Baby has a rank now!! Ridgies come give her a warm welcome <3
~~~~~~~~~
To some, waking up at this hour could be considered lazy, neglectful even, but it was simply the way of the little phoenix that had come to make this place home. She hadn't been here for very long - it was only last night that Akhlut had welcomed her into his hierarchy, and only he that she'd met. Though she could not sleep while the darkness held firm in the night, she managed to find solitude enough to drift into slumber once the sun's first rays began to illuminate the horizon. It was relieving, this sense of security granted by being within the borders of a pack. And being a member of it. Still, though, she knew nobody but her leader. Her comfort had been brief and she woke again once the sun was above the horizon. Her mind already felt heavy with unease; the idea that she knew nobody else in this pack led her to the inability to sleep any longer.
So she rose, drawing to her paws atop the sleek rock that gave the pack its namesake. Inkenoah swayed her tail curiously, frowning slightly to herself. She supposed, she should probably try to find her packmates and introduce herself - though it was more the desire to rid herself of this loneliness than anything. She wanted - no, needed - companionship. A friend. Who better to find that in than her new packmates? So the girl pushed forward in a few tentative steps, scanning the area as though expecting somebody to pop out at any second. Of course they wouldn't. She'd have to go find somebody. Duh. Inkenoah scorned herself, shaking her head slightly. I hope I'm not this awkward when I find somebody. She huffed silently, setting her shoulders back. Right. Okay, straighten up. Look... not nervous. Just go walk into the forest and find somebody. You can do this. It'll be all fine.
And... Go.
Inkenoah breathed in, setting off in a casual gait as she parted from the open air of the ridge and delved into the woods, trying to catch a fresh scent on the wind to follow.
Pied lay on an outcropping, sunning herself and daydreaming about her puppies. She even drowsed, her eyelids drooping but not fully closing. During one of these spells, movement between the trees below her perch made her stir and, blinking sleepily, the Gamma scanned the treetops. She saw it again: a flash of goldenrod between the shadows, like a little beam of sunlight come alive.
Carefully, she picked her way down to the small copse and found there an unfamiliar scent, with the Alpha's signature faintly woven into it. Curious, she pursued it until she came up behind a lanky, bony creature with cornsilk fur. Pied admired her pelt a moment, then barked quietly to announce her presence.
When the stranger presumably turned to face her, Pied couldn't help but think that Akhlut, the so-called Sun Prince, must fancy this she-wolf of sharp angles and sunlit fur. Smiling to herself, the Gamma decided she might try to play matchmaker. First, though, she should get to know her new pack mate. A name would be a good place to start.
"Hello, I'm Pied. Who're you?"
For a moment, Inkenoah felt a small swell of confidence. She moved through the trees with broad strides, ignorant of the small wobbling of her hind paw - she had grown used to it since its infliction. She ignored it well enough that she didn't allow it to affect her pace or her steps, but anybody who looked closely enough could distinguish it. Her head began to rise up slightly, and her tail wagged - for now, she was in a good mood, for she could feel the warmth of the sun breaking through the branches of grey winter trees and she had protection. Safety. The night was held at bay, for now, and she was free to move without fear.
And then a bark sounded so suddenly from - from somewhere, fuck, what- Inkenoah yipped, jumping. Only it took her an additional couple seconds to register that it was no more than a gentle woof; still, the sudden breaking of the silence startled her enough that she whirled around to face the culprit and stumbled in the process. She nearly lost her footing on her twisted paw, but quickly adjusted herself and regained her composure, staring at the other female. Inkenoah blinked, and then red flushed into her skin. "Hah! Hah, hi," Inkenoah quivered nervously, pressing back her ears. She looked the other up and down, totally having lost her train of thought and her confidence - and then she remembered the whole point of her little excursion.
"Oh. I - me, I'm Inkenoah, I just - I'm new." She stammered, and her gaze fled the lighter coloured female. She was pretty, and she had this peculiar freckling on her fur. How strange. Gosh, no, this wasn't the time for observations. Inkenoah furrowed her brow and tried to think up something else to say, but found herself at a loss. Her nerves had vanished completely.
The Gamma's gray ears tilted backward when the other she-wolf startled, clearly as a result of her soft bark. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you," Pied said, then fell silent as the she-wolf introduced herself as Inkenoah and stammered about being new.
"Well, welcome to the ridge. And sorry again for scaring you," the dappled she-wolf said, taking a step closer. She could now see some scars marring Inkenoah's pelt, though of course she didn't comment on them. "Were you taking a walk? May I join you?"
In her silence, Inkenoah tried to control her breathing, slowing each inhale and exhale. She felt her heart beat racing and tried to slow that, too, though she had far less control over that. The phoenix very soon gave in, instead trying to ignore the anxious pounding of her heart and focus on the pretty woman before her. She did allow herself to take in her details, and to remember the name she had given her. What was it again? Pah-? Pite? Puh... Pied. Her name was Pied. Inkenoah squinted for less than half a second, as if taking a mental photograph of the woman and sticking it in her brain next to the name. Pied.
"It's alright," She answered quickly, supplementing her response with a nervous chime-like laugh. "D-Don't apologize. Its my fault." Inkenoah mumbled, glancing away. She failed to elaborate, in fact, prefering not to - then why did she just say it? The golden girl winced inwardly at herself. She had to orient herself away from her packmate, weary that her shifting expressions would possibly rouse some kind of suspicion or make her look weird. Actually, Inkenoah was probably just making it worse. She sucked in a long breath, relieved when Pied spoke again. "Actually I - yes, I was just taking a walk." She nodded, looking back at the Gamma. "Oh, please, yes. I'd like to know more about Horizon Ridge and its wolves."
Okay, so it felt like a small weight had been lifted from her chest upon revealing her inner whims. Hopefully Pied would humor her by helping her out - and even more hopefully she wouldn't think of her as being weird or anything by it. Oh god, she just hoped these wolves were nice. Far too many strangers she had met held little regard for her, little care. Some of them even hungered for her blood. All she wanted was friends.
Actually, what she truly wanted was to be back home, with her family. Her father and her sisters. But she couldn't have that, so she had to settle for less. Inkenoah held her breath, shifting slightly as though preparing to begin their walk.
Perhaps not a good match for Akhlut after all, Pied found herself thinking as the clearly nervous Inkenoah awkwardly stammered her way through a reply, though I guess that's pretty judgmental... Still, the Gamma couldn't help but think such a nervous, ineloquent creature wouldn't be a good fit for an Alpha male. Although she wasn't sure about this pack's traditions—whether Akhlut's mate would become the Alpha female by default—she still thought the Sun Prince's wife should be an elegant, well-spoken creature.
Banishing these thoughts to the pack of her mind, Pied fell into step beside the taller, longer-legged Inkenoah. Almost immediately, she saw the slight hitch in the female's right hind paw and, though she would normally find it rude to remark on such a thing, she said lightly, "Oh, did you break your right hind paw too? Mine was broken in an accident—an attack, actually—about a month ago." Her eyes lifted from Inkenoah's foot to her face. "Do you think I can probably look forward to having a slight limp?" she wondered good-naturedly. Of course, she would prefer her broken bone to heal perfectly but Pied wasn't ignorant to the possibility of a permanent if slight lameness in her injured foot.
Initially, Inkenoah's pace had been somewhat brisk, but she slowed soon after Pied had fallen into step with her. Her gaze flicked from her companion to the forest all around them and back to her again, curiously trying to pick out details about the female. Time and time again she found herself coming back to the unfamiliar fur pattern that the Gamma boasted, wondering vaguely how such a look could have come about, if coats like this were common here. Well, it was certainly unique - Inkenoah found herself developing a bias already in that if there was anybody else here sporting such a strange pelt, she would probably still consider Pied's the loveliest. Her sisters would probably have thought the same.
Suddenly, Pied mentioned her paw. As if she hadn't known what she was talking about, Inkenoah turned her gaze back to her twisted paw. There was more heat in her cheeks then, and a tightening of her chest - while Pied chattered on, Inkenoah tried to stifle all thoughts of the injury. She couldn't possibly explain the injury when Inkenoah herself barely remembered. Some part of her just couldn't dredge up an explanation, while another part blocked it out of her brain completely. Thankfully, a different revelation hit her. "Oh!" Inkenoah blinked, looking back at Pied. "Akhlut told me about your injury." She said, feeling somewhat foolish for not remembering her Alpha's mention of the woman earlier. "I'm sorry. What... happened? If - if you don't mind me asking."
She spoke carefully, hoping to ease the attention off her own injury. "I... I wouldn't exactly know, I guess it depends on... How badly it was broken. I don't really notice it unless I run. But it doesn't slow me down. I make it work." The phoenix proceeded to explain, briefly forgetting her anxiety in favor of dropping the subject of her paw.
I'm editing this to be archived, since Noah's been removed...
Although Pied didn't expected Inkenoah's mention of Akhlut, she was actually relieved not to have to relive the gory tale in too much detail. "A killer whale literally threw itself onto the beach and tried to have a go at me. Its teeth missed me, luckily, but it gave me a good beating with its fat head." Her lips tightened over her teeth at the memory of the brutality rendered by that enormous beast's equally enormous skull.
Inkenoah did her best to answer the Gamma's question and Pied did feel a little relieved to hear that her pack mate barely noticed it. She was about to ask how it had come about but, since the other she-wolf hadn't volunteered the information, something stayed her tongue. Besides, she didn't want to say or do something that flustered Inkenoah even more than she already was by default.
Then, rather counterproductively, Pied remarked, "So, you and Akhlut talked about me? All good things, I hope." She meant it entirely as a good-natured joke, yet even as the words left her tongue, she realized she might make Inkenoah feel put on the spot. "Just kidding," she added quickly. "What do you think of him?" she then wondered.
Despite her best efforts, Inkenoah never seemed entirely comfortable with the conversation. Pied persisted for as long as felt was polite, then softly excused herself, citing exhaustion and her injuries as her reason for departing. She then resumed her earlier perch, relaxing in the sunlight once again and pondering their strangely stilted conversation. Hopefully next time would be better.