Otter Creek brass knife sinks into my shoulder

It was cold in those mountains!

That didn't bother Dusty. He told himself it didn't bother him, anyway. And his pelt was getting thicker with the turn of the weather. That had never happened to him before, but then again, the desert hadn't had much in the way of weather. Even their rainy season was hot, and usually not very rainy at that.

So he'd come down. Just for a little while! Only to find that there was frost on the ground down here as well.

Dusty was aghast and no small amount of concerned by the development. It seemed to him that winter was leaking out of the east, and down from the mountains as well. He had half a mind to go further west and test it, but he didn't want to stray too far from his friend in the hollow.

So he stayed in the foothills, splashing around in the creek in an attempt to capture himself a fish & chip lunch.

@Meridian

Meridian had been following his brother, trying to spy on him to eventually sneak up on him and try to scare him. When he had seen Dusty come down from the mountains, Meridian had started tracking his scent until he found him, out here by the lake. There was frost on the ground already and soon the lake would start to freeze over, but until then he too would appreciate it.

Meridian saw that Dusty was maybe trying to fish, but he didn't care and decided to follow through with his plan to scare him anyway. He stood on a higher ground that Dusty, making sure his scent was downwind so Dusty couldn't smell him, before leaping out at his brother and hitting him on the shoulders, hoping to bring him to the ground even though he didn't weigh any more than Dusty. "Heya Dust!" Meridian said from atop his brother

Being wet had never been a problem before, and so Dusty thought nothing of splashing into the water. It was not any worse on his paws than the burning sand had often been, and if anything, he found it much more pleasant.

When something landed on his back and forced his chin into the icy waters, however, he was singing a different tune. Shrieking, more accurately. A volley of aggressive yips and snarls escaped him in the seconds before the scent and sound and feel of the other creature caught up with him. And then, wet and shaking, he gave a half angry, half thrilled shout of,

“Meri! What are you doing out here?”

Of course, they could not see each other without starting a wrestling match. This was a show of the deep well of love that Dusty Rose had for his family. Sometimes, his cup runneth over, and it came out in the form of high-pitched yowls and gentle (but not too gentle!) chomping. Meridian’s ears were his current target, although they were not as incredibly large a target as they were on Dusty.

“Oh, but were you followed?” he fretted, jabbing his nose into the other boy’s fur to search for the scent of the flower eater, or else another of their siblings. He was absent of these scents, however, and Dusty breathed a sigh of relief even as his guilt increased.

“He’s been out here,” Dusty said in a low voice. “I think I lost him for now, but we oughta find somethin’ to roll around in, just to be sure.”

But he thought, just maybe, it was time to return home. He didn’t want to, but what would their fathers do with all of them gone? First Slow West had departed, and now him and Meridian both! Were the girls still at home? Any of the others?

"I caught your scent around these areas and tracked you down. You came from the mountains?" Meridian asked, not 100% sure in his question, though he had scented Dusty from that direction. "I was hanging around higher up on this river, when I caught your scent probably a day or 2 after you'd passed, I believe coming down from the sunspires." Meridian told his brother.

"No, I wasn't followed, I'd been by the river for a bit now, and no one followed me there or here." Meridian said, but Dusty still sniffed him to make sure. Which was appreciated though, since maybe he had been followed and didn't noticed, but Dust seemed satisfied that he wasn't after sniffing him so Meridian was too.

He got nervous again though when Dusty mentioned the flower eater having been around. "Alright, I'll make sure to keep my nose out for his scent." Meridian promised. "Want to hang/travel together for a bit though, since we're both in the same area, and 2 is better than one if anything were to attack us. 2 is better than one for hunting too." Meridian added.

"Uh-huh," Dusty said eloquently; he'd still not quite absorbed the fact that his brother had just appeared in front of him. Or on top of him, rather.

Meridian assured him that he hadn't been followed, which was all well and good if it were true. Dusty was suspicious, though. The flower eater was a wily one, and it wouldn't take much of a slip-up to have him back on their tails — if he was still around at all. He didn't want to press his brother, though; if he said he hadn't been followed, Dusty would just have to trust that he hadn't.

"Of course," he agreed on the topic of banding together, for two was always better than one. If he'd dared to do anything other than slip off into the night when he left, he would've tried to recruit one or more of his siblings. Meridian for certain. Perhaps @Lonesome Dove if she could be persuaded to abandon the others. Dusty'd talked himself through an argument where he told her he obviously needed her more than the rest, who would still have some sort of Adult in their fathers, whatever that was worth. Who was going to make sure he ate his berries and chewed his pinecones??

"It's been awful lonesome," he admitted, looking back up at the mountain. "I know Dad and the flower eater always told us we'd be looked down on, but... it's harder than I thought to keep my chin up. I ain't ever been looked at the way some of these fellas've looked at me."

And not in a good way.

Meridian nodded. "Yeah, some pure wolves have looked at me funny, but I try not to let it get to me. If you don't let it get to you, its like it didn't happen. For me at least." Meridian said. "Think of yourself as one way and keep that opinion on yourself solid. Nothing anyone else says should matter after that." He told Dusty.

Dusty was embarrassed when Meridian didn’t seem quite so bothered by the treatment as he was. ”I know,” he muttered at the familiar refrain. His worth did not depend on how the rest of the world viewed him — but it sure did make it hard to find companionship out here.

He perked up, on that note. Companionship had bowled right into him!

“I missed you,” he said, too much feeling behind the words. He gave his brother a tackle-hug to better express the sentiment, and definitely didn’t shed any manly tears while he had his chin hooked over the other male’s shoulder. “I’ve been hangin’ around this pack up in the pass, and they’re alright’n all. They let me hang around and they feed me and everything — but it ain’t like home at all.”

The coywolf looked a little melancholy once more, but as always, he was quick to turn his attitude back around.

“You’re comin’ back with me, right?” he asked, surveying his brother with a critical eye. Meridian had always looked just a little wolfier than Dusty, with his smaller ears and less aggressively bushy tail. They surely wouldn’t mind him if they didn’t mind Dusty, right?

Meridian let a pleased sound rumble in his chest, almost like a cat's purr, as his brother tackle-hugged him. He put his paws over his brothers shoulders as well, while he was half-pinned. He licked Dusty's chest lightly while in the embrace as well, to show his sentiment towards his brother. "I missed you too. It's quite lonely out here, haven't talked to anyone here but you yet really." Meridian said.

Then Dusty brought up a pack. Meridian hesitated for a moment, because he always pictured himself finding a mate and starting a pack around his family, but he loved his brother so much and didn't want to be alone anymore, so after that split-second hesitation that Dusty probably wouldn't notice, he replied "Of course! I want to be in the same pack as you, well, at least hang around the same pack as you, even if you're not in it yet."

Lonely was an awful word, but an awfully apt description. Dusty also would have accepted big or confusing, but lonely held a much more significant place in his psyche. They'd both been raised to know that lonely was the worst thing a coyote could be.

"C'mon," he said, ramming Meridian's shoulder with his narrow skull. "I'll show you where they are. We have to stand and holler for them, though. They're real particular about their space. Not like dad was, either."

Their father — Bourbon, and not the flower eater — had been as territorial a creature as any. But coming across an interloper usually meant they'd better show some belly and let him wallow all over them 'til they smelled like they belonged to him. Out here, intruders were killed — and not even eaten, sometimes!

"This way," he said, beginning to lead the way up into the mountains.

Meridian trotted after his brother, appreciating the headbutt as he enjoyed any touch from his brother, since it was a consistent reminder that they were not longer apart. 

sorry for the short reply, wasnt sure what to add. want to fade here and then make a new thread near the pack?