Blacktail Deer Plateau Black is the soul

@Wraen forgive the odd title. It's up to you whether she crosses the borders or not. It would probably make more sense for sunny to attack if she's over the line.

To end the day's work he had decided to go on a hunt. Leaving the den site he walked toward the western borders and sniffed the air, catching a familiar scent. The musty and stale scent of feathers roused his energy and he set forth with more vigor, tracking the bird's smell until he heard it clucking and cooing.

Dropping into a crouch he began to stalk the bird, tuning everything else out except the smell and sight of the pheasant that was unaware of his presence.

Wraen had been busy tracking a small herd of deer that day - she had caught sight of them in the morning and, since she had no better thing to do, she went along, following them at safe distance. She stopped, when they did, she sniffed and examined their footprints and droppings, when she drew nearer, she observed each and every member of the little group, trying to find a weak link in the chain. And finally, when they began to graze in a meadow that was close to Whitefish river and the forest, which she already knew was claimed by a Morningside, she decided to have a break.

She had settled down on the riverbank, having drank some water earlier, when an odd noise drew her attention. It was a bird and oddly enough the sound came from the ground level rather than from above. Intrigued, she stepped on the ice, where it was frozen rock-solid and neared the territory, still listening intently for the bird to usher yet another sound and oblivious to the fact that there was another hunter in close vicinity.

Finally he spotted the bird up ahead, the brown and Greys of it's feathers contrasting against the snow. It was pecking hole in the snow and then scraping it back, occasionally pulling up a worm that it must have found beneath the snow. He paused for a moment, marvelling at the simple intelligence that must have been why this bird was surviving so Well. Snapping out of it he drew in the scent of the bird once more but much to his surprise that wasn't all he got. There was a female wolf nearby, very close nearby and her scent wasn't anything he had smelled in Easthollow before, he would know as he patrolled many times a day. 


Despite the scent of a stranger being so close to their borders he concentrated on the hunt and crept forward extremely slowly so as not to disturb the bird and as he grew close enough his hind legs tensed up, preparing to jump forward for the bird.

While the wolf, who Wraen could not see, was as quiet as a mouse in it's attempt to sneak up to the unsuspecting bird and attack it, when the opportunity presented it, she - on the other hand - was neither silent, nor very careful. She walked the ice, drawing closer to the borders and at one point a brittle layer of the cold cover gave way, her forefoot went through, catching her by surprise, scraping her skin painfully and making her yelp loudly. Slowly she removed it from it's icy trap, wincing and biting back whimpers of self-pity and retreated few steps from the culprit. 

Either scared by the noise or curious of, what it was, a colorful bird appeared on the edge of the river, making Wrae freeze and observe it intently.

There was noise and a loud yelp from the river that startled both the bird and Sunny, the bird moving off toward the borders and over them. Sunny cursed and gave chase, spotting the bird at the edge of the frozen river. The rivers edge was pretty much the edge of their territory and as he spotted the bird he leaped and landed on it, pinning it between his forelegs and breaking it's neck with a sharp jerk of his jaws. 

Once done he lifted his head and peered out curiously at the female, ears flicking.

Wraen took some steps backwards the same moment a young wolf appeared, pounced the confused bird and killed it on the spot. Then - as if noticing her for the first time - the hunter looked up at her and their eyes met for a moment. 

What now? The girl asked herself, wondering, if she should make acquaintances (the same way she had done with three other Morningside wolves) or go for a more risky plan, which involved testing the waters a bit and finding out, how hard or easy it would be to steal the candy - the bird - from the kid. 

Therefore - without saying a word - she walked around the fellow, reached the spot, where she stood between him and his home, and sat down. Now watching him and waiting, what he was about to do.

He didn't really like the way they just stared at one another from a distance, silently. Their eyes met and be flicked his ears, tilting his head to the side questioningly. Should he just go?...

As the thought hit his mind she stood up and walked around him, coming close to him but sitting behind him blocking his path to the borders. This didn't strike very well with Sunny and instinctively his tail rose above his back and his lips twitched up nervously "I'm gonna ask you to move away from the bird and the borders" he spoke calmly but it was clear that he was nervous and somewhat startled by her behavior. His eyes watched her in a wide eyed shocked type of way despite his dominant posturing.

Defensive, eh? Wraen thought, when the young wolf finally spoke to her, and though he wanted to appear dominant, the voice betrayed him. This, however, gave some confidence to the girl, who around this point had come up with a plan or rather the aim she wanted to achieve. Details would be hammered along the way. 

Instead of replying, the girl got up to her feet as well. Wagged her tail in a friendly manner and regarded the boy with a crooked grin. Then she took one step towards him, her gaze never leaving his face.

She was seriously weirding him out. Instead of doing as she was told, she stood up and tried to approach him. Being weirded out by the lack of words being used and why she suddenly seemed interested him, naturally he curled his lips and betrayed himself again by taking a nervous step backwards. "I..that's not exactly what I meant ma'am. Don't make me have to move you" with these words he puffed his chest out, adding a growl to his voice to show he meant it.

The more concerned the boy grew, the more courage it gave Wraen to act. She made another bold step towards him and then plopped down to a play-bow, tail wagging, ears forward and her whole being friendly and inviting the other for a game. 

She drummed her forepaws against the ground few times to make a point and added a quiet "woof". Let's not fight - let's play, let's play, let's play! Wraen thought.

Maybe she wasn't really a threat at all. As she dropped into the play position he felt his tail slowly begin to wag, his ears flicking once or twice as he tried to decide whether to chase her away or simply entertain this game. 

Finally as she drummed her paws against the ground he broke, a laugh leaving his maw before he nodded. "Alright...it cant hurt" he said softly and pounced forward, lifting his twisted paw and bopping her on the head a few times with a soft growl.

The boy was quick to fall in her trap and Wraen beamed, when he answered her call for a game, leaving his hard-earned prey behind. For a brief moment she wondered, if she should dash right at it, grab it and run for her life, but decided against it. Who knew, how this was going to end - better to play for some time, test the other's strong and weak points and then decide, what to do afterwards. 

Therefore she snapped playfully in the direction of his forepaw, evaded the next nudge and circled the boy as fast as she could once, returning to the first point. Tail still wagging, her bowing and making small leaps from one side to the other, to make the other engage in the chase. 

I can't promise you a fight in the end, but for this thread to count for Sunny's mercenary trade, they could have a playful spar, if you wish and just in case this thread doesn't turn out as it was planned in the beginning.

that's perfectly fine, they can playfully spar. If she does try to grab his prey, I can say he'd react negatively and attempt to catch her and take it from her forcefully.

As she tried to snap at his forepaw his sucked in a breath and yanked it back to place it down in the snow again. She was quick that's for sure and as she circled him he spun around trying to keep up with her and as he turned around to face her again he leapt forward.

He playfully but carefully nipped back and forth on both sides of her face before standing up and rearing onto his back paws, making shadow boxing movements with his forepaws at the air above her head. He dropped back down to the ground and wagged his tail, bumping her with his head and giving a low whuff, not suspicious of anything that was going on here. It had been so long since he'd let loose like this that he was perfectly happy to just enjoy the play.

Wraen soon found out that her opponent was good at a close-up combat, but was not that keen on playing the cat and mouse game. She did well to keep the balance between avoiding his nips at her head, letting him win at times and grabbing lightly either the loose skin on side of his face or aiming for his ears. Bites were soft and playful. 

At one point he reared and was above her, making Wraen take some steps backwards to be out of the way, when he landed. And after his last move - a bump with his head against her shoulder, she turned to mouth the ear that was closest to her, as well as some part of his neck.

After this - she danced away few steps from him, bowed again and invited the boy for a run. Catch me, if you can! Her expression said and then she dashed off in yet another circle - close enough to get him interested in her favorite game.

He shook his head  as she mouthed at his ears and neck,the softness of the nibbles actually tickling and causing him to laugh once more. He watched as she again danced away a few paces and then bowed down. It took him a moment to realize she was inviting him to chase her. As she began to run in circles he nodded "Challenge accepted" he said with a grin and sprung forward, lumbering toward her at a easy run at first so that she could take off ahead of him and begin an actual chase.

The boy responded to her invitation and it was greeted with an approving bark and wag of Wraen's tail. She let him come to her quite close, before dashing off in the last moment. It was soon clear that running on the ice of the river was becoming difficult, if not dangerous, when she would slip, therefore the girl took off for the solid ground on the bank (opposite of the Moonspear's territory) and, after having reached it, she turned and stopped briefly to see, if her playmate was following.

When he got close enough he attempted to nip at her, but she once again slipped away. It was quite teasing the way she did it, letting him get just close enough to feel like he had her but still far enough for her to make a dash away. He barked at her and immediately sped after her, tail lifted behind him and ears perked. He was glad she had avoided the ice, he couldn't imagine himself running on the slippery surface without falling and causing some damage to either himself or the ice which would be bad.

As she turned to look back at him, he made a low whuff and tossed his head, grinning as he continued to run toward her.

Wraen was so lost in the game that she entirely forgot the sole reason she had begun it. The dead bird lied forgotten on the ice of the river, while both the hunter and the one, who had had the initial plan to steal it away, were too engaged with each other to remember it at all. 

The girl waited the fellow until he was close enough to the banks, then sped off to stop few feet away again. There was no joy in running on your own, when the other was not able to keep up. Or gave up on the chase.

Sunny had indeed forgotten about the bird and if a third party came along and stole it, he'd be pissed but at this point he had no suspicions of this girl and was enjoying himself too much to pick up the prey and go home. As he neared again she danced away, taunting and teasing him. 

With a sudden determined growl he sprung forward and full speed barrelled toward her, intending to tackle her. If he was allowed to get that close, he'd slow down a bit and make sure he didn't hurt her by slamming into her because he was a gentleman and it wasn't nice to hurt nice ladies.

Wraen read her opponent's next action with ease, just a little too late to have a head-start and therefore on an impulse of the moment and with little preparation, she made a leap. It was almost a perfect one, except not high enough, her forepaws braced against the other's back, she lost the balance and fell head-first in the snow. 

To make it appear, as if she had intended to dive in the first place, the girl rearranged her body and paws so that now she was lying firmly on the ground with the still snow-covered face looking at the fellow, waiting for his next move.

Sunny gasped as she leaped toward him, tensing as her forepaws were on his back but then suddenly she just face planted into the snow. He almost chuckled but held it together not wanting to offend his playmate. As she rearranged herself he looked down at her,ears perked and tail wagging before he sprung forward and began to lick the snow off her face occasionally biting at her ears and cheeks. He made low noises in his throat before just as suddenly he flopped over onto his back before her, pawing at her face with his forepaws.

He was a funny kind of fellow - playing all nice and gentlemen-like with Wraen. She had to admit that it felt nice to be treated that way, but on the other hand - she wondered, if she could take certain liberties that came along with the status?

Therefore, once he flopped on his back, she sprang to her feet, snapped playfully at one of his paws that was coming her way, and then went to stand over the yearling, leaned her head down and gently got hold on the loose fur on the boy's neck. As if saying - I got you now.

It hadn't occurred to him that rolling onto your back in front of a stranger despite how nice they seemed, could be a really bad thing to do. He hadn't realized that he could be killed quite easily. That is until she had him by the neck fluff. The sudden presence of her muzzle near his throat was alarming and he quickly tugged away, releasing a wary growl with a slight warning while he pawed at her muzzle with his paws.

With Wraen so close to the neck, the other wolf grew uncomfortable and warned her accordingly. She let him go, shot a little surprised glance his way (because this kind of move had never been a problem with either Sarah or Terance, when they had used to play fight a lot) and took few steps back to give him more space. 

Then in order to smooth over the situation, she lied down on the ground and regarded her playmate with a calm gaze.

She released him promptly and he gratefully gave a few wags of his tail to attempt to placate his growl, to show he wouldn't attack her and wasn't mad at her. As she laid down he stood up and made a few jaunty leaps in her direction pawing at the air in front of her with both paws and whining softly. After a few moments he tilted his head to the side and regarded her with a small smile "Are we done playing? I enjoyed that" he asked softly. It occurred to him then that she hadn't actually spoken at all during their play together and he hoped she would be able to understand him.