Firestone Hot Springs Talgar

Steam lifted from the pools of water, hanging heavy upon the early morning air. The sound of tweeting had been left behind with the woods. The ground beneath the young wolf’s paws had changed from loamy earth to rough stone, broken by patches of grass and slick rock wetted by the scattered springs.

Nazair had found a reasonably large pool. He lingered on the edge of the water with a curious tilt of his head. While the scent of the hot springs was nearly unbearable, the heat radiating from the water was appealing. Youth granted him some fearlessness. The boy sunk his paws into the warm liquid and sighed.

Inching deeper and deeper, Nazair waited until he was almost submerged. Like an alligator, his snout and eyes peered from the surface of the hot spring.

weird weird weird!!!

everything here was warm and foggy-wet like after summertime rain but so many times worse and constant a-a-and--

ACHOO!

runnerdog sneeze-thrashed, scared by own loud noise into tucking tail and standing with head lowered and runnerlegs trembling in place, eyes big like food bowls and brown and rimmed with stark white and now filling up with own warm water of deepest confused worry--

heshe made a little sad pathetic failure whine sound.

The sneeze had succeeded in frightening two figures - the sneezer, and the crocodilian young wolf who had been soaking in the warmth of the springs. His marigold eyes blinked. Nazair pushed up from the water and emerged with drenched fur. Droplets sprinkled to the ground as he clambered onto hard rock, claws scritching at the surface as he shook his coat.

Bless you-

When he fixed his sights on the creature that had made the noise, his heart raced.

What in the great hells was this?

Uh- Nazair did not hesitate to prowl closer to the peculiar, spindly thing. His hawkish eyes were intent on the beast that was not quite wolf, not quite like anything he’d seen. What the hell are you?

with great slosh and splash something big and wet rose from waters thatwereemptymomentsago and tk's face froze in silent scream as that sopping something shook its coat droplets hitting eyes barely making frightened dog blink and never register words spoken brain too taken up by-

big.

big big big big.

and coming at herhim!

tk's head went as far back as it could on stiff neck hindlegs dropping into squat in attempt to lean away from approach, and when the greatwetwaterbeast noised --

what the he

-- heshe made a louder and longer noise.

Nazair visibly recoiled at this absurd creature’s sound. His eyes grew wide with shock. He stood rigid and tall, though not immediately imposing in posture. This thing was most closely related to a Muppet, if only Nazair knew what a Muppet was. It must have been fabricated - someone’s memory of a wolf… poorly constructed from the mind of a dazed and lost fool. 

Okay… he muttered with a wary stare at the other animal. 

Are you some kinda wolf? Your dad a deer? Or… a lizard. Or… something. The young man was not even certain it could speak properly. The only attempt had been something like the noise an eldritch horror might make when exposed to the light of day.

noise continued lessened in volume but no less droning for most of greatwetwaterbeast's own noising which tk realized were words because greatwetwaterbeast was a wolf.

lower jaw sprung shut but muffled uhhhhh continued another moment before tk cleared throat nearly choked coughed cleared throat again inhaled and said;

notwolf. notdeernotlizard. dog. gaze lurched sideways to think. 

lurched back on greatwetwaterwolf. 

notscaryaswolf. less. veryfriendly. but-  

like human raising palms ears sprung up. 

notforeating! nono. badtaste. awful. makesick. nono.

ears flopped about as tk shook herhis head.

The way it spoke, when it finally found the courage to pipe up, was frantic. The words ran together in a blur that only suited the strange animal. It was mildly frustrating to come upon such an alien creature and have no one around to share in its absurdity.

Not a lizard, not a wolf, or a deer - a dog. Nazair squinted, uncertain. He had never seen or heard of dog. It looked like a young wolf that had been tossed so violently by the river currents that it had lost all sense, and fur, and normalcy. The dog went on to say that they were not for eating, no, no. They tasted bad.

I- Nazair paused, a sheepish smile. I wouldn’t eat you if I was starving and you were begging me to have a taste. Of that the dog could be certain.

Are you starving or something? You’re way skinny. Not that he was one to body shame, but they were severely malnourished and it showed in the skinny length of its legs.

oh! ears perked again because what greatwetwaterwolf said was that greatwetwaterwolf wouldn't eat tk! yay! tail happy slapped warm wet ground because relief.

starving? starving? skinny? tk looked at own body each foreleg and back at own behind.

normal. said tk turned back around. very obvious.

icancatchanything, gasp. toeatevenif, gasp. pronghorndoedeerharerabbit.

pause to think.

butnotbirdorfish! head tilted to the side to look at steaming warm puddle behind greatwetwaterwolf, then turned back to smile with lolling tongue at greatwetwaterwolf tail slappy again.

wereyoufishcatching?? wereyoufishing??

were steamwarmwaterpuddle fish warm to eat like microwave treat?

Nazair’s furrowed brow and slightly tilted head were not nearly adequate expressions of his confusion.

This thing was like a riddle Lauren, waiting for unwitting passersby to creep near its bridge before it darted out and baffled them with winding riddles and rhymes. Such stories were not familiar to the young man. If he had known of them, he would have suspected that this fast-talking creature was the perfect inspiration.

Do you… like fish? he inquired. Nazair was fairly certain it had asked him if he had been “fish-catching.” He hadn’t, of course, but he was curious if the bridge Lauren was hungry for the swimming prey.

I can uh- I can catch you one? You catch me a rabbit. We can trade.

first an eager lean forward as greatwetwaterwolf spoke slow slow slooow--

then ears sprang upwise because if there was one word shehe had learned in the wolflands it was trade.

yesyesyes! tradetrade! excitedly tk hopped up on all four legs doing a swift spin.

ohohoh- what'stheplan? howdowedo? howwedo? doyouwantsmallbunny? bigbunny? withsurprisebellybunnies?  

tk's tail was a rotor blade.

Surprise belly… bunnies…

Nazair couldn’t even dream of fathoming what the hell that meant. He blinked at the spindly little creature a few times. This creature was aware of trading. It must have found someone who had taught it how to get food or how to trade other items for food.

Big bunny and I’ll get you a real whopper of a fish, hm?

The young wolf thought this would be an adequate trade. If this thing could catch him a rabbit, he’d happily trade a fat fish for it. He preferred the warm meats. And it didn’t seem like this little windhound had any true leaning one way or the other.

oh, yesyesyes! ferocity of nod flopped ears.

bigbunnyforgreatwetwaterwolf!

already thinking of the chase and with another twirl heshe sprinted off into the wider plain -

twice slipping on wet grass and righting herhimself up in a flurry of wild limbs.