Drooping Willows druid

She had worked her way down the mountainside, curiosity had gotten the best of her and it seemed wise to stay limber.

Into the willows she had slipped away. Only to find them rather empty. A shame, seeing as how the land had welcomed her so wholly. At least there was a special kind of beauty in the silence here. She could hear each rustle between cold branches or shuffling through snow drifts.

However it meant that when the willows fell dead silent she had felt it more intensely.

Her tiny figure wove around a trunk that spoke of years and years before her own. Her barely mismatched eyes stared dead ahead in hopes that she might see what had silenced the wildlife here.

Just over a fortnight had passed since Koko found herself traversing the various terrains that made up Relic Lore, firstly enjoying the snowdrifts that encompassed the meadow and now finding her paws slowly treading amongst the iced over trunks of a willow forest who's icy and wispy branches gently swayed with the slightest brush of her chocolate coat. A coat that had began to lose its luscious sheen and now upheld a dullness that made the female look more like snow covered mud than a wolf.

Food had been scarce at best to find with carcasses from another's kill limited and it was the hunger that gnawed at her stomach ruthlessly now that urged her to keep going in search of something to quell the ache. Even if just a smidge. It was the sound of life and the faint scent of rabbit on the air that had initially drawn the female to the willows, alas now she found herself in a world that was deadly silent and a wolfish sized hole void of an occupant for quite some time just beneath her paws.

Koko lowered her head to give the snow dusted hole a brief snuffling with her muzzle in hopes a forgotten cache had been left behind. Perhaps it was the lack of food here, though, that chased them away.

Something small and darkly colored up ahead.

She wondered, for a moment, if a coyote had come to pick along a scavenging site. Only it seemed to have lacked some of the distinct signs of a coyote. Perhaps she had instead found something more akin to herself.

"Stranger," She called out. Not without warmth but there was some curious hesitation in her voice as well. "Are you a traveler?" She blinked and dared to press a bit closer. Dainty paws that lifted and set back down with a certain experience about her movements. This was by no means her first winter, nor her hardest travel.

So consumed in her search for food Koko hadn't been aware of her surroundings enough to realize that she wasn't entirely alone amongst the willows. The voice of a stranger called out and icy blue eyes shifted with the lifting of her head to settle up ahead on a figure that almost blended in with the bleak and monochrome landscape unlike herself. Koko stood out like a sore thumb so it was no wonder she had been noticed first.

"That I am." the tawny female called back, her own tone holding a certain amount of warmth despite her less than ideal conditions. The ivory male she had played with weeks ago had been a kind soul, perhaps she'd luck out and so would this stranger. Better yet perhaps they had food or knew where to get some. "Who are you?" She asked once some distance had been crossed by the other, opting to remain in place herself other than shifting her sore limbs to lower her haunches into a sitting position.

(This post was last modified: Feb 06, 2024, 02:04 AM by Kokonoe.)

"Jaheira of Sanguine Cove."

It was a new title to her, freshly cloaked along her but she still carried it with respect. Not yet pride, she was unsure if she had earned pride in it yet when she was still such a new face.

"Perhaps you will share your name now too?" Her subtly mismatched gaze crinkled with a maternal warmth. The young woman had been kind but Jaheira was a stickler for manners when it came to first meetings. Towards herself and towards others.

And then, like all mother hens did, she might peck free more information from the young woman. Like what on earth she had decided to be alone out here in the dead of winter.

Jaheira. Sanguine Cove.

Both monikers were locked securely away in the vault of information located at the back of the woman's mind for safe keeping. There wasn't an overly abundant sense of pride indicated in the other woman's tone, leaving Koko to wonder how long she had been with this so called Sanguine Cove. It was unbeknownst if knowing such titles would later come to serve her for good or for bad, but acquiring the information at all was good enough for now.

Chocolate dipped ears pivoted forward when the question was ultimately turned upon herself which, honestly, she should have expected. It was only proper mannerisms after all. "Oh! Kokonoe, but I know it can be a mouthful at times so I typically go by just Koko." A few light sweeps of her tail thumped against the snowy ground at their paws, sending small flurries while an increase of warmth seemingly fed off of that in which Jaheira naturally radiated. She too seemed like a kind soul so far.