Firestone Hot Springs Not at Home

Yet again he'd cut across from the northern finger of the forest, avoiding the majority of the pools.  He was going to check out the other forest that was nearby.  He'd passed through it once, but he wanted to refresh his memory.  Honestly, no real reason beyond that.  Just a brief trip before he returned to his own home.

The weather certainly was reminiscent of winter already -- it was cold, and though the first snows had melted, it still felt like the world was starting to warn him off going on longer voyages.  Perhaps that was why he didn't avoid the pools entirely.  They emitted some warmth, and as much as he hated the overpowering stench in places, he also enjoyed not being cold.  So Mal dawdled a little -- just because.

chucks another character at you

She scouts far beyond Diaspora today in search of prey, leaving a reluctant @Lieke with @Julien. Her heart aches to be without her companion, but she knows it is for the best; the heat and chaos of the hunt is no place for her delicate friend. Yet it seems this worry had been unnecessary, as her search comes up blank no matter how far she travels.
Stress is beginning to sour her stomach when she spots the hot springs in the distance, eyes growing wide as a strange feeling overcomes her. Like icy water poured down her spine, pooling there and spreading out in biting tendrils. A flash of a scene, like a memory: a pale woman submerged in one of the pools, steam rising around her — a golden man approaching from the haze — the scent of a festering wound, of blood and herbs. She halts, dizzy as her vision slowly blinks back into focus. She only notices the pale boy when she comes back to herself, disoriented and slightly alarmed by her visions. Seeing that she has company, she takes in a breath and stifles the feeling, starting forward again in the direction of the dappled wolf in the distance.

He was just noticing that there was a lack of holes for ground dwelling critters here.  How weird.  Now, Mal probably didn't have much of an idea about water tables or what caused hot springs to be hot or anything like that.  It was just some freak element of the valley and there was nothing more to know.

But really, what the hell would anyone eat around here if all the small stuff noped right outta dodge?  At least he had a whole forest to hunt in, made things easier as long as twits stayed out of it.  He'd have to work on that.  He started to move on, but paused when raising his head to skim around the surroundings and spotted someone wandering towards him.  Not anyone he knew.  Probably a good thing. Just about everyone he knew hated him.  But those people were all jerks, so he didn't want them around anyway.

Still, everything recently had done a pretty good job at giving him a sense of purpose, self, maybe a few other high brow psychological things like that he also couldn't explain.  So, he looked at her with mild curiosity, taking a few steps in her direction, but unwilling to get much closer to the smell.  It was pretty gross, yo.  He'd also missed whatever reaction she might have had to her vision or whatever.  At this point, honestly Mal was fine with just dismissing the whole thing if it she changed her mind and left or whatever.  He also wasn't well-cultured enough to be all amiable and stuff, sorry.  He just watched and waited to see if she'd say anything like the awkward twerp he was.

She watches carefully for the boy's reaction when he notices her, a little confused by it but reassured nonetheless. Surely if he isn't snarling at her, he doesn't mind her presence — or, that's her hope. The smell doesn't seem to affect her at all, though internally she wonders why the world is so odd and contradictory. She's certainly smelled worse, but never paired with such a beautiful sight. Hello, She greets when she's within range, halting just near enough for a conversation. Do you know anything about this place? Her tone is light, curious, masking the heavy feeling lingering in her chest like a bad aftertaste.

Mal was pretty neutral right now -- it wasn't his territory, so he wasn't angry as hell, but it wasn't like he'd evolved into a cheery dude overnight.  Still, it was probably an improvement over the glare-o-thon that was Mal a month or two ago.  

Hey, he replied.  Did he know much about this area? Umm.  Maybe? He didn't know what kind of info she was really looking for. Not too much.  The water is hot, it smells.  Nobody lives here.  Stuff doesn't seem to live underground here either.  Doesn't seem very popular, or at least, you're the only stranger I've run into.  You looking for something in particular?  Cam was the only one who he actually had met here, and that boy was gone to who knows where.  To him, the hot springs were more useful as a barrier to keep wolves out of his forest as there (in his view) was less to encourage them forward without going through a soggy hot "wasteland" first.

She's pleasantly surprised to find the stranger does know a few things about the area, though none of it is directly useful to her now, aside telling her that she's unlikely to find any prey around here. Still, his observations are all fairly relevant, and she's grateful for the opportunity to familiarize herself with the area a little more without doing all the legwork.
Very astute. Thank you, She offers a smile, hoping the compliment will loosen the stranger's tongue further (and unaware that Mal likely has no idea what that word means). I'm searching for prey — there's little to be found in the mountains, or in the valley on the other side. I suppose this isn't the place to look either, though. Do you live nearby? If you tell me where your claim is, I'll be sure to avoid it. The boy doesn't smell of others, at least not enough for her to catch it, but he seems to have experience with this area, and Antha dislikes the idea of making enemies on Diaspora's behalf so soon after joining.

So some other pack's scout. Hm. It was good he was cautious about things, though perhaps he'd be a little less so if his nose wasn't totally plagued by the sulfur smell, because then at least he'd know it was Mahler's pack -- he'd maybe be a little more open, but it had been long enough now that things may have changed anyway.  The big fields and stuff would probably be better than here, for sure.  There's some other foresty areas like.. north or whatever too, but I haven't been there in a while. And that might be too far for you, I dunno.  A lot of people are wandering really far from wherever they're from -- kinda stupid I think, like they'd be able to bring a deer home if they'd catch one that far away...  He shrugged, that was their thing to deal with, not his.  And traveling that far for something like a rabbit or something portable? Would that even be worth it?  Probably not.. You'd feed one wolf and they'd be far from home.  This was part of the reason Mal usually didn't travel too far.

But yeah, I do.  The forest, back that way. He pointed with his nose.  He also wasn't too keen on giving a ton of information about his own home -- just what he'd need would be to have a bunch of wolves from some other pack trying to raid his home if they decided that Neverwinter had more food than their own home.  It was better just to not mention it.