What had brought him to the stinking marshlands was a reason still unknown to the small wolf, as the memories associated with it were few and harsh; it was only the brisk nip on the shoulder that reminded him that it was upon those swamplands that Cypress had been acquainted with Tom. Perched regally upon the black male's back, he seemed slightly offended that Cy had forgotten, but a returned nuzzle soon erased any hard feelings between the two. Neither could stay truly angry with the other for very long; they were close like that. So, anecdotes finally in order, the pair progressed through the territory with little idea what exactly it was that they sought.

The sun, thankfully somewhat dimmed by a soft layer of cirrus clouds that shielded some of its powerful rays, beat endless upon the stricken territory. If either of the creatures were to look at it for but a moment they would have noticed a faint rainbow halo, but neither sought to be exposed to the light and subsequent heat any more than absolutely necessary.

Squelching beneath and between (and behind) his paws, the murky grime of the Forbidden land caused Cypress's nose to wrinkle with distaste. Why was he here? Surely not for a walk on memory lane, for he had living proof of such an event in history - immortalized in the feathery peeper upon his shoulder. The thought brought a smile to his thin features and it was after a moment of calm survey of the area that he realized he was in the exact same spot. That is, the spot where he had sought isolation from a winter storm and had rested with Sinistra, Shingle, and the inevitably noisy Peeping Tom, as the Novan had dubbed hum. The scents were long gone as a result of the wind and rain, but the novelty still lingered to some extent.

cypress frostfur

O_O -snags spot-

i've got nothin' but problems

Hmm. Arsenio remembered the last time he was here. He smiled slightly, remembering the whole fiasco that he and his mother had had, searching for his older brother Indris and actually finding him. It was a fun little journey which had ended up in the White Rose Lake for a bath. Well, more like a water fight, but whichever you'd perfer. He also remembered coming here and saving Miss Silka the Arctic Fox from a vicious opossum. Yes, there were great memories buried here beneath the muck. Buried very, very deeply beneath the muck.

And yet it didn't hold much to the hot and weary puppy. Struggling through almost belly-high mud, Arsenio was to become elated when sloshing up onto dry ground and then deflated yet again when he hit another pit of ooze. It was a continous cycle, but a rather dull one. Arsenio quickly became bored and set his sights on the wind.

He knew that he'd smell something interesting before he'd see it or hear it, so he turned his nose upon the wind. It was pretty vile, the air of the Swamp, but he could eventually distinguish a pretty intruiging scent. Wolf and... bird? Oh dear, was he smelling things that weren't there again? Well, best check that out. He wanted to make he was sure, at least, that he wasn't delusional.

And he wasn't sure if he was to be happy or kind've weirded out when he made sure that he wasn't crazy. There was a wolf with a bird on his shoulder. Arsenio had never seen a stranger sight. Wide-eyed, he walked tentatively to the other, immidiately noticing the Mount Shadow scent. "Uhh, hello mister." he said as politely as possible, pawing through a puddle of squelching goo. "I, uh, like your bird."

Way to go.

amazing avatar & table are by akumu! ♥

ic. -steals second spot- o: I'll pretend that Fei knows Arsenio now. (:

ic. Swamp.... for once, February was confused and feeling lost. This wasn't the first time that she had no idea where she was, but everywhere else had been pretty This swamp was so ugly that even if Fei knew exactly where she was, she'd probably still act miserable. The arctic pup had always loved things that were beautiful- they were just so nice to stare at, and to admire. Tail limp behind her, Fei pouted cutely as she slunk around aimlessly, knowing that without help, she wouldn't be able to get out of here. She sauntered around with boredom, tail twitching as she tried to amuse herself.

Soon enough, she spotted a male not too far away, and a grin spread across her face, and her tail began to wave to and fro excitedly, and she barked out a greeting. "Hey there, meester!" She padded towards him, stepping across the dirty, muddy floor cautiously, careful to keep balance so that she wouldn't fall and, well, "mussify" her pelt. Then she noticed a pup nearby the male, "Hey Arsen'o!" she greeted, tail wagging faster.

She bounded even closer to the duet so that she was a few feet away, and then suddenly noticed that there was a bird on... the male's shoulder. She blinked a few times, watching the bird warily. "Uh, meester, there's a bird on you..." She frowmed, taking a few jumpy steps backwards.

Here she was once again, in the swamp, probably the place that she hated the most - as a matter of fact, she wished that it wasn't even here. If it didn't exist, she wouldn't ever have had to put up with its thick, murky, but shallow waters, or its creepy nature, or all of the terrible situations it had gotten her into. On the other hand, her crazed theory about its magnetism had calmed down. She still believed that the trees could think and move, but now that she did not consider them a threat, her levels of panic had dropped considerably. For that reason, she didn't worry at all about whether the Forbidden Swamp was actually a place made to draw others toward it. After all, nothing bad had happened to her so far that actually involved those magnetic abilities - which, of course, didn't actually exist.

As she continued to walk, she heard the sound of voices...pups, females, whatever, there were quite a few again. She continued to walk, not really caring about whether she would encounter them or whether she would somehow veer off-course and not run into them, after all. That was the sort of state that her illness had left her in at the moment - calm and mellow. It changed quite a bit, you see, by the day or even the hour; and more rarely, the minute or even the second. Unfortunately, this also meant that her attention span was considerably smaller. For that reason, she didn't even notice the forms of the four wolves until she was a few feet away...and nearly crashing into them. She stumbled backwards, shuddering as her paws nearly got stuck in the gooey liquid floor. Then she looked up to see two unfamiliar pups, one familiar male, and one unfamiliar male...who had a bird companion! She glanced at the pirate female, still not knowing why she acted this way, and then followed the trend set by the pups by saying, "Whoa. A bird. That's something you don't see every day." And, due to her delirious condition, she was more or less gawking at the winged creature.

Taking a moment to regard the familiar spot with a faint pang of remembrance and the wonder if he would indeed see either of the two wolves again, Cypress assumed that it would not be too long of a wait. Surely Shingle still lived upon the mountain, and unless Sinistra had randomly died Cy doubted that the inky male would give up such a post, not after claiming it so boldly. He cocked his head curiosly and finally abandoned the scene after a further minute of observation, pausing in midstep to sniff a small, rather sickly plant that had caught his attention. A brief whiff proved that it was a rather foul-smelling plant, and the black wolf crushed it rather absently. To think, Cypress pondered with a slight snicker, I may have just squashed the cure of the water-sickness, the last hope! Sinister, maybe, but a thought of dark humour rather than ill-intention. A quick glance showed that there were indeed more of the spindly flora.

Completing his turn to set his gaze on the rest of the barren land, he was surprised to see the wandering form of a wolf of the smaller variety - a small pup. Considering it rather unusual and dangerous for such a youngster to be travelling alone in such a land, Cypress's face was momentarily graced by a frown. When the pup bounded up and proceeded to compliment his bird, however, all thoughts of malcontent were forgotten. At least now he was in the company of an adult - a responsible one, at least, though occasionally bizarre. After all, who carried around a pet bird?

"Thanks," he replied mildly, succumbing to a friendly chuckle as he craned his neck slightly to observe the smaller one, who smelled vaguely of the Nova's pine trees. They had not met, but acquaintance was apparently irrelevant - Tom had taken the comment rather to heart, and puffed his chest proudly. Typical.

Before Cypress had a chance to introduce himself or his feathered companion, another soon joined the scene, giving the black male the impression that he now ran some sort of travelling circus. Two wandering pups in the swamp? It was unusual indeed. Regardless of his new occupation as carnival ringleader, however, he was obligated to reply to this newcomer, and barked accordingly. "This is Peeping Tom, a friend of mine." Taking the introduction as a cue to show off, the named bird chirped pleasantly and fanned his wings to show off the lovely gold and navy feathers.

Cypress's circus, however, soon took a strange turn as a seemingly delirious female swaggered onto the scene uttering loud accusations and words quite unfitting for the youngsters' ears. Demartio, as he had been dubbed, gawked unbelieving for a few seconds before shaking his head to clear his thoughts in case he had been imagining things. Nope, now he was being assailed with feminine wails; lovely. Cringing, Cypress attempted to find an appropriate space between her calls to put forth a few of his own words; this was not easily done. "Listen, lassie," he began with the cool Scottish tones of negotiation (though he doubted they would be of much use), "I'm not Demartio." Frowning in realization that this would in reality do nothing, Cypress turned to see that another had joined the scene, and in this newcomer's direction (as he had not heard her words) he flashed a pleading glance; Help me! It's crazy!

cypress frostfur

I'm horrible for making you guys wait so long. And OHMEGAWSH. -points to Cypressignature- THE BIRD MOVED. xD -slow-

i've got nothin' but problems

At first, Arsenio was so swept up in the raptor that was perched upon the dark wolf's shoulder and how it might possibly swoop down and eat him that he didn't even notice the blob of white until it spoke. His gaze shot toward the unknown being, then, noticing it was February, of whom he had met only a short while ago, smiled and chirped a "Hi, Fei!" to reply to her own hello. Blinking to her words, he nodded and stared blankly again. "I KNOW. 'S SO NEAT." he grinned to the unknown Shadower, simply hoping that saying the creature was cool would make him not sic it on them.

And, even though it seemed rather crowded in the Swamp already, another burst into view. Clenching something in her jaws that she quickly dropped, she then spluttered a few words that, in truth, made no sense. Arsenio, being the astute Apprentice that he was (uh-huh) immidiately thought of the sickness that was plauging the Valley. She rambled on about something about some wolf named "Demartio" (was she mistaking the dark Shadower for this wolf?), sprogs (whatever those were), and many other sorts of rather strange things. Arsenio's gaze was wide when, finally, she simply fell down sobbing, spewing a few more words like a fountain spewed water.

"Uh." he said dumbly, looking to the first wolf that he had met questioningly. He didn't get to ask a question about the situation before yet another stumbled in, this one also slightly delirious and sickly, Arsenio guessed, from the way she acted. Oh, boy.

The original wolf spoke, thanking Arsenio for his compliment and then supplimented him with a name for the raptor. Peeping Tom? Weird name, but at least he hadn't called him on the pups yet. Glancing around the very strange circle of wolves, Arsenio took the liberty of asking genuinely: "'M Arsenio, bu' who be's all of you guys?"

amazing avatar & table are by akumu! ♥

ic. Congrats on that 200th!

ic. February flinched when she heard Arsenio's greeting, not because it hurt her, but because she was surprised. The last time that she had seen him, he had been half delirious because of a fever, and hadn't been nearly as hyper... She guessed that she'd just have to manage to get used to this new side of the brownish Nova Mountain pup. Wagging her tail slightly, the young pup smiled at him, before turning to hear the Mount Shadow male introduce his bird. Peeping Tom? That was an odd name, she turned to grin at the bird, managing to not feel the least bit stupid. "Hewoo, Peepy Tom!" She kept her eyes on the bird, admiring it- it was very pretty and sophisticated looking; she wanted a bird like that!

All of a sudden, some female barged into the clearing and began to blabber nonsense. Well, February actually believed all of it until the birdy-wolf told her that he wasn't Demartio, whoever he was. Then, yet another figure emerged into the area, though she seemed to be slightly delirious as well, which reminded February of Arsenio. Yeesh, what was with all of the sickness? Glad to let her thoughts be redirected by Arsenio's greeting and question, the arctic pup followed up after him.

"Ah'm Febrauary- Fei." Then she fell silent, looking at the other wolves in the area- the sane one, the partly sane one, and the not so sane one.

It only took a few more moments of thought to conclude that Cypress and the two pups were the only sane bunch in the entire gathering. To his complete and utter dismay, the at the time nameless black wolf did little in response to his gestured plea and instead spouted some nonsense about there being a lot of something. He frowned and turned his attention to the smaller folk, heeding to Arsenio's request to know their names. "I'm Cypress," he finally said, regretfully tearing his attention from the normal-minded child and turning it back to the capital of loonyville.

The cream one with the brown eyepatch had (rather appropriately considering her markings) decided that she was a pirate and that Cy was some long-lost shipmate, while the other was simply confused as to what her own name was. Lovely, the male thought grimly, welcome to the Loony Bin, population: YOU. He frowned and paused to open his mouth but whatever words had begun to spill from it were completely drowned out by the cream wolf's next words. Blinking incredulously at her terrible and rather childish pun on his companion's name, Cypress was at a complete loss for words at the time being, and anything that had once been formulating in his mind was ultimately forgotten. The black female, however, seemed to find it extremely funny.

Waiting for the Cackler to cease her frenzied laughing or otherwise choke on something and simply shut up, Cy couldn't decide which one to look at. Both were clearly ill from the tainted water and there was nothing he could immediately do for them except play along. Or something. "Listen. Captain, uh..." What was it? "Mudpatch." Nervously glancing to and fro between Captain MudPatch and the Cackler, the mountainer was at a complete loss at what to do. "You really need to lay off the water. It's got'cha, like, bad. Er, I believe port's over that way, you might want to sail that'a'way before the weather gets too bad. Tornadoes, you know." Glancing helplessly at Fei and Arsenio, Cypress looked to them for anything they could think of to either get them to leave or realize that they were crazy and in desperate need of help. Even Peeping Tom was unnerved by the whole situation, and in a desperate attempt to unearth some sanity, leapt from Cypress's shoulder and took a dive in the beige wolf's direction without aiming to strike. All without a single word of command from the wolf, who was still dumbstruck with shock, and had taken to standing close to the pups in case either of the two loonies decided to recruit either of them for their respective crews.

cypress frostfur

i've got nothin' but problems

Overlooking his peer's flinch to his drastic change in personality, Arsenio was much more suprised when the brown-spotted female simply flopped over after a few more strange outbursts and then drearily remarked upon his and Fei's names (what's Arsenic?), though splayed out on the muddy floor of the Swamp. Golden eyes wide, he moved toward her, then noticing that she didn't seem too in pain or anything, then stopped. He frowned, an action that surpassed his age.

That didn't last too long, though. The brown-splashed white girl's comment on Fei's slight stumble over words simply made him burst out laughing. It was sudden and unexpected, but Arsenio found himself greatly enjoying himself, despite being in the midst of wolves in great danger due to sickness. Eventually returning back to normalcy, he noted the names that the "Captain Flint" so said, though he didn't believe them as far as he could throw them.

Though, Arsenio met his match when the other darker sick wolf started on a long list of names (boy names), before finally dubbing herself Cep. Well, at least she wasn't blubbering on about captains and ships. The wolf with the bird on his silver shoulder (who introduced himself as Cypress earlier), was clearly at a disadvantage for communcating with the ill wolves (one needed a decent amount of ingenuity, of which puppies were known to have), and Arsenio noted his look for help. Before being able to do much, the raptor that was on the wolf's shoulder took off without warning, soaring toward the eyepatched wolf. Arsenio's eyes widened, and he yelped in suprise. "Mista' Cypress, won' 'ya bird 'urt 'er?!" Though he doubted it (Tom didn't seem like that bad a killer, except for wolves as small as he).

amazing avatar & table are by akumu! ♥

ic. The piratey wolf seemed quite nice to Fei- after all, she had complimented on the pup's name, so why did she feel so wary of her? Her and the other wolf alike, though the brown-splotched one was for sure much scarier. Frownly, she took a few steps away from her, and closer to Cypress and Arsenio- at least they didn't seem so... metally ill. Her tail twitched slightly behind her, still wagging slightly because Fei felt so energetic. However, her next words made the young pup look down at the floor, shifting her weight uncomfortably, a flustered look flashing across her pretty features. It wasn't her fault that she didn't know how to say "Peeping Tom" correctly... She shook her head, convincing herself that the two adults were only loony and that they didn't know what they were talking about.

She turned to the one with many names, watching her laugh through narrowed eyes, flustered features smoothing down into her normal, adorable appearance. Then, she blinked at Cypress, who obviously didn't want them to be near the three saner wolves. The female couldn't help but agree- she didn't want to be with some sick wolves any longer than she needed to. She frowned, shaking her head lightly, wordlessly admitting that she had no idea what to do to get the group of them away. Helplessly, she looked at the two males, before turning to look up, attempting to help out. "Yessum, the tornado is going to hit soon- we should all go."

Completely aware of the fact that Tom meant not to hit the spotted wolf but simply scare her (hopefully) into some sanity, Cypress made no attempt to stop him. The kestrel swooped entirely wide of the wolf but it shocked her all the same. At first Cy was led to believe that she was still entirely out of her mind, but upon wishing some damnation upon the bird and making a scene out of his apparent negligence he could see the common sense beginning to surface.

Heeding to her question, the archipelago wolf cleared his throat softly and stepped forward. "His aim is not so poor and would only hurt if ordered to," he began, but then dismissed the subject to remain neutral, "But it worked. You were having a spell - from the water, I'd imagine. Some nonsense about being a pirate and such. I'm Cypress and this here is..." He paused a moment or two for them to introduce themselves, but to his dismay they were cut short as the patched female simply passed out right there and then.

Blinking in bewilderment, Cy opened and shut his muzzle a few times before turning to look at Cep, who was still somewhat muddled by the sickness, but thankfully not so obviously as Gracie had been. Cypress looked up to see that Tom had perched nearby and resumed his gaze on the two sane pups. "I think we ought to try and revive her — but gently," he added. So it was left at that: one sane adult, one somewhat sane adult, two pups, and a kestrel somehow needed to resolve the situation.

ooc. Bad post, yessum. -blames essay-

ic. So many things were happening that February had begun to feel dizzy and confused. She took a few steps backwards and began to review tbe situation over in her head so that she could clear up a few things and stop her spinning head. Gracie was sick, and had called Fei a liar (which made February feel bad), and had been attacked by Tom, and was now lying on the floor, not knowing where she was. Deception was kind of there, but kind of not there, talking about pirates and birds. Cypress was suggesting what they should do right now, and Arsenio suddenly had a bright idea about walking. Shaking her head to clear her mind better, February stepped up to nod in agreement to Arsenio's plan.

"Yea, I think that'd work, bu' everything here looks 'xactly the same, how'd she be able to remember anything?" Well, at least, everything looked the same to poor February, who was still feeling a bit lost about the current situation.

For the most part agreeing with Arsenio, Cypress nodded and turned slightly to look at the semi-conscious Gracie. He doubted that the cream she-wolf would actually come to her senses any time soon, but the Frostfur figured that it was worth a try and no harm would be done by it. The wolf strode to the female's side and offered a serious of meaningful nudges until she stirred and rose to her feet, though no words were spoken in either normal wolf tongue or pirate. Cy backed off slightly and demonstratively began to walk, urging the others to follow as they had suggested. Their course led out of the putrid swamp, and Cypress hoped that the gradual departure from the territory would put some sense into the ill wolf.

Whatever the case, their little group slowly made its way out of the area, with the still undecided Gracie and mildly ill Deception following along. He didn't expect either of them to realize their sickness, but they could at least escort the things back to their homelands before one of them hurt themself. After all, pirate sea wars could be rather vicious things — with the cannons and all.

Aiden made my avatar! <3

Arsenio followed along Cypress' side, he really just wanted to escape the nasty swamp and the slightly insane wolves that he thought were still following behind. Every step fueled his want for the cure to this disease to be found, so these 'off their rocker' wolves would get back to normal. If they were sick, that is. So, with a worried from plastered all over his muddied features, the pup eventually made it out of the Swamp before looking to the group that was still with them.

"I'll b'leavin' now." he said simply with a small smile. "Hope t'see you all again some'ime!" And, with that all said and done, the puppy raced off toward the twin Novian peaks, washing in a mountainous stream (which he was sure was free of polluted water, seeing as though it was from an underground spring) and then getting on home to where he hoped he would catch something to feed his growing appitite.

amazing avatar & table are by akumu! ♥

ooc. and now time for Fei to follow cypress to that other thread. :3

ic. February's thoughts didn't really seem to matter, for in the end, the group started to leave the swamp. The young pup blinked, not wanting to be alone so quickly, but she didn't realy mind- she could always find other things to do. The pup waved goodbye to the crazy wolf, Arsenio, and Deception in turn, smile on her face, though it soon faltered. February halted where she was, and began to ponder what she was going to do now- she didn't want to go home, not yet, she wanted to explore some more. Tail wagged behind her when she looked around to see that Cypress was still in sight.

She followed his scent, deciding to track the admirable shadow wolf to wherever his next destination was- that was something that she would have fun doing, and she would be practicing her tracking skills as well! Delighted smile plastered onto her face, she, too, left the area.