Wolf RPG

When she wasn't at Swift's side, Bazi was patrolling - endlessly, and all over. She had circled the forest three times that morning, emptying several bladders' worth of pee near the treeline. The rain fell continuously, light but persistent. It was getting cold.

Pasha had been there too, she noted - everyone had stepped up their game since the return of the Grove mother and the children that had been unfortunate enough to have been by her side when the bears emerged. The relationship between Bazi and her mate was still awkward, but functioning - for the good of the kids, of nothing else. Bazi did not think ahead on the subjectb she was too tired for that.

For the tenth fine that morning, she squatted to pee.

On that day, Pasha reversed the usual direction that he took along the borders. He had been so keen to follow the same trodden path that his father had taken with him that one day that he had stuck to it — the monotony got to him. Going the opposite direction put things in a new perspective for him and had the sun been out, they would have equally been in a new light.

With the return of his mother and siblings, Pasha had hoped that things would have gone back to normal. But tensions and unease were still palpable throughout the Grove, though he could not have quite put a paw to why. The desire to keep them safe though, that still burned bright within him and rightly so, he had not let up in his own round of the borders. The rain wouldn't stop bears, so why should it stop them?

Carefully, he rounded a bend littered with barbs from reaching brambles and pushed on, damp but not chilled. A flash of white through the foliage up ahead gave him pause for a moment and his hackles prickled uncomfortably at the thought of who could have been just beyond his obscured view. Quietly, he went forward, thinking it may have been that nosy loner from a few days ago. This was dispelled immediately however, when as he parted the brush he found that it was only his mother.

Sighing relieved, Pasha stepped forward to greet her with a wave of his tail.

"Hi Mama."

The face if a miniature Scimitar poked out of the bushes. Bazi hurried her business along and turned to face her son. The gap over her left canine widened when she smiled, still pink and shiny around the edges. "Hi, Pasha." They hadn't debriefed yet. Pasha was racing towards adulthood, taking on more official responsibilities than the other children - he rarely took time to mess about. "Borders safe? No strangers?" It was the best way she knew to break the ice with her most focused baby.

Her business finished up for the moment, Pasha could not help but beam a little more at the smile she gave him in return. Just like Swift and Allure, Pasha had missed his mother. Perhaps he may have missed her most of all, though in some sense he would have never admitted to it. It was a little hard to tear down a bond between parent and child.

"Yeah," he answered. "I haven't seen anyone poking around today." Other days, sure, but those events had been dispatched for the most part. Things were quiet again within the Grove as far as strangers were concerned, though he was aware now that there had been traffic along those borders. "I think there was someone there the other day, but I also smelled you and Papa there too. Did they join us?" It hadn't been that weird ass dispersal wolf he had seen a couple of times, and it certainly hadn't been that equally weird ass dead thing he and Allure had found in the forest either. Of course, as those thoughts crossed his mind, he thought best how to word them for later.

Pasha's face brightened - he looked happy, and Bazi was immensely proud of him for keeping it together and continuing to patrol despite what had happened to his mother and siblings. "And not the faintest sniff of bear, I hope," she added with a tight little smile, scratching damp earth over the spot she had marked. No use tip-toeing around the subject - Morran had etched her signature deep into the Frostfur family. Bazi stepped past Pasha, nudging his shoulder as a sign that he should follow. "Was it a male or a female?" she called over her shoulder, raising her head to catch a scent on the breeze. Haven, maybe?

"I accepted a large, grey-white female the other day; her name is Haven. Nice enough wolf. We'll see if she lasts - you know how these things go." Kieran was the only wolf left that was not directly related to any of the others, and that would change soon enough.

Bazi mentioned the bear and Pasha immediately considered how to dance around that topic. He didn't want to consider the possibility that bears could come back through the grove to chase them out again, or worse, kill them all. His knowledge of bears went only so far — he thought them to roam in packs just like wolves. But he had scented no other bear or ursine-like smell within the grove itself, though the recent rains had washed out a lot of the scents he had acquainted himself with. Most importantly, it had washed away the last traces of blood from the earth.

He fell into step behind Bazi as they passed through a narrow bunch of young trees and sped up to move alongside of her as she went on speaking. "It was female," he said, wondering about Haven already. "And I haven't smelled any bears either but — what do you mean 'if she lasts'?" His interest had been piqued by that statement above all. Though he had been somewhat aware of those that had come and gone in their ranks, he hadn't known them. Honestly, he hadn't bothered to know them. "Do you think they're up to trouble?" And here, the edge of excitement tainted his tone just a fraction. Perhaps they were no good and just pure evil, like the bear.

But he couldn't have said why he was excited about that prospect.

Probably Haven, then. Bazi left it unsaid, thinking Pasha would make the same assumption. She bobbed her head left and right as they progressed along the edge of the Grove, double-checking Pasha's work with a stern expression. A little light on scent in places, and she reinforced their invisible wall by occasionally scraping the earth or rubbing her tail against tree trunks.

"Nothing that interesting," she told him, smiling wryly at his apparent excitement. "Although your mother did boot several wolves out of the pack at Swiftcurrent Creek when they weren't falling in line." Danica had not deserved it, and Shadow had done nothing more than rub her the wrong way. Still - the former was dead now, and the latter long gone; why should their names not live on in exaggerated tales? "Stragglers just.. don't tend to last. There's nothing keeping them here, and it takes a long time to earn a place in a pack as old as ours." Morgana was already on her way out - Bazi had not caught a fresh scent in days. Haven and Ayana were doing better, and Tryphon.. well, he was a strange one.

The Grove mother narrowed her eyes and cast a conspiratorial look at her pint-sized Scimitar clone. She couldn't help herself from doing just a little bit of shit-stirring. "You never know, though. Ayana came from Blackfeather Woods, and I just don't trust that black one. Keep an eye on them," she advised, "And go with your gut. If something smells wrong, it usually is." Apart the 30 times in Bazi's life when that had not been the case at all, but whatever. She was too busy mom-ing like a champion to worry about teaching the nuances.

His excitement gained a bit of a damper, but only because he opted to listen to what his mother imparted to him. At least it seemed that they didn't have to worry about Haven being some sort of trouble, which was good. Pasha hadn't even met her yet, assuming that he would somehow happen upon her or otherwise be happened upon. He considered briefly in a lull between sentences to seek her out. That thought was soon pushed aside in favor of hearing what his mother said next, and particularly about whom.

His head bobbled agreeably; Pasha often did follow what his gut said. At least somewhat, anyway. The venture into the smelly marshes beyond the Grove had pitted him against it, but his forming sense of duty had overrode it smoothly. All of that now was behind him and them all, or so they would all hope. "Why are they here if they're no good, though?" He couldn't help but ask such a question; it simply popped into his mind and out through his mouth it went.

Bazi didn't really know what to say to that. Scimitar was usually the one to bring in the stragglers these days - Bazi was content with the core of loyal wolves that had been there since the Swiftcurrent days. Haven was actually turning out to be quite pleasant, if a little overly-enthusiastic, but she did not share this with her son. Little did Bazi know that he would soon be taking a Pasha-sized dump on the pack's relationship with the new recruit.

"Numbers, I guess. 'Filler wolves'," she replied with a shrug, and gave the boy's flank a little nudge. "It takes time for puppies to grow up and fill the ranks with real family - so hurry up! We need you big and strong so that you can look after the next litter." Whilst it seemed obvious that there would be a next litter, Bazi could not yet imagine being close enought to Scimitar for that to happen. Their relationship was still strained, and she did not know how to fix it.

Filler wolves. Pasha didn't know what to make of it but he would in time. They needed wolves to make a pack but as it were, he felt like they were just enough. The inclusion of others into the picture left him baffled, but then again maybe that was because they simply did not stick around to leave a lasting impression on him. He paced on with her, hearing every word.

"Another litter?" He knew what that meant, at least. "Why?" It was an innocent question, though he could not entirely fathom why his mother would want another litter. Right now, she had them. That seemed, again, enough to Pasha. But as for growing up he couldn't help but let that one slide because he was trying. He didn't like being small — though small would quickly be falling out of proper description — and he especially didn't like being thought of as some child.

"Another litter? Why?"

There was no jealousy in Pasha's voice. The fact that it wasn't immediately obvious to her son made Bazi reflect on exactly why she longed for more children. Perhaps because it'd been a happier time. Perhaps because she thought a second pregnancy would bring back the fierce love she had felt for Scimitar - feelings that had cooled to coal now. Minutes after the wind had swallowed the young wolf's question, clouds had formed over his mother's head. She grumbled something intelligible in response to the question and picked up the pace, leaving Pasha to catch up. She didn't speak again on the subject for the duration of their patrol.