in the wake of the odyssey

for @Vendrussel

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It was barely early afternoon and the heat was sweltering. Altair had never expressed anything like it before, being a child of the mountains and much cooler climes—frankly he thought the heat was stifling and uncomfortable here. Budding thunderstorms stood out ahead of him, their cloud tops already reaching for unfathomable heavens as they bloomed and grew, yet no rain fell that he could discern even at distance.

His only saving grace, the thing that kept him moving, was the breeze.

The storms pulled in moisture and wind to them and out ahead of Altair the grains and grasses rippled. He wouldn’t be unfortunate enough to get caught in any storms or downpours today to cool him, but the wind at his back was enough of a propeller to urge him along in search of some sort of water source to cool his hot feet.

It was quite a sight either way, he decided, tongue lolling.
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The plains were more vibrant then the desert was. She noticed more wolves that she was used to roamed so, unlike the oddity of the splotched round-ears, and the unusual mutts of the desert. It was like a breeze of refreshment of familiarity, a comfort to know she was closer to a more usual area of trees then the lifeless, open area that she was currently in. Originally, Vendrussel was on the lookout to find the halfling named Wolf, but with no smells nor' signs, she just assumed he went off - and gradually gave up the hint. The two were only momentarily acquaintance, but life is how it is, and they moved on.

"Hey there, know anywhere to hide out?" As a storm rolled in, her eyes sparkled in a love. It meant rain, it meant water! At times of the sea it was chaos, but she was simply thankful for that slight nostalgia.. Though that doesn't mean she'll travel during the terrors, and called out the random wolf ahead.

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He went along the path for some time, cutting through the waves and waves of endless grasses and grains until at some point, another figure cut through. He heard her long before he saw her, and as their paths crossed, his steps came to a natural halt. By then, the strong draft of wind being pulled into the storm had begun to lessen—or at least it felt like it.

Altair was a little disappointed that the storm was moving away from them.

“Nah, I haven’t found anything,” he breathed out. “It sure is warm though. A lot warmer than what I’m used to, anyway. What’re you tryin’ to hide out for though? Hunting?” She seemed friendly enough anyway, though he knew as always he was taking a chance having gone to the wilds as they were on his own. He hadn’t forgotten his encounters with the questionably… sound… wolves that already lurked around.
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"Somewhere in case the storm comes back, it's quite hard to find anywhere to take cover in such.. An open place." Though the storm looked to be moving away, she knew not to completely trust what only the eye could see. Her nose could smell the rain, and the slight wind that brushed the heat to them so. A humidity that came with such weather, it felt unpleasant against her fur as they stood amongst the daily sun. Open as they were, a boy who suited the plains in his helios pelt, and a woman of ocean blues.

"I'm not too used to this either," she so confused, a slight movement to her tail as Vendrussel smiled lightly.

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In case the storm came back? Would it? Altair’s gaze was drawn to it again and its distant position, just as another low peal of thunder rolled out and reached his ears. He wasn’t so versed in the way that the weather worked, though he wasn’t completely oblivious to its patterns.

“I guess that’s just the summer for you, but I don’t remember it being so hot last year,” he conceded. He couldn’t really say that he remembered last summer too much—he’d been a lot younger then, scarcely old enough to do much more than play-fight and roll in grasses that seemed to reach for the sky.

A lot of things had changed since then, he thought.

“I’m sure we could find something just in case though. There has to be somewhere everybody goes when the weather gets nasty, right? I’m Altair, by the way,” he went on to offer. Couldn’t have hurt to find somewhere, or at least have a look around a bit more. Finding water wouldn’t have been a bad idea either, for that matter.
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"Is it summer? I've lost track of seasons." Her ocean gaze fell to the sky, ears flickering to the sound of the cicadas chirping, and the occasional bird soaring nearby. The rustling of the grasslands, and the overall tone that screamed of summer, but Vendrussel did not notice until the boy had mentioned so. She could not remember the season before entering the desert, but a place so hot and full of sand, the seasons simply seem like it would not venture there, and become an enteral wasteland of endless summer heat. At least the rest was bearable, even if the sun shone down onto her darker gray pelt.

"I am Vendrussel - do you live nearby, or a wanderer as well?" She hadn't met too many wolves that were within packlands, and rather. She momentarily forgotten the group within the desert, though they came together, the place was so unscented it seemed like a jest to move her away from their 'eye.' A band of misfits perhaps? The oceanic woman also remembered @Leo mentioning some groups, and curiously wondered if he was apart of them.

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“Nah, I’m not a wanderer,” he said, “though right now I am kind of wandering. I came from Empyrean. We live in the mountains back that way.” He gestured then, over his shoulder roughly in the direction he had come from. Of course the mountains were too far away now to have been nothing more than perhaps squat shapes on a very distant horizon, but the less distant forests would have hidden them away.

Either way, he had come from a pretty fair distance.

Swinging his gaze back around on Vendrussel, he picked up again.

“What about you? Do you live somewhere nearby?”
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Empyrean, the name that a label was put upon. She was interested in meeting them, though within the future Vendrussel had forgotten such thought with her dreams on conquest toward the serpentine land.. Another day perhaps, but present time she was enjoying the boy who claimed to be from them, and just wandering by, "You like your pack?" she so questioned. Though perhaps often secluded from the world, as her homeland did not participate often toward any outside perspectives, she was no fool to relations. Some simply sought a pack for survival, but that didn't mean they so desire to join.

Vendrussel didn't want that life, she wanted a unit to be a fit not a need. Thus, had yet to actually search for anyway.

"I'm just a wanderer," her tail wisped besides herself as she hummed lightly, "no goals in mind."

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He couldn’t imagine wandering without some sort of goal in mind; his brow furrowed in thought, trying to figure out just how exactly such a thing worked. It eased up after a couple of moments—it didn’t seem like the sort of thing he could figure out in the flow of conversation, fluid as it were.

“I like it there well enough,” he said with a shrug. “I mean, it’s my family’s pack, it’s where we live. It’s… home.” It wasn’t the home he had been born to, but it had become that out of necessity and over time. The mountain wasn’t so bad, but he also found that the question made him uncomfortable.

But it wasn’t her fault—he was thinking of that strange wolf, Misha.

“So how does the ‘wandering with no goals in mind’ thing work? Do you just pick a direction and go? Isn’t that kind of like having a goal?” There was a pause, before he cheekily added: “Isn’t not having a goal… having a goal?” A thin smile lit his features, and he reclined to his haunches with the anticipation of some sort of explanation.
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"You ever thought of leaving?" Sometimes she remembered during her childhood, about doing the same. The beginning was always tough after all, she had watched countless of her brothers and sisters fall into the ocean depths, being dragged downwards by the abyssal water dragon below. It was not their destiny to survive amongst the lands, and in own generation, she was one of the few that survived the dip. It couldn't be denied it originally built up a resentment, a 'what if' the others were still around. Yet, it also brought the strength within her homeland. Many were healthy and in peak form, at the cost of removing the beginning.

As harsh it may sound, she thought, would the tradition continue with her?

"I suppose, i've been going around to what have not seen," Vendrussel though did have a longing to see arctic oceans again, but she also desired to know what previously could not be seen. Except, she did not want to explore the desert again. It was full of strange wolves, and.. Strange-looking, as she remembered the one white wolf who held freakish features, and the mouse-eared canines that roamed so. 

As they continued walking she momentarily looked down to her paws, regular compared to those she saw. Un-unique, in that way. A beauty some may say, but now felt extra ordinary compared to those in the desert.

A slight chuckle followed from his cheeky responds, "my goal is to be without a goal, which is a goal."

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Her question caught him off-guard, though it was whisked briefly beneath the other things that she had to say. She may not have been completely goalless like she spoke of, but he definitely understood that she was a traveler of sorts out to venture through all there was to see, and what the world had to offer. It painted them both in the same colors, albeit different shades—he had a fixed home whereas she did not.

Which brought him full circle back to the question she had asked.

“I haven’t ever given it a thought,” he said with the shake of his head, and that was much was true. “As much as I like exploring, Empyrean’s my still my home. I’m out here looking for my siblings that were separated from us.” Of course even that was just one of several things that had brought him out there; he knew the likelihood of coming across one of his siblings on a whim was pretty low, but he still searched all the same.

“You know, you’re not the first who’s asked me that. Is it really that lonely to travel by yourself?”
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She couldn't help but given him an sympathetic look, a small nod of condolences to his lost family, "I can't deny it is lonely to be without others again. I have lost my own, and only looking for my way." It wasn't by choice she became a loner.. Rather, somehow one way or another, Vendrussel ended up in this land. Though with a betrayel that she didn't want to look back on - she often wouldn't revisit the thought, because it was only a theory. A lasting memory of being submerged in the water.. A face above her, but who it was, was unknown. She in the end didn't know the truth about it, besides the image of someone above her.

Shaking her head of such thoughts, "I hope you'll find them."

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A part of him almost anticipated mockery, but it never came. Instead he caught the sympathetic gaze of his company and felt a small smile pull at his lips instead to her well wishes; truth be told though, he wasn’t sure that he would ever find them. It wouldn’t stop him from looking necessarily, or saying that was the reason that he went out for a venture, because who really knew? He didn’t and in this place, he had learned that stranger things had certainly happened.

“Guess I’ll find out,” he rejoined with a shrug, “and maybe you’ll find your own along the way too. Though if you wanted, I’m sure you could always come by my pack if you wanted to—or needed to. We try to help others out where we can,” or at least that was how he had always looked at it. His mother and father weren’t certainly the sort to turn others away, but the yearling Ostrega knew there was always a price to pay.
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"I hope so. This land is strange, but brings a new beginning." Though in loneliness her voice twanged, she still held but a confident posture and the lightest bittersweet smile. Truly so, the northern dragon had lost her land, and what there was in it all. Yet, she didn't feel that upmost urge to return, and settled upon this oddity of an adventure. Currently so had met many interesting characters, some though she would not wish to return to ; such as those in the Desert.

"Empyrean?" the smell of pines and mountain, if she were to follow his scent, surely Vendrussel would find their claim, "I'll come by and visit some time."

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“You should,” he encouraged. “It’s a pretty neat place, but I might be a little biased. The view is really nice, though. You can see a lot of what’s out there when the weather’s clear.” A smile split his features in earnest, his tail giving a sure swish at his hocks—his pride for his home was more than obvious.

“But that’s what my dad said too, about this place being a place of new beginnings. We might not really know how or why we’re here, but we are, and we have to make the best of it… or something along those lines anyway. I’m trying to at least.” He probably would have admitted to it regardless, including the difficulty therein; it hadn’t been easy to grasp that logic when for the longest time, he had thought the place some bizarre dream.

But reality had come along and snatched him eventually.
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"Most of us hold favoritism toward our packs." Even she would say her own homeland was one to be feared of, though of course, they weren't as friendly as the one Altair claims to be in. She wondered if could rival though, yet didn't dwindle too hard on the numbers, as though it may be her home, they were not here, and most likely, would not leave from their icy waters. Even she, never considered so.. Yet doesn't remember how, or why Vendrussel ended up in the desert.

"That's a good attitude to take, you're parents seem like they have a good head." The woman commented with a nod.

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He smiled gently with her words—he too believed his parents had good heads. That too was a biased statement in itself, or would have been had he chosen to comment on it. So he had instead gone with the demure smile, thin-lipped as it were, and moved the conversation along.

“Well, if you’re ever out that way, maybe you’ll get the chance to meet them,” he said, “though I’d honestly recommend checking out the mountains sometime regardless. There’s a lot of valleys and a few little spots where the forests are pretty thick too, so diversity and all that.”

A beat of silence followed.

“If… that’s your thing, anyway. I know the ocean’s furthest out to the west but I haven’t really seen it yet. I wanted to find out what was this way first and so far it seems like it’s just all hills and grassland. Have you explored much of it?”
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"I'll visit eventually, perhaps we can off for a hunt." She proposed the day if she ever did come to the mountains, to visit such a lad and proposed a fine hunt. Though she would not stay in his land, and generally felt.. It would be wrong to just visit to ask for a battle, she thought perhaps the best way was to propose but a measly hunt to bring as an offering to their land, and but a minor friendship. It wouldn't harm, to meet the other packs.

"Beyond that of the plains is a desert, I would not recommend going, there are strange wolves there, though it seems some try to claim the vast sandbox." When she looked beyond the plains, one couldn't see that vast expansion of a Sahara.. But she would not forget of that strange land, for not only where there round-eared wolves, there was also strange company within it's mixture. Vendrussel would not return to such a land, most likely ever.

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The thought of a hunt appeased him, as it was one of the many things that Altair did enjoy. Then again, there were very few things that he didn't enjoy. The simple thought of hunting with good company was a morale booster he hadn't quite known he needed and he latched onto the notion readily, offering Vendrussel a soft smile that was just as eager as it was genuine. It went without saying that he would like that, but before he could get caught up in the idea of showing her all sorts of things, she offered him details he would take to heart.

"A desert," he trailed, trying to picture this sandbox of a place. "That's good to know... if I ever make it out there I'll be sure to be careful." Not that he hadn't been being careful in measurable steps—suddenly, he was reminded of Misha once again. With his ears splaying, he added on: "Though I guess I'd mention that you should be careful out here too. I ran into a really weird wolf a while back not too far from here. He said his name was Misha but... he was pretty creepy. Weird looking too, not like you or I."
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"Yeah? Stripped and white?" Not many to these wildwoods held similar names as it looked the cultures around wildly differed. She couldn't help but think it's the same man and questioned on the appearance — a rather arrogant fellow, a smirk like he was a ruler despite being more-so like a scaredy cat. She vaguely remembered some stripes on his fur, were they.. Brown? Perhaps red seemed better suited as she hummed in thoughts.

"Met a fellow named Misha, he was stuck on a rock in the midst' of a pack trying to claim a territory. Never got the name except some of the wolves there."

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Much to his surprise, she did in fact know exactly who he was talking about. Despite the relative distance, it made Altair feel as though the world was a lot smaller than he gave it credit for. It was enough to draw out an amused huff that was likened to an affirmation, though he followed that up with a nod to cement the association.

"Yeah, that's the wolf. Last time I saw him he wasn't even headed off in that direction, but maybe it's for the best that he's out there on some rock in the sand." Or maybe not—for all Altair knew, it could have been another rousing round of showmanship that he hadn't even begun to acquire. Never minding the fact that the possibility still stood that he wouldn't acquire such a talent... and never minding who his father was either and his particular penchant for such.

"Does make me wonder who'd want to live in a... sandbox, though," he tapered off in thought. "Seems weird."

Then again, maybe that sort of thing suited Misha. Altair didn't quite know what to make of him still.
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"The days are hot, and the nights are like winter," she started, remembering her short-lived time within those lands, "though some plains and rocks, it is hard to navigate through sand, it's unlike a beach ; for it remains dry." While she grasped the understanding to walk within it — Vendrussel did not enjoy it. It was unlike the beach, coated in the faintest of liquid where it made a solid form, and far easier to walk upon. It wasn't as lifeless as the desert felt, for all their critters continued to hide within the depths, ready to attack. Unlike the beach, an ocean where one can sea — to the desert, it iself was the endless sand of an ocean.

There was some solace, some water, but not enough where she would stay.

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feel free to wrap up or i'll come back and edit something in since i've taken years

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Like a beach, only dry. ot and cold, two sides of a coin, and both in the same day? Worth the visit, enough to whet his appetite in a sense, and he thought then that perhaps the desert sands would very much have a similar flavor to all else he had seen thus far. It was a short-lived thought.

“Yeah, that sounds pretty weird to me,” he commented after a beat, smiling.

Either way, he didn’t have any plans on trekking out that far any time soon.

“Well, I probably shouldn’t hold you up any longer… I need to start making my way back if I want to get home before anyone worries. You can walk along with me if you want to though.” He didn’t anticipate that she’d want to go along with him all the way back to Empyrean, nor was it like he’d make it back before night hit either. The mountains were way off, almost beyond distant in the weaving path he had taken to get there.
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Overall a pleasant talk she thought — and a desire to see him again. She would remember the information she gave, who he was and where he hailed from, and maybe one day, to hunt together. For the meanwhile though there was but a pleasant conversation, where the two then bid farewell, and went to their separate ways.

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