Scouting 1

Vice wandered the vast open plains of the Blasting Moors, the oppressively moist atmosphere combined with the thick smell of sulfur and natural gas was nauseating but also somehow enjoyable. The spongy yet brittle grasses and mosses that covered the plains was an odd combination of soft and crisp under foot as the massive black ketucari wandered the empty landscape. Far off in the distance he could see some armatherium slowly walking across the plains in a herd, the massive woolly creatures were slowly grazing while enjoying the blisteringly hot sprays of the geysers erupting around them. Vice marveled at how those massive beasts' hides were so thick they actually enjoyed the scalding water of the geysers. As the ketucari wandered around yet another bubbling, steaming pool of water just standing near it was uncomfortably warm, he could only imagine how hot the actual waters were.

The landscape around him was quite beautiful in its own way. The heat blasted mosses and grasses of the moors were perpetually stained a brownish red color with streaks of grey flowers across it. The vegetation wasn't withering and yet it all looked as if it was one dry day away from death. Across the plain in random locations the vegetation gave way to pebbles and rocks surrounding hard to see holes in the ground. From these holes blisteringly hot water would erupt in a solid white column with a strange whaboosh sound that barely gave any warning for those who might have accidentally wandered too close. The super heated water splattered and near instantly evaporated against the cool grey rocks. Thanks to the ever present and active geysers both the air and the land felt warm even in the dead of winter making this place an excellent retreat for elderly ketucari to rest their weary old bones.

Vice was still young, barely old enough to be considered a teenager but this zone just happened to be the closest to his home pack so it was inevitable that he would find himself wandering through this place. As he traveled he realized that the unnaturally bright blue pools of water had other more unnatural colors mixed in with them. Highly curious, the black ketucari found a pool away from the geysers and cautiously inched closer to it. This pool was no where near was hot as the others he had passed earlier and the sulfurous smell was far stronger here. As the ketucari cautiously peered into the light blue waters he realized that the entire pool was rimmed by a bright yellow ring that reached into the edge of the pool and settled between the rocks at the bottom. Intrigued Vice tentatively reached out a claw and gently poked the mysterious yellow ring. The yellow coating around the pool was extremely soft and brittle, its solid surface breaking easily at the slightest touch. Vice blinked in fascination as he realized the light yellow ring was some sort of powder. When he eventually started to wander away once more he pondered what the odd powder could have been. Whatever it was, it seemed to be the source of the foul odor that permeated the air and he decided to ask his mother when he returned to the pack later that day.