Heron Lake Plateau Where the red fern grows

If anyone wants to meet Rye, feel free!

Rye had left Towhee at the border some time ago, venturing out on his own in hopes of exploring and learning the land he was to inhabit. The male felt himself fortunate for being able to join the pack, he was excited and ready to put in his dues, as well as meet his packmates. He hadn't seen any around at the moment but it wasn't as if he made it far from the border, it was still very clearly in sight but he kept on toward the plateau. He briefly pondered where the other wolf was headed, or if they were just on patrol. Rye wondered when he would be put on patrol, or rather if he would be put on patrol. Border patrol was something Rye wouldn't mind doing at all, hell, he would volunteer. A walk around the territory would help clear his mind, and free himself from stress, as most walks did for him. However, he needed to patrol with a packmate first to know the borders but all in good time.

Finally reaching the top of the plateau Rye first sighted water, it gave him a gross reminder of the absence of sufficient amounts of saliva in his mouth, it made his tounge feel sticky and disgustingly dry. He shuttered at the feeling, and hurried himself towards the lake, starting from a fast walk but ending in a trott. Rye abhored the feeling of a dry mouth, and would do anything to rid himself of his personal hell. As his luck would have it, the lake was frozen but the shore was just thin enough some pressure on the ice with his paw was enough to break through the layer, giving Rye a much needed source of water.

yeeting an over-excitable teen at you

Cinder had totally tracked him from the borders.

His leathery black nose had been pressed into the frozen earth (not really, but almost) and he had followed the unfamiliar scent as the stranger waded into the redhawk claim and set upon drinking from the icy waters of the lake - the blackthorn boy waited until they had quenched their thirst, before sneaking closer and leaping from whatever undergrowth remained to bark and, hopefully, scare the absolute shit out of the newcomer.

"BOO!" He yowled, ducking into a play bow before the agouti man and kicking up a small spray of snow into the air. "Did I scare you?" He rattled on, stub-tail wiggling and bronze eyes gleaming (some might say he was a bit old to do this now, but hell, they were the old ones). "I saw you! I saw you - at the borders, with Towhee!"

Yeet!

Freezing to the touch, the icy water almost burned his throat on its way down, leaving a trail of cool in its wake. Rye shivered, his tail flicking as the shudder reached the end of his tail. As he lapped the cold water up, he could feel his tongue numb with each lick of the water but he didn't care, clearly too busy sating his thirst to pay any attention to the cold. Nor the young wolf sneaking up behind him, yes, surly Rye was in for a suprise.

And boy was he unprepared for it.

The young'un let out a scare, and Rye damn near howled, whipping his body back to distance himself from the unknown, "Son of a-" he cut himself short seeing the wolf in a playful bow. Oh, he thought, pleasantly surprised now. Rye mimicked the bow, and energetically answered, "Yeah," he laughed, "You did, got me good!" Rye admited, the multi colored male enjoyed the energy the wolf gave out, it made himself feel playful and young, well, younger. Lifting himself from the bow, he planted his bottom to the snowy ground, a small smile glued to his lips.

"You did? I didn't see you, guess you were hiding then yeah?"

"Son of a-"

Cinder felt a ripple of glee that he'd succeeded in his mission, teeth flashing in a playful grin - his joy only advanced with a surge when the agouti stranger ducked down to meet him in a mirrored bow, tail shifting happily. Oh hell to the yes: finally another wolf who didn't think it was uncool to play like this, given his age. 

The man leaned back and then lowered himself down onto his haunches, and the blackthorn watched him eagerly, silver ears tipped forward on his crown, where the dark stripe shot like an arrow from his neck. "Yeah! Towhee didn't see me either, but she wasn't looking at me and she's also deaf. So I dunno if she'd have only noticed me unless I moved too much or X saw me and told her. But I dunno why he'd do that. Anyways, I never heard your name - who're you?" 

Rye was still curious as to how Towhee lost her hearing, a question that sat in the forefront of his mind during the walk up to the plataeu. He would have asked the female if it were not for the way he was raised, Rye knew better than to ask, especially since he had just met her. Focusing back on the black and light grey wolf standing before him, Rye had caught the mention of a wolf - he guessed - called 'X'. An intruiging name, enough to cause Rye's ears to perk at the mention of it. Yet another thing he was now curious of, thankfully for his curiousity Rye could ask and ease the questions swimming through him mind.

But first things first, his name, "The names Rye Black, but you can just call me Rye or whatever's easiest for you. I've been called a lot of things in my life," He chuckled, and shook his head, looking off to the side, "Unfortunately none of them my actual name but whada bout you? And who's X? They her lookout or somethin'?" His attention was back towards the young'un, his ears cupped forward, eager to listen.

hopefully we can have a longer thread sometime with less disappearances on my end <3 i appreciate your patience.

"Ryyyyeee," he repeated, drawling it out from his tongue as he attempted to note it down in his memory; if there was one thing Cinder really, really wasn't good at, it was remembering things. He had a habit of just completely forgetting what he said or was told barely a few moments after it had fallen into the air - luckily, names were a little better, because he could match the name to the face, and he'd remember it every time their features popped into his line of sight. "I'm Cinder. Cinder Blackthorn, but some call me Rabbit." In actual fact, his name was Dearthár, but nobody really called him that. 

"X? Oh!" He felt the excitement tingle in his paws, and shuffled them in the snow. "X is Towhee's bird-friend. He's really cool! He's like her spy, except he doesn't really sneak. You know I haven't really been that close to X, but that makes it more fun! I've seen him... but he's mysterious. If I went over and tried to start talking to him, it would take away some of the mystery." A wild grin spread out across his face, but before he could say anything more an amazing, super-duper-awesome idea shot like an arrow through his skull. 

"OHOH!" The youth exclaimed, almost tripping over his own feet. "There's a really cool waterfall I discovered with a friend, do you want to see it?" Unluckily for Rye, Cinder left no time to reply before beginning to bound off into the distance, eager for the man to follow. If he didn't end up trekking after the boy, it was pretty certain that it might even go unnoticed.