Hushed Willows shelter

paging @Reek @Jhala @Tapat @Astik @Dagfinn @Tambourine (and anyone else I forgot) are welcome to join in. <3

It was frickin' cold. Not just normal oh hey look there's snow on the ground and falling from the sky cold. No. This was lung-stabbing, ass-clenchingly cold. Something somewhere had clearly taken offense with the Teekon Wilds (repent, whumpers) and was now making it cold enough for a snowball to actually have a chance in Hell. 

The young wolf was tired from travelling and hungry from weeks spent scrounging for scraps and small game. It wasn't necissarily a life, but it was living. Now there was literally nothing around. Every small animal was huddled in their nice cozy dens. She envied them as she plodded along, slowed by the buffeting wind, and blinded by the blowing snow. Circumstances were dire, but she didn't want to fall into the trap of despair. The second she acknowledged that her situation was growing more problematic by the day, the sooner she succumbed, so she refused to believe it.

When her stomach growled she growled back and broke into a blind run with her head ducked against the snow. She sprinted over the drifts and crashed dramatically through a curtain of willows. Her feet caught awkwardly as they transitioned from snow to bare ground and she stumbled. Moonbrook cried out in alarm as her rear continued forward, propelled by her previous momentum, upending her onto her back until she skidded to a stop in an awkward heap at the base of the willow. 

She stared up unmoving, resigned to her fate as a stupid furry popsicle.

Assumed some things. Let me know if anything needs to be changed!

The cold was his natural habitat. He'd been born into a snowstorm like this, into a harsh wilderness that'd frozen his after birth to the stone in his mother's den. Only the thickness of Dorthe's fur had saved he and Lotte from the same fate.

He had his own pelt, now, and his own layer of fat to shelter his muscles and bones. Enough to last him through this winter on warmth alone, but he had more than that. He had the teachings of his tribe, the instincts of his ancestors, and the heart of an Ansbjorn.

Others were not so fortunate. Had Jhala not been a winter wolf like himself, he would never have left them to scout ahead, searching for the safest passage for them an their children. He would've have stayed behind to offer shelter as his mother had done when he was a babe - the snow might not affect him, but it was nothing for children to trifle with. But Jhala's coat was thick and full, and so Dag had scouted far enough ahead to encounter the wolfsicle, shivering in the cold. Dag drew nearer, nose twitching and a breath like a whine billowing from his nose in a cloud of white. A dark nose pushed into the fur of the woman's shoulder, colder than her flesh but warmer than the air around them.

Looks good to me!

Lying there motionless allowed for those evil, dark thoughts to trickle down through the walls she'd built up. Her family hated her; they wanted her to perish out here in the cold, alone. Her brother never loved her, obviously, since he was so quick to turn aggressive when the command came to remove her from the family. The young female had never, ever imagined she'd be displaced, and she couldn't understand why even now. If ever there was wool pulled over her eyes it was her own ignorance. Her throat clenched and she swallowed thickly around the knot that was forming there. Every extremety, even the tip of her tail, was numb. Her stomach, empty. And her heart? Broken. 

The willow tendrils shivered as a figure passed beneath them but she did not notice; too wrapped up in her self-pity to care. But when a shadow passed over her and peered at her with a pair of vivid blue eyes, she started, her heart busting through the grief to pound at an alarming rate. She didn't move as the stranger pressed his nose into her shoulder. His breath was blessedly warm and, somehow, she managed to glean a bit of comfort from it. Was he trying to decide if she was dead? Or was he somehow in-tune with just how pathetic she felt.

A soft whine pushed from her throat and she wiggled around towards him (still completely on her back, of course) to press a submissive kiss to his ankle. "Hi." she blurted.

Ah. It was a friendly wolfsicle. Dag wagged his tail.

"Hi," he said blithely, sniffing her over now that he seemed to have permission to be so near. He stood over her but tried not to loom during his quick examination. Other than the cold, she seemed like a healthy wolfsicle. Dag decided to rectify that, and laid down beside her, his back to her side, and leaned in her direction until he was in danger of squishing her. "I'm Dag," he informed her, tail whisking once more. He craned his neck to lick at whatever fur was nearest to him, deciding that he rather liked his comfy wolfsicle couch friend.

dag is so cute, god. <3

Unlike most strangers, this guy was actually pretty cool!

Moonbrook relaxed almost immediately at his jovial greeting and thumped her own tail against the ground in a show of good will. She still felt horribly hollow, but the warmth the dark male eminated made her feel just a bit more secure; she felt less like flinging herself off a cliff, and more like drowning her sorrows in a tub of ice cream sort of sad. He sniffed at her some more before dropping down beside her to ooze into her personal space like an amorphous blob of shadow. Not that her space was very personal. In fact, she didn't even react when he did. Like this was just another day in the life.

A soft whine escaped her mouth unbidden at the warm ministrations of his tongue and she pressed her nose into whatever bit of him was within reach, seeking touch and returning the favor of his well-placed affections. Friendship! "You're a cool dude, Dag." she said with a smile, "I'm Moonbrook." she exhaled into his fur and it sounded like a snort. A pause, and then, with a nervous flick of her ear, "Were you following me?"

His tail lashed more furiously when she told him he was cool. That sort of thing always got to him - even though he already knew he was cool. It was never a bad thing to hear it again.

"I think you're cooler," he said, dipping his nose into the snow and flicking the damp, white fluff at his companion. Get it? 'Cool'? He waited for her to laugh, but in the meantime, she asked if he'd been following her, and Dag was quick to jump to his own defense.

"What? No! I'm travelling with a pack - we're on a mission," he told her, chest puffing proudly as he went on: "I am protecting a small family as they seek assylum for the winter." That wasn't what he was doing, like, officially, but probably she wouldn't get the chance to ask Reek or Jhala what he was doing following them around. Or maybe.... "Hey, do you want to come with us? I can protect you, too."

He was only partially joking, and he tossed more snow at Moonbutt to make this known, but in reality, he would protect anyone who travelled with them. That was the point of having a pack.

At least he wasn't super full of himself, though he seemed to glow at the compliment. How dark colored wolves actually accomplished this, however, was another matter for another time. She, of course, mulled over this for about two-point-five seconds before it vanished into the recesses of her mind. She watched him, still wholly upside down, as he flicked snow her way. It landed right between her ears and melted instantly, the chilly water soaking her warm skin. "Y-yee, cold!" she squealed and shot a paw his way via extendo-leg to bap his face, and punish him for his transgression.

This was interrupted, of course, when he went on to explain just why he was here; she'd forgotten, momentarily, how odd it was that a wolf had just strode up to her and struck up conversation like it was no big deal. Was it a big deal? For a social butterfly like Moonbrook, not at all. Her lips curved into an oh shape until they made words happen, which resulted in more snow being shoveled into her mouth by his assault. 

"Plegh! What, wait. Hang on--" She smushed further into him as she readjusted herself so she wasn't laying on her back like a silly, wiggly worm. The she-wolf was, obviously, a very graceless creature by nature. That sorted, she leveled him with a Very Serious Look, which amounted to a weird mix of awestruck and overjoyed. "Really...?!" she squeaked out. "Do you mean it? Because, let's face it, it's cold as shit out here and I am 100% not cut out for this. I would do anything to help, seriously."

Yay! More wolves!

"Of course! We can keep you warm, too," he said cheerfully, scuttling closer to demonstrate this point. Of course, he could not really get too much closer to her, since he was already mostly on top of her. But she was still cold, and he was a wolf not accustomed to minding personal space, so he shuffled over anyway.

"Reek and Jhala won't mind as long as you're nice and help out where you can," he told her, privately hoping that this was the truth. He had total faith in the two by now, so it didn't really feel like lying when he said this to Moonbrook. If he vouched for her, they'd let her join their secret club.

Secret clubs were the BEST™. If it meant getting to hang out with this guy, and have some chill af Alpha's to boot, she was all ears. She laughed as he wriggled closer and shoved her snout into whatever fur was nearby, tail thumping against the frozen ground with a very energetic beat. "Psh, me? I'm like, the epitome of nice. I'm like Snow White and all the woodland creatures love and adore me nice." She drawled with a spark of mirth alight in her eyes.

"But yeah, for real, I'll do anything. I know all the wolf skills. Just point me in a direction and I'll do it. No questions asked." Of course, she had no way of knowing how true this would be in the coming week—where her loyalty pushed her into a conflict with another pack. She smiled at Dagfinn.

Dag puffed up like a happy tomcat when Moonbrook leaned into him with an ease similar to his own. It was good to find like-minded wolves to cuddle with. "You're pretty," he said, abruptly. He hadn't really been thinking about it, but all of the sudden, cuddling a girl that wasn't Lotte sort of overwhelmed him.

Dagfinn stood up and bounded away, hoping to put an end to the sudden onslaught of awkward feelings. "Let's go find Reek and Jhala and we can all cuddle!" he said loudly, covering up his feelings with obnoxious excitement.

Last post from me! Cute thread, thank you Mix!

You're pretty.

Well that was the last thing she expected to hear. She flushed and suddenly her cheeks felt like the surface of the sun—her brain misfired a few more times as she tried to come up with some sort of reply that wasn't just awkward burbling. But, thankfully, Dagfinn shot to his feet and bounded away, leaving her to swallow any stupid reply she had in favor of completely ignoring any of that for now. She barely knew the guy, after all, though it would be a damn severe stretch to say she wasn't flattered.

She uncurled from her wolfbun position and shook out her pelt only to fall in step behind him. Moonbrook cleared her throat, and replied with a dazed smile, "Sounds good to me!" She squeaked.