Wolf RPG

They had followed her. Behati had suspected it ever since the day on the ledge, when the telltale movements of wily watchers in the grass had caught her eye. She had ignored it then, pushed it out of mind, choosing to focus on euphoria of her new existence.  But the past is not so easily shafted. Despite her best efforts, her stalkers were on the Plateau's doorstep - and they weren't the sort of creatures to knock politely.

In the pre-dawn hours, the caramel wolfess crept down the side of the mountain and dropped into the grass. They were moving - she could hear the whisper of grass around their sleek, sandy bodies. Two, perhaps three - it was unlikely that she would be able to take them alone, but what other option did she have? Reveal to Dante and the others that she had arrived with more baggage than her bright young face suggested?

No, she had to deal with this herself. Bait them, run them off, hope that they fell over and miraculously broke all four legs. The young wolf crouched low, and waited, willing the dawn to hurry up and come.

Early morning patrols were a favorite of his, just before dawn broke when everything was still silent. Especially when he was unable to sleep, thoughts washing over him like a tidal wave and bringing only tense exhaustion.  Somehow it stilled him and helped to keep those at bay, walking in the cool air alone beneath the moon.

But this morning he was not alone.  He heard them before he saw them also, shifting through the grasses, and he tensed with ears thrust forward.  Intently he turned his silver eyes to where he heard them and his lip lifted.  Something was risking trespassing, and doing so stealthily.  He wondered for a moment if finally he would have the fight he'd sought... but no.  It didn't sound right.

He hadn't yet run into or noticed his packmate, but he began to move in her direction, preparing to cut them off before they could move further in.

Behati's focus was so intense that she too failed to notice her packmate - not until he was standing between her and the band of unwelcome visitors. Behati's shot up from her hiding place — moments later, a trio of little popped up above the grass, their bat-like ears backlit by the very faintest of dawn glows. A chorus of whoops and yipping raised flock of nesting birds into the air, gilding the scene with an edge Lion King-esque drama.

"Beauty beauty! Come come, big strong!" the visitors crowed in Dante's direction, bobbing their heads. Their tone was mocking - but Behati wasn't sure that coyotes had any other options. The caramel wolf crept forward, signalling Dante with a sharp yip of her own.

The first to appear came not from in front, but behind.  He did not panic immediately because he had sensed no threat from there, but his hackles did rise at the girl.  Only when he recognized her, and the real intruders came upon the scene, did he focus once more with deadly intent.

He wasn't fond of coyotes on a normal day.  They tended to ignore boundaries and thieve kills, not to mention most he had met were a rather unpleasant bunch.  But when they were this close, dislike turned to angry malice and something akin to hatred.  This was still his lands despite his conversation with Lasher, at least for a while longer.  And these fiends weren't welcome.

He felt they deserved no warning so he gave none.  With only a growl of affirmation to Behati he sprang at the leftmost one, throwing all of his weight in a headlong rush that he would attempt to use to lift the scrawnier creature by the throat. Hopefully she would follow suit. If not, he'd do for them himself.

Ballsack.

Dante went for the throat without so much as a whisper of a warning - as was his right. Behati swore under her breath and followed, working her slim legs hard to catch up. 

The little crowd of coyotes scattered, forming a crescent around the two wolves. Dante's target escaped by the skin of its teeth, wailing in distress as it sped off into the grass to join its fellows. "Fat wolf, too slow, ha-ha!" they screeched. "Give queen now! Give queen! " The troop moved in to seize their prize, rounding on Behati in the half-second when Dante was still preoccupied by inertia.

The coyote slipped away and his irritation grew, though he ignored their taunts. It was true he was slow and that would be to his disadvantage against such light and agile foes. But that did not ensure that they would survive. He just needed to be smarter.

They were focused on Behati and there seemed to be some connection here. At the moment he didn't care, although later he might question it. He did this to defend his home as much as her and she seemed open to helping with that. Good.

This time when he ran, he pushed his way to stand next to Behati, his ears flat against his skull with his obvious displeasure at the situation. In reality his blood was humming and the idea of another good fight such as the one he'd had with Charon was mildly exciting. Baring his fangs, he lunged again at the nearest coyote, hoping he'd catch something between his jaws. If he took one, the others would be easier. When numbers were even the smaller creatures would be at the disadvantage.

Things for violent after that. Dante snatched at the nearest pest, and this time, his teeth made contact with a leg. The creature squaled in pain, pulling at its trapped limb.

The other two stared at Behati. She stared back, noting the rise of hatred in their yellow eyes - of betrayal. Before she could do anything to defend herself, they were on her, biting and scratching and wailing their feelings into the rising dawn.

He met flesh solidly, but as soon as he did, the creatures behind him sprang.  The satisfaction was short lived when they attacked Behati at once, and he released the one he held to grab at the tail of another in an attempt to drag it away from his packmate. He didn't see their expressions or the betrayal writ upon them... All he saw was one of his family being beset.

By snatching at one, he left his back and hindquarters open to the coyote he'd abandoned. The error seemed unavoidable, so he simply gritted his teeth harder on the one he's caught and hauled more avidly as the other's teeth made themselves known in his left haunch. His left hind leg struck out in an attempt to dislodge the pest. If he didn't hate the creatures to start, he was certainly beginning to now.

The fight between Behati and her two assailants was a peculiar one. Neither side was really giving it their all, favouring sharp nips and harmless batting to actual fighting. Compared to Dante's experience with the third coyote, it looked like a group cuddle. In between yips and squeals, Behati could be heard shrieking at the two creatures to "Just get lost!"  - which they did not. Several times, they nearly succeeded in hauling the female away with them into the grass, but Behati thwarted their attempts each time. She was a three coyote job, and there were too many wolves at this party.

Behati had no choice but to swap blanks for real bullets, and pray that nothing came of it. From the floor, she reached up and snatched one of the animals by its wide ear and bit down hard, leveraging the shock of the bite to flip its sandy body onto the ground.

All it took was a flash of throat. Before Behati could whisper a final warning and (hopefully) send the troop on its way, Dante's jaws met carotid and squeezed. Behati had never seen so much blood. Perhaps it was because it didn't belong to prey, or because she hadn't been prepared for it. It exploded from the creature's open throat, sending its brethren running into the grass - as though they had been doused in acid. Behati shrieked and sprang back, but not before a secondary spurt hit her clear in the face.

He misread the situation entirely, as the alternative (a friendly relationship between the girl and the coyotes) was so improbable that the possibility didn't exist in his mind. Therefore, when an opening presented itself, he struck. One eliminated. The satisfying rush of heady blood that followed sent the rest of the group scurrying, and Dante watched them to gladly, licking gore from his muzzle. Thank the gods that was done.

"Are you alright?" He asked, assuming she wasn't hurt and guessing she was as glad as he to be rid of them. Finally he turned to look at her, expecting relief or perhaps thankful comraderie. It was a job well done in defending their borders, as the torn body at their feet displayed.

"Are you alright?"

Behati watched dark blood gurgle silently from the coyote's torn neck. Her vision was fuzzy and her head even more so, but she managed to croak out a "Y-yep," in response to Dante's question before slowly, carefully lowering herself into a sit. 

The body at the Alpha's feet was definitely Yaqut. Behati had not liked her, or even know her that well, and did not feel the loss in her heart. They did, though. The angry, mournful yowling trailed the two remaining coyotes as they bolted west, carrying word of their comrade's demise back to base camp. The shocked yearling sagged onto the ground, eyes on the now very dead trespasser. "I-I thought they were going to drag me off," she half-whispered. It was true, and they had certainly tried - but perhaps not for the reasons that Dante would assume. Behati gathered her wits about her as quickly as she could, arranging her face into a look of faux confusion. "They kept calling me.. queen?" Like you have no idea what that's about.

That was a sight Dante didn't think he'd ever see. Coyotes weren't normally so brazen, and to attempt to haul off a grown wolf was madness in his eyes. There was such easier prey elsewhere. He didn't understand, but merely shook his head, dismissing it as some level of crazy he'd likely never be able to comprehend. They were coyotes after all.

"Good." He was thankful she hadn't been injured, having been the focus of the attack for some strange reason. "Must be a coyote thing? Hell if I know." He shrugged and smiled once more. "Maybe they took a shine to you." It was meant as a joke, as he'd never heard anything more ridiculous than a group of the scavangers trying to name a wolf their queen. What was up with that? He was as confused as she was.

"Gross," Behati hid her relief with a grimace, shaking her head. The noise died down and they were alone in the warm light of morning, standing on either side of the corpse. "Maybe I just look like someone else?" she theorized, even though it was ridiculous. An animal knew its kin by smell, and it was very unlikely that she smelled like a coyote. Behati squinted down at the dead coyote, and shuffled out of the way of the blood spreading steadily in her direction. The ground here was packed flat, smoothed by wind and footsteps. "Do we just leave Ya-.. yappy-dog over here?"

He acknowledged that her suggestion was unlikely as well, though he didn't say anything in response. Instead he moved on with her, not even the tiniest suspicion that there might be more to this than it appeared. He shook his head as she suggested leaving the coyote here. "We can drag it over the edge of the territory. No use in letting it attract scavangers." He wasn't fond of the idea of eating the coyote... they weren't similar enough for him to feel badly for killing the creature, but too similar for that sort of thing in his mind. But other predators wouldn't have that same compunction and he didn't want it leading any of them within their claim.

He picked up the corpse by it's scruff and began dragging the smaller body towards and across the border, intending to stash it beneath the undergrowth a ways off and be done with it.

Dante didn't question her. This relaxed Behati, who quickly overcame her shakes and stepped forward to help drag the corpse away. "That'll show 'em who's boss," she declared when they were done, grimacing at the freshly dead coyote. One of its eyes was open, staring emptily into the morning sky. Perhaps they wouldn't come back. From what Behati could remember, there were six left in the group - five now that Yaqut had been dispatched. With those numbers, revenge would be a suicide mission. Unable to imagine anyone taking such a chance, Behati decided to put the whole nasty business out of her mind.

The studied the body for a few moments longer, until the younger of the two broke the silence with an inappropriately chirpy "So, y'want breakfast or something?"

"Let's hope. If not, we'll just have to show them again." He smiled at her, then looked at the corpse once again. This should be far enough to discourage any large predators slinking into their turf, but just in case, he had made a point to mark the spot mentally. He would run some frequent patrols past here in the next couple of days.

"Breakfast? absolutely." His tail gave a light wave. He was rather hungry after the fight and he hadn't eaten all morning. "Got anything particular in mind?"

Behati gave the body one last look before putting the whole business out of her mind - no thought was spared on what the consequences of the kill might be. "Rabbit?" she suggested, canting her head to one side. The crepuscular creatures (not a word that Behati knew) were most active at dawn and dusk. She could hear them rustling in the grass around them, re-emerging now that the fight was over.

Not even a last look was spared by the alpha, though he was not so quick to put the encounter out of mind. After noting the possible consequences, however, he was glad to leave any worries behind for the time being. It was likely nothing would come of it now the creature was off their land.

"Sounds fantastic," he agreed. A larger kill would have hit the spot too, but the ease of rabbit appealed to him after the fight they had just taken part in. "I know a spot not too far from here, unless you had something in mind." If he had learned one thing from Behati so far, it was that the girl wasn't shy about making her thoughts known. Dante found this oddly refreshing for one with so many of his own walls - he didn't need to guess what she was thinking (or so he thought). Likely as not, if he asked, she would tell him.

Behati nodded enthusiastically. Casmir had not yet shown her up in the rabbit-hunting arena, and she followed Dante with a bounce in her step and a promise that she would be the one to catch the first morsel. "Might even catch two, if you're being slow about it!" she added, setting herself the same challenge as the Mayfair boy would set himself a few days later. Apart from the sting of a few bruises, the coyotes were all but forgotten. "Is there like a big pile that you all contribute to?" She was talking about a cache, but didn't know the word.

"Is that right? Can't have that. Guess I'll have to get these old bones moving." He smiled at her challenge, glad for the lightheartedness she displayed and the energy she held. Dante wasn't quite old yet, but he had years on her, that was for sure.

"We have stores, yes. Caches, as we like to call them. I can show you a few once we finish?" All lay more towards the heart of the territory to deter any theft, but they were scattered for convenience and so that finding one intruded upon did not mean their ruin. None lay in the direction they were going, though... they would continue to follow closer to the border a ways.

He led her to a clear area that looked out over the flatlands below, near the edge of the plateau. Rabbits frequented the area since the sunlight allowed more flowering vegetation to thrive here. "Here we are. Let's find out which wins... optimism or experience." He winked, then slipped off quietly, rounding the small meadow to see what he could find.

Dante took her words in good humour. She accepted his offer of a tour with a short bark, eager to start the hunt without further delay - the competitive little whippet of a girl was just as hungry for breakfast as she was for a win. Her alpha veered off around the meadow and she went the other way, squinting in the softening light of day. There were fresh scent trails here, criss-crossing each other as the rabbits went about their morning business. They had scattered now, of course, and the two wolves would have to rely on luck and natural wiles to root out those that hadn't found their way back to the warren.

She went the opposite and he was glad, then they wouldn't disturb the other's intended targets. Soon enough, he caught sight of one, and charging after it disturbed a few others into fleeing. Choosing targets, he raced after multiple, but his speed just wasn't up to snuff to take them at a dead run. Behati had joined the chaos as well, though he got so caught up in his own chase he paid her little mind. Only when he almost plowed her over going after a particularly large buck and had to hurriedly, and laughingly, apologize.

That they caught anything at all that morning was a miracle. The two wolves bumbled clumsily through rabbit territory, colliding with each other as they struggled to so much as focus on a morsel of fleet-footed breakfast. When Behati eventually caught up with one of them, it was mostly thanks to Dante. The buck he had been chasing lost its footing and its life in the space of five seconds, succumbing to Behati's waiting jaws.

They shared it, of course. Behati managed not to gloat, and the memory of coyotes faded as fast and as completely as the night had.