Neverwinter Forest Get busy living, or get busy dying

It was strange being away from home for days at a time like this, yet Wildfire reminded herself that this trip had been sanctioned by her father and Alpha. And as weird as it felt to be gone so long, wandering the wilderness alone, she was really enjoying herself. Sometimes she even had to remind herself of the task at hand: find Pan. There was so much to see, hear, smell, touch and even taste out here. Yet she could not forget her duty, nor her pack mate.

She found his trail and it led her into a cool, shady forest filled with evergreen trees. "Pan?" she called hopefully, her voice bouncing off the trees around her. The silence here was deep, though not in a creepy way. It was quite restful, actually. Wildfire began to traipse further into the woodland, her paws noiseless on the carpet of pine needles. "Pan?" she tried again, frowning when she thought she detected odors of illness woven into the missing Gamma's.

Malachi had kept his word, and for the weeks that had passed since his talk with Dante, he'd refused to risk a paw beyond the border of the Plateau. But the urge to explore rose by the day, and this time his rank didn't stop him from obeying the call. He set out from the land while the moon still reigned and struck west, his route random save for his target landmark, a towering spire that marked the tip of the Wild's circular range.

He planned to circle the mountain, perhaps climb some of its lower hills. But a heavy concentration of wolfish scent reached him while he was still a distance off. A pack, and with his options to turn around or skirt through the forest just south of the peak, his decision was obvious. Though his stomach churned when he shifted his paws south-west, he suppressed his worry and entered the woods.

The first thing to strike him was the sheer mystery of the place. Prey scent mingled with the faint reminder of the nearby pack, but Malachi found his thoughts trapped by the arching bows overhead. Patches of sunlight filtered through to touch the mossy ground, and cast an unearthly glow upon the foliage creeping from the forest floor. A silence as thick as the darkness draped the woods, a stillness not even broken by the sound of his steps. If not for the press of the ground against his toes, he could have convinced himself he was hovering instead of walking - a realization that made him slow his pace and probe his senses through the depths.

Even with his mind on high alert, he jumped when a girl's voice wove past the trunks. Malachi lowered to the ground and cast a watchful scan through the trees. A moment passed, and no sound returned. Slowly, he eased himself from the ground, only to freeze when the girl's voice met him again.

"Hello?" He spoke before he thought. If this was a wolf from the mountain pack, they wouldn't enjoy him wandering so close to their land. But he couldn't well retract his voice now. It stood like a beacon for the girl to follow, and he remained, watchful and alert if anyone should come his way.

She hadn't been walking more than ten minutes when she was forced to stop because of an itching sensation on her right forepaw. Wildfire paused and mindlessly nibbled at its underside before placing it back on the ground and proceeding. She went perhaps another two minutes before it stopped her again. As a matter of fact, both front paws now began to itch. Her mouth felt funny too. She slowed and stopped again, her expression one of consternation before a realization struck her. Oh, no.

Wildfire's ears splayed to the sides as she frantically looked around for a respite from the pine carpet beneath her feet. There was a small thicket close by and she dove into it, exhaling in relief when her paws touched nothing but grass and dirt. By now, all four were itching and burning. She badly wanted to lick and nip at them, yet she resisted. Her mouth still felt strange too, though the contact had been brief, thankfully. All of it would subside in a few minutes, hopefully.

But then... "Shit." Wildfire never swore but this situation called for it. "I'm trapped," she moaned under her breath even as a voice called out, "Hello?" from somewhere nearby, startling her. "Hello?" she replied automatically, speaking louder now that she wasn't only speaking to herself.

Her voice came closer now than it had been before, and Malachi jumped, not actually expecting to hear anything in return. After a quick scramble for footing, he pressed his ears in the direction the girl had sounded and took a few short bounds her way before caution stopped him short. He didn't think she had sounded hostile, only surprised, but the amount of times he'd been wrong about the wolves here pressed to the forefront of his mind. Like Caiaphas, whose ghost prompted a fleeting probe of the nearest trees for flashing eyes or the sting of salt. But he saw only darkness and tasted only pine, and Malachi chewed his lip before he called out again. "Who's there?" Anxiety slipped between his words at the memory of the sea-wolf, though the girl sounded nothing like her.

"Who's there?" the now anxious-sounding voice asked and Wildfire's upper teeth pressed gently into her lower lip. "Um," she said under her breath, then continued louder again, "Wildfire?" It felt silly, since she was almost certain she was speaking to a stranger. She was, of course, unaware that she'd not only met this wolf in passing but given him a different name as well. "I'm in the thicket over here," she added slowly, not sure where he was in relation to her. Hopefully he could figure it out by following her voice toward the closest thicket.

Meanwhile, she braced herself, not knowing who this stranger was or what he might want. It served as a decent distraction so Wildfire didn't focus on the continued itching and burning so much. It would subside in a few minutes, she knew, but then she would have to go through it all again in order to leave the forest... unless she somehow figured out how to walk while avoiding the pine needles. A quick scan with her amber eyes told her that it would be impossible. The forest floor was covered in a veritable carpet of pine needles.

Sorry for taking so long!

Malachi waited until the girl's voice met him again. The name struck no recognition, and despite his early fears, he remained with eyes fixed on the shadowy shapes of the undergrowth. He'd managed to turn his face in her general direction, and at her prompting, honed his attention on the narrower region of the woods from which she spoke. He was still some distance away - far enough to leave without revealing himself. Instead, he let intrigue lead him to her, where her scent mingled with the sharp sting of pine - a scent that brought more recognition than any name could offer.

He caught a glimpse of her fur through the thicket's twisted arms, and only then did knowledge of the other click. Malachi paused midstride. Though he'd only promised Dante he would stay away from the South, he had personally sworn to keep his distance from all of the Caldera, to avoid even the chance of causing a stir among them. But despite his precautions, he was too close now for his own mind to justify turning away. She was no enemy to him, but whether she felt the same was a mystery to him.

Turn away, or risk it all. Logic prompted him to leave, but something else held him there. He ducked his head to try and catch a better glimpse of her. "What're you doing in the thicket?" He spoke with gentleness, yet felt a tightness to his voice, a restraint. This was foolishness - but she was a wolf as much as he, and he wasn't about to treat her any different than that.

No worries! ^_^

Although the carpet of pine needles quieted his footsteps, she sensed the stranger coming closer. She ducked her head to peek through the brambles, then gaped slightly when a face swam into view. He was familiar. Even as he asked what she was doing, she wracked her brain for a name. It took her a while, yet she traced it back to one of her first memories beyond the haven of Redhawk Caldera.

"Malachi," she blurted, "right? I, uh... I'm in here being an idiot. I'm allergic to pine needles and didn't realize until too late what I was walking on. I found this little oasis where I'm gonna hang out while I slowly come to terms with the fact that I won't be able to avoid walking on them again on the way out." She tipped her head, feeling an embarrassed flush crawling up her neck at her own idiocy.

She held still for a moment, clearly thinking, and the word she used to break the silence made Malachi blink in surprise. "Yeah, that'd be me." A burn welled in his cheeks that he couldn't remember her name. She must have given it, but the only title that came to mind was the daughter of Fox.

His brow knit as she explained her predicament, and he flashed a glance at the pine covered ground. He hadn't even noticed the blanket of needles, and he lifted his paw, which felt quite normal even when he pressed his toes back against the ground. Was it common for wolves to be allergic to pine? He returned his attention to her with a concentrated furrow on his face.

It was quite a fix she was in. He shifted a look to the left and the right, but saw no relief from the needles except her thicket and others like it, islands in a sea of pine. If she was younger, still a pup, he could have carried her out, but that wasn't the case here. Even though she was small, she looked well past the stage of that. He bit his lip in quiet thought. "Is there any way I can help?" Maybe they could find a stream nearby. That would be free from the needles, and she could follow that out, though he hadn't seen any rivers in his journey yet.

He expressed a wish to help, though Wildfire didn't think there was anything either one of them could do. Eventually, she would have to walk on the pine needles to make her way out of the woods. Of course, she could and would most likely run rather than walk, though she knew she would still suffer symptoms anywhere she came in contact with pine residue.

"There's nothing to be done for it," she said. "I'm just going to have to make a run for it. While I'm working up the gumption for that... um, you could tell me what brings you here. Are you an Outrider too?" she guessed, peeking at him through the brambles.

A frown etched his face. It didn't surprise him there was no way to help, but Malachi still felt disgruntled he couldn't offer at least some assistance. But she distracted him with the shift in conversation, and he bent down so he could see her more clearly.

"I'm just exploring." He was growing more accustomed to the titles of this land, but outrider was one he hadn't heard before. Though he could determine the gist of the position, he didn't know the details of what they did. Their focus must have been outside the territory, like the Scouts of the Vale, judging both by the girl's distance from the Caldera and the way she paired him with the title by his presence here. "You're an outrider, though? What kind of things do you do?"

He didn't answer her directly, though Malachi mentioned exploring and her features brightened somewhat despite her predicament. In the next breath, he asked her about being an Outrider. What did she do, he wanted to know. Wildfire would be all too happy to oblige him with an answer.

"Chiefly that: exploring," she replied. "I sometimes pass messages too, or search for things. That's what brought me here, to my own personal hell," she quipped, sighing. "I'm looking for my uncle." She would have to get it over with soon, so that she could resume her search for Pan.

@Wildfire Life went crazy and this thread slipped my mind, thanks for reminding me to respond! Feel free to wrap this up with your next post if you'd like, and my apologies for the hold-up.

Her wit brought a fleeting tug to his lips, but he managed to steady the quiet laugh that built in his throat. Somehow the response seemed inappropriate and he pulled his face away from the thicket's opening until he drew his head out of the girl's sight.

His heart grew troubled when the girl spoke of her uncle. Her words gave no implication if she'd found trace of him yet, and his concern stirred for the southern family. "If you describe him, I could keep a look out and send him your way if I find him." Dante had made it clear they found no friendship with the Caldera, but he couldn't restrain his offer. Though he could not save the girl from her discomfort, he hoped he could aid her in this.

No worries. :)

Malachi's offer caused a smile to tug at the corners of her mouth. "He's pale and sort of bashful," Wildfire said. "White fur, grey eyes. Answers to Pan." He had no distinctive markings, at least that she could recall. "If you run into a wolf matching that description, let him know Wildfire's looking for him. I really hope he's okay..." she murmured, thinking aloud.

And that was her cue. "Well, it's now or never," she announced to her company. "Thanks, Malachi. Take care." Wildfire sucked in a breath, steeled herself and then darted from her little hideaway, brushing past the wolf with an apologetic glance and muted woof before skittering away across the sea of dreaded pine needles.