Great Bear Wilderness a flock of birds

Moonstone Quarry exploration :) @Atreyu and also AW

Although the pack hadn't taken the news as well as Charon had hoped, the yearling had taken only a little bit of time to rest and had since then set out to start exploring the regions that surrounded Stavanger Bay to find a home to everyone's liking. He was frustated that Thistle Cloud suddenly decided to sass up just now that he'd made all these great plans to move. Maybe if she'd sassed up enough beforehand he would've consulted her before throwing a meeting with the remains of Stavanger Bay, but whatever. She'd grow to understand in time. It'd get better. Everything would be fine as long as Amekaze was by his side; he knew the frustrations would die down then.

Today he took Atreyu along, who was both loyal to a fault to Thistle Cloud and really liked Stavanger Bay. Charon would rather live in a whole, plentiful territory with enough wolves to sustain themselves with than with a handful of them in the shambles of what was once their proud home, but whatever. He decided to just not argue about his decisions too much and simply push his plans forward so that he could show everyone that they were great, rather than try to convince them beforehand.

As Charon set around the corner of Moonstone Quarry, his eyes widened. Along the edges he saw weirdly shaped stones. It was like a giant bassin of sorts that he walked into, although there were entrances here and there, surrounded by tall mountainlike walls on each sides. "Have you ever been here before?" Charon asked, wondering if perhaps his friend knew a bit more about the area.

Atreyu was still angered by the news that they would be relocating, yet he yielded only because Charon was so determined that it was best for their pack and it was clear he really had no choice in this matter. His disdain for both leaving the ocean and joining forces with a foreign pack was evident, but he did not voice his opinion. The pack meeting had left a sour taste on his tongue and he did not wish to cause anymore unrest within the remains of their pack.

When Charon mentioned that they should check out the surrounding territories, Atreyu agreed to accompany him, however reluctantly. They had enough missing and injured members as it was, and he didn't want the Beta to make yet another decision without them.

He trailed behind the freckled boy both out of spite and because his right shoulder burned from their journey. Walking on three legs was wearing down on him, but Atreyu tried not to let it show. His shoulder would get stronger compensating for his missing foreleg, and soon he would be able to travel much further again. He hoped. Pushing through the pain, the Gamma gained upon Charon and stood beside him as they overlooked a large...pit? Stones jutted out here and there with blade-like edges that promised blood if you got too close. The whole formation was strange and didn't strike Atreyu as a suitable territory.

"No," came his simple reply to Charon's question, leaving it at that.

Even though the bowl filled with cool-looking rocks so far didn't seem exactly lush with wildlife, it intrigued Charon as a Naturalist to see all the formations that they made. Atreyu confirmed that he hadn't seen the territory before, curt and short. It didn't seem like Atreyu, but then, ever since losing his leg he'd seemed to have gotten a little more curt in the use of his words, anyway. And he was probably still pissed off about the relocation. Well, Charon was only doing what was best for the pack (and himself, but on that matter he was lying even to himself by pretending that his own succession to Alpha had nothing to do with it) and he didn't care to argue about it, so on that matter he was glad that Atreyu didn't argue any further right now.

"It looks pretty cool," Charon said, although he still didn't expect it to be a feasible territory to settle in. The young Beta trotted into a clearing at the entrance, his shoulder still stiff from the fight with Dante, but he forced himself through the pain every day because exploring to find his new territory was way more important than resting up. The yearling sniffed one of the rock formations, ears perked forward, and then looked back at Atreyu. "Doesn't seem like a lot of prey round here so far, so probably not suited for living, but still worth exploring what these funny-looking rocks are, right?" If Atreyu would say no, then they could turn round and look at another territory. However, Charon figured that just doing something random amicably was what their friendship needed. Theirs had always been a peculiar friendship, with many ups and downs (actually, more really elaborate ups and downs than neutral moments, if there'd ever been any), and even if they hit a slump now, the fact that Atreyu was standing by his side made Charon confident they'd be just fine.

It looks pretty cool. Well, he couldn't deny him that. As foul of a mood that Atreyu was in, he did agree that the territory had strange sort of charm to it. He shrugged at Charon's comment, and watched as he moved forward. His own gait had a slight, stiff limp to it, no doubt because of his injuries. He almost called out to remind Charon to watch his step among the sharp rocks but quickly bit his tongue. What was he, his mother?

He followed after the boy, eyeing the rocky formations and the strange walls that surrounded the quarry. The whole place seemed...unnatural. Charon was fascinated —even excited — by the place but Atreyu remained reserved and cautious. He relaxed a little as the Beta confirmed that it wasn't the best place to reside, and gave a nod as he suggested they explore further. They hadn't travelled this far for nothing.

"We could always run prey into it," he said with a soft laugh, nodding at the jutting rocks. He wondered if the tactic would even work — some animals were dumb enough to leap to their death to escape predators. The forests surrounding the area were reasonable enough, but Charon specifically mentioned they needed to find a mountain; and so they would continue looking.

Charon laughed when Atreyu suggested running prey into the funny-looking rocks. That would surely kill them, and the mental image was pretty funny. "Plus, they'd all get cut into little pieces, ready for eating," Charon said with a grin. Charon didn't really consider it a viable option to hunt, but he still thought it was pretty funny to imagine it happening. It might be worth it to give it a try, even, but then again, they didn't really have time to goof around with silly stuff like that. It'd probably take a while to find an animal dumb enough to actually run into the stones, after all.

The yearling trotted towards towards some of the stones and sniffed them carefully. The edges were sharp, so he stayed clear of those, and looked at the funny shapes they formed. Some of them had holes in them. "Maybe when it rained really heavily with the storms the rain battered holes in these stones," Charon wondered aloud. "Or maybe they come from some other place on the world where everything looks like this!" The excitement was clear in Charon's voice as he considered the options; they seemed limitless, really.

Atreyu huffed along a soft laugh at Charon's reply. It would be handy, but digging into the prey after a hunt was the best part. Not to mention they would have to fetch the animal from the depths of the quarry. He glanced over the area, noting how the limestone formations seemed to simply dip lower and lower before they reached the bottom. Something seemed to almost be glimmering there, but Atreyu could not make out what it was.

The boy followed Charon as he casually made his way through the strange rocks, nosing and inspecting them. Atreyu wasn't as curious, instead watching the ground as he walked, careful not to let any of his three paws slip on any unstable ground. A fall here would...not be good for one's health. "I don't think so," he murmured after the Beta's excited rambling. He didn't think rain would ever be heavy enough to puncture solid rock. Nor did he believe in other places besides here, in the wild. What could even be strong enough to move these sorts of rocks? Or be able to form formations like this?

To distract the boy, Atreyu waved his muzzle in the direction of the bottom of the pit. "Looks like there's water or something there," he mentioned off-handedly.

Charon sniffed the rocks, but couldn't make out any special scents. Deciding to give up on trying to figure out the rocks — he had no clue what to make of them, and Atreyu obviously didn't feel like philosophising about them either — Charon turned his attention to the bottom of the quarry when Atreyu mentioned there might be water down there. It made sense, since water fell down and this was a pit of sorts.

There was a glimmer in the bottom, but Charon couldn't quite make out what it was. "Want to check it out?" he asked while he looked for a way further down. He wasn't really sure if it'd be worth it, but he didn't want to return home without at least some information so quick either. You never knew when the info might come in handy later.

Atreyu wasn't at all surprised when Charon responded with a query whether they wanted to check it out. He followed the boy's gaze around the quarry, a frown lightly creasing his features as he did so. The place was littered with sharp edges and jagged rocks. Charon and himself were probably the last wolves who should explore this particular place, too, what with their respective injuries. Still...

Atreyu peered downwards and sniffed, frown deepening as he looked over to his Beta. "There's definitely water down there," he pondered aloud. The scent was unmistakeable, but the oddly glimmering thing piqued his interest. Water didn't shine like that. Getting down would prove to be a challenge, however. "So long as we don't break our necks," he said with a laugh, though his voice broke slightly from worry. "How do we even get down there?"

Charon followed Atreyu's lead and sniffed, trying to figure out what was down there. If it was really just water, he wasn't sure it was worth checking out. Sure, maybe some day they'd need the info, but getting down looked near impossible and Charon wasn't looking forward to getting hurt. He might've laughed and challenged Atreyu if they weren't here on serious business, and if he hadn't recently got hurt. As things were though, Charon wasn't exactly strutting around calling Atreyu a chicken — he didn't much feel like getting hurt himself either.

"You're right, probably not the best idea," Charon said. He felt disgruntled that they couldn't explore it further, but maybe it was just another dead end to prove this wasn't exactly the place they were looking for. Charon really figured they should just explore elsewhere — if Atreyu felt up to the journey — or go home, but he didn't want to be the one to suggest these things, because another part of him wanted to explore further, if not only to spend some bonding time with his friend in the present tense situation.

The younger wolf relented and earned himself a curious glance from Atreyu. Well...that was easy. But wasn't at all like Charon. He was certain he would come up with some crazy idea of how to check out the lower reaches of the quarry. Instead, he simply yielded and that was the end of that. Whatever shiny thing that was down there though had caught Atreyu's attention, and he wasn't about to give it up as easy as Charon had.

"C'mon," he said with a chuff of laughter, nosing the Beta in the ribs as he strode past him. A rock jutted out, flat and stable, forming a sort of ridge that he perched upon and peered down, trying to get a closer look at the bottom. "You're not a pushover, are you?" he taunted with a waving tail, hoping to spur the boy into action.

Charon didn't really feel like checking out the pit o' doom below them, but when Atreyu provoked him, of course he wouldn't say no. If anyone would end up in the pit of water below them dead, it probably wasn't going to be the fourlegged wolf, anyway. "Of course not!" Charon sharply retorted, his hackles rising momentarily in reflex to the provocation. Being called anything bad was Charon's achilles heel, and even moreso now that he was going to be an Alpha. He didn't want his subordinates — nor friends, of which Atreyu was considered both — to think he was a pushover nor a coward.

While Atreyu looked down, Charon's stiffened body relaxed again and he glanced about to find some sort of way down. He sniffed the ground, searching for traces of animal scents. If he followed those, maybe he could find a path that other animals took down the quarry. His efforts were rewarded, for although the scent he caught was a squirrel's — hardly the same weight as a wolf on these fragile rocks — it was worth a try to follow it.

"C'mon," Charon said as he started to follow the track, his nose to the ground and wiggling as he followed the squirrel's scent. It lead him around the dark pit and then away from it. Charon looked indecisive a moment, as though he wasn't sure following the trail further would lead him anywhere. He didn't see any paths down from where he stood though, so after exchanging a brief glance with Atreyu to see if he agreed on the decision Charon decided to follow the trail away from the pit, hoping that it'd lead him down eventually. "I didn't see any paths leading down. Maybe there's a tunnel somewhere," he said to Atreyu, sounding hopeful, though not entirely certain that he was right.

His plan of provoking the freckled boy succeeded, and Atreyu gave a wide grin as Charon puffed up, looking insulted. He was quick to join in on his finding-a-way-down-without-dying quest, gazing around as Atreyu continued staring down into the quarry. It was obvious he was not a mountain wolf at all, not entirely opposed to the idea of just simply jumping into the pit. Sensible thinking kicked in though, and he took a step back from the ledge with shake of his head. No, he liked his face too much for it to be messed up by some jagged rocks.

The Beta's urging c'mon distracted Atreyu, who turned to watch where the other boy was going before following him. Why he was walking away from the pit, he had no idea, but it looked like he had some sort of trail. He offered a puzzled look to Charon's glance, but continued to trot after him. A tunnel? Well, it was probably better than his own idea. "Could be," he said with a shrug before adding, chuckling, "we could use this for a nice cache if there is."

Atreyu looked a little surprised at Charon's suggestion of a tunnel, and Charon quirked an eyebrow and grinned. "What did you think we were gonna do, jump down?" he said with a laugh, not realising that might've been Atreyu's actual idea. It certainly hadn't been Charon's; no matter how much he couldn't resist a challenge and proving himself, there wasn't a hair on his body that had considered throwing his mangled self down the pit to find out if there was water down there.

"Hmm-mm," Charon agreed in a hum while he continued to track the squirrel's scent. The trail lead down across a rocky hill, but it stopped near a bunch of trees standing off the side of the quarry. Looking up, Charon heard the trees swoosh, indicating that Mr. Squirrel was probably still up there. "Well, so much for that." Charon looked around the immediate area to see if he could find anything worthwhile, or anything that could still lead them down to The Pit. He saw a tunnel and ran up to it, but once he reached it Charon realised it wasn't all that big, so it wouldn't fit either of them. "Well, if this tunnel leads up there the only way to use it as a cache would be to send our littlest pups through to fetch stuff," Charon said with a grin. Probably not the best idea.