Stone keep you

The snow began to subside as the duo of wolves made their way along the mountainside, and the clearing skies gave them a better view of the massive expanse of land that sprawled outwards from the base of the Nameless Mountain and the Dragonsteeth that encircled it. 

Once they crested over one of the mountain's shoulders, they could see with a view only limited by the curve of the world. And before things faded into the distance was a vast expanse of water stretching along a coastline toward the North, where it was lined by more mountains. It was a fantastic sight. 

"I didn't realize there was an ocean so close to our Nameless Mountain," He admitted as he glanced at @Hydra. He sniffed the air- but they were a bit too high up and far away for him to catch the scent of saltwater. "Looks like mountain islands up that way, too, look," He said, gesturing.

+2 Discovery Points

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Moving with Bronco in silence as she observed more of the flora present upon the mountain, and caught the scent of various fauna, as they rounded one of the mountains more broader shoulders her ears flicked as Bronco spoke. Rising to turn and meet him, she paused near the edge to gaze at the ocean far below them. It was enough of a distance away from the mountain where erosion need not be a worry of theirs, but close enough for Hydra to suddenly feel a bout of possessiveness—as once she had with the Glen. 

“I remember waking, and seeing it—but I have not yet explored it,” she admitted. She had every intention of doing so, once their mountain was good and discovered. The views were unparalleled; she wondered what it would be like to sit here during sunrise, or sunset. “We will have to do so, soon,” she hummed, peering toward him now. “Do you like the ocean?” She inquired with interest, wondering if he was one to appreciate ocean fare... and the rest of the things that came with the sea. Looking out toward where he gestured to, Hydra nodded with interest as she gazed at the place he had pointed out.

+2 Discovery Points

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His tail waved as he gazed off toward the distant line of blue. He wondered how many days it might take to travel to the seashore and back- allowing for a day or two, of course, for him to explore the area. While he felt fairly certain that he wasn't meant to live along the seashore- the wind was cruel and he figured that it would all become a bit overwhelming after a while- there was a novelty to roving the shore and discovering things he'd never experienced before that was incredibly alluring. 

"I do. Maybe not the ocean, because it's cold and makes you itchy afterwards, but the seashore, yeah," He said. He admitted. He'd been grossed out by kelp, and perplexed by hermit crabs, and he still couldn't get over the taste of the little sea-insect things he'd managed to find in the shallow tidepools. "We're probably...How many days travel away from the shore do you think we are?" He asked. He'd made his own speculations, but figured Hydra might be better a guesstimating the distance.
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Considering, Hydra found it hard to judge concretely. “Things seem further, from above,” she recognized aloud, “Perhaps a day, or half of that,” she imagined, though was not sure if that was quite right. She would have to test the theory for herself. Nostalgic by the sight of the ocean, a memory came to her unbidden. “My father took my sisters and I to the ocean, when we were younger,” her tail swayed, “I had loved it then, but never visited it much due to the distance...” it would be a good place to train. “Before Moonspear, he led a pack near the ocean himself,” her tail waved. 

Looking to him now, and then seeing a large pine tree behind him, Hydra moved around him to sniff at the base at it. “I enjoyed the shore, too,” she remembered, “it had the strangest creatures...” she recalled, thinking of the crab she had seen... and the ferret that had not belonged.

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He was pleased that his guess hadn't been too far off, though peehaps he'd been gauging the distance based off the time it would take him to travel from that exact part of the mountain. If he was down along the borders when he started his journey, he figured that the beach could definitely be reached within a day. 

When she mentioned Moonspear he shuddered, and his claws clenched slightly. Perhaps it was the altitude, but something about the name made him uneasy and he tossed a slightly wild look to Hydra. But she was there, healthy and calm. Whatever that weird feeling was, he shook it off.

Hydra was almost always calm and collected. And she began to investigate the area, so he did so as well, meandering a short distance away from her so that he wasn't trailing her like a puppy. "I haven't smelled any bears or cougars yet," He said, the relief in his voice palpable. He rubbed his muzzle against the trunk of a tree to leave a bit of scent behind and ended up leaving a soft tuft of fur there too, which reminded him. "But there are tonnes of those little grey jay birds down in the spruce trees and pines along the border. Sit right still and they'll pull your shedding fur right out of ya," He chuckled.

+2 Discovery Points

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Hydra missed the moment in which he panicked, having found a particularly noteworthy scent here... a wolverine. It was an older scent, but she hoped to find it to be rid of it. They were particularly obnoxious creatures, but moreso a threat to the young... as of yet, there were none. Altair was no longer a child in full, and neither were the rest of them that she yearned for fiercely. Still, in the spirit of efficiency and prevention both it would be best to be rid of the chaotic critters sooner rather than later. There was relief to know that neither bear nor cougar had been spotted—when he mentioned the former, a particularly hateful feeling struck her. It was no wonder, what with her younger sister Galaxy... and there felt to be more mounted upon that, but she had loved her sister fiercely enough to warrant the feeling without too much contemplation in relation to it. 


As he spoke of birds, another came to mind—@The Eagle—and she found her gaze looking skyward, searching. She wondered if such nests were here that might host him... Surely, he must be somewhere. But he had mentioned grey jays, and shedding, and she looked to her own furs. While not entirely out of sorts yet, she knew the day was soon coming where she would fuss over the furs to the point of perfection. Hydra was a well-groomed woman who detested looking otherwise, when it was in her control. 

“That sounds nice,” she hummed in thought, “and helpful,” she drawled. Perhaps she would visit those grey jays, so as to get assistance in the maintenance of her shedding. Noting, now, the old tracks of mountain goat, she gestured to it while her tail swayed. “The mountain is host to many prey, it seems,” came her low voice; this was a good thing, for her family. And this prey she was quite familiar with taking down.

+2 Discovery Points

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She'd found tracks, or so it seemed, so he licked his lips to wet his nose and roved closer to inspect the tracks left behind by a mountain goat. Where there was one, there was likely a herd, which meant that Hydra's point about having a good amount of prey was correct.

"For sure," He said. "We should have a pack hunt soon; take down something big enough to feed us all," He suggested. After all- it seemed like they had a good selection to choose from. Mountain goats or sheep would be filling, and there were deer further down the slopes as well as the bison herd. He thought given the location that they might keep an eye out for elk as well, but perhaps more so in the summer season than in the winter. They seemed to like to migrate, which meant they wouldn't reliably stay in one area all the time.

+1 Discovery Point

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“We will,” she decided agreeably. It could not hurt to do so, but she did not feel the familiar creep of hunger yet. But with all of her traveling, and their discovering, it was a matter of time. Hydra turned around again to get a look at the ocean, pleased with this view their home offered of a portion of their backyard, as it were. She closed her eyes, content to feel the wind play across her face and simply breathe for a moment, before turning to return to their activity at hand. 

She observed some flora sprouting from alongside a thorny bush—snowdrops—and sniffed at them. She recognized it as a plant Lyra used now and then when it came to others dealing with things more internal, as Lyra had informed her. But the frequency of its use, well, Hydra was not sure. In any event she was sure her sister would be glad to have it, should she have need of it. “What shall we hunt?” she prompted Bronco while she investigated, wondering what else in his exploration he might have caught wind of and distracting herself from her own line of thought.

+1 Discovery Point

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While Bronco wasn't starving, he found that even just harbouring the idea of going hunting perked his apetite. He'd done plenty of small hunts on his own, but had begun to participate more in bigger hunts from what he could remember- and while there was a threat of getting caught by a hoof of an antler, there was something much more satisfying about ripping through flesh and digging in to eat a belly full of meat rather than chewing through feathers, or eating something so small it was gone in two bites.

He hadn't noticed the flowers Hydra had found, but instead meandered along the tracks left behind by the mountain goat. They were disappearing as the snow melted, but they couldn't have been more than a day or so old, he thought. It'd snowed earlier, so perhaps the tracks were fresher than he'd thought. 

"If these mountain goats are out in the open I'd go for that," He said, as he paused to rub his muzzle against another tree. "But if they're on those cliffs," He said, motioning toward a sudden drop in elevation, where rocky cliffs left no footholds that a wolf could manage, "I'd say probably best to go down the mountainside and look for some deer."

+2 Discovery Points

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Hydra also craved the hunt, though for more reasons than the hunt itself. It was running with her pack, seeing them move as one mind and one body for their common goal of feeding one another, and in time hunting for their future that she often carried. Reminded of spring again as she moved through snowmelt, Hydra felt within her that that time would come soon enough, too—and she hoped by then to have a better grasp of things, and a stronghold upon this place. 

So far, so good. 

His points were valid, and she turned to regard him with a nod. “We ought to see if we can track some deer,” she drawled, allowing her shoulder to rub alongside a spruce tree for a tuft of fur to linger there, “just in case.” This Nameless Mountain had plenty more miles to explore, she was well aware; she did not doubt they might have such a herd in one of their coniferous forests. As of yet, she had not lingered much in those places... but perhaps they ought to investigate them. Better to know now that they were here, at least.

+1 Discovery Point

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Hydra wouldn't have to ask Bronco twice to get him to willingly scour the foothills for deer tracks. He enjoyed roaming the mountainside, which with every turn they made led them to something new. 

He nodded, and began to pick his way down the slope alongside her. Wildflowers, he supposed, might bloom here in the springtime, considering how much sun they would get without having trees to shade them. He imagined the mountain springing to live with the touch of warmth from the sun, in the form of little purple, yellow and red wildflowers. 

Given the amount of prey they'd tracked it was easy to see that the nameless mountain was bountiful enough in flora to have hosted so many herbivores. There were little creek beds that snaked their way down the mountainside that would give them a fresh water supply, and plenty of nooks and crags to shelter them from the wind. 

While treacherous, the mountain had its beauty- and its full potential was only just beginning to be discovered.

+1 Discovery Point

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