Swiftcurrent Creek submitted for the approval of the midnight society

Tagging: @Kaskara :)

A warm September afternoon gave way to a cool, crisp evening. Bones fell asleep next to the creek and, upon waking early the next morning, she was greeted by thick white fog. It rolled off the water and clotted in the trees and grass, limiting visibility to no more than a few yards. Overhead, the sky was a low, ominous gray. It felt more like late October than the final weeks of summer.

Spurred by hunger, Bones began to walk away from the creek, heading deep into the territory in search of either prey or a cache — whichever presented itself first. She moved slowly to avoid bumping into things, though this didn't stop her from stumbling over a tree root and pitching ass over teakettle into the grass.

Momentarily surprised and winded, the skinny, scarred yearling began to giggle to herself as she rolled onto her side, then back onto her feet. She smoothed her petticoat gave her body a vigorous shake, woofed, then resumed her careful creep through the fog.

I sincerely apologize for the delay in replying to this! Please forgive me! <3

Kaskara hadn't seen fog like this in months. It wasn't comfortable, either, to walk to slowly and carefully, feeling hyper-aware of everything around her. Kas heard someone take a tumble not far from her, then giggle for a minute before the movements indicating maybe the wolf was getting up. Kas heard a woof and then pawsteps, so maybe they were alright. She decided to follow anyway, just to make sure. "Hello?" she called, wondering if she was even going in the right direction.

She couldn't see even a few yards in front of her. Everything was blurry and white, as if her vision was cloudy. But she knew that couldn't be the case. Kaskara tried to followed the sounds of the other wolf, but instead began walking in circles, following her own noises. With a curse, she plopped right down on her butt in the middle of a field, and stopped. "Is anybody there?" Maybe if the wolf was still around, they would hear her voice and come back. If not, she'd just go back into her den and wait for the fog to clear. This was ridiculous.

No worries. :)

The way it swirled around her paws intrigued Bones, drawing her eye and eventually causing her head to bump into a tree with a muted thud. "Arrrgh," she muttered even as a voice called out in the fog. She didn't hear what it said because of her own muttering. She silenced herself and pricked her large silver ears.

She heard furtive noises in the white murk, yet did not make a sound yet. She listened instead, trying to pinpoint the caller's location as she prowled ahead. Bones thought about scaring him or her for fun but decided it might be too mean. She didn't want to accidentally give anyone a heart attack.

Instead, someone gave her a heart attack. Even as she skulked, a voice right behind her suddenly screamed, "Is anybody there?" Bones jumped out of her skin, then whirled, causing the soupy fog to funnel around her legs.

"Aye, I'm here!" she said loudly, thrusting her muzzle forward. Her nose touched something soft and warm.

I saw your post in the MO forum. Do you want to quickly finish this? They do something fun like chase each other or get lost haha.

Kas wasn't expecting the culprit to be right in front of her, so she jumped when the other whirled around and basically stuck her nose against her shoulder. "Watch it!" she said, trying to keep her voice down. The fog somehow amplified her voice and made it seem like she was screaming, when in reality she was speaking at normal tones. It was creepy.

"What's your name?" she asked, eyeing the thin, dark wolf in front of her. Kaskara had never seen her before, but that wasn't unusual. She wasn't one of those wolves that was overly social to begin with. "I'm Kaskara. What the hell is this fog doing here? I've never seen so much of it before."

I'm actually not in any particularly hurry, so we can thread this out like normal as long as you're game. :D

"Sorry!" Bones said promptly, truly chagrined even though her green eyes danced with amusement. She withdrew her muzzle and gathered her haunches to sit close enough that the other wolf could see her — and see that she was no threat.

"Me name's Bones. Aye, it's rather dense, isn't it? Ye know, I've heard that fog is the breath of the kraken, washing over the land. It's meant to be a sign of bad luck to come," the yearling shared in a hushed tone, eyes glimmering as the white miasma swirled around her silvered face.

Kaskara shook her head with a breathless laugh, for once a little excited and nervous. The fog was doing strange things to her mind, since she couldn't see more than two yards in front of her own nose. She was glad to have bumped into Bones - or at least, for Bones to bump into her - because that meant she wasn't alone.

Bones said the fog was a bad omen, of ill luck and bad things to come. Kaskara shivered, not because she was cold, but because she was slightly afraid of what that might mean. The creek didn't need any more bad luck. "I don't like the sound of that."

"No," Bones agreed in a quiet, sage voice, "me neither." She paused, lips pursing, then queried, "Do ye know about the kraken — what it is, what it does?" Figuring her companion was not a coastal wolf, Bones continued without pause. "It's a legendary sea monster of colossal proportions. It dwells just off the coast, though because it's so enormous, its tentacles could probably reach all the way from Sequoia Coast to the creek..."

"That sounds horrendous," she replied bluntly, shivering slightly despite the warmer temperatures. "You told me what it is, but what does a kraken do?" It was hard to process a monster so large that its tentacles could span from the coast to the creek. How could it actually do that? Kas wasn't sure that the wolf before her wasn't pulling her leg. But this fog made her more gullible than she normally was, at any rate.

Too ironic not to share -- this was on r/creepy today. I think it's a @Cthulu (^heeheehee) but it still reminded me of this thread. :3

"Aye, it is," Bones rejoined solemnly. When asked about what the kraken did, her eyes seemed to glimmer. "It reaches its tentacles as far as it can, then takes hold and crushes everything in its grip. I bet the kraken could easily wrap its many arms around the entire Teekon Wilds and pulverize it, just like a wolf might do to a mouse. It would then drag all the ruins and wreckage into the sea, where it would either eat all of us wolves or let us sink to our watery graves."

"Shit." Kaskara cursed, trying to imagine the enormity of the monster that could do such damage in such a far-reaching way. Was Bones lying to her? She seemed to believe her own tale, which would not indicate she was lying, but the idea of a giant creature was so crazy she couldn't fathom it.

They chatted for a few more minutes, but Kaskara was quickly becoming annoyed by the mist and her inability to see past her own nose. So she said goodbye to Bones, hoping to see her later during a less foggy morning.