The Sunspire another head aches

Apologies for shit post. Hoping for a relatively quick response from an alpha or beta. @Rannoch @Terance @Wraen. Red and Clary are NOT trespassing, but standing at the border, hoping to make an alliance between SS and Easthollow. They've brought a bison skin as a gift. Being really vague because they either had to be escorted through Swiftcurrent's territory or they went around it. Please let @Clary reply first.

It had taken Red and Clary longer than she would have liked to reach the Sunspire. The offering of the bison skin, now across Red’s back, was a little worse for wears, but there was nothing they could about that now. Honestly, even Red’s own near-infinite patience was just about worn out. She just wanted to get this over with and head back to Easthollow. With a glance at Clary, she tilted her head back and howled, hoping an Alpha would show up faster than the ones back at the creek…

Clary could almost guess at what Red was thinking just by the way the older outrider glanced her way, and she offered an apologetic smile. Their initial reception at Swiftcurrent hadn't been what either of them had expected, and the bison skin just weighed as another burden on their already weary shoulders. Clary was almost excited for the trip back to Easthollow, simply knowing they wouldn't have to carry the pelt back.

She chose to stay quiet when Red offered her voice and instead found herself distracted by a bit of dirt clinging to the bristly hair of the bison skin. Her worries elsewhere, Clary reached out absently to paw off the dust of travel. What if the leaders here at Sunspire didn't show up to give an audience at all? Her paw slowed as she turned her eyes to the mountain's rocky depths, and found herself praying desperately that someone here would regard their call as a business worth attending.

after the dakarai incident (even though he would've much rather been with his lover and children) terance took up extra patrols. sunspire must be kept safe, and it wasn't up to olive and cass to make such dark decisions all by themselves. this was terance's job, and he needed to be taking it more seriously. seabreeze could handle the babies by herself, he trusted her. 

so then, of course, he was nearby at the howl of two wolves with scents he didn't recognize. he approached proudly, as any good beta should, his nose twitching as he viewed the two females and their gift. "can i help you?" he asked, ears cupped forward as he awaited an answer.

I hope it's okay to join :o

The past hour had been spent dragging a freshly hunted goat's carcass down from the peak to the nearest cache. The whole solo hunting session was Pyro's way to keep his mind occupied in things other than his desire to bail again to go looking for his brother. He'd also tried border patrolling, birdwatching and even packmate stalking. All of that was helpful but Pyro needes a bit more action to keep himself in check.

Just as though his wishes were some god's command a stranger's howl bounces off the mountains' walls to Pyro's keen ears. Finally some action. Despite how tired he was from the hunt'n'draggin' Pyro quickly made his way to the call's source. There were mothers to keep safe and a whole perimeter to secure.

He arrived right after Terrance, tongue lolling out with an exhausted panting as he made his way next to the Beta, just a couple steps behind to take a silent, yet supportive position. They hadn't really ever had an actual conversation, but they both had the same interest here: Finding out who there fine ladies were and what could they expect to find up in the Sunspire.

Well. The wolves at Sunspire were certainly faster than the wolves at the creek. And there were even two of them. Good. Red stepped up, but kept her stance neutral-friendly, wagging her tail a little behind her. “Hello. My name is Red, and this is Clary.” She motioned towards the girl with her head. “We’re from the Easthollow pack, which is, well, east of here.” She grinned at that description for a moment, and then pressed on, trying to remember everything Valette had wanted her to say. “We’ve come as ambassadors on behalf of our alpha, Valette, who would have liked to come herself, but she is currently pregnant. We’d like to offer you an alliance with our pack, and have brought a gift for you as a show of good will.”

Here, she did a downward-dog stretch to lay the bison skin on the ground and then shimmied her head out from under it. She glanced down on rather battered pelt, and grinned sheepishly, ears splaying. “Apologies. It’s a little worse for wears than I would have liked, but we had to take a long detour to get here and the bison skin suffered for it.”

As much as Clary wanted to talk, Red took the reigns before she had a chance and didn't give her much room to add anything on. So instead she half-listened, but mostly watched the wolves who had come to attend them. The first thing she noticed was that they were huge. Like, not fat, and not pregnant (goodness, no, not that) - but their muscles ran sleek beneath their frames, positively shrinking any mass of her own she thought she'd done pretty well at building up. And for some reason that bothered her, because holey-moley, this second guy - gosh, his eyes were just like the sunset, and she decided then and there that his insides had better look just as lovely as his face.

She only caught herself staring when Red shifted, and Clary flinched with nerves she didn't even know existed and scrambled over to the aid of her friend. The girl couldn't blink the stupid smile from her lips and her movements felt clumsy and big-pawed, but she tried to help anyway. Her eyes fell with Red's to the beat up skin, and though her friend offered a very formal explanation, Clary found herself giggling with the realization of what they'd just done, and how silly they must've looked while trying to get through the mountains with a flipping bison skin draped across their backs.

"Yeah, I think we both thought mom was nuts when she told us she wanted us to haul a bison skin up here!" and though she giggled, she caught herself once her words had been said, and the briefest strike of shock flashed across her face. Dang it! Curse her tongue, and both these cute boys! She grinned and scrambled for words to cover up her slip. "But I mean, it was so worth it still, because it's suuuper soft, and really nice! And if you have a healer, it'd make such a cozy nook for sick wolves to lay down and curl up in, or like, pups! Pups, yeah, I bet it would keep them warm, especially at night, or when it gets cold and starts to snow again... OH, oh, or you know what, it's actually kind of fun to hide under too or - hhmph - " she tucked her head with a sheepish grin when a laugh broke through her smile, "or, it's actually pretty fun to wear around and pretend to be a bison with, and y'know, I'd bet there are some folk who would get a kick out of that..." Yeah, like her, and she drew a paw across the ground. Thank the stars for her fur, because she could already feel the heat rising to her cheeks and spreading well across her face. Why did she have to be so stupid - she knew she was supposed to leave the talking up to Red - but she smiled nonetheless and just kind, you know. Tried to own it, and also not to think about it.

terance offered pyro a smile as he approached, but turned his head back to the two girls to give them his full attention. the first one spoke formally, something that was comforting to terance-- who did not have a way with words. formal language with strangers, especially at the borders, was easier to maintain and put together. his ears flicked in mild surprise at what red had to say, it reminded him a bit of tindome(rip), who had stopped by to tie a friendly knot with the wolves of the mountain. however, it seemed that the easthollow wolves travelled much further, and their gift was much grander.

"your gift is appreciated," he began, his lips curved into a broad and grateful smile. he would've said more to red, but clary began a rapid fire monologue that reminded him mostly of maia. so although he preferred to speak like red at the borders, he immediately held a certain fondness for clary and her informal rambles. his smile held, extended to the grey girl, and he dipped his dark head gently, offering a soft chuckle at her antics. "it's a beautiful skin, thank you both for bringing it here, it will see much use," he said with a wave of his tail. had he known how cute clary thought he and pyro were, terence's own face might've lit up like a christmas tree. but, at least his fur was dark anyway. and this was never a concern to him anyway, he always assumed that wolves were too stuck on his scars to think much else of his appearance.

but ah, more formalities, terance dipped his chin a bit. "this is sunspire, and my name is terance. my sister wraen and i lead as beta's, but our pack is led by rannoch," he explained, friendly smile and waving tail still present. oh but, wait, his brow furrowed at his own mistake, "but you already know about rannoch, don't you?" he added, remembering rannoch telling him about a woman named valette, "i'm glad that we're finally getting around to this." the formal alliance, anyway.

For a moment Pyro was too focused trying to figure out an explanation for that huge pelt they were carrying to see everything. His eyes followed as the red woman bowed down to let the skin slip to the ground in front of them, and his nose pulled him a couple steps forward to do a quick inspection. His tail swayed behind him in anticipation of whatever explanation they had, but he kept silent, nodding at Terrance when he acknowledged his presence to let him know he was there for support should it be needed.

When the red one's head motion to her companion, Pyro found the grey lass staring right at him, and his eyes locked with hers for a moment. He hadn't caught their hazel color before, nor the brightness and warmth they emanated. Gosh they were cute. But eventually she looked away and Pyro realized he'd missed half the red ambassador's speech. What was that? Pregnant who? All he could say for sure was that they were from a pack called Easthollow and that the bison skin was some sort of... Offering...?

A 'gift', Terrance confirmed, but his words were cut short when the hazel-eyed girl interrupted him, completely hijacking the spotlight. Pyro smiled, she was too cute not to, and how she got lost in her words with each new sudden idea was adorable. She managed to make Pyro's smile wider with each word, and he giggled along, fascinated with her how many possibilities there were to what many thought was only useless fur. Can't wait to sleep with that he comments, innocently looking up at Clary at the same time the word "that" slip out his awkward ass mouth.

Crap. He was staring again. Did she notice? Damn, how hot could the Suspire get at that height? He looked away flattening his ears down, trying to focus again on Terance's words to avoid any more awkward comments and perhaps that way he could survive the come of Eashollow.

Red was taken aback by how many words Clary could get out of her mouth so quickly, and she was startled by the turn her charge had taken in this conversation, but she didn’t have the heart to tell her to shut up. Besides, the other two wolves seemed to be enjoying the rambling, so Red just let it go and laughed about it. When everything had calmed down, she said, to Terance, “I can’t remember if Valette mentioned Rannoch by name, but I know she told me that she’d met one of you at some point, which is why she sent me here to make this alliance formal. Thank you for accepting our gift.” She bowed her head in politeness, but when she looked up again, she didn’t know what else to say.

Then she remembered the pack at the creek. “Oh. I should tell you, there’s a pack set up at the creek northeast of here. Valette didn’t mention them when she gave me directions to get here, so they must be new. Clary and I were supposed to cross it to get here, but we didn’t want to trespass, obviously, so we called for someone to come and take us through the territory. All we got in response was a growl, so we left quickly. We had to go far to the north to find the end of the creek so we could go around it properly. I’m not sure what’s up with that pack, maybe we caught them on a bad day, but I thought I’d let you know.”

skipping clary since she went inactive. we can wrap this up if you don't want to be held up?

"interesting," terance said in regards to the pack they had to go around. his brow furrowed as he put some thought into what they'd do about it... probably... nothing... except be on guard. maybe wraen or another scout would go check it out. he voiced this. "we'll send a scout to check it out another day, thank you for letting us know," he said with a small smile. 

well, times a ticking. "of course, we accept your offering and would be more than happy to be allies with easthollow," he said with a dip of his head, "i'm sure you're both exhausted, you're welcome to eat and rest before you head home, there's a shaded spot nearby i can bring you to for a break." his offer was not just a polite gesture, terance meant it. they wouldn't take much resources and they'd be at the edge of the territory, hardly a threat. if they accepted, terance would lead them there and hang around in the area until they were ready to leaeve-- and then he'd seend them off kindly.

Red nodded, grateful that she’d finally accomplished her journey. Of course, she’d have to go back, and they’d have to avoid Swiftcurrent Creek again, but at least she’d done what Valette had asked. “Thank you for your offer of food and rest,” she said, smiling. “We’ll take you up on the offer.” With a glance at Clary, she followed Terance to the spot he led them to, hardly able to wait for a much appreciated nap and a bite or two of food. Some water too. She was just glad they could finally go home after this and tell Valette that Easthollow had a new ally in the Sunspire pack.

[End.]