Sequoia Coast happy machine

For @Kesuk ! Set by the Bay's borders.

For all he said he liked the forest, it was not a convenient place to live if you held the skies in any high regard. He had found that the beach provided a breathtaking view, but the trees rose up too high behind him to get that highly sought after three hundred and sixty degree view. However, from the flatlands beyond the forest's reaches, he could get pretty damn close. There were still mountains that rose up to impede his view, but for the most part he could see what he needed.

If there weren't clouds.

Lately, he had not been so lucky. The night was cold, but it was humid and cloudy. He found his way to small hill where the ground was dry and settled down, trying to reorient himself with the sky at night. With the clouds in his way, though, there was little he could accomplish, and after hours of trying, he drifted to sleep where he lay.

The night fell and the sun rose with little sign of waking from Aesop, who snored softly, happy to sleep the day away.

After her pleasant meeting with Onyx, Kesuk decided it was time to travel in the direction of the sound, where the sirens lived. Not many had heard of them and the only reason she had was because of an outrider she had met at least a month ago. Rain had told her a story of another, newish pack that lived by the sea.

On her way to investigate, she passed a small hill to her right. It seemed to be snoring. She stopped and tilted her head, giving the hill an odd look. From where she was standing, she couldn't see the sleeping male, so it appeared to her that the hill itself was asleep. She looked at it curiously for a few more seconds before walking over to it and peeking up the side. To her relief, she saw the sleeping form of another wolf. So this wasn't some weird mutant hill after all. She padded up the side and looked at the guy, his eyes closed and a little smile on his face. She was in a very playful mood at the time, so she did the first thing that came to mind.

Her chocolate paw shot out and quickly poked the guy in the side before she took of down the hill and dived into some nearby bushes, hoping they would hide her from view.

Aesop dreamed of horses.

The sun was warm on his back, and he was reticent to wake up. He probably wouldn't have, not for a long time, had Kesuk not come along. A perk of old age is the ability to sleep whenever the hell you want, and most people can't say a thing about it.

Needless to say, he was not all too pleased when a quick paw prodded his side, just roughly enough that he couldn't ignore it. With a snort and half-bark, Aesop awoke, immediately flailing to flip onto his stomach. He snorted again, a soft, pre-bark "whuff" sound. He looked around to find the culprit, but there was none to be seen. "Alright, smartass, I see what you're up to." And so the hunt was on. A bit of fun and games couldn't hurt him. He started sniffing, attempting to track the unfamiliar (but wholly wolfish) scent.

She watched in amusement as the white male woke with a start and let out a half snort, half back. Her eyes sparkled with laughter as he got to his paws and started to follow her trail, which lead right to the bush she was currently hiding in. The sharp sticks poked her butt and made her position almost unbearable. She tried to shift a bit, to fix the stick issue, and ended up rustling the whole bush, which sounded extremely loud in the silence.

Her icy blue eyes lifted immediately and watched the male, searching for his reaction. Maybe it wasn't as loud as she though and he wouldn't notice, giving her time to get her butt out of there.

Aesop's search would not take long, it seemed. The scent was strong, leading him directly towards a bush not all that far from where he had slept. Which, he supposed, made some sense. If a wolf thought it would be fun to poke him and run, they'd probably dive for the nearest hiding place.

Sure enough, the bush rustled, and his ears swiveled forward. At that point, it'd be silly to continue to try and stalk quietly, so he just strode right around the bush to find the culprit. And there she was, the color of the damp earth (tamp tamp). "Found you," he drawled, not unfriendly, though she had disturbed a rather pleasant sleep.

As soon as the bush had rustled, his ears swiveled to her hiding spot, his eyes fixed on the exact place she sat. He wasted no time in trying to be quiet and padding right over to the bush, looking at her with neutral but slightly grumpy eyes.

She decided that her best bet was to play it innocent.

"Found me? Why would you be looking for me?" she asked curiously, looking up at him with wide ice blue eyes.

Aesop raised a brow at her show of innocence, but he knew better. "Don't be playin' games, I ain't- don't you wanna get out of that bush? Shit looks uncomfortable." He had realized only moments after beginning his sentence that carrying out a conversation with someone in a bush was probably not ideal, and so he took a step back to let her work her way out.

"Anyway," Aesop continued, "where was I? Right, I know it was you who decided to play alarm clock on me. Can't be anyone else."

She climbed out of the bush, thankful for the relief of the poky stick. She looked him in the eyes and shook her head. "Nope." she replied, popping the P. "No idea what you're talking about, Sir." she continued, hoping her use of Sir would soften him up a bit.

For a moment, he stared at the space she had just vacated, wondering if and how that was possibly comfortable. He couldn't imagine it was, and if she hadn't disturbed a rather nice nap, he'd probably respect her fortitude. But she had, and he was determined to get an admission of guilt from the stranger. "There's like- there is literally no one else it could be," he explained, gesturing around them at the empty flatlands.

While he was determined to get some form of guilt out of her, she was determined to stay completely clueless. She looked around confusedly as he motioned around, pointing out that there was pretty much no one any were near them. That it had to be her. But she would just keep denying it, enjoying the slightly annoyed look on his face. Sometimes messing with people was just plain hilarious.

"Anyone else who could be what?" she asked confusedly, crinkling her brow ever so slightly.

Once more he gave her an incredulous stare, trying his best to nonverbally ask if she was actually shitting him right now. Now, he knew that she was joking around with him, but her acting was convincing enough that he was doubting himself. Just a bit, but still doubting.

"No, you see, I-" Aesop huffed, shuffling in agitation for a moment, as though attempting to work off any distress. "Girl, I ain't lookin' to fuck around. But hell, if you're gonna play dumb, you're gonna play dumb. So what're you doin' in this neck of the woods," Aesop asked, gesturing around at the stretch of open land. You know, the woods. He figured that if he played along, she'd get tired eventually.

Little flashes of doubt kept flickering through his bright green eyes and she felt a rush of satisfaction. Still got it she thought happily. Once he stopped trying to figure out what was going on, she let a tiny smile slip onto her face. She had been getting kind of bored of it anyways.

"Oh, I'm an outrider. It's my job to explore." she explained innocently, her eyes still sparkling with slight laughter.

Aesop sort of hated how smug that little smile of hers seemed, but there was little he could do. He'd caught her, but in the end she had her fun. And who was he to take that away? (A grumpy old man was who.)

"Outrider, huh? So, did'ya ride very far out to get here?" he asked, because it seemed the polite thing to do.

She nodded at his question, glad that they were done pretending. It would be fun to have an actual conversation. She had in fact traveled pretty far to get there. She had crossed some mountains and then crossed a big patch of flatlands in order to get to the bay. It was her second visit to scavenger bay and she was glad to be back. She really liked the fresh ocean air.

Thinking about her last trip to the bay brought thoughts of Onyx to her mind. She wondered how her friend was doing. Maybe this wolf would know, after all he had the same scent of her, so he was probably in the same pack as her. "Yeah, it was a pretty long ways. Hey, do you know a girl named Onyx? She looks an awful lot like me." she explained, hoping he did know her.

Aesop shuffled on his haunches, his tail curling to wrap around himself. He thought about the distance she had come, and realized that if there was one pack in that direction, there may be many more in the area. He was sure that there was at least one more along the coastline, as the woman who had taught (and taunted) him about sea lions must have come from somewhere, but it had yet to dawn on him that there may be more packs beyond the mountains.

"Onyx?" he repeated, "yeah, a packmate of mine. Nice girl, and I guess I see the resemblance. She a friend of yours?" He had seen little of her since, but the two had hunted together once, and she had proven her skill despite his immediate judgments.

So she was doing good. Little did Kesuk know that Onyx would soon be visiting her in the plateau, so she had nothing to worry about in the first place. Maybe this male was a friend of hers. That would be good, considering Onyx hadn't seemed to know that many.

"Yeah, I met her a while ago. She said she would come visit, so I was just making sure she was alright." she said with a smile. She couldn't imagine why her friend didn't know very many other wolves, but if he knew her, then she must be doing better.

Then she turned her head to the side and looked at him closely. "Suppose I could get your name?" she asked curiously. It would be easier to talk to him if she knew exactly who she was talking to.

He regarded her genially, glad to know that she was a friend to the pack. At least, she wasn't here to spy or make mischief, and had benign purposes. He hadn't much suspected her, but always he liked to think he erred on the side of caution. Perhaps he was right to do so, as she'd already proved herself skillful with deception (or he had proven far too easy to dupe with some charming acting skills.)

"Huh," he grunted awkwardly, "seemed well enough when I met her. Probably just hasn't had the time." A guess, but he felt obligated to offer some sort of explanation for his packmate.

She asked for his name, and he was all too willing to give it, as he had no enemies here. "Aesop's the name," Aesop said, "you?"

She nodded, satisfied with his answer. She was glad that she was doing good. She was also happy to meet another member of her pack, just to know that they weren't as unstable as the other pack on the coast. That woman had been just plain psychotic and she cringed at the memory.

She flicked her ears in acknowledgement of his name. It fit him and she smiled. "Nice to meet you, Aesop. I'm Kesuk. Also, I am actually sorry for waking you, you seem like nice guy." she apologized honestly, her eyes sparkling warmly.

Aesop grunted.  "Ain't the first and you probably won't be the last.  I probably shouldn'tve been sleepin' out here anyway.  More unfriendly shit than you out here, n'all."  He's so much fun at parties.

Now he wasn't too sure what to do, though, and lapsed into an awkward silence.  Carrying conversations when they hit a dead end had never truly been his strong suit.  "Uh," he tried, if only to make himself feel better.  But the sentence was aborted, died before it could reach the tip of his tongue, so he shuffled in place, glancing around.

It wasn't long before they parted uncomfortably, conversation having dried up faster than either had expected.