Eerie.

That was definitely a word to describe this location. Gruselig was another Mikhail might have used.

Fog wasn't creepy. Neither was moss. Or trees. Or the wind rolling through the trees (Mikhail distinctly believed that to be a beautiful sound). But apparently when all of those things were combined in the wee hours before the sun rose, it was one of the most haunting atmospheres he had never imagined. The fog even dampened sound; everything sounded hollow and muted at once. It was disconcerting to the pale wolf.

"Sheiße," Mikhail cursed softly, pausing as he came to stand before a tightly-woven bundle of roots and brush. "Should have gone around this place. Ach. Stupid..." He had entered the forest earlier in the night when the dark was so deep he could barely see his own paws in front of him. It was cloudy then. It was still cloudy now... and to top it off, he could barely see more than two wolf-lengths in front of him. He was a fairly tall individual and even he couldn't see over the foggy cover. Fumbling over the roots, he pressed on. The edge of the forest had to be close, right? Next time, he was going to be certain to go around any big, foreboding forests... this wasn't like his home at all!

Sure, they had some creepy black forests, but not this bad! And was it just him, or did this one have a bad mustiness about it?

Gods, I hope no one is verrückt enough to live here! he thought grimly as he stepped on something that made a rather nasty squelching noise. He really hoped it was just mud... glancing down, Mikhail pulled a face.

It was a slug! He stepped on a slug! Ewwwwww!

Sure, he had probably stepped in much nastier things in his four years of life, but there was just something about the soft pop and feeling of something not-mud and slimy between his toes that made the bile rise in his throat. Mikhail gagged, his tongue lolling as the noise interrupted the eerie silence. It was followed promptly by several more German curses, then a huff as he tried to scrape his paw against the dark dirt. "Widerlich..."

The fog had never bothered him. He had been here before, after all. In fact, the fog had been rather exciting the last time he'd graced this landscape. That expedition had led him to Pandora - and she had been rather exhilarating. Kyarst breathed in slowly, marching carefully through the forest. He knew his way around, though not as well as he did in Imperium. It was Imperium he was headed back to, having spent the night away for the first time since joining the pack. Despite his know-how of the territory, he was still having a bit of a tough time given the thickness of the fog at the current time. He was having so tough a time that he very nearly ran into another wolf who seemed to be having an equally rough trip. The pale stranger spoke some foreign word and Kyarst found his head tilting ever so slightly in an angle. “Oh,” he managed as he slowed his pace to keep from running into the stranger. “Hello there.” “speak,”

"Oh. Hello there."

Mikhail's head shot up, twisting to look through the roiling mists until his icy blues landed on a shadowy shape. For a moment the older man spooked, a chill (not related to his slug-slime covered paw pad) running down his spine as he was reminded of some old ghost story or another. The look on his face was priceless: eyes wide, lips parted with his tongue still poking through, one forepaw lifted... he looked rather the fool. Besides the fog muffling voices, being deaf in one ear gave the younger man's voice a rather twisted effect. Haunting, just like these damned woods.

Embarrassed, Mikhail stamped his foot flat... only to cringe when he realized he'd put it right back in the splattered slug remains. Damn it!

"Err. Yes. Hello, young sir," Mikhail sputtered as he shifted his forepaw away from the nasty thing again. Attempting a smile through the disgusted wrinkling of his nose, he inclined his head in an attempt at a slightly more formal greeting. "Good morning to you." Mikhail took a couple steps forward, surreptitiously trying to wipe slime from his paw again and also bring the darkly-colored wolf into clearer view.

He hadn't begun to imagine that his presence so suddenly might have spooked the older man, but alas he did notice how unnerved the lighter fellow seemed to be. He looked almost deer-like, posed with uncertainty. Kyarst felt the faint whispers of a smile pulling at the corners of his lips. Stuttered words fell from the man's lips, though once he got them out he seemed polite and eloquent enough. “Good morning,” came the simple reply. He'd nearly forgotten it was morning, but as he glanced past the pallid wolf he noted a gentle glow in the far off distance. Yes, it was morning. The man closed the gap between them by a few feet, but it didn't unnerve the dark Armada. The smile continued to tug at his cheeks and he allowed it to play across his features for a moment. “I am Kyarst Armada, I apologize if I frightened you.” He knew that some saw this forest as a particularly eerie place, and since he hadn't purposely been trying to sneak up on the man he thought it best to apologize. “speak,”

Certain his paw was satisfactorily rubbed clean, Mikhail quickly cleared his throat and finally managed a smile. He could see the other man a little better now; this was a younger gentleman, but he was at least as tall as Mikhail and nowhere near as lanky as the pale wolf tended to be. Mikhail had never quite grown into his own limbs it seemed.

"Ach, nein. Kyarst? You did not frighten me so much as... you were unexpected," the man decided with a quick grin. It was the truth. This place was creepy. Maybe that was something that would change once the day wore on, but Mikhail had never experienced these particular woods at any other time than the middle of the night and these ungodly early hours. And he'd been up all night... so that did little to settle his nerves when a shape had appeared in the mists. The roiling fog made everything seem hollow and ghostly. "My name is Mikhail Weiss," he would dip his head politely before continuing: "Do you come from nearby, Herr Kyarst?" Surely no one was mad enough to live here...

The man spoke gutturally, and started in a foreign language but quickly switched back to the common tongue. Kyarst nodded in agreement, the pallid wolf had probably not been expecting to see him. Plus, given Kyarst's darkness of hue it was likely he looked rather menacing coming out of the shadows and the fog. The man introduced himself as Mikhail Weiss, and Kyarst would return the dip of his head in greeting. It wasn't every day he met a formal wolf, though he wished it was. “I am a member of a pack nearby, yes. I was on my way back when I came across you.” A smile tugged at the corner of his lips, but he didn't allow it to play across just yet. He had been in a good mood lately, but that didn't mean he ought to give every stranger he met the benefit of the doubt. “I trust you don't live in this forest either?” Judging by the man's jumpiness and uncertainty it was fairly safe to believe that he didn't live here. The real question was, where did he live? Kyarst rocked back onto his haunches, allowing his plush black and blue tail to flicker around his hips elegantly. The tip of said tail twitched between his front paws as he waited for an answer. “speak,”

The dark man's response prompted an upright twitch of Mikhail's creamy ears. Having forcibly overcome his disgust he now had a more pleasant aura, albeit not exactly a smile. He might have followed the other man's movement but for the fact the sliminess of a squashed slug body between his toes was still a little too fresh. No way was he sitting in this mud! Still, he chuckled good-naturedly at the other man's question and answered promptly: "Oh, no. I am merely passing through! I must have taken leave of my senses traveling through this place in the night. It is perhaps a better place when the fog clears, yes?" His teeth appeared in a short laugh before the same pleasant expression adorned it once more. His question was rhetorical, and he left little time for it to be answered before saying:

"Your pack is nearby, Herr Kyarst?" He clearly wanted to know more, his head tilting slightly. He was a packless vagabond. Joining a pack hadn't necessarily crossed his mind, but he wasn't about to let the opportunity to learn more about one pass by!

He found himself chuckling as the man spoke of the forest being a nicer place when the fog cleared. He really didn't live here, did he? “The fog doesn't exactly.. clear in this forest. It might thin during the heat of the day but that's the best you're gonna get.” He wasn't an expert on the forest, but he knew well enough that the fog was here every moment of the day. There wasn't much more time to speak on the matter, though, as the man shifted gears and asked about the pack. Protectiveness boiled in his chest and he wondered how much information he could safely give away. The man seemed sensible and kind enough, but for all Kyarst knew this was a show. The head tilt Mikhail offered, though, was enough to quell most of his worries and he commenced speaking once more. “It's called Imperium, led by Valentine Imperialis. I only recently joined and am currently a border guard, or Praesidio, as they call it.” He paused, unwilling to give too many specifics of the pack's size or exact location. Finally, he decided a vague location wouldn't hurt. “We're due West of here, should you ever care to visit.” “speak,”