Verdant Basin coconut sharks in the water

The world still appeared bright to the young Blackthorn.

He had almost reached the age of 9 months, and his appearance was barely beginning to lose the awkward lankiness of youth; he was almost indistinguishable from the adults, though he was a touch smaller and his features retained their baby-like softness. He had begun to wander outside the plateau more frequently, but never did he trek too far - what if he got lost?

The basin was surrounded by endless smooth, rolling hills, and he looked down at the glistening water from atop a smaller rise in the ground, weight settled on his rear and plush tail curled neatly around his paws. He had been here since early morning, and the sun had now shifted to the middle of the sky, illuminating the lagoon in a wash of light; bronze eyes flicked up as a rustle sounded from above his head (where a canopy of leaves stretched out), and he held his tongue as a robin dove off a branch and disappeared somewhere closer to the water's edge. Cinder blinked, and his leathery nose flared as he inhaled the sharp, chilly scents of his surroundings.

Oh, perhaps he should go closer to the basin and investigate further?

Her world was still tilted on its axis, yet Bat did her best to keep on spinning. Itching to do stuff but too impatient to track down @Tegan and make him go with her somewhere, she simply quit the plateau today and made a beeline south with no particular destination in mind. When she caught a familiar scent, she seized the opportunity to give this jaunt a purpose and began to track it.

"Yo, Cinder!" she shouted as soon as he came within eyesight. Her eyes panned over the backdrop behind him and Bat grinned. "I love that you also love water features. You weren't thinking of going for a swim, were you?"

His friend's sudden burst of a greeting almost startled him, golden-copper eyes widening with surprise as his head whipped around curiously. "Rory!" The youngster beamed when recognition struck him, a grin playing across his silvery muzzle and tail swaying at his hind. "Water is so cool." Cinder exclaimed, peering back toward where the shimmering basin lay; an ashen cloud shifted to block the sunlight for a few heartbeats, but soon drifted past and revealed it again, sparkling on the rippling surface of blue.

"I did think about it - but it's probably way too cold, right? I hope it gets warmer soon, and then I can do all the swimming." Yeah! He wanted to learn to swim like a fish; he could become the best and then show Tywyll that he was really awesome at something!

Her clownish ears tilted slightly at the alias, though her smile didn't falter. "You right," she said agreeably, "water is very cool. Probably right now in particular." She smirked, sidling close enough to Cinder that she could bump her slate gray shoulder against his paler gray one. "Once summer finally gets its ass back here, I'd love to go swimming with you. It's a good idea to use the buddy system anyway."

This place looked like it might make a great swimming hole, not that they were lacking water features on Heron Lake Plateau, especially with the floodplain right next door. Bat chuckled under her breath, then looked sideways at Cinder. Soon enough, news would circulate and everyone would find out that her real name was Bat. She supposed she could've tried enforcing Rory as her new identity, though truthfully she didn't care one way or the other.

But she didn't want to be caught up in a lie, not with these wolves who'd come to mean something to her. Bat said, "Hey, so, my real name is Bat. Actually, my real name is Rorqual but that's a fuckin' mouthful. My family's been calling me Bat ever since I was little, probably because of the ears. You can call me that, or Rory, or whatever you want. I just wanted to let you know."

He grinned at the wolfess, nodding with enthusiasm. "Hell yeah! It sounds like fun." Right now, he really wanted to check out what swimming was all about - but he'd have to wait. The young Blackthorn let his amber gaze flicker back toward the lake.

He paused, though, with a glimmer of confusion in his eyes as she went on to speak of her name, explaining something that had never begun to cross his mind; so her name was Bat. He knew what a bat was! Cinder had seen them before, sailing through the late evening, when the sky was curtained with dark blue - he'd glimpsed flashes of them. They were fast little creatures, but so cool! He almost wished he could see one up close... but his friend was close enough, right? "Oh." He mumbled, but sent a sparkling smile back in her direction after a moment's contemplation. "Bats are dope! Thanks for telling me. Does Rorqual mean anything or is it just a name, like... uh... like... Jim. Or something. I dunno."

Cinder didn't seem upset by the white lie. He only expressed enthusiasm over her name, which teased a grin out of her. She considered telling him she'd fibbed about her age too, though she didn't want to press her luck. Besides, what did that really matter?

"I think it's the name of a fish," she answered honestly, chuckling a little at the name Jim. Where had that come from? "See these?" she continued, ducking her snout to touch her nose against the white bands on her forelegs. "I guess these fish called rorquals have markings like these or something."

She was getting dangerously close to thinking of the two women who'd given her such a name, so to distract herself and steer the conversation, Bat suddenly pointed at one of the nearby hillocks. It was covered in a powdery dusting of snow. "I bet it'd be fun to roll down that. Wanna go for it?"

His eyes followed her snout to the markings on her legs, eyes dazzling with curiousity - Cinder, perhaps, would always be curious. About everything. He made an attempt to remember that name: Rorqual, so perhaps if he saw one in the waters one day, he might be able to label it, identify what kind of fish it was. "Huh. Have you ever seen one in real life?" he inquired, still thinking to himself.

The topic shifted then, and at first the boy's gaze widened, flickering toward the hills of snow - that could be dangerous, couldn't it? But the thought was gone with a blink of the eye, consumed by excitement and the prospect of a game; besides, he couldn't be scared! That would show everyone that he wasn't cool at all, and then surely his brother would think he was dumb. "You bet," He grinned, halting a moment before launching himself forward.

"Nah," Bat replied to his question about fish. She was much more interested in the snowy hillock. She was just about to propose a race to the top when he launched toward it. "Hey!" she shouted indignantly, laughing as she shot after him.

He beat her to the top. As she huffed and puffed up beside him, Bat shoved him playfully in an attempt to bodily roll him back down the hill. It didn't work so well. She hardly budged him, though that began a rather hilarious slap fight that turned into a good ole wrestling match, eventually leaving the pair to breathlessly recover back by the water's edge.