Greatwater Lake Little deuce coupe

@Banner! :)

He was feeling better than he had in over a month, and it was for that reason that he traveled much further than he had originally intended. When the search for Lazarus did not immediately yield results, Floki had started to fan out, covering the territories that surrounded Moonspear. At the end of each day, he returned home, tired and achy and empty-handed.

But on this particular instance, he had gotten into something of a comfortable groove; while his gait was still noticeably uneven, he wasn't feeling much pain as he loped across the plains. He didn't stop for fear of letting his body catch up with him. Time and distance slipped away, and he eventually found himself coming to a halt at the edge of a massive lake after crossing over a winding tributary.

He blinked, looking around as though taking stock of his location for the first time. A glance over his shoulder revealed that Moonspear was still visible, yet much smaller than usual. The scout couldn't help but grin broadly, a feeling of pride washing over him. His bum leg wouldn't keep him down. A light summer breeze ruffled his fur as he lowered his head to take a long drink of water, thirstily pulling the cool liquid into his mouth.

A light summer breeze, though lovely in its own way, did nothing to ease the discomfort Banner felt in the summer heat.  In wintertime, her thick coat was a blessing.  Now?  Not so much.  She should have stayed at Marauder's Keep and holed up in the Crook, at least until the sun wasn't so high.  Ah, but no, she'd been in a wandering mood!  So, naturally, she'd picked a direction and started moving.  Now, hours later, shed grown to regret her decision, though not enough to turn around and head back just yet.

And it was a good thing she didn't because that lake looked absolutely wonderful and refreshing and all combination of positive adjectives she could possibly think of!  Without hesitation, Banner charged forward, her tongue lolling happily out from between her open jaws while crystal water splashed all around her.  It took seconds for the short female to fully submerge herself and when she came up for air her gasp was one of relief.

Had she been aware of her company Banner may have been embarassed.  But this dip was more than worth her outburst.

The water was cool and refreshing as it hit Floki's stomach; he hadn't realized just how hot he was until that moment. He was completely immersed in the task and so a sudden and inexplicable splash from nearby nearly made him jump out of his skin. He took several steps backward, hackles standing in a rigid line down his back as his gaze landed on the rippling water, now the only evidence that something had happened in the first place.

Seconds later, a dark head broke the surface. Floki eyed the culprit as she bobbed with the motion of the lake, trying to discern her intent. A quick examination of the shoreline revealed that there was no one else around, meaning that she wasn't being chased; so unless she was particularly ungraceful and had tripped over her own feet and fallen in, she had likely cannonballed on purpose.

He ran his tongue over his nose before calling out, "I give it a 7 out of 10 -- you need a bit more finesse next time."

The water soaked through her coat quickly and was an immediate, cool balm on her hot skin.  Banner's paws were especially relieved, both from the strain of longer-distance travel and the heat the ground had leeched from the sun.  She swam a few strokes before turning and heading back to the shore.  Despite the momentum she'd gained from barrelling into the water, her legs were still short - by the time the water's resistance slowed her down enough, she'd only made it several yards from the shallows.

And that ended up being a good thing because that voice had startled the ever loving hell out of her.

"Ack!"  The noise was all she'd managed before momentary panic took over.  Banner flailed in the water and lost her swimming rhythm and, as luck would have it, she wasn't quite close enough to shore for her paws to reach the bottom yet.  That didn't stop her from trying.. which also didn't stop her from gasping as her head went under the water's surface again.  This time it was unplanned.  Panic built upon panic - it was the only strong emotion aside from anger she'd felt in what seemed like eons.

She surfaced again three seconds later.  "What the -" her sentence was cut off coughing so deep it rattled her trachea.  Banner struggled forward, still thrown off by her own stupidity as she dragged her body out of the water and collapsed in a heap.

His quip didn't seem to be appreciated -- in fact, it served only to startle the she-wolf. He hadn't realized that she wasn't aware of his presence, and he gasped audibly as she suddenly began to flounder in the water. Fearing for her life -- especially because it would be his stupid fault if she drowned -- he bounded into the shallows, sending up a splash with his paws.

But she resurfaced a second later and, although she appeared to be short of breath, she managed to paddle herself to the shore. Floki paused where he stood, the lakewater lapping around his ankles, and watched as she threw herself down onto the beach, coughing and sputtering. His ears fell to either side and he crept towards her, though he halted a few feet away.

"Sorry...are you okay?" he asked hesitantly. He was embarrassed, but he was sure she felt worse.

Her eyes were closed as she focused on her breathing.  In, out.  Deep breaths, gentle release.  Banner felt her heartbeat calm down and she smirked as she realized how similar it was to calming herself out of a rage.  Just took a little bit of self-control.  It was lucky that she hadn't swallowed more water - that made everything much easier.

Her growl was a reflex, released just before she sprang up on all fours and assumed a defensive crouch.  Her bright green gaze was startled as she took in the male wolf before her.  It took a moment, but her brain slowly began putting this puzzle together.  She'd thrown herself into a lake, someone said something, she had a dramatic near-drowning experience, and someone said something again.  Banner blinked, her stance relaxing.  Oh, this tall male must have been the one to speak to her.

After clearing her throat, the lady Marauder opened her mouth without taking the time to think of what to say.  "Uh.. hi?"  How poetic.

He didn't expect her to leap up so suddenly, but that was what she did. From her slumped position on the shore, she abruptly took to her feet, everything about her posture defensive. Floki took a step back, and had he hands, he would have held them up to show that he meant no harm. "Sorry!" he repeated; she was little, but she was fierce.

He was drawn to her electric green gaze, despite the uncertainty within their depths. Slowly, she seemed to shift -- her body became less tense and she spoke after a pause, though she didn't answer his question. But there was really no need; she seemed to be okay, albeit maybe a little crazy.

"Hi," he replied simply, offering a gentle wave of his tail. He wanted to make a jab at her swimming skills, but he held his tongue. He had already almost made her drown with his poorly timed joke.

This time she recognized his apology - she hadn't been able to focus on his words before, what with the dying and all.  Banner's ears flattened as it slowly dawned on her that she must now be a complete weirdo in the eyes of this male.  Ah, great.  She took one second to herself, one moment to be free and let go and it had ended in disaster.  Well, not total disaster.  The light summer breeze did feel a lot better now that she was completely soaked.  Okay, so at least she felt refreshed.

She cleared her throat again, this time offering her newfound company an apologetic smile.  The wag of this gray stranger's tail told her that he was friendly.  At least he was friendly so far.  Though if her defensive reaction didn't scare him off yet, she supposed that he'd be okay.  "Er.. sorry about that," she offered, ducking her head.  "I should have been paying attention, I guess.."  Her voice was quiet, the pacing of her words awkward.  But this was as good as it got with Banner.

So far, their conversation had mostly consisted of apologizing to each other repetitively. It was a little ridiculous, he had to admit, but he did truly feel bad for surprising her. He shook his head, all too eager to shift the blame away from her and onto his own shoulders. "No, it's my fault, I didn't mean to startle you," he said.

A short, awkward silence ensued, which he filled quickly by blurting out, "I'm Floki, by the way." He had completely forgotten his whole reason for venturing all the way out to Greatwater Lake, which was to track down Lazarus. He should have taken that moment to ask the she-wolf if she had seen the white wolf, but that thought was buried somewhere in the back of his mind. Instead, he found himself thinking about how cute she was, even though she kind of resembled a drowned rat at the moment.

"Do you swim here often?" he asked, shrugging a shoulder towards the lake. She had leapt in with a reckless abandonment that suggested confidence -- which he had promptly ruined.

She didn't respond to him shouldering the blame - it would have been pointless to keep their apologies going round and round in an obnoxious circle.  Instead she shrugged her shoulders, hoping at the last minute that it wouldn't somehow offend him.  Social grace wasn't a strong point of hers, but she didn't dare assume that anyone else could possibly know that.

But then.. awkward silence followed by blurting out an introduction?  She blinked, the look on her face fluctuating between surprise and bewilderment.  That was usually her standard procedure.  How odd to be on the other end!  Damn, she really needed to work on that.  But Floki's introduction didn't phase her much, at least not in the way she'd always feared her own introductions were received by others.  This realization relaxed her further, enough to crack a smile.  "Banner," she replied easily, traces of laughter surrounding her name. 

"I've.. actually never been here before," she admitted, only now realizing how stupid that sounded.  "This might be the farthest I've been away from my pack since joining."  The thought gave her pause.  Was that a stupid thing to admit?  She eyed Floki, noticing for the first time that his legs were a sandy color and faded out to gray near his elbows.  Huh.  Should she be admitting that she was wandering far from home to a random stranger?

She introduced herself in turn, and some of the weirdness started to dissolve. They had gotten off to a rocky start, but as she relaxed, so did Floki. It turned out that she had never been to this lake before, which came as a surprise; he would have bet money that she came here often to swim.

"I haven't been here before either," he replied, and something suddenly clicked in his brain as he remembered Lazarus. That bastard was the whole reason he was here! "I'm from Moonspear. It's the tall mountain back there," he said, gesturing over his shoulder at the range of peaks in the distance. Moonspear's apex reached above its brothers', cutting an impressive silhouette against the sky.

"I actually came here looking for a, uh, packmate -- he's a white wolf named Lazarus. You haven't met anyone by that name, have you?" He peered at Banner, hoping for her sake that she hadn't met Amekaze's attacker -- luckily, he knew that the chances were slim. He felt confident that he would have smelled Lazarus had he passed through the area recently.

She would have scoffed at his description of Moonspear being "the tall montain back there", but when she directed her gaze back to where he'd motinoed, she understood.  There was one peak that stood taller than the rest and did look quite like a spear sticking straight up into the afternoon sky.  It made her think of the Sunspire in the opposite direction, though Banner had yet to visit either one of them.  Mountains weren't really her.. thing.  She'd been perfectly content to live in the shadow of several - her home among the willow trees was peaceful and didn't come with the threat of tumbling down thousands of feet to a messy death.

When Floki questioned her regarding another wolf, she frowned for a moment.  Laza.. what?  God damn, she'd always been so terrible with names!  But the Moonspear male did mention that this particular wolf had a white coat and Banner was certain that she hadn't come across any strangers matching that description.  The last few weeks saw her social calendar oddly full, though that was mostly conincidence. "No, doesn't sound familiar," she responded apologetically.

"Is he lost..?" she asked, her voice hesitant.  Floki had mentioned this Lazawhoever was a packmate.  Seemed quite a distance to travel from Moonspear for just any old reason.

He was a little relieved when she mentioned that she didn't know anything about Lazarus. Her next question made his lips twist into a wry grin. "Kind of," he replied; he certainly was lost, but it seemed that he didn't want to be found. He debated how much to explain and decided to say, "He's actually in trouble -- he attacked our Alpha female." His expression was grim, and while he didn't say anything further, he felt he had given Banner enough of a warning -- and hopefully, if she ever encountered Lazarus, she would keep her distance.

Floki shook his head, casting a quick glance around them as if to double check that Lazarus wasn't lurking in the foliage nearby. "Where are you from?" he asked, trying to gently guide the conversation in a different direction.

She tried, but Banner couldn't help the growl that ripped out of her throat when Floki explained why he was looking for that white wolf.  Her eyes widened as though surprised by her own recation.  "He what?" she asked, disbelief and anger warring with eachother for dominance in her tone.  To attack any wolf was awful, but his own Alpha female?  If Floki here were hunting him down then clearly the attack was unwarranted!  The chocolate female blinked rapidly and took a few deep breaths.  Such clear disregard for pack always made her blood boil.  And to go that far - this Lazawhat's disloyalty was appalling.

When the gray male moved on to ask her about her own home, she was aware enough to know that he'd intended to lead the conversation in a new direction.  After one more deep breath, Banner nodded.  "Marauder's Keep," she answered, her tone measured and void of the anger she'd just felt.  Deciding that another step was necessary to remain calm, she cleared her throat and walked a few paces toward the water.  "It's back on the other side of the mountains," she added in her low voice while gesturing in the opposite direction of Moonspear with her head.  When her toes were submerged in the water, she lowered her head and began lapping at the cool liquid.

Banner's shock and anger was apparent, and Floki felt justified. He had known from the beginning that Lazarus wasn't a good guy, and while there was nothing they could do to change what had happened, Banner's reaction only helped to solidify the fact that Lazarus was in the wrong. "I know," he said quietly, between gritted teeth, but was happy when she followed his lead and left the topic of Lazarus rest.

She moved toward the water as she spoke and he took a few steps behind her until he stood ankle-deep. Marauder's Keep wasn't a familiar name to him; he knew a lot about the packs scattered throughout Great Bear Wilderness, but he was reminded that there was still plenty that he wasn't aware of. He looked in the direction that she had indicated, storing the information in his mind.

"So what brought you out this far?" he asked, gliding past Banner and into the lake. He strode forward until the water reached his chest, and then he turned and looked back at her, his head canted to the side. The water was cool and refreshing, a welcome respite from the summer's heat.

She'd finished her drink as soon as Floki made it up to his ankles in the water.  Head low, she watched him with wide, green eyes.  Her temper was an ebb and flow experience this time around.  The anger that lasted for hours  - that was much worse.  Those episodes left her nearly incapacitated for days with bone-deep exhaustion.  Thankfully they'd remained private affairs and pack life seemed to have evened her out.  When the anger came and went quickly was when she felt most invigorated.  Adrenaline raced through her and pricked at all her senses.  Banner knew it wasn't elation she felt, but it was the closest to true joy she'd ever experienced.

She sighed.  An unintended side effect of something she couldn't control.

"I had to roam," she said simply, her tail twitching behid her.  The chocolate female lost herself in her own thoughts for a minute and she now noticed that Floki had ventured deeper into the water.  She offered him a half smile and strode out in pursuit.  Her legs, however, were much shorter than his own sand-colored limbs, so she had to stop before she reached him.  ".. hard to stay put with leadership tension.  Makes the whole place seem.. toxic," she admitted quietly.

He watched her, ears cupped towards her as she answered his question and then waded in after him. She paused, both in her forward motion and her speaking, and he took the opportunity to venture into the deeper water. With a single thrust of his hind legs, he propelled himself away from the shallows, aware that the bottom of the lake had dropped out beneath him. He wasn't a particularly skilled swimmer, but he knew enough to tread water -- and that was what he did, turning in a slow circle as his legs churned methodically under him.

"Tension?" he asked, tossing a curious glance in Banner's direction. He was, perhaps, being a bit too nosy, but he told himself it was for his research. He was a scout, after all, and likely soon to officially become an ambassador -- it was his business to know what was going on with other packs in the area. Besides, he truly was interested in what she had to say.

When Floki kicked off and began to swim back around, she watched him with a small smile playing on her dark lips.  Banner appreciated that he wasn't standing there starting at her - that part of socializing was her least favorite.  Their conversation had turned to her, but she didn't feel any of her usual awkwardness under the glare of the proverbial spotlight.

When the grayscale male had made his full turn back in her direction, she averted her green gaze to the water just in front of her.  The Marauder internally recognized it as a bashful gesture though she hadn't necessarily meant it as such.  "A lot of the 'he said, she said' dynamic," she began. ".. well, 'she said, she said', really.." Banner cleared her throat as she tried to fend off the awkward turn her words were taking.   "Issues between the Alphas.  They haven't bothered to figure it out yet and the rest of us are paying the price."

Floki listened while he paddled, though in the back of his mind he was also comparing the placid lake to the rough and unpredictable ocean. He had been raised on its shores, and while he didn't trust it, he respected it -- which was, perhaps, why one would never find him venturing too far into its depths. The lake, on the other hand, was gentle and unsurprising, and even allowed him to multitask.

Banner spoke of strained relations between her Alphas and he cast a sympathetic glance in her direction as he circled. He pulled with his forelegs, moving back towards her but still remaining in the deeper water. "That's a shame," he offered, although he hadn't any advice to give. Her description of the situation was vague, but it sounded like nothing he had ever experienced.

"I hope it gets resolved soon," he said with an apologetic shrug of his shoulders that nearly capsized him. His chin dunked briefly into the water and he overcorrected with a loud splash, floundering momentarily before righting himself sheepishly.

She responded first with a noise of agreement, somewhere between a grunt and "uh-huh".  It was a shame.  If the pack's leadership couldn't be bothered to get along, what hope did the rest of them have?  Banner did appreciate his sympathetic look and returned it with a small smile.  "Me too," she finally said, shrugging her comment off as though it didn't really bother her.  Floki would probably see right through that, just as most wolves would.  Banner had become better at masking and controlling her anger, but other emotions weren't dealt with as strictly.

Banner blinked a couple of times as the grayscale wolf floundered in the water.  "You okay?" she asked with a grin, amusement sparkling in her bright green eyes.  Floki sure did enjoy near-drownings.  The short female dunked her nose down in the water and jerked her chin up, sending a playful splash out in his direction.

"I'm great," he called in reply once he had resumed his doggy-paddling. The water calmed around him, the ripples from his splash receding. He opened his mouth to toss an invite in Banner's direction -- "Come on in, the water's fine!" -- but she chose that moment to splash with her forepaws, creating a spray with just enough reach to splatter across his muzzle.

He laughed out a protest of, "Hey!" That cry was then followed up with a splash of his own, created by drawing his paws up and then down simultaneously and rapidly against the surface of the water. Thoughts of Lazarus and Banner's apparently tension-filled pack fled his mind for the time being.

fade..? :)

Banner giggled - she actually giggled! - when Floki let out his cry and hit back with a splash of his own.  Despite the troubles tumbling wildly about in her mind, she felt like she could relax, just live in the here and now.  Her grayscale companion was easy to get along with and now that he wasn't accidentally trying to drown her or give her a heart attack, the lady Marauder felt quite at ease. 

She fixed him with a mock glare and crouched down as far as the water would allow.  Banner tensed her short legs and then propelled herself forward, launching her body in one powerful thrust right toward Floki.  She was a long way from hitting him, but the dark female let out a playful growl as she rapidly paddled toward him.  Once she was close enough, she switched directions with a splash and moved to circle around him.  Hell, she could swim like this all day!  A few hours of playful recreation every now and then never hurt anyone.

Yep! :)

He laughed as she sent a splash back in his direction, swimming out towards him. Easily, their conversation faded away into nothing more than shouts and giggles as they paddled about in the deep water. Floki was always amazed at the connections that could be made with a stranger -- it was one of the reasons why he loved being a scout.

Eventually, when they tired, they retreated to the shore -- and when it became evident that the day was coming to an end, they parted ways. Floki started his trek back to the south, hoping that he would be lucky enough to run into Banner again in the future -- though his thoughts soon darkened as he resumed his search for Lazarus.