Firefly Glen The Clouds Burst
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Ooc — Jennifer
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@Markus!  I'm gonna be 100% vague of what may happen in drama threads, woo! :P

It certainly felt like winter today.  Sometime before dawn, some snow had fallen and it seemed to be desperately clinging on in the cold weather while the sun kept hiding behind clouds.  By the end of the day it could very well be gone, but at least for now it made it very easy for Mal to follow the tracks of a rabbit from the edge of his forest into the nearby glen.  It wasn't a direction he generally preferred to go because it felt more open to the rest of the world -- mostly because it was towards other regions where people might want to live instead of just traverse through.  He was paranoid enough from everything that had happened and mostly did just want to keep to his own forest, but he wasn't enough of a hermit to just ignore some food that had been at his doorstep.

Of course, the problem with following a trail of something instead of visually seeing the thing itself meant that the end of the trail ended in a hole in the ground.  Great.  So the rabbit had come from here, wandered on over to Mal's home, had a snack, and gone back?  Annoying for him, but since he was here, maybe he could figure out how to catch the damn thing?  He paced around a fair distance away, thinking, before finally starting to sweep around in a wide circle for another entrance to the warren.  The spotted yearling was a little anxious, sure, but he wasn't so far from his own land that he was outright expecting trouble.  Then again, have you met the neighbors?  He stopped at a suspicious-looking snow-filled depression and started to dig.
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Markus lay lazily in the snow, annoyed at the dusting he had received last night despite his best efforts to hide from the ill weather. He should have gone under gound - would have if it were not cold and gross and uncomfortable to dig through. Now he was awake and waiting for the sun - damp and irritated and trying very hard not to think of how much potential mud and debris and whatever else probably clung to his pelt. He hated this. More than anything, really.

His ears perked up as a rabbit lopped easily along, oblivious to the wolf who lay very still and very uncomfortable not too far from the foolish thing. Markus watched with rapt attention as it moved along at a fairly slow pace, with intent but without rush. An easy, unsuspecting catch. Slowly, Markus unfolded his legs and rose to his feet, his muscles bunching, never taking his eyes off of the meal and - 

It slipped into a burrow that had been obscured to him by distance and perspective. Gone. He was positioned awkwardly, halfway to his feet and still bent at the elbows when it disappeared. He stayed like that for a few seconds more, waiting for the rabbit to return from its hole. It did not. He lay back down with a thump, likely ensuring the bunny stayed below ground now, and went back to his moping. He really did hate this.
 
 He did not know how long he stared at nothing and felt irritable until the boy showed up. Well...boy wasn't quite true. He was an adult. Sort of.

Again Markus raised his head and this time cocked it slightly to one side. The wolf followed the trail of that rabbit - long gone if you asked Markus but he would have said that about anything - and stopped some distance from the burrow. He appeared to contemplate before he started out in a circle and after a moment, the older wolf realized that the other's trajectory would bring them together if he kept going. He didn't, though - instead, the boy began to dig. Markus snorted and rolled his eyes. What did the kid expect? To find the exact spot he needed to burst through the ground right on top of the little bunny? Or that the thing wouldn’t simply relocate even if he was some kind of bunny-dowsing magician? Psh.

Against his better judgement - and without much thought at all, really - Markus got to his feet and trotted over casually He stood by for a moment, not too close - he was a fan of personal space, himself. Then, he spoke and to his credit it was with only a hint of sarcasm and tease in his tone - "Got some kind of psychic bunny-sense? Because otherwise...not sure what you're doing, guy."
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Ooc — Jennifer
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#3
Mal was pretty keen on getting in and out as fast as possible.  Just too much trouble recently for him to feel comfortable.  Hence, he didn't even notice the guy sitting there.  Heck, if anyone was this close to the warren, wouldn't they have gone after the rabbit when it came back?  He probably would have had a few things to say about that if Mal had known.  But no, Mal went about his business until he revealed himself and interrupted.

He blinked at the guy, paw paused in the middle of swiping away the snow.  Uh.  Do you not hunt rabbits?  These things always have another entrance.  If you just hunt deer, good luck. You'll need it.  He looked back down to the hole he was digging.  It was just snow that he'd dug up so far, which was a good sign.  He looked back down and after digging a bit more, he broke through to air.  Ha. See?  A quick look to the other guy, then back to the hole. But at that point he stopped.  Normally he'd go about trying to see if he could get some kind of movement in there (even if lately there'd been less luck at spooking something out, maybe there was damage to the tunnels in all the earthquakes) but he wasn't when this dude was just lurking about.  Mal wasn't about to go do all the work then have some dude snipe his kill or something like that.  So did you want something or whatever?
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He watched the wolf dig, shoveling snow. Markus was careful to avoid being in the line of fire. He was gritty and dirty enough, already. 

"Uh.  Do you not hunt rabbits?  These things always have another entrance.  If you just hunt deer, good luck. You'll need it."

What did that mean? Was he referring to the weird vibe this place had? Was there something to that? Markus had just assumed the lack of prey and the foreboding was normal for this place, at least with winter on the way. Huh. But back to the rabbit thing. It wasn’t important. It really wasn’t. Markus should just leave the stranger to his bunny adventures - why did he feel the need to argue, anyway? 

When the boy proclaimed "Ha!" Markus rolled his eyes pointedly. There was still no rabbit, damnit.

He should leave and the stranger said as much but Markus felt he needed to justify himself. He wasn't an idiot and he didn't just hunt deer. "There is no rabbit, though." He pointed out blandly. "It'll just bolt to a different part of the tunnel...or whatever. Then you've been sitting here, digging at this thing, making all sorts of noise. If it goes underground, it's gone. Just is." He shrugged. Why was he insistent on discussing the art of catching a stupid bunny? It was the principal of it, he thought. Of course he'd hunted rabbits. He'd hunted loads of rabbits. How dare this kid assume he didn’t hunt rabbits or did it poorly when he was digging in the snow after a rabbit that he still hadn’t caught!

"And what do you mean? 'Good luck with the deer'? Winter that bad around here?" He mumbled as something of an afterthought. Winter probably was that bad around here. He was an idiot for hanging around instead of heading over the mountains like he should be.
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Ooc — Jennifer
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Okay if this guy didn't want in on it, the speckled punk was just gonna wait until he got bored and left and then he'd hunt the damn thing down.  Sounded reasonable enough at least.  Mal seemed pretty dismissive of the suggestion it was useless, though, You give up way too easy.  Screw with them enough, sometimes they freak out and bolt.  Probably a combination of young rabbits and badly designed tunnels making the predator sound closer than he was.  He hadn't really worked out the details beyond that.  Sure, it had happened less, but right now he was going to keep giving it a go.  It was less effort wasted than running, at least, so if he didn't catch anything, it didn't set him that far back.  And given the state of things, it was probably better to try.

Speaking of, Mal gave him a look probably more appropriate of someone having a second head, And yeah.  Earth shaking, clouds that stay put on the other side of the mountains, all that? All the big stuff ran the hell away and hasn't come back. Didn't you notice?  Must be some new dude.  Maybe he'd run off too. Or at least it probably would explain why right now Mal wasn't just going to give up on the rabbit quite yet.  It was better to try than to just sit around and wait for the best hunt.  He tipped his head waiting with a smidgen of curiosity.
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"You give up way too easy.  Screw with them enough, sometimes they freak out and bolt."

Though there was no way for this kid to know, that was very true. Markus' expression shifted from one of slight judgement to that of understanding. In his mind, the effort was truly wasted. Markus would have starved rather than think the rabbit anything but gone in this scenario. He was pessimistic like that and the effort to try and bolt it from it's hole would have, usually, been too much. In the eyes of others, though, the reward was worth it - or at least in the eyes of this kid. He didn't feel the same but he understood.

"Sometimes." He pointed out but there was no mockery or argument left, just a mild undercurrent of exhaustion. "And fair enough."

More pressing was the younger male's answer to Markus's question about the area. Earth shaking? Crazy clouds? What? If he was pointing them out then they obviously weren't normal. That was both good and bad. On one hand, it wouldn't always be like this. One the other, Markus was here now and not later. "No, I didn't notice. I'm new to this place." He shrugged. "I thought it was normal." He looked around them, then, scanning and listening. Perhaps it was a bit too quiet. Maybe he hadn't seen large prey since he'd gotten here. Until that moment, Markus hadn't noticed.

"Your rabbit idea sounds a little more...relevant." He said, refocusing on the grey boy. He just noticed how interestingly patchworked he happened to be. Much, much more interesting than himself - though they shared the same drab color. It looked better on the kid. "Do you think it's still in there?" 

Markus would help him catch it if that were even possible. Or worth it. He wasn't convinced of either.
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Ooc — Jennifer
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He turned his head and squinted off in the direction of the (not so) Sleeping Dragon, then pointed his nose at the slightly off-color cloud that could be seen through the patchwork of standard ones.  Over there.  It's pretty far I guess.  But it just sits there.  If it blows over here it dumps chunks of.. Stuff. I don't know.  Not snow.  Like he knew what volcanic ash was, this dork didn't know what a proper relationship was supposed to be, as if he'd know what volcanic ash was.

Yep, and there was the realization that putting more effort into a rabbit was probably worth doing more here than other places.  The world was screwed and they were all trapped here until it got back on the rails again, Uh huh.  It's got all the packs bent out of whack, too. They're getting all pissed at other people just existing, now.  Seriously.  It was totally better if they just left him alone.  If not being able to hunt one territory a day's travel away from their home was gonna kill their pack and it wasn't even going to provide enough food for all of them, then that pack had way bigger, more important issues than could be solved by Mal & Co. not existing.  Even if the "Co" was starting to be a bit questionable again.  Mal just had to get abandoned again, didn't he? That was his calling in life.

Anyway.  Back to the rabbit.  He eyed the hole he'd dug out, then looked over to the first hole, then scanned around before finally ending looking at the other guy, I mean it's gotta be in there somewhere.  Unless there's another entrance neither of us can see from here. Any there?  If he looked around, that'd be when Mal would get to make a more-than-cursory examination of the guy's attitude and behavior or whatever.  The lack of size difference between them still had Mal thinking that if this dude tried any funny business that he could take him, but at least right now he hadn't outright promised to share whatever he caught.  It was still easy to cut his losses and go back home if he thought something was off.
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Markus looked where he was pointed and he did, actually, notice an off colored cloud in the distance. He might have felt it strange if he'd ever once done more than scan the horizon but as it were, he'd never even known. He found it unusual but not exactly threatening. The younger male said that it brought "stuff" with it when the wind blew it in this direction. He wondered what "stuff" was. Markus was also unaccustomed to the effects of active volcanoes or the existence of volcanic ash so he was of no use for information. He just shrugged along.  

"Uh huh.  It's got all the packs bent out of whack, too. They're getting all pissed at other people just existing, now."

That was much more concerning. He remembered his experience on the border of whatever that mountain pack he'd visited had been called. They hadn't gone for him but the pale female had been a good distraction. If she hadn't been there, who knows. The tension was obviously high, regardless, and Markus thought the dark female very quick to anger. Originally, he had assumed a personality issue. Maybe that wasn't exactly the case but somehow, he found it a little difficult to give her the benefit of the doubt. Markus chuffed out a short, biting laugh - he supposed he did know a little something about that part, at least. 

He didn't bring that up just then, however. They were shifting to the task at hand - the damn rabbit. Markus watched the boy - well, boy-ish - scan the general area that may or may not contain more tunnels for the hopeful meal. He didn't expect him to end staring back at Markus and the older male got a good look at his face while he spoke. His eyes were weird - like he was painted but not finished. Whoever the artist was only got the one eye done before the pup was pulled into the world of the living and he was forced to start painting someone else. It was...curious...but not necessarily bad. Markus didn't have much time to dwell, though - he was being given a task.

He got the gist of it, though he'd missed the finer points in his inner ponderings. "Sure. I'm Markus - what do I call you?" He said it over his shoulder as turned obediently and trotted at a pace ever slightly faster than his usual turtle-speed. His nose bent low, he huffed along the ground, using his eyes to scan. He still wasn't convinced and likely wouldn't be until the thing was dead, eaten and digesting - if it got that far. He wove around a bush - likely too many roots - and back toward the kid when he both saw and smelled the bolt hole. He froze instinctually, staring at it with rapt hunter’s attention, before he alerted his company. "Yeah. Pretty sure this is one." Now found, his instincts told him to watch the entrance as if his very being depended upon it but, instead, he looked back up at the kid. 

He really hoped he had a plan because Markus was hardly creative enough for this. Besides, it was the kid's rabbit, anyway.
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Ooc — Jennifer
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#9
Did some rolls, negative on this set.  I'll have him check the other hole next round and do another roll or three there depending on whether or not my dice bounces and gets wedged under something again or not.

I'm Mal.  The more he introduced himself the more he almost wanted a longer name or something else more dignified or whatever. Maybe it'd make people respect him more.  He certainly wasn't going back to Mali, though, and probably the only time he'd been called Malachi was when he was an infant, if that, so that was pretty much an alien name to him.  Something might appear as an option, but for right now it wasn't his primary task.

Mal was comparatively twitchy, and that was being kind -- you could find a lot more adjectives that were considerably more negative -- so of course he kind of wished Markus had a bit more enthusiasm to this all.  Food was good, and it was also good to not have someone who deemed themselves a god show up to try and take it from you, so the faster this went the faster he could retreat to safety, the better it was.  Whatever.  As long as he chased the rabbit if it showed up, it'd end up ok, hopefully.  It didn't seem like Markus was particularly memorable otherwise -- certainly not in a visual way like Mal knew he himself was, unfortunately at times -- but at least by helping out he had half a chance of Mal maybe putting his name to memory.

Speaking of doing stuff. Okay.  I'll mess with these, we'll see what happens.  And he looked back to the hole he'd cleared.  After ascertaining the direction the tunnel seemed to be going, he started to dig more seriously, like he was really gonna keep digging and unbury the whole damn maze.  He wasn't, but after scraping away at the cold earth and making some headway into the cold, partially-frozen earth for 30 seconds or so, he stopped, put his ear to the tunnel and listened.  Nothing.  Ok, he dug a few seconds more, then crouched down and stuck his foreleg in as far as it would go, scraping the earth like a cat fishing for something under a door.  Still, it didn't seem like there was really a reaction as far as he could tell.  He'd dig a bit more, but at least for now nothing was gonna happen.

He'd head back to the first hole next.
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Ooc — Sharp
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ooc; Oh, nice. I like the dice roll thing - I'm not used to that in RPG! Also, sorry for the late reply. I meant to do it yesterday but ended up passing out. Haha, whoops....


ic;

Mal. Simple and to the point - easy to remember and easy to forget, too. It was the distinct look of the kid - of Mal - that would keep him in Markus' memory, though. He wouldn't forget him. 

He watched Mal with some intent as he shuffled and dug around another hole, trying to bolt the quarry. Perhaps he was privileged because Markus had never had a need to go to such extent for a meal. If one proved to be a pain, as this one was, he simply moved on to the next. If Mal wasn't lying - any why should he be? - that might not be an option for Markus anymore. He would have to be more keen on what came to him, whether it ran and hid or not. It was best to learn and that was what he tried to do as he watched Mal shove a foreleg into the hole and scrabble. It was kind of funny looking but he didn't tell the mottled male that.

Markus looked back down at his hole and stuck his muzzle into it. Indeed, it did smell like rabbit in there. Big surprise. Tentatively, he scratched at the entrance, widening it. Casting another glance at Mal, he walked a few paces away, head low and listening. He began to dig in earnest after a few feet, fairly certain that the tunnel was still underneath him. He broke through the earth slowly at first but soon, growing annoyed with how much time he was taking, Markus reared and slammed his weight down on his forepaws hoping to break through or drive whatever may be down there, out.
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Ooc — Jennifer
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#11
Yeah! Some people use it a lot more -- or use Tabletop forum/chat channel to roll. I have an actual dice on my desk, which I think is far more fun, heh. XD  This time it gave me a good number!  I am so bad at writing hunting stuff though, so uh.  Stuff. XD

While he was heading back to the first hole he'd found it seemed like Markus was doing his part to harass the one he'd uncovered.  As he got closer, Mal moved more stealthily, just in case, ears tipped forward and searching for some sort of noise.  He thought he heard something?  Scoot scoot.

Obviously the one good thing about having someone else helping was that there was then a higher chance that something would come scrambling out into someone's jaws instead of the guarantee of "anywhere other than where you are" for solo hunting.  In this case, he was lucky.  The suddenly louder scrabbling sound was Mal's first clue, and he tensed up rather like a hunting housecat.  Too much movement too soon would scare it back in, so he stayed frozen until the first hint of a brown blur shot out of the entrance.

That was when he leaped into a sprint and practically ran the damn thing over in a spray of snow and dirt.  It had felt like an instant but he was a dozen yards from where he'd started. The rabbit was still shrieking in his grip -- he'd sunk his teeth into its hip, and it took a bit of wrangling to adjust his grip so he could kill it.  Not the cleanest of kills on Mal's part, but it worked.. And really in the end, that was what mattered.  Almost nothing Mal did had any sort of expert finesse -- it was functional, and that's about it.  Mal didn't seem entirely ready to put it down yet to say anything, and eyeballed Markus to see whether or not he was the sort to try and take it from him -- no point in putting it down if scampering off into the sunset was going to be the end result.
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#12
ooc; Me either. No judgement, here. Btw, how do you do the faded ooc messages you do?

ic;

Markus worried at the place beneath his paws fixedly, getting sucked into the thrill of the hunt - at least enough not to notice Mal as he tensed and waited. They both heard the scrabble, although Markus was much too involved in what he was doing to hear it as clearly as Mal likely did. When the rabbit bolted, Markus' gaze flew up to where the brown streak came into the light. His body jerked forward a bit as if to chase but Mal was already killing the creature and he ended up taking only a few clumsy steps toward the younger male before he stopped and focused himself.

He winced at the screaming, a single ear flicked backward in discomfort, but it was over quickly enough. Then, the air settled and became still as the two wolves looked at each other. It was awkward but it took Markus many moments to realize that it was. The boy held the rabbit and the older wolf just stared back at him, as placid as he had been before. He hadn’t been hungry, that was true, but his mind was more invested now – his body usually functioned better when that happened. His gaze flicked for a moment at the rabbit and his stomach protested the lie even before he spoke it - "I don't want it." He said this and knew that it would be obvious that this was untrue - even his mouth was beginning to water a little. He had done little to almost nothing to help catch it, however. If not for Mal, he would have lay where he was and the rabbit would have lived a good, long life. Well...longer, at least.

He smiled a soft, almost apologetic smile. "Or rather, I don't need it."
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Ooc — Jennifer
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#13
It's like this!
Code:
[ooc]Text[/ooc]

In Quicklinks in the top bar there's a link to the BBcodes available -- sometimes it glitches out though, IDK why. >_>


Mal was only a little suspicious.  Maybe tone down the adrenaline in a few minutes and he'd be a bit more amiable, but right now there was just too much out there that he felt was uncertain.  But at least right now he had food -- for himself, for his pack, even if it wouldn't exactly feed many.  He wasn't gonna let that go away.  Markus, however, made the smart choice -- don't push the twitchy yearling into doing anything rash.

He nodded, then set it down so he could speak, Well, I'm not sticking around here and waiting for Moonspear to pop out of nowhere and try to take my food again.  I'm making a pack in a forest near here.  If you want a place to stay you can tag along.  That was the problem with hunting outside the forest -- he certainly didn't trust the people beyond the borders, but at least Markus' willingness to step back (even if the rabbit was going to be delicious) meant that Mal was willing to give him a chance.
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Thanks!!

It didn't seem that Mal was keen to share and Markus was neither surprised nor upset with that turn of events. He was mostly interested in the yearling himself. Markus had been out on his own for a few weeks, at least, and he was not a loner at heart. Mal was the first sane person he'd met. He didn't know where he'd come from, but he wanted to and was pleased when the offer was extended without his having to ask himself. Markus would have, sure, but he would have been extremely uncomfortable...and he wasn't entire sure why.

Markus laughed out loud at the mention of Moonspear - a humorless, bark of a laugh. He knew them and his expression agreed with Mal's sentiment - they were, to put it nicely, dickbags. It didn't surprise him this news that they were also thieves of some kind...though he had no reference other than Mal's assertion, he believe it completely. Markus’ tail swung once in a show of quiet, apathetic enthusiasm. It was not that he was not interested, just that Markus was...low key. "I would appreciate it, yeah. That sounds...really good."

He nodded once, somewhat awkwardly and after a moment he stepped toward the yearling, carefully avoiding even a glance at the rabbit. "Lead the way. I'll keep a nose out for Moonspear while we head to...?"
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Ooc — Jennifer
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No prob!  And I think we can wrap this? :D  Also, think I replied to you on Commiss.io a while back? Looks like I'll probably be doing some art this week, just wanted to make sure you got my question, etc.

See? Mal could totally recruit people. He was pretty sure someone had doubted him in the past, but now that he was free of the dead weight of previous Elysium members, stuff seemed to be going pretty well.  Hell, here they were, even being lucky and free of the dumb Moonspear wolves.  It was all good.Neverwinter Forest.  We'll be back there pretty quick. Think it's a good choice.  If the deer come back it'll be even better.

He picked up his prey again, mumbling a, C'mon, let's go, around it before one quick scan of the horizon in the mountains' direction.  Then, off he trotted towards the distant pine forest.  He did look back to make sure Markus was following along, but Mal really did wanna get out of this no-wolf's land and back somewhere where he felt protected.  These were anxious times...

Regardless, when all things were calm and he had a moment back where it was safe X minutes from now, Mal would probably eat a bit over half the rabbit.  The rest he'd stash for emergencies in the cache for whoever needed it in the end.  He wasn't entirely greedy.  Just that whole gotta survive thing going on.