Grouse Thicket They want to be loved by you

Maaargh. Had to happen.

Niamh stopped dead in her tracks when she heard someone call for her. The howl came from the thicket, which Niamh and many others widely considered to be sorrrrrt of claimed, at in the very least frequented as that was the main way in and out of the packlands, and was great for hunting. But it wasn't the fact that she'd been summoned that surprised her- no, it was the voice that called for her that gave her pause. There was no mistaking the fact that she was the one the male was searching for, but what troubled her was the fact that the voice sounded unmistakeably like Ambrose's. 

Not that it was bad news- but it surprised her to hear her littermate's voice in the area, calling for her. Did he know she was here? If so, how? Then again, there was a chance he was simply wandering through and had caught her scent in the area. Regardless, she made her way toward the borders, where her littermate had called from- but her focus, intent on finding Ambrose, distracted her, until she heard movement off to her flank in the thicket. She flinched, lowering her head and pricking her ears, baring her teeth in a surprised snarl. 

"Who's there?" She demanded.

Right?!

Immediately after setting up a silly deal with Ambrose- which he actually had no intention of fulfilling, Bruges set out for the borders he'd passed earlier, and heard his brother calling out in search of Niamh. "The devil moves quickly," He muttered to himself with a slight chuckle. It was kind of touching, how much Ambrose wanted to win the deal- but that didn't bother Bruges much. He knew that even if he didn't participate whatsoever, he'd be able to get a certain satisfaction by the end of the game if Ambrose did succeed. All it would take would be time. 

So he intercepted Niamh as she left the pack, trailing behind her for only a moment, hidden by the shrubs, and he wasn't even aware he'd made a sound to give himself away when she suddenly turned and challenged him. He laughed, and stepped smoothely out of the thicket and into view, tail swishing from side to side. "Heya, Junior," He greeted warmly. "Long time no see." He was surprised to see how she'd ended up, after more than half a year on her own- she had clawmarks across one side of her face, and had bulked up a bit. She was still leggy and almost as tall as him- but she definitely had lost some of the puppiesh softness she'd had when she'd left the pack. His eyes softened, seeing her healed injuries, hoping life hadn't been too hard on her.

It didn't take long for the stranger to step out of the bushes, and had she been in a better position, she might have scented him- but while he'd set one foot out of place and given himself away with sound, he'd sure been mindful of the wind's direction. Hence, her jaw dropped when she saw the unmistakeable, tall and handsome form of her older brother glide into view. She froze for a moment in surprise- here she was, going looking for Ambrose- when it was Bruges who had shown up. 

He greeted her, and eventually she shook her head, and without a moment's consideration, she launched herself toward him, tail waving furiously from side to side. She knew her older brother hated to playfight, but she didn't care- she was going to force a hug out of him if it was the last thing she did. "You jerk!" She exclaimed, and reared onto her hind legs with the aim of wrapping her forelegs around his neck. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

Unlike Ambrose, Niamh was one he knew would greet him happily. Of course, she'd left Ambrose and his pack of hooligans before Bruges had shown up and stepped in to shift the ground beneath Ambrose's feet, unsettling his reign. Though Niamh had not escaped her older brother's teasing and taunting when she'd been younger, she'd been a bit more resilient to it, as she'd also had a littermate to lean on when he got a bit too persistent and annoying. Still- while he was well aware that he'd likely stolen the girl of Ambrose's dreams back at Red Rock, Bruges had done nothing of the sort to Niamh, and therefore, wanted to see her before Ambrose did...If nothing else, to do a bit of damage control. 

He laughed armly when she reached out for him, and for a moment, he allowed her to rest her dirty paws on his shoulders, and he nipped playfully at her beige cheek before he steped back. Niamh was always more of a tomboy than anything- likely a bit rougher around the edges than Bruges ever was...So roughhousing had been more of her thing than his. He liked to stay pretty and clean. "I could ask you the same thing." He said with a smile. He shrugged. "I guess it was my time to leave, finally- and I ended up going the same way as you." He said. "What happened here?" He asked, touching his nose to her forehead where the clawmarks began. As much as he liked to pick on his younger siblings, it was certainly not alright if someone else did it.

Niamh settled back onto four feet when her brother pulled away, but one eyebrow remained raised, as though she was still considering trouncing him and pushing him into the dirt just for fun- knowing he didn't like to get dirty. Still, now wasn't exactly the time- they had too much to get caught up about- and for the moment, Ambrose's call had been more or less forgotten. 

He touched her on her forehead, and for a second she gave him a funny look- as though to ask what he was referring to, until she remembered the clawmarks. "Right." She said. "Fucking cougar.  Made it back down, though," She said, with a toothy grin. She dipped into a play-bow, waving her tail above her haunches. "Looks pretty tough, eh?"

Bruges' smile faltered when she confirmed- with pride- that she'd fought a cougar. While it was a badass story, of course, he didn't exactly want his sister getting too bold and thinking she could take on every living creature that walked the earth- and she was just the type to feel that way once she'd gotten a taste for victory. Her grin exposed a space in her upper jaw as well, where a canine should have been, and he heaved a sigh when she bragged. 

"Yeh, pretty tough, toothless," He drawled, nodding toward her muzzle. "Cat take your tooth with it when it ran away like a frightened pussycat?" He asked, though not without concern in his voice, and perhaps a tone of judgement. He didn't exactly approve of her boldness, and marked it immediately as what could become her hubris. Bruges wasn't much for scars and battles, anyway- those weren't the things that impressed him. He would rather slay with words and actions than brute force.

Toothless? Niamh scowled playfully and pursed her lips, before blowing out a breath through the gap in her lip where the tooth would have otherwise blocked the air, puffing the lip out so that the lower canine wouldn't look so snaggletoothed without the upper one to keep the lip in place. She could tell that Bruges wasn't really pleased- he never was, when it came to fights  and he'd almost always declined her invitation to spar. Now he was getting all big brotherly on her, and she wasn't really ready to handle that- she thought she was doing perfectly fine on her own. 

"Nah. Lost that helping a packmate back up over a cliff," She said, but immediately regretted referring to Towhee as just a packmate- she was her person, after all. She opened her mouth to go on to say that she and Towhee had gone on a hunt for Screech, and that was why Towhee had gone over the cliff- but she figured that wouldn't go over very well. "You gonna stick around here?" She asked instead, flipping the questions back on him.

Helping a packmate back up over a cliff. His expression changed, lips pulling into a frown. What kind of pack had Niamh gotten herself into? If her packmates were going flying over cliffs, and she was fighting off cougars- it didn't sound like the safest place for her to be living. If anything, it sounded more like she'd signed up for somemiserable kind of circus that constantly put her or the other packmates in danger. "Sis..." He said softly, but knew she wouldn't want to be lectured. All he wanted, though, was for her to be safe. Not so deep down inside- though he loved tormenting his siblings- he did care for them. 

She asked him a question and while he wasn't really ready to give up on telling her she ought to be safer, he shrugged one lissome shoulder. "Haven't made up my mind yet. If you insist on cavorting with danger, though," He said, tone deepening again, "I may have to." He said.

Bruges? Stick around to protect her from danger? As if. Niamh straightened up, laughing, tail stil waving from side to side above her haunches in a playful way. She reached forward to bump the blunt end of her muzzle roughly against her slim brother's shoulder, hoping to set him off balance. "You? Protect me?" She asked, and cackled. She marched in a circle around her brother, and he truly hadn't changed much. Tall and slim, with narrow shoulders and hips, a fine, streamlined body but in no way was Bruges bulky or brawny. She brushed her shoulder against his as she came alongside him, and halted in front of him again, squaring up her own shoulders, as though to show off her own muscles. Though Niamh was a bit more buff than her brother, she was still hardly barrel chested or brawny. 

"You couldn't tackle a stork if it had weeds tangled around its feet." She said. "You'd hardly bend a reed if you leaned against it," She commented, sizing him up again- as though she herself really had much to boast about. "So how could you possibly defend me, slenderman?" She asked, knowing full well how much that nickname irked her brother.

Bruges rolled his eyes as his sister prepared to judge him, and swiftly sidestepped when she went to shove him with her muzzle, instead allowing her whiskers to brush his fur, but denying her the pleasure of seeing him stumble. While Bruges did not have strength on his side, he was certainly cat-footed and nimble, and as his sister walked around him, he prepared for her to whump him again, giving her nothing more than a side-eye as she ambled alongside him, and when she thrust her shoulder up against him, he lowered himself quickly, stuck a foot out and swept it forward, hoping to trip her up. It worked, just enough so that she at least couldn't make him lose his own footing with her shove. 

The nickname she used caused him to raise his head. She used it in such a way to irk him, and it worked; as that wasn't a nickname he appreciated hearing from her. His own littermate had designed that one, and it was more a term of endearment than anything- the same way he called Niamh by the name of Junior- as she so resembled their mother. Hearing Fey's nickname from Niamh, however, didn't have the same ring to it, which was why he didn't like hearing it from anyone but his littermate. "Other ways, sister." He said. "Your brother will always be watching out for you," He said, and perhaps in that moment he was referring to Ambrose- who he was sure was likely going to disrupt Niamh's situation, the same way Bruges had affected Ambrose's pack.

In her pride, Niamh had forgotten how quck her brother was- and when he lowered his body, her weight missed his shoulder entirely and instead more or less landed on his withers, but she knew this trick- he'd done it to her before, so she cleverly lifted her near foot to avoid having him strike it out from beneath her while she regained her composure. So maybe he had his uses, and she had nothing to say to that, but nodded. Perhaps there was some way he could look out for her- after all, someone without any scars certainly had to have a different way of protecting themselves that obviously worked. 

When he said the word brother, though, she suddenly remembered that Ambrose had called her and a surprised look came over her features. "Shit. I forgot- I think- and call me crazy if you want- but I think Ambrose called out for me, just before you showed up. Did you hear him?" She asked, suddenly regretting the delay. At the same time, she didn't exactly want to run off on Bruges- but she hadn't seen her littermate in too long, and wanted to go find him too. "Wanna come with me? He can't be far from here,"

And there it was. He did feel good about being able to distract her from her littermate for a bit- but she remembered the howl now, and he nodded. "He is. I was just talking to him." Bruges said. Of course, Niamh would know absolutely nothing about the deal he'd made with Ambrose, and he wasn't going to step in and spoil things for his brother...But if he could play a little bit of a mindgame with him, he would. "He's looking for you." He said, though that much was already obvious. 

She invited him to come along with him, but he shook his head quietly. "Nah- I just saw him, no need for me to spoil your reunion with him; he misses you," He said fondly. He wanted Niamh to see no trace of malign on his features, when it came to the competition between the two DeMonte males. "Go on. I'll be around- if you need anything, just call." He said, gesturing for her to go, but not before he ran his muzzle alongside hers, and nipped her ear; ensuring that Ambrose would likely catch his scent on Niamh when she went to meet him.

Niamh's jaw dropped in surprise- and maybe had she not been so antsy to go and catch up with her littermate, she might have asked why Bruges wouldn't just go with her. Then again, he probably knew how much she wanted to see Ambrose, as they'd been two of the closest members of the pack, the same way Bruges had been with Fey. Having seen Bruges, she was now definitely excited to see her littermate. 

She forgot her confusion when he pressed his muzzle against hers, and she clicked her teeth alongside the outside of one of his fine ears, and with a chuff, bounced backwards. "Sure will. I'll see you soon, Okay? Promise? Good! Don't go too far!" She warned. She did want Bruges to stay in the area- and believed that he would, too. With one final smile and a wriggle, she bounded away from him and off toward where her littermate had called from.

Bruges nodded in response to Niamh's demand, and he would indeed stay in the area. Not too close- as he wanted to see what else there was to see in the area, but close enough so that if she wanted to catch up more, he'd be accessible. Either way, he was sure she'd be busy with Ambrose who would, no doubt, try to use Niamh to gain a spot in the pack. He watched her bounce off with a smal chuckle, before he went on his way. He had a month to do literally nothing at all before he'd meet up with his brother again- and he was going to enjoy that to the fullest extent.