Cricket Creek Bog you're getting there

for @Wraen

though hadrian is weary of wetlands, he finds himself stuck between two packs and trudging through the bog was quicker than skirting around either pack; and his hesitance about cricket creek bog — as he'd been told by a helpful traveller — was pleasantly unfounded. it wasn't half as terrible as he'd imagined. there were small mounds of loamy earth that kept him from having to trudge through the thickest of the muck and though he'd imagined the chirps of the crickets and other insects to be grating on his nerves he, instead, finds it to be melodious. it's softened and rather delightsome giving the bog — whose waters he are wholly surprised to find clean — a tranquil air.

if not for the looming presence of being stuck in the only neutral territory between packs hadrian might've considered sticking around the bog for a while. as it stood, being a lone wolf traipsing between the packs that border it on either side puts him on a cautious edge and the legionnaire has no intention of lingering.

The weight of guilt for helping Kiwi had been heavy on Wraen's shoulders, but after two weeks with no sign of the girl in the vicinity and a lot of jobs to do, she stopped thinking about it all the time. What was in the past, was in the past. Colt's health was slowly improving and the main focus was to raise those eight kids into adulthood as quickly as possible. While it was still summer, the chilly mornings and frequent rain-falls warned about the autumn to come and harsher conditions with it. The game of survival had been relatively easy so far. 

She was walking along the western border of the copse, which lied right next to the bog, when she became aware of motion in the vicinity. Then came the sound of four paws walking across soft surface and the smell of a young male. Curious she tracked the scent and sound from a distance, walking paralell, until the source in question came into view. "Where are you heading to, wanderer?" she called out to him from a safe distance, her stance calm, expression friendly and curious.

He did not speak to her, therefore Wraen did not push her company and returned to the earlier activity that had occupied her time.