Moonspear Wake and pace the hall

It seemed there would be no rest for the turbulent summer, or for the lithe DeMonte female who had felt the need to return to the Caldera deep within her bones. Perhaps she was a masochist, but it was a thought she shook off. They were her family now, and their pain was ultimately her pain. She would both suffer at their sides and walk to the ends of the earth.

More than a week had passed them all by since the dark little Blackthorn child had gone missing and Sassafras could no longer stay her feet from leaving the pack’s territory to search for her. Initially, she had been intent on looking after what she could while others had attempted what she sought now, but youthful impatience and naiveté had finally won out. She could no longer bear to sit idle when she could put herself to use by covering ground.

Her mind had quickly rummaged through the myriad options for starting points and decided to make her first inquiry with Moonspear. Although she hadn’t been able to help @Floki in his search for Lazarus, perhaps he could help her now. She strode about beyond the tangled wood that bordered their territory just before tossing her head back to deliver a worry-laced request for the boy with sea blue eyes. Try as she might, she could not still her feet while she waited, so Sassafras would no doubt be found pacing and nosing the earth like an agitated hound desperate for a scent.

What with his newborns in a frail state, Charon had barely gotten any sleep in the past week and a half. He had spent the first days pacing outside, keeping guard and bringing food from the caches for Amekaze. He'd spent some time with his children too, and now he felt like he could return to the borders to patrol; he was confident enough Amekaze would be able to fend for herself, having regained some of her strength now and being a light sleeper, and the borders were important, too. Most dangers could be caught there before they'd ever reach Ame.

When Dhole's dad's scent wafted to his nostrils and he saw a wolf in the distance, his hackles rose and his tail curled further over his back. With his head raised and ears perked forward Charon approached in a swift trot, teeth bared aggressively as he made his way towards the wolf; a female, he realised as he approached. As he drew closer it became even clearer she was a part of Redhawk Caldera, and he wondered what they were here to check for. What did they want? He'd already found Lazarus, no thanks to that shit-faced father of Dhole. What could they possibly bring that was of value to him and his family?

"What do you want?" Charon asked, a dark frown on his face as he looked at the female challengingly, exuding dominance with his posture and waiting for the female to submit as she should, and tell him what the hell she was doing here in the first place.

Sassafras raised her head with a start as she realized someone was approaching, but quickly drew her tall ears back when she saw a bristling white male with gunmetal dappling. It certainly wasn’t the fair-mannered boy she had encountered in the wood. She sidestepped slightly and dropped her natural posture entirely for something more submissive as she stuck her velvety nose out to get a good sense of him, finding it clear in every way that he was the Alpha male there.
 
"I’m looking for a black puppy," she stated gently. She thought to ask about Lazarus, but held her tongue in favour of leaving the vicinity as quickly as possible. It was a turn from her visit to the welcoming wolves of Donnelaith, but she was admittedly more accustomed to the Moonspear male’s behavior than she had been to theirs. He had every right. "She disappeared from the Caldera a week ago," she added, hoping the time-frame might help to jog his memory if he had noticed any evidence in the area.

There was a sick sort of satisfaction with the fact that she was looking for a puppy. As a father he may feel for the child, but Charon felt nothing in the lines of sympathy for the Redhawk Caldera Alpha pair (he assumed it was their child that was missing). Of course, it would do no good to let this Caldera wolf know of this; it wasn't as satisfying as telling the Caldera wolves to stuff it themselves; just like when Peregrine refused to be cooperative when they were looking for Lazarus.

"Well," he said, a cold expression on his face as he hid away his smugness. "Does your Alpha really expect our help after he ridiculed me when I was looking for a dangerous wolf that used to be of our pack?" He didn't expect this female to know anything about that, of course; why would she? Peregrine hadn't seemed to deem it important enough to tell any of his wolves; in fact, their meeting seemed to make him more receptive to Lazarus, if anything. "You can tell him good luck on finding his daughter." More courteous this time, on the suface. I hope she will find a home elsewhere and that he will never see her again, he thought haughtily to himself.

She was taken aback by the words that slipped deliberately from the Moonspear wolf’s tongue. His face was stony, but her eyes widened slightly as she watched him, hiding nothing. She parted her lips as if to say something, then closed them again as she chewed over whether she should say anything at all and ruminated on the thoughts that struck her. Had Peregrine really ridiculed him? Did it matter to her? Why was the young leader divulging any of it? Surely a simple negative would have sufficed. In the end, Sassafras was no more certain of the answers than she was of whether or not she should have checked in with Moonspear to begin with.

The ground seemed shaky beneath her feet and her heart rate had risen, but she parted her lips to speak gently and purposefully with an unwavering voice. "Lazarus," she said with recognition in her tone, skipping over the thin well-wishes entirely. "Did you find him?" Truthfully, she hadn’t wanted to ask — she’d wanted to leave. Knowing that it was information she could not lightly pass up was the only thing that spurred her to inquire.

Charon didn't really get what this wolf wanted. Did he find Lazarus? Why did this Redhawk wolf care? He frowned darkly as he said; "He's dead now." It didn't matter why this wolf knew and wanted to know. The outcome was clear. "Now get the fuck off my borders and tell that dick Alpha of yours he can drop dead," he snapped. He didn't want anything to do with the Redhawk dick heads. He wasn't going to keep an eye out for their child. Hell, he might even just keep whatever child he'd find to fuck with them. After Dhole's parents had nearly cost some of his pack members their lives last summer during the famine, he'd stopped giving any fucks about them (or perhaps he gave too many, for they could still get to him whenever he would think of them).

He snapped his teeth in warning, waiting for her to leave.

Now set to present-ish day because I am slow and Iris is kind.

Although Charon had seemed a razor’s edge away from aggression, nothing he had said till that moment had been truly provoking in any way to the young female. Even his comment about how Peregrine had apparently ridiculed him hadn’t really dug its way under her skin. Ordinarily, she knew how to pick her battles just as she knew exactly how to stay out of them. She was small and inexperienced, and thus her fight or flight instinct was skewed heavily toward the latter in any given would-be confrontation. Sassafras had never been a fighter outside circumstances of practice, so what happened next actually sent a wave of panic coursing through her entire body. What she did, she felt certain she could not undo. It was too late.

“…and tell that dick Alpha of yours he can drop dead.”

She was triggered. Charon snapped his teeth in warning as he stood there waiting for her to leave, and for a split second before chaos ensued Sassafras found herself staring directly into his eyes with all emotion wiped cleanly from every feature of her face. Spurred by a surge of adrenaline and what could only be construed as pure, unadulterated hate, her lips peeled back without apology to reveal the full effect of gleaming white fangs she traditionally saved for special occasions. With a thunderous rumble of impending onslaught that exploded from deep within her narrow chest, she deftly lunged at Moonspear’s Alpha male with every intention of ripping into his smug face if she couldn’t get to his throat first. Had she simply walked away, as might have been a more appropriate response, she would have been trembling head-to-toe in anxious rage. It was the first time in such a long time that all reason had abandoned her mind so completely.

Charon didn't expect much from her except to leave his borders alone, like he told her to. He was protecting a family here, and he wanted nothing to do with this Caldera piece of shit. Dhole and her parents kept bothering him in some form or another and he was sick of it. He just wanted to live here in peace with his family. The only feeling he felt for the Caldera's lost girl, for likely Peregrine's child, was resentment. He had only just managed to keep himself from telling this little bitch that if Peregrine's girl had come here, he would've killed her himself. He wasn't braced for this reaction at all, expecting her to whimp out and go.

But she didn't go. He wasn't prepared and so when she lunged he was caught unawares, despite being ready to chase her. Chase her, but not fight her full-on. Luckily her aim was affected by her rage, so it wasn't his jugular that she managed to hit but his face. Outstretched muzzle and cheek were torn by her teeth and instantly an adrenaline-driven growl bubbled up in the Alpha's throat. He was even moreso protective with the presence of his little girls, and the instinct to fight had always been more prevalent in him than the flight one.

So when pain stung the side of his face, he instantly jumped up in surprise, keeping his front paws in front of him and trying to land as quick as he could — as to not have sensitive bits exposed for too long — hoping that he would land on top of her front someplace so that he could let his teeth land in whatever part of her he could find.

It was only in closer quarters that she noticed the scars that had been lashed across his back and shoulders, but she hardly had time to get a good look at them. She felt a momentary shock of satisfaction flood to every nerve ending in her body as her teeth ripped into his flesh and shredded the delicate skin of his freckled face. Despite this gratifying jolt of near-delirious glee she had never before experienced, she instinctively knew even as he reacted that she would be pushing her luck if she continued to fight. Her single best move was the element of surprise, and Sassafras was sure she wouldn’t be able to use it again. He would sense and better predict her movements now than she would his, so it was now or never if she wanted to make her escape.

It didn’t happen before she lost her hold on him and his teeth sank right into the tender crook between her left shoulder and neck. She gave a shrill, panicked yelp and tried to shrink away, but she knew he had a firm enough hold there that tearing away from him would cause serious damage and blood-loss. She counted herself fortunate that her bladed hackles and excess skin were there to protect her, but she felt no less pain for having the armour bonus. His left leg was placed to apply pressure to keep her head down and there was very little of him that she could reach. With a jerking attempt to dislodge his balance, Sassafras threw her head up, then side-to-side with all the strength she could muster like a rearing, disgruntled filly, and grappled at him with bared fangs once again to rake at his flank or underside. Succeeding at such a feat in her position would hardly harm him, but the whites of her unnerved eyes were showing as she considered what might happen if she couldn’t.

The rush of battle coursed through his veins in the form of adrenaline as he landed. The blood on his nose only fueled him further, and he barely felt the pain as his teeth bit down hard on her. He'd never cared much for the Caldera wolves, and he'd been dissatisfied by not getting their blood several times. Peregrine and Fox had gotten away when they had disturbed the pack's hunt and gotten several of his pack members hurt; Peregrine'd outright insulted him after his mate had been hurt by Lazarus. It was enough, now. He would not stand for it any more.

Yet as he grabbed a part through which it was easy to push her down, his weight helping the process along, he decided in that moment he would only push her down. He would make her regret this, but maybe he would not kill her. He was given only a second or so to think about this, consider his mercy, but then she started to jerk wildly. He would have growled at her to stay still, but could not because his mouth was still full with her flesh. He bit down hard even as she struggled, but when she bit his underside he let go out of reflex. He leaped back in surprise, but wasted little time before getting into motion again to chase her down, assuming that she were to run away.

In the moment just before her teeth connected with him again, the dappled white male clamped his jaws down hard on her. Sassafras practically threw out her neck to try for a hold on him anywhere she possibly could, but what she couldn’t stop was a shrieking whine from forcefully bubbling up in the back of her throat that sounded exactly like a tea kettle that had finally reached a rolling boil. It was probably somewhere along his ribcage that she managed to snag with outstretched fangs and a contorted neck, but she was hardly keeping score any longer. Sassafras was undeniably single-minded as she tore new flesh, and she didn’t have any suicidal plans to keep him where he stood when he leaped away from her.

She dug into the earth with her hind paws and sprang in the opposite direction entirely, twisting and propelling her body with every shred of awareness and stamina she still had at her disposal. Her sooty paws scrabbled for footing as she attempted to land her bounding acrobatic stunt, and the whites of her eyes were still wild as she dug in and pushed off again at a full sprint. She didn’t dare take a second glance to see if he intended to give chase. She already knew that if he did, she was now at a terrible disadvantage with her back turned and would be hard-pressed do much of anything about it.

It seemed that she was going to be smart today, and Charon dashed after her with lips peeled and a vicious snarl across his face. He did not waste time, but then, neither did she. Considering the damage she had done to his face he had trouble seeing clear with the blood flying in his face as he took off, causing him to slow down. Once the drops of blood were gone from his face due to his speed, it was too late; she was too far away.

It seemed that another Redhawk wolf would get away from him that day, but he didn't give up, continuing to run after her — and he would for another good while, intent to show the Redhawk wolves just how bad an idea it was to not take Charon Ostrega seriously.

up to you if he catches up or not :)

It was only her animal brain’s desperate will to survive that kept her paws churning and attacking the earth to get as far away from Charon and Moonspear as she possibly could. Had she not successfully torn the rightly hostile Alpha’s face in her initial onslaught, which ultimately led to the freckled white male’s limited visibility, things might have been all the worse for the small, dark female who called herself a Redhawk.

She pressed on in spite of the dagger-like pain that drilled deep between her shoulder blades and didn’t stop running until her legs gave a spent and unceremonious buckle beneath her. She tumbled with little grace into a heap of sodden leaves. Sassafras didn’t know where she was, what state her injuries were in, or how far away Redhawk Caldera was just then, but there wasn’t much to feel about any of it as a slow blur overtook her eyes and she slipped into utter darkness.