Silvertip Mountain Leaving you scraping at the bottom of the barrel

Failure. Niita crossed back into the territory, empty jawed having failed her hunt. She had ventured from the territory in the hopes of finding prey further afield but the scrawny raccoon she had come across had gotten away.

Frustrated with herself, the pale waif gave the passing tree a swipe with her paw. Stupid. It wouldn't have climbed up the tree if you hadn't knocked over that rock. Sighing, Niita pushed aside her failure and made her way to the stream.

The girl drank her fill, settling down by the river to watch it trickle by hypnotically.

Steady followed the stream down the mountain, looking for any signs of prey. Much of their potential meals didn't even have food of their own, but they still all needed water. Except for right now. Apparently, nothing needed water right now. 

His gaze to the ground, Steady stopped in his tracks, lowering his head. He almost couldn't believe what he saw. A single blade of grass, barely above the soil, but it was there, along with all the hope he needed to get him through. The grass was returning, and with it would come their prey. 

With renewed energy, Steady continued south down the mountain, until a familiar white coat caught his eye. Niita. Their last interaction had left on a less than positive note, and he knew that was his fault. 

He chuffed, hoping to grab her attention before walking to her. Hey, Niita, he greeted. He waited to say anything else, in case she wanted to ignore him.

Hearing the chuff, Niita's ears turned towards it to be followed by her head. A few feet away stood Steady, as large as ever though he appeared much bigger from her spot on the ground. 

Their last meeting hadn't gone so well, at least towards its closure it hadn't. Niita had opened up a bit, played with him and seemed to make a friend. Suddenly he had seemed to shut down, leaving Niita to believe whatever had happened rested solely on her shoulders. 

The girl sent him a smile, her sweet nature hoping to push the odd ending of their play aside and start again. "Hi, Steady. Whatcha up to?" She got up, moving to stand in front of him.

She offered him a smile, and his heart seemed to start beating again. When did it stop? He returned it, taking a few steps forward to meet her as she walked towards him. Well, I was just strolling along, he began, shuffling his paws anxiously. Steady had always been the calm sort of wolf, so he wasn't sure what exactly was unnerving to him. And I seen you, so I thought- One shuffle too many, and Steady's paws were out from under him. 

He had been closer to the bank than he realized, and the soft soil have given in. With a sort of yelp/yell, Steady landed on his side in the water, his head going under for a split second before he started struggling to upright himself, sputtering as he did so. After a few attempts, he finally got his legs under him and stood, soaking wet in the middle of the river, his ears plastered to his head in embarrassment. He was so uncool.

Niita nodded, listening, but flinched in surprise as Steady went down before she could even think of helping him. For a moment, she was stunned into just standing there before she rushed to his side.

"Oh, my gosh! Steady, are you okay?" Niita sniffed him over for injuries, nosing him gently to make sure he wasn't seriously hurt. She didn’t smell any blood so it was possible he was only bruised but she still pulled back with her ears flattened in concern.

He wanted to growl at himself, but was afraid Niita might think he was growling at her, so he suppressed it. She came rushing to his side, sniffing and nosing him. A hint of a smile appeared on his lips. Oh, I think just my pride is a little bruised, he said honestly. Really, Steady wasn't much one on pride, but what little he did have just got beaten.

In an effort to start up the play he had stupidly ended before, he brought one front paw up and splashed a little water in her direction. He paused, awaiting her reaction. He wasn't sure if she was in a playful mood or not, but tried anyways.

Niita nodded, opening her mouth to respond but was cut off by him splashing water in her direction. Just like that, the playful energy was back between them. 

Niita's eyes lit up with excitement, a playful growl that sounded more like a soft bark escaping her lips. "You just splashed the wrong wolf, Steady!" Niita warned him.

Rearing back on her hind legs, Niita crashed back down and sent a small wave in his direction before falling back onto her butt with her legs splayed out underwater comically.

Her eyes lit up with excitement and Steady could swear he'd never seen anything so beautiful. He grinned like a fool, momentarily stunned, which is why he was caught off guard by the wall of water splashed his way. It drenched him even more. 

With a playful growl, Steady leapt at her, attempting to try and gently grab an ear while one front leg tried to go over her shoulders.

He leapt for her, Niita trying to move away but she was too slow. His leg came up over her shoulder, his teeth grabbing her ear though Steady's grip was barely hard enough to press into the sensitive flesh-let alone break the skin.

He was much larger than Niita, his weight too much for the pale girl. She fell onto her back with an oomph with Steady standing above her. Normally she might have been frightened to have a male standing over her, might have been reminded of Maekir's attack. But Niita was belly up, not being grabbed by the scruff and forced to submit.

She giggled up at him, another rare sound for her, reaching up to tap his nose lightly with her paw. "Boop." The girl murmured humorously.

He succeeded in getting his leg over her back and her ear in his mouth. He kinda gnawed on her ear, mostly just getting some slobber on it without doing any damage. His hind leg slipped and his upper body weight went onto the leg over her back, causing her to take it. She fell onto her back into the water, and he looked down with a grin as she looked up to him. He chuckled as she booped his nose with her paw. 

He brought his nose down close to hers, looking into her eyes as the moments went on. His eyes widened, and suddenly he splashed some water towards her face, exclaiming Catch me if you can! as he climbed up into the bank and ran from the river's edge. He chanced a glance back at Niita to see if she was chasing him.

She came up coughing, having gotten water in her muzzle. Despite the fact that it sounded like she was hacking up a lung, Niita ignored it and instead tried to chase after him. 

The pale girl loped after him with an easy grin on her face, prepared to chase him all the way through Silvertip if she had to.

He heard her coughing and slowed his pace to get a better glance at her. She was coming after him, and she seemed okay, but he didn't pick up his pace. Instead, he darted behind a large boulder, and waited to see if she would come by. 

His heart pounded in his chest, but it wasn't from the exertion of running. It was from her. His spirits were slowly lifting, and the weight of his mourning was decreasing little by little. It had been months since Steady had really enjoyed life.

Having been preoccupied with trying to get the water out of her throat, Niita glanced up to find Steady gone. He's huge, he couldn't have escaped too far without notice. 

"Steady? Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Niita teased as she began to search behind the nearby trees and rocks for her oversized friend. Approaching one particularly large boulder, she rounded the corner only to spot him and smile in glee at having found him.

He couldn't help but wag his tail at the excitement that she might come around the corner any moment now. It thumped against the rock, and he didn't even bother to stop it. He wanted her to know where he was, he wanted her to find him. 

And she did, with a gleaming smile. He returned it, walking towards her. Instead of losing his brain this time and kissing her, he extended his neck with the intent to nudge her muzzle gently. It wasn't as intimate and special as a kiss might have been, but Steady hoped it would be within the realms of her comfort.

Niita had grown up with very physical people. Words weren't needed as much since they were almost constantly touching each other. The wolves of Asmundr bonded with touch, it came naturally to the slender girl and she never questioned it. It did have drawbacks though, while the people at home touched a lot it was never really done romantically. Niita had no idea what a kiss was, had never seen one and had never experienced one certainly.

When Steady reached out, she responded as she would have back at Asmundr. She licked him. Right on his muzzle. The pale girl laughed softly, rubbing her head affectionately against his chest before pulling back and smiling up at him. 

Suddenly, Niita remembered he hadn't liked that last time. "Oh, right you don't like people touching your chest. I forgot, sorry." Her small ears pinned to her head, afraid she had ruined their time together once more.

His eyes widened and his ears perked when her tongue touched his muzzle. For Steady, that was something done between lovers, mates, and maybe extending to pups. He hadn't thought that Niita might see it as something more casual that was done between all the wolves. If he knew she might go around licking all the male's muzzles, he might rip theirs off so she wouldn't have anything to lick.

She laughed, and he smiled in return, his tail wagging when she rubbed her head against his chest. It was such an intimate feeling for him, and it stirred something inside him that had been dormant for almost a year. 

And then suddenly, she was retreating, and he instantly missed her. Confusion marked his features. What was she talking about? I-What? No! You can touch my chest whenever you want! he said quickly, and maybe a little too forcefully. 

It took his brain several moments to go back to their previous meeting. He understood her hesitation now. I didn't... Last time, when you touched me, it was just- He sighed a little. How did he say this without being completely obvious? It's just an intimate gesture that I wasn't expecting, and then without thinking, I kissed you, and I thought that I might have overstepped my boundaries and I thought you might be upset over it, so I apologized but- He paused, trying to catch her gaze. I was really not sorry I did it, he confessed.

Niita listened, ears raising back up in confusion and curiosity. He wants to kiss me, what does that mean? Niita knew the word intimate, though she associated that with a much more erm, physical thing. Her mother had used that word when explaining to her about heat cycles and what came with them. It hadn't stopped Niita from running from the den while yelling how she didn't want to know about the details. Maybe she should've listened. 

There was something important in his words, she could sense it somewhere in her ignorant mind. But first Niita had some things to sort out. "Umm Steady? What's a kiss?" The Anreis looked at him expectantly, wondering what it meant.

It felt like forever and she seemed to be thinking. What was she thinking? Was she going to respond? Had he offended her? Was she going to be mad? Could she just snuggle up to his chest again, and be done with the talking? They seemed better at physical than verbal, anyways. 

The surprise was evident on his face when she asked what a kiss was. His jaws opened to respond, but then closed without saying anything. She didn't know what a kiss was? It dawned on him then that she if she didn't even know what a kiss was, she probably didn't realize what she was doing when she snuggled up to him, either. She was obviously an innocent, and he hadn't banked on that. 

He wasn't quite sure how to explain a kiss, but he tried his best. It's basically what you did... Um, just touching your tongue to my muzzle... Sometimes- Well, sometimes when both wolves are doing it, their tongues touch each other... He trailed off. He didn't feel like he was any good at this teaching stuff. He could teach her to fight, sure, all day long. But, he wasn't confident he could explain every intimacy between two wolves.

His explanation didn’t really help, it confused her further. What was the big deal? She licked people all the time! She couldn't recall her parents ever licking each other on the muzzle, maybe the neck at one point. Niita didn't really know why she had licked Steady's muzzle, it has just felt right at the time.

"Why would that be overstepping your boundries? Don't friends lick each other?" Niita's head cocked to the side curiously, wondering if friends kissed a lot because she liked touching Steady. "Why is touching your chest umm intimate? 'Cause uh I don't want to do anything that has to do with heats." Her tail tucked between her legs, immediately associating the word intimate with physical relations.

He got confirmation that he wasn't explaining this very well. It seemed that she thought friends licked each other without it meaning much. Well, I'm sure they do. I grew up in a family that touched a lot, but I generally reserve kissing for someone special, he explained a little more calmly. He didn't want to say "mates" as he thought that might go too beyond what he was trying to explain.

She inquired on his chest, and his eyes almost bulged out of his head when she mentioned being in heat. He knew she wasn't. He would know if she was. He saw the movement of her tucking her tail between her legs, as if it would keep the natural occurrence away. Again, something I reserve for someone special. These kinds of things vary from wolf to wolf. What you view as something you do to everyone you're friends with, is something I do only with a certain wolf, he said, hoping she would start understanding what he was saying.

Have you ever been in heat? he asked boldly. Explaining things might be easier if he knew exactly what her history was. She seemed opened to talking at the moment, so he figured it was an okay question to ask.

She listened, starting to understand a bit what he was saying. "So only people who are special? Like romantic special?" Her tone was hopeful, because then it would still be alright. Niita liked Steady, it was hard not to. The only problem would be if he didn't like her.

Had he not been Beta, she might have growled at him. What a personal question! Instead she nodded stiffly, having come into sexual maturity last winter and having her heat then. Her tail tucked further, touching her stomach almost as she remembered Maekir and Brimir grabbing her on Asmundr's border. They had wanted to make her a breeding female but luckily Kainan had been there.

Niita shook her head, almost as if to get rid of the thoughts. "So is it bad that I kissed you?" 

Phocion had been strolling through the forest, very nonchalantly, when he came across a conversation between Steady and Niita. Heh. He watched them for a while, not caring, then he found Steady's question had to do with the young female's heat. Wait. . .what?!

Still, he dd not intrude. He liked Steady, he really did. The black wolf was much larger and stronger than him, with a greater presence. He resisted a tiny whine. He had taken a liking to Niita. Would he forever be stymied by a bigger male? He resisted a growl. Maybe he was losing his touch, his lover-boy tendencies.

God, they were talking about kissing. Before Steady could answer her query, he stepped forward, smiling blandly. "Hey, guys," he said. "How's everything going?"

Steady nodded, smiling. Yeah, romantic special, he confirmed. He was developing feelings for her, and to be honest, it did scare him a bit. He had lost too many loved ones in such a short period of time, and he didn't know if he could stand to get close to someone and have it happen again. But, then he remembered the advice he had given to Desna. We only lose our loved ones, not strangers, and it was always worth it. 

She tensed at his question, and he almost recanted it, but then she answered. He nodded, feeling it best to leave that as it was and not probe any further. 

He smiled when she asked if it was bad that she kissed him, about to shake his head and respond, when Phocion entered the picture. Really? Steady turned a wide gaze on him, motioning silently with his head for the male to go. He didn't want to outright tell Phocion to leave, knowing it would be rude. But, maybe he could take a hint.

Having been invested in their conversation and her own memories, Niita hadn't even noticed Phocion coming upon them. Her back was turned to him, thus she didn't see him until he spoke. With a surprised yelp, Niita whipped around which brought her closer to Steady.

Seeing it was only her packmate she sat by Steady's side, not seeing his signals towards the cream colored male. "You startled me." Niita chuckled lightly, feeling silly. Oh, ancestors, I hope he didn't hear what we were saying. Had she been able to blush she would have, instead she averted her gaze to her paws in mortification.

He chuckled under his breath at Steady's dark stare. Obviously the beta wanted to couple with this young wolf; otherwise, Phocion wouldn't have been given this kind of glare. Nevertheless, Phocion stayed put, a small smile on his face.

"My apologies, Niita," he said, bowing his head in respect. "Was merely patrolling the territory."

He inhaled; there was no prey-scent, not even close. "Are you hunting?" he asked the both of them with an inquisitive gaze. "I know I am. Zaria's pups get bigger with the day. They'll make fine warriors some day."

Well, he'll be damned. Steady had taken to the white she-wolf. Resisting a laugh aloud, Phoion watched their interplay. While she was beautiful, it would be suicide to try and snatch the beta's favored girl from under his nose.