Porcupine Ridge nature's motion pictures presents

Though Porcupine Ridge had an abundance of safe places through which to travel, it also housed a plethora of treacherous bites, hazardous to the very lives of the wolves who called it home. There was one such ledge, on a northeast cliff, that overlooked the immediate area (ten feet below) nicely. It was a lovely vantage point for the eagle-eyed, but there was also a massive hole in the outcropping that was about five feet wide in jagged circumference and nearly seven feet deep. It opened up to the ground below in a sharply slanted fashion, and from any angle you came at it, it was difficult to notice before it was too late. It was a nice, sliding drop. It would be more than easy to break something...

But this was only The Hole seventy percent of the year. Twenty-five percent of the year, during the height of winter, it is completely and utterly compacted with snow, making it no threat at all. And then the other five percent, during the first build and after the first melt for a brief time, it becomes a path/slide: a quick way down to the bottom.

Diane found out by accident on this particularly warm day. The ground was slush, and The Hole was filled but soft, ready to cave in at any time. The tentative seawolf padded her way up the slender slope that flanked the upper ledges, taking her directly and fortuitously up to the ledge harboring It. As she carefully approached the edge so that she might overlook the valley beneath, she took a second step over The Hole and all of it sunk in. Everything was slow at first, she almost thought she could back-pedal out of it; but the momentum picked up before she could even start scrambling and gravity took its course as it pulled her down in an inescapable downward drift.

Everything went dark as she fell through the hole; it seemed it would go on forever. Then suddenly the snow gave outwards, and Diane flipped forward into the bright of day again, tumbling down the last few feet of the snow-made slope(slide) as she she struggled to right herself against the fall.

She landed, writhing and buried upside down, right up to her hips, where she began a valiant struggle to unsuccessfully free herself. The snow muffled her cries.  

Pseudo pack "activity" anyone? Multiples preferred 8)

:o

The snow was getting kind of gross- Jhala was a bit overwhelmed by it. She had never been somewhere where the snow really melted- it more turned to ice and then it was just gone in a few weeks- she could never explain it. But here when it melted... well damn it really melted. She was wet up to her chest while patrolling and it was probably the most frustrating thing ever. Whenever the wind blew she got even colder, causing her to be a bit grumpy.

Eventually, the cold, wet, girl decided it was time to take a break from the borders and travel inland more, soon coming across the base of a melting cliffside, one she usually avoided from the top. Jhala then froze, her ears perking as she heard the muffled... something, of someone. Standing still for a moment while deciding what the hell to do about it, she eventually decided the best thing to do was to go help- it was probably a packmate after all.

The sight was rather amusing, and the girl stifled a full out laugh after seeing the dusty rump of Diane sticking out of the ground. "Diane!" she woofed, trotting over and beginning to dig at the snow around her, attempting to free her. "What the hell are you doing?" she teased, but it was pretty obvious that she had not intended to do this.

Someone was above her. She could barely hear who it was, but she could feel the hold of the snow loosening as her packmate shoveled back the snow against her struggling. After about half a minute more of squirming, Diane popped out of the snow, covered in slushy white and as wide-eyed as the first time a child gets bowled over by an ocean wave. She looked absolutely enthralled, her fur standing on end— coated in shining flakes— her legs splayed and tongue lolling as she gulped in the air she had been momentarily deprived of. "Jhala!" she cried, coming to her senses enough to finally zero in on who had freed her. "Oh gosh, Jhala, you have to come see this!" she trilled, completely forgetting that she had just been trapped and the thanks she should have given the Beta.

Instead, she turned swiftly, dashing for the base of the trail that would lead them back up to The Hole. "Come! Come, hurry!" she laughed breathlessly, clamoring back up the ledge, hopefully with Jhala on her heels. Upon reaching the desired cliff, Diane slowed, coming up more carefully on the spot she had fallen through, testing the ground first with a tentative paw before stepping fully up on the platform. Because she had broken the seal of the opening, it was now a gaping hole with a sloping lane of snow that resembled a lumpy slide. A few passes down it and it would be completely smoothed. "Scared?" she grinned at her partner, before ducking and crawling headlong into the opening.

The snow shifted and she slid down fast. It was a more controlled descent this time— no flips or strangled grappling involved. She laughed all the way to the bottom, crashing into the mound of snow she'd been buried in just minutes ago. "You have to try it Jhala!" she called, hoping to see the she-wolf slide down any moment now.

m for language on my part :L

"What?! Diane!" Jhala yelped as the other freed herself from the snow and wheeled herself to face her. The other was excited and hyper- it seemed- and the packs Beta only remembered her from their last talk, when she was far quieter and much more anxious. The change in personalities threw her off, but this rowdiness was more of the crowd she liked to hang with. "I'm comin'!" she yelled, tearing off after the other with her tongue lolled out. 

When they reached the top, Diane made no hesitations to dive in again, and Jhala heard her taunting with absolutely no sense. A challenge? There was no reason she shouldn't accept said challenge! "In your dreams!" she called after the other as she slid down, and bowed as she waited for her own time to jump. Her rump wagged with excitement as she waited, but before Diane could even finish telling her to come, the dark Beta already had. 

It was a huge rush of adrenaline all at once, and the girl didn't even think about how it was happening. Slushy snow and ice made for slippery slope, sure, but she didn't really care about all that. She slid through the dark with wide amber eyes and a huge smile- her fur wet as is slid against the slush. She tumbled to the bottom, a little more gracefully than Diane had originally done, and let out a loud "SSSSHIIIIT," with obvious excitement and joy.

The small wolf laughed at Jhala's descending exclamation, her entire body vibrating with excitement as she watched the steady Beta clamor out of the hole in the snowdrift she had made previously. "It's amazing, right?!" Diane practically shouted, bounding to the girl's side and nudging her neck and chin excitedly, tail whipping back and forth like a propeller. In such a state of shared excitement, the runaway seawolf could feel entirely like herself. Every single one of her fears and insecurities were forgotten, and fun replaced it all.

Diane breathed in deep, inhaling the cold air, Jhala's thrilling scent, and Porcupine Ridge as it was in a waning winter wonderland. Her smile seemed to carry from ear to ear, and unable to contain all the energy coursing through her, the gold-eyed nymph suddenly spun in a circle and then darted away. She came back again just as quickly, charging back and forth at breakneck speed, stopping/turning on a dime, play-bowing and such so as to elicit Jhala in a chase back up to the ledge.