Trouble down to an art
It had been a while since Ray had last had punishment dutites, or had found a way to get into trouble. Her parents had gotten too accustomed to her ways and knew how to foil her plans. Perhaps she needed to step up her game, find ways a little further from her comfort zone. She was two season's old now and growing fast, and was already the height of a short adult.
She considered bringing Mortar along on this mission, but decided she had gotten him into enough trouble later – she didn't want to push the boundaries and lose the trust of a friend she cared for. So it would be alone that she would make her way to the border. Excluding her trips to Ren's territory, she had only left Donostrea lands once before in her life time, and already she was a third taller then she had been on that trip. She hadn't gone far then, just to the other side of the beach to explore a cave that hadn't at that time been flooded. It had been open land, the mouth of the cave visible from Donostrea territory. It had been... safe.
This time she turned south from the Prairie, and found her way to The Deluge. Crossing the border was heart-hammering event. Would Glacier see her on a patrol? Would Voltage feel her sudden absence and know what she had done? She shivered, stepping very, very slow over the border marker and once her last back leg had crossed the line, she took off like a bullet. Tearing across open territory until she could disappear in the tree line at the other side. Winding her way through the trees she didn't immediately stop, but kept on until she found the small poles by the ravine. The smell of the place reminded her of Terrae; earthy. She stepped closer to one of the pools, watching the gentle ripples created by the life inside. She had never seen a little pool before and she was terribly curious. She plasted her nose to the surface, the edges of the water tickling against her nostrils. Her wide eyes stared within, trying to make out what she could see moving within.
Things were different now, and not the good kind of different. It had been nearly a month since her brother had left. She was surviving without him, but only surviving. She was not happy. She was terrified. She had never been alone like this before, and she didn’t know what she should be doing. Was she supposed to stay put and wait for him? Or did he want her to move on, pretend that he had never existed?
Didn’t he know how impossible that was? Solveiga let out a trembling sigh as she walked aimlessly in the same direction, her eyes trained on the ground, the same thing she had been doing for days. All she had ever known in her life was the guidance of her big brother. He had always decided where they would go next, what they would hunt, when they would stop traveling and find a place to sleep. As strange as it sounded, without him Solveiga felt completely unable to do those things for herself. Even those most basic things. She never wanted to make the wrong choice. What if she went to the wrong place, ate the wrong thing, met the wrong people? Her brother had always spoken for her. She didn’t know how to deal with strangers. She was completely, and entirely, hopeless.
So she just kept walking, in search of water or a quick bite to eat, if she could catch it. She had no long term goal in mind, only to survive and keep moving. He would come back. She repeated that over and over in her mind like a prayer. He would come back. He would come back. He loved her. He wouldn’t leave her like this.
Suddenly the poor, small creature lifted her head. There was an unfamiliar scent in the air, one that frightened her and made her curious at the same time. She found its source on the ground, tracks that were very fresh but seemed to lead in the other direction. Solveiga let out another shaky sigh and continued toward the water she could hear gurgling not far away. But when she arrived at the little pool, she found herself mistaken. The scent of the stranger was not leading in the other direction after all. The stranger was here with her.
She leaned further and further over the water, until her nose touched the surface and creating little outward ripples. She went cross eyed trying to follow the course of both sides, and nearly forgot the things beneath the water that had caught her attention. With a twitch of movement coming from beneath she refocused her eyes. What was it? It was coming closer, scrambling against the bottom of the pool, walking in funny sideways steps. It had little clippy things on the front of what looked like a shell. Her nose dipped beneath the water in her quest to get a clearer view of the creature. The claws snapped out, and clipped easily onto the bridge of her nose. She squealed, throwing herself backwards and away from the water. The creature didn't let go, its vice-like grip was squishing hard onto her nostril and she found it hard to breath.
She scrambled backwards, her quick steps unbalanced and chaotic as she ran in a zig zagged line... right into the newcomer. She tripped over the woman's feet and landed on her back. As she lay there in the grass, looking up into matching, crystal blue eyes, the crazy creature finally released her and plopped back onto the ground. It started scrambling away and Ray scrambled trying to find her feet, but unable to get her balance. “Catch it, catch it!” she pleaded, even her experiences weren't enough to teach her a lesson (a fact that caused her father no end of stress).
When she saw the other young woman, she became paralyzed. Her muscles locked and her breathing grew rapid. What did she do? Say hello? Turn around and walk away? Solveiga stood trapped in her indecision, watching as the stranger dipped her nose into the water and suddenly resurfaced with a squeal. The sound made Solveiga flinch, her body getting even more rigid, and so she wasn't prepared to get out of the way when the stranger came flailing toward her.
She scrambled for a moment to avoid collision but of course that didn't work, and the two fell rather gracelessly onto the ground. Solveiga regained her feet quickly, however, her wide blue eyes finding a matching pair. She swallowed hard, beginning the debate in her mind again over whether or not she should say anything, but then the other young woman became distracted with something else: the little critter that had been clinging to her nose when she had pulled it from the water. The cries of "Catch it, catch it!" were the only things to finally break through the fog Solveiga had been in for so long. It was as though, when someone gave her a command to follow, she suddenly had purpose. She hopped lithely over the fallen stranger and picked up the little creature by its shell, holding it carefully in her teeth as she turned to face the other woman again. She looked at her, and her pale blue eyes asked quietly for approval. This was what she wanted, right?
Remembering her manners, rays eyes shot up to meet the brilliant blue of the wolf before her. "Oh yeah. I'm Ray. What's your name? Will you be my friend?" Her bright, curious eyes upon her.
Now that some of the excitement had died down, Solveiga took a moment to gather her thoughts and notice the young woman in front of her. She was around her size, but had a youthful lankiness that suggested she wasn't fully grown yet. Her fur was mostly a pretty shade of grey, but there were ice blue markings and a bright pair of eyes to match. She was pretty. Solveiga gave a slight wag of her tail behind her as she continued to hold the critter in her teeth.
The young girl seemed terribly intrigued, wondering how Solveiga was doing that and whether she could give it a try. Solveiga cocked her head to one side in confusion as she wondered to herself what the stranger could possibly want with such a creature. But then she nodded obediently and put the little thing down again, where it quickly tried to start scrambling away. Solveiga waited for that whole ordeal to play itself out, as she was sure the energetic stranger would be more than willing to risk another pinch to the nose in order to get that creature back. Solveiga understood the curiosity, but not the recklessness.
Just then, the stranger introduced herself, making her not a stranger anymore. Ray. An interesting name, one that had a hint of a smile tugging at her lips. "Solveiga," she replied softly, not sure what else to say. Ray asked for her name and she gave it. What now? She'd have to wait for the other young woman to make the next move.
Of course, one the burden has been deposited, silence was the very least thing from her mind. She squealed and leaped for her prey, very nearly getting a clip in the eye for her efforts. A few moments and new cuts later she emerged victorious. The crab was a little more crammed into her muzzle then it had been in her friends, and there was nothing delicate about her approach. Where the white wolf had held the crab gently and wisely, ray half crushed down on its shell and was constantly flicking her head back and forth to keep this pincers from getting too close, so close was it to her muzzle, and so far into her mouth.
She trotted back to her friend, the woman's name now known to her as she sat before sol and beamed up at her with bright, stubborn eyes. "I did it!" She tried to say through her mouthful, which was of course a grave mistake. As her muzzle vibrated with words the crab popped free and vanished behind a rock before she even knew what had happened. Far from looking dejected, the pup giggled. "That was fun! I wish I knew what it was called. I want to find more of them" she mused, but shook her head, maybe now wasn't the best time. She had a cut just above her eye already gleaming with a bead of blood, a nose likely to swell and a few other bumps and scrapes from her adventure. Not that that was what discouraged her. "Solveiga. That's such a pretty name" different to the elemental based ones she knew, but she liked it. "We see going to be best friends, you and me" she said it with conviction, like she knew it as easily as she knew the sun would rise the next day.
If things had been calm for a while, now they most certainly were not. As soon as she had put the thing down onto the ground, Ray had sprung into action with a burst of energy which seemed to be characteristic of her. She snapped at the critter time and time again, and Solveiga couldn't help letting a giggle fall past her lips. It was an amusing sight. She smiled as the other girl finally emerged victorious, though the way she was holding the thing didn't seem all that safe... and sure enough, when she spoke around it, it leapt free and escaped. Solveiga looked at her apologetically, but she didn't seem upset. She had apparently delighted in the chase and didn't seem too worried about the capture.
Solveiga slowly decided to sit, feeling comfortable enough in the presence of Ray. She was harmless, after all. Just a happy, buoyant child. Solveiga remembered those days. But she had never been quite as noisy as Ray. Not that it bothered her, of course, it was very nice to have something filling the silence she had suffered in for so long. She smiled shyly at the girl, listening to her words. "I don't have friends," she replied just as simply, with no note of pity in her words. She, too, was just stating facts. She didn't have friends, but that didn't mean she didn't want them.