Bazi woke from a brief and fitful sleep with a soft gasp. The forest floor was dappled with the oranges and reds of dawn that shifted slowly, silently with the rising sun. Everything it touched was ablaze with colour. Tiarnán's sleeping body glowed a deep, reddish-brown in the light of early morning, and her own pelt appeared orange. There was an atmosphere of potential - of things still to be done.
Bazi blinked a few times, adjusting her eyes to the light. Tiarnán. She glanced up at the gently snoozing body next to hers - this boy who had so willingly shared her bed. His face was buried in the thick, cotton-like ruff of her neck, ruffling the fur with soft, delicate breaths. Codlata, she thought, recalling the foreign word for sleep. And what was the other one? Ainm? It sounded a bit like name, she mused, thinking of the words she might teach him today. The strangeness of the situation hovered around her head like a fat, persistent fly - Bazi did her best to ignore the persistent buzz, savouring this odd and delicate moment.
"Tiarnán?" she murmured, nudging the male's leg with her nose. "Sleep?"
Khatera was there - but she wasn't the gold-streaked friend he once had. Her pelt faded in his mind to a crisp white as the dream worked it's way forward, and the mischievous glow of her eyes turned abruptly kind, and this inconsistency should have alerted him. As she opened her mouth, the dream figure began to speak - her eyes alight with an odd warmth - but her words were nothing. Silence eased from the fading figure of the girl. At the last moment he caught upon a few of the sounds - Tear, and no - physically, the boy responded by groggily grumbling.
He woke in the next moment with quite a start, as Bazi spoke his name.
"Khat--" He blurted initially, eyes fluttering and misted by sleep; but he saw her. He saw the curve of the stranger's face and the glow of her sky-blue gaze, and relaxed. "Bazi." He murmured, and leaned contently against the girl, thrilled that she had not in fact abandoned him.
But metaphorical fly buzzed ever louder in her ears. She had a diminished pack to serve and duties to attend to - Tyrande was no longer her responsibility, and to risk her life by sleeping in the shadow of Horizon Ridge and Silvertip Mountain would serve no-one.
Slowly, begrudgingly, Bazi rose to her feet, easing into a cat-like stretch with her rump in the air. The temporary bed had soiled her left side, and she would need to stop for a rinse on the way home - or wait until they were safely within Creek borders for a longer bath.
They. Bazi glanced back at the spindly youth on the ground. How would she convince him to come with her without words? Perhaps he would just follow if she started to leave. Fox had told them to look out for lone wolves to recruit, and this one was both young and strong. The language barrier was a problem, but if she promised to watch him.. but that was a problem for later. Right now, she needed to guide him half-way across the map - without running into Silvertip, Ridge, or Plateau guardians.
"Come," she urged, nodding her head in the direction of the Flatlands. It would be easier to travel south-east along the river and cross the mountains near Sunspire Peak. To enforce the invitation, she moved around to give his rump a firm nudge with the side of her muzzle.
A momentary suspicion surfaced within him as he spied the distant silhouette of the mountain. Tiarnan had no desire to return to the plateau pack, which he now assumed was the home to the pale girl. This knowledge, however false, made the fur of his shoulders spike and his posture to sag somewhat; overwhelmed by a light feeling of betrayal which festered in his heart. The boy looked at Bazi and shook his head, stepping back and sitting in the dirt again, as if to proclaim his immobility. There was no way he'd go back to the mountains. There were too many hostile bodies there, and they outnumbered the pleasant ghost.
"No?" Bazi repeated, shaking her head to connect word and gesture. She feigned a hurt look and took a few more steps, but whatever effect it had on Tiarnán internally did not translate into movement. Was he afraid of straying too close to Silvertip Mountain? They were miles away - even Jinx would be hard pressed to claim that the forest belonged to her, given its proximity to Horizon Ridge. The Plateau, perhaps? But every wolf that hailed from that pack - Blue Willow and Osprey - had been so nice to her. Thoughts drew soft crinkles over Bazi's eyes.
He had to come with her, that much she knew. Or at the very least, set up camp at some location close to Swiftcurrent Creek. Suddenly struck by an idea, Bazi turned towards the coast instead. If they couldn't trek through the flatlands, they could always go around - provided they masked their scent by travelling as close to the ocean water as possible. The way Björn had watched her suggested that Horizon Ridge considered the beach part of their claim.
She took a few steps in the direction of the salty sea air, inviting him with a soft wave of her tail. "Yes?" A nod, this time.
Next, as Bazi moved towards the coast, her brisk turn and short steps made him stand and follow, at least for a meagre distance of his own. She said something else with a questioning tone - nodding as she spoke, so that he could understand yet another morsel of a word - and he rumbled a pleased note; transformed in to a more bestial thing when lacking language. "Yes," he enunciated sharply, drawing out the tail of the word in to a short whistle.
Without further prompting the boy chased after her, coming to a halt when one of his chocolate shoulders pressed against her nearest hip. The contact was thrilling on a very deep, very mature level that Tiarnan was not entirely aware of. With a few more steps he was exiting the forest in the direction of the beach, and lifted his head to catch the taste of salt which blew in gusts from the endless deep. He was pointed west, which happened to be the opposite direction that Bazi wished to go.
The beach was empty and smooth, and sunrise made the sand seem darker than it was. Tiarnán paused to let the breeze cut the scent of forest from his fur, looking much more pleased with this direction than the first option. It would take longer, but -
Bazi frowned. Why was he looking west? There were shores there, and an island further out to see - but beyond that was uncharted territory. Plains, most likely - endless, boring plains and not enough water to go around.
She barked to catch his attention, and nodded east when he looked up. "Yes?" she asked again, hoping to deities she didn't believe in for a 'yes' back.
If Bazi wanted to go towards the mountains... Then that meant she was indeed abandoning him. "No, Bazi," the boy refused as softly as he could while stepping toward her, closing the tiny gap which had risen between them. The sun was painting fresh streaks of color across the sky which briefly illuminated her, cloaking her in warmth and all manner of goodness; Tiarnan was tempted, so tempted. But he knew he was not welcome in the east, and was resistant to returning. Even if Bazi was from the river pack just beyond, he had no way to acknowledge that.
"Tiarnan no." He stated swiftly, with a flick of his nose towards her intended direction, before turning on the spot and back tracking in the sand to the point where he had been so gleefully perched.
A mixture of panic and raw, unexpected grief clutched at Bazi's face, pulling her features into a watery frown. He wasn't going to come with her. Her rational mind screamed that it didn't matter - they were strangers, with no way of communicating beyond 'yes', 'no', and 'sleep', and what did she know about him, anyway? Where was he from, and why was he alone out here in the wilderness? And why - in all honesty - was it so important to Bazi that he follow her back to Swiftcurrent Creek despite all of this?
She didn't understand his refusal. Why? she pleaded with her eyes, Why can't you just go around the mountains? Tiarnán shuffled closer, and told her 'No' again with a gentle gesture, and turned back. Bazi blinked back tears that were beading on the dark rims around her eyes, and chuffed softly at his retreating back. He was heading for Silvertip Mountain. Jinx would likely slit his throat for existing, she thought (incorrectly, as were most of her assumptions about the Silvertip alpha), but had no way of telling him that.
Bazi waited a moment longer, staring at the softly illuminated boy with longing in her eyes. But the Creek too precedent, and she had been away for a full day now. Ferdie would start to worry, and Fox would be less than impressed if she found out how the pack's scouting resource had been spent. With a low, sorrowful whine, the ghostly little female turned tail and began a slow shuffle back to Ravensblood Forest and the mountain trail that awaited her beyond that.
Every few steps, she glanced over her shoulder to see if Tiarnán would follow. He didn't.
When the pale girl turned and began to shuffle away, Tiarnan paused and watched her. She gave him fleeting glances, imploring him to follow, but each look became lesser than the last, until she was resigned to looking forward towards the horizon, and most likely her home. Tiarnan wined a low and tremulous note, knowing that she was out of ear-shot to hear him. He turned away from her white-speck of a figure and began stalking off in to the forest again, heading through it's westernmost tangles, his heart suddenly heavy in a manner that did not fit the youth.
[exit!]
She looked back until the beach was obscured from view by row after irregular row of tree trunks. Before long, the smell of damp humus replaced salt, and the sun's glow became white glare that filtered, soft and green, through the dense crowns above her. Several times on her way back to Swiftcurrent Creek, she turned tail and sprinted back, but the whim burned out before she could make significant progress.
And he would be gone by now - blazing west into distant nothingness, never to be seen again.