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He had traveled too far.

Hakan felt exhausted, to say the least. His breath was short, while a couple of exhales managed to slip right through his brown lips. His light green gaze lingered upon the various types of greenery that was currently surrounding him, before it was ultimately driven back onto the path he had already taken. All he managed to behold at the trail behind him was some scarce foliage that had yielded against his mass and tracks his own paw pads had created.

“Reminder to self, water is important”.

His sarcastic remark was dismissed, as expected, since nobody seemed to be hanging around here. For real, who would want to even be here out of all the places? The tall brute took a thorough look around, checking the verdure and the damp soil that had embraced his paws previously. Mud everywhere. “Well, sorry buddy”, he uttered with a shrug, before proceeding onto circling a plant’s stem with his fangs. With a swift yank, Hakan found himself holding onto the thin yet rigid part of the plant. Its length wasn’t enormous, but it was long enough for the male to be able of holding it steady by keeping its edge inside his mouth.

It wasn’t as if munching on a torn plant was going to get him somewhere. But the lad found the chewing sounds he made occupying him as he continued his journey deeper into the marsh.

“What do we have here”? His words were muffled as he nonchalantly struggled to sound clear, with his mouth occupied. Not that if he drawled it would make any difference at this point. Hakan found himself gazing upon the boggy ground sprawled before him. Right in the middle of swamp, a pond was located. Its water seemed to be making a habitat for all kinds of critters and animals that were fond of the mucky water. Hakan decided to stroll closer, the mud clods already forming patches of dirt around his already sepia hued strands. The chewing sounds increased.

The water wasn’t flowing. It was idle as ever, and Hakan could swear that if his reflection in the dirty water was realistic, he could make the perfect swamp monster for pups to fear so that they could abide by their parents’ rules. The incessant munching ceased as soon as a tiny silhouette of a frog seemed to dally casually upon what seemed to be a flower on the water. The canine let his eyes trail after the light petals that floated on the surface. Flowers surviving despite the lack of soil, the world had really gone mad! “These yours, fella?” he asked pretty much rhetorically. But he wouldn’t complain if the frog decided to grant him with a valid response at this point. Of course he joked about the critter owning the water-flowers. Although he would be lying if he didn’t admit that if that was the case, this dude lived like a true Alpha in his unique kingdom!

“I suppose it would be pretty disrespectful of me to drink from your paradise, wouldn’t it”? he spoke, allegedly addressing the frog that hadn’t flinched at the wolf’s presence. Hakan sighed, nodding his head as if he had just received some affirmative answer. “Yeah, I guessed so”. The male shrugged once more. Drinking from this filthy water would possibly satisfy his thirst initially, but no one promised him that he wouldn’t be crawling from stomach ache right after. But of course, getting his request rejected by the swamp’s ‘leader’ was a far better scenario that he could narrate.

If only Akela was here.

Right about when his teeth clenched around the green stem, Hakan witnessed the slimy creature dive into the water, fleeing from the scene entirely. And he was left alone. Him and the stick like plant. Watching the watery spot where his temporary companion had left some ripples behind. The wolf opened his eyes wider as the ripples stopped altogether. The water was indeed dirty, preventing him from perceiving a clear reflection of himself. Instead, there was a dark mass lingering on the surface, one he could recognise as himself. And another one.

A far smaller shadow seemed to maneuver on top of his reflection’s head, causing Hakan to abandon the sight of the water, and direct his gaze on the sky instead. His eyesight hadn’t betrayed him. There was indeed something in the air, something that the male had yet to come across in his entire lifespan. But here he had just encountered a puddle of water-flowers. Would a flying item that resembled a huge spider really make that huge of a difference?

“Nice view from up there”? he spoke with a slightly higher tone, this time expecting an answer. The silence was alarming as everything seemed to stand still, except for the clouds. The canine awaited some more, before the floating item seemed to move steadily towards a different direction. “Rude much” was his only phrase at the creature’s manners. Hakan managed to inspect some more the peculiar presence above the trees, soon losing sight of it as the branches and leaves did a great job at concealing it from his eyes. Without any rush, the at the time loner let a deep breath out, spitting out the stem that had been almost torn from his muzzle’s motion. From then on, he just continued crossing the idle water, his muscular frame emerging out of the marsh soon. An extra thin layer of moss was currently clinging around the fibers of his legs, smearing his underbelly, but his back and face had remained intact. From that instant, the male continued walking towards the direction he had last witnessed the wingless spider take.

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Human/Ranger POV

It was certainly not the most lively place in the Sanctuary.

The woman held in a sneeze while her left hand held tightly the pencil, scribbling some hasty notes about the specific region. The impact of the storms had taken its toll on the low grounds and its inhabitants. Thankfully, their new equipment would come in handy now. She agreed that it was a safe means to observe the flow of things within certain areas, especially after the havoc created by the abnormally bad weather during the past summer. Now it was their job to find out any potential irreversible destructions within the Sanctuary’s borders.

After spending some fair amount of time of footage from the forest, she paused almost instantly the motion at the very sight of a wolf almost half way into a puddle of idle water. Was it trying to drink water? The woman was about to zoom in in order to investigate more about the sight of the canine standing with its head directed towards the water. Probably stuck, she assumed, bringing her phone close in order to call for her co-worker and probably organize some rescue plan to interfere. Her hands froze in place as she viewed the brown coated wolf stare right back at her.

Crossing her arms together, the woman stayed still some time to ponder, concluding to seek around some more with the drone in order to detect this one’s pack, wondering if the wolf had simply wandered away on its own and got stuck in the process.

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After some time of roaming aimlessly through the shades, Hakan eventually gave up on finding whatever it was that was spying on him. Not that he cared to find out what that was really, since it didn’t directly interfere with his life to draw his attention that much. But it was good at taking his attention from his thirst and shifting it onto something else.

His motion became steadier again, and he allowed himself to listen to the nature’s sounds. His ears perked as some familiar noise entered his eardrums. Water? He found himself almost hobbling towards the destination of the sound. Not just any kind of water. Flowing water!

Finally.

Hakan would wind up almost immersing all of his snout into the crystal clear liquid that was running lively from some cracks of a boulder, forming a creek. The male indulged in his thirst, his ticked tail waving pleasantly.

Maybe that thing wasn’t that rude in the end.