Morningside Cuesta dulasei

mebbe adventurous pups from dfg? but truly aw <3

there had been a purple bird. heda swore she had seen it, and had followed it near blindly from the fields to the forest.
when she emerged from the depths of the dawnleaf, it was to find herself in a place she had never been before.
the bird was forgotten. heda spun around, dry-mouthed and wide-eyed.

The wetlands she'd been haunting had fed her well, but the pull of the muck against her tired limbs, and the constant sulphuric scent had begun to bother her sinuses. Encouraging, in some way, to know her sense of smell was just as sharp- but she figured it'd be another few days, easily, before she got the big smell out of her nose again. 

Cleaning the muck off of her fur had helped. And to be honest, it'd left her with fewer flybites and had made her flat, earthen coat softer and shinier, so there were more benefits to hunting in a swamp than she'd expected. Time for a break, though- so she followed a river leading away from the mire, figuring it would take her somewhere that might also be beneficial for her in some way or another. 

She'd had her head down as she roved along, but lifted it suddenly when something bright moved swiftly in the distance. A young wolf, pale, but with a trail of earthtones along her spine. A surprised expression not aimed at her- making her wonder if something else had startled the young wolf. She cleared her throat. "Everythin' alright there, hun?" She called out with a voice that was calm, but not without light skepticism as well.

heda fought the cadence of her own heartbeat. closing her eyes, she took exaggerated breaths. rivenwood could not be far. but in turning to examine the cardinal directions, she caught first sight and then sound of a completely unfamiliar wolf.
heda had only ever known those in rivenwood. even when she had gone out of doors before, mahler had been with her. but he was not here now.
the question was not processed. she stared at the woman, hackles beginning to climb worriedly upon her spindledown shoulders. "go away!"
the girl pulled into herself and began to back away, unfortunately not in the direction of the multicolored maple forest.
and when she felt she was far enough away, heda turned around and began to run, tail tucked between hinds and breath fully panicked, ears clamped in terror.
heda chanced a glance back along her straining shoulder to see if the stranger was following.

What an odd little duck. Frightened, and obviously startled, with no sense of how to read or greet a stranger. Fear was probably her biggest motivation at the moment. It'd take her some time to develop better social skills, Paisley thought. Many youths nowadays seemed so sheltered and skittish. It didn't surprise her to see the young female back up, putting a bit more distance between them, and then bolt off. 

"Hmmpf." She grunted, tilting her head to the side to crack the joints in her neck. "Can't help ya if you run away. An' I'm not chasin' you." She shouted as she padded forward quietly. Once she reached the place the young female had been spotted, she sniffed around. Her suspicions were confirmed. The young wolf didn't run back the way she'd come, but off in a completely different direction. 

So it was as good a place as any to take a rest, she thought, as she sat down, leaning her hind end up against a tree. She'd tidy her fur up a bit, leaving a small window of time just in case the youth did make her way back in this direction. And if she didn't, what odds? She wasn't Paisley's problem to deal with.

heda ran until her legs began to burn. when she recovered herself, it was to find that she was in no sight of rivenwood at all by now. the girl stared at the sky, at the clouds. out here, the promise of autumn's chill seemed more pronounced, and the girl shivered beneath her thickening coat.
it was not long until she crept back toward the only spot she recognized. heda stiffened to see the stranger still there, resting as if she had not been the one to terrify the girl away.
again her hackles raised.
but this time heda did not back away. she raised a paw to swipe at her running nose, and sniffled fiercely. "do you know where rivenwood is?" she mumbled, ears flying back once more.

Soft clicks of her teeth created a gentle rhythm as she preened the sandstone fur of her shoulders, and slicked down the slight whorl of fur at her brisket with swipes of her tongue. She'd finished her forelegs and had begun to fuss about her ears with a pass of her foreleg when a flash of brilliant, pale fur caught her attention. She set her foot down and watched the young lady approach again, noticing how reluctant she seemed to have returned to find the red wolf still there. 

At least she knew to retrace her steps, though. And because she did, Paisley concluded that she was lost; and found out soon enough that she was right. 

Rivenwood? It was somewhat odd, to ask such a thing, as though Rivenwood was something that was a part of common speech, or a famous landmark. Likely the girl's home- and it probably meant a heck of a lot to her, to simply assume a random stranger would know its whereabouts. She was about to find out that the world was much bigger than she'd perhaps realized before, and that this Rivenwood of hers was likely quite inconsequential to anyone who didn't live there. 

"Darlin', I don't even know what a Rivenwood is." She said with a dry chuckle. She didn't intend to sound patronizing; a friendly gleam sparkled in her dark eyes. "But I'm assumin' that's your home, huh?" She asked, her voice warmed with a shred of compassion for the youth.

heda frowned.
the other wolf reminded her of the dirt around silencepine. mahler had said it was good for farming, whatever that meant. she hadn't been paying enough attention at the time, distracted by another bird. but the stranger's voice was friendly enough, and heda responded to it with a tentative wave of her tail.
"yes. um. i was chasing a bird, and — i don't know where i am." admitting it made her heart thump weirdly. a lump filled her throat, and an angry tear ran down her cheek. heda whirled away, sniffing in frustration. "d-do you know, uhum, sequoia? or mahler?"

Chasing a bird. That wasn't what Paisley had seen. Though after a moment of reflection she supposed that this was what the young girl had been doing that had caused her to stray. "Sounds like somethin' a bird would do; lead a young lass like you off on an adventure and then not show you the way back," She leered, shaking her head. "We've all done it, I twll ya," She warned with a wink and a coy smile. 

She could sense the girl's exhasperation too...Mixed with a bit of fear and shame, she thought. She felt ashamed of herself for flowing a bird and then getting lost. "Now, I don't know those names. Nice names, I especially like the Sequoia one. Sounts like a strong wolf. Anyway, I'm gettin' ahead of myself. But if you come directly from Rivenwood toda? I can help you track your way back."

the woman made no attempt to approach heda, and so the girl further softened. yet she remained rather suspicious. above this good sense, however, curiosity painted a fine, glowing demeanour. "you follow birds too?" she tried to make an approximation of the wink, but only clumsily closed both eyes.
the offer of help was received with a flurry of nods. "yes! yes, please," she amended, thinking of how she had been taught manners after all. "danke schön." the stranger didn't know what a rivenwood was. heda hesitated. "sequoia is my nomi. and mahler is my — well, he is the leader. a graf."
"and i have aunt willam there, too." she turned around and put her nose to the ground, but could not find the path back. "what's your name? i'm heda."

A stream of good naturedness came through, sun piercing the clouds in the aftermath of a storm, when she found common ground with the young wanderer. And while it wasn't the truth, she nodded while bearing a knowing smile in a bid to continue this change in demeanour. "Mmhmm. I heard tell once that whiskeyjacks will lead you to food, or to another creature in need of help." That fact, at least, she had heard to be true. Whether or not it was she had yet to see- grey jays didn't seem to be as common about this part of the country. 

At least the tension between them seemed to have disappeared, and eas replaced by a supple willingness to embrace the assistance she'd offered. An optimistic whirlwind, the girl had become, appreciative and loquacious. She mentioned her family- though some of the terms she used were ones Paisley had never heard before. Still, it had always served her best to simply act as though she understood, att least for a while. 

"Ah, I see. So you've got a bit of family back there probably waitin' for you, hmm?" She asked. "Not to worry. We'll get you back in a jiffy; I'm Paisley, nice to meet you, Heda," She said. She stepped forward then- now they were introduced, it seemed to signal that she was trusted. She began to sniff around a bit, and found the girl's scent. Considering the fact she was lost, Paisley supposed it might be time she had a tracking lesson. 

"The trick to tracking, is to follow the scent of the thing you can't see." She said. "Now, I can see that there's dirt, and a burrdock bush, pine, aspen, and wildflowers, and I can smell all those things but I'm not lookin' for those. So I kind of try to tune those things out. What's left is the smell of you. Should be kinda familiar to ya, like the way your family smells."

"whiskeyjacks?" heda had never heard the word before, and looked curiously at the older wolf. the more that she learned, the less intent upon fear she became in the other's presence. soon she had a name, and with both a title and a face, heda lost the last of her wariness and only became eager for the knowledge provided by the older wolf.
but it was the offer of tracking that interested her the most. the girl listened intently, sniffing the ground to memorize them. paisley said then that it was possible to tune these out. heda decided to watch the other, wondering if there was more to it than just saying the words aloud. 
"rivenwood smells like water," she said, earnestly if unhelpfully. "it's cuz we have a giant lagoon! aunt willam says sharks live in water. i think one lives in there," heda added, a bit of worry overtaking her features.

Curiosity certainly seemed to foil Heda's standoffishness, something Paisley felt might be for her own benefit. Of course, she'd perhaps spooked the young wolf earlier, but she did get the impression that Heda had lived a sheltered life, and was only now beginning to learn that strangers were not immediately dangerous. She could only hope that that was the case, rather than assuming that this aversion was learned behavior. 

"Mmhmm. 'Course they go by many names. Whiskeyjack, Grey Jay, Vittlethief. Bit smaller'n a crow, but grey, light grey, with darker grey over their eyes." She explained, as Heda sniffed around. "Don't ever hurt one. Legend tells that any creature that harms a whiskeyjack will have the same fate befall them." She cautioned the young wolf. She held some superstitions- but mostly just empathized with whiskeyjacks in particular because they were friendly and helpful. 

She hummed thoughtfully when Heda described what Rivenwood smelled like. She flicked her tongue over nose and sniffed; Heda didn't smell particularly like swamp, but if she believed there was a shark in the water, surely she wouldn't have gone swimming in it. One brow dipped over her eye, while the other raised at the mention of  the marine animal. She was also surprised to hear that "Willam" was a female name- it sounded too close to "William" to be feminine, in Paisley's opinion, though she  chose not to speculate out loud. 

"Well. I don't think you need to worry too much." She said. "Sharks only eat fish." She stated. "Wet your nose- with your tongue," She said, changing the topic with hopes of discouraging any dispute over her shark facts. "Then try sniffing. I'll get you started in the right direction, though- your trail starts over here," She said, "And goes thataway. See if you can follow just your scent."

whiskeyjack,. greyjay. vittle-thief. heda could scarcely keep up. paisley's words bounced around and around in her mind as she tried valiantly to focus on her task. the girl meticulously sorted one scent from the next, thinking about the fairies who lived in the well and asked for tokens in return for good luck.
sharks only eat fish.
the girl lapped at her nose.
"one time my sister'n i — her name's druid — we found a biggest pile of sh -- ummm poop, a biggest pile of poop. do sharks come out of the water to poo?"
she could not resist asking this at the expense of her searching, peering over at her teacher with mouth formed into a curious 'o' shape.

Stories- a sign that Heda was beginning to loosen up and trust her a bit. It hadn'g taken her long to forget that Paisley was still a total stranger, but that was the way of things with youth, wariness tended to melt like frost in the sunlight. 

A dry snicker escaped the red wolf at Heda's attempt to pardon her own language, and she clicked her tongue in a mock chastisement. The twinkle in her dark eyes would have given her amusement away. 

"I'm afraid not," She said. "Sharks don't have legs. So what you saw wasn't shark shit," A side-eye given, to see if she'd tickled Heda's sense of humour. She could always direct Heda's attention back to the task at hand, but she didn't seem to be in any hurry. "Maybe it was Druid's. Maybe she made up a bunch of stuff about it being a shark to hide the fact that she takes enormous shits." She suggested with as straight of a face as she could manage.

heda nodded. "aunt willam said they were seabeasts. and that they were big mother effers." she said this as nonchalantly as she would say anything else. sequoia had never edited herself and neither did wylla. it had made heda into a practical person, even despite the classic mannerliness of mahler.
the idea that it could be druid's sputtered the girl into a fit of the chuckles. "haha, no way!" she exclaimed. "druid is kinda small. this poop was huge!"
paisley was funny and cool, she decided right then. "maybe you can come meet her when we get to rivenwood. oh! maybe you can stay," she grinned, tail swishing behind her.

Paisley had to chuckle at Heda's enthusiasm. Wolves like Heda made Paisley feel a bittersweet fondness, revelling in the way the girl's trust blossomed like an iris. Naive? Perhaps. But not unschooled- she'd read Paisley as being exactly as harmless as she was. Just the kind of wolf to bring home to a pack. And willing to endulge and encourage Heda's sense of humor.

"Ah, but it's the little ones you have to watch out for," A knowing smile; for Paisley was a small wolf herself. "They make the biggest stink too, though they'll deny it to the day they die." 

She didn't want to discourage Heda, but she had some doubts that the pack might want her to join simply because she'd escorted one of their young ones home. Perhaps she'd be pinned and judged- and she'd had every intention of making a quick retreat as soon as they'd reached Rivenwood's borders, in order to avoid any potential conflict. She wasn't terribly inclined to change her plans, either, though Heda was proving to be quite endearing. 

"Hmm. Maybe, if not only for a bit. Maybe do a double check on your lake to make sure I'm not wrong about sharks." She said. "What're your leaders like?" She asked, wondering simultaneously if Heda was born to them.

heda filed the tidbit about small and stinky away. "well! we just have one. his name is mahler. he's nice i guess." she paused. "he taught my sisters and i a different language than we usually talk." but she was shy about this, preferring not to speak the words to someone she didn't yet know.
someone who wasn't rivenwood.
"he was there when we were born. he teaches us stuff, but he talks a lot and it's pretty boring." heda rolled her eyes at paisley. "i think maybe him and aunt willam are girlfriends." this last was stage whispered. 
taking up her trail once more, heda began to pad in the vague direction of the bypass, assuming paisley would follow along.