Cedar Sweep quality road

The coastline had given her plenty to think about, yet so far, no sign of word from her brother--as halfway expected. Although it had been a vague, distant plan at best, he had always followed through before. Yet not this time, it seemed. Day after day, and still nothing. When she was finding herself tired of the seaside diet for a while, she decided to roundabout her path back into the Hinterlands. Maybe, before too long, she'd return. For now, she was tired of smelling like brine.

This motivated her down through the swamps and beyond, where eventually she joined up with a large waterway that sat at the base of the range. Knowing it would be a good guide through the terrain, and a place where she wouldn't need to exhaust her stamina looking for a passable route, she stuck near it and let it guide her course.

Caught in the routine of survival, the days steadily turned towards a week and still she was able to survive on what she could scavenge and catch herself by the river. Even if it was never very much, opportunities were frequent enough that it worked and every day was quickly a lot like the one before it. This time, the scout had no specific goals in pointing south, neither did she have any other overarching plan in mind, but she was sure to keep covering ground and pressing further so long as nothing stopped her.

It was late morning by the time she began to thread into the heart of the cedar forest. Sunlight filtered through occasionally and a soft haze hung low to the ground, all dappled with dust and bugs. Painfully picturesque, she walked through quietly without intentions to disturb.

After abandoning the wolf that looked similarly to her brother, Mallaidh wondered around aimlessly. She’d gotten, for the most part, lost on her way back in the fray of upset. The few times she tried to hunt always end in failure and what she’d managed to scavenge only upset her stomach with the taste of spoiled meat ruining her taste buds.
 
The forest of the sweep is familiar to her, at least, and she knows the strath is on the other side. The familiar ache of travel has settled in her bones after a few days and she doesn’t know if she has the energy to press onward. It will be easy to let her limbs buckle beneath her and crash on the ground, sleeping until it is all over. It has been days since she’s been home and she wants nothing more than to go home and nestle her way back into the family bunch once more.
 
The scent of another catches her attention but the girl freezes in place, turning until she sees the soft browns and grays in the distance, but does nothing to make her presence known.

Undoubtedly, she was the most interested in the path ahead and where this may lead her--what treasure may await, physical or metaphorical, she keen enough to hunt for either. Yet, she consistently caught herself needing to dial back and realize of the here and now more so not to feel in any kind of rush seep further into her bones. She couldn't afford to right now, because why did it matter when she made it to wherever she was going? Nothing governed her aside from survival, she had no deadlines, no clear-cut motivations besides this long, winding, and selfish walk.

Jomyo sighed softly and noticed a bit of a scent scarcely a second after. She'd been left alone here in these woods, so she couldn't help but notice when it was no longer the case. Now, a touch more guarded than before, she pressed a little closer as the scent suggested.. until she spie. "Hey?" she called out across the way with her eyes narrowed into a squint towards what was a shadowed silhouette first. A few steps closer revealed a darkly coated wolf instead--a young one. Still, she could be bothered to investigate.

It surprises her that it does not take long for her to be spotted. Eyes widened as she glances around at her surroundings, trying to place what had tipped her off but the thought is quickly pushed aside as she is eventually addressed and pointed out. Mallaidh’s ears fall back against her head and she lowers her head, ready to scramble away if she needs to. She isn’t quick enough to escape a sudden lunge but she knows she’d never give up, even in the wake of trauma.
 
Mallaidh swallows a large lump in the back of her throat and she eases out of her hiding spot, ears back and tail tucked. She looks to each pressure point the other has but there is little she can do. After a beat, she glances down. “My pack is not far from here,” she states, grinding her teeth together. Having spent several days away shows by the way her thinned skin ripples over her ribcage and shrinks up to a thinning waist. “They know where I am.”

Jomyo knew to be careful. While this wolf, this one and only wolf, was just a young one, that meant more weren't far. She'd very likely have parents somewhere, perhaps closer than the roving scout would have liked to see. When the girl spoke, she nodded--it was of no surprise to her. "Good," she replied after a thoughtful pause. "Well, maybe not for me," she quipped lightly, inferring to any potential aggression towards strangers, especially ones lurking around near one of their cubs. A pack could be outrun, though. Probably. "What's your pack called? I'm a scout, a loner right now," the Eizokusei said, telling a piece of herself in a hopeful exchange for whatever pertinent info she could fish out of the lean-looking girl. "You're the first anyone I've seen in a while. These places usually so quiet out here?" she asked, testing the waters with the young wolf with some typical sort of conversation.

Mallaidh stares skeptically at the stranger for a moment longer to make sure she believes the information. She isn’t trying to attack her out of the blue like her last encounter and she’s at least talking to her. Still, Mallaidh hesitates to get any closer. Whatever distance she can keep between herself and the stranger, the better. A head start is the best she can hope for. “Scout?” she questions with a burrow of her brows. Jomyo wasn’t afraid of being out of her pack—not that she had one—and she wants that. She can’t have the monster hover over her shoulder for the rest of her life. “How do you do it? Being alone?” she questions again with a slight tilt of her head before she realizes she hadn’t answered any questions. “It is quiet here,” she adds, keeping the information about her own pack to herself.

She peered back to the girl's stare, unwavering for now. She'd let her have her skepticism. "Yeah. Scout." she repeated, and confirmed with another nod since she didn't want to have to spell it out, nor did she know what exactly the question could even be. Thankfully, the girl went on, signalling some semblance of understanding—at least enough to question the loneliness of her chosen path. "You get used to it," was the frank, easy answer here. "Really, it's not that bad once you can get to a routine and cover some ground. Usually, I can run into a few here and there so.." Jomyo lifted her shoulders in half a gesture. She liked nosing around, roaming, and skirting places of interest.. so much so that she struggled to imagine life entirely without that.

"Ah, figures. Not many packs around, it seems. None in the way I came from anyway," she gestured towards the direction of the river. All empty spaces. She had traveled undisturbed for a surprisingly long time now.

She wonders how much her parents know of the area. They’ve been here a lot longer than she has (something she doesn’t realize to be false) and she’s sure they know of everything that’s going on. Arturo is adamant about showing them the borders and where they can’t go and there’s never been mention of any packs to her that she can recall so she only assumes and the stranger confirms such notions. “What’s your name?” she asks and then a beat later: “where are you going next?”

"What's yours?" she counters with first, though eases it into a smirk since the little thing has managed to evade answering most all the others. "I'm Jomyo." she concedes without waiting to see if the girl would answer anything at all, which she supposed didn't matter in the long run. It isn't like her name is known here, and it isn't like she wastes her time with surnames and titles from home. She knows better than to chance something like that so uselessly. "Don't know exactly. Maybe west a bit first, then if nothing interests me, back towards the mountains." The scout jerks her nose accordingly in the way she had come from. On the other side of the mountain range, she knew there were packs she could loiter on if winter forced her hand. She wasn't sure if she'd get to know enough about this wolf's pack to even put it on her radar of potential consideration--but that was in the worst case sorts of scenarios. "Just not back up to the seaside yet." she concluded.

It catches her off guard when the woman asks for her name before giving her own and her ears fan back quickly, lips parted just slightly as if she were going to answer in reflex. The few seconds she has to stop herself, however, the woman introduces herself and Mallaidh brushes off the strange exchange. “I’m Mallaidh,” she says then but listens as she moves into the explanation of her next leg in her journey. She lances off to the left, in the direction she assumes is her home, but doesn’t bring it up anymore. She does briefly wonder why she doesn’t want to go to the sea but her mind can’t wrap around what that looks like anyway. Instead of pressuring for more questions, though, she takes a step back. “I should probably go,” she murmurs, shuffling her footing around.

It didn't surprise her that they keep it strictly on a first-name sort of basis. That suited her just fine, and Jomyo nodded at the name she was given back, matching with the best effort to remember it. But, there was always the distinct possibility she would never see her again and maybe even if she did later down the road, she wouldn't recognize her anyway. She probably had a lot of growing ahead of her still, after all, and Jomyo didn't have a real plan to stay in this area for good yet. "Yeah. Safe travels," she bid the young wolf with a tip of her muzzle, then turned towards an opposite route.

But, all in all, noted, and she went on her own way towards the west--roughly