It's A Trap!

Jyriah was ready and fired up to shower Jess with questions. He had so many to ask, but just as soon as Jessie came into view, he furrowed his brows at her position as he saw her clutch her own hand.

"Hey - are you okay? What happened?" he asked with worry as his plans shattered and he rushed to her side.

"Oh, it's just a cut - it's fine. Veltar can heal it, I'm sure" she replied with an awkward smile. It was good to see his eye was healing quickly, though. She could almost see an iris starting to form like a little pin head. It was totally creepy, but also - really cool looking. To see just a small black dot in a mass of white was slightly comical, but she resisted the urge to laugh.

"That's not what is important, though - look at this~" she trilled out and showed him the pyramid-shaped object jutting out of the ground. She had dug a bit around it using one of her hands, and it had only grown in size the more she exposed.

"What the hell is that?" Jyriah asked with caution, but also excited curiosity.

"I don't know - want to help me uncover it?" she asked with a grin filled with mischevious delight. Who wouldn't want to figure out what a mysterious object buried in the ground was? So far it was a simple metal shape. Hopefully it was something that would prove to be useful.

"Nothing would delight me more - let's do this" Jyriah replied like an excited little kid who had just found a secret hidden within a box or storage space.

As they began to kick dirt about to get close to the object, the more of the 'side' of the pyramid they found. The more the shape was revealed, the more they started to realize what it was -- some kind of box. It looked practically ancient, and had to be here for a long time if it was as far down in the soil as it was.

It also appeared to be on its side, so something must have knocked it over and it just laid there getting covered by layers and layers of dirt.

The wood appeared to be well-intact and water-sealed, and the metal binding each plank together hadn't seemed to cracked or damaged, but they werealso looking at the bottom and two sides of the large crate.

"Cool. I really hope there is something good in here. We could use a pick me up. All the news lately has been bad..." Jyriah said with huffed breath as he continued to dig with both hands.

"Yeah, tell me about it..."Jessie remarked and sounded a bit too bitter for either of their comforts.

"Did something happen between you and Joss? You've both been acting weird lately...." Jyriah replied, finding a great opening to start trying to figure out exactly what was going on.

"Ahg - no - well - not us....kind of? It's complicated. He wants something that I am against, and I want something he just can't seem to let me do...." she was as vague as possible on purpose, and didn't elaborate past that.

"Like...what...? I mean honestly, what could there be to argue about in the woods?" he asked with a half-joke, half-curious voice.

"Its... relationship stuff... I really don't want to talk about it right now," Jessie replied in hopes he would back off.

"Oh. Between you two, or?" he tried to prod one more time for answers.

"No." She answered simply.

"...Is it me?" Jyriah asked with more of an up tone to his words.

"Yes and no? Please, just - I'm sure he'll talk about it with you soon. It's not my place," Jessie answered and with a healed hand, had been able to start digging again along side Jyriah.

"Okay..." he played off the best he could that he didn't care, but it was absolutely bugging him.

Come to think of it, he had tried to spend a lot of time with Veltar lately... he even had volunteered to go with him to gather things earlier this week, and he followed Veltar to the river to get water cress....and....to hunt last night...

Joss must have fallen in love with Veltar, or was falling in love with him... That's why he was acting so weird. That's why he was spending so much time with the newly healed and dashing wolf - and it had to be why Jessie refused to say something.

'It's not my place' she had said. What could she have meant by that? Did she know and was just waiting for her brother to tell him?

He had just lost one of his sisters - he didn't want to lose his mate, next. How could something like this happen? Weren't he and Joss a couple? Hadn't they been paired? There was no way it was just a fling, or a false-spark....right?

As speculation and guesses started to fill his head, so too did the hate for Veltar rise in his heart. In fact.... the next time Joss was going to insist he went with Veltar, he was going to insert himself into the situation instead - and then confront him.

"I think we should go get the others for this. The two of us won't be able to dig this out ourselves, even as wolves..." Jyriah mused out as he stopped to take a breather.

"Absolutely agreed," Jessie replied and also stopped so she could catch her breath.

"You want me to go...or...?" Jyriah asked as he primed himself to leave.

"Which would you prefer?" she asked with a chuckle as she looked at his handsome snout when he glanced to her.

'Wow, Joss is lucky...' she couldn't help but think.

"I hate waiting around. I'll be back in a second?" he wanted to make sure they were in agreement before he left.

"You will be back in a second," Jess replied easily and grinned in hopes it would lighten the slight awkward air between them.

"Yesss" he hissed in relief and took off like the little fireball he was. Whatever was going on between Joss and Veltar wasn't her fault, and he wasn't about to take it out on her. Veltar however, well - he was going to scope out the male and size him up before he confronted him.

As he raced between trees on all fours, he dodged trees and leaped over rocks. He loved to run above all - and couldn't help himself as he let his tongue out to flap freely in the wind with giddy happiness.

What was even better, is that he could run freely through the woods in search of Metas and the other pack members because he had no idea where they were, but he could smell (and taste) their presence somewhere around here....

A little too carefree, he found himself swept up into the sky by a giant, leaf-covered net.

"What the actua---" Jyriah was unable to finish his words as dirty and other things filled his open mouth.

He scrambled in the mess of leaves, twigs, and dirt all while his paws kept poking through the holes in the net.

Once he returned to his mortal form, it made it a lot easier for him to get his footing - and with a mighty push against one of the ropes, he propelled himself up through the leaves and popped his head out of the top with a very angry expression.