Redhawk Caldera I made a deal with the man on the moon

One Finwood thread, coming right up! Weird post but WHATEVS! @Finley

She was back.

Elwood had come across Finley's scent as he patrolled the border, as fresh as ever. This indicated that she had returned from her little jaunt, wherever it had taken her. He had wondered on multiple occasions if she had told Peregrine and Fox where she was going, and had just neglected to inform him -- but then he reminded himself, what responsibility did she have to tell him of her whereabouts? It would have made sense, seeing as they were co-leaders, but it wasn't absolutely necessary.

So he wasn't exactly mad when he found her fresh trail. It was more of a mixture of relief, frustration, and -- weirdly enough -- jealousy. After all, she could have been off to visit some other male -- right? Or was Elwood just making up problems where there were none to be found?

He shook his head. It was stupid to even think those thoughts, so he banished them from his mind. Instead, he started tracking his friend, and when he was close to finding her, he bellowed, "FINLEYYYY!" He couldn't stop himself from grinning as the raucous cry left his mouth. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," he added, lowering his voice a bit.

To be perfectly honest, Finley was not used to her absences being noticed at all. It probably should have occurred to her that becoming a beta meant that her movements would be more closely monitored, particularly by her co-workers. But! It hadn't, and so when she heard her name being shouted, she had no idea that she was responding to someone who was likely to question where she had been the past few days.

Oddly enough, Fin didn't feel particularly in the mood to attack him, even though she came upon him by cresting a hillside that dropped down into a ledge she likely could've leaped off to barrel right into him. Instead, she just dropped to her haunches and gazed at him with a smile curling across her lips. "Who dares summon me from my slumber!" she bellowed at him in a deep voice that did not at all fit her dainty, feminine build.

Finley's voice -- though it sounded different than usual -- came from an unexpected location, stopping Elwood in his tracks. He looked up and spotted her, peering down on him from a ledge. He smirked up at her, his tail swaying over his back.

"'Tis I, Sir Twig of Twiggington," he replied, deepening his voice as well. He paused for a moment, then added, "I'm on a mission to find the missing Princess Fin. Have you seen her?" It was his way of indirectly trying to find out where she had disappeared to, while simultaneously not letting on that it had bothered him or that he had missed her.

Elwood turned and, as expected, he fell right in line with the game. She attempted to don a lordly look about her, but failed miserably as his words brought a laugh to her throat. She choked it back and shook herself lightly, reassembling her inquisitorial aura as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Sir Twig, I know not of thine words and of thine... I bequeth unto you the... Thine... How doest thou..." and then she gave up, "Shit, how did they even understand eachother with all those made up words and shit? Hi Twig!" Her tail wagged at her haunches as she peered down at him. I'll end this now because I'm pretty sure the water has heated up enough for me to wash the pot I need to start dinner woot!

He laughed throughout her whole speech, finding her attempt to sound like royalty to be quite amusing. Never before had he heard the word "thine" used so many times in a sentence; if there were an award for that sort of thing, Finley would have won it. In the end, she broke down and dropped her facade, greeting him with a cheerful, "Hi Twig!"

"Whatcha doing up there?" Elwood asked, lifting a paw to shield his eyes against the sun as he looked up at her. And then, boldly, he added, "And where were you the last couple days, young lady?" She hadn't taken his bait earlier, when he said he was looking for the missing princess, so he tried a different -- though equally indirect -- method.

"Surveying the land, looking for dangerous enemies I can go play with," she answered with a bright smile. It had been a while since she tangled with an angry predator. Though she didn't feel particularly inclined to do so at the moment, it never hurt to keep tabs on the local stupid-idea-waiting-to-happen population. That way, she'd know exactly where to go for fun whenever she needed it.

Fin turned her gaze back to Elwood as he asked about her recent whereabouts. She canted her head slightly, wondering at the fact that he'd even noticed she'd been gone. Back in her Plateau days, she'd disappear for days on end, popping back home for a quick nap before setting out again. No one had ever even seemed to notice back then, but she hadn't been a beta back then either. That explained it. "I was checking out the coast," she answered nonchalantly, "It's very coast-y out there. And crawling with younglings." Her mind wandered to Small Pox and other boy briefly.

When Finley replied that she had been looking for predators to tease, Elwood briefly considered taking up the role of a bear. It was a play scheme that they had acted out previously, but his goal at the moment to find out where she had gone -- and why she hadn't told anyone she was leaving. Rationally, he knew that she was an outrider and it was her job -- but that didn't staunch his curiosity at all.

His brows raised as she finally relented and (kind of) explained herself. The coast? And younglings? It sounded like a strange adventure, but that seemed to be the type of thing that Finley lived for. "I've never been to the coast," was Elwood's response, now feeling a little jealous that she hadn't at least invited him to come along. He had seen terribly little of the world, and Finley would be a great tour guide. Of course, he was unaware that he was partially the reason that she had left in the first place.

"What's it like? Except for coast-y; that's kind of obvious," he said, now thirsting for more information.

OMG I love my dog but I swear I'm about to punch her in the face she's being so obnoxious right now Xx;

Fin gave him a little frown as he poked fun at her description of the coast as being coast-y. What did he know, anyway? It could have been perfectly non-coasty, he hadn't been there, so how would he know to say otherwise. She was quick to let it go however, as she was more interested in telling him about her trip than getting into an argument.

"Well, it's rather sandy and there's this big huge body of water that's like, all up on the shore's ass all the time," she explained with a smirk, "Rude, right?" Fin lifted a paw suddenly and chewed at a spot just above her dewclaw where she had a sudden itch. She gave it a few licks once the irritation was gone, then shook herself and looked back at her co-beta, suddenly very curious as to what sort of beta-like work he'd been up to since she'd gone. "You do anything beta-y while I was gone?" she asked, proving what I totally just said.

My pup is snoozing right next to me...snoring away!

"I guess that's pretty rude," Elwood agreed reluctantly, trying to envision Finley's description of the coast. She kind of sucked at painting a picture with her words, so he resolved that he would see the ocean himself someday. He wasn't sure when he would make that happen, but by god, he would feel the sand between his toes if it was the last thing he did.

He tilted his head, trying to think of anything particularly "Beta-y" that he had done in her absence. The pack was full to the brim, so there hadn't been any new members to accept, and luckily he hadn't had any more run-ins with trespassers. He had delivered a message for Peregrine, but that was something that anyone could have done, really. Telling Finley how boring the last few days had been obviously wasn't an option, so he had to make something up. Of course.

"You totally missed it. The biggest bear showed up while you were gone," he said, his eyes growing wide as he spoke. "Fox was busy being pregnant, and Peregrine was...doing Alpha stuff. So I had to take care of it by myself," he boasted, knowing even as the words left his mouth that he wasn't doing a very good job. It was too late to turn back now, though.

It didn't occur to her that Elwood truly had no idea what the ocean was like. Had she known, she might have explained it to him better. Really though, he probably would've been just as lost since she was absolutely awful at describing things. She usually solved the problem by just showing people things. Doing was way easier than talkie anyway.

"A bear?" Fin parroted, quirking a brow as Elwood went on with his story. Perhaps he hadn't been all too convincing in his story, but Fin's love of bear battling made it rather difficult for her to be suspicious, "What happened? Did you kill it? Where did it come from? Where did it go? Can we go find it??" Her excitement grew with each query until she was up on all fours, eyes wide and smiling while her tail wagged behind her.

Preschool teacher strikes again, with the Bear Hunt song. :P

Elwood quickly realized that he had made a mistake by mentioning a bear. There was no better way to get Finley's attention, so she reacted in a manner completely opposite of what he had wanted. Instead of being jealous, she became excited and eagerly asked for details, wondering aloud if the bear was still around. He should have known better -- but on second thought, maybe this was a good thing.

He wasn't quite sure if she actually believed him, but it seemed as though her anticipation had overshadowed her logic. So he decided to play along, even though there wasn't and never had been a bear in the vicinity. "We're goin' on a bear hunt!" he chanted. "We're gonna catch a big one. I'm not afraid!"

Grinning up at her, he took a few steps back, waiting for her to descend from her perch.

Oh my god. Were Fin not seated a few feet over his head, this totally would have been either a tackle or nose poke moment as Elwood responded not with words, but with a random, adorable little song ish thing. She pursed her lips slightly as she stared at him, watching as he smiled and wagged his tail. Even if they hadn't been about to partake in one of Finley's favorite pastimes, it would have been impossible for her to resist following him then wherever it was he wanted to take her.

The silver mockingbird shook her head, chuckling and pulling herself onto all fours. "You are so weird," she muttered fondly as she trotted along the ridge to a spot further down where the drop wasn't quite as steep. When finally she bounded down to stop at Elwood's side, she turned to him with an expectant look upon her face. "Welp! Show me what ya got, rookie," she encouraged with an excited grin.

He waited patiently for her to oblige, and watched as she crept down from her ledge until she was on level ground with him. She wasted no time encouraging him to take her to the bear, and his mind started to race. How was he going to pull this one off? If he kept up the charade for too long and then admitted that it was all a farce, would she be mad?

Although...it was possible to go on a real bear hunt and never find the bear. So that would just have to be the result of their excursion, whether Finlely knew it or not. He reached out and nudged her shoulder, then gestured for her to walk with him. Once she fell into step next to him, he said, "I missed you, ya know. I mean, my bear hunting and fighting skills are severely lacking -- and you weren't there to help me! You should really give me some lessons sometime, so I'm prepared if this happens again while you're not here." While he talked, he guided them towards the outskirts, gradually meandering through the trees as if he knew where he was going.

She settled into step beside him easily. It wasn't often that Fin followed someone else's lead on a hunt, but this didn't feel like following so much as a shared effort. They both wanted the same thing - not really - which was to find a bear to play with - omg can you just see Twig's face if they really do find a bear? - and there really wasn't any rush to it - Lol picture it seriously! - so she was happy to just meander in the right direction - for now.

Fin cast her gaze down to her paws as Elwood mentioned missing her, smiling against her wishes. Why did he have to say things like that? She wondered silently. Of course, she truly did enjoy being told these things, but it made her insides squirm uncomfortably with guilt. Not that the sentiment wasn't reciprocated of course - no, that was actually the problem. Fin shoved the rest of that inner drama straight out of her brain. Thinking was just plain tiresome, and she was on a damn bear hunt. There was no way she was wasting her energy on feelings and shit during a bear hunt. Plus I'm just too dang sleepy right now to puzzle through her crazy ass brain ATM.

"You know, that surprises me," Fin replied with a cheeky smirk, "I mean, you're so good at pretending to be a bear, I'd think it's be easy for you to fight one since you clearly can really get into their heads." She'd never forget the first time they'd met when they'd both done their best bear impressions for one another.

"You know, that actually makes it more difficult to fight them," Elwood said, casting a sidelong glance at Finley. He kept his voice steady, so as not to give away the fact that everything he was saying was utter bullshit. "When you see life from a bear's perspective...it changes everything. Makes you sympathize with them, you know." He couldn't stop the corner of his lip from twitching up into a smirk.

Realizing that he should at least act as though he was tracking a bear, he dropped his snout to the ground and began to sniff. He nosed through the snow, slowing his pace as he swung his head from side to side. After a few yards of walking this way, he looked up and asked, "Any luck?" If Finley actually came across a fresh scent trail, he would be astonished -- but crazier things had happened!

Fin quirked a brow at her friend as he went on to explain that being a good bear meant understanding them on some sort of emotional level that made one not want to fight them. "No," she replied bluntly, "I wholly and thoroughly reject that." She tried to keep a straight face as she said it, but there was humor in her eyes. She supposed that bears probably did have feelings much like wolves did, but that did nothing at all to stave off her desire to play with them. If anything, it just was evidence that she was totally within her right to try to play with them as often as she did, 'cause that's all it was of course - just playing. Not her fault they got so worked up about losing the game to her.

Her co-beta began to nose at the ground, so Fin did the same, turning to walk a few feet in the opposite direction. "Not really," she answered, lifting her head. Suddenly, she turned and gave her friend a quizzical look. "Where exactly did this bear battle take place? Not here, right? I mean, I was only gone a few days, the bear's scent would still be all over that place. Shouldn't we start there?" Something funny was going on... But Fin of course was oblivious to it. She posed the questions only so that they could get on the right track and find themselves a damn bear, not because she was suspicious that she was being had.

IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT AND I HAVE WINE! WOO

She disagreed with his rationale, which caused him to quirk a brow. It had seemed pretty believable to him -- he had actually been pretty impressed with his explanation, having pulled it straight out of his own ass. Despite her argument, he wasn't going to give up his ruse just yet. Elwood continued to sift through the snow with his nose, putting on a grand show of searching for the bear.

He lifted his head and looked at Finley, a little startled, when she asked for the exact location of the incident. Quickly -- maybe a little too quickly -- he responded, "Near the borders. Kind of up towards Lake Rodney." Perhaps they would get lucky and actually find some sort of proof -- or at least, something that he could pass off as viable evidence.

Briefly, Elwood considered the fact that he was getting in over his head; Fin was sure to be angry (or at least annoyed) when she realized that he was lying. He needed to find a bear, or come up with a good reason for telling her such an elaborate story. Or...think of some sort of diversion. He returned to his sniffing, guiding them towards the lake as his mind raced.

EEE GADS!! I bought a big bottle of wine for the weekend too :o I'm saving it so I have something to do on Sunday while Alex watches the Super Bowl x__x Or y'know when I'm bored tomorrow

Elwood burst out with additional details about his bear encounter. He was very... What's the word......... Squirrelly? We'll go with that. He was being very squirrelly about things. But, that made sense. He probably wasn't as comfortable with bear-hunting as Fin, even though he'd fought them himself now. For a minute she wondered if maybe he didn't really want to be searching for bears. It must have been rather stressful for him fighting one off on his own... Oh, did I say a minute? It was more like a split second that she wondered this. Then she remembered BEAR FIGHT and away she went frolicking after Elwood.

"I'm not surprised," Fin said as she trotted up to his side, "Did you know Lake Rodney is named after a bear?" She bet that he didn't. After all, she'd completely made the story up on her own. Unless Peregrine had told him already. In which case she'd have to slap him for being a jerk face and spoiling her fun.

Good idea! I may have to replenish my supply for Sunday, lol.

Luck was on Elwood's side that day, because Finley continued along with him with no signs of protest. In fact, she reinforced his lie by acting as though it was totally normal to run into a bear at Lake Rodney. The closer they got to the body of water, the more nervous Elwood felt -- but at the same time, he could feel his confidence increasing as well. If she hadn't caught onto him yet, then maybe he could continue to fool her...

Seizing the opportunity to distract Finley briefly with a story, he came to a halt, looking at her with curiosity in his face. He had never stopped to consider the origin of Lake Rodney's name. "Really? I had no idea," he replied, genuinely interested. He imagined a nerdy looking bear -- because "Rodney" seemed like a nerdy name, in his opinion -- and stifled a laugh. "There's gotta be a good story there," he encouraged, his paws remaining still as he waited for her to explain.

I.... broke into the wine tonight :3

"There just so happens to be a fantastic story here!" Finley replied enthusiastically. After all, it had to be awesome - she was the one who had made it up in the first place. "Like I said, the lake was named after a bear named Rodney. He was SUPER fat. Like, we're talkin' morbidly obese. One day he... Shit. What happened?" She paused, scrunching up her face in thought as she tried to remember the details of her epic tail. She knew he'd been stuck at the top of the Caldera, but stuck in what? A hole? A tree? Had she ever even specified?

"One day he got stuck," she continued, "I don't know in what, so don't ask. But one day he was stuck in like a hole or something at the very top of the Caldera. When he unstuck himself, he tumbled backwards and went rolling, rolling, rolling all the way down the slopes until he went crashing into the lake. And then he drowned because he was too fat to swim." She smiled brightly at that point. "And so we honor that fat ass bear's memory by naming the lake after him. And also why our pack motto is portion control."

As usual, Finley didn't disappoint with her elaborate story. She might not have been the most eloquent -- Elwood chuckled as she harped on the bear's obesity -- and she had a hard time remembering the entire tale, but it was just as ridiculous as Elwood had expected. He felt some pity for Rodney the fat bear, who had drowned in the lake and taught the wolves of Redhawk Caldera the value of portion control.

"Bless his heart," Elwood replied, shaking his head solemnly. But there was a hole in Finley's story -- well, multiple holes; then again, it was never meant to be taken seriously. He had to voice his question, though: "How did you know his name was Rodney? Was he a friend of yours?" Truthfully, he was just trying to stall a bit more, but he looked at Finley earnestly as he waited for her response.

"Ah, well.. Um..." Fin sputtered as Elwood questioned her relationship with the bear. The devious part of her wanted continue the charade and make him believe that this really was a true story. But, she had no idea how to keep that going, so she decided to come clean. "Actually, I kinda made the whole thing up." She grinned a bit abashedly as she admitted it, even though it was silly to feel even the slightest bit of guilt over it.

"When we first came here to found the pack, Peregrine and I were exploring the lake and he asked what we should name it," she continued, explaining the true story, "We were tossing around some ideas, then I said we should just call it 'Rodney' when nothing really seemed to fit. It was all just a joke, but oddly that seems to be the name that stuck." She laughed lightly and shook her head. It shouldn't really have been a surprise to her that that would be the name they stuck with. They were a bunch of weirdies, after all.

Surprisingly, Finley immediately owned up to having made up the whole story. Elwood feigned shock, his jaw slackening and his eyes widening as he gaped at her. He even lifted a paw and pressed it to his cheek. "You...you what?" he gasped. "You made it all up?!" Oh, she would certainly kill him once she found out about his lies, but the opportunity to tease her was too good to pass up.

He dropped the facade as she explained the real origin of the name, and that she and Peregrine had christened it themselves. That made a lot more sense, although the fat bear story was much flashier. "I like the other version better," he said with a swish of his tail, "so if anyone asks me, I'll be spreading the legacy of Rodney the fat bear."

Fin looked over at Elwood as he reacted to her confession, smirking. "I know, I know," she said with a nod and a sigh, "I am just the worst, aren't I?" Saying that made her grin. She was so far from being the worst, something she knew very well even if she hadn't been quite so narcissistic as she really was.

Her brows lifted slightly at her friend's second comment. A pleased smile slipped across her face as she wagged her tail. "Good!" she barked happily, "I was just gonna tell you to make sure you repeat the bear story. I hate to think of the rebellion that would ensue if everyone knew that fat ol' Rodney was just a fabrication."

Blake has strep throat and I'm trying so hard not to get it...but I think I'm fighting a losing battle... ;_;

"The worst, or the best?" Elwood asked teasingly with an arch of his brow. He bobbed his head in agreement as she spoke of the negative reaction should the pack find out that Rodney wasn't real. He doubted that many wolves knew that story, but he made a mental note to start sharing it. Somnia would certainly appreciate it; her sense of humor nearly matched Finley's in some ways.

As talk of Rodney settled, he figured that it was time to continue on with their search. "Maybe the bear I saw was a relative of Rodney's," he said thoughtfully as he started to shuffle forward again.