Neverwinter Forest And you provide a parachute when I am falling like a stone

The young she-wolf and her companion crossed and recrossed the frozen river, when finally Quell found something: a set of hoof prints. It led her due west past the outskirts of a gorge before vanishing. She stood there, stumped, tail lashing the air, ignoring as Frolic played an endless game of catch-and-release with it. She could head back to Seabolt with this information. Between this and the tales Phox and Cleo had told her, she was almost certain there was a herd or two around here somewhere.

But she wanted to see an actual ungulate of some sort with her own eyes first. Without warning, she darted back into motion, leaving Frolic to scramble after her. Q didn't get far before stopping again, almost as if hitting an invisible wall. Caught off guard again, the otter ran into her stiff hind leg and bounced backward, rolling over once before doing a comical belly flop in the snow.

"There's a pack here," the teenager observed aloud, prompting Frolic to right himself, slalom through her legs and coil himself around Q's right foreleg like a furry cuff.

Mal had finally made it back home. He still mentally wasn't doing so hot but the easiest way to work around that was to simply keep patrolling and just... not talk to anyone. Yeah, totally the way to sort out his thoughts, nothing could go wrong. Yep. Either way, he was gonna say not a damn thing to anyone, even if he ran into his entire pack sitting around waiting for him to speak of his adventures. Not now.

He didn't hear what she said, but he did spot her paused there, pausing a moment in the trees to breathe and collect his thoughts. She wasn't anyone she recognized, so he probably should try to recruit her, even if he wasn't in the headspace for it -- just too much had happened over the past few days, ugh. Putting on a smile was a bit more work than it had been in the past, but he'd get over it. The world was gonna keep turning whether he liked it or not. A smile and a confident swagger was what he needed, so he strolled on forward over towards her, You're at Neverwinter. Can I help you? He was doing an ok job of trying to put everything behind him -- still upbeat, but not uber cheery. And what the hell was that on her leg? He was pretty sure it should be food but whatever, maybe she was keeping it for later.

It wasn't long before someone came sallying forth, his pelt immediately reminding Quellcrist of the time she had stumbled across a cracked stone and admired all the striations through its fractured core. And if that wasn't striking enough on its own, his eyes were two totally different colors. Dimly aware of Frolic's muscles squeezing her foreleg, Q openly stared at the stranger, forgetting that it was customary to drop one's gaze during such encounters.

She was about to open with a comment about his two-toned eyes when he spoke, naming the wood or the pack that called this place home, maybe both. "Um, I think you mean, 'actually, it's pretty damn winter,'" Q quipped without missing a beat, returning his smile with a grin of her own. "Name's Quellcrist Mayfair," she added, thrusting out an otter-clad foreleg as if for a handshake, noticing it, putting it back down on the ground and offering the other. "I'm currently trying to track some herds. Have you seen any hoofers 'round these parts?" One of the leaders back at Seabolt had dropped the word "ungulate" but hell if Quell was going to try to pronounce that.

Oh, this was an interesting one! His smile broadened a little. Out here, on the edges, sure, but I will say that name came from somewhere... Let her think about it, it wasn't like it was a massive mystery or anything magical, but he was pretty sure that sometimes it was better to let the imagination fill in the gaps, wasn't it? Save him some effort and make the pack seem more interesting in the process? Two birds, one stone. Anyway. I'm Mal, who happened to have a considerably shorter and less complicated name and this was one of the few times where he almost wished he'd kept his birth name because just "Mal" was so obviously a big contrast in situations like this.

Yes, the herds do seem to be returning. When they're all back, we should have one here in the forest all to ourselves. No mention of the fact only a few were here at the moment -- he wasn't going to be big on telling anyone not in his pack that they had returned until those outside the pack were of a good number. Best not invite more trouble when it seemed to have an easy time finding them in the first place. I saw a small group heading south earlier in the week. Possibly towards the lake? He looked off that direction, but since that was Sunday and today was Saturday, there wasn't going to be much in sight. 

Back to her, Are you looking for some for... your pack? He expected a correction, as she didn't smell like she had a pack, but perhaps Quellcrist had been out scouting for a long time. She was young enough he doubted she could take one down on her own anyway. Hell, Mal probably couldn't on his own right now, but that was more from lack of experience (and a desire to not get a hoof to the skull). Best to just eat the fluffy friend there.

It still seemed a very strange name for a place that practically embodied winter. Quell leaned slightly to the side to look over his shoulder, quirking a brow at the evergreens stretching away into the distance, wearing wreaths of sparkling white snow. There was a dusting of it on the forest floor too, where it wasn't carpeted in pine needles. Hmmm...

But she said nothing, far more focused on the subject at hand. Quell's heart skipped a beat when Mal reported the return of the herds, making him the third source of such news. That was pretty compelling evidence right there, though she still wanted to see for herself. Mal said he'd actually seen a group, which was more than either Phox or Cleo could say. But all their tales certainly added up nicely.

Mal wanted to know why she was looking and Q tossed her head back and said, "What, you don't think I can handle a herd all on my own? I have a secret weapon!" She held out her foreleg, brandishing Frolic, who blinked at Mal from his strange perch. "He may look small, fuzzy and adorable, but he's a ruthless and bloodthirsty killer, capable of untold and horrible violence..." As if on cue, Frolic let out a long, low toot with a high-pitched squeak at the end.

Q is what Mal needs in his life this thread, haha

Yeah, that did seem to make her curious. Good. Note it for later. If she was any more curious about it later he could probably think up a few more things like that -- or just keep them on-hand for some later meet & greet at the borders. At least he had sort of figured out how this sort of thing worked on the basic level by now.

Still, Quellcrist was gonna throw him for a little bit of a loop as she presented the otter. Probably because he himself was a little emotionally touchy at the moment, he kept from laughing more than a brief chuckle at their antics -- his smile was pretty true though. He knew she couldn't be being serious, but what if she was? Well, then she'd have issues, but that wasn't Mal's problem. How does that work? Aren't his legs a little, ah, short to chase too far? Or is it more of a sneak attack kind of thing? He canted his head, looking again at the otter.

:D

He ran with the joke, though Quell knew he didn't take her literally, like that Cleo girl. Appearing at least mildly entertained by her tall tale, Mal nonetheless pointed out the flaws in her logic. Before he even finished, she blew a raspberry at him and shook her head at his questions.

"No, it's like this: he curls into a ball and I go bowling. It's surprisingly effective, knocks them right off their feet." This didn't exactly add up with her description of Frolic as a lethal force of nature, so Q quickly added, "Once they're down, Frolic slits their throats just like that," and made the motion with her free arm, complete with an appropriate sound effect. "His low ground clearance makes him deadly efficient... efficiently deadly?"

She paused before Q airily concluded, "So, yeah, we don't need a pack. But as it happens, we're from a place called Seabolt. 'Sea' because it's on an island in the sea and 'bolt' because I don't know why. Have you ever thought of dropping the 'N' and calling this place Everwinter?"

Again, a single-note chuckle. Yep, entirely nonsense, but whatever. Would love to add something like that to my arsenal, but unless I can do that with a particularly small wolf... He seemed to give this a bit of thought, but shook his head. Where'd you end up finding that friend of yours, anyway? Even if Mal was still pretty sure the otter was mostly good to keep around as an emergency food supply, but that might be the recent famine talking.

So, she was from the coast somewhere, and not any pack he recognized. He was still pretty wary of those from the coast in general, but she didn't seem like a homicidal maniac? Just some fun kid. And I think that Everwinter wouldn't work very well in the summer, though, then it's very not winter. So then what? Just change the name seasonally? I'm pretty sure I'd spend half the year messing it up, if so. Might be cool.. For someone else's pack. Look, he had enough to figure out without worrying about whether or not he was calling his pack by the right name. Besides, it'd probably annoy the admins!

"You could try it with a pup," Quell suggested with an absent sort of shrug. Naturally, Mal wanted to know how she had acquired Frolic. She thought about telling him the whole story, like she had done with Phox, but ultimately decided to go with the heavily abridged version: "His parents died, so I adopted him."

He made a fair point about the pack's name, though Q could've argued that evergreens screamed winter all year 'round. "Maybe you should lean into your theme and call it the Four Seasons. Your tagline could be 'experience four seasons.'" As she spoke, she sat back on her haunches, spreading her forelegs in the air (otter-clad one included). When she set them down again, a likely dizzy Frolic finally unwound and sidled to sit in the shade of her pale belly.

"I think yours is the first pack I've actually come across since I left Seabolt," Q revealed in the next breath. "Not that I'm on the market but I'm curious, what's it all about? Is it as cloak and dagger as its misleading name indicates?"

Aaagh, I got interrupted in the middle of writing and lost my train of thought! D<

Oops, she kinda stepped on a sore spot -- he'd tread pretty close himself, but mostly just wondering if they could find an adult smaller than Ibis or something. It made the whole thing a little less fun, but it didn't really show on his face. It tied in with her otter friend and suddenly he seemed a little less appetizing, Well, it's a good thing you found him, then. Quick, move on!

His pack? Cloak and dagger? Seemed rather silly to him, then again it was his pack. Can always ponder the name thing... But cloak and dagger? Not particularly -- see, somewhere to the south is Nightwalkers and I think they've pretty much cornered the market on being the weird shifty people you don't wanna trust. Nah, mine's just a pack -- normal folks and an assortment of stragglers who have maybe had a hard time out there. Would rather help out those folks who need it than be as grumpy as some of the other packs I've seen, yeesh. Wouldn't know a good time if it ran up and bit them. Okay, with the famine and all that there hadn't been too much time for fun, but they were at least far more cheery than every interaction he had with Moonspear.  So if you end up wandering south or west, watch your step a little, yeah?

Mal scoffed at her terminology, then went into a rant about a pack known as the Nightwalkers. Fascinated, Quell listened closely, ignoring as Frolic latched onto her dewclaw and began to nibble it. He had done that since he was an infant and she was pretty sure it was because she'd taken him from his mother (or taken his mother from him, rather...) too soon. It made her feel guilty sometimes, though currently she hardly noticed.

"Nightwalkers, huh. That's kind of cliché, isn't it?" she remarked. "Thanks for the heads up, though do you think I have anything to fear with this guy on my side?" Q pointed a toe at the adorable little otter currently suckling her toe. "A'ight, well, I'ma head out then, I think," she added, since she had no further official business here and didn't want to take up too much of Mal's time. "Appreciate the tips." She yanked her would-be thumb from Frolic's mouth to salute Mal, earning a quarrelsome squeak from the otter.

Yeah he did not wanna be somehow associated with those weirdos, was that obvious? Hm. Probably. But Mal was still working on the whole figuring out how to not be obnoxious thing so whether it was his random ramble or just her running out of things to see and say, so it goes. Come back in a year and he might be good at this.  They're not particularly clever from what I've seen -- probably thinking up that name took some effort. As long as she stayed clear of that bunch, she'd probably have a good time wandering around, especially with food coming back and all that. Now wasn't as bad of a thing for some youngster in a good state of health to wander and explore.  Mal dipped his head, Good luck out there. To both of you. The deer can't be too far off. Can't forget that goofy weird otter. Would anyone believe him if he told them?