@Dauntless - located on the South-Western border, Wraen is near Whitefish river, on the opposite bank of the forest.
Almost four years ago young Osprey had left her home at Flightless Falcons in order to find her siblings, who had been vanished. Here - on the borders of a pack that had formerly been claimed by Blacktail deer plateau wolves - she had met all three brothers and had decided to stay. Years had gone by, the young wolf had grown up and aged, made friends and enemies, found love and eventually established a family. Wolves came and went, the old trees of the forest saw a lot of other life-stories evolve and take place. People had changed, but the place in the end had essentially stayed the same.
Wraen, who out of all Osprey's children, had been the keenest to listen to the stories of her mother's youth, had finally located the place, where her mother had once lived. Though Fire Hot Springs had been a landmark hard to miss, finding the right riverbend and the oddly-shaped rock had been more difficult, because of the snow. But here she was, standing on a brink of another pack's claimed territories, listening and wondering, whether any of the wolves that had once lived here or known her mom, still lived here.
dauntless’ stomach grumbles as he peers as the last stretch of his patrol wondering if it would hurt to take a break and find some small and unsuspecting woodland creature to snack on or if he should tough it out and keep going. if he finished his patrol, he reasoned, then he would have more time to hunt something bigger and more worthwhile than a squirrel. with that constitution in the forefront of his mind dauntless keeps going on his patrol, pausing in his steps as he catches an unfamiliar scent on the frigid wind that writhes its way through the plateau’s forest. it causes the wispier tendrils of his chocolate pelage to bristle at his nape and he makes a beeline down the border to where the scent is the strongest. hazel gaze — favoring brown today — focuses upon her dark gray mottled pelage and he offers a chuff to announce his presence, satisfied that there is plenty of distance between their borders and her. he finds it a bit strange that she apparently is content to linger ( he did not recall hearing any sort of call ) and his tail lifts over his back in a display of assertion. “these are morningside’s borders, stranger.” dauntless informs her simply. "what brings you here?" he inquires bluntly, having begun to discover that he has little patience for those that presume to beat around the bush.
Apparently Wraen had been lost in thoughts for quite some time, because she got startled, when the proud guardian of the claimed lands arrived and demanded, that she explains, why she is here. The girl quickly recovered, dipping her muzzle in acknowledgement and then sitting down to assure that she had no ill-intentions in mind and that the other should not attack her either.
"My name is Wraen and I am an aspiring scout from Moonspear," she explained, beckoning to the mountain range in the distance, when she mentioned her home. "I am currently working on my trade - exploring and mapping the lands. And I happened to be around here by chance. I believe I have met someone from your pack before - tall, young wolf, reddish-brown fur?" Wraen recalled the hunter she had met on a different exploring mission, but his name had escaped her memory.
dauntless’s brown gaze assess her, offering a minuscule dip of his muzzle in acknowledgement to her own that tells him she has no ill intent. he doesn’t entirely relax though — he’s still on sentry duty and he’s not overly willing to take a complete stranger on their bespoken body language. not when he thinks of easy and arushi and believes that it’s his job to protect them as their brother ( even if he is the youngest ). wraen. aspiring scout from moonspear, she tells him; as she beckons to to the looming spear tip in the distance dauntless’ gaze follows the movement for a moment as he processes the information and then looks back to her as she speaks again. tall, young wolf with reddish-brown fur? he thinks of engel and raid — though he reminds himself that engel probably isn’t young enough to be referred to as young. as for raid, dauntless knows very little about the girl. they never really spoken but he knows her face and name ( and frankly that holds true for most of the wolves of morningside which he makes a mental note to amend at a later time ). “there’s a wolf of that description; her name’s raid,” dauntless offers with a rasp of his salmon pink tongue across his jowls as he looks to wraen to either confirm or deny it as the same wolf. “you seemed to be lost in pretty intense thought when i approached you.” dauntless invites the shift in conversation, wanting to address why she’d been so close and ( as far as he’s aware ) lingering.
"Raid..." Wraen furrowed her brow, trying to recall, whether the wolf she had met really had this name or another. She was pretty sure that the latter was the correct answer, but there had definitely been some similarities between the two names. Then again - it did not matter anymore, because here and now she had crossed paths with a different kind of person, who had not introduced himself yet.
"True - I was," she replied. "My mom used to live here a very long time ago, but her then pack relocated from this place to location that was nearer the coast. Because of bad memories, but she never really told me, what were they," she had, in fact, but that was a very private matter and none of the stranger's business. "Who may I have the honor speaking to?" she asked with a smile.
dauntless's ears swivel atop his skull as the stranger at the borders repeats the name with furrowed brow but whether it sparks recognition in her or not she does not say and dauntless does not ask. he does not offer to call for raid, either. it wasn't as if this woman had been looking for her specifically: she'd said that she was here by chance herself, after all and though she has not given him any reason to distrust her or to believe that she held any ill intentions his first priority is to protect the wolves within morningside's borders ( and on occasions even outside of them ) and dauntless is a pedant for performing his job to it's specifications.
wraen goes on to state that her mother lived here a long time ago, but that the pack relocated nearer to the coast. dauntless makes a non-committal noise as he processes that information, wondering if his dad knew anything about the pack that used to reside in this territory before them. "dauntless. my name's dauntless." he offers, salmon pink tongue drawing across his jowls as a soft wag of his tail as if to communicate that his stern disposition isn't anything personal.
The boy's name was unusual, but Wraen found it to be very fitting. Strong, bold and determined, a good name for a hero in a story as well. For a moment she played with the sudden urge to see, what became of this young wolf in the future, what would he grow up to be and whether he would live up to the name he was given, but then brushed it away. As interesting as it might be, speculations were impractical and useless.
"And I guess - correct me if I am wrong - that you are an aspiring guardian?" she asked, seeing some resemblence with her brother Terance and wondering, if all boys wanted to become good fighters, before they chose to do something else in life.
dauntless takes her in once more, eyes looking her over once more in assessment as she makes her assumption about his aspirations to be a guardian. "you guessed right," dauntless affirms her assumption with a stern nod of his head. he imagines it's all pretty tell-tale though all members are expected to patrol here and there but that responsibility mainly fell to the guardians. he offers her a twitch of his lips in a soft, ghost of a smile. he didn't want to be a guardian for the glory of it, though. he didn't want to be guardian because he liked fighting, or because he wanted to be a brawler. he didn't. he wanted to be a mercenary because it was practical, because he had wolves in his life worth protecting. his thoughts go to arushi, ishara, pema and catori ...and the baby siblings he assumed he was going to be getting soon — if the meeting about breeding season was of any indication — dauntless's family was the most precious thing to him in the whole wide world and his devotion to them and morningside as a whole was unparalleled. "i've got wolves worth protecting in my life. i'm capable and strong," words not uttered with arrogance but as simple fact. "it's practical." he finishes his explanation with a smooth rise and fall of his shoulders, though wraen had not asked for explanation ( and he knows he doesn't owe her one ). it seemed important to dauntless to capitalize that he was in it for it's usefulness to morningside and because he wants to prove his worth to them and the name morningside.
"That is a very noble thing you do," Wraen admired the boy's selflessness, but wondered, whether what was practical met with what he would like to do, what he was good at. Because try as she might, she could not be a trained guardian, because her heart was not in the trade and, though she would fight fiercely (and most likely lose) for those, who she held dear.
"My brother is just like you," she then said, thinking that Terance was in for the job for the very same reasons as Dauntless was. "And he has tried to teach me the trade as well, but I am no good, when it comes to theory and tactics, and walking the same borders every single day," she revealed. Her very being strived for freedom, for novelty, for adventures and not a routine.
"But I can be a sparring partner, if you would like to have some practice," Wraen offered, feeling that she would like to play a game. "Or a game of chase, because running fast is my forte."
dauntless accepts her words of it being noble as a compliment and humbles himself with a slight rise and fall of his shoulders in a it's no big deal manner. he didn't crave the adrenaline of the brawl and the only spar he'd looked forward to was his spar with sunny and that's just because his hormones are wacking out on him and he sees his cool(er), older brother as competition for the attentions of the ladies of morningside that are not related to him and he's eager to assert himself, to prove to sunny that he's not to be discounted and is far from out of the game just because he's younger. his ears perk forth, attentive, as she speaks of a brother and that he's in the mercenary trade for the same reason as dauntless himself.
dauntless understands, in a way, how the same old routine could become tedious after a while but it doesn't bother him personally. he's a bit of a homebody in truth and doesn't venture out too much unless it's on official business. a slightly devious smirk begins to tuck at the edges of dauntless's lips as she offers herself up as a sparring partner or someone to play chase with. he's still a little sore from his spar with sunny so after a moment of consideration says, "it's been a while since i played a game of chase."
"Excellent," Wraen replied, happy that he had not chosen a spar. She did not quite like the latter either, because this was a game she would lose no matter, how bad the other sparring partner was. However - running, this she did daily - both during the scouting missions and also during the hunts. Therefore with the level of practice she had in the art of being quick and agile, she thought she would be the best to teach and compete with.
"To make it more interesting and realistic - let's pretend I stole something from you," she suggested. "Do you have any stick or bone or something else that would work for the cause?"
it is a little strange for dauntless to be playing chase with a stranger but he supposes there's no harm in it and dispels the thought. his ears cup forth, contemplative, as she suggests that they make it more 'realistic' by adding an additional element to it. "hold on. wait right here," dauntless tells her — not that he necessarily expects her to go anywhere — and he departs in search of something that might work for their cause. a bone might be better but it wasn't as if they just had bones lying about — he had one he'd been worrying lately in the den but that would take too long to go and retrieve so he settles for a medium sized stick. it's lightweight and fits betwixt his jaws without leaving too much stick on either side to get caught on anything. optimal running stick, he thinks with satisfaction as he lopes back to where he left wraen. he draws closer to her than he had last time to deposit the stick at her paws and takes a step back, his salmon pink tongue drawing across his jowls, the lingering taste of the wood and dirt lingering upon his tongue. "it's the best i could find on short notice," he says the last two words teasingly. "if you visit again i promise i'll be better prepared." a grin splits his muzzle as he speaks though he inherently isn't sure if he'd see her again. it depended, he considered, on whether she was ever this way again or likewise if he was ever her way.
"A stick - perfect!" Wraen exclaimed and leaned over to sniff at it first, then with an expert move of her paw, she drew it closer and gave a test chew. Tasted like wood always did and unfortunately this was nothing so extraordinary that she would want to take it home after the game was over. Moonspear was full with sticks like these.
"Alright - ready?" she asked him, picked up the stick and with a mischievous glint in her eyes tossed it in the air and caught it again. Then - without a warning she took off as fast as she could.
They played and sparred for a long time and then Wraen left for Moonspear.
Clearing my threadlog from outdated threads.