Moonspear one down, one to go

Though Charon had enough on his mind without it, the bear problem kept antagonising him. He decided that he needed a battle plan against the last bear. They'd killed one, but not without a price; Nishu's arrogance had been his downfall and he had paid a heavy price for it. Charon saw it as a sign of whatever unwordly powers might be watching over this world. It was clear that he was chosen to rule, destined to, favoured by the Gods, the stars, or whatever was out there. And none would stand in his way in any manner.

The last bear was probably still asleep, and Charon intended to surprise it before it was back to its full strength. If only they knew where it slumbered, so they could find it and murder it. With a broody expression on his face, the young Alpha wandered Moonspear's middle slopes, trying to find trace of the bears but, so far, finding nothing.

Wildfire felt more shaken than she would like to admit by the other night's events. She stuck close to the slopes and her pack mates in the days following, even accompanying Floki on a few of his patrols. But when one of his circuits ended up with the two of them entirely sidetracked and rustling the bushes, he gently implied she should make herself scarce so he could finish his job. Unwilling to tell him the real reason she was clinging had more to do with Rig than their new status as husband and wife, Wildfire agreed and reluctantly left him to it, though not without a lingering kiss to his jaw.

She meandered upward, wondering if she might find some prey scurrying around the mountainside. It was less likely than the forest floor below, sure, but Wildfire liked the challenge. She hadn't gotten far underway as far as tracking went before the youthful huntress found herself crossing paths with Charon, however. She glimpsed the expression on his face from a distance, her own mouth twisting contemplatively.

"Hey, Charon," she called, closing the distance. "Everything all right?" Wildfire guessed that he was in a mood over the recent skirmish with Tevinter, which Floki had of course mentioned to her. "I'm disappointed too," she found herself saying, unaware that it was not wayward brothers but intruding bears on Charon's mind.

While Charon scoured the mountainside, he suddenly noticed Dhole in the distance. Her red fur was hard to miss, anyway, and Charon's ears perked up and forward in her direction. She greeted him by plunging right into whether or not he was alright. Charon wasn't sure what she meant at first, until she mentioned being disappointed. Though at first Charon's mind swerved back to Nishu's display at the bear cave (though the precise happenings were still a bit vague to Charon) he soon realised she must mean Jorunn's attitude-filled appearance at their borders not long ago.

"Huh? Oh, that, yeah. If he ever comes close to my mountain again, I'll kill him," Charon said darkly, his words sounding as though he meant it. "If he'd been respectful I would've accepted his good bye and given up on him, but the fact he shows up at our borders without an ounce of respect in his body..." Charon's eyes narrowed murderously and his voice was dark as he spoke and trailed off. Well, whatever. Jorunn'd probably not be dumb enough to retun, anyway. "Anyway, I was thinking we still have one bear left out here... somewhere. It'll get warmer soon, we should be prepared. I'm trying to device a plan so we can get rid of it." Charon looked at Dhole, hoping she had any input that he could use for the forming of his plan. They had already taken down one, but Charon did not intend to get another one of his pack members mortally wounded in the attack on the second bear.

She knew Charon well enough by now to expect the incoming vent. She let him rant, sympathizing with his ire, even if the death threat caused her insides to go cold. He suddenly reminded her of her parents; they were similarly unforgiving when someone wronged them. And Wildfire agreed that Tevinter had gone about this entire thing all wrong. He hadn't given it time, nor put in any effort to repair his damaged relationships with his brothers. Wildfire sighed inwardly. She didn't share in Charon's hatred or even his anger; she was overwhelmingly disappointed in Floki's lookalike, though.

Charon swiftly changed the subject, giving Wildfire a tiny bit of whiplash, though she quickly caught up to him. She was actually glad not to linger on the previous topic. "I could accidentally bait it again," she joked weakly, recollecting that terrifying, rainy night with the first bear. "How's Nishu doing, by the way? You know, I tried to warn him that night. He wouldn't listen to me." She shook her head. The would-be knight wasn't very good at heeding others, though she didn't voice this opinion aloud, especially not with him down for the count. "I'm not sure what to do. Anything that comes to mind is very risky in one way or another..." Wildfire frowned thoughtfully.

Dhole looked a bit taken aback by the swap of subjects, but Charon easily shifted back (probably because he'd been thinking about the first subject in the first place). She eventually fell into the bear part of their conversation, equally glad to leave behind the subject of Jorunn, it seemed, and admitted baiting it. Charon was unhappy to hear Nishu had been warned, and it was really only by Amekaze's graces that he was still in the pack. Charon had even considered going to Nishu when he was alone and killing him — he'd been insolent for half a year and was now taking pack resources while contributing nothing, if he would survive at all — not just for the pack, but for Nishu's own mercy and to end his pain. It would be easy enough, but then, Charon had never liked the easy route, and he knew that if anyone would ever find out he'd have done such a thing, they would not understand his point as much as he did.

Snapping back to the current situation, Charon said: "I adviced him to call Thistle for help in healing his wounds, and haven't seen him since that night. I think he's been resting up. Ame's checked on him." Or so Charon guessed, anyway. If Nishu would die because nobody checked on him and fed him, well, that would be a solution. Pushing away the cynical thoughts, Charon continued, "His pride got a well-deserved dent, so hopefully he will become less insolent now." Well, maybe not all the cynical thoughts had been pushed away. Nishu should've listened to Dhole, just as he should've listened to Charon on many occasions and hadn't, in the past. Charon was giving him one last chance. Time would tell if it would serve him well.

"I don't want anyone else getting hurt, but it's hard to coordinate an attack that won't get anyone hurt. Maybe if we cause enough distraction so others can attack at its back, but even so..." Bears could be surprisingly fast even when distracted, and even if they'd manage to distract them, even a falling bear could crush a wolf, Charon was pretty sure.

I love Charon but especially casually murderous Charon.

It sounded like Charon was in agreement with her silent observations about Nishu's character. Wildfire wondered briefly if she should feel guilty for not personally checking up on their pack mate. But it sounded like Charon hadn't bothered, either. She wouldn't mind swinging by, maybe even dropping off some food for him, except she honestly didn't know what she would say to Nishu. It wasn't easy to get on Wildfire's bad side, yet somehow Nishu had managed it, at least to some extent.

"There's no way to avoid some risk," Wildfire agreed, sighing lightly. "I mean, we could try to trap or disable it but even that would be risky. Heck, even if we had twice as many wolves to attack it with brute force, someone would probably still get hurt." She mulled for a moment, then glanced at Charon's face. "We'll figure out something, though," she added to offset the overwhelming negativity of her statements.

Truthfully, however, Wildfire was perhaps the last wolf he should consult about this type of thing, considering she was more or less a failed warrior. Suddenly deciding that she wanted to shift the topic onto better, brighter things, the young Gamma suddenly blurted, "But, hey, in lighter news, did Floki tell you?" She didn't specify what she meant, assuming the Alpha would know exactly what she was talking about, her amber eyes dancing against her flame-kissed face.

Hehehe >:)

I figured that Flóki would tell Charon, but since it hasn't been in any thread I'll just assume that he hadn't yet. :)

The subject of Nishu shifted away once more, which was probably for the best, before Charon's thoughts about putting a pillow over his face in his sleep could escalate too far. They instead continued on the subject of the remaining bear again. Dhole mentioned trapping or disabling it and Charon asked with genuine interest: "Trap or disable it how?" He had never heard of such things, and he wondered what exactly Dhole meant by them. He only knew the physical fight, and tactics to accompany it, but didn't know of trapping or disabling it in any way.

"Tell me what?" Charon asked in return to her next question. He could sense she was jittery and excited about this particular piece of news, but he saw Flóki often and they told each other so many things that it was hard to guess which thing, exactly, Dhole meant. He wasn't about to guess and guess until he guessed right (or didn't, if he hadn't heard it yet; he hadn't seen Flóki in a few days and all).

Wildfire took Charon's question as more rhetorical than anything else, so she rolled a shoulder as if to answer, I'm not sure. Technically speaking, the first bear had been trapped inside a cave—she still didn't understand the physics of it—but it hadn't worked out in the wolves' favor in any meaningful way. As far as disabling went, maybe they could lure it over a ledge or something, break its legs. Hell, maybe they could run it off one high enough to kill it outright. Now there was a thought.

But the bears faded to the back of her mind when Charon seemed genuinely clueless about the news. "We're mates now!" The words burst out of her in a breathy, excited tone. "The night I got back from my trip, we decided we were both ready for the commitment." That reminded her that she needed to tell both Charon and Ame the specifics of her trip. She had howled a brief report the morning following her return, yet she wanted sit them down and tell them every last detail.

For the moment, however, she was still focused on Charon's reaction to the big news. Her black tail flicked and she glanced away almost shyly, her face bright with a gleeful smile when she lifted it again. She hoped the Alpha would be happy for them.

His answer remained unaswered — the shrug indicated that Dhole hadn't an answer herself — and Charon derisively wondered why on earth Dhole would even mention trapping or disabling if she apparently hadn't a clue how to actually perform either. He shrugged it off easily enough, though. Dhole gonna be Dhole.

The news of her and Flóki hit him by surprise. He had been totally clueless as to their relationship at all, and so it seemed like a really rash decision to him. He hadn't a clue of the budding relations between them since they'd met. The surprise was visible on his face as he said: "Huh. You and Flóki." And it was obvious that he totally hadn't seen it coming and hadn't known so far. Then his surprise melted away and his face was wrought into a genuine smile, his tail wagging lightly, to mirror Dhole's happiness. He was still glad for his brother and his friend. "Well, that's great! Welcome to the fam'!" He touched his nose briefly to Dhole's cheek in congratulations, easily enough slipping into the happier subject.

The Alpha seemed utterly perplexed, if only for a beat. Although he quickly congratulated them and welcomed her to the family with a nudge, Wildfire could not get the knee-jerk reaction out of her head. She tried to push it back as she returned the gesture with a bump and a wave of her tail. Not only had Charon accepted the union fairly readily, he had made a point to welcome her to the family. It meant a great deal to her and caused a happy flush to creep up her already rosy red cheeks.

Then she abruptly remembered that Charon had once believed, mistakenly, that she'd had a crush on him. Perhaps that explained his initial expression? It simply didn't occur to Wildfire that he hadn't known about the two of them in the first place. She just assumed everyone in the pack was onto them by now. They had been especially close since the day Wildfire had relocated and, well, he and Floki were brothers. It was sort of a foregone conclusion.

She supposed the reason for Charon's momentary confusion didn't matter too much in the end. "Thank you so much, Charon. Your blessing means a lot," Wildfire replied. "I hope Floki doesn't kick me for telling you first. I really thought he would have mentioned it already," the Gamma added with a low chuckle. Charon's inexplicable expression aside, she was actually kind of thrilled to have gotten there first, so to speak.

"Hey, whenever you and Ame have a free moment, I'd love to tell you all about what I found on my scouting trip, by the way," Wildfire decided to mention before she forgot. She wondered if the Alpha female might be around right now, though she didn't suggest trying to summon her, letting Charon pick the time and place for that conversation.

Charon wondered how long this had been going on when Dhole said that she was surprised Flóki hadn't already informed him. He grinned and replied: "I'll have to beat him up a little for not telling me first." All in jest, of course; Flóki might've looked up to Charon, but Charon respected his brother probably the most of all the wolves in his life, too.

Dhole said that she'd want to tell him and Ame about her scouting trip, and Charon could not resist smugly saying: "If you'll bring Flóki, maybe it could be a double date." He hadn't told even Flóki yet about his recent closeness to Amekaze (which made him realise that the two hadn't had a good heart-to-heart recently with just the two of them) but it was obvious from his face that something was going on when he spoke. In this context of official pack business it was totally inappropriate and out of place, of course, but Charon didn't care.

He suggested she bring Floki and make a double date of it. She liked the sound of that and began to bob her head in agreement, only to still suddenly. Now it was Wildfire's turn to look surprised, her amber eyes widening slightly and her mouth falling ajar. If it was going to be a date, that implied a romantic relationship between the two Alphas.

Teasingly using the very same words Charon had just a moment ago, she smirked playfully and drawled, "Huh. You and Ame." She chuckled, her face melting into a more good-natured grin as she said, "But, seriously—you two are a thing too?" How fun was that? Was there something in the air? Were the pairings a sign of spring or something?

The look of surprise on Dhole's face was hilarious. Well, was, until Dhole's mimicking of his words made Charon wonder if he'd looked equally dumb when Dhole had told him the news of her and Flóki. He liked to think that he hadn't looked quite as dumbfounded himself.

Charon shrugged off the thought to focus on Dhole's question instead, and answered: "Not official yet, but it's heading that way." The romantic moments they had shared had been many lately, and when he thought back to it, something'd flickered between them from the very beginning. It was no coincidence that he had picked Ame, who made him feel calm and at ease, as his co-Alpha. "I'm not in a rush, or anything. It's not like any love declarations were made, but it's pretty obvious that we're made for each other." He wanted to say that it would be obvious who'd father Ame's pups this spring, but that somehow made it sound very unromantic in his head, as though the only reason he wanted to be with Amekaze was because of the beautiful children they'd make. Of course that wasn't the only reason. Expressing love in words had never been Charon's strength, though, so he hoped that the message got across.

Wildfire bobbed her head. She knew exactly what he meant by that. She and Floki had been courting for quite a while before declaring themselves official, after all. In fact, she had said those exact same words more than once: "We're not in any rush." Charon's next comment made her snort in an amused and affectionate sort of way. Charon was so sure of himself sometimes. She knew some wolves found this distasteful, yet Wildfire sort of found it endearing, to be honest.

"I think you two will make a good pair," she agreed, "and I think a double date would be a lot of fun. I've been meaning to spend more time with her." Wildfire's head tipped slightly to the right. "You wanna talk to Ame? And I'll talk to Floki? Then we can figure out a good time to get together. I can tell you guys all about what I learned, then maybe the four of us can figure out a game plan for that bear...?" she thought aloud. "I was thinking—what if we ran it off a cliff?"

Dhole fell into enthusiasm now that her initial surprise was over. Charon didn't feel the need to solidify his claim on Ame, for he didn't think she'd just up and run off with anyone else, anyway. Dhole suggested they get together sometime and Charon bobbed his head in a nod at her suggestions. Making bear-killing-plans — how romantic.

Charon snorted out a laugh when Dhole mentioned running it off a cliff, clearing very amused. "Running it off a cliff? That's..." But when he gave it an honest thought, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all. Who knew — it might actually work. ".. Brilliant, actually. Or might be. If it works, it'd be brilliant." It would surely limit the risk of anyone more getting wounded, at the least. The only thing they needed to keep in mind was to have a back up plan in case it all backfired and the bear wasn't run off the cliff. And bait.

"And bait." *eyeballs Nishu's body; coughs*

Wildfire had known Charon long enough to thicken her skin when it came to his often brutally frank thoughts on things, so when he laughed at her idea, it stung only for a second before it slid like rainwater off a duck's back. After all, even she had to admit that it was a little crazy. But then the Alpha seemed to rethink it, even declaring it brilliant. The Gamma's breath caught and she felt a warmth spreading in her chest. Charon thought her idea was brilliant?

"If it works," she agreed humbly, fighting back a stupidly broad grin. "We can talk it out, come up with a bulletproof plan," Wildfire added with a surety she wasn't sure she truly felt. She was just eagerly clinging to her Alpha's approval and flattery, which was so hard-won. "Between the four of us, I'm sure we can come up with something."

lmao, while posting in both this thread and the Nishu one I was thinking the same :')

The plan might work, but they sure needed a damned good plan to go along with it. Charon nodded, deciding that he needed time to think it over, time to share it with Amekaze and Flóki, and then they would get together to work on it. "Yes. We'll get together soon to work out a battle plan," he decided eventually. The four of them. With Dhole as mate of Flóki, Charon was determined to soon elevate her to the position of Beta, too. He had no clue yet of her desire not to be a leader — in his viewpoint, it was her rightful place to be. He had thought her a great choice for Beta before, but always felt that she needed to grow a bit more before she would be taken seriously as one. Now he thought her to be ready, and her mateship to Flóki only confirmed those thoughts.

But such things would be for later discussion. For now, he focussed on the bear, for he wanted it out of the way as soon as possible. "I'll go and inform Ame," said Charon. He didn't leave right away, in case Dhole had something else important that she wished to share, but it was clear that he intended to soon.

Although it was no more than a crude idea at this point, Wildfire hoped she had made up somewhat for her lack of warrior expertise. Not that she necessarily needed to redeem herself—she had proved useful in other ways—but it still felt good, gaining Charon's approval and praise in one fell swoop after being declared rubbish in the past. Between that and the upcoming double date slash strat chat, the Gamma felt a warmth flickering in her chest.

He announced that he would go consult with Ame, so Wildfire dipped her smudged snout. "See you later, Charon," she said simply, watching him head off to find his partner in crime. She thought of doing the very same, then remembered she had just left him not too long ago. Smiling to herself, Wildfire remembered that she had intended to hunt, so she set off again in search of prey, her steps light and bouncy.