[AW] Every day is a new discovery.

[Zoltan Haskel]

The blue-eyed boy stared at the Thing he had found. When he had first spotted it that morning, he had assumed it was poop. There was plenty of that around, after all; everything had to poop and they left it all over the place. Some buried it, but most animals just left it where it dropped. He could easily tell the scent of ungulate refuse or spot the little pellets of a rabbit. The latter of which was often in little piles that he could inspect. Sometimes he'd be tempted to roll around in the smelly things, to see how they smelled mixed with his own scent.

This Thing didn't smell like any of those things, though. It wasn't completely absent a smell - nothing really was, other than water - but it didn't smell like that. It smelled a bit like mouse, a bit like bone, a bit like fur, a bit like... well he wasn't sure what else. There was another scent about it that he wanted to place, but it didn't come to him. Which meant it was something he hadn't met or known. His head tilted sideways, the ear on the right side flopping with it because of its oversized nature. He sniffed again; still no answer in his brain for what the Thing was.

He tapped it with a paw and it remained fairly solid, releasing no extra scent or sign of what it was. The cub snorted and picked the Thing up, deciding it was best to seek out an adult who could tell him what he had found.

[Lorien Coara]

OOC: Lorien is in Lupus form, as is Sphinx.
I drop a couple of weirdos in oops

Lorien was once again charged with keeping an eye on Sphinx. They wanted to explore, and Liam asked Lorien to go with them. He would have complained if he had anything to do that day. Unfortunately, he was out of excuses. It was becoming increasingly difficult to avoid admitting or giving away that he actually enjoyed the presences of the youth in their little Band. As much as he grumbled about it that morning, he knew Sphinx was just an adorable little ball of sunshine. Sigh.

Camp Eclipse was still in its infancy. Sphinx felt cooped up at Umbral Cabin all this time. Not to mention, they likely felt anxious after New Caledonia's fall. Lorien knew he was disturbed similarly by it now. They all were.

Sphinx's tail flagged ahead of him. Lorien trailed after them. All the while he kept an eye trained on every part of their surroundings. He knew they were safer here logically, but his paranoia told him that anything could happen. Another bandit or mercenary could burst from the bushes and attack them. A disaster could unfold on them at any moment.

As these thoughts swirled within him, he scented someone else. In an instant, he knew it was just a puppy. A whoosh of relief went over him. Thank the gods. Excited, Sphinx bolted ahead. They were excited to meet someone new. Lorien ran after them and did his best to restrain any sign of irritation.

"Stay close, Sphinx," he said.

"Okay, but I wanna meet them!" Sphinx chirped.

"You are definitely your father's child. Very well, go ahead."

Sphinx scampered up to the pup, tail wagging. The pup had bright, sky blue eyes and a dusty brown pelt. Sphinx was evidently much older than the other youth, but that did little to dissuade them. Lorien hung back somewhat, concerned that the pup's parents may not take too kindly to this.

"Hello!" they said, wagging their tail. "My name is Sphinx! That's Lorien over there, my uncle. Who are you? Oh, and what's that thing in your mouth?

Coming closer, Lorien craned his neck to get a closer look at whatever was between their teeth. Until they spat it out, he had no clue what it could be. All he knew was that it smelled strange.

[Zoltan Haskel]

OOC:
OMG YAYYYY I love Lorien and Sphinx both. *_*

IC:
Someone approached and his ears swayed back in a greeting way, his tail waving ... until he saw who it was. By which he saw who it wasn't, actually. This wasn't someone he knew. It was a Stranger and Stranger Danger set in pretty quick as he backpedaled a couple of steps - he had been approaching the sound of footfalls - and flattened his ears against his skull. A soft little growl sound escaped from around the thing he held in his mouth, though it probably came out rather garbled and quiet since he didn't want to drop his prize. Especially not in front of a Stranger.

The Stranger was actually Two Strangers, one Old and one Young. One was like the other adults he knew, the other one seemed Not Puppy but also Not Adult. Somewhere in the nebulous in between. He liked the Young Stranger, they had brown fur with some lighter markings and two different colored eyes. Both of which were very interesting colors. Old Stranger was more dully colored: whites and blacks and even fairly boring colored eyes. Not as interesting. Young Stranger was also interesting because they were young. Zo had never seen someone that age. He was younger - as was Nimkii - and everyone else he had ever met was older than that.

Carefully, he set down the Thing and placed a paw on it to make sure this Sphinx didn't decide to snatch it away while he was responding. "I Zo... Zo-tan Haskel." he still hadn't gotten down the L in his name very well so he skipped it instead of blurring it into a W which is what he would've done otherwise. "Ack-chew-a-ly, I 'unno what is. You know?" he removed his paw from the owl pellet cautiously, not wanting them to take it but also knowing they needed to see it if they were to (maybe) tell him what it was. He kept his paw raised so that he could slap it back down if needed.

Part of him though the should yelp for help, part of him didn't feel as worried about Stranger Danger with Young Strange- er, Sphinx there. Especially since both of them seemed friendly. Sphinx more than Lorien, who seemed kind of scowly. But adults were sometimes just scowly, it seemed to be a growing up trait.