King Elk Forest the skies will call forth thunderous storms from afar

the wind whipped through the trees and sliced through the coarse dark hairs that covered the shadow. she slunk through the brush, passing beneath the towering woods like a ghost. above her, a brightly-colored steller's jay circled and swooped down to perch within the branches some ten yards away. the ghoul drew a weary gaze upward for a moment to peer at the bird and she felt a wave of relief wash over her. the jay had been with her for several long months; she had found a kinship with the winged creature.

elfin took flight once more as she passed beneath the branch where he had been perched. he swooped low, chirping softly to her, and then disappearing into the leaves overhead. lucy followed him until he had disappeared from sight. her lean frame continued to prowl forward. her head was hunkered low to the earth as she passed, but she did not pause on her trek. the world passed beneath her while ominous clouds rolled overhead and draped the world in a dismal grey.

Gannet had traveled for months with his brother, learning what @Whip had to teach him and enjoying a view of the wider world. Travel had had its share of hardships, but it had been a time of growth, and he'd come to realize that others' happiness couldn't come at the expense of his own. A milestone for the pale boy who at one time would have given the world if asked.

He had parted ways with his brother amicably, though, feeling like there was more for him in a familiar ground. As much as he traveled, this place had stuck, though it was with a little nostalgia that he strode through familiar stretches of ground. It was damp and dismal, but he walked with a spring in his awkward step. Life was good.

Another wolf caught his eye, and he stopped, but didn't call out. Instead he just watched them go curiously. They seemed to be on a mission, unlike him. He was in no hurry to get anywhere fast, instead just enjoying the (miserable?) day.

it was curious that the first wolf she would meet would have been a former member of the indomitable mountain pack called moonspear; something they shared without knowing it. as for purpose, the ghoul only moved so that she did not remain in a single place for very long. she had found that a powerful weariness was all that would allow her to sleep without being consumed by the shadows in her mind. there were too many memories for a moment of peace, but she had endured as long as she could.

were it not for a sweeping gaze, the dark girl would have missed the pale stranger entirely. instead, her obsessive searching caught him in the corner of her eye. all at once, lucy froze in place and her figure stiffened dramatically. the tufted stub of her tail tucked tightly to her rear instinctively – an obvious show of fear. the ghoul did not lift her skull upward, but peered from her hunkered position. she sucked in a sharp breath of air before she had rallied herself enough not to flee.

“hello...” her voice fluttered from her mouth on battered wings – barely a strangled whisper of a sound.

When she spotted him, even if he wasn't more attuned than some to nonverbal signals, it would be clear she was terrified. So he didn't try to come any closer, just looked at her. They had met once before, but so briefly he didn't remember her face.

Hi. His voice had matured in the past year, but was not nearly as deep as his father's had been, and likely it never would be. Are you ok? It was a strange question maybe, but she didn't particularly look like it.

the greeting was returned, and though he did not appear as though he was capable of causing her any harm, the ghoul could not help but to flinch slightly at the timbre of his vocals. she did not trust the man; she had been wronged by a man, and she had no means of forgetting such terrible acts. still, as her cosmic blue gaze roamed his figure, there was something about him that reminded her of a friend from many months before.

“yes, i'm okay,” she assured him, though her voice sounded far from confident in its delivery. “looking... for water,” lucy then provided, feeling as though she wasn't creating a very stable image of herself. then, the ghoul turned her head and peered around them at the towering trees. it seemed a safe place, and she wondered if she had inadvertently crossed into someone's territory.

with a fearful quiver, lucy fixed the man with wide blue eyes and exhaled. “d-do you... do you live here?”

She still didn't exactly sound ok, but Gannet had no real reason to question. She'd know better than he would. He smiled, then shook his head. No. I don't live anywhere. He delivered this cheerfully enough that it was clear this didn't bother him. In the past he'd been lonely traveling alone, but after some time with Whip, he'd started to see the appeal. He was a pack wolf at heart and always would be, but there was something fun about meeting strangers.

OMG so funny story i mixed my two threads up wow

He couldn't help much, not knowing the area, but he could try. Have you checked that way? He asked, indicating northeast. If she hadn't, perhaps he could go as well. He was headed that way after all.

the pale fellow stated that he didn't have anywhere that he called home, which left a peculiar sort of feeling in the pit of the ghoul's stomach. on one hand, she understood the life as well as anyone could have. lucy had only found herself in the ranks of a pack for a few short months as a pup, and again when she had aged and found she had nowhere to go. there was something that seemed sad about the life without a home, but the boy didn't appear as though he was at all perturbed by it. this was where the other hand dropped; the shadow of a wolf felt a strange pricking of envy for the confident young man.

in all her life, she had never truly felt as though she belonged in any one place, save for the forest where she had met cypress and rannoch. she had come to terms with the idea that she would not find another home like it again.

swinging her head around to face the direction that he had gestured, lucy flattened her ears to her crown and peered through the woods. “i haven't checked in that direction just yet,” she answered him softly. then, she fixed her pale blue gaze on his shape once more and waged an internal battle over whether or not to invite him along. after she had decided that his confidence would provide her with some strength, she offered him a weak smile and motioned with a flick of her muzzle. “you could – uh – would you... like to come with?”

There had been a time when, like her, he hadn't felt like he belonged. A lot of that was Moonspear, but as he grew, he'd begun to realize that every place he went was exactly where he should be because it was where he was. He'd become his own sense of home, and it was a realization that led to an extremely satisfying run of travel.

Yeah. He would really enjoy traveling together, and while his tone wasn't overly enthusiastic, his expression made that clear. Walking with company was better than walking alone. He moved to walk alongside, keeping a distance if she wanted, but looked sideways at her. He hadn't asked back and just now realized it. Do you live around here?

a soft sigh passed her lips upon hearing his agreement to travel with her for a short ways. the black-footed man didn't make her feel the way that the dark stranger had. she may not have trusted him, but she did not feel as though he would be a direct cause of heartache for her. try as she did to move past the aggressive attack that had befallen her, the ghoul could not rid herself of the sharp yellow eyes of him – that man.

the dark shadow moved at a reasonable distance from her pale companion. she could not refrain from darting her eyes toward him every few moments to make sure that he would stay where he was. they had only trotted a short ways before he had returned the question she'd offered him. “oh... no,” she responded a little too swiftly. then, her brows tightened over her gaze, and she shifted her sights away from him.

“i don't really live anywhere...”

She still seemed jumpy but Gannet fell into a casual walk alongside, being sure to maintain a good distance. She answered that she didn't live anywhere either, and he nodded. She didn't seem like she liked it much though, to him.

Do you want to live somewhere? He asked. It's safer. But I like meeting and not having to decide. When he'd been in a pack, he'd had to enforce borders, and that meant choosing the wolves he talked to and whether they were worthy of being there. He enjoyed being able to range far and wide and not worry about that, much as he had to worry about food and shelter now instead.

the question that was posed was a difficult one for the shadow to answer. she was certain that she would have liked a home for herself – a place where she was welcome and loved by others. she thought that the idea of a home was a pleasant one. but, lucy had grown to realize that the idea of something and actually experiencing it were two very different things. homes had issues just as much as the rest of the world did, and she could not have been certain that she wouldn’t have made life harder on anyone that she sought to join.
 
there was something to be envied for his confidence. how he could casually comment on the premise of roaming until he found something that he liked; his voice was nonchalant and pleasant. the ghoul glanced toward him with somber blue eyes and titled her head to the side a little way. “i should think i’d like a home again someday, but i do not know when that day will be,” she answered softly. “freedom can be good too,” the shadow then added with a small nod of her slender muzzle.

He nodded, feeling her answer fairly similar to his in spirit at least if not in tone. If you are going to be somewhere, it's good to be happy. he said with a smile, unaware of the envy she felt.

Gannet's philosophy had always been this from pretty much day one. There were times he'd had a rough time with it; when he lost his leg, mainly. But he'd always come back to that truth. As long as he had what he needed, he could be happy, and if he wasn't happy, then he needed to make it so he was.

Something about her didn't seem like this though. He wondered what made her happy, because it seemed like she could use it right now. Before he could ask, though, he caught a telltale glint, and his eyes lit up. Water!

his smile was nice, but she was certain that she did not know what made her happy. it seemed like such an elusive idea that she couldn't even classify it as an emotion. the ghoul had spent so much of her life outside of that range of feeling, that she couldn't even aspire to it. the closest she thought she could be was fine, and even that would have been a great deal better than what she had known for a vast majority of her life. so, when she heard him speak about happiness and saw that he smiled in a charming way, lucy simply blinked at him and whispered, “yeah!”

thankfully, the conversation couldn't carry on much more in that direction, because the boy had found water. the word left his lips and she drew her ears forward with wide blue eyes in search of the promised liquid that would bring relief. it was as though the sheer mention of it was enough for her throat to feel substantially more parched than it had been before, but there they were. her lean frame carried her toward the water without pause and she lapped at it hungrily.

He picked a spot a little ways to the side and drank as well, since it had been a while since he'd crossed paths with a river. It wasn't an overly wide thing, but it was still wide enough that he didn't feel comfortable crossing it. His fear of water hadn't faded since his excursion under the ice, and it often required days of re-routing to go where he intended. Luckily, he rarely really intended to go anywhere in particular.

After he drank his fill, he looked across, then back at her. Will you cross? he asked, wondering if this was where they would part ways. If not perhaps they could share company a little longer. He wasn't a particularly talkative wolf, but he liked having her around.