Are we awake, are we asleep?

attn @Element tho! after our thread <3

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The matriarch paused before the massive mountain,  seeing the jutting stones standing tall in the distance. Said stones were sharp and jagged at the tip, tall and dotted in random formation. Hydra could not help but think of teeth when she saw them from this distance, though was undeterred in knowing the sanctuary that stood past them. It might give others pause, for even entering the territory was a challenge. It was one of the first times Hydra would do so in full, and so once the two of them arrived there her eyes surveyed the terrain. It was easy enough for her, an expert mountaineer born and bred, to find one such path... but it would still not be without its own dangers, such as twisting an ankle. A hinderance for any predator.

And so, she instructed gently, “careful. Watch your step.” The recent snowfall seemed to fill some gaps between crevices here, but not all. Hydra darted left and right, treading carefully and pausing to consider things when a particularly challenging stretch arrived. But she was able to navigate these parts, too, (regularly checking in on the progress of Element along the way) and soon enough led the way to beyond the jutting, discordant stones standing sentinel; she paused to paw at the earth, scent glands marking the territory as she none too idly clawed at the snowy ground before them. “Welcome home,” she breathed, looking to the male before her to see what he had made of their entrance into the place.

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[size=small]OOC: Okay, I tagged discovery for the post, but do I need to specify it's for The Nameless Mountain anywhere else? [/size]

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As they approached, the mountain loomed overhead and Element felt as if he could sense the weight of it in the air above him. There was a pressure to it, and he cast his gaze up towards the peaks, which were partially obscured by snow. What he could make out was a jagged maw of stones, ominous in the haze. They intrigued him, and he paused briefly to take it all in while Hydra moved ahead of him, clearly already comfortable navigating the rocky outcroppings. His brief reverie was broken by her warning, and he chuffed quietly and skittered ahead once more, closing the distance between them. His movements started off unsteady, testing the rocks with a tentative paw before putting his weight on them fully, expecting something to become dislodged beneath his feet. But as he moved, he could feel something changing. While his mind whispered him gentle warnings and told him stories of the ways his footing could betray him on the difficult terrain, his legs acted independently. Muscle memory won over, and Element found himself slipping into a steady motion. Soon enough, excitement growing in him he hazarded a few cautious leaps, savoring the way his limbs seemed to calculate for him.

He could not remember the details of his mountain life, but something in his body could. His body had long known how to scrabble up stones and navigate winding peaks. There had also been the waterlogged trails of a different peak; the wet and slippery rocks adjacent to tumbling water - a different kind of thrill to climb. He had the shadow of a smile on his maw when he caught up to Hydra, favoring her with a brief wag of his white-tipped tail as he stopped alongside her and surveilled the new area before him. She'd called it home - for her, yes, that made sense. For him? Would it be home? Could it be? Something in him ached again, feeling suddenly uncertain about the promise of a new life. Did he need a new life, or was he trying to find his old one? He was still to overwhelmed to dwell on it, and squashed the invasive thoughts down to try to appreciate the moment. She was being kind to him, this stranger who had taken him in. "Home," he breathed quietly, unsure how the words tasted on his tongue. He'd have to share his conflicted feelings with her at some point, he owed her that, but for now the offer was a welcome one. He was in no hurry. "What do you call it?"
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Since it's already in the "territory" so to speak (I set that as our location), y'only need Discovery tags on the posts either mentioning (aloud) the name or exploring the territory <3

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The way he moved made it clear to her that he was no stranger to this sort of territory. Pleased and relieved by this (it would make his acclimation swifter than most), she waved her tail. As he echoed her, her gaze turned back to the place. Hydra had already determined not to chase the past; it would find her, or it would not. It was why she did not speak the name of the home she knew best... the one she could not forget: Moonspear. His question was regarded firstly with the flick of her notched ear, and the warrior drawled soon after in answer: “It is a mountain without name, at present. I suppose all together, we can find one for it,” she hoped aloud. “One of your pack mates came up with the name for our borderlands, though... The Dragonsteeth. Quite imaginative,” she grinned at that. Hydra would let Bronco tell of it, and Element find him. 

A new beginning for them all, this. It was not something she liked, or did not like—but to decide the latter would set her future up for failure. And she was not a woman who liked to fail. No, like it or not... it was how it was. And she would need to make the best of it. It was Winter still, and surviving was her priority... and the survival of her family, too. They were the most important thing to her, and Element now was included in this given his election to join her as he had. 

Looking back to him, she commended, “you navigated that with ease. So, would you prefer an easy climb—or a challenging one?” A hint of mischief there, in her eyes; easy was putting it lightly. The Nameless Mountain was a difficult thing to travel, seemingly impossible for those without experienced legs as they two did... unless one knew where to really look. The benefit to that was by the time such a path was found, if they were a trespasser no doubt they themselves would have been found out too. And by then, it would be too late—

Her irritation with the unknown was sometimes relieved by these little imaginings. Things [relatively] within her control, ways to keep her family protected in one of the ways that she knew best beyond keeping them fed.  Keeping them safe. 

There was no indication of these passing thoughts as her eyes darted around the snow-laden rocky face before her, freckled with trees that created as great a shadow in this hours light as The Dragonsteeth had.

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The climb thus far had warmed him, suffusing some much-needed heat into his aching muscles as they had navigated across the terrain. While Hydra may have already determined that chasing the past was not on her agenda, Element could think of nothing else. There was no way he couldn't go chasing his past, not when he didn't know what he could be missing out on. Something nagged at him too deeply, an inner voice with an incessant plea that something was fundamentally off and he would not be able to rest until he could make sense of it. He longed to find out, to fill in the pieces, and was terrified of the parts that may not be able to find. Again, he tried to remind himself not to rush. Taking it one step at a time, just the way one traveled up slopes such as these, was the safest way to go.

A coy smile painted it's way across his two-tone maw at her compliment and he'd been preparing a timid thanks when Hydra's next words touched his ears: "one of your pack mates "and "Dragonsteeth." The smile froze, suddenly looking out of place on his face and fading into something more pained. Another shadow memory churned; twinkling laughter at his ear followed by a playful tug, so real for just a moment that the ear twitched in response as if the sensation had been real. Dragons...teeth. Dragon's teeth. Dragon. That was someone to him, wasn't it? Closing his eyes briefly to focus on the word - the name - nothing else appeared. The laughter faded - it ran from him. He focused on his ear and found it to just be... cold.

Redirecting his attention to Hydra again in a gesture she was probably all-too-quickly growing familiar with, he ducked his head apologetically an averted his gaze to the ground between them. "I'm sorry," he began. "It's... distracting. Things keep popping into my head and they're hard to make sense of. It's exactly like waking up from a dream - when you try to think about what happened to you in it, the harder you focus and try to hold on, it just slips away." He glanced quickly back towards her face, searching for something. "Has it happened to you? To anyone else you know? To... any, uh, pack mates?" The last two words came out sloppily, as if trying to sound out a language he didn't know. He suddenly recalled that she'd posed a question to him while he'd been lost in thought and had to take a minute to piece it together. Sending another look towards the path ahead - or in the direction the path must be, because he sure as hell couldn't make out a clear cut path, he puzzled over the options she gave before settling on: "a challenge." Something, anything, that may make him feel like his body and mind were working together.
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Hydras gaze traced his features as an avid readers gaze would fervently follow the lines of their favored books. He was as easy a read to her as one, not that it seemed he was trying to make things difficult. She paused to face him in full, to make sure he was alright; she sniffed and observed the rest of him, seeking the scent of blood or any signs of hurt. But no, it seemed she had opened an emotional wound—no blood of his upon the wind, nor sign of disrepair upon him. He closed his eyes, and when he did so she moved in a semicircle around him... and it was then he opened his eyes to gaze to her again. 

He explained himself, and at once the matriarch understood. “Yes,” she admitted, “it has. There are missing pieces; when I feel close to them, the further away they somehow become. Sometimes, I will see someone and remember—as though I had never forgotten them in the first place. And I wonder if the forgetting, too, was a dream,” she acknowledged, looking away and thinking on it. “When I do not think very hard, it is then sometimes that the things... wolves... that have been missing... return,” she breathed. Almost as if out of thin air. 

But that was impossible, was it not? Perhaps it was the exhaustion of their long journey that made things make little to no sense in that regard... a journey she, Lyra, and Dirge had made... but somehow could not remember. “Thinking on the semantics of it have given me nothing but frustration. And admittedly, there has been too much to do than to wonder for very long about it. I hunger the same, and I know those that run with us do, too; and if there are others beyond myself and my family,” she drawled, “then that means it is time to establish ourselves so that our food remains that this Winter. There are things I remember facing,” she recalled, “like famine. And my pack did not succumb then; I will not see us do so now,” she nodded firmly then, sure of this much. Hydra would see them through these strange times, and make sure they were all the better for it. 

As far as pack mates went, she looked to him and merely nodded. Dirge did not seem to think it favorable to think on it for very long, like herself in a way; as leaders, they could not look backward but move forward, and pick up the fragments they could along the way. She had nearly forgotten the question she had asked of him, and so when he spoke it her gaze turned to follow his own with a newfound sharpness, as though trouble were in their mist. Remembering, it seemed to soften. “We will have no shortages of those, I do not  think. I am glad to hear you are willing to face them head on,” she hummed lowly, admiring his spirit. And then she pressed onward, preparing to go up—moving toward one such challenging path.

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He had never been a hard one to read. He'd been chided for that before, at being so open, so expressive - chided by a friend, a white wolf with bright eyes who'd tried to teach him to hide his emotions in the face of trouble, in the manner more befitting of a leader. But Element didn't remember that advice right now. Didn't remember that wolf. Didn't remember so many old lessons he had learned (or at least tried to) in the time before...

[...the time before you died]

In the time... before. Before waking up again. The realization that actual death may have precipitated his awakening was not one that had come to him yet, and in his current addled state was one blissfully far from the forefront of his mind. Not yet aware of that slowly rising tide that would require some hardcore canine therapy once it surfaced, he kept his eyes on Hydra as she spoke, frowning slightly at her words. In a way, it was such a relief that he was not alone in this. He was not crazed, imagining these worlds and memories juxtaposed on the reality he could feel himself in now. Something strange was happening to her too. The relief at just not being totally alone was what was keeping him going. As they spoke, a few tiny snowflakes descended, falling gently and quietly to rest among the others that had made their home on the rocks. His attention was momentarily diverted to one large cluster, glued together as they fell from the sky and slowly being pulled to the earth between the two. The cluster fell on a spot of bare earth, warmed by the midday sunlight, and as soon as it fell it began to deform, melting into the earth. How poetic. "Like that -" he began, gesturing towards the quickly fading clump. "It's so real for a moment. You think it's going to settle into place, and as soon as it does it just... fades". A few more seconds, staring at the wet spot on the earth as the last remnants of the large snowflake disappeared and nothing but moisture was left behind. He reached a tentative paw to the spot it had occupied, scratching it against the bare earth briefly before pulling it away, but there was nothing but more dirt underneath. He sighed.

Hydra had a point about there being more pressing matters to see to though. Existential dread may have been his current number one hobby, but it would not feed him and help him to survive the remnants of winter. Speaking the fuck of - how far along was the winter even? When he'd fallen asleep [...when you died...] what season had it been. Had it been winter? If so, was it the start or the end? Was the harshest bit yet to come, or was there the relief of spring in sight? It was troublesome not to know, and he felt a renewed appreciation for Hydra's attention to detail and the practical aspects of this strange new life. "I don't think I can help but dwell," he said quietly, frowning again. "But I at least think I can multitask. Dwelling is easy enough to do while gathering resources." Was that supposed to be a joke? [If it was, it wasn't a good one]. Was he a joker? If so, you're rusty, bud. Give it a little time. "I appreciate your dedication," he offered. "I don't want to lose sight of the things that are real right now while I try to piece together everything else." Further snowfall caught his eye, and he gestured his head towards the dark clouds that gathered above them. As far as challenges go, it seemed the word was doubling down on his previous request for the more difficult version of their continued ascent. Ugh. But also... bring it.

Rising to his feet again, he tried once more to fix the fragments of a smile on his maw as his gaze drifted past Hydra and to the rocky territory ahead of them. "If I recall correctly, I've always considered myself a gentleman. So, uh, ladies first." 
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Ugh. Love your descriptive details.

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Her gaze found what he pointed out. She watched (and listened, while he explained) the snow interlock, only to fall apart and meet the earth and melt against the earth. It was a clever way to point out the way he felt, and the way these thoughts were behaving. “It will not always be that way,” she drawled, “I do not think. Sometimes,” she drawled, “it sticks.” Here, Hydra gestured toward a clump of snow that had managed to form; said snow was more prevalent in the upper reaches, but the world was entering its thaw. Hydra could smell the shifting of the seasons; even despite the snow, winters bite was not so terrible as it was in the earlier months. That did not mean, of course, Winter would go gently. 

“If you want to know what I think,” she drawled, “...I think all of it is real. But perhaps there is a reason it does not hit us all at once. Perhaps there is a reason for the forgetting. Why do I remember some things, and not the others? It is not for lack of wanting to,” she drawled, before looking to Element and admitting plainly, “if I could, I would know it all...” here she paused, thinking to add, “...including the reason for it. I think it will come,” she hummed, “...sooner or later.” 

Hydra held onto this hope. The possibilities were dizzying, but there was too much of importance here already to get lost within thought. It would not do to dwell on these dreams for very long, and come to live in them. The present was here, and it would benefit no one for her to live in the past. But she could not begrudge Element for wanting his own answers. Had she of woken up alone... she could not imagine feeling satisfied with that. Where she had something, Element had woken with nothing. How strange he must feel, she suddenly thought. How vulnerable and alone. 

And yet, he still moved forward himself too. “I understand,” she expressed, nodding, “and if figments of your past do return, in whatever capacity, I am here to help how you might need, so long as I can,” she breathed, licking her chops. Element was one of her own, now; whatever was in her power to do, she would work toward to help him. As for the rest, though, “good; you should not. What is here before us is just as important as the things that have passed us. We must embrace the now,” the matriarch encouraged with a sweep of her tail. The then would come... or it would not. And at that point, the present would be much too important to even recall the vestiges of doubt and wonder they now mulled over. 

Looking upward to see the bloated cloud above them, she shook out her furs and heard his words. His words earned a huff of quiet laughter from her, and she looked back toward him. “Is that so?” she inquired, tail swaying behind her. It would not be a bad thing; Queens needed their chivalrous, gentlemanly knights after all. But, well, he had not said he was a knight. Hydra would make one of him yet, she determined. Mind and body—it seemed he had the spirit for it, by the sound of it. “Try to keep up,” she teased; Hydra felt certain he would have no difficulty there so long as he did follow her own lead. In earnest, she said, “if it is too much of a challenge, we could divert our course,” so as to give him room to say when enough was enough. But this challenge was one her own mind craved; to simply be, and divert her mind to rudimentary basics rather than dwell on their combined predicament. The Forgetting.

Her own expertise came from years (more years than she had here, unbeknownst to her) of living upon a mountain that was far from easy to navigate in its more treacherous areas... areas she herself had always enjoyed frequenting, when she needed quiet moments to herself. And so, despite the challenge presented before them, Hydra navigated the path with a finesse granted to those born to a place similar to this. Although one could make it look easy, it was not; she did not know these paths, and could not be certain what stone would or would not give beneath the weight of her. Therein lie the challenge; she ascended with grace, but paused plenty of times to ensure that where she had landed Element, too, would have no issue. So far, the land seemed sturdy; scree would skitter down, but no stone that sent her spiraling ever downward. She listened for Element, to ensure he was still with her and doing alright.

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"Sometimes, it sticks-" his eyes followed Hydra's gesture as another clump of snow fell, this one diverting from the fate of his particular snowflake and choosing an alternate path. It felt like his vision became hyper-focused as he honed in on what she had pointed out, the delicate structure of the snowflake becoming all-encompassing as he followed it's brief path from air to ground. And there, just as Hydra had said, the crystalline structure did not melt, did not succumb. He felt his heart shudder in his chest as another snowflake fell and landed on the first, securing itself to that which had come before it and anchoring itself to it's icy brethren. He stared at it for a few moments, briefly overwhelmed by the apparent symbolism of the flakes - wasn't he just as the second set of flakes was? Hydra was the first to fall (to wake), to anchor herself in a world she knew nothing of and had just landed in. And he, he was just another to come along, another to fall, who happened to land in her proximity and clung to her so that he did not just disappear.

His gaze shifted mournfully from the slow-growing clump of snow to Hydra, and he wondered briefly if there had been a chance she'd interpreted the fall the same as he had. Appreciation struck him again, and not for the first time did he reflect on how grateful he was that someone had come along and knocked him out of his paralyzed awakening. It took him a few seconds of sifting through an grateful stupor to realize she'd spoken again, and then he flicked his ears towards her and tuned in fully. "It's a good point... I think I'd want to know it all too, if I could." [but would you? but would you really want to know you had already lived your whole life - had lived and died and been laid to rest old and grateful for the life you had lived? would you want to know this all at once, the weight of it crushing you as if the snow did not fall in gentle whispers but the blizzard came down all at once, in an instant, crushing and suffocating and cold?]

This particular inner dialogue was not of his conscious mind, but an anxiety in him stirred again as it spoke it's silent spell in his soul. The only outward sign of this unease was a twitch of a single peppered ear as it turned away from Hydra, as if it was scanning for some far off sound. But Hydra - who was the only here and now and conscious that mattered currently - had just raised a very crucial point: "and if figments of your past do return, in whatever capacity, I am here to help how you might need, so long as I can.”  Why did that hurt as it did to hear? Before he could dwell on it enough to raise his apprehension in conversation, the time to continue their ascent was upon them. Her gentle tease did a good job distracting him temporarily from his concerns, and the playful challenge that came with it brought a brief, but genuine, smile to his maw. He didn't answer with words, but bounded after the stoic she-wolf as she began to lead, his attention pleasantly diverted to the physical task ahead of them for the time being.

They continued this way for quite some time, Hydra in the lead and Element following, aware of the way her cautious gaze would turn to him when stones rattled past his paws or the way ahead became particularly challenging. The ascent was... strangely meditative. For the first time since waking up and being gripped with fear, he felt his mind quiet, focused only on the sturdiness of his limbs and the way his body felt as if it could shape itself to the requirements of the terrain. Muscle memory - it persisted, even here, in whatever world this may be. His limbs were all too acquainted with slippery stone and mountain paths, as if a lifetime had already taught them what to expect. [a lifetime had already taught you - don't you remember? you have already lived a lifetime and here you are again, a boy, unknowing of it all]. After a particularly strenuous portion of the climb that left an ache beginning to settle in his haunches, something flipped over in his head to allow for something that had been, thus far, out of character. Feeling inspired by a small surge of confidence in his innate mountaineering ability, he set his eyes on Hydra, and the next moment he caught her pausing, just for the briefest of seconds, to assess the terrain he threw his power into his hind legs and surged forward, soaring past her a few steps with a playful yip as he did so, and a glint in his eyes that hoped to convey the challenge rating had been increased.
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Hydra could understand things such as similes and metaphors, but in this she had more than a general idea as of what he was speaking about—she had (recently) lived experience. At this juncture, they were the masters of their own fate; would they succumb to circumstance, or rise above it? Hydra was prepared to do the latter—though she was also vividly aware that she required at least one other thing, perhaps being, to do so. She was part of something that took three to make one, and one was absent. It might not appear so to any onlookers, but it was a crippling wound within. 

As she drew in a breath, the matriarch could only bid that counterpart hurry. Closer it felt, at least, throughout her exhale. 

It was no wonder she missed the look Element posed her as he surged ahead; genuine surprise caught within her throat as he surged ahead, and both ears cupped backward to hear if there was any threat she had not been aware of... when then he looked to her, and she saw the impish look present. “Why, you—!” she whuffed breathlessly, but gamely met the challenge with a good-humored growl (wolves could be rough in their play, by the sound of it—but that was definitively what this was) let her own muscles coil as she sprang upward and onward, tail whipping behind her in loose arcs but not unbalancing her. It spoke to her own skill, that she did not fall—and Hydra sought all the while a path in which to best him, seeing for herself that at present there was no road directly alongside him that was safe. She bided her time, no more winded now than she was from the start. The matriarch had kept her endurance, at least.

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He knew he'd only have a few seconds of lead before Hydra caught on to his game, and when her surprised exclamation reached his ears he couldn't help but grin. He'd loved to have savored a glance in her direction to see the look on her face, but already he'd needed to focus his whole attention on the path before him. It had been bold to forge ahead of her when he'd never navigated these peaks before, but there was some thrill in the challenge of calculating his next few steps as he covered the ground as quickly and surefootedly as he could manage safely. Even better than the thrill of the challenge was the way the task took his full attention - it silenced his frenetic mind and its ever-churning thoughts, and left all the work to his legs. The silence was blissful.

Rounding a rocky bend he'd hoped would lead to a ridge he'd scouted from below, suddenly Ele was met with a stark rock wall many shoulder's high, blocking his path forward entirely. He slammed to a halt, scanning rapidly to see where his next steps would lead him, and no paths emerged before his eyes. In a split second moment of further consideration, he leapt forward and...

...Dove behind a rock, attempting to hide himself from Hydra's view when she turned around the bend.
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Hydra could not deny the thrill such a game provided her body, mind, and soul. She was careful where she stepped, and all of life's mysteries that had presented themselves here faded, overtaken and drowned out by the cadence of her steps, her breathing. The sound of her footfalls as she chased, the way the scree dribbled when his paw or her paw hit a stone just so. Hydra, when looking for her route, observed Element find one of his own—she veered right then, wondering if she might meet him some place else, around the opposite bend instead of continuing toward the ascent. 

Said bend arced, and came to its own end; with a quiet huff, she slowed. Where had Element's path led him...? About to turn around, she thought to look down... and there he was, laying in wait behind a sizable boulder. Not so far from here... he likely could have utilized it, a veritable escape route. Coiling her muscles and lunging to land upon it, Hydra braced herself—and blessedly, her calculations had been correct. 

One could hardly call themselves a master tactician, or master guardian or master warrior, without the mind behind it and the prowess—that had been Hydra, all three; still was Hydra, she knew then, spinning on her heels to look upon him with bright eyes and an arced tail, making a bid to boop him with a foreleg, hoping to have caught him unawares enough to succeed. 

Only if she landed the maneuver would Hydra declare coolly, with a roguish grin, “you are it,” triumph reaching her gaze before she would turn to flee his company, giving him the opportunity to give pursue. While part of her wanted to bound upward again to explore more of what lay there, well, they could simply just run there... could they not? Hoping to get a head start, she was off the way they had come.

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He hunkered down behind the stone, pressing his belly to the cool and rugged earth and attempting to make himself as small as possible. It took only a second or two until he heard Hydra coming his way, scattering skree beneath her paws as she followed in hot pursuit. He closed his eyes in anxious and pleasant anticipation, waiting for her to peek around his rock and find him. But... the moment didn't come, and now no rocks skittered to announce her arrival in his hiding spot. He cracked open one gray eye, examining the area in front of him and almost expecting her to be standing in front of him when he did so - but she was no where to be seen.

Ele peeked cautiously around the corner of his rock, peering at the corner he had rounded to see if she'd be turning it at any moment. Only the briefest of sounds from above - the whoosh of parting air - alerted him that something was amiss. He released a startled yip as he looked upwards in time to see Hydra's dark form ascend from above, having only a split second to admire what must have been a near instinctual desire to choose the higher path that he'd written off. He didn't bother moving out of her way - she had him fair and square as one of her inky limbs swatted his foreleg and she declared him "It". He met her roguish grin with one of his own, taking a moment to roll onto his side dramatically and exhale loudly: "I am slain."

Rocking back onto his stomach and standing, he gave a quick shake of his peppered fur to dislodge some of the dust. The game had lifted a weight on his heart, and he had no desire to let it end here. Fortunately, it seemed Hydra was not ready for it to be over either. Throwing a good-natured growl in her direction, he narrowed his eyes and took a step towards her while she still regarded him. "But also,  I am it," he rumbled, just as she turned and bounded ahead, just out of his reach. He'd catch up.

But also, he was keen to follow. And not just for their game.
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