Redhawk Caldera what's your budget?

give me @Elwood and/or @Finley PLEASE (I SPELLED FINLEY FINELY IT NEVER TAGGED AH)

now that they were officially back in the territory and free to fuck shit up in whatever way they wanted (with some guidelines, which were gleefully ignored) tegan practically strutted around the territory. boy did he feel great! and he didn't look too bad either ( ladies(; ). he didn't really avoid his family, per say, but towhee had some cool ass stories sometimes, and something told him that clover might tattle if he told her about his outside adventures. but maybe not, that's just tegan's thoughts.

today! he was inside the territory and mindin' his own business. no shenanigans today-- probably, anyway. he had caught a mouse in some cave and was feeling pretty proud of himself. it wasn't really enough for a meal, but it was a good crunchy snacc-- and so he was carrying it somewhere private to do just that.

Finely (lololol) didn't often like to think of her children as grown-ups. Eljay had made it easy, let's be real. But it was hard to deny that of the rest, which these days had begun to include her little Wildlings. They weren't so little anymore, a fact that she had been lamenting with @Raven prior to spying Tegan creeping around in the distance. With a curious smile and a wag of her tail, she excused herself from her goddaughter's company to find out what her palest son was up to.

She was still moving pretty slow, but Finely Finally (lolololol) caught up with him anyway. Somehow. Probably just cause I wanted her to. "Whatcha got there?" Fin asked without preamble, her tail wagging as she attempted to steal a peek at whatever he was hiding in his jaws.

finely (sorry it'll be forever apparently) did not go unnoticed by the young blackthorn. in fact, tegan had heard the crunchy snow underfoot a little while back, and his mother's scent was unmistakable. he didn't want to seem like he'd actually cared to see his mom, but his pace had slowed considerably to let her catch up. it was mere coincidence that she caught up. 

he turned to face her, grey tail waving. "hey, mom," he said through a mouthful of mouse, which tumbled from his jaws and landed with a thunk into the snow. "shit," he muttered as he bent to look at it, pausing to sneak a glance at finely's reaction to his word-choice-- though she was surely used to tegan's ways by now-- and send a naive smile her way. "a mouse! good for snackin'," he said triumphantly with a little puff of his chest. 

then, just making casual conversation-- he wasn't really concerned-- tegan asked, "how's the leg?"

Finley took in Tegan's regard of her with wry amusement. He was getting to be that age where he was too cool to hang out with his mommy - a phase that not too many of her kids had actually gone through. She remembered seeing it in her siblings, though, and she had gone through something like this as well with her own parents. She appreciated his rebellious nature, this time around. She hadn't liked it in Liffey, but she had learned from that mistake. She wouldn't be so overbearing with these, especially not since they seemed far more capable of handling themselves than Lagan's twin had. Of course, that was probably also her fault.

But anyway. Fin gave him a sharp look at his choice of words, though she said nothing to reprimand him. She looked at his prize instead with interest, smiling as he announced his victory with such obvious pride. "Nice one," she commented, for it was a good catch. Mice may not provide much sustenance, but they were tricky to grab.

She glanced at her own leg when her wellness was brought into question, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "Well, I don't think I'll need you guys to amputate, so we're moving in the right direction," she commented, smirking, "I won't be joining you on the hunt anytime soon, though."

tegan dipped his nose at her praise. yes, nice one indeed. he let to mouse sit in the cold snow as he decided to continue a conversation with good ol' mama finley, plopping his rump onto the snow and looking at her with a tilted head. his brow furrowed. "dang, so we don't get to chew it off?" he asked-- a weird sense of humor for this particular moment, not like tegan cared. it didn't really matter though, he assumed his mom would go with whatever he decided to say. "that's good though," he added just for good measure.

"and it's cool, i bet fiadh and clover will pick up the slack for you," he then offered with a smile. notice how he didn't volunteer himself for that-- no no, he'd hunt, sure, but he wouldn't be putting any more responsibility on his shoulders than need be. with a thoughtful tilt of his head, tegan squinted at his mom. "do you know anything about the earth's buttcrack?"

Fin smirked at her son's response. She shook her head and gave him a look as though she too were disappointed that her children wouldn't get to go Hannibal on one of her limbs. It was a morbid thing, but she thought little of it. She enjoyed that her kids had a sense of humor, and was just a bad enough mom to not care what form it took. Just so long as they weren't like... laughing as they hacked people apart with axes and stuff.

She gave him a curious look as he insisted that his sisters would help pick up her slack. Why hadn't he mentioned Lucca? She assumed it was some sort of brotherly rivalry, but didn't have the opportunity to ask before he was suddenly talking about buttcracks. She blinked at him, canting her head and raising her eyebrows. "Ah... No, I do not," she answered, amusement in her eyes, "I assume you'll enlighten me?"

unfortunately, finley knew nothing. this was much to tegan's disappointment, as he really wanted to learn more. for instance, did it work the same as his butt? if it did, does that mean the earth eats? what does the earth eat? he had a million follow ups, but it seemed he wouldn't get to ask them. 

"well that's the thing, ma," he started with a crease of his brow, "i found it-- the earth's buttcrack-- and i just don't know anything about it." and he still didn't. with a prick of his ears, he added-- cause moms like to be updated about their children's lives, right?-- "i can tell you about my trip there though." cause tegan liked telling wolves about his adventures, he spiced 'em up a bit, they were fun to share.

Fin had expected a story to proceed from her son's lips, but instead she just saw disappointment spread across his features. Apparently he'd been asking because he wanted to know, not because he wanted to tell. She had never expected to ask a question or make a suggestion anything like the one on her lips, but she did like her boy to be happy, so.

"You want to show me the ..buttcrack? And tell me your story on the way?" she asked, wondering with only a small bit of anxiety what exactly she had gotten herself into.

tegan shook his head. "so it's actually called a ravine-- at least that's what easy said... that's a wolf i met at the ravine, she's from morningside. she insisted that's what it was called, but ma, i'm telling you, it was a buttcrack, had to've been," he told her, head tilting forward in a comically frustrated way, his brows furrowed but his eyes widened as he sorted through thoughts. 

"i won't make you go see it, girls aren't supposed to like butts. she told me all about ravines, but i'm convinced it was a buttcrack, easy's keeping a secret from me," tegan insisted with a sniff, leaning back and looking to his mom with a content face. he knew the truth.

As Tegan began to explain, the pieces began to fall into place in her mind. This was not some crack in the walls of the Caldera he'd discovered as she had suspected, but some place outside of their territory. She had some misgivings about allowing them to venture so far from home still. She knew that while they had drive Blackfeather out of their territory, they had not killed nearly enough of them. That meant they were out there still, lurking. She could only hope that they would be wise enough not to invoke their vengeance again, and her kids would remain smart enough and talented enough to avoid any trouble. After all, Fin had gained so much from her time adventuring when she was young. She didn't want to deprive her kids of that. Not really. Sort of. But not.

"Well that's very thoughtful of you, but you know, come to think of it, I have seen one before," she replied, smirking at him, "A few of them actually. They're pretty cool. There's actually one way to the North that fills up with fireflies on Summer nights and the darkness kind of glows with their light. It's really pretty, actually... For a buttcrack."

brow furrowed, tegan looked to his mother in disbelief. "a buttcrack? pretty? mom you're whack..." he trailed off for a moment, thinking hard on the issue at hand, "think you could take me? when the weather gets warm? i think i wanna see it." his eyebrows unknitted and his mouth widened into a big, toothy smile. he batted his eyelashes at his oh-so-beeeeeeeautiful mother and wiggled his butt and tail just a little. "pppllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaase," he added sweetly, no way! she could say no to a face like that.

Tegan took that proclamation about as well as she'd expected. She snorted with laughter as he called her whack, appreciating his vocabulary. It reminded her of Peregrine, in a way. With a pang of remorse, she considered suddenly how much he would have enjoyed this litter, but brushed the thought away quickly as her son distracted her with his antics.

"I think we could arrange that," Fin said with a smirk, "You sure you want your ol' mommers escorting you around, though? I don't wanna lose you any street cred."

ugh, god mom, stop being so LAME !!!!! tegan gave a childish giggle, and a crazy shake of his head. "well if you're gonna walk around tellin' people to call you 'ol mommers' then heeeeck to the no! you could just as easily be like, my bodyguard. or maybe i'm escorting you... the public ain't gotta know," tegan returned with a happy swing of his tail and a loll of his tongue. he'd been doing a lot of talking, low key he was starting to get winded. phew, being this cool was hard.

Fin smirked at her son's reaction to her comment. The one thing about those who thought too highly of themselves and tried so hard to be cool was that they were super easy to mess with, and it sure was fun. Tegan seemed to roll easily with the teasing, which made it all the more enjoyable. She liked that he had inherited her easy nature and her humor, though she did worry that it would get him in trouble one day. It had certainly gotten her into some shit.

"Let's aim for you're escorting me," Fin responded thoughtfully, "You don't want to look like you're the one that needs a bodyguard. We can pretend you're the guide and I'm the frail, decrepit old lady you're taking for a walk so she can see the sights before her mind goes. Girls love a guy that's nice to old ladies." Some of them, anyway. She'd never really been the swoon-y type, but she had CERTAINLY seen them fall all over themselves for Colt's varying facades.

tegan gave her comment some good thought. "okay, bet," he said with a wave of his tail... though tegan didn't really care much about 'the ladies', he just wanted to keep his street cred. but with that, tegan had pretty much solidified his plans for a trip with his mom to the ravine that was lit af, and now had mischief to manage elsewhere. 

"kay, mom, good talk, i'm gonna go find fiadh and see if she's got time to hunt dragons-- i'll see you later!" and though he didn't verbalize it, he gave finley an affectionate lick on the muzzle and then skrt skrted off into the territory.