Wolf RPG

He had been alone for too long again. It was strange to find comfort, and then have it vanish so swiftly. He had seen no sign of Saghani for a few days now; at first it had been hours and he had tolerated their separation, but it became one day, and then two, and now he had lost count. However, the boy was aware that she had not abandoned the area - he tracked her with some care, finding tiny signs of her throughout the forest, but never did he cross her path. Tryphon thought of calling out, but he wondered if perhaps Saghani did not wish to be found - had he offended her? Had he not been enough? - and he did not wish to be found by the other woman, Asterr. So he tracked the shadow through the trees and along the mountainside, until finally coming to a place where her scent was strongest; it was not alone, no longer singular or flavored with the subtlety of his own aroma, but strewn about like discarded clothes on an apartment floor - and Tryphon, ignorant as he was to the world around him, did not know what he had discovered as he crossed that invisible line.

He hadn't made it far before a sound permeated the chilled air. At first he thought it was just the wind, or a weighted branch snapping beneath the weight of snow; but then there was a dark figure approaching him, and Tryphon felt a mixture of elation and anxiety peak in his heart. Was it her? At first he thought so - wished it so - but the stranger rounded on his position and he saw the differences between this shadow and his shadow. This was only a girl, her body even younger than his own - and marked with white, a splash he mistook for snow caught in her scruff at first. Not willowy, but not heavy like himself. Their posture bespoke a hurried interest in him, and then the words came to make the point ever clearer.

The boy's ears flicked forward, expectant and obliging to the voice, but then they fell back against his grey head. He had no answer for her. He could plead ignorance - which would have been somewhat true - but Tryphon wasn't eager to expose his feelings so easily. It wasn't like he was aware of what brought him here either; only the need to see Saghani again, and the foolish dismissal of the warning signs. This was a pack's lands, and he knew not to be here, but he was tempting fate for her - greedy in his desire for companionship.

It was clear by his rigid stance, his lowering head and spiking fur, that he would not answer the girl. He sneered through a brief flash of his fangs at her, warning her to keep back from him, but such a threat would not hold for long. He was ready to bolt if he had to - absolutely had to - but Tryphon was still on the hunt, and he wasn't going to be dissuaded by a child. He took a bold step on, and then another, slipping his teeth away for a moment, and wondered if she would do anything of consequence.

The male practically spat in her face as her warnings of trespass were ignored completely. He actually did laugh in her face, and she was outraged even further. She was not, however, taken back by his arrogant displays and pursued the asshole of a wolf further. Had she heard his thoughts of her, she might've been somewhat insulted. Despite the colorful language that she often had, she felt she was quite matured for her age and decided that her pack did have a decent amount of respect for her. If she had heard such negative comment aloud, her responses might have been emotional rather than rational.

She stepped in front of him again, growling and clicking her teeth. She raised her muzzle just below his throat, a serious threat if he stepped any further. 

"I asked you," she snarled, "What you were doing past our borders."

As expected, the threat display had a minimal, almost absent effect. If anything it made the situation worse for Tryphon, who now had an agitated wolf circling about him. As soon as she dove for his throat - hidden though it was by his bowed head - he snapped his teeth, driven by the primal instinct to defend that precious point of himself. He did not latch upon her skin, though. In fact, the boy missed completely; he only wanted to make it known that he would not be hurried or pressured, no matter whose land this was.

He did, however, give a guttural response to her questioning. His voice was shaky and crackling, like a freshly built fire: "Looking f'rr someone." Having finally stated that, Tryphon expected a certain amount of leeway granted to him - she got an answer, and he meant no real harm. But that wasn't how the world worked. It was unfortunate that Tryphon had been displaced for so long outside of common society, or he'd have realized this, as he began to stride around her.

The lengthy verbal tirade aside, the girl had a point. He shouldn't have come here, shouldn't have crossed the very obvious territory edge and sought out his shadow. But he had done it - this impulsive thing, this action which wasn't something his true self stood for - and he was here now, hunting. As soon as the guard asked him for a name - Tryphon's mind gave pause. He had no name for the dark one that he followed, and she had no name for him. They had never spoken. All he could do was describe her, and as soon as he opened his mouth to do so, he shut it; the stranger was speaking again, overwhelming him with orders that made his tail lash and head bow defensively. She was in the right and he knew it, yet Tryphon disliked being bossed around, even here.

With his teeth set tightly in a grimace, he decided just to plant his rear end right there, where he was standing. It was one of the options she had given him so he couldn't be at fault. "Black-furrr, female. New 'round herrre... M'bee just 'rrived." Having spoken this in his gravel-rich voice, he licked his lips and appeared to tire from the effort. Had the guard seen this woman? Maybe not, seeing as how dedicated to the invisible line she was, she might not have left this section of it for a while.

He took her response as a lie, because he had found the shadow's scent trailed this way. Whether this guard had seen her or not, there was evidence of her having visited the area - presently, he did not know if she resided here. Why would she be here and not with him? But this is the question he wishes to answer, and so he has traipsed in, uninvited. A small snarl cuts through the air upon hearing her words; Tryphon cannot hide his unabashed frustration upon hearing the lie. "Tracked 'er here," his words cut through the droning sound of his growling, culling the noise, "Mussst be here." His eyes narrowed, but he did not budge.

He was hit recollection as soon as he caught the scent; it was masculine, foreign to him, and yet there was something familiar, just a hint. He did not pause to consider it, he spun on his heels and lengthened his strides into a gallop. It was during his run that he realized what he recognized in that scent; the black female. His face contorted into a snarl - as if he was not mad enough that there was another trespasser on his land. This trespasser had ties to someone that had caused him enough trouble. Taggarik was livid.

He spotted them soon enough; the male and Jhala. She seemed to speaking to him, but the black wolf did not care. He came barelling down like a runaway freight train, roaring his rage, and he did not stop. His ears were pinned forward, his tail stiff and erect. Spittle clung to his bared fangs.

"Out!" He snarled as he bore down on them. "GET OUT!" And those would be his only words, as he set his focus on piercing the male's hide with his fangs. He would run this trespasser out, or kill him.

The girl refuted him, but Tryphon wasn't about to accept anything she said. He was agitated enough by her repeated lies and his own wounded pride - if thats what it even was - that he was ready to make her tell the truth; his teeth flashed, and he lunged, but it was at this moment that the girl's words were cut short. Not by him, but by a dark figure charging from the surroundings. At first, through a trick of the mind or maybe the hope of the heart, he thought it was Saghani -- but the voice booming from the creature was deeper, and though he held her scent, he held a great wrath that set him apart.

Tryphon was up and running like hell. He had to actively resist the urge to turn around and fight the beast, knowing that he did not have the prowess to be effective. The wolf chomped down upon his hindquarters though, causing Tryphon to turn his head around and snap his teeth, trying to skirt the attention of those fangs by bowing his hips and curling his tail. The wolf got a few good bites on his heels though, tearing at the skin. He would not linger. If Saghani chose to run with these beasts it was her decision. And if not, he would find her somewhere safe.

He snapped and snarled at the heels of the trespasser until the lone male's paws reached the borders and fled across them. Behind them, in the torn and scattered snow, a trail of flecked blood; the evidence of the black wolf's wrath, of his utter intolerance for trespassers. He snorted derisively, his tail flicking side to side with annoyance. But his work was not yet done; without so much as a glance back, his gray eyes staring intensely ahead, he summoned the Delta to him.

"Jhala."

For a moment he did not speak; he ran his tongue thoughtfully across his lips, and smoothed the bristled fur that had still been risen with fury along his spine. He still did not look to her as he calmly but strongly stated, "we do not talk to trespassers." He turned then, and as he walked past her, his teeth fell on her rump in a firm nip. She needed to be scolded, to be taught, but his waving tail spoke to the return of his good humor, and as he jogged away he glanced back at her with the corner of his mouth quirked into a subtle grin. He was not mad at her, and his frustrations, for now, had been vented on the trespasser.