Firestone Hot Springs he is risen

He branched to the west until the air was thick with sulfur and, oddly, Firefly couldn't figure out which direction to go because of it. The scent was so powerful that it overwhelmed everything else. A part of him was curious though, eager to investigate despite the rotten egg smell, and fought the urge to vomit as it built inside of him. As he came upon the scattered pools he paused and ducked, sniffing the surface where the water was steaming and thinning like pulled clouds — and instantly regretted the decision. Ever seen those gifs of cats smelling cheese and then puking? That's the kind of expression Firefly has as he withdraws, gagging, gasping for clean air, and huffing.

Cadeau wasn't sure what she would find here but curiousity lead the lone wolf onward, having heard rumors from some talkative birds about something called 'warm water' out in this part of the wilds. There was talk that taking a dip in these so called warm waters could help cure aches and bruises. As an aspirsing herbilst Cadeau was more than eagar to check it out, even if it were just a tall tale. It was the joy of the chase more so than the destination after all, one may say. The halfling soon could scent something strong in her nose, it was thick and kinda awful if she had to be honest. Did someone run over a skunk? Wrinkling her face up in an exaggerated manner, Cadeau kept pressing on until she came across a bunch of scattered, steaming pools of what she assumed had to be water. It smelled like water but at the same time not, it was weird to explain.

Cadeau approached one of the pools and lowered her head, face being buffeted by steam and the strong stinking smell. She wondered if it was just her smelling this, maybe she should have asked Illidan to come long just make sure her nose wasn't broken or something. Her distorted reflection stared back at her as Cadeau gave the water a careful look over, hesitant yet wanting to try dipping a paw in there to see if it was safe to submerge one's body in. Caution won out in the end, even if her adventurious curious heart was screaming at her mind like it were dumb to forgo the experimentation. Nearby, she saw someone, it was lupine shaped and seemed to be curious over the strange water as well. Ears pressed back, she debated approaching to say hello or not, recalling a few bad past encounters. She mulled over it quietly, shuffling before taking in a deep breath.

She called out, "Hello over there! Are you here for the warm water too?"

He coughed and gagged for a few minutes, stumbling away from one of the larger pools and carefully - if a bit awkwardly - trying to step around any smaller ones that rose up in his path as he attempted to escape. Once he managed to find a pocket of clean air he drank from it greedily, taking deep breaths that made him feel a little bit light-headed; but it was enough to clear his system of the worst of the sulfur smell. Firefly still felt queasy as he surveyed his surroundings, but when he heard someone calling to him he froze and swayed, looking for the origin point of the voice.

The small red shape nearby caught his attention; without thinking about the air quality (or the scent quality of his own body) he lurched to his feet and roamed closer, closer, closer, until he was coming up on the stranger's position. She didn't seem phased by the smell as much as he was; perhaps Firefly had become so accustomed to sea brine that anything more pungent was --- well, pungent. Too strong for him.

Warm water? He repeated, and scrunched his nose. I was just --- oommf, I was checking out the pools, yeah. But the smell is --- you don't smell that? Or... Is that not the worst smell you have ever -- ahhmm, smelled? Talking made things worse; the air entered his sinuses and crept across his tongue, and he thought he could taste the sulfur in the air the more he tried to communicate. The man huffed a few times, and then tried to clarify: I haven't gotten close enough to test the -- guhh -- the water, its so... Ughhhh.

Cadeau was glad to see the stranger didn't seem hostile, it smelled of a male she noticed once she got a proper whiff of air that wasn't just the strange warm water stinking up the place. When he drew near, he was civil enough and Cadeau let herself relax. If he were hostile she was sure he would have made it known from the getgo, at least from her encounters so far it was a safe conclusion to have.

"My nose isn't broken, I can smell it, yeah." Cadeau told him with an amused look. "Guess I have a high tolerance for stuff like this from messing with herbal plants enough," the halfling added as she knew her nose had adapted to many awful smelling plants over the course of her trial and error type of studies. She'd gotten a nostril full of some pretty nasty pollen scent. "Its pretty gross," she couldn't help but chortle as she winced at the smell. "But I'm here to study it, so I gotta suck it up I guess." 

She wandered closer to another nearby pool, this one shallower than the last and examined it with a curious glint to her almond eyes. "I'm Cadeau, by the way." She lifted her head up to look at the stranger after. She was proud of her improving confidence and social skills.

Okay, so he was a giant wuss about this. The girl explained that the smell was present but it didn't affect her much, and that was pretty damn impressive to Firefly. Her admittance that she was here to study the water — well, that surprised him. He scrunched his nose at the idea but that led him to sneeze, and after he sneezed he sucked in another nasty breath of nasty air, but it wasn't as bad this time. Maybe he just needed to get used to it. It smelled like really bad egg farts though.

I'm Cadeau, he heard her say, peering away from one pool to look at him as if to expect something in return. Firefly's eyes were watering; he hastily blinked away the gleam and stalked to her side, but didn't say anything for a few seconds as he stared down at the frothing, bubbling cauldron of weird water suspended in front of them. He could sort-of see the reflected red of Cadeau's pelt on one side, and the black blob of his shape on the other - but the pools were steaming like crazy and hardly ever settled and calm.

I'm Firefly, he finally countered — and now that he was closer to her, ripe as the air may be, he thought he could smell something familiar on her coat, which prompted him to blurt, You're a friend of Illidan?

Cadeau kept examining the water with curious brown eyes, the halfling idly reaching a paw to ghost the surface of the warm water. The fur along her back stood up in surprise at the heat and she pulled her paw back quickly. She shook droplets off her toes and Cadeau blinked with a stunned look on her tan colored face. 

"Wow! Boy is that warm! I mean, not burning hot but I wasn't ready for that," Cadeau blabbered with some zealous energy to the words. She turned to face the stranger again, not wanting to be rude. "Its nice to meet you, Firefly. Its always good running into friendly faces." Cadeau was proud that the anxiety she used to have meeting other wolves was steadily becoming easier to control, even if a weary voice in the back of her head was scolding her. She was going to join a pack and eventually live among a group of wolves, she needed to get a tamper on the fear.

At his question and the mention of Illidan, she balked curiously. "If he's a gray wolf with a black head, yeah I know Illidan. We're traveling together..." Cadeau cocked her head, intrigued to meet someone who knew her partner. "Do you know him?"

The girl did a foolish thing and actually reached her paw in to the pool; Firefly didn't know what to expect from her, or from the act of touching the water itself, but he recoiled as she withdrew her limb and half-expected it to have melted off of her body. Rather than wound her, the water merely steamed up and then dribbled off of her coat. No harm done, except she did mention that it was warm. That kind of made sense to him - but also it didn't because what.

He (as casually as he could) looked at the damp paw and sniffed at the air around it, studying the limb and the scent in the air; but it didn't smell any different from the noxious rotten egg scent. There was some wet dog mixed in now, but that was hardly comparable. Cadeau did not appear to be injured at all and went on to talk about Illidan, to which Firefly nodded.

We're -- from the same pack, he was going to say. —good friends.

The yearling was curious to see the male mention Illidan as a close friend, she didn't think her companion to be the unsociable type but he never spoke of any comrades either so it left her intrigued over this development. Cadeau leaned forward with a eager look on her face. "How exciting, Illidan's never mentioned any friends before," Cadeau said. She frowned to herself, knowing it wasnt her business to be nosey but she couldn't help it. She wanted to know more about Illidan than what she saw on the surface layer.

She accepted what he said without question, but what came next surprised Firefly. He knew his friend was a reserved sort, he didn't often share details about his life or his history with members of Rusalka, so it should not have shocked him to hear that Illidan had never mentioned him; yet, it stung. Maybe he wasn't surprised really - maybe it was hurt that he felt, realizing that his connection and affection for the boy wasn't worth talking about. It was a weird thing to experience. Especially now that Firefly was unaffiliated with the boy and his family.

Uh, yeah, he can be like that, Firefly tried to continue the conversation without missing a beat, but there was a lackluster tone to his voice now - a diminishing of his usual bravado. He was being a little girl about this revelation and it was totally not cool. So he shrugged and plastered a thin smile upon his face. He's a very private guy. I didn't know he'd met anyone outside of home, Firefly managed to counter, what uh, did you say your name was? 

For a moment Firefly squinted, like he was trying to remember what she had said only moments before (and in truth, he didn't need to hear her name again, he just wanted to make her feel that massive doubt that she'd caused, because he's a huge dick). Cadillac? Carroway?

Cadeau let her smile falter a bit seeing he seemed uncomfortable talking about Illidan, causing the halfling to withdraw her curiosity as to not push the stranger over a boundary he didn't want to discuss. But then it left her wondering what about the topic could have given such a feeling, was it Illidan himself? She didn't push though nodded her head. "He's just helping me out, I don't know him well enough yet but he seems like a decent guy," Cadeau quipped before cocking her head as he asked her name. She gave a sort of smile. "Its Cadeau to you, Honeybee." She couldn't help throwing in a joke to try relaxing the mood. "It is a weird name, my dad wanted to call me just Cody but mom won out on that arguement."