Redsand Canyon to ever shelter your will

would love a semi-spreer but AW! ingram is scouting for a diaspora task :)

he had been advised, under mahler’s cheerless gaze, to scout the canyons above as a task to prove his worth. after informing @Blodreina of his errand, ingram had stopped by @aurewen's den with a young hare before setting for the canyon. 

mahler had described the animals as large game, similar to elk save for their skulls bore no antlers and their hooves were not cloven. his description sounded far-fetched to the seawolf, but willing to prove his mettle ingram set for the canyon. a small part of him wondered if this was not possibly some hazing ritual or prank, were it not for how serious and grim the kapitan’s manner was. 

doubtful, yet willing to prove he believed in the gargoyle’s words, ingram made for the canyon at a steady clip.

the wolf skulked across the leading edge of a narrow abuttment until its termination point against a craggy hill; the knotwork of low-growing shrubbery prevented them from going further, and rather than put forth the effort to find a path through, the stain reversed. better to find an easy path. they were not built for mountaineering — not with those long limbs and tucked runner's belly. it did not matter how fleet of foot the spider was, she had to reverse her course. in the process of finding another route she took note of the silence which dawned in the wood; the birds taking wing, the hush, the tense stillness. her snout wrinkles as she breathes deeply the foreign air — and there, finds traces of the living.

<3

ingram did not notice the skulking presence of inka — his attention was affixed on the barren stretch of red below. interspersed across the valley were tall formations of mahogany rock, and weathered mesas which broke the valley’s topline in uneven palisades.

he continued onward.

pressed to a narrow footpath around a flattened butte, ingram scoured the plains below; no shapes lingered, but he saw evidence of recent foraging. bare spots and oddly flattened pits in the earth spoke of some migratory event in which ingram seemed too late to witness.

he sniffed curiously at a flattened patch of timothy grass, noticing a faintly sweet odor that was neither elk nor deer. raking the earth with a paw absentmindedly, ingram looked about him and it was then he thought he saw a darkened shape moving between trees in the distance.

the forest thinned along a scalloped edge of grey stone, itself leading at a steep descension to a staggered red staircase the likes of which she had never seen before. the way the light caught upon the soil here was infernal, and she glowered at her slim paws as she began her awkward climb. she moved like a heron creeping across a bog — fluid steps that dragged and caught upon each narrow plateau, placed with purpose, with hind paws aligning with the marks of her forefeet. the precision did not help much, though; a few poorly-judged steps caused a dishevelment to the topography and a cascade of red dust fell and scattered on the ledges below. with a crow-like dip of her snout she stared down the sharp beak of her muzzle and over the edge, and was surprised to spot a canine figure pawing at the sun-baked grass. it was enough to spook the shadow, and send her on an abrupt, obnoxious tumble down to the next segment of plateau.

ingram heard her before he saw her; the mesas above clattered with the song of loosened shale, betraying the presence of another. 

glancing between ridges of red and umber stone, ingram did not immediately spot her — but when he did catch her luminary gaze, he stepped back with a chill climbing down his spine. 

and then she was gone, sliding — skittering — the ground moved with her, a cascade of rolling rubble and debris. 

ingram’s expression changed from surprise to concern once inka slipped from view; climbing towards the rising cloud of detritus, ingram’s voice called over the hail of stone. hey! you okay?

her shoulder dipped and collided with a narrow chunk of rock and down she went, dragging hide across the dirt and collecting red dust as well as shards of gravel and uprooting clay with her scrambling limbs; she clawed and kicked and fought against gravity as she came tumbling from her awkward perch, and yet when she landed (side-long with a huff) she was righting herself before the dust could settle.

hey—! called a voice through the clattering din that filled the mesa you okay?

she shook off, beginning at her narrow shoulders, leading along her serrated spine to her square hips; the blooming bruises across her body would hurt later, she'd ache and pine for respite, but for now the spider's adrenaline kept the pain at bay. her atramenous coat held a rust-red tone where the dirt had ground in to her coat, giving definition where she'd typically lack it.

with a tilt of her sharp snout she glanced — searching — for the voice — or whoever was speaking at her — and chuckled when the wolf finally managed to reach her. ain't broken, she confirmed (mostly for herself), and shimmied one more time to make sure, huffing a few times to clear her nostrils of red dust.

the cloud of red dust had settled, and within it was a black-furred wolf with a coat of shimmering sand cloaking her. as she shook a second fine mist of dirt rose, settling to the ground in gentle ripples.

ingram could not help but look her over, his tail swaying uncertainly. her descent had not been a delicate tumble, but she seemed fine, the disarray of her coat aside. well, that’s good... it looked painful. she must be tough, he thought in afterthought as his gaze rose to the high heights above.

he was not sure her intentions, the unplanned tumble aside — but he did not think she was a pack wolf given the lack of territoriality in her posture. i’m ingram. i’ve been told to look here for horses. his tone was slightly incredulous — he had yet to ever see a horse in his life time, and from the way they had been described they frankly sounded mythological.

casually re-adds hakai.......

the stranger was friendly; they approached without hesitation and once the dust cleared, did a quick inspection that was rivaled by the shrewed glower of the woman. she scoffed as he mentioned pain; the fall might've bumped and bruised her a little, but she was a spry creature. the tumble had agitated her a bit but not done much in the way of harm.

i'm ingram. the young man offered — she responded with a raise of the brow, tense of the jaw. studying him as he delved further in to the conversation, until he mentioned his great quest. the sides of her mouth flashed with fangs as she snickered at the very idea of hunting something in this canyon. but horses? she knew of many things — boar, deer, elk, wild oxen and goats — but this word, horse, sounded made-up.

wazzat? she queried; shuffling closer to him with a nonchalant swagger as she inspected the angles of his body, unphased if her proximity bothered him as she circled. whoever told you t'hunt in this wasteland probably meant it as a joke, pfff.

omg PFERD!!!

ingram hadn't missed the glower the woman possessed; it was like two sunken, scowling suns were staring at him as he shifted away, content she wasn't as outwardly wounded as he originally assumed. like as not, she was probably a sturdier and better made specimen than he -- which explained why she managed to walk off what had been a rough tumble so easily.

he had hoped she would know what horses were -- but it appeared she didn't either. his posture sank, and as she echoed his own thoughts, he couldn't help but manage a rueful smile. "i don't think the guy that told me about them is the type to joke." and that was putting it lightly -- ingram had never met a man as difficult to read as mahler.

"so, they're apparently like elk -- if you know what those are. only they don't have antlers, and they're faster. they have hooves too, but mahler told me they are not cloven.." ingram trailed off, resenting how absurd he sounded. "you know what - let's... just go look for one. he said if they are there, i won't miss them. this patch over here --" ingram motioned to the patch he had been scenting earlier and trotted towards it: "it smells funny, maybe that's what they smell like." he stepped back to allow her a chance to scent it, his ears pressed forward in interest as he assessed her reaction to the tufted depression.

his description made the creature sound more like a riddle than anything; something large like an elk but not equipped in the same manner? how would a beast such as that survive against a wolf if it did not have its crown? perhaps it existed; the boy certainly seemed convinced that his quest-giver was telling the truth, but perhaps he was merely a gullible fool - they were a plentiful breed. the woman chose to be skeptical but then, it didn't really matter what she thought, considering it was not her quest to complete.

but the boy included her all the same — inviting her to hunt with him. despite her resistance she was intrigued, even if the event was a trick and they were left to roam the wasteland without success, at least she would finally have company again. inka licks her lips and watches him - but also doesn't - with a thoughtful pause; but then she strides beyond his position with her attention fixed on the soil where he has directed her attention.

a few casual sniffs, and there is something there, but she doesn't identify it as anything beyond prey, to some degree. as she lifts her head again she sets her gleaming pumpkin eyes upon her new partner, and comments, tsch, suppose i can use the company.

the world had no shortage of gullible fools, and ingram was not so far removed from reality to believe he was not one of them. giving the woman a thin smile as she measured him, ingram made to press onwards. he was glad to hear she obliged his not so subtle request — ingram enjoyed the company of other wolves, and looked forward to their little journey with interest. maybe he might even learn something from this spidery woman, if time was generous enough.

he noted as he went that here and there grass was grazed down as if razed by teeth, while in other seemingly adequate areas the tussocks remained untouched. it was during one such inspection that he noticed a strange footprint in the red dust; it was almost circular, with a triangular depression keening the center. whoa, he grunted, motioning for inka to come look at the print. look at this!

he could not help the childlike smile of wonder that played his features — maybe they were on the right track to finding this mythological creature. maybe mahler wasn’t playing a cruel trick after all.

The sound of something hard and flat clattered across the redstone; from afar it would sound like more loose shale coming to a rest, except it did not cease as quickly as Inka's own chaotic fall. There was a cadence to the sound, a beat indicative of his smooth gait as the stallion roamed — unaware of the hunt that had begun. The sound of his hooves slamming against the dirt soon grew in strength but there were so many twists and turns in this immense valley. Immense shadows fell across the dirt where spires of flat rock stood proudly, and the beast huffed as he paced, his hide glistening with sweat to the effect that he appeared almost metallic; the gold of his hide taking on a lustre despite the dust, yet as he careened closer there came a wave of rust-red in his wake, and Hakai veered off in another direction before much could be done.

she investigated the scent of the grass again, and in the time it took her to formulate a decision the boy was roaming further - so she was swept up in the adventure with him, following with her silent strides until he came to a halt, finding more clues. the exuberance of the young man made her resistant to investigate - she was not a creature of great empathy or emotional fortitude, oft blaming her frigid progenitors for raising likeminded offspring — and yet she found herself easily charmed by how enthusiastic he was, even if ingram's affectation was a tad obnoxious and overwrought for her liking.

the woman dipped her snout over the mark and sniffed, finding a deep and earthy musk mixed with faint traces of grain, and studied the shape. if it is a track, it is not cloven - so you are in luck. inka murmurs to her companion; it is not enough to make her a believer but the woman begins to hunt in earnest thereafter, searching for more tracks so that she could at the very least, judge the size of the beast.

she was so focused upon this task that she almost didn't hear the hard staccato beat of stone-against-stone, and as it began to fade to her ears, she lifted her head to look around. the spider did not see anything of note, but took a gander at ingram — curious if he had heard the same sounds, or if they might affect him.

OMG U SPOIL ME

ingram's yellow gaze studied the inkling as she apprised the strange print. like him, she arrived at a similar conclusion -- voicing if it was a track, they were in luck and at least on the right track. he smiled earnestly, ready to move on; he noticed from thereon, that the spider seemed a little less reserved. perhaps having an end goal made some of her grim demeanor lift.

in the distance a revolution of thuds sounded, and ingram drew to a halt alongside inka, his ears straining. the noise seemed to roll on and then gradually disappear. it seemed inka had heard it too; ingram gave her a conspiratory glance of excitement before he peeled off in the direction of the sound.

with one look from her, the boy was off at a gallop towards the distant, drifting noises; her ears pinned with a twist and she called to him, hey—! wait—! but he was already a couple wolf-lengths ahead of her when she smartened up and took off at a half-tilted run of her own; whatever the noises were, inka was not so keen to track them down and face the entity responsible, if there even was one. it was much more likely that there were loose rocks scattering to the wind, or maybe something more diabolical - like a cougar waiting for them. but she did not want to be left in the dust, so she followed after him with a lengthy trot until she was out of breath, glancing at every oddly-angled cleave of stone or shaft of light or tremble of earth, expecting to see something massive and mythical.

The canyon was akin to a naturally occurring fortress of red stone and winding, sloping paths. Much of it was so spacious that the biome itself could probably house a myriad of entities - families of horses, hordes of deer, multiple packs of wolves, partitioning off sections as they desired. Yet it was free of all that. The herd that found solace here was not led by this golden creature — yet. Hakai was a bold one; he had spent many days working his way in to the herd, charming the women, sparring with the weaker men, and he finally thought of himself as one of their guard — but he was impatient, eager to train his body and best their fastest of runners or fiercest of warriors.

So it came to be that the stallion was alone now. He knew he was not truly alone, so far as he could return whenever he wished to the throngs of the herd; but he often spent his time singled out, eager to map the canyon paths and find the most difficult of routes to run. It would impress them all, he thought. He would be the best, and they would bow to him. But it was rare to be sought after by dangerous creatures too — the other stallions were not the only ones interested in him, which he came to realize as the scent of wolf hit his flaring nostrils.

He clattered to a stop, grunting, huffing, wheeling about with a lurch of his shoulders; he pivoted, rising up on his hind limbs, kicking triumphantly to keep his balance, and then crashing to the earth again; the sounds he made were bestial and echoed across canyon walls, but they were not the sounds of fear. He turned in to the wind and, with a burst of power, launched in to a run that brought his broad golden body within viewing distance of the two sleek shadows. If he saw them he made no motion to imply as such, and thundered along the path until he was but a gleam in their periphery.

clearly, inka was the one with sense and self-preservation, and ingram was not. he ran, and he ran - he was out of breath within seconds, but did not stop even as a hey-- wait! sounded behind him.

he was on a mission. hurriedly, he scampered onwards -- up until he heard what sounded like a terrific clatter of stone. he would not have recognized it for what it was, hooves thundering across rock deliberately -- but it was loud, therefore it earned ingram's attention.

he was just about to turn around and say hey, did you hear that? when something else caught his eye. something fawnskin gold, and huge, careening into his periphery at an alarming speed. ingram froze and whipped his head around, focusing on the horse as it glided below -- a positively staggering specimen, and many times larger than ingram.

"holy," ingram muttered, peering down the mesa -- but the horse was gone, the only evidence of its passing the gradually distant clatter of hooves. "what the HELL WAS THAT!"

The thundering of hooves was something she felt rather than heard, until it was so loud that her ears pinned and Inka was looking brazenly about for the source — but the golden flash came and went so swiftly, so violently, that the only constant was her thundering heart. She heard the sooty boy remark his own surprise as the beast swept by them in the lower segment of the canyon; from their ridge they were safe from those hooves - but she imagined that they could've easily cleaved through their bodies and left them in crushed, bloodied heaps.

The creature left them in the dust. Rather than succumb to the innate need by any predator to give chase, the shadow stood there quaking until there was silence again; even afterwards, she merely sank to her haunches while the hairs on the back of her neck stood tall and she shivered from the adrenaline. That was --- I don't fuckin' know what that was --- she blurted in a hurry, and looked with big, bright eyes at Ingram. Was that ---? Your horse???

ingram too felt his hair raise. the beast was only there for a second before it was gone. the powerful, graceful way it had stolen past their vision (not even caring they were there!) defied all manner of logic he had come to assume came with prey animals. that beast looked regal, indifferent to the peons outside of its realm.

ingram's breath was shaky as he turned to meet inka's wide eyes. "that wasn't... a deer, right?" his ears pulled back in self-doubt; there was no way. it didn't sound like one (the way it moved! so thunderous and distinct from the light clatter of cloven hooves). "should we follow it?"

They were both flabbergasted. Inka didn't know what to do; she had hoped the adventure would be a good way to waste a couple of hours but now she found herself questioning the world, utterly overwhelmed by the knowledge that something that large and that strong could persist despite the influence of their kind; the thing hadn't even glanced at the two of them! It ran because it could, not because it feared their teeth or the possibility of becoming food! The woman gawked at Ingram as he spoke again, but didn't really do anything until he proposed that they should follow it — what?

You can if you want but there's no way I'll go with you! She refused hastily, shaking her sharp snout to and fro; she was already gathering her wits and trying to get her quaking limbs to obey her. That thing could kill us so fast — it definitely wasn't a fuckin' deer, and I am sure as shit not chasing after it. Good luck on that quest, ugh. She was, effectively, nope nope nope-ing out of there.

LOL! <3

ingram had many of the same thoughts as inka, but none of the reservation. he saw the beast, whatever it was, as a wonder to be discovered. at this point, he didn't even want to eat it -- he just wanted a chance to study it.

inka's answer was an overwhelming no; she could not have rooted any firmer to the spot if vines had tethered her there. his tail fell, but not his grin: "come on -- it could be an adventure. maybe it'll talk to us."

did ingram even pay attention to the shit that came out of his mouth sometimes?!

She was ready to do a full-tilt run through the canyon (much like the horse) but paused mid-stride when Ingram continued to idealize any further interaction with the creature. Inka shot him an incredulous look; this kid was insane! An idiot! Utterly off his rocker! The very thought of seeking out the racing beast had her adrenaline spiking. Heck to the no, dude. She refused, turned, and bolted from his company. Ain't no way she was spending any more time on this quest — it had stopped being fun as soon as that giant draconic beast had come careening by them!