Sleepy Fox Hollow and i'm like honestly,

tegan can casually be this far away from home why not... @Indra <3

tegan's little legs were getting long and noodly-- though he was still very much average sized. those noodles took him far from the caldera as he set off on a quick adventure, wanting to find somewhere cool to tell finley about. she'd want to hear, since she was cooped up a lot lately. at least, tegan figured she'd want to hear. he'd be gone for a while but he'd be home soon, no need to worry mom and dad. 

he decided his turn around point would be... here. whenever here was. his nose twitched as he looked around the territory, trying to decide exactly where he was. it was nothing crazy or fascinating, this territory, but tegan quite liked it, he decided.

i luv bobs burgers ROFL

like tegan, indra had spent the better half of the day wandering. she was frustrated, cooped up, and angry -- rather than unleash her emotions on the wretch that so richly deserved them, indra had stalked out of the valley and out into the wild.

she hadn't seen much - a hare here, the parting glimpse of a deer through bare trees. the jaunt, while quiet, had been circumspective -- and the girl turned back at length and bid for home.

a thread of silver ahead caught her attention and she swung to a stop with her muzzle raised. her eyes trained on the form of a juvenile, and while he looked alone, she did not trust him. carefully the girl scented of the bare wilderness, and detected nothing but the chill that settled around them.

ah!! whoa wait! tegan spotted her-- a perfect stranger-- a little ways off. oh thank god, because he hadn't spoken in a hot minute and he was getting pretty antsy. "hey you!" tegan called out to her, ignoring the fact that it looked like she was moving away from him / wanted nothing to do with him. "do you know where we are? i gotta go home soon but i told my mom i'd find somewhere cool to tell her about-- but i'm not learnin' anything." he frowned, tail swinging. he was in a pickle, truthfully, he needed more information about the outside world-- and no one was giving him anything.

her cautious inspection of the storm-cloaked juvenile had not gone unnoticed. brightly he swung right about, as if he knew her -- and with a bold voice harkened her as if she were expected company.

indra's ears drew forward but a perplexed expression stormed her thin features. by hailing her, he had betrayed her location to any of his accomplices -- suspicious that he was too young to be alone, indra assumed the call was meant to draw her location out to any companions that trailed him that day. unwilling to be caught unawares the girl swept her gaze around them, studying every tree and fern as if it hid his chaperone behind it.

she didn't really know where they were either, having never secured the name of this place. she rolled her shoulders thickly and returned: "no idea. why are you out here? are you alone?" she asked him suspiciously, still searching for any sign of company.

damn. that was useless to him. tegan gave a soft huff and looked away into the forest for a moment... nothing interesting out there still. "i'm exploring," he said, giving her a look with scrunched up eyebrows-- duh. and then he gave her another look-- one that begged the question 'why are you being so weird?' "yeah, what, are you gonna tell my mom? she already knows, she doesn't approve of it but she knows she can't stop me so she just likes when i tell her about everything i find," he shared freely with the girl. well, she already knew his whole life story-- might as well learn his name too. 

"i'm tegan! i'm from redhawk caldera, it's uh... in that direction," he told her, pointing with an outstretches forelimb through the trees. it might not've been that direction but... tegan forgot which way he'd come from. whatever, he'd just follow scent trails when he went to turn back, he'd be fine.

his huff drew back her ears in refute; she looked upon him with a scowl, unsure how to handle his youthful disposition.

gods, had she gotten that old?

she huffed herself at the accusation she would tell his mom - she again looked about them, making sure said mom was not present in the vicinity. "even if i knew who your mom was, what makes you think i would tell her?" she countered hotly, still childishly stung by the accusation. "even if i was gonna, i wouldn't cause it's her own fault - she shouldn't have lost track of you like that."

wow, look at this bitch -- offering Mothering 101 advice when she had never raised a whelp herself.

tegan shifted his weight back and forth as this girl started... nagging? yeah, nagging. she was nagging. he wasn't positive that word could be used in this context but he was gonna use it anyway. "she didn't lose track of me, she knows where i go," he replied, defending his mothers own capabilities as a mother... cause he liked finley. anyway. 

"you gonna tell me your name? wait-- oh shit! are you a warrior?" he shifted from one topic to another, but had suddenly noticed her lack of a tail and a few of her scars. this girl-- though naggy-- was suddenly waaaaaay more interesting to the youth.

his quick defense of his mother was met with a clap shut of her mouth: she jerked her head back in surprise and studied him, taken aback by the shift in conversation. she decided he was probably a momma's boy in that moment -- why else would he have had such a knee-jerk reaction to correct her?

nevermind that if the roles were reversed, indra would have done exactly the same thing.

as preposterous as his next question was, indra somehow managed to keep a straight face through it. she realized she suddenly had leverage - not much, but enough that she could command the direction of the conversation if she so wished. she shifted back on her heels and stood tall, expanding proudly the way a male peacock might impressively display his wares.

"i've been in a scrap or two." she supplied coolly -- if she was a human she would have examined her nails in a nonplussed manner for added effect. "i'm indra. you?"

oh! so close, indra. in fact, tegan probably would've thought you were so cool, had you not made one. tiny. error. in your introduction. which is totally fine, i'd tune out tegan too if i could, but he had to comment. "pft, i already told you my name, are you deaf?" he said with a flick upwards of his nose. and then he repeated himself anyway, cause he had enough decency to do that, "my name is tegan, from the red hawk caldera." besides, he couldn't be too mean. indra was a warrior! and he was still a sucker for a good story, and battle stories? those were the best! he'd wanna tell fiadh when he got back home. 

"tell me about one of your fights, please, indra! just one of 'em, and then i'll fuck off back home, promise!"

o fuck i forgot that sorry LMAO

indra froze, caught by the intrepid youth -- indeed, he had already parted his name but she had been too offput to have registered it appropriately. she offered a simpering smile as if in apology, though it was followed by a deep scowl. she was tremendously displeased by her oversight.

she pinned her ears and practically pouted, her jaw jutting out in a thin and displeased expression. even though his tone had seemed admonishing, he seemed quick to overlook the slight shortly after. she supposed simply because she had glubbed up moments before, she at least owed him a story.

but she had never been good at telling stories. refusing to want to lose face, she adopted a contemplative expression. "a warrior doesn't fight and tell." she finally said, her lip peeled back in a gloating smirk. "besides, you're so young for bloody stories....." she prattled -- her tone suggesting she might possibly be swayed if he was convincing enough...

appalled! tegan made a face of sheer shock and disgust. "me?!" he exclaimed with pricked ears, his tail straightening and standing upright, "too young? nah nah, i don't fucks with that baby stuff, i'm grown-- heard all that nasty stuff-- all of it indra, swear." and for good measures, tegan gave a good turn to show his shoulder? why'd he do that? "look, i got some battle scars too--" oh right, he'd scratched himself trying to climb a leaning tree the other day, literally a hair-width scratch, she probably couldn't even see it-- "you think that's too young?" convinced he'd sold himself on being old enough to hear a bloody story, his tail now relaxed and waving at his hocks, tegan puffed out his chest. hah. he'd totally won her over.

indra was not surprised that he heatedly contested her verdict. as tegan twirled round and showed her some indecipherable and arguably superficial scrape, indra feigned a look of awed surprise, her eyes wide. she pulled back and offered a sage nod, as if accepting how incorrect she'd been to label him young.

"ah yes," she murmured, sitting back on her haunches with contemplation. "you're not too young after all." she stalled for a moment, stealing a chance to think as she paused for dramatic effect. "i'll tell you how i got this scar --" she upturned her right wrist, where a dark mark snarled from her dewclaw up to her radius. "i was about your age, and i was looking in the woods for my sister when all of the sudden, a dark shadow spread overhead.."

"thank you for admitting that," tegan said with a firm nod and a little wiggle of his butt as he started to get geeked up over hearing this story. well... it totally wasn't the story he wanted to hear... but... he'd let it slide-- this time only though, mark his words.

"dark shadow??? what was it??" tegan demanded quickly, eyes wide and ears cupped forward like little satellite dishes, prepared to hear the rest of the story in perfect audio.

tegan's interest was evident; indra cursed herself silently for her lack of imagination, but answered. "a bear." she replied flatly, levelling him the most intense of stares -- as if to say, he wouldn't even begin to understand how immense this bear was.

"it's how bearclaw valley got it's name.." she paused for effect. "as i said.. i was looking for her when suddenly, a massive shape pulled across the path. i looked up and these two black eyes, smaller and rounder than any pebble, stared hungrily back at me -- there was no time to say anything before he lumbered towards me, and i knew what i had to do.." she trailed off a moment, as if recalling the goriness of the battle. "he hit me once with enough force to debark a tree -- but i gave him all i could, which wasn't much -- thankfully, my sister arrived in time and together the two of us forced him back, but not before he ripped half her face off." indra said to so casually, but inwardly she was inspecting the story-hungry child for his reaction.

indra held her breath, and then, continued her story -- because it wasn't done -- she explained how her sister valiantly recovered from such a malady, and how they lived happily ever after -- and then, after suggesting it was her time to go, indra headed for home.

i really need to close down indras 25-active threadlog - im going to archive this bc it is older but please lmk if you want one in the future <3