Emberwood here it's never ending

Morning had her crawling sleepily from the roots where she had slept, huffing resentfully over her aching ribs. Truthfully, one couldn't call this morning, light had barely permeated the sky and the birds were oddly quiet. Still; she had woken early in order to break as much ground as she could today, and hopefully make it to Easthollow by nightfall. She surveyed the area, in a better state to understand where she was then last night, when she had blundered into this clearing and fallen asleep almost immediately. She set to work picking at a tangled clump of fur on her shoulder, peering thoughtfully through the semi-marshy terrain and considering the fastest way to get to Easthollow; and whether or not she was willing to rest just a little bit longer.

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Even before the sun had began to rise, Rouge had been on the go. This was the first day she would set out to go on her own mission. A mission to find missions as it were. She had decided that she would look for scouting work outside of her pack, mainly because she wanted more to do and to have some bigger purpose. The alpha's of her pack didn't know of her intentions to do this and she hoped they never would. She didn't want to even think of what their reactions would be, be they good or bad.

But for her plan to move into fluition she would need connections between the packs she wished to work for. She didn't want to walk up to all of their door steps asking for work, that was sure to cause rumors. Finding romeing members of a pack was her best bet. To ask them indirectly if their pack could use her services. And it didn't have to be packs either, it could very well just be indiduals who wanted soething a scout could give them.

But might come of this day, it was still early and she wasn't in that big of a rush to get things moving. She then came across a resting female, who didn't quite look awake yet. Her pelt was filled with shades of gray and she was chewing at her shoulder. "Hello there." Rouge said in her usual voice that always had a hint of suggestivily.

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The girl missed the sultry note in the greeting completely, having never been exposed to anything like it before. She blinked in slight surprise before rising smoothly and twisting the better face the newcomer. A female, as evident by her voice, and with a pelt as dark as Khoe's. Her first thought was that her father ought to never meet this wolf; she knew his horrid luck with black she-wolves, and she had come to grow a resentment against them herself. She felt this impractical, however, and pushed such thoughts aside as she greeted the woman. 

 "hello,"  she began, scenting soon the pack-scent on the woman's pelt and finding it unfamiliar. Her interest in the woman grew, and her gaze sparked with interest as she continued, "are you from around here?" if the woman answered, she would supply her own information in turn.

The girl seemed innocent enough, or at least not hostile, something Rouge had a hard time playing with. The female returned her greeting and asked where Rouge was from, seeing as how it would have been hard to pin point the scent of her fading pack on her pelt. "No I'm not actually, I've been looking around." Rouge didn't typically venture out this far seeing as how she was somewhat rooted down now, but the scout didn't mind the long travel. 

But this female did have the scent of a pack on her, telling Rouge that she most likely wasn't a lone wolf. "And what about you dear. How far away is the pack?" Rouge said rather directly. 

The woman was vague in her answer, and asked rather directly where Dawn's own pack lay. While she silently objected to being called "dear", she answered in the same way, purposefully vague. "far enough. north of here. and yours?" she questioned, no longer feeling that she needed to hold back on the questioning for the sake of tact.

As her unnamed companion refered to her pack being to the north, Rouge looked in that direction, as though she would have been able to see it from here. She thought to the packs she knew that resided above them and wondered to which, if she knew it, she belonged to. When asked a similar question she replied saying "Oh it's to the west. In the great bear wilderness." she stated in a tone that was a matter of fact.

Thinking to her future prospects she went ahead and asked. "Tell me. Does your pack have any scouts?" she asked. Wondering if she could be of any use to the pack, either now or in the future. 

her tone was matter-of-fact, though the woman got to the point quickly thereafter. Dawn's brow furrowed; she found it odd that the some would ask such questions without even bothering to know her name or offer her own. Nevertheless, Dawn's tone was civil as she replied,  "yes. that, actually would be me." She stated, mirroring the woman's matter of fact tone, though she canted a lobe towards her shortly afterwards, asking,  "why?" 

It seemed as though he pack already he a scout, and it was her none the less. This might have put a wrench in Rouge's plans, but then Rouge thought abit it a bit more. Over all the pack wolves that she would meet away from their borders would be scouts to some capasity. She needed to sell that the thing she was offering wasn't a chance to 'steal their job or roll' in the pack, mearly help where desired. 

"Perfect. Another scout, you should know what I'm talking about then. My pack currently doesn't use my services too often. So I wanted to go out and see if any other packs could. I'm not looking to join a new pack per say, just looking for something to do. Now I'm sure you have the scout thing down and on lock for your pack, but Teekon is rather vast. It might be useful to have another hand. One that doesn't need to return home frequently." she said purposing her propositon waiting to see this females response. 

The girl's feelings shifted to a subtle dislike of the woman, who overall seemed shady. Her proposal seemed odd, wrong even, and the girl couldn't but interject. "you're selling yourself out to other packs?" If the woman had so much time on her hands for wandering, and almost never returned home, how was she offered a place in the pack? If a member of Morningside were to little else but scout, she could not see them lasting long in the ranks; even less so if they served other packs. 

While the woman's offer might have held some value, Dawn simply didn't like the idea of employing someone of another pack. "I am a scout, yes, but I am a pack member first. isn't hunting for your pack, serving it, more important than doing the work of other packs?" If she had so much time on her hands, certainly it would be better spent ensuring whatever pack she belonged to was prepared for the approaching winter.

Rouge wasn't too sure how this female would respond, or how any other wolf would respond to her proposition. But what she didn't expect was to be meet with questions. Questions that Rouge imagined to have some underlining tone of a lesson. A moral that all pack wolves should have, and that she hadn't. She mentally rolled her eyes, thinking simply that that wasn't her. 

"I don't know if 'selling' is the right word, but in a way yes." she said answering the females first question. It didn't seemed like she would accept Rouge's position, but she wanted to get her point across. Her perspective of the world and order of things. "Where as you are a pack member first, I am a scout first. The pack gets my services as a scout." she said specifically answering when the topic of 'serving it' was brought up. "I don't see the problem with helping others." Rouge said "It's not as though I'm hurting those in that pack." she finished.

Thoughtout her statements she never refered to Moonspear as her pack. It would have been in incorrect statement. 

Dawn wasn't stupid, and noticed the way the woman spoke of her pack. Her brow furrowed, and she paused a moment before responding.  "even if you see yourself as separate from her pack, how do you think they will react when they learn that others employ you? I'm not looking to make enemies of other packs by buying out their members." She tended to avoid offering others advice, as she hated to come across as being stuck-up. But something was wrong with this woman and her attitude towards packs, something that irked her. "holding a rank implies loyalty. you harm a pack by not offering that simple service, by hunting and serving them." She had been raised to see the pack as a whole, where all most work and provide. This woman went against that, something that didn't sit well with her.

Hey. Sorry for the wait. I thought I had sent this draft forever ago.

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She was almost the opitomy of what Rouge had dispized when she was a true lone wolf. The definition of a pack wolf, with utter loyalty and love for her pack and the inability to see that there was another way to live entirely. Rouge was simply offering to help others with her scouting skills and here she was being lectured about how she should be behaving within her pack, it began to make her blood boil. Who was this female to tell Rouge how she should serve her pack. 

"Scouting is my service!" she shouted. "It is there choice if they want to use it or not! I don't need a stupid rank, I don't eat their food, I just need something to do and if they won't give that to me I will find it somewhere else! Not everyone gets the benefit of being apart of some 'closenit family pack'." she said assuming that such a pack wolf must have been raised within a pack through out most of her life. "There are other perfectly good ways to live. But if you're going to let your ignorance deture you from being opened minded, then I don't need you any more then I need them." she said in a huff and walked away.

The things she said may have been said out of anger or in the heat of the moment, but none of them were things she didn't feel were true to some capacity. What was the point of staying to talk and argue with this female is she wasn't going to benefit Rouge somewhere down the line, and so she left.