Wolf RPG

The first pack Haunter had crossed he'd joined on principle. It was winter and it would be unwise for any wolf to be on their own during these months. This was, in fact, the third pack Haunter had been a part of since December. He always chose to leave after a while and this time didn't immediately feel much different. The ominous, one-earred cur was detached if nothing else, but this seemed necessary at the time and survival was always his main objective.

The leader of these waters was tiny but he wasn't planning on being any trouble to Swiftcurrent Creek, so he didn't think much about it or hold a prevailing opinion on the subject. The leader could've had three legs or less and he wouldn't have thought twice about it. Fox, she called herself, had instructed him on a couple tasks that needed tending to, and seeing as Haunter was far from the lazy type, he took to them with quiet dutifulness the morning after his acceptance.

Clouds prevailed over the sun, leaving the morning in a weary gloom that gave the day a sense of perpetuating sadness. Long legs took him miles from his designated resting spot, having not yet uncovered a suitable den, and he made way for the Creek's borders with the intention of patrolling/familiarizing himself with them. Haunter was aware that he should be joining others in this task but he became less and less concerned with this memory as he traipsed the scent-infused barrier and got a feel for his current pack's surroundings.

Gone was the spidery, gangly mess of limbs that prevailed over her youth. Jinx had bulked up a lot in recent months, in part due to her pregnancy (she still vehemently denied it), and in part due to growing up. As far as Kesuks went, it was therefore safe to say that Jinx was a late-bloomer, and only just now coming into her own as her mother's daughter. At times when she wandered the territory's edge alone, she thought of how Kaskae would baulk to see her now, filled out and strong.

In this way, she cut a more imposing figure than she had even a year prior. Her purposeful march along the borderlands was likely enough to make any intruder think twice about engaging her. But Jinx maintained the stealthy approach to situations she had had in her youth. Today, with a heavy curtain of clouds obscuring the light and casting the world in a desaturated grey, she blended well with the creek's terrain. All the pack members would have looked similar in that light and been difficult to tell apart from a distance, but all of them were shades of grey and white save Tuwawi and Fox, whose brilliant reds were unmistakable.

So when she spotted a stark black figure loping through the pack's territory, red flags went up in her mind. Without hesitation and without the intent of stopping to ask who he was, Jinx began a breakneck run for him, intending to drop him to the ground and scruff him. As far as she knew and was aware, he was an intruder and had to be punished.

A definitive pounding came from his left, and he turned to face his pursuer in fierce rebuttal, eyes flashing dangerously as the white she-wolf descended upon him like vulture to carrion. He perceived only two things before she was upon him, the first being that she was a female, which made no distinct difference to him; and the second was that she was a pack superior, which made him hesitate.

He reacted defensively from that point on, squaring his shoulders and taking the brunt of her hit instead of fleeing like an intruder should. She had at least ten or fifteen pounds on him at that moment, but he accepted her weight with forced dignity, and dropped his right shoulder to the ground as she took his lank, shaggy scruff firmly in her jaws. Though he allowed himself to crumple beneath her, every muscle in his body was wired and tense to her touch, fighting the fight that he wanted to engage in.

He snarled, submitting (as he should), but warning her that he'd only tolerate so much physical abuse. Hopefully at this proximity, she'd be able to identify Fox's very subtle scent which marked him a member of the Creek.

There was a tense moment in which she thought the intruder might retaliate. In that moment, a fierce snarl tore from Jinx's chest, choking only when she smashed heavily into him. A part of her logical mind might have acknowledged that this wasn't proper conduct for a pregnant wolf, but Jinx was quite lacking in common sense. She did what was natural to her, pregnancy aside, which was to intercept an interloper.

To her surprise, the dark wolf folded beneath her, allowing her to dominate him and essentially quash whatever plans he'd had. Her eyes flashed dangerously and her snarl intensified when he added his own voice to the mix. Her message was plain: she was the boss, and he would tolerate whatever she wanted to do to him. At the present moment, she wanted to wring his neck until it dropped from his shoulders, then proudly display his head on the borders.

However, she hesitated when she caught the faintest hint of Fox's scent on his coat. The little Alpha was, at some point, in this one's vicinity. That was enough to calm Jinx's fury long enough for Haunter to explain himself and confirm her suspicion. She released his scruff and eased off, holding him in her gaze in the event he did something foolish, and addressed him curtly: "who are you?"

The tarred mongrel was an abused soul, prone to snap at any given moment in a repressed and desperate manner that dictated he never wanted to be treated as such again—but being a pack member came with the strict understanding that there were certain drawbacks to the life (namely in ranking), and he was containing his own violence fairly well considering the circumstances. Had he still been a lone wolf and another had done this to him, pack wolf or not, his discrepancy or not, there would have instantly been a very vicious fight.

His snarls lessened to growls beneath her own furious cacophony, but he wasn't completely silent until she released him and gave him the girth to stand again. The skeletal brute raised his upper body, but level his head appropriately to his shoulders as the female glowered pointedly at him, as if she expected further retaliation. But Haunter was slightly rigid, not intending to do anything at all until allowed, and he moved only to shake his ruff quickly to free it of the stinging she'd left behind.

"Haunter," he grunted in a low, gravelly tone that was clearly misused if not entirely forgotten. It was almost a surprise he could speak at all. His yellow eyes gazed harshly at her shoulder, flickering only occasionally to her face, but the scent of her pregnancy threw him off and made him wary of the incredibly hormonal female—he didn't want to challenge her because he knew she would fight and he would rather not fight a mother-to-be.

"Your Lambda," he added at length, using the name Fox had told him and hoping it meant something, anything, to his firm-bellied aggressor.

The newcomer had all the look of a gruff mercenary. He would have been an imposing sight to many wolves, but Jinx had lived amongst his like for much of her life. Lecter was the most frightening wolf Jinx knew, and beside him, she feared Kaskae the most. Both wolves were not so brooding and callous as this one seemed to be, at least superficially, but they were unpredictable and moody. She wasn't intimidated but, knowing his type all too well, she knew better than to underestimate him. He had the look of a wolf who could hold his own in a fight, and though she had enough experience to talk smack, she didn't want to test his strength.

He gave his name, and without an ounce of dignity, she laughed. "Haunter?" she chuffed, disbelief lacing her voice, before adding, "like, one that haunts? That's hilarious." He probably didn't understand the humour, so before he could take too much offence to her straightforward approach, she smoothed it over with, "mine's Jinx, as in... Mm, curssse. Seems we have the same theme." Except that Jinx's name was actually very apt, when she was in voodoo witch mode, while Haunter would have to prove that his suited him.

He identified himself as a Lambda. Though she might have apologized for her behaviour if she was anyone else, she didn't. To her, it was customary for wolves to confront newcomers if they were otherwise unknown. "So, Haunter," she said with glee as she beckoned for him to join her in her patrolling (that's what she'd been doing, wasn't it?), clearly pleased with his name, "what made you pick thisss pack? Did our fierce leader's reputation precede her?"

It was funny, because Fox was the smallest wolf in the pack, but Jinx knew the fiery little woman would try to kick everyone's ass if given half the chance.

Usually wolves were too wary of Haunter to outright laugh at his name, though he'd received quite a few funny looks when introducing himself before. Hence why he didn't do it unless absolutely necessary. He could only glower at her with vaguely masked bitterness as she ran her course with the joke; and then introduced herself as one of the very wolves he was ordered to patrol with. Awesome.

The dark male rolled his eyes pointedly away from her, choosing to instead glare at some indiscriminate point in the distance. He was quiet instead of making a comeback, not one for jokes although he'd heard plenty of them growing up. Jinx seemed the type to severely push as many boundaries as she pleased, so it would've been foolish to be riled up by her or allow himself to try and rile her up in retaliation. Her immaculately white fur gave him all the more reason to hate her, except that Haunter didn't care enough about anything to hold grudges. Even against his Nazi-themed homeland.

Even if he saw the wolf that took his right ear, he wouldn't feel obligated to exact revenge. In fact, it was likely that he wouldn't even recognize him at first. Haunter operated on a day-to-day basis, considering he never knew when his time would abruptly come.

Giddy with his name, she addressed him once more and then coaxed him into following her. Haunter hesitated at first, but remembered his task and then took a diligent, long-legged trot after her. "No," he responded after snorting lowly to himself about Fox's proclaimed "reputation". Someone that small couldn't even possibly have enough weight to even hold a reputation, let alone have one precede her. "I joined the first pack I came across for the convenience of it, and to ensure I survive another winter."

At least he was being honest, even though he appeared to be distractedly glancing back and forth as if waiting for an unknown force to come leaping out of the presently nonexistent shadows. Briefly, his eyes rested on Jinx's plush back. "You seem more suited for the job than she," he observed aloud, since he was on an honest-streak.

In the way a wolf did best, she pushed one ear back to listen to her newfound companion whilst the other tilted forward, vigilant. Haunter seemed to be a droll sort of company, which reminded Jinx almost too much of her sister, but she didn't comment. She might have commented on his motive for joining the pack, but Jinx was neither a lawful individual nor patriotic. Her own motivation for joining Horizon Ridge had been exactly the same, and she couldn't claim to have come to the creek for anything but selfish desires.

"Pull your weight and nobody will expect anything more of you," she said by way of reply. Haunter couldn't expect handouts, but nor would the Kesuk stop him if he left come spring, supposing he had done work to earn his life in the pack up until then. Jinx was no more loyal to Fox and the creek than she was the wind, and knew in her heart of hearts she would one day disperse to discover her own destiny. She liked Fox well enough, but loyalty was a concept Jinx simply didn't do. If anything, Jinx expected no more of any of the creek's followers.

When he pointed out she was more capable of leading, her ego perked up. "Of course I am," she agreed, unabashed, "and yet it is more convenient to bide my time and let her do as she will. Should I lead, I should also prefer to select my own land. Fox inherited this pack from a... A dear friend, whose memory I would not dishonour by displacing her wolves."

If she had been facing him, he might have simply nodded in affirmation, but it was unnecessary as her back was turned to him and he felt little obligation to verbally assure her that he would. Haunter was more a male of action than anything else—plus, if he didn't come through it could never be said that he said he would and didn't honor his word.

He kept pace with Jinx, his tall shoulder nearly level with her attractively pale hips as they padded along the Creek's boundary. Probably the only thing that kept him from being attracted to her was the strange scent of maternal hormones vaguely wafting from her frame. It was on his mind when she answered, and Haunter's yellow eyes regarded the back of her head quite seriously for a moment before musing to her aloud.

"Hm," he hummed pensively. "I had assumed it was because of your pregnancy." He glanced at her belly, which was perhaps not round, but indeed taut with the pups that swelled and grew there. He lifted his eyes again, not eager to be caught looking.

They were toward the south of the territory, within range of the tall Sunspire Mountains that hid from view the pack whose diplomacy tactics included sending an overbearing number of wolves to their neighbours. Jinx paused here a moment, signalling that Haunter should to for she was about to tell him something important, but before she could speak he suggested her pregnancy was the reason she hadn't seized leadership. A smirk pulled her lips tight as she glanced at him, suggesting such a thing was silly.

"I have known no pregnant wolf to shirk responsibility in light of her pregnancy," she said, "and a leading wolf is assured of her litters' success. It would make the most sense for a pregnant wolf to seek to be the most dominant, lest her competitors kill her babes." There was no need to reveal to Haunter what her intentions for her children were, or why she wasn't worried they would be killed by competition. As far as Jinx knew, he was a heathen as well, and would not have understood the name Sos anyway.

She began walking again, a little slower this time, but gestured to the mountains in the distant. "Beyond those peaks are two packs you would do well to piss off as much as you can while you're here. The nearest is Northstar Vale. They thought sending four wolves on an embassy to us was acceptable, as if they weren't merely demonstrating their force. The furthest, on the other side altogether, is Blacktail Deer Plateau. Their Alpha is batshit crazy, and should be unseated."

As they paused, he tilted his head slightly, his one ear making his head seem slightly more lopsided than it normally would if he was holding his skull straight. She explained why his reasoning made no sense to her, but she must've known a different breed of pregnant females because all the ones he knew had taken to relaxing and being waited on rather than preforming regular duties. That didn't make the females any less vicious or any more pretentious, but they did it so as to ensure the health of their litter. Litters had been quite large on Hollow Mountain, ranging from seven to ten pups each time.

He suppose his homeland's method worked just as well as the Creek's, but he didn't bother to explain all this to Jinx. She knew her ways, just as he knew his. Besides that he was a male, and almost wholly uninterested in broods that were not his own. And having never taken a mate, it would suffice to say that he cared about no whelps at this time.

As the pair, night and day, began to move again, Jinx began to tell him of their neighbors, albeit in an unconventional manner. Unlike any requisition he had received before, the one-earred brute was told that he should intentionally distress their neighbors; and while this didn't seem like anything that Fox would suggest, he found himself appealed by the consideration of it. After all, Haunt had spent much of his life being a vicious nuisance (stealing prey, antagonizing leaders, intentionally trespassing, etc.) but these were saved for his healthier months in spring and summer—which would account for his more sober attitude in the winter as it were.

"I need to put on a few pounds, but I am not opposed to compelling mayhem," he said at length, flicking his one ear because the other missing appendage was testament to his words. "What does this leader of Blacktail look like?" he asked, gravelly tone barely registering as curious.

Excellent, she might have said, but there was no need. Her lips had quirked into a smirk of their own that clearly indicated her pleasure that he would partake of her mayhem. Undoubtedly, Blacktail Deer Plateau was Jinx's least favourite place in the world, but that was solely because of Hawkeye and her demon dog. Northstar Vale would soon enough contain her least favourite wolves, but presently they just seemed like a pack of imbeciles with no sense of interpack etiquette.

"She's big, she's all black, and she has bright green eyes. Hard to miss, she talks a lot." Maybe she didn't actually, but Jinx's bias ran deep. No amount of the woman's apologetic approaches would suffice to erase that Hawkeye had stolen her pack and relocated them. She thought she should mention the demon dog she kept with her, but thought better of it in the end. If Haunter encountered Peregrine and bested him in combat, it would only make Jinx look weak.

"She fancies a God she has heard of only once whispers in her ears and tells her secrets about others," she said, choosing not to reveal the fact that Hawkeye occasionally did have an unnervingly accurate sense of perception. Jinx still didn't believe it was Sos, simply because there was no reason for her to, and she would have been annoyed for her patron deity to have any connection with the Blacktail bitch at all.

The given description was slightly vague, but Haunter supposed that not everyone could have such a defining feature as a missing ear or scarred forelimb. He snorted, as if unimpressed, but if this she-wolf could bother Jinx in some manner enough then he wouldn't underestimate her prowess. The snow-white queen then mentioned a possible reason for her intense dislike of the Plateau's Alpha: the erroneous belief in some god and said god's influence on her thoughts and actions.

Haunter couldn't have hardly been expected to be a religious wolf, and so he said: "if I were to believe in a god, I would also have to believe that they hate me for some reason or another." Punctuated with a shrug, his long muzzle swung sideways as his yellow eyes scoured for potential threats. The black male kept his personal beliefs to a minimum, and even then they weren't so much "beliefs" as they were "self-experienced facts".

He hadn't realized, but in their walk he had ceased walking behind her and now trotted lightly with his shoulder nearer to hers, though unconsciously held back as she led them on what was to become his constant rounds. "Her belief is of no matter..." he added in a low drawl. "No god will save her when the teeth of her enemy meets her praying throat," he grumbled sourly, his brutality spurned by the emotive words of a chaotic, pale sovereign.

"This God hates," she said, but didn't go on to clarify that Sos was, in fact, her God. Hawkeye had merely adopted the Black Bear from Jinx's lessons in Bon Dye. On one side of the equation, Hawkeye thought Jinx was a hack, though the reasons for that were unclear. On the other side of it, Jinx thought Hawkeye was an idiot, for thinking she could pull the wool over the eyes of one of Sos' high priestesses and claiming to be more intimate with Him than she was. It was a matter of opinion, and unfortunately, the wolves in question were both exceptionally opinionated and egotistic.

"But believe me," she said darkly, "this bitch wouldn't know a prayer if it lodged in her throat. She is nothing but a fraud as far as religion is concerned." Had the Kesuk been more worried about Hawkeye's strength, she might have said something along the lines of, "be careful if you face her". As it stood, she had never seen the lime-eyed woman in combat, and had no reason to believe the Blacktail Alpha was any more skilled than she or Haunter or anyone else. There was no concern.

"But," she said as they wandered the borders, she unconsciously showing him her route whilst instructing him of their rivals, "I should like to hear her plead for her God..." And in this manner she continued as they walked, extending her description to Hawkeye's demon dog, Peregrine, in a ruthlessly opinionated manner. Eventually, they parted ways, but with Jinx holding a much higher opinion of the newcomer than she had had when she first charged him.