Firestone Hot Springs I've got my eyes closed

Boredom tempted Saena into the flatlands—boredom, and a vague hope that today would be the day she caught a glimpse of Pura. She didn't doubt Blue Willow's claim that her grey brother wandered around outside the plateau, but she was quickly losing hope of seeing him. If only she could find him, Saena might be able to coax him back to his home, but he was proving elusive.

She was an Outrider, but even her best attempts at tracking him turned up with nothing. Her latest search brought her to the steamy hot springs. She'd seen them from the edge of the plateau like a foggy scar on the prairie, but had never been to them. She was assaulted with the scent of sulphur as she drew nearer, and though she wrinkled her nose and yearned to leave, she made herself press on.

Curiosity got the best of her most of the time. In this case, it was curiosity about the water. Rivers bubbled and roiled like the springs did, but rivers were cold, and Saena could sense just by walking nearer that the water in each earthen cauldron was boiling hot. As though there was someone who could answer her, she asked aloud, "what makes it so hot?"

The long legged wolf had been wandering about for hours, escaping the Creek and the tensity that accompanied it. It was nice to get out sometimes, and she hadn't done so in a while. Her traipse had brought her to the unusual, warm baths, residing near the Plateau and Blackfeather Woods. Steam wafted off the water, proving her theory of the heat.

A small ivory she-wolf with russet ears stood beside the basins, and as Falwasi walked closer to the pools, the smell of humidity and sulphur engulfing her. She coughed slightly, only because the juvenile was facing away from her, and she didn't want to scare her. "What makes it so hot?" The streaked wolf asked. Unsure of whether the creature knew Falwasi was around, or if she was talking to herself, she stopped in her tracks.

Falwasi did not enjoy the company of children, and she knew she was insulting her former puppy self by thinking that. The truth is, the tawny woman had not had much interaction with youngins' and the ones she had were clumsy and boisterous. More than that, they reminded her that one day she would be old, and be forced to settle down to her utter dismay. "It's the volcanic activity below the surface." Falwasi said, deciding to stay where she was, but answering the she-wolf's question. She didn't know if her replique was much use, though, for the words might have been a little too tricky for the younger one to understand.

A jet of steam escaped from one of the nearby springs, drawing Saena's attention and masking Falwasi's cough. Even though she had no audible cue that another was near, Saena could feel the prickling of her neck fur, signifying someone was behind her. She wasn't terrible worried about it, and only turned her head when that someone answered her question.

Falwasi was like a toasted marshmallow: deep golden brown on the surface and pale underneath. Saena couldn't make out many details aside from that, but she didn't want to; she was much too intrigued to care what the other looked like. "How do you know that?" she asked, choosing to go a simpler question than, "what's volcanic activity?" Maybe if she didn't ask, Falwasi would think she already knew... and Saena loved opportunities to seem smarter than she was.

[size=x-small]I like the comparison to a marshmallow xD[/size]

The juvenile only turned her head to look at Falwasi, questioning her knowledge. With a barely noticeable nod, she frowned, looking to her paws. The young wolf did not know exactly how she knew this information. Was it the explanation from her former pack mates? She concluded with that hypothesis, and raised her view back to the girl.

"I've heard theories," she said. "One of our Naturalists was big on that kind of thing," Falwasi added, remembering Noleo, her dear friend. It hurt her to think about him. He wouldn't be happy that she abandoned the pack.

Falwasi stepped to the pool the child was standing beside, and looked to the water. "It's not that hot, you know," she said, "I promise." The lissome wolf looked to the side at the auburn tipped girl, with a small smile. Proving her point, she dipped her paw into the basin, warm water casting a lull over her.

A theory. Saena frowned thoughtfully. She'd never had a theory before, and didn't think she'd ever be smart enough to come up with one, let alone test it. She wanted to ask Falwasi all kinds of questions about it, like where such a belief had come from and how anyone could possibly go about proving it, but Falwasi presumably wasn't the Naturalist in question. She probably wouldn't have the answers even if Saena asked.

"That's neat," she said, but her breath caught in her throat when Falwasi fearlessly put her foot in the water. Saena had assumed from its rolling surface that the spring water was far too hot to touch, but Falwasi proved otherwise—or, more likely, the Swiftcurrent wolf was rather lucky Saena was next to one of the milder pools. She stared incredulously at the water, debating whether to try and deciding against it.

"Do you think it's possible to see the volcanic activity? Like if you dig enough, or find a cave?"

The youngster was curious, and her question made Falwasi wonder herself. After a long pause of furrowed brows, she replied, "I don't know, but I don't think so." The earthen wolf searched the girl's vibrantly indigo eyes for a reaction: "I don't think we should, either." Her words were ominous, and she meant for them to be. She knew better than to mess with Mother Nature.

"Anyway," Falwasi said, pulling herself away from the edge of the basin gracefully to face the juvenile directly. "What's your name?" She didn't feel like she could answer any more of the child's questions. If only Noleo were here, she thought to herself. Falwasi missed the wolf terribly, and she knew that he would know every answer to any question the wolf asked. And, he would gladly let her in on the information.

Falwasi looked over the wolf properly this time, now that she was facing her. From behind, the older wolf had found her coloring slightly off, but from the front, she could tell that the girl was not completely ivory, but that the color from her ears repeated itself beneath her eyes. It was unusual, but like Kaskara, her coloring carried an originality that most she-wolves would crave to have.

Saena pulled a bit of a face when Falwasi advised against trying to find the volcanic activity. How could anyone suggest something was happening without actually seeing it? Empiricism was rather important to Saena, had always been... after all, she was the one who had denounced her own sister for claiming things were there that really weren't. Thinking of it reminded her how Ty hadn't come back yet, and her stomach plummeted.

Pushing the thought away, the juvenile said, "I'm Saena. Who're you?" She didn't know that she was completely interested—Saena's interest in Falwasi faded the minute the Creek wolf suggested they not go digging for volcanic activity—but she'd been raised to be polite, and it was likely only a momentary lapse of interest. She ordinarily wasn't all that dismissive, so it seemed likely that it was more of a mood swing than anything.

"I'm Falwasi," she replied, glad to have moved on the conversation from nostalgic memories of her Naturalist. She stayed quiet for a lengthy minute before piping up again: "Do you know Talt— Lasher, I mean?" the mountain wolf asked. She wanted to know how her interesting friend was doing. After all, she hadn't hit it off as well with any other wolf than Taltos.

Somehow, Falwasi saw a flash of the young black wolf she had seen at the bottom of the Sunspire, in Saena. She didn't catch the juvenile's name, for Summer had been to quick to threaten the honeyed wolf. Falwasi wasn't particularly disappointed though; she didn't want to comfort the youngin' in the first place, and her male friend seemed perfectly capable himself.

Saena met the other's introduction with a thankfully silent dialogue. What a weird name, she thought to herself, who the hell names their kid something like that? Other tongues besides English weren't well known to her, so it was easy to see why the teen might find it strange. There were many strange names in the world, Irish names and Egyptian names and Mayan names, but somehow, none of them had ended up at Blacktail Deer Plateau. None of them had found their way into her small circle of close wolves.

She perked up when asked about Taltos. It was this motion that drew her attention fully from the water and finally placed it wholly on Falwasi, something that caused Saena to blink as though just really noticing the woman. "Yeah," she said a little dumbly, for the question came out of nowhere, "how'd you know?" The more important question, perhaps, was how Falwasi knew Lasher, but she knew the swarthy Lasher had been away from the plateau recently. What was to stop him meeting others elsewhere?

"You smell of the Plateau," she answered, the same response she'd given Taltos when they first met. Minus the sarcasm.

Falwasi's mind continued to remain on the small juvenile she had seen at the bottom on the Sunspire. The two youngsters' coloring was nothing alike, but something about them... was it their physicality? Something made the Creek wolf speak up to change the conversation, replacing her bother to hear how Lasher was.

Suddenly aware that she was staring at Saena, the honeyed wolf justified her actions: "Excuse me," she said, blinking as she dropped her gaze from the creamy girl, "You look familiar. Do you have any siblings?" Falwasi asked clearly, innocence in her voice. Nothing in her tonality was nosy or rude, it was exactly how she made it out to be.

Just fading 'cause it's got enough posts and is really outdated, my bad for holding it up!

Oddly enough, Falwasi changed the topic to one concerning her family. Saena certainly couldn't read minds, but nevertheless she thought the question was somewhat unusual, if only because her only living sibling looked nothing like her. Sure, they both had some slightly unusual patterning, but Pura was monstrously large while Saena was tiny, and their colours were completely different. Her other siblings were only adoptive and also very unlike her, and so Saena didn't draw any connections with them.

"I have a brother," she said a little suspiciously, "but we're not similar. You're probably thinking of someone else." The brief thought that Falwasi might have known her real mother crossed Saena's mind, and it was perhaps for this reason, and her usual skittishness regarding her true parents, that the juvenile suddenly grew uncomfortable. "Sorry, but... I gotta get going. I wasn't 'sposed to be gone long."

She rose quickly and was loping away just as quickly, leaving almost no time for interruption.

[size=x-small]Thanks for the thread![/size]

Saena spoke of a brother. No sister. Falwasi shrugged; she made a common mistake, however the milky wolf made it seem suspicious. She explained to the older one that she had to go, that she shouldn't have been gone too long, and then ran off before Falwasi could say anything. Maybe she had family issues.

With a sigh, Falwasi walked on in the opposite direction of Saena, opposing the she-wolf's rushed exit as she abandoned the warmth of the springs. The direction was angling towards another pack nearby, but she wasn't stupid. She wouldn't get too near the borders — it would be unfortunate if the Sunspire experience were to repeat itself.