Otatso Wetlands the big dipper

@Sumayl

Star had run earlier this morning and, finding herself bored, continued her run towards this swampy area. She had slowed to a walk- well, a wade actually. The ground was wet and her feet sunk into squishy mud. She was careful to try to keep it off of her- it would surely ruin her perfect flawless white fur. She could see an owl that was hunting its own prey, a mouse. If she came at just the right time, she might be able to catch the owl as it caught the mouse. She crept closer, hiding herself from the owl behind muddy reeds. She could see it tense as it prepared to swoop. As it did, it caught the mouse in its talons, and Star had just leapt, biting the owl's neck quickly. Now she held in her jaws an owl that held in its claws a mouse. It was a double catch, a little sprout of good luck for her. She found the most dry dirt she could find, and dug. She buried her prey and layed two crossed sticks there in an x to mark the spot for when she headed back. She continued to walk in the mud that sank under her paws.

Sumayl was further than he'd originally intended to go, hot on the trail of a elk herd. A pause was given, steps ceased as golden eyes studied the unfamiliar terrain around him, a slight moment of hesitation giving him an unintended break in his tracking. He knew that he could stop here, before he got into any more unfamiliar territories. Turning around would be easy, as would following his trail back to The Sunspire; but if he did listen to his inhibitions and turn around now he would lose the herd. An elk rationed out between the caches of The Sunspire would make them meals for a while, and with winter quickly approaching Sumayl understood the necessity of it. If he let this herd go he'd have to return back to The Sunspire with a whole day wasted and henceforth nothing gained. Shaking of his trepidation he continued forward, cringing softly when the hard, cold solid ground gave way to marshlands. It was harder to follow the scent trail, damped as it was by the pungent scent of mud, but even so Sumayl set his shoulders and kept trudging through the sticky muck. Each rise and fall of his paws was met with a wet squelching noise, which made the Ostrega indefinitely glad that he was a good bit behind the herd because they'd have bolted the second he began to move through the marsh. Teeth gnashed together at the consideration that it was echoing grossly, he felt inclined to mentally add. If there was anyone within the nearby vicinity they'd definitely hear him, any attempts at stealth thrown entirely out the window.

Sumayl froze suddenly, ears erect atop his skull when he heard the distinct sound of another creature moving through the marsh lands, not too far from his position, the tell-tale squelching of their steps unmistakable in the otherwise silence. Peeking over the tall grasses he didn't immediately see anyone and so out of options the golden outlaw let out a chuff to announce his presence to whomever else was haunting these lands as he was, the herd temporarily shoved from his mind.

She noticed the squishy slimy squelch of his footsteps. Star realized the wolf must of noticed her, because it had released a chuff to acknowledge her. She trotted steadily towards the source and her footsteps squelched in the mud. I hope he didn't see where I put the prey. Soon she came across a golden eyed wolf with an intresting warm mix of colors in his fur. "Well hello there." She said quietly to him.

The other approached, the tell-tale squelch of mud under paw grew louder the closer that the other came to him. As she drew nearer he could depict her scent, able to tell that, while he was not familiar with the scent and could not name it that she was, at least, apart of a pack. Soon enough a white female came through the tall grasses that served as some type of mother nature contradiction to the wetlands. Sure, the grass provided adequate coverage but the mud was a dead ringer. It wasn't, exactly, an ideal place to hunt. It wasn't even Sumayl's ideal place to track a herd, which, ironically, was what had brought him out this far to begin with. The girl greeted him quietly and Sumayl took a small measure of a second to observe her before he replied with a simple “Hello.”

He was mixture of browns and greys, and she could tell by his frame that he might not be full wolf. His scent was of the montains, and she assumed he was probably one of Ferdie's pack. "Hello." She said, even though she'd already said it. "I am Star.." Star said, and was kinda at a loss for conversation starters. She didn't know what to say next, and so she left it at that. But then the words that came next popped into her head. "What's yours?" She asked him, and was glad she could start the conversation here. Star was kinda awkward and anti-social but it seemed recently she had met a whole bunch of new wolves. She enjoyed meeting them.

There was an awkward moment of when she exchanged another hello, despite that she had been the first one to say 'hello' in the first place. Awkwardly, Sumayl shifted his weight from his left paw to his right, choosing, simply, not to respond to it in the case that they ended up in one of those conversations in which they just went back and forth exchanging “hellos” because neither wanted to be rude and quite it. Except, Sumayl had rude mastered, even though half the time he didn't mean to be, and was willing to cut the cycle before it could even truly begin. She introduced herself as Star, and Sumayl tucked it away into the back of mind, in the case that he ever happened to run into her again. It wasn't extremely likely, and Sumayl was bad with names on the whole, even though hers was simple to remember, but it was the thought that counted, he supposed. “Sumayl,” He offered her in turn, in response to her question. Likely, Sumayl would have given it to her anyway if only it was because was social convention dictated out of him.

Sumayl was his name then. Star would try to remember, but she found names after something in nature easier, like her's. "Are you from nearby?" She asked. Meanwhile she tried to forget about the swamp stench here, but it was hard to ignore. It smelled like mud and something rotting. Bleh.
Star could smell a pack scent on him, although she couldn't pick it out yet. But it was similar to Rain's in the way that it smelled like the mountains too. Anyway, he didn't smell like the Creek, so he couldn't be from there. But then again, it was hard to tell with the awful smell that covered everything.

Her next question brought with it a small flick of his ear, as he contemplated the distance between the wet lands and The Sunspire and if he would consider them nearby. “Close enough,” He supposed with a simple shrug of his shoulders. “I live at The Sunspire.” Sumayl told her, blissfully unaware that there might still be tension between the Creek and the Sunspire, though he knew nothing of that feud, either. Given that Jace had been too busy correcting Sumayl for swearing in front of Vienna, it gave some leeway to forget to tell him if there were any wolves that Sumayl was meant to avoid at all costs. “What about you? Which pack around here are you from?” He wasn't truly curious, not in the way that if he didn't find out he wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. Mostly, Sumayl asked because it only seemed polite.

She tried to keep her hackles lowered at the sound of the Sunspire. She knew that they had a peace treaty. When she gad first arrived to Swiftcurrent however, the two were enemies. Only days after sge had joined Ferdie had taken two captives. Honestly she didn't know the reason behind the tension except for maybe the fact that the Sunspire was so close.
"I'm from Swiftcurrent Creek." She told Sumayl. Hopefully he knew of the treaty as well, or at least wasn't aggresive. A soft breeze came by, blowing through her white fur. Star shivered. Soon Winter would be here, and she would need a heavy fur coat and full caches if she was to stay comfortable during it.

There seemed to be a moment of unease, though perhaps Sumayl had just interpreted the raise in tension, brief though it had been, when he had mentioned that he hailed from The Sunspire. Nothing had seemed to come from it, and so he assumed that perhaps he had simply misinterpreted it. Though Sumayl had always prided himself on his quickness to spot little details — a good habit of a Gamekeeper — he considered that he had just imagined it. He didn't know, and even then didn't really care. He had no qualms with any of the other packs in the Wilds and refused to hate a pack simply because the leaders of his own pack had a bone to pick with them. Such segregation was pointless and stupid. If he disliked a wolf it was because they had done something to deserve his dislike, and not for any other reason. Even then, the reason for his issues would never be hidden — if Sumayl had a problem with someone the Ostrega had no qualms about letting them know directly to their face. As Jace had found out, even though, at some point or another, that was likely to bite Sumayl directly in the arse.

The girl, Star, Sumayl reminded himself, spoke simply with perhaps an edge of a bite (at least that was how Sumayl interpreted it) that she was from Swiftcurrent Creek. Sumayl was hit with the impression that, that was supposed to mean something to him. “Ok?” He responded with a shrug, getting the feeling that he was missing something. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?” He couldn't help but ask her, because if there was one thing that the Gamekeeper hated it was being kept in the dark.

Star wondered how he picked up on it- or perhaps he was testing if she knew? "Uh- yeah. I think so. When I first joined our packs were enemies. But I think we have a treaty now." She said. "What are Ferdie and that other guy- J-somethin'- what are they like?" She was not thinking of joining or anything, that would be disloyal. Loyalty was the most important virtue to her. She was just wondering. Perhaps they were cruel, and that was why they left Swiftcurrent? She wasn't sure.

The woman spoke that she thought that it was supposed to mean something to him, though she stuttered a bit, or he took her starting 'uh' to mean that perhaps his blunt question had taken her off guard. She almost seemed unsure of him, though this was nothing remotely new to the Ostrega. His confrontational skills were outstanding (and not in a good way, most days) and he had a knack for making others unsure of him in general. She then went on to explain that when she first joined her pack that, apparently, Swiftcurrent Creek and The Sunspire were enemies. If Jace had been a leader at the time too, that didn't particularly surprise Sumayl a whole lot. From the Ostrega's perspective it made sense that Jace had enemies but that was probably because Sumayl and him didn't seem to get along on any sort of level. “Well I guess it's not important because the Beta didn't bother to tell me that when I joined,” Sumayl spoke with a shrug, not really minding that he was throwing Jace under the proverbial bus. After all, the Ostrega was sure that Jace had thrown him under the bus by tattling to the alpha about his behavior towards the Beta. An eye for an eye or something like that. Of course, Sumayl was left to assume that Ame wasn't overly concerned about it for the ebony alpha female hadn't singled him out to reprimand him about it...yet.

“I don't know anyone by the name of Ferdie. Never even heard of him,” So obviously, who ever he was, again, he wasn't very important to Sumayl. Though Suma got the feeling that there was much Jace hadn't bothered to tell him the two times they had met, being as it seemed to the Ostrega, more interested in bickering and attempting to throw his position of power in Suma's face. “You mean Jace?” Sumayl asked, figuring that it had to be who she was inquiring about. A soft snort left the Ostrega's black, leathery nostrils but he did not speak immediately. Just because he disliked Jace's abuse of power and belief that everyone had to confirm to his perfect ideal or they were wrong, didn't mean that he was going to necessarily bad-mouth him in front of this stranger. Their quarrel with one another was personal, and frankly, none of this woman's business. There was so much that Sumayl did not agree with Jace upon but he wasn't going to go out of his way to disrespect Jace like that, because as much as Sumayl wished it to be other wise, he was Jace's subordinate, and Jace, also, as if whatever deity that ruled above already didn't have a massive sense of cynical humor, happened to be the brother of a woman that Sumayl was growing to care for. There was the omnipresent feeling that if he hoped to have any type of future with Vienna that Jace's approval was likely going to be a major player in the game.

Sumayl, currently, didn't know Jace well enough to have anything nice to say about him and wondered if he should respond to it at all. “I'm still too new to have any sort of personal opinion about him.” It wasn't exactly the truth, but she didn't know that and Sumayl had no qualms about being a little deceitful to make sure that he didn't appear disrespectful to Jace towards a stranger that, supposedly, was something of a rival.

Just what I thought. So Rain had covered up her mistake with a lie. This didn't break the acquaintanceship, they weren't in the same pack after all. It was okay if they didn't want to share, although Star honestly didn't see why it mattered whether the alpha was a guy or a girl. When he said Jace, she nodded. So that was his name. "That's okay. I've been in my pack for four months and I'm still not sure what to think of my alpha." She said with a small smile. Mostly what she knew about Scimitar was that he wasn't a wimp, he was Bazi's mate, and he was in charge of Star. Honestly she hadn't always gotten along too well with him, but they had only had a few experiences together. So she still wasn't sure whether she approved or disapproved him as alpha.

“Not to say he wasn't once or still is apart of The Sunspire, but if he is I haven't met him,” As far as Sumayl could be concerned that was the most important. His own opinion. Whether it was the narcissist in him that believed that, or it was because he did not feel that he should allow his own views and opinions be influenced by others, Sumayl wasn't overly sure. In hindsight, which spectrum it ended up being from did not matter. “Jace isn't the Alpha. I mean he's the Beta, but he's not the top dog.” Which Sumayl, if he believed in such things, would have probably profusely thanked whatever deity reigned in the sky above. There was no way Sumayl would have stuck around if Jace led the pack. As it was, Vienna was largely the reason why he did not bail presently. Though there was nothing that stated he couldn't come visit her, spending time with her was a whole lot easier when they resided in the same pack as one another. “That's a long time to go without forming a basis of an opinion on the wolf that leads you.” Sumayl remarked in a contemplative tone. The truth was: he didn't like Jace much and expected that it was quite mutual but he certainly wasn't going to confess that to her.

finish up soon? This thread is getting kind of old.

"I know, I know." She said with a little roll of her eyes. "I haven't encountered him a lot, so I'm not completely sure... " She added to defend her case. It was a little funny that she still couldn't describe his personality very well... Well, she had hunted with him, fought a trespasser with him, been to a few meetings with him, and talked to him. Why didn't she know yet? Oh well, whatever. "I believe it will be time for me to get back. Goodbye, Sumayl." She said with a little wag of her puffy fluffy tail before beginning to trot away at a steady pace towards the Creek.