as mother’s often did. yanín had to remind herself that snickering at the seemingly obvious comment would have been inappropriate, though she wanted to desperately to say something. instead, she echoed his compliment earlier, saying, i’ve never heard taikon before, but i will remember it.

regarding her sleeping arrangements, yanín’s plans were still largely underdeveloped. she’d left the consortium too short of a notice to actually plan anything; whatever goods she’d managed to smuggle away had since been used, leaving her with nothing but unwanted memories.

no matter. i will find somewhere here, i think, yanín told him, glancing around, do you know somewhere to stay for the night?

Taikon made a note to remember Chan's full name as well, Chansonnette de la Jardin. Names were one thing he was decent with after many years of very intentional practice. Though he wasn't sure what the name meant, it would be easy to remember because it was French and because he kept saying it in his head repeatedly. Hers was an easy face to remember as well; her mottled colouring was quite uncommon among wolfkind.
The white wolf shook his head at her question. No, though I can help look, he offered. Surely an old badger's hole or the hollowed roots of a tree were about somewhere. There was too much wildlife and too many animals for it not to be the case.
Taikon knew that had Aphrodite been with him, she would happily have offered to bring back this stray to Whitebark. She had offered him a bed within mere minutes of knowing him, he recalled. Ever wary, the prince did not share in her overly sympathetic nature. He missed it, though. How nice would it be to simply tell Chan, oh, you can sleep with me! He resisted a sneer.

taikon wouldn’t be extending any invitations, it seemed, and yanín wondered if that might be for that better. however, he was willing to help her find elsewhere, an offer which she appreciated much more.

she would allow him to take the lead, then follow several steps behind. how long have you been with whitebark, taikon? yanín called as a barely noticeable drizzle began.

The white prince gave a short huff as he started moving, Chan following just behind. She kept a reasonable distance given the pair didn't know each other. This he appreciated. Talking to her was mildly awkward from this position, however, and he turned his head around to listen and answer as he walked.
Knowing him, he'd probably end up walking into a tree doing this. Not long. Probably just over a moon cycle, he said. As he walked, he looked back ahead of him and searched both the air with his nose and the forest with his eyes, hunting for small animals and their burrows. Hopefully they would either find something that was already abandoned or at least empty. He did not feel like getting in a fight with a badger today. It's over that way, he gestured toward the river territory with his nose.

how much loyalty could one build in only a month’s time? it was difficult to tell. do they treat you well? yanín asked, hoping that (at the very least) she could get an idea of their leaders’ personalities.

scent trails were hard to track, save for the freshest and strongest; yanín was relying to some degree on her vision, though it was becoming increasingly cloudy as the slow drizzle grew stronger.

she neared his rear end and gave a slight bump, asking that he move faster. i won’t keep you for long, yanín said, now beside him rather than behind, if we cannot find anything, i will still thank you for trying.

They do, he said swiftly. It had really been quite gracious of Artyom to invite him to stay among his family, given how many puppies he needed to think about protecting. Had Taikon met himself in Artyom's position, he did not think he would have been so trusting, even with Aphrodite's blessing. I've long had some misgivings about pack life in general, but thus far, Artyom and Dawn have been nothing short of excellent. The Whitebarks are a family, and the strongest priority is the protection of that family, he explained.
Though it hadn't been much time at all, the incoming threat of the Saints and the disappearances and deaths of more than one had everyone on high alert. Though Taikon's warrior heritage now greatly lacked practice, he was determined to make himself useful should that threat rise further.
At the poke, Taikon huffed, listening and promptly increasing his speed to a loping trot. Very well; I'm sure we can find something, he said, and kept his eyes peeled. The conifer forest seemed to stretch on forever, but he could hear a creek close by.

artyom and dawn, leaders of the whitebark family. they seemed unlikely to have anything for her there, so she decided to leave that topic alone.

she could hear running water somewhere nearby — a stream, maybe? — but couldn’t tell if this was an intentional decision. sleeping beside something that could so easily overflow didn’t put her at much ease.

if this is where taikon left her, she would gladly accept.. then wait until he left to continue the search.

I couldn't decide what to do so I rolled for an outcome here

Chan seemed like a nice young lady, pleasant and thus far quite agreeable. She didn't seem to want to bother him, but to be honest he appreciated the distraction from his rather dreary day. Things hadn't really improved after the healer's death. Taikon was struggling with how to take control of anything in his life. He still felt like a leaf blowing in the wind.
He realized as they moved that the creek was too close, and he rounded out the direction they travelled. They passed several squirrels and even a fleeing rabbit that startled him with a snort as they moved, but there were no holes or appropriate shelters to speak of hollowed near the conifers they saw. The white male could feel the earth trembling as they went, and he started to feel rather uneasy. This feeling usually meant air pressure changes that might lead to thunder. Perhaps he should invite her back after all. Ugh, no luck at all. Maybe we should just dig something, he suggested, having no real idea how long a project like that would take.

trying to wrap things up — this is her exit!

they weren’t having much luck, which was to be expected. yanín didn’t expect many animals to be away from their dens during such unpredictable weather.

taikon suggested that they dig something, but in truth, she was more interested in leaving him to search somewhere else. perhaps there was a cave nearby, or something of the sort.

yanín cleared her throat then replied, actually, this is enough. thank you, but.. maybe you should go back home, to safety, and i will finish the search. she wouldn’t wait for a response before dipping her head as a goodbye and turning to leave.

Very well, Taikon bowed his head politely as she did, but she had already turned away. Chan was an odd creature. But, he decided she was not a spy. Or if she was, she was certainly a very terrible one indeed. He looked up at the sky. The sky threatened overhead. Within it was the water that would begin to spell the doom of his new home, but the anxiety he felt was dim in comparison. He trusted that she made the call because she would be fine on her own.
The world was empty. The goodness in it was about to be washed away. Taikon turned toward Whitebark Stream, setting off at a quick pace through moist earth, soon to be mud.