Assassin

The spray of water felt delightful. Assassin could close his eyes and feel the mist fall onto his heavy, grizzled-gray coat. Compared to the outrageous heat coming from the sun, that baked the valley, Assassin was in heaven. The loud crash of water down the fall blocked out much of Assassin's thoughts, allowing him to slip away into a fantasy. There, nothing was wrong. He was okay. Everything was fine.

Opening his golden eyes, Assassin gazed down into the deep waterfall abyss. Below, there was nothing but a mass of foaming white, where waves clashed against each other. Nothing distinct could be made out there, but Assassin was not frightened by that. Did he not know better, Assassin would contemplate jumping into that mass of white, just for the thrill. But these ideals were foolish, and Assassin chuckled at his silly thoughts.

Taking a few steps back from the edge, Assassin stretched his front paws forward, throwing his weight onto his hind legs. Stifling a yawn, Assassin straightened himself and shook the cool moisture off of his pelt.

Rook

Across the mist-soaked rocks, Rook's large paws left their temporary prints as he moved across one of the ridges. His dark black-brown coat almost looked grayish and pale with the mist that was collecting on it, and it forced him to stop now and then to give himself a good shake to clear the water off. All around him, the crash and roar of the cascading falls sounded in his ears, blocking out so much other sound that he didn't hear the presence of another canine... but he soon saw him.

Rook slowed to a stop, where he was several yards away on a cluster of boulders and peering up at where Assassin was positioned. His reddish-orange eyes studied the other brute for a moment or two, and he almost grinned to himself. To Rook, it looked like this other fellow was here for the same reason as himself; a brief escape, and a welcome reprieve from the summer's relentless heat. "Fine day to come to the falls, isn't it?" Feeling a little more on the social side, and confident in his 130 weight - even if he wasn't an experienced fighter in the least and could probably get his tail handed to him by a wolf half his size - Rook took the opportunity to greet Assassin.

Assassin

Assassin inhaled the air, feeling his muscles relax. Over the roar of water, he had not heard Rook enter. Maybe if he had been the slightest bit alert, he could've sensed Rook, but Assassin wasn't giving a second to care about being alert. Therefore, when Rook spoke, Assassin flinched slightly. He didn't wheel around, teeth barred and pugnacious. Instead, Assassin flicked a glance over his shoulder with a brief smile.

"Yeah, you're telling me," Assassin chuckled. The greeting Rook had given him was innocent enough. There was no reason to act hostile around Rook. In this day and age, any time you encountered a being in the valley, you had the right to act vicious and cautious. A sad fact that had been born with the various unsettled disputes from the Haunter-Lurker war, and now the recent conflicts. There was no one to trust. But, right now, Assassin didn't care. The wars were in the back of his mind.

Assassin turned towards Rook, offering the other canine a friendly disposition. He meant no harm, and he hoped Rook didn't either. "I'm Assassin, who are you?" he introduced formally, wagging his bushy tail.

Rook

More than potential aggression from the stranger, Rook was worried about his footing on the rocks, and making sure he didn't misstep and take a tumble down the dangerously steep drop-offs and small cliffs. Perhaps he was a little too nonchalant for his own good, but at least it didn't matter in this situation, since Assassin returned a friendly reply and a wagging tail. Rook obliged with a wave of his own dark plume, which had a slight curl to it thanks to the Akita and Husky blood that ran through his otherwise wolven looking body.

"Assassin, I'm Rook." The leggy hybrid took another moment to contemplate the rugged landscape around him before he clambered up a few more feet, so that he was a little closer to Assassin, and could hear the wolf's words easier. "Son of Vienna." Since he didn't know who his father was, and had never even met him, he left out Starscream's name and simply offered his dam's title, without knowing that he and this other brute were distantly related. "You know, I've never actually traveled this far back into the ridges before, what with all the big cats and all around the place." He spoke casually, offering no hints of aggression or ulterior motives in either his voice or body language.

Assassin

Assassin watched Rook step across the rocky terrain with amusement. The brute himself hadn't had it easy getting up here. Especially with his less-then-average legs. But he had muscled through it, and Assassin was very content with where he was now. Breve Ridges was beautiful.

Assassin himself didn't know his sire. His mother had been set up to bear pups for pack and establish a new generation of warriors. He was unaware that Rook's grandmother, Isabel, was his father's sister. But those were meticulous facts, something no one paid attention to anymore.

"I kind of ignored that..." Assassin chuckled, smiling softly. He was only 100 pounds, enough to fend off a cat, but not enough to kill an assaultant. Yet, he was unafraid. "I haven't seen one yet...but they'll probably keep their distance. Where there's one wolf, there's a whole pack behind him to seek revenge..."

Rook

The longer he stood, the heavier his coat became as the fine spray of water continued to settle on and seep into it. The darkly colored brute gave himself another shake before he pointed his ears attentively forward again to catch all that Assassin was saying. "You're right on that. Heh.." A half-grin flashed across his broad muzzle as a memory came to him, "My sister and I use to 'hunt' for cats at the base of the mountains when we were little. Fortunately, all we ever found were those tiny field cats that the humans like to keep as pets, and you can bet we hardly caught a single one." It had been a while since Rook had the chance to meet a new, friendly face, and now that he found an audience out of Assassin, the amiable hybrid was more than happy to share some words and stories with him. "Do you come here often?"

Assassin

Assassin smiled softly at Rook, edging back towards the side of the cliff. He gazed down at the waters, receiving a faceful of spray. Once he felt chilled, he backed up to address Rook. He chuckled at the wolf's story, remembering the silly games he once played as a juvenile, naive pup. "I didn't come here until after I was a yearling," Assassin told Rook. "Since then, I've stopped by more often than not. It's quite here...no sounds of war aren't presence up here. Even with the threat of cats, I'm more at peace up here than anywhere else in the valley." Assassin lifted his muzzle, gazing up at the deep azure sky. He drew in a deep breath, tasting the moisture in the air. "It's nice to find a peaceful place, huh?"

Rook

"You were smarter than the lot of us then." Then again, Rook wasn't raised in a conventional pack, and he strayed out on his own quite often; it was a miracle he'd never gotten himself seriously hurt during any of his unsupervised exploring as an adolescent. "It is, it is. The falls a good for drowning out the noise of everything else, and big cats aside, I've never seen humans or bears in the area; not up this far anyway." Rook resisted the urge to shake his pelt again, knowing that he'd only have to do it once more a few minutes later, so long as they stood in the spray of the cataracts. "Have you explored any further than this? There is a cave a short distance from these ledges, and it's always as cool as a brisk spring morning."

Assassin

Assassin listened to Rook, closing his eyes. Opening them after the wolf had finished, he smiled. "No, I haven't, actually..." He admitted, wagging his tail softly. "I am a curious one, though. Have you navigated in there before? I'd be delighted to explore a little bit..." Assassin chuckled, amazed by his sudden bloom of amusement. He was bored. He could use some entertainment, and Rook was good company for one such activity.

Rook

Rook brightened up with some enthusiasm himself when this other fellow showed interest in the cave. "I've never gone far in there, but I've always wondered about it. I tried talking to the bats once about it, but they're sticklers about sleeping during the day, and at night, well... good luck getting one to respond to you while they're out flying about." Rook snorted a bit to show his irritation at the little winged mammals. "Just watch your step in there. There isn't much light, and the ground is terribly uneven." Happy to have found a companion, Rook started down a different path to lead Assassin to the Cavern.