+1 - Make a BWP-related post
+2 - Study one of the natural phenomena occurring (1/2)
+2 - Assess the impacts of the weather on herds and prey (1/2)
+2 - Analyze the changes being made to the land
+5 - Complete a BWP-related thread (with 10+ posts)
+5 - Complete a thread with a character you've never threaded with before

After his conversation with Charax, the Dieudonne man had decided to go and check out the state of the herds at the Dunes. Since the weather at Wolfbron was getting worse with each day it was best to prepare for future hunts to be carried out here if the prey at the Bluffs disappears.

Strong winds were picking up dust, pelting him in grains of sand. At one point, he had sand in places he never thought sand could get into. He went off to find shelter behind the tall walls of the Gorge.

However, there was an entirely different problem here.

Apollinaire wasn't sure if he preferred dust storms or insects everywhere. Perhaps dust. Wherever he looked, there were bugs. The walls were coated in them, some flew overhead, while others were ravaging what little plant life was left. His face twisted in mild disgust.

Pacing onward, he began to seek any signs of herds. If there was one place to hide, it would be the Red Rock Gorge.

@Kieran_{BG — ART — CODE}

made with gunmetal bones and wolf's teeth
a warrior, a soldier

Perhaps it would be better for the Andals to keep their deserts. Kieran had been scouting near their lands, just far enough away to justify his excursion as a simple exploration but close enough to try and find routes to and from their territory without being noticed. The gorge was an ideal place to start, with the endless labyrinths of red-rock cliffs. It were a maze one could easily get lost in if they did not mark the path from which they came, and Kieran was very meticulous in the way he did. He would mark near on the rocks near the ground, where it could go unnoticed and hidden by the sand if he so desired, and each intricate array of clawmarks would mean different things depending on what he found. It had been going well, until—

Whiiiiissshshhhhh

He turned his head skyward, and above the peaks of the gorge was a sudden wall of gray and brown. At first, Kieran thought a sandstorm was suddenly flooding down upon him, but as it grew closer, he could see that it were no dust storm at all. Though the bugs managed to keep themselves above the edges of the gorge, a few fell down deep into its depths, where Kieran stood, and he had to dodge furiously to avoid their loud caterwauling. Soon, their numbers grew so great they began to choke out the sun, and his path was obstructed and hard to navigate with the lack of light. He rushed - dodging and weaving through the narrower passages of the gorge until, finally, a dark silhouette took form from between the darkness and the howling locusts that fell about them. He managed only to stop just short of @Apollinaire, nearly nose-to-nose.

+1 - Make a BWP-related post
+2 - Study one of the natural phenomena occurring (2/2)
+2 - Assess the impacts of the weather on herds and prey (1/2)
+2 - Analyze the changes being made to the land
+5 - Complete a BWP-related thread (with 10+ posts)
+5 - Complete a thread with a character you've never threaded with before

The flutter of wings above was disorienting, and he couldn't focus on any other sound than the cacophony of the locusts that began to block out the sun. He lifted his eyes up to gaze at the cloud of insects, trying to discern if he should get the hell out of here or remain. For now they seemed harmless. He'd come so far already, risked getting sand in his mane for this little scouting mission. Apollinaire wasn't going to abandon it now.

So he moved onward, trying to find any hoof prints that may lead him to a herd or at least a few lost creatures ready for dinner. However, what he found were other kinds of marks - claw marks. A different type of prey.

He thought how wonderful it would be if one of the Oasis lions were here. The Gorge was well-shielded and would prove to be a good place to carry out a different kind of hunt.

And so he followed, until --

@Kieran almost bumped into him, the unmistakable scent of Wolfbron wafting past his nose immediately. Apollinaire took a step back, his eyes narrowing in on his pridemate. Bonjour, he dipped his head in a theatrical bow. Wasn't expecting a friendly face here, Who was he, anyway?_{BG — ART — CODE}

made with gunmetal bones and wolf's teeth
a warrior, a soldier

It were some divine providence that Kieran walked straight into the space of @Apollinaire, one who smelled of the Bluffs, who spoke his shared native tongue. Once the shock of their chaotic introduction began to settle (as well as it could, given the apocalypse raging all around them), the fur that stood on the back of his neck lay flat, and his wide eyes began to settle. He began to wonder how odd it was that he did indeed meet another Bluffs lion here, but the expanse of desert too belonged to the Bluffs, which could be seen in the far-off distance as a bleary silhouette of mountains in the north. Lions oftentimes traversed this desert to find their borders. As well, Bluffs lions expanded their patrolling well beyond the borders, the threat of an Andal ambush ever-present. Seeing Apollinaire here perhaps wasn't so strange at all.

“Me neither,” he replied curtly, though not unkindly. The roar of the locusts around them drowned out the majority of their speech, barely able to hear each other above their wingbeats. Though they were sheltered from the majority of it raging above-head, the few locusts that dropped down from their horde and right onto their heads was ever-incessantly annoying. “What is happening?” he demanded, wondering if the other man were perhaps more well-versed in the whims of nature than he. For all Kieran knew, this could be something as natural and normal as it could be completely apocalyptic.

+1 - Make a BWP-related post
+2 - Study one of the natural phenomena occurring (2/2)
+2 - Assess the impacts of the weather on herds and prey (1/2)
+2 - Analyze the changes being made to the land
+5 - Complete a BWP-related thread (with 10+ posts)
+5 - Complete a thread with a character you've never threaded with before

The roar of the locusts was loud and irritating to the ear, and Apollinaire focused on @Kieran's lips to try and hear him above the noise. Me neither, his pridemate states, and Apollinaire smiles pleasantly. The fur across his nape rose at the sudden bombardment from above as some locusts began to fall to their death. What is happening? Apollinaire wished he had some kind of answer, but alas he didn't. They were just pawns in nature's game. It brought some sick and twisted sense of excitement within the french man.

Zhey seem zho be having a party, he flashed a toothy grin at the maroon-furred lion. A big, big party! Or maybe it was a death party, considering how many of them began to fall from above. Maybe a locust moshpit? I zhink zhe world is ending. He added nonchalantly. Wolfbron was in snow, celosia was a wreck, Ilere too. The whole valley was going bonkers._{BG — ART — CODE}

made with gunmetal bones and wolf's teeth
a warrior, a soldier

A party?

Kieran's expression turned into a scowl. He highly doubted that such terrible creatures would find any reason to celebrate. Their entire existence was a nuisance, a life too short to enjoy any pleasures in life, too small to stand up against any predator seeking their demise, and far too wretched and irritating to find delight in anything. It is only @Apollinaire's second statement that Kieran can agree with, and is it one that comes with a heavy and brutal reality. If their world was indeed coming to an end, then it would be one brutally endured, and not quite as blissful as Kieran would have hoped death would be.

“It wasn't like this before,” he remarked, quite obviously; but it had been strange to Kieran how Amaryllis was plunged into chaos right on the precipice of his return. It seemed this place had turned asunder the moment he set foot back in this wretched place. He'd considered at times taking Amara and their children away from all of this. “What a brutal end it would be.”

There was a certain elation in Apollinaire's voice when he spoke of the world's end, a sick and twisted fascination for that chaos that such an event may bring. The panic, the rush to escape, the wrong decisions that the livestock of this valley would take. A prime time for a hunt of the best kind, a chaotic end for one - a feast for another. Because they will survive, and the weak and unworthy will be culled like sheep for the slaughter. “It wasn't like this before,”

Before. His mind shifted to @Kieran's arrival. He has been here before Apollinaire, when the world wasn't trying to kill them all. You've been here before me, oui? It was evident, but he nudged towards this conversation. He wanted to know this man who was so evidently kin. Where did he fit in the puzzle that was Wolfbron? In Amara's personal relationships? In the Matriarchy? The neat french man had noted the ferocity that Kieran showed on the battlefield. It was evident that his loyalties went deep, like the roots of an ancient tree. “What a brutal end it would be.” Brutal, but beautiful. He glanced at the cloud above their heads._{BG — ART — CODE}