Rising Sun Valley There and Back Again [Discovery Thread]

@Ptarmigan I’m making this vague since I’m doing the discovery thread with Summer at the same time. I’m just going to assume that Red has been to the forest at least once before and not mention the fact that Summer has gone with her. I still need a name for the forest, though. Any suggestions? Boyfriend suggested something with the word Autumn it it since I can only see Autumn when I look at aspen trees when their leaves have changed color. It just screams Thanksgiving and Halloween and pumpkins to me. It’s my favorite season of the year. ^_^

Oh, also, in case you didn’t read the New Territory thread in the rough drafts section, I decided to move the location of the forest to the area of the map that is to the LEFT of “The Map of the Teekon Wilds”. To the dark area directly above the mountain that juts out from Porcupine Ridge. I hope you know what I mean… >.<

Red was back here again, to this aspen forest with no name. She was excited to continue exploring, to see all there was to see. Her Outrider nature, as well as her nomadic Coyote blood called for adventure and discovery, and she was happy to oblige. She carefully made her way down the mountain on the forest’s south side and bounded into the trees. From her last time here, she had walked the edge of the forest until she made a full circuit and found out that the shape was a rough oval. And she knew that there was a lake at the forest’s center. Other than that, this place was still fairly undiscovered.

She decided to see if there were any other distinguishing features of the forest. As she traveled through the trees, making her way slowly to its heart, she discovered that there were, interspersed within the aspens, a few other deciduous trees as well, like oaks. And here and there, dotted throughout, were the telltale dark green pine needles of evergreens and other coniferous trees. Mainly, though, there were the tall, skinny, white-on-black trunks of aspens, and their light green leaves that would, in the fall, turn the whole forest red-gold. She couldn’t wait to come back in the autumn and just stare at the beauty.

With a smile, she continued deeper into the forest of no name, joy swelling in her chest at her discovery.

Sorry I somehow didn't notice this. -_-

Ptarmigan wouldn't have known the lines between territories if a wide swatch of yellow warning tape smacked her square in the face every time she crossed into a new area. Forests spilled over their boundaries, mountains ended at varying heights in cliffs, plateaus, and walls, and rivers changed their banks over time, even overflowing them occasionally. Wandering was a trait in her very heart ever since Quail had bared her teeth and chased her daughter away, but never had the Endore believed she'd found something untouched.

The aspen forest therefore seemed unremarkable to her, although unbeknownst to her, others within its depths thought it was a wondrous discovery. It was like all other forests in her mind. Of course, it might have proved to be more interesting if the Endore had the slightest knowledge of plants, which she didn't. A leaf was a leaf, a flower was a flower, weeds were the same as grass, and trees had trunks. She needn't know more than that... Which clearly affected her respect for forests in a negative way.

Nevertheless, she did have a healthy respect for nature. As though to show that respect in its fullest, the female decided to fertilize this particular forest with Essence de Ptarmigan by squatting beside a particularly poker straight aspen and grunting out an attempt at vacating her colon.

Lol, it’s okay. I would have waited a few more days and then sent you a friendly reminder. Decided to call the forest the Alabaster Wood, by the way. Like it? Also, lol. Now I have to somehow respond to Ptarmigan sh*tting. Great. Thanks.

As Red made her way deeper in the wood, she also, quite unintentionally, made her way closer to a certain squatting wolf. The incident in the Heartwood during the thunderstorm was but a vague, dreamlike memory to her now, so when she came upon the black female, she did not recognize her. A second later, an extremely unpleasant odor made its way up her nose, and she scrunched her face in displeasure. She didn’t think to turn away for any reason other than to help get rid of the smell, and just stood waiting for the wolf to finish her business. Wolves — or in this case — coywolves didn’t care about watching others empty their bowels or bladders. Why would they?

However, if Red had been a bit smarter, she might have backed away a little more, at least. How could she know of this wolf’s intentions? But that didn’t cross her mind. She simply stood and waited, hoping she might end up with an adventuring partner by the end of this. She was eager to explore, but exploring by herself had ended up being very lonely after not much time at all. Besides, there was a lot of ground to cover, which would take a lot of time. It would go faster with more wolves. She intended to ask for help the moment this squatting female was done.

The ladylike thing to do would have been to somehow stuff her pending bowel movement back into said bowels and apologize profusely for rudely shitting in the open. It would have been polite to take her business elsewhere, at least when it became apparent that the hybrid wasn't going to leave of her own accord, which Ptarmigan certainly didn't fault her for. The little red female had probably been walking, minding her own business, only to see the most unladylike of dumps occurring. She wouldn't have walked away from such a show, either.

However, she wasn't known for being very ladylike, and so she continued to drop turds right in front of Red. She even went so far as to lock her eyes on the other female's, erasing any privacy boundary that might still have existed. When she finished, she grunted again, stood, and stretched out her back legs. She completed her business by kicking dirt over it, but only half finished the job before trotting forward.

Like Red, Ptarmigan didn't remember their previous encounter, and wouldn't have known that this was the same female anyway. She approached jovially enough, with her tail waving at neutral behind her and her head tilted curiously, though her ears thrust forward as though to test the other's patience. Her hybrid blood was apparent in her face and her figure, which were both fuller than a coyote's should have been, though not by a lot. Ptarmigan had seen coywolves before, on rare occasions. “What's up?” she chirped, expecting some sort of joking response about the sky.

As the black-furred female continued her shitting spree, she decided in the middle of it to awkwardly lock eye-contact with Red. The coywolf pulled her ears back against her head and looked away after only a moment or two, but not out of embarrassment or any such thing. She had simply learned early on that staring into a wolf’s face or eyes was a direct sign of challenge, and she couldn’t be sure if this she-wolf was challenging her or not. Red paused… If the female was challenging her to a shitting contest, Red was certainly not going to oblige.

Thankfully, after only a few more moments, the female stopped having her bowel movement and stood straight again, kicking dirt over the massive, stinking pile behind her. Then she wagged her tail a little at Red and said, “What’s up?”

Red shrugged noncommittally, refusing to speak, which was nothing knew for her. She paused awkwardly, unsure of how to ask for an adventuring partner after such an odd start-off. In the end, she simply barked good-naturedly at the female, walked a few paces away, farther into the forest, and then turned and barked again. This was her way of saying, “Come on, follow me!” She wagged her tail to let the other know she was friendly. After that, it was up to her.

Red didn't reply as expected, which made Ptarmigan's face crumple with disappointment. Instead, the hybrid turned and began walking back into the forest, earning herself a perplexed stare from the black-furred Endore, who was wholly confused. Had Red just stopped to watch her take a crap? She supposed she might have done the same thing, stopping just for the show and losing interest when the other canine tried speaking to her, but she'd never been in the situation before.

But then Red turned back to her, chuffing lightly and swaying her tail in some sort of silent invitation. Ptarmigan read this message loud and clear and, although she had no idea where the red coywolf wanted to take her, she was happy to oblige. She knew that if she became bored, she could always just leave. For now, the Sunspire half wolf had her attention as she obediently followed in Red's tracks, curious to know what the other wanted her to see.

So I don’t know if fast-forwarding time to get to get to the lake is considered “major powerplay” but if it is, I’ll gladly change it. ^_^ By the way, I like threading with you. I like your writing style, and the fact that you seem to write your characters as very down-to-earth. It’s quite refreshing, actually. Also, I’m sorry this is so short. >.<

Red was happy when the she-wolf decided to follow her. She had been half-afraid her potential adventuring partner would decide she had better things to do and leave her all alone. But that didn’t happen, and the coywolf was glad. She slowed down a bit so that the two of them could walk side-by-side, wondering, at first, where to go. In the end, she decided that the lake at its center was the forest’s greatest feature, so she would show her partner that first. From there, she didn’t mind where they went.

Soon enough, they reached the body of water. There was a slight breeze that rustled the aspen tree leaves and caused tiny ripples on the surface of the lake. It was fairly cool that day despite it being summer, so Red decided against going for a swim. Eagerly, she turned her body to look at Ptarmigan, (though she was unaware that this was her name). Her tail wagged furiously, ears perked up and forward to ask, “So, what do you think?”

Awww thanks! I like how good you are at writing Red as a realistic character, I always appreciate a good realistic wolf character (Ptarm is turning out to be more anthro than my other characters were which is also refreshing). And short posts are cool! Major powerplay would be things like... Pretend Ptarmigan is in a thread she isn't in... Or autohitting... Stuff like that. Mild time skips and small things are totally fine by me.

She wound through the trees, paying little attention to them aside from noting their spindly, papery trunks. She wouldn't have known an aspen from a Douglas fir, but she had only seen a few of these sorts of trees before. She recognized the strange trunks, although she was probably mixing them up for birch trees.

Before long, the pair of silent females emerged at a lake. “Cool,” Ptarmigan exclaimed, returning Red's excited look with a bright smile of her own. “Never expected a lake here.” Without any respect for the cool temperature outside, nor a word of warning for her fellow canid, Ptarmigan jogged to the shore and began to wade into the water. A slight hiss of discontent revealed that the water was cold, but still she did, until she had sunk in it up to her tummy.

After all, cleaning any residue from her butt was a good enough excuse for Ptarmigan Endore to take a bath even in the most frigid of seasons.

Lol, you just had to bring the poop thing back, didn’t you? Also, wrapping up soon?

Red watched with a constantly wagging tail as her new friend waded quickly into the lake, hissing as its coldness seeped into her fur. The coywolf laughed, somewhat unintentionally, at the female’s discontentment. That was exactly why she didn’t want to go for a swim. Instead, she lay down at the shore and watched as Ptarmigan sloshed out till the water reached her belly.

As the black she-wolf did her thing in the water, Red rolled over onto her back and stared up through the leafy canopy at the sky. Since they were now at a lake, that meant there was a natural ring-shaped hole in the trees, and the sunlight filtered down and caused bright flashes to wink off of the surface of the water. Sighing contentedly, Red closed her eyes, listening to the breeze through the leaves and imagining, with a smile, the color change they would take in the fall. The forest would look almost set ablaze with its explosion of reds and oranges and yellows, and the coywolf was most definitely looking forward to the show.

She opened her eyes again after a time, tilting her head back to stare at her friend upside down, and nearly giggled at the silliness. It seemed her juvenile-like tendencies were poking through once again.

I was always so shy about writing about wolves pooping LOL I wanted to try >_>

The water was slowly numbing her skin, but Ptarmigan did her best to ignore it. The water gently lapping at her flanks was comfortable in a way. She glanced back at Red, who had slipped over in the grass, presumably making herself comfortable. The dark female spent only a few moments longer in the water, then began wading back to the shore, only now taking time to look at the aspen forest closely.

If someone asked, the Endore might say it was a beautiful scene. There was nothing extraordinary about it, yet it was still a good looking forest. She sought Red's gaze and saw the hybrid shaking with light giggles. The other's good mood was infectious, and Ptarmigan found herself grinning back despite the chill of her legs.

Last post from me, since I suddenly can’t think of a damn thing to write. I’ll get this archived after you respond. Thank you for the thread! You really helped me out with this! ^_^

It was a good day, no doubt. Red had gotten everything she had wanted out of it: an adventuring partner, and to explore more of her forest. (It was her forest, wasn’t it? It might as well have been, considering no one else but a select few knew it was here). But the most important thing she had gained this day had also been the most unexpected. She had gained a friend. At least, she thought she had. Ptarmigan could think what she wanted, but the coywolf was convinced they were now best friends and always would be.

Alas, it was time go home to the Sunspire. In the back of her mind, Red knew she was beginning to think of this place more as her home than the mountain, but she was not fully conscious of this thought quite yet. With a shake of her head at the odd feeling traveling through her, she barked her farewell to the she-wolf standing beside the lake, her tail wagging as a sign of friendship and good will. Then she turned and began making the long trek back to Ferdie and the others.

Red seemed to tire of their interaction, and that was well enough for Ptarmigan. The coywolf got her attention with a bark, and Ptarmigan responded by lolling her tongue and twisting back her ears in a sign of comfort and affection. The hybrid chose that moment to depart, but the pureblood decided to stay for a little while longer. There was no explanation for why she wanted to, but she wanted to take one last lingering look at the lake they'd found.

Somehow, she didn't feel like she would ever return here, and wanted to capture the image in her mind.