afire.

[size=x-small]ooc: preferably anyone (or two) Surra hasn't met yet <3 also, I may submit this as a sub-territory, depending on how much the setting is developed :)[/size]

Oh, gods, it was hot. Oppressively hot. The kind of hot that pressed in on you from all sides, heavy with humidity, without even the slightest breeze to give some relief. Surra, of all wolves, felt as though he might as well be dying. He cursed his thick fur, and the dark-colored ruff that traveled up the back of his neck, making him even hotter. He had meant to spend the day searching for a good place to dig out a den, but instead he found himself dragging his paws, tongue lolling desperately out of his panting mouth. Even the shadows under the trees provided little protection from the heat, because the humidity was what was so killer. He had even tried going down to the shore, where normally there was a bit more of a breeze, but the saltiness of the air only made the humidity worse and made him feel sticky and uncomfortable, so he headed back into the heart of the forest.

Suddenly the sound of running water caught the overheating wolf's attention, and his ears pricked up. It was louder than a simple creek - it sounded like a small waterfall. Surra picked up his feet a little more, still only managing a walk. He came upon the source of the sound, a bit upstream of the falls themselves. Surra crouched down to drink, lapping up the cool water until he could feel it sloshing around in his stomach, before standing back up again and padding closer to the waterfall, peering over the edge of the drop in cascaded from. It wasn't overly impressive, maybe one and a half times his height, and it fell not perfectly vertical but with a slight gradation, crashing between a couple large boulders that framed it. At it's base was a surprisingly large and deep pool - it appeared just deep enough for a wolf to have to swim at the center, unless he touched down with his back legs only and stood in a rearing stance to keep his head above water. Surra guessed the pool could easily fit his entire pack, maybe eight or ten wolves, before it started to get cramped. The other side of the pool held another, smaller waterfall shaped similarly to the one at it's top, flowing down and away towards the sea. There was a small area of grasses on either side of the pool. Some areas were fairly well shaded by the large trees that surrounded, but there were others where the sunlight glittered off the water.

Surra's ears rotated and flicked as he contemplated the safety of trying to jump in from his vantage point, more focused on an opportunity to cool himself down than on anyone who might approach.