Blacktail Deer Plateau i need you in the here and now

For @Constantine! Sorry if this is kind of weird, I am feeling some serious lethargy right now I cannot shake ugh.

Cloud cover greeted him on this particular day, but the warmth was certainly undeniable. If there was any stronger of an indication that spring was there, it would have probably smacked them all in the face. Mordecai sensed it in the air as stronger than ever; winter had certainly come to pass at long last. Beneath the old remains of grass, he spied out the greenery returning though the buds had yet to turn up at the ends of bare branches. The birds sang, the breeze no longer carried a bitter bite; it was refreshing.

His steps were easy and swift along the muddied pathways etched through the plateau. He had come to know them with moderate passage in time but there was much he had yet to learn of the terrain. There were still plenty of bodies left lingering in the ranks that he hadn't encountered as well, though he did not worry about this. For the most part, Mordecai had encountered a fair majority of the wolves that made up the Plateau and that suited him.

Pausing as he crossed over something of interest, he allowed his guard to drop as he drew in the scents about him. It was nothing more than a scrap of old and dirtied hide of some creature, and the tawny Ostrega could not help but challenge himself briefly to figure out just what had it been.

surfer blood — floating vibes

Never ever apologize for your gorgeous writing, KuKuKachu! <3

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This warm made him sneeze. Twice, violently while he glared at the sky in offense. What was this nonsense where his skin felt all heated without anyone around him? It was unusual. It seemed to bother him more than his scrawnier twin, more than his pale sister. Why was it that they seemed less impacted by this unbearable heat than he was? He didn't even know how much more heat was coming.

He wasn't sulking in the coolness of the den, though he was tempted. Instead, he was being his normal intrepid self. For the most part, the dark boy tried to stick to the cool shadows and avoid the patches of warmth that came from the open areas. Even with cloud cover, it seemed the sun's warmth radiated down onto him when he was out in the open.

The boy spotted the adult and paused, one paw still raised as his head canted characteristically to the right and he narrowed his eyes in his usual expression of interest. This was no Them, though it was an unfamiliar member of the Plateau and so he was curious but not cautious. Constantine bounded over to the older male, interrupting whatever examination Mordecai had been doing and possibly even stepping on whatever it was unless the Epsilon was actively protecting it from invading puppy paws.

"Whassit?!" he asked, shoving his nose down approximately where Mordecai's had been to try and figure out what had interested the adult. Because if it had interested an adult, it was probably worth sniffin'.

nooo flattery nooo, my writing pales in comparison. :C

Fast moving feet approaching him gave him just enough of a warning that he was about to be joined. Who did join him was not the scampering little Eilidh, but what he surmised as to be a sibling of hers quickly. This interruption forced him to stop what he was doing and back off just a step from it, if only so the younger wolf could investigate it himself. His little question hung in the air soon and Mordecai was amiss as to what to say it was.

Instead he brought his own muzzle back down for a swift investigation, perhaps even going as far as to nudge the youngster playfully clear of the object. Mordecai considered that it was the remnant scrap of a rabbit long gone, but instead thought of Osprey's story of the trolls and went with that instead. "It's a piece of a Lauren," he told the pup. "Looks like someone got a piece of him while he was out wandering. Was it you?" Because yeah, asking the kid who just asked what it was if he did it was totally the thing to do. Still, he hoped to entice the youngster all the same, much as he done his sister. And if anything, he also hoped this time his experience went over better than how it had with Charon.

Then again, Charon was also hardly a young boy exploring the world for the first time.

Mmmm that is false, my dear! <3

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Carelessly, he tromped around where Mordecai had been so carefully inspecting and added his little pawprints to whatever other marks had been there before. The piece of something was interesting, he wondered what it tasted like...

Before he could put his little jaws on it, though, he was playfully nudged out of the way by the adult. Constantine raised his ears and lifted his head to peer at Mordecai in curiosity. What was it? Was it important? Could he eat it? All of these questions were important to know and he assumed that the adult could telepathically hear them and answer them all quickly. His parents seemed to often have that skill.

"Trull!" he mimicked, not having even the slightest clue of what a Lauren was supposed to be. Though he was certain that he had not gotten a piece of it at all because he didn't even know what that was.

His head shook back and forth. "Nahhh, joo git eet? Whurr trull?!" he looked around to try and spot the rest of the Lauren. After all, surely if he had someone tear off a piece of his hide, he would have been coming back for it later.

Fineee, you win this round! I feel like you have the advantageous edge though, seeing how you can totally base Connie's responses to Mal's lmfao.

Once more, the enthusiasm of a younger generation was something he could easily latch onto. It was an infectious sort, especially because their own energy seemed so infinite in comparison to his own. A smile split his features cleanly as the boy did everything but bounce in his questions; Mordecai also came to the realization that he would have to work to keep his charade up.

"Nah, I didn't get it. Someone must have though, so they probably sent it back to its nest. Have you ever seen one? They're ugly, smelly things," which honestly, there were a lot of things that fell into that ugly and smelly category. And thoughtfully he found himself adding: "And they're really hard to see, or so I've been told."

Mwahahaha.  XD

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A nest!  Well that sounded like a bird.  He imagined a big, smelly, patchy creature with bits of all sorts of textures all over it.  Kind of like an owl-bat-squirrel-deer thing.  It seemed pretty fantastical and scary in his head, which made it all the better because scary things were awesome.  Especially if you defeated them.  Then you could be a hero.

"Naw, nah see!"  he admitted, mostly because he wanted to know more about it.  So if he didn't admit his ignorance, he wouldn't be able to learn more about what it was.

The boy tipped his head back and sniffed the air, smelling nothing but him, Mordecai and a bit of... rabbit?  "Whassit smell rike?"  he asked.  "'less git eet!"

Well, it would have seemed that this little fellow's penchance for learning was just the distraction that he needed. His newfound companion's enthusiasm was infectious from the moment it left his mouth, leaving Mordecai to offer up a wave of his tail. What were trolls like? It took him just a moment of thought passed off of him testing the air himself as he recalled the tale that Osprey had spun.

"They're pretty stinky, actually. This one doesn't really smell bad, see? It's been here a while," he explained. "I know where a big nest of them live, but I bet there's one not too far from here. Do you want to find it?" A smile broke across his face as he bowed his head, looking cleanly eye level with the dark-haired pup. "Are you a good tracker?" Was it too early to notice what puppies were good at? Mordecai hadn't the faintest idea, but wasn't about to pass up the chance to find out either.

Stinky trolls?  "Dey fert lawt?"  he asked with a serious expression.  Farts were usually what made the den stinky.  Especially when it was him and Casi and Eild, though she was a girl so she would never really admit to farting.  Constantine did it and laughed because he was a boy and well, farts were pretty funny.  Especially when they were smelly.

He sniffed again at the scrap of Lauren, trying to remember its scent so he could try to track it.  Although it didn't presently smell like farts.  Maybe that went away after a while.  He knew if he walked away from the den after farting, it went away by the time he got back usually.  Excitedly, he pranced on his paws and bobbed his head when Mordecai asked if he was a good tracker.  "YUH!  Bes' trucka!"  he crowed, pressing his nose to the ground and sort of heading toward where he thought the scent seemed to go.

Which was mostly right... kind of... well, okay, he was following one smell then distracted by another and following that one then rinse and repeat.

To Constantine's question, Mordecai could only shrug. "I dunno, maybe. Might be why they're smelly," and this brought him a chuckle. Osprey hadn't said why they were smelly at all, but that explanation made sense. It was further endearing that his young Lauren hunter claimed to be the best tracker, or trucka, as he put it. Trucka indeed.

Trailing behind his pint-sized companion, Mordecai watched him trail along before letting his own gaze wander their surroundings. Even in the heart of the territory, he still thought it reasonable to keep an eye out for danger all the same. That was until he realized that their path was zigging and zagging a bit. "Boy, that Lauren must have had a big chunk taken out of it! You're following it's shamble all over the place."

He nodded sagely.  Farts were the ultimate smell problem, so he was certain that was what would cause the Lauren species to be stinky.  There was nothing else that made sense to him for why someone would smell all the time.  Though it did make him glad that he only farted sometimes.  Otherwise he might have become a Lauren himself.

Mordecai seemed impressed, Constantine thought, by how well he was following the scent trail even though it wound around.  "Yuh!  Skeeryy."  he replied with a shake of his head,  as if a zig zagging creature was terrifying in some way.  He paused to sniff at a particularly intense smell in one spot, which happened to be where a skunk had sprayed something that had agitated it.  The boy snorted.  "Eww, trull?"  he asked with his nose pointed at the place.

Their steps took them further into the underbrush where a certain unpleasant scent touched upon his nares. Mordecai was half tempted to recoil, knowing what it was, but Constantine bounded right in towards it. His snort prompted the Ostrega to draw in closer, and he observed the area that the boy had investigated.

"I think so, we must be headed in the right direction," and silently, he hoped that they would not encounter the skunk that had left its unholy mark behind. And if it somehow ended up being the thing that they sneaked up on... that would be an awkward encounter to explain to Constantine's parents. One of those here, I sent your boy out on a Lauren hunt and now I'm bringing him back smelling like utter garbage! moments for the record book.

He snorted to clear his nose, disliking this smell more than any other he had smelled before.  "Grooossssss."  he said.  This was followed by another brief attempt to clear his nostrils, which seemed to be unable to forget the imprint left by the scent of the Lauren.  It was disgusting, Mordecai was right!

The trail that he had been following (for the last minute or so, at least) led him further into the wooded area and then he spotted a flash of tan fur.  Luckily for Mordecai, before they found the skunk they had spotted a hare.  Constantine dropped to his belly and raised his paw to gesture.  "Trull?"  he asked, nose wiggling on the end of his muzzle as he smelled at it.  "Naaww, dat'a hurr."  he said in disappointment.  Although... he looked at the adult, wondering if they could still try to hunt it even though it wasn't a Lauren.

CONNIE Y KUTE.

It was Constantine who spotted and scared the hare first. Though it was pure luck it hadn't seen Mordecai, who may have been the actual threat there. The much larger, lighter colored wolf came following after the dark-haired puppy by seconds, and stopped to observe the gesture that his younger companion made. Only then did Mordecai see the flash of color in the slowly greening undergrowth, and found himself meeting Constantine's gaze curiously. This was a look that he found he understood well and easily, his mock hunt for a Lauren was disbarred by the desire to give chase to the hare.

"Wanna get it?" he whispered as he brought his muzzle low and close to the boy's ear. It didn't matter to him one way or another if they caught it, so much as he thought it was relevant to whatever it was that he was teaching. Funny, he hadn't thought of it like that, that he was teaching. Yet, the opportunity was too difficult to pass up, much like the expedition they were embarking upon after an imaginary creature.

HE CAN'T HELP IT!

The critter scampered away though not with too much concern.  Apparently it didn't think that Constantine was much of a threat or it had merely spotted a flash of dark fur and decided it should get to stepping.  It hadn't gone too far, settling back onto his hindquarters and sniffing at the ground as it found something appetizing.  Connie watched it with big wide eyes, wondering what it tasted like.  Hopefully not like Lauren farts.

Mordecai's words made his tail whip back and forth eagerly.  He moved his forepaws up and down excitedly a few times.  "Yuh!" he whispered enthusiastically back.  His body lowered to the ground and he crept forward a bit, looking back at the adult for pointers and/or instructions on what else he should do.

You get my 700th post! :D  I also feel like this is way too young to be trying to teach him to hunt but I find it hilarious because Mordecai is truly clueless with children.

Mordecai joined Constantine in his crouch, letting his body sink so low towards the earth that he may as well have been resting on it.  Which truthfully, that's exactly what Mordecai was doing.  He spied out the beady eyes of the hare in the brush, watching as it munched away on greenery just beginning to come back to the world.  It watched them, just as much as they watched it.  He leaned in towards the boy, eyes never leaving the hare as he angled his muzzle to continue whispering.  He could give pointers, that was something he knew he was capable of.

"Okay," he said in a breath, "Can you see the hare?  I want you to try and sneak up on him, just keep crawling towards him nice and slow.  When you think you're close enough to give him a chase, take off after him," and not once did he think of just how terrible of an idea this was, or how easily he could lose the cub through the expanse of the foliage ahead of them.  But in the same vein, Mordecai also believed he could keep up once the chase began.

"Ready?" he prompted, giving the boy a nudge.

YAY I FEEL SPECIAL!  And yeahhh he probably is, but he doesn't care.  He's a HOMEY BADGER HOMIE.  >____>

The boy listened, though his heart was pounding a bit harder and faster in his chest than it usually did.  Ba bum, ba bum, ba bum, he was ready to run.  His feet itched for it and he felt his paws move up and down in anticipation.  Almost kneading the ground as he prepared to chase away after the hare.

He tried his best to understand what Mordecai was telling him to do, which was really relatively simple.  His belly was pressed to the ground as he made his way toward the hare slow... slow... then all of a sudden leaped up in a frenzy, tearing off after it.  The hare, predictably, ran.

It ran much faster than him and he wasn't even near it as it raced off.  He growled and barked at it when he was nearer, but it was never in any real danger from the young cub.  He was more of a danger to himself.

Which was proven when he tumbled over a root and landed thump on his back.  "Awwhhhh."  he said, through lungs that suddenly weren't full of air.

HONEY BADGER DON'T CARE~

Constantine started off and Mordecai was behind him by a few steps, giving the youth the space he needed to be in control of the situation. Though it was far from an in control situation; Mordecai found himself forced to give up the potential hunt when the youngster went sprawling out over a rogue root that was bent on tripping him up. Coming swiftly to his side with a bit of a grin playing on his lips, Mordecai tried to ascertain whether or not his young companion was all right.

"Looks like your feet got ahead of you, or that hare worked some magic there," he offered, giving the boy a nudge of comfort. "That was a pretty good try though!" And besides, tripping over a stray root in their woodland was not that hard to do — Mordecai would never admit to it, but even he had stumbled over them a time or two. Thankfully, it had never come in the presence of another that he found watching him.