Horizon

It wasn’t unknown to Kneph that there was a pack around this area. He’d smelled the markers when he’d entered Falter Glen, and veered around them sharply, knowing better than to toe the line with pack wolves. It was the same as he journeyed towards a water source that night, but he was having some difficulty. Most of the river ran through the pack territory, so he had to wind himself deeper and deeper into the woods. Foliage closed in on him, and his paws stepped carefully on the uneven ground. It felt unnatural to be in this covered of an area - it made him miss the sandy, desert terrain of the land he was born in. Still, the tawny male pressed onward, following the distant sound of water. He walked ever so cautiously, knowing the dark could cause a tragic accident in this sort of territory.

Dirt turned to sand as mountainous walls that must have been weathered for centuries replaced the forest. Kneph stopped completely, overtaken by the beautiful sight of the hidden cave. In all his life, he’d never seen something so beautiful. Not the mysterious Draven he’d met just hours earlier, not dual-colored eyed Amarylis, not even his own damn reflection in the water - no, this took the cake. Eventually, he regained his senses and really took in where he was. How..how did he get here? He hadn’t even realized he’d been heading downwards until the vegetation cleared up a bit.

Either way, there was water, and he knew it was bath time. Eugh. Water.

Slowly, and with a grimace, he dipped a paw into the cool liquid. Immediately, he took it out and flicked it around so water droplets flew in every which direction. He wasn’t sure if it was just cloudy or if the mountains and woods blocked the sky, but there was no moon or stars reflected in the water. It seemed a lot further out than it should’ve been - he reckoned this was due to the influx of rain not too long ago. Groaning, Kneph shook his head. Enough stalling, might as well get it over with. With a shiver of discomfort, he waded into the water until he could see a deep area, in which he jumped into recklessly. Shit, might as well have fun with it, right? This was a couple dozen feet into the cave, and he was only submerged for a second before he surfaced, snorting water out of his nose. “Fuckin’ COLD.” He shouted angrily, scrambling to shallow waters once more. The temperature was cooler in the cave - duh.

Gah, this really sucked.

Nothing was the same.

Every day she patrolled in endless circles around the only place she’d actually started to feel comfortable in a long time, and every day she pushed herself farther and farther from it. Ever since he’d shown up, ever since Natasha stopped nursing and had taken Finni back as her apprentice, ever since Valkyrie, who she hadn’t seen since she was only minutes old. The thought of everything she’d missed, everything she’d inexplicably distanced herself from made her sick, but she couldn’t just pop her stupid face back in the Falls and pretend like everything was okay.

She thought that taking a break from the social aspects of pack life and throwing herself into her duties as a Brother would somehow help to alleviate the constant heaviness in her chest, but as the days went on, it only got more and more suffocating until it was this soul-crushing weight on her back that she was forced to bare even at the very edge of the glen. She quickly learned that there was no escaping the fact that Rota was a complete and utter failure. The longer she stayed away the harder it was to even consider going back and the more frantic her heartbeat became at the thought of Natasha finding out.

There wasn’t even the faintest whiff of Altair in or around the glen and everyone else she’d considered family at one point or another were long gone. As far as she knew, Natasha was the only wolf she had left. Except the feeling was far from mutual.

Natasha had a family, a pack. She had Valkyrie and Finni and Eyja and Kronos.

All Rota had were tainted memories.

Now sopping wet, he dragged himself to dry land and shook out his fur. How unpleasant! Who could do this often?

Before he had any more time to think about it, the scent of an approaching wolf crowded his nostrils. Her scent gave away her position as a pack wolf, and Kneph stood still as she approached. At first, he huffed out in annoyance at the intrusion, but realized - he was most likely the intruder. The surrounding land belonged to her pack, after all. Shit, he didn’t cross the borders without realizing, had he?

It was too late to retrace his steps though. She was in full view, so he pinned his ears to his head and lowered his tail. It’d be ridiculously unlucky for him to get into a scrap and be chased off just as he was learning how to heal himself. The woman was a brilliant splash of dark browns, blacks, and cream colors, and they shared the same amber eyes.

“Hey, I come in peace,” he decided to lead with to clear the air immediately. “I ain’t in your territory, am I?” What a mistake it would be if he was. Nervously, he scratched at a raw spot on his side, hyper-aware of the tiny, biting bugs in his fur.

So engrossed in her own thoughts, Rota didn’t even notice the other wolf until he spoke up. She immediately stopped short and whipped her head up, her gaze briefly searching the darkness until she found him. Even at night, it wasn’t hard to tell that something was definitely not right with him. Squinting, she thought it was merely a trick of the light until he started scratching.

She’d never seen anything like it before, but she finally noticed the patchy fur and exposed skin once she realized what she was looking for. Her snout crinkled just a little as she took a step back, eyeing the stranger. It would be just her luck to unwittingly stumble across some damp wolf with a weird disease.

“What? Uh, no, I mean. Not really.”

He was all too aware of her step back and reluctance to be close to him. That was well enough, he expected it after the reaction the red wolf gave him in the wasteland. When she informed him he wasn’t on their territory, he let out a sigh of relief.

“Aye, that’s good. Thought you were here to bite my head my head off or somethin’.” He said. Another itch, another scratch. “Call me Kneph. What’s yer’ name?” She looked so much healthier than him, and it pissed him off. He probably looked like a rotting corpse to her. Hopefully he didn’t smell like one too.

“It’s a nice place ya’ got here, lemme tell you that.” He continued on, casually conversing. “This spot in particular. Safe, closed off. Wish I could explore deeper into the cave, but I’m not sure if the water gets bigger and deeper in there.”