Neverwinter Forest leap of faith

@Mal or someone from NWF? Maybe joining... Not sure yet.

He had left the plateau for no good reason except for the urge to stretch his legs, and that's precisely what he did. He roamed beyond the rocky escarpment that served as Rusalka's claim. Before long Tuvak was lost to the white-out of snow; it wasn't cold, but the prolific waves of white stopped him from finding his way back. If he really wanted to find his way he could have - in a life or death situation, he could find his way east again and seek shelter among those wolves - but he held a modicum of confidence in himself too. This desire to roam was new; he must have been in much better health than when Aningan found him. One day he might return and thank the northerner.

In the days to follow the snow did thin out a bit. When it fell it was fluffy and light, and at times it transitioned to a chilly rain that Tuvak chose to avoid. He could handle the cold and dry conditions of winter, but he held a distinct dislike for being soggy and cold. When he came upon a mixed maple forest he was overjoyed to have found some kind of shelter, except... In the midst of his presumed solace, he found plenty of signs that wolves lived deep within.

There were trails leading between the trees. Scrapes in the dirt. Occasional patches of yellow (frozen or otherwise) which he could not exactly ignore. The scents were everywhere. The boy hung back along the outskirts of this supposed claim and did not call out; he wondered if perhaps he should turn around, try to seek out Aningan's people again and apologize for his absence somehow, and remained undecided even as something came striding out from the greying shadows towards him.

Belharra bounced out from the mist, hauling the flipper of an otter in her mouth. Somewhere out near the Glacier she had let Vallkyrie know she was off for ‘brekkies’, leaving the woman to her own devices. She was on her way back to their rendezvous when she had the brilliant idea to swing by her den and see what had gone down in the last week. 

Warbling a song about a sparrow and an ox between a muffled bunch of otter-hide, Belharra slowed as the figure of a yearling materialized in the gloom. By her estimation the ghostly boy was likely nearing his first year. Sizing him up in exactly two seconds, Belharra ruled he was mostly harmless. Oi! The otter paw tumbled from her jaws and she paused to scoop it up quickly. Ye look lost. Don’t suppose Ye’ve seen a wolf about your height, white with creepy black eyes? ‘Twas hopin’ I ain’t seen the last of him.

He wasn't oblivious to the sounds in the forest, but deemed them unimportant - until a dark shape careened out of them, and the closer they got the more Tuvak could understand. They sounded like they were humming or something. A bundle of bloody fur hung from their face and obscured his view of their face, which put him a little bit on-edge, at least until they dropped it and called out with a boorish, OI!

The stranger wasn't immediately at his throat or anything, so that was a good sign. Tuvak watched them; stealing glances at first, but then staring outright, as if he had just discovered some mythical cryptid. He could not tell if they were male or female by looking at them - their body was evenly proportioned (if a bit leggy), while their coat was wild and ragged, but not unappealing exactly. His ears pivoted forward to listen to them and he was already shaking his head by the middle of the offered description.

Haven't seen anyone, he murmurs. Soon enough his eyes are drawn to the limp shape of the otter paw, affixing upon it without meaning to. He gives a little shrug of his shoulders as he adds, sorry.

Disappointing. Asmodeus must have truly done and fudged off right out of the Teekons. Belharra wasn’t one to pine for a man’s company, but his wit had been... mmm.. endearing. 

She noticed the glance to the bloodied otter paw, and grinned widely. A snackysnack. Belharra had planned on eating it later - or even offering it to @Vallkyrie once she got back to camp, but the way the boy looked at it.. Belharra was no Scrooge. ’Ere, eat it. Looks like ye could use it. She extended it towards him and then thought better of it, pulling it back with a gleam in her eyes. First, ye name, cully. She pushed it back towards him, letting him take it if he wished.

This wolf was peculiar. He could not place why, and while it earned a raise of his brows and a little glance at the surrounding trees, Tuvak wasn't put-off by it. Tuvak sniffed the air as the otter paw was offered to him, but this too was an oddity; he was not one to rely on charity (and in fact, found it more insulting to be gifted anything at all) - but at the same time his belly was nearly empty and it was a good opportunity for some free calories.

He extended to grasp for it right as the wolf withdrew.

First, ye name, cully.

What exactly was a cully? He thought he was being played for a moment and almost relented, thinking that it would be better to withdraw and leave the wolf to their little prize, but then the paw was left there for him. He gave the wolf a curious glimpse as he snatched the object away; but before he tucked in to this snackysnack he offered his name: Tuvak. A few snaps later and the leathery paw was being split in to pieces.

Belharra patiently waited as the boy processed all that was going on. She understood. She was a Big Personality, with a Capital P. Even wolves many years his senior and way less wet behind the ears often had difficulty getting a handle on her eccentricities. Belharra was past the point of apologizing for her Belharran Way. She was, at the very least, a fully genuine person. 

Which was far more than one could say for many others. 

While the paw cracked and crunches beneath the boy’s hungry teeth, Belharra set to scanning the vicinity. She had lived in the forest for months now, and was always on edge given how downright inhospitable some were wont to be. She waited until the boy’s mouth was no longer full before speaking. Tuvak, where are ye from?

It wasn't much of a snack - he would have to seek out something more later. For now though it satisfied his needs, and he paused after disarticulating the tiny bones of the paw to lick his chops a bit. The question posed by the other wolf was not a unique one and so he had an easy answer for it: North. It wasn't the truth, not really, but it had been enough for Aningan. It had tied the two together in a way that Tuvak still did not fully understand, and maybe it would do the same for this curious creature.

Where are you from? He countered, lifting his head a bit, no longer interested in the tiny knobs of bone that were once the otter's paw. Stringy bits of inedible tissue twined them together in places; he could have taken his time to break them apart with his molars if he'd felt the need, but for now the pile was left ignored in the dirt. They looked almost like a scattering of dice.

North, the boy said. Belharra did not note an accompanying shift of his eyes in the direction “north” preceded. She turned her dark head and looked at Tuvak out of one glittery eye, forming her own thoughts about the veracity of his statement.. but she would let it pass, as she was just making small talk, getting formalities out of the way. 

North’s not much of a descriptor, sugar. She murmured, her accent honey-thick. But I am from the north also. I was born there, but I live here. Belharra jerked her head back towards the Glacier where the distant rim of stone that marked her den could be seen. Born on an island, so I was. To get here I had to swim.. She lowered her voice, her tone hushed as she continued with a spark in her expression. To leave the island ye had to hope the current was soft and your legs hard. Ye want to know what I did? She figured she could answer a not-truth with an untruth of her own. I crossed it. I crossed that mile wide sound on the back of a shark. She sat down and expertly studied Tuvak for his reaction, shifting closer with a smirk on her muzzle. Ye ever seen a shark, sugar? Is no small thing to see. I’d like of rather seen a murder of crows or a pack of hungry lions, than the shape of a shark cuttin’ through open water.

No, it wasn't much to go on. It had been enough for Aningan, but evidently wasn't as detailed as what this person wanted out of him; Tuvak was resigned to stay silent about it, but the more he listened the more taken he became by the swarthy wolf's own tale. He did not know what a shark was, did not understand what a pack of hungry lions looked like (he envisioned wolves, as that was the only predator he knew of, but why use a different name for them--), and soon was scowling.

It sounded like this wolf carried on quite a life. Tuvak didn't have the focus nor the smarts to doubt anything he heard, but he also wasn't astute enough to recognize how transparent his own lies could so easily become. He listened intently, his eyes widening with each new tidbit of information, but his expression remaining stony and cold, as if none of this was really news - as if maybe he had experienced the same things, being a northerner.

All he knew about the north came from his mother, and from Aningan. It wasn't much. He presumed (rightly) that it was cold a lot of the time, so the image in his mind of this scraggly wolf riding on whatever-a-shark-was, breaching open ocean to find solace on the mainland, sounded ridiculous. Sharks don't scare me, he remarked with a puff of his chest. Get 'em out of the water and then they're fat blobs, anyone can take one down. Mentally he was picturing a large seal, since that's the only extant form of life he had ever seen beyond the terrestrial deer and elk; was that a shark? To this idiot, yes.

You're an adventurer, then? A pirate or somethin'? He moseyed the conversation on, hoping to gloss over his dumpster fire of a fib, and mirrored the dark wolf's smirk back to them. Me too. Got no idea where I'm going though.

Belharra was expecting the boy to catch onto her bluff. It was one of her favorite games to play, see how far a story could go. Or a lie. She'd been caught in a lie before, but not this time.

Her grin widened. He wasn't afraid of sharks? Well bless him. Get them out of the water, he said. Belharra threw her head back in a merry cackle . "Ye a fearless warrior, aye?" Her belly laughs had subsided, replaced by an expression of amusement. Belharra went along with his game swimmingly, the smile never fading from her jaws. "I bet the north is sorry they lost ye."

As for what she was? A pirate? A troublemaker, more like. She nodded as she spoke. "Oh yes, rovin's my specialty. I'll tell ye wot - ye've made me laugh, an' for that, I like ye. If ye promise to show me how ye'd get a shark on land somedays, I'll accept you into my merry crew. So far, it's full of exactly one other person besides the shinin' example of wolf-flesh ye see before ye. Innerested?"

When they called him a fearless warrior he puffed up a bit, roostering; a raised head, a deep breath to slightly pronounce his chest. It didn't last though - just one thought of his experiences brought Tuvak back to Kazimir, the elk, her crushing death and his flight for life -- useless, cowardly, killer. He deflated momentarily and his ears twisted about with uncertainty.

Talk of a crew freed Tuvak from the momentary lapse, and he perked up again. A crew--? Yes! A bit too enthusiastic maybe, but he was still a kid and kids could zip between emotions easily enough. Ah, do you live here? Glossing over the fact that Belharra had just announced they were a roving specialist -- dumbass kid, keep up!

I meant for the moment. For winter, or whatever.

Even if Belharra had the mental sharpness to notice the boy was suddenly frozen, she hardly possessed the empathetic patience needed to study him. She was already glancing around her, ready to say something - but then he finally spoke.

Alright then, he seemed on board. Belharra flashed him the widest smile - an Exclusive Smile, prepared only for those who were doing what Belharra wanted. "Well that's just kivvy. Yes, I live here -- over yon'." She motioned towards the stonewoods, where her den was just out of view. "It is a nice little place, when the Neverwinter Troll isn't galumping afoot." Belharra's eyes widened and her tone dropped as she spoke, a bit of theatrical dynamics at play. "I should warn ye, he's a terribly ornery bloke. If ye see him, I'd scram."

What the hell was a troll? By the sounds of it, something big. Maybe bison-sized or bear-sized, he thought; a resident of the woods that Belharra deemed her own. Tuvak didn't want to appear weak so he huffed and gave a theatrical little snort.

I'm not scared of any trolls. The claim of a child who doesn't know better. If this adventurer lady could survive against something like that, he figured he could to. But he gave a glimpse around the vicinity all the same, quickly, his jaw set in a grimace.

He wanted to go investigate and explore but the thought of something roaming in wait for him was... Unsettling.

He wasn’t afraid of trolls. Belharra guffawed, a peal of good natured laughter roaring over the pine top. Ye’s  a good chap, Belharra wheezed mirthfully, wiping a tear of laughter from her brow with a single black claw. I reckon them trolls oughta be afraid of ye.

Catching Tuvak’s glance away Belharra sat up straight, spine arched and tail uprising. Who is that in the woods? Her gaze narrowed suspiciously after the boy, but anyone with an eye for guile would see it was another of her theatrics.

If he had been younger then this would've felt like a game, maybe. Tuvak didn't know if someone was out there - or maybe Belharra was playing a prank on him - but he felt eyes on him all the same. A sense that something was there, wolf or otherwise, and it was probably because of his lies. The openness of Belharra's commentary did not help either; this talk of trolls giving rise to uncertainty in the boy. But he didn't want to seem stupid or immature (despite being both) and with a huff, claimed: Whatever it is, I'm gonna catch it!

And with that, leapt in to action. He stuck himself between Belharra and the forest in the next moment, crashing in to the underbrush and in to the dark tangles of the woods, eager enough to hunt down this imaginary foe. There was a distant eruption of squawks and chaos a few moments later — and a small ground-bird came racing from the bushes in the opposite direction, right in to Belharra's line of sight.

Tuvak did not emerge after, though.