Heron Lake Plateau killin' the game, bout to catch a body

for my fren @Niamh

if tegan wasn't off exploring or wreaking havoc he was usually bored. but, he actually kind of had something to do today-- like,  it wasn't a pressing matter or whatever but it was probably good he do it. niamh had like, a completely missing tooth last time he'd seen her. and maybe he was out of the loop, fine, whatever, but he had had nooooo idea what that was about. he needed to know. 

besides, now they had match mouth injuries tee hee. 

so he sought out his friend with tail high and waving, curious what she was up to and what the fuuuuck had happened to her.

With her apetite slowly returning, and her mouth wound healing up, it was time for Niamh to hunt. She'd taken advantage of the few caches she'd made, as well as a magpie she'd de-feathered and kept alive in the pit she and Elwood had dug. That was the first meal she'd eaten since she'd lost her tooth, and while she still had to chew on one side of her mouth rather than the other, and every touch to that sensitive spot made her whin or growl, she needed to eat. Hunger took control over pain, and she pushed through in order to keep herself nourished. 

When she saw Tegan tracking her down, she turned and headed toward him. She felt guilty, having given him less of her time than he deserved, but now that Screech had been taken care of, a major weight had been lifted from her shoulders and she was returning to her normal self. She bobbed her head and bumped her shoulder against his, uttering a fond growl to the Blackthorn in greeting. "What's kicking?" She asked, wondering what her friend was up to these days.

niamh seemed more upbeat than the last few times he'd seen her-- which was a good thing. "hey b," he returned just as fondly, returning her bump. he'd forgotten he had decided to stop calling her b-- it was just a thing, okay, you can't just change who he is ugh. "not much-- wanted to check up on you?" the end of his statement turned up a bit, like a question. a question that was implying she was supposed to tell him how she was doing but also a question from himself to himself ... in a yo are you reall about to be all compassionate rn? kind of way.

Naturally, Niamh snorted when he referred to her by the nickname she'd chosen, but she allowed it, with a roll of her eyes. She had to tell herself he meant it endearingly- but part of her wasn't entirely sure it was the nicest nickname he could've chosen for her. Her ego could take it, though, as she hadn't too much of an ego to speak of unless she was really angered or flustered. But she was surprised when he expressed a bit of genuine concern for her wellbeing. This wasn't exactly the Tegan she knew- normally, he would have had the sort of 'suck it up or get out of my zone' attitude toward anyone who decided to pity themselves. She smiled, though- glad to see that he was willing and capable of extending that sort of care toward her. 

"I'm fine." She replied. "Still a bit sore, but eh. It'll heal...Don't think it'll grow back, though," She said. After all, she hadn't met anyone who'd ever lost an adult tooth- so while baby teeth grew back, she had no way of knowing adult teeth wouldn't either, aside from the fact that the socket was clearly very empty. "How's it look?" She asked, baring her teeth harmlessly, pulling her tongue back so he could see exactly how her mouth minus one imposing canine.

tegan stared at it, ears pricked and nose twitching as she barred her teeth in his direction. "looks like you could sneak pebbles through the gap-- then you'd have a secret mouthful of rocks and you wouldn't even have to open your mouth," he said blankly, mostly without thinking about why anyone would every want a mouthful of rocks. but, besides the point. "not bad though," he finally added, a bit more seriously, "what happened though?" when she (presumably) shut her mouth, tegan looked back at here, away from her mouth, head tilted to one side.

"i was off looking for screech for a week or so, i kinda missed a bit back home. and towhee found him while i was gone anyway, apparently-- was that it? did screech fuckin do that to you??"

Sneak...Pebbles...Through the gap. It wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear- but how in the hell had he come up with that as a description? Who put rocks in their mouth? She laughed, caught off guard by his surprising description, and bumped him with her nose. "Secret stash of pebbles in my mouth, okay," She droned sarcastically, but was glad to hear that it didn't look too bad. She was more interested in hearing whether it looked infected or not- but given the fact that Tegan had chosen to comment on stuffing rocks in her mouth, rather than being put off by any discolourations, she assumed she was fine. 

It turned out that he too had been off tracking Screech- and she shouldn't have been surprised. Tegan was a good scout, and a great tracker- so she felt no apology was needed. To his question, she shook her head. 

"I was out doing the same, and X came flying toward me. I couldn't understand what he was after trying to communicate, but figured it had something to do with Towhee and Screech since he'd been out searching from the air. I tracked her down to the cliffside, but by the time I got there, she'd already ripped his throat out and sent him over the cliff- but kind of went over with him." She said. "She landed on a ledge, though, so I went off and dug up a young alder to use to pull her up." She said, running her tongue over her teeth. "I think I loosened it while biting through its roots, and it got pulled out when I hauled Towhee up the cliff. Hurt like a bitch," She said, grimacing. She'd gone into shock shortly after the tooth had come out, but with Towhee's help, had come out of it fairly easily. "Thank god that's all over, though," She said, shaking her head.

tegan shrugged. "it might come in handy."

and then came a story-- holy shit, a real ass story. it'd been a hot minute since tegan heard a good story, real or made up. and he'd only known that screech had been taken care of, he hadn't heard the full story. so this was exciting. his jaw dropped a little bit, giving away his cool, 'i don't really care' sort of attitude. "holy shit, neev, that's fuckin' whack, yeah, i'm glad it's over with," he said with a little 'phew' at the end of his statement. 

he shrugged again. "you sound way better too," he added, referring to the last time they spoke when she was missing half the letters in her words, "you been doin stuff?"

Niamh couldn’t remember actually seeing Tegan impressed with something, so she felt somewhat proud that he was surprised and taken by the task of hauling another wolf from certain doom on the cliffside. Of course, Niamh did not consider herself to be a hero- she’d done what any wolf would have done for their best friend. She nodded in response, firmly. If something like that could never happen again, she’d be content.

He asked what she’d been up to, and she shrugged. ”The usual. Patrol, hunt a bit. Trying to keep prey alive but immobile, if possible. And sorry bud- but our crabs died.” She said. ”Been thinking about going after the puppysitter trade though. They’re kinda cute. What about you? Been up to anything new?”

ugh, those damn crabs. "i know, what's up with that? i ate one of 'em, cause like, might as well. wasn't as good as the one by the ocean though," he replied with a grunt. and then, niamh started talking about... lmao, puppies? a puppysitter? hmpf. tegan had promised his dad he'd visit cinder and tywll, but he had yet to do that. cause like, puppies were boring. but, yeah, fine, maybe kinda cute. tegan, however, had no true interest in them.

"puppysitter? didn't know you were into that-- we've at least got like a billion puppies in the pack for you to sit on," he said, making the worlds lamest joke. and then he shrugged. "no, just been boolin'," he shared, and then his face lit up with a smirk, "oh, and i'm on my way to becoming an ambassador for the redhawks-- isn't that fuckin whack?" tegan! a diplomat! representing the redhawks as a whole. gaaaaDAMN that's a funny fuckin joke right there-- if only he wasn't being completely dead serious.

She was relieved to hear that she wasn't the only one who'd killed a crab, and obviously, not the only one who noticed that they didn't taste right. "Something to do with our water not being salty," She said, explaining what Raven had diagnosed when she'd first told the alpha what they'd done. Of course, it could have been worse- say the crabs had thrived, they could have upset the lake's entire ecosystem and spawned some sort of devil-crab. It was probably for the best, in that case, that they hadn't survived. 

She smirked and flattened her ears at Tegan's joke, but he was right- there were lots of puppies in the pack now. "S'gonna be crazy this time next year when they're all our age," She commented. "I, personally, want to be on their good side when that happens." Nothing would've been worse than having the whole hoard of Redhawk puppies hate her when they became yearlings. It was a pre-emptive strike; get them to like her now and then raise them as her minions. 

She was a bit surprised and unsure how to act when he revealed that he was on his way toward becoming an ambassador for the pack. A wolf who called packmates bitches, used the word whackass every other word, and joked about sitting on pups. Their ambassador. Still- surely Raven knew him, and would be the judge of whether or not he could handle it...So she'd leave it in the alphas' hands. "That's pretty cool," She said. "Just make sure you make us look good, right?" she teased.

"that makes sense," tegan responded thoughtfully. still, it would've been cool to have an army of crabs guarding their lake. but... whatever.

also, not a bad idea. niamh was on top of it today. but still, puppies just weren't his thing. at least, not right now anyway. tegan had bigger and better things to worry about-- like corralling bitches. "not a bad idea, they all sorta have to like me though-- family, and all that. i'm not worried," tegan said, despite the fact that he himself didn't care for half of his family because they were lame. pretty hypocritical, tegan, but whatever, we'll let it slide. "you'd be good at it though, i think-- i thought you were gonna go for medic or something, you tended to asshat while he was injured." to be fair though, they had plenty of medics... probably didn't need anymore.

and then he scoffed. "look at me, niamh, i can't not look good-- and therefore redhawks will always look good." sound logic, tegan, and correct grammar, probably. the yearling grinned, pretty smugly.

True- by default, Tegan had a leg up- as did the majority of the wolves in the pack, as pretty much all of them were related. Then again- not all of them got along simply because they were family, so she had an edge on that crowd, by getting them to like her because she was her, not because she was related. The idea of becoming related had occurred to her- in all likelihood, she'd end up with either a Redhawk (but there weren't exactly many/any Redhawk males around) or a Blackthorn, and she was banking on the latter. Not that she'd say that to Tegan, though. 

"Nah." She said, when Tegan brought up the idea of her being a medic. "Too much stress. I hated it." She said, reflecting on just how tired, hungry and stressed out she'd been while she'd been looking after one patient- let alone a pack of wolves that could injure themselves or get sick at any moment. From what she knew, Ceara was going for that trade- and she'd avoid stepping on the fiery woman's toes at all costs. 

When he gloated, Niamh took it as a challenge. "Mkay, if you feel that way- ambassador the pack to me." She said. "Pretend I'm some newbie coming to the borders, from some other pack. What makes this one so special?" She asked, skeptically. She was really going to put him to the test if she had any say in the matter.

tegan grinned, nodding with much approval. "hell yeah, don't stress yourself out over a trade-- that's some fucking deer taint," he informed her-- i actually am not sure why i typed that out but it feels fitting to tegan's personality and now you have to read it too sorry. his tail was wagging at the thought of his own trade, which he was very much into. it was just the right amount of power and responsibility without actually being too much. he wasn't like, the beta, running around representing anyone. nah. he was some low-ranked yearling that visits packs and lone wolves and delivers little messages tied around his neck and is rewarded with a little biscuit and a pat on this head. this was fucking low risk stuff. 

"oh, you're into roleplaying?" tegan teased her with a smugass grin that just made you wanna slap this shit outta him, "word." and then he paused, rolling his shoulders around a little bit-- "i'm kidding," he clarified, and then cleared his throat. easy. fuckin childs play. don't fuckin try him, niamh. "well you just said it a minute ago yourself," he said, ears cupping forwards, "redhawks are a family oriented pack. if you're part of us you're a part of our family, and family works hard to keep each other in check and taken care of." good start, at least i think, but niamh was the judge of that. "redhawks have strong work ethic and grounded morals, and at the end of the day i don't know who wouldn't wanna be a part of such a sturdy pack." and then after a few heartbeats and a final shrug, tegan added, "as long as you're willing to pull your weight, of course." 

someone call guinness, tegan just said a whole string of sentences without using a single swearword or insult.

Niamh’s ears flattened and she gave him a flat look when he went off on her for being into roleplay. She rolled her eyes at him and lifted her ears when he seemed to straighten himself out, prepared to listen to a very Tegan-esque description of the pack- but instead, he delivered something incredibly different.

Though he did sound like he was bragging a bit, she supposed conviction was a good thing to have- it meant he was proud of his pack, and comfortable saying it. And there was not one Tegan-ism. She was impressed, but she reminded herself to stay neutral. She was supposed to be a stranger- a stranger who wouldn’t have expected words like whackass and taint. So thus far, he sounded incredibly...Normal.

”Sounds like every pack I’ve been to.” She said, and grimaced. ”But they’ve all ended up having some issue or another that i’m not forewarned about. I heard something not long ago about your wolves being on a manhunt for one of their own wolves- who does that?” She asked, allowing skepticism to creep into her voice. Naturally, their issue with Screech couldn’t be kept totally silent- she’d just chosen that because she wanted to throw in something that might startle him into using the wrong words.

Phone post!! Sry in advance 

Tegan scowled at niamhs next comment. FIRST OF ALL- how was that not good enough? Tegan thought he nailed it. And second of all, niamhs role play wasn’t even realistic. ”no ones gonna know about that niamh, the fuck— screech was completely brain dead leaving this place. And towhee threw him off a cliff,” Tegan said, still scowling. 

But... whatever...

”but if that’s the direction you’re taking— if a wolf is gonna turn around and attack omen of their own then uh, yeah we’re gonna do something about it. I don’t have respect for any wolf who lets something like that’s slide.” Tegan still disliked this prompt.

Niamh shrugged and shook her head at his question- she wasn’t trying to be Niamh. For all she knew, other packmates had told wolves from other packs, or loners- so there was a possibility that others did know about Screech. Tegan wasn’t pleased- and it was a sore spot for her to even try and bring up- but not all visitors would be easy, and she figured an ambassador wouldn’t always have the easiest job to do. She wanted to see if Tegan was up for the test.

Again, though, she was impressed. He definitely had a strong sense of justice that represented the pack well. Sure, he was a bit spiteful when he spoke, but it carried well. Any wolf would have been convinced- and if they didn’t like his attitude about traitors, then she couldn’t see them fitting in.

”Sorry bud, I had to ask it.” She said, slipping out of character and speaking as herself. ”But you definitely got the message across. And if anyone took issue with what you said, they don’t belong here.” She reached out to touch his cheek, as an apology for bringing a hard topic up, and to reassure him that he’d done well, in her books. ”What about the pack’s history? Are you supposed to know that stuff? ‘Cause I don’t know who founded the original pack or any of those things and I probably should.” She said. She wasn’t entirely sure whether that was a role the anbassador had to ill- but it made sense, in her opinion, for a representative to know the history of the pack’s origin.

tegan gave a pretty pleasedwithhimself nod at niamh's response, glad he did alright with that whackass prompt. and then he nodded to agree with her. "yeah... i dunno who in their right mind would be okay with that situation and not take action," he said with a frown. then, glancing at niamh apologetically, he added, "we don't have to talk about that, though."

her comment about not knowing pack history was kind of surprising. tegan blinked. "you and towhee are real close aren't you?" he said. for as long as he'd known towhee and as close to her as he was, tegan had heard all about the founding of the caldera. and mom sometimes talked about fox and peregrine too, so like... ya know. it shocked tegan to hear that towhee had never blahblahblah'ed to niamh about the founding of the pack. "i think she's told the story to rocks-- but i can tell you too," he clarified, shifting where he sat, "towhee's parents, peregrine and fox, founded the caldera a fuckin hot minute ago along with my parents, elwood and finley, duh." yeah and that's all there is to it. absolutely done. kinda, tegan put a little more thought into it. 

"they sort of led with an iron fist, there was an incident with one of peregrine and fox's kids-- she tried to kill one her younger siblings out of jealousy when she was just a puppy-- you met wifi, she's the one that got attacked. after that fox and peregrine didn't let any strangers in and outta the pack, no alliances, no nothin. peregrine died of mysterious circumstances and fox died a little while later after having her final litter-- which is where towhee came from. but then elwood and finley took over, there was a war with moonspear and black feather woods... and we won, duh, moonspear just sorta leaves us alone and we leave them alone we never like, fought them-- we just had a mutual enemy even though we kinda hate each other-- which has to do with screech, actually, it's screech's fault. but so black feather returned to the woods and towhee didn't wanna have another war since we we're all still kinda hurting from it blah blah blah and now were here and you know all that stuff." 

oh my god what a word wall. how much of that was even accurate? sheesh, tegan hoped most of it. "but uh, i'll condense that for a potential joiner, obviously-- and towhee probably knows all the details way better than me, she's our historian, after all." whoops, he shot niamh an innocent little smile, tail tap-tapping against the ground.

 

While Towhee had told her some of the details, it had been a while and the names had completely slipped her mind. Once Tegan brought up the names Fox and Peregrine, though, she opened her mouth and nodded knowingly. He slipped into his own character as he spoke- with a fairly difficult to follow run on spiel about who hated who and who killed who and whose fault it was- but it was charming nonetheless. It was a bit of an information overload, to tell the truth- but she was glad he admitted he’d condense it for a stranger.  

What she did take away from it, though, was the information about Moonspear. She squinted slightly as she thought about it, and pulled him back to that topic. ”What do you think Moonspear might think if we told them Screech was dead? And that maybe they were right about him? I mean...He told me a different story about Moonspear, and how things were an accident and he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time- but he was probably lying.” She said. She’d believed him then- but not anymore. ”Do you think it might sort of mend things if we sent an apology, and told them he was gone for good?” She asked. It wasn’t her call, of course- but if a relationship between the packs could be mended, now that Screech was dead, she didn’t see the harm in it.

tegan thought about niamh's statement. truthfully, he hadn't considered it. he knew towhee and that dark wolf were good friends-- layla? hyper? uh, her name slipped his mind-- but those were the only interactions he'd known about moonspear. "i think he killed one of their pups-- for some reason," tegan commented absentmindedly as he thought, just to fill her in on moonspears side of the story. either one of them could've lied, who the fuck knows. finally, he shrugged. 

"ya know it couldn't hurt to try-- i'd like to think it would help, and they're not too far away, they'd make good allies if we could swing it. did you guys snag his body? we can go rip his muh'fkin head off and bring it to them on a stick as proof," he offered with a shrug, "give it to em as a trophy or somethin." 

Niamh bristled when Tegan told her Screech had killed a pup. That wasn't what he'd told her at all- but then again, he'd likely just been lying to her, so he could get a bit of sympathy. No one would ever really know the truth, especially now that Screech was dead. Whatever had really happened would never be found out- but they could still possibly remedy the situation with Moonspear by letting them know that in the very least, he was dead- and that they'd apologize for harboring someone who'd killed one of their pups. 

She shook her head in response to Tegan's question. "No. He disappeared over the cliff. I'll probably head out that way sometime to see if he's washed up, but I doubt it. The sea animals'll make short work of his carcass," She said, as though willing them to do just that. "Do you know anyone in Moonspear? I don't think I've even met one of them before. It might be best to go through someone we know, as long as they're chill."

tegan gave the comment some thought, then shrugged. "fuckin asshat," was his intellectual contribution to the conversation, "fuckass." the second word was muttered much quieter under his breath. 

"yeah, gannet. he's towhee's older brother, he was around for whatever screech incident... they attacked him and broke his leg but... well i don't understand it, it's some sort of bullshit, but gannet chose to live at moonspear," tegan explain kind of choppily, because the logic just didn't make any sense to him. there was no logic. whatever. "but towhee is good friends with their beta, i think, we should ask her if she wants to come," he added, feeling that was a better bet. he frowned though, still uncertain. "i hope they don't fuckin eat us for all this," he thought aloud. no, he'd never met hydra, but the idea of her was somehow threatening.

IF THIS ISN'T COMMON KNOWLEDGE JUST PRETEND TEGAN WENT NAH

The whole issue with Moonspear sounded pretty tangly to Niamh- but Tegan had some idea of what was going on, so she let it be. If Gannet was there, they’d obviously been able to forgive one Redhawk- so Towhee might have a chance at restoring the peace- as might Tegan, who often came off as being relatively non-threatening. 

”I’d say ask Towhee, and see if she’d give you the OK for a mission. Gannet’s her brother, so I’d assume she’d probably want to be at peace with the pack he lives in. Plus if she’s got an in with their beta, that’d definitely be helpful.” Then again- look at what had happened to her other brother. 

It seemed as though Tegan was inferring she’d go too, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. ”Let me know what Towhee thinks- if she goes with you, I’ll stay here and guard.” She said. After all, as far as Niamh was concerned, she and Towhee had become the pack’s badasses, and one of them would need to be around at all times.

"you wouldn't wanna come too?" was tegan's first question, his ears angled forwards with concern. he and niamh were like lil travel pals and it was like super cute and totally friendship goals. :/ but... whatever, fine, tegan didn't fucking care about that lame boi shit. he moved on, shaking his head. he'd still bring niamh up to towhee. "i'm gonna go find her, i'll let you know what happens," he said, giving her a quick smirk and then a nudge and then the little asshat set off to find towhee.

She felt bad when Tegan pressed her to come too. It wasn't that she didn't want to go- it was that she felt it might not be practical for both her and Towhee to go alongside Tegan. Unless there was some sort of distinct threat he'd need to be protected against by two wolves, she didn't see the need for both of them to go- and Towhee was the one who knew wolves in Moonspear anyway, not her. Still, it was something she'd consider, as she watched him go off to find Towhee. If either or both of them pressed her to go, she'd do it.