Lost Creek Hollow there is black coal filling up our homes

@Root

Snowfall greeted him the next time he had brought himself to the mouth of the den, though the accumulation was meager by far. But the dusting signified to him that winter had truly set upon the wilderness, no longer confined to the dotting and peppering of the distant mountains. He couldn't see how snow covered those mountains were from the cover of the Hollow, but he didn't need to see them to know. Restless had entered his body and filtered its way into his soul; the itching of his healing shoulder nothing more than annoyance that had pulled him to the proverbial doorway to give a one-eyed survey the world.

Mordecai ventured out tentatively, those first few solid steps on a much colder earth uncertain at best. Though his shoulder protested such action initially, the pain that was there settled and gave him reason to propel himself forward a bit more. He was careful, and time was at his leisure as the woodland seemingly moved to envelop him. Mordecai drew in the heady scents that the wind carried to him and found for the most part that they remained unchanged. He hadn't seen much of Luke in the days past his visit but knew well enough that the blue-nosed beta was just as steadily at work as Harlyn no doubt found herself.

No more than a few minutes into his venture past the grove he had been tucked away to, he brought himself to halt along a narrow band of water that coursed its way through the forest. It was as good of as place to collect himself once more and take a bonus, he could quench a budding thirst. His muzzle hovered over the thin layer of ice as he neared the water, his weight shifting ever so slightly in the damp earth to break through it with a paw. He did not pause for some reflection of the twisted matting of healing skin that once housed an eye and drank instead.

He did not need to see to know it was gone.

murder by death — steam rising

I am assuming it was @Harlyn that accepted Root and told her about the cougar, but I kept it vague to minimize confusion. Sorry it took me a couple of days, just excuse this rough post. <3

Whether or not Root has made the best decision when joining Lost Creek Hollow, finding a pack for the winter is the best way to ensure she would survive the next few months.  She never imagined she wouldn’t be apart of her birth pack.  Lingering on it wouldn’t do her any favors and wouldn’t benefit those she’s given herself to.  There’s a threat of a cougar on the outside and with winter coming heavy upon them, there isn’t exactly time to shop around. The first few days in the territory hadn’t been so bad, except for that pesky coyote.  It’s not enough to deter her. She’s just gotta make due with what she’s been handed and where she wants to aim her direction.  

Her direction is guided by the subconscious scent of another, one she hasn’t stumbled upon before.  She cants her head slightly, peering through the foliage to see the frozen water just up ahead and a rump with a mix of browns taking a drink of water from the ice, broken enough to fit his nose.

It crosses her mind to turn tail and go about her business but she lingers a few moments before she decides, taking a few steps forward.  She chuffs loud enough to make herself known, her paws no longer quiet on the ground beneath her.  With the threat of a cougar on their shoulders, and one of their own attacked—the other alpha, no less—and she doesn’t want to startle more than she has to.  Harlyn had given her the rundown upon acceptance but she knew little of the others when it would take time to get to know them.  They had to trust her just as much as she had to trust them else she’s blindly running around with hazard lights flashing.

One step at a time, Root.

you are correct! :D

The rush of cold water that greeted him did not immediately deter him from slaking his thirst. It was refreshing, really, and the venture was already proving to have been worth it just for something a little different. Of course every day was a new trial as he adjusted to a different sort of life. Though thankful that he still had a life to live, Mordecai could not help but feel the sensation of burden resting on his shoulders, and his thirst quenched itself as the bitterness in not being able to fully contribute met his wandering thoughts.

But he was not able to dwell on them for long, and truthfully, he had done enough of that in recent days to once again last a lifetime. A chuff broke the tuned-out din of the world around him; his ears swiveled back to hear the soft approach of another. For a moment, he almost turned to the right to survey the other, but thought better of it as he swung left to draw her into the side in which he had sight. And it was certainly a turn to pull her into it, slow but decisive as he drew himself into statures befitting of the rank he held. He found that he didn't recognize her, but was aware that Harlyn had found another recruit to bolster their hold on the territory. They needed it as far as he was concerned, they needed more.

Where words should have been there were none, only the cant of his head as she drew closer.

He imagined words would come soon enough, at least one way or the other.

Root keeps a safe distance once she stops and the other notes her presence, turning only slightly to the right but, changing his mind quickly and turning left. His posture changes at the same time as she adjusts hers, lowering slightly and only glimpsing enough to note the missing eye.  Afterward, she focuses on the water that bubbles where he’d broken it and taken a drink, letting her tail sway lazily behind her.  She remains relaxed and turns her head enough to submit her throat.

“Mordecai,” she says more than questions, supposing there isn’t too many wolves freshly missing an eye in the small band of wolves. She flashes him a friendly smile and her tail speeds up for a few shakes, resting once her intention has been shown.  “I’m Root.” 

As she joined him on the edge of the damp bank, he stepped back to offer her clearance to the drink that she seemed to seek as well. Her own deference in comparison to his stature allowed him to ease ever so slightly as he watched her, and from there it didn't take her long to acknowledge who he was. It more or less affirmed that Harlyn had been the one to intercept her, though there were the finer points lingering in the air that he drew in that agreed with his thoughts.

She introduced herself as he settled back onto his haunches, by then his solitary gaze cast out through the woodland. It was only for a moment, as that same gaze came back to settle on her with a friendly wave of his own tail. She was young, but for the most part seemed healthy; a fair turn around from some of those they had taken in through the late autumn.

"How are you liking the Hollow?" he opted to go with, uncertain of her tenure within their woods. His concept of time came and went, and even he could not place how many days it had been since his unfortunate encounter. If he had to guess, he suspected a few days. It had been long enough for the natural musk of the woodland to permeate her and dictate that she belonged with them. At least the lingering wonder if the cougar would return had not deterred her, and given that he had not seen many of the others he hoped that they had not disappeared in favor for safer grounds.

Mordecai steps back, offering her the spot to drink, but she doesn’t take it right away.  She lets a moment linger before she moves but eventually she steps forward and dips her nose to the cool water. It’s cold against her tongue and she feels it chill all the way down to her stomach.  It leaves a lasting coldness for a few seconds but her body warms it and she no longer knows it’s there.  Root pauses in her drinking, lifting her nose as it drips from muzzle, but she lowers her nose to drink a little more and quench the thirst that had been much bigger than she originally thought.

He settles down, making himself comfortable, and Root begins to do the same.  She steps away from the bank and licks her lips clear of the remaining water, and lowers to the wet ground as he asks about her time in the pack.  

“So far, so good, I think,” she replies, observing her surroundings to memorize the location of the stream.  “I like the location and your mate was kind to me,” she mentions with a thump of her tail as she thinks about Harlyn.  It had been a short encounter but she knew she needed the safety and they needed able wolves.  “But I’ve yet to meet anyone else,” she adds, knowing the pack had been small to begin with.  Root isn’t surprised this to be the case, however, but she is glad to have come across the other Alpha sooner rather than later.

idk why this is so long, i am rambly af today

Root didn't seem deterred by the fact that they had a run of bad luck and he took that for a good sign. While he unquestionably itched to get back out to the borders himself, he was nowhere near the shape that he should have been to do it. It was a nagging sensation that would not leave him, and Mordecai knew himself well enough to know that he would make the attempt sooner than later. He had done the same with the Plateau after his unfortunate venture near Blackfeather Woods; it would be no different here.

A smile crossed his healing features briefly when she referred to Harlyn, as he knew full and well that her assumption was correct. There wouldn't be any getting out of it now if he had tried; if someone so new to their fold could spot the nature of their relationship, it may as well have been official in capacity alone. And if Harlyn's suspicions were correct, he would do more than make good on it as the next few weeks unfolded. But for now, he was corralled into looking after himself just as much as he was looked after.

"I'm sure you'll cross paths with them soon enough," he said, though surprised Luke had not crossed paths with her. But he hadn't seen the blue-nosed beta since he had come to find Mordecai some days ago. His best guess was to assume Luke was out trying to find the next herd for them to go after, provided their own numbers could handle it. For the others, he couldn't decide one way or another if they would find her, or she would find them. Ilya seemed the most likely to him to come across, if only for the fact that the small she-wolf had a friendly air about her. The others, he couldn't speak for them, and he knew that she would not meet Andalusia until she had returned from the wilderness.

"How long were you on the road for?" he opted to ask, willing to keep their conversation going. She didn't seem too travel weary, but a lot could change within a few days. Decent food, company, all of that was enough to raise up spirits and improve situations. It had always been the case with him, though he hadn't been travel-worn and rough in a long time.

There’s no doubt that, in time, she’ll run across the other members.  There isn’t any way she can avoid it, but she didn’t have plans to do so. She enjoys her time alone, uses it to her advantage, but she’s having to start all over, getting to know each wolf once again.  It would take time for her to settle and feel comfortable around the group like she had before.  Leaving her old pack hadn’t been in her plans for her future.  While she’d been shaken up, she’d moved on.  She puffed up her chest and kept going forward; it is useless to dwell on a past she can’t change.

“A few weeks or so, I suppose,” she muses, looking back to her leader.  “Maybe a little longer.  The beginning was a little hectic and the end was a blur. I’m glad it’s come to an end, though.”

Root takes a sharp breath, cool air filling her lungs in a way the water had when she drank.  The wear of travel had been rough on her but her hunting skills had been able to keep her fed, fending off hunger for as long as she could.  She thinned out some but her frame had been naturally thin, unlike her mother.  Her hunting skills had past down from the woman, where she’d gotten it from hers, and Root hopes to continue the legacy here.

“Is it weird?” Root asks, with a slight tilt of her head.  She shies away from looking to Mordacai’s face, avoiding anything resembling a challenge but her curiosity has slipped in.  “Without the eye?”

When she spoke of the length she had spent on her own, Mordecai used it to make a better guess of her age. She was younger than he, but then again so were the majority of their subordinates. Yet he could understand the sense of it being hectic; his first foray as a dispersal had been very much the same. He had covered good ground, gotten the taste of adventure that he desired and up until the Wilds he had not relented from continuing such ventures. And given the subtle changes that had come along, he had yet to entirely admit to himself that the days of long journeys were slipping behind him, and that he would stick closer to the regions that had yet become familiar to him, unlike the expanse of land over the distant western mountains.

His wandering consideration of her scattered when she turned the scope of their conversation back to him, and he knew he could not fault her for curiosity. Yet for as much as he wanted to draw that solitary eye to look elsewhere, he kept it focused on her own deference, aware of the shyness that emanated in her posture. His jaw set uncomfortably for a moment as he tilted his own head in thought, having to ask himself that question. Was it weird? "It is," he said, wondering how it set him apart from the others. It was a definite disadvantage and his awareness of such felt not unlike an icy pierce of mixed emotions. "It will take getting used to."

And that was a part he found he did not enjoy.

Mordecai does not object to her questioning and, willingly, offers up a response.  She doesn’t expect much more.  She didn’t have to ask if it was weird to know it would be but she might have thought he’d tell her a little bit more.  As most things, it will take time to get used to, just as it took time to get used to living alone and it would take time to get used to Lost Creek Hollow.  However, these things have not been permanent, as it is to lose an eye.  She tilts her head slightly in consideration, resisting the urge to close her complementing eye.  It would do little for the similar feeling, such as tickling oneself doesn’t create the same reaction.

“I could help you, if you wanted,” she begins, adjusting her sitting position as the ground soaks her rear.  “I’m a good hunter.  I could help you get change your tactics.”  Her head sweeps back to the leader, wondering if he might take the offer.  He could do all these things himself rather than with the help of a new yearling pack mate.  Root is good at what she does, in her opinion, and perhaps it would be a chance to show off her skills.  

“Or, if you wanted, to practice fighting with the…” she trails off, only biting her tongue for a second, but there isn’t another word she could use in it’s place:  “disability.”

Perhaps she was just eager, willing to prove herself and earn a rightful place in their home, somewhere in the myriad of ranks. Or maybe it was just her natural inclination to help others, who was to say. But for a moment he felt as though it were an extended branch of pity, something swung in front of him to bait him to latch on and be carried out. It did not necessarily rub him the wrong way, but the feeling that rose in its wake were mixed and ones that he did not understand. Perhaps, in the end of it all, Mordecai merely played off what had happened to him as a minor thing, when the gravity and reality of it were much more grave.

He did not, however, dawdle for a response. "I'll take it under consideration," he rejoined. "Thank you." Whether he would or not was another story altogether, but even he could agree that he was not quite ready to try himself by crossing that bridge. The best he could manage then and there was making quiet arcs around where he had been holed up, though he felt he went further each time. Coming to the stream was one of those such times, and absently he saw past Root to the frozen runnel and its edging wintry slough.

"So you're a hunter then? Big game, or small?" he went on to ask as she shifted back into his wavering focus.

Root smiles when he speaks, though perhaps nothing more than a gentle let down.  She’d gotten a little too comfortable too fast and Mordecai is willing to appease her for the moment.  Though she can’t imagine it’s easy to talk about something like that, a loss of something vital to his daily life.  If she’d lost eyesight in one of hers, she’s not sure how she would manage.  Hunting requires a lot of skills and thus far she’s had both eyes to depend on, as well as all four limbs and her tail.  The girl’s shoulder rolls as she nods, thankful he’d at least consider it—or not reprimand her for offering.

“I am,” she tells him with a nod and her smile widens.  “I’m good at both but I much prefer big game. More rewarding.”  She’d learned a lot from her home and she feels a pang of sadness settle deep in her chest.  Seeing the death left by human hunters hadn’t settled well and the desire to target big game with others hadn’t quite returned. The knowledge of a lingering cougar doesn’t help either.  It is necessary, she knows, and in time she’ll get back into the swing of things.  Soon she knows she should be able to provide for the pack, as she had before.   

He nodded in agreement — Mordecai preferred larger game as well. There was something much more rewarding in the spirit of the hunt when a large beast was felled, but it served the purpose of being worth more food as well. With the winter months upon them, it was large game that he preferred to try and suss out, though it would obviously be some time before he really considered himself able to hunt. But the organization and tracking of such things were not difficult to do, bum leg and missing eye. At least, he did not believe them to be as such.

"How are you at tracking them?" He decided to investigate such further; perhaps Root would be able to aid them wholly, rather than concentrating her efforts on how she could help him. While all wolves could hunt, Mordecai knew that for the most part only he and Luke particularly excelled at it. Harlyn had her skills as well from what he had seen and knew from experience, but hunting was not as much of a sport for her as it was for her co-leaders.

Root is tracking a herd of dear in a thread after this one if you wanted to tangle it into their hunt?

Root doesn’t hesitate to nod her head to the question, a smile forming at the curve of her lips that threatens to show.  She wills it down and thumps her tail instead.  “I actually followed a herd to this area but nothing I could have taken on my own.  I know where I saw them last,” she explains, adjusting her sitting position as if she couldn’t get still.  She shouldn’t over sell it; they already had her as a member. But she knew where they were and if given the chance, she’s sure she can direct them toward the hollow.

“I bet I could still find them.  I thought about checking it out after a few days.”

She might not be able to lead them back to the hollow but if she locates them, even drives them in a certain direction, she could feed the pack.  Her head dips once her tail thumps a little harder on the ground, anxiously waiting the leader’s reply.

i like it, let's roll with it. iirc i think our hunt roll was for deer or something this week?

There in a flash and gone, her lips had curled at their edges, and Mordecai missed the faint response somewhere in a blink. He had obviously struck a chord that she was keen with and it resonated with him as well, though his own response remained absent. But it takes his attention in more than just thoughtful interest; his ears perked at the mention that she had seen a herd, and that she knew where it had gone.

"Oh? A herd of what?" He could not help but inquire for those details, as his thoughts very much went the same way as her own. If they could steer them into their neck of the woods proper, so to speak, then they would benefit from the migrating herd. With the ever looming hint of snow on their horizon, he could only hope that they would take their time and stick to the thinly veiled copses of the downs to their north, if they had gone that way.

But before his thoughts could entirely get the better of him, he awaited what information she would impart.

Short post, boop.  Fade soon?

The information intrigues the Alpha enough to continue and Root doesn’t notice as she beams a little brighter.  She’d gotten in something good that doesn’t sound too awkward and she doesn’t look ridiculous as she tries to get to know the other.  “Deer,” she tells him.  For a moment, she’s even able to forget where she’d come from and think about where she’d go with Mordecai’s blessing.  The cougar is a threat in the back of her mind but not enough to think twice about where she’d go to find them.

“I can find out where they are and if they are too far, I can drive them back this way,” she says with a flick of her tail.  Corner of them, for a while, so that she could get back and howl for her brethren to come for the kill.

sounds good to me. i also laughed a little because the song i borrowed the title of thread from just came into rotation in my playlist.

A herd of deer, yes, that would benefit them well. Especially if Root was as keen of a hunter as she claimed to be. Not that he had doubts that she wasn't what she said, and ultimately he wouldn't be the one who would be making that sort of judgment call anyway. He would have preferred to have been, but obvious limitations would keep him from the thrill of a hunt for a while.

"That might be a good idea," came his rejoinder, "we could use a good hunt again." Since the cougar attack, he found he was not entirely certain that they had ventured too far. There had been enough small game to keep them busy for a while, and with the varied waterways in their territory, the geese had been willing to land where they felt it was safe.

"Of course that's provided they aren't too far out from our territory, too," he went on to say. It was more of a thought spoken aloud than anything, but everyone needed a sounding board once in a while. He imagined she would scout them out first and make that determination on her own, but given that she had only been apart of their fold for so long meant that the herd probably hadn't made much headway with the change of the weather. Snow would slow them and the cold would keep them to suitable cover for warmth.

The encouragement from Mordecai makes her chest puff out, even if he isn’t directly giving it to her or praising her for something she hasn’t yet done, but the prospect it would be good for the pack.  Accomplishing it, driving the herd toward the hollow, and the rest of them taking it down would do well for them.  Even if she might not get the killing blow, they would get the chance because of her actions.  She smiles, feeling drool build up in the back of her mouth, and she yearns for something now.

“It’ll be good,” she tells him, glancing past him as she begins to think about her travel patterns and where she’ll start.  She has a good idea where they were when she left them and if things pan out, she can do this.  “I’ll let you guys know when I leave,” she adds as she begins to stand, flexing her muscles from sitting in the cold for too long.  “It is nice to meet you, Mordecai,” she finally says with a brightening smile, waiting for dismissal before she leaves.

"I would appreciate that," he murmured as she mentioned that she would let them know when she would leave. That tended to make things easier, if only whether or not they knew when to be expecting her back within the territory. But of course, that was how they had always arranged things with the wolves that joined them — it was much easier to accept them leaving, whether temporarily or permanently, so long as they at least had the common decency to mention it. But there were those within their fold that had not done the same, and those frankly were not wolves he had interest in seeing again.

But Root seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, so to speak. He rejoined her parting statement with a bob of his scarred head; it was also good to have made her acquaintance as well. It doubled over as a dismissal of sorts too, because he slowly rose to offer her a wave of his tail, turning himself back towards his temporary lodging. For as much as he desired to stay out in the open, it wasn't practical with the way the cold currently teased at still healing wounds.

And so the duo parted for the time being.