Wolf RPG

The day following her acceptance at Moonspear, Ness fed herself and freshened up at a melting creek before deciding to spend her new joiner's "grace period" to find herself a suitable bachelorette pad. "I'll start contributing tomorrow," the procrastinator told herself, revisiting some of the sweeter spots on the mountain that Charon had introduced her to. Her paws took her to the west side of the peak, having decided on the general location due to her preference for sunsets over sunrises. She sniffed about, finding places both too large and too small, before finding a hooded cleft in the base of Moonspear through which air did not travel and the room there was to stretch out in was optimal for a wolf her size. 

The den had once been home to family of badgers, from what her nose could tell, but they had been gone a long time (probably since the arrival of an entire wolfpack). The entrance was a bit of a squeeze but it opened quite nicely within, and Ness no longer felt the urge to search any further. She began to excavate what she could: old beddings of leaves, branches, twigs and the like, bones, fur, and half-eaten veggies left behind by the omnivorous creatures. 

The work made her grimace, but it needed to be done, so the pale wolf churned on, tuning out the complaints she had in her head with thoughts of her future and the possibilities she had been given.

To say that Floki was annoyed with Tevinter's abrupt departure was an understatement. But at the same time, he felt as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. No longer did the young Beta have to worry about his brother's feelings; he had been nothing but a negative presence since his arrival, and he was finally accepting that perhaps they were better suited to be apart than together. He would think of him often -- after all, Tevinter was his twin -- but he had other, happier things to focus on.

His newly-minted mateship with Wildfire put a spring in his step as he moved westward around the base of the mountain, his trajectory slowly widening in order to eventually place him near the borders. Before he got too far along, however, a new scent infiltrated his nostrils and he paused, gaze scanning his surroundings until it fell on the white rump of an unfamiliar wolf.

She was digging at the slope, enlarging a hole that had obviously already been there. With a friendly chuff to announce his presence, Floki approached, then said, "Hi there! How's it going?"

Literally immersed in her work, Ness didn't realize she had a guest until he spoke from somewhere behind her, drawing the young wolf into a slow backpedal as she squeezed out into the open and turned to face her company. She had a bone in her mouth, a fawn's femur by light guesswork. Bi-colored eyes drank in the young male before her. Moonspear seemed to have no want for teenage wolves, and Ness was suddenly pleased at her fortuitous choice of residence. "Hehhy," she greeted him, smiling over the length of skeleton in her jaws. Belatedly, she realized it was effecting her speech, so she dropped it and gave her dusty body a shake.

"It's going pretty well, if I don't say so myself," she grinned to her full capacity now, inclining her head as an afterthought bc whoever this male was, his rank was higher than hers being the newest face around here. And judging by his scent the boy seemed well-acclimated, if not a standard fixture here. She recognized his scent from the borders, and the heaviest scent of his coat had lined Moonspear as well. She thought him too young to have a mate. A roommate then, perhaps. "I got this bitchin' new pack to call my own (by the way, is everyone here really ridiculously good-looking, or do I just have low standards?) and I've just gone and found this dig, perfect for sunset viewing. Check it out," she offered.

Motioning to the spot beside her, she faced outward from the mouth of her den, and overlooked the wooded valley below. Though the sun would not set for some time now, it was easy to imagine how colorful the place would turn in the right hour. "I'm Ness," she added thoughtlessly after a moment.

Within a few seconds, the she-wolf extracted herself from her dugout and turned to face Floki. She flashed him a grin and began conversing with him as if she had known him for years, and he immediately felt comfortable in her presence. It didn't hurt that she was cute.

He laughed at her quips, peering around her to first examine her burrow and then turning to glance over his own shoulder at the skyline. In due time, the wilds would be bathed in shades of red and gold as the sun set, and she would have a great vantage point from which to view the spectacle. Floki settled himself next to Ness as she had indicated, just outside the den.

"I'm Floki -- and yes, we are all ridiculously good looking around here," he chuckled. "You'll fit in just fine. How did you end up at Moonspear?" His question came from pure curiosity; their pack had been comprised of the same core group of members since its inception, with little fluctuation. He imagined that if Charon had been the one to accept Ness, he would have gotten along quite well with her brash and bold personality.

She snorted. Of course this was a pack chock full of prom kings and queens— what other kind of wolf could be appropriately drawn to such a majestic peak? Ness could be vain, but she wasn't inclined to be superficial. Though this fact was not reinforced by the things she said or the sharpness of her demeanor; for example: "Then we might as well start putting up the signs: No Ugg-Muggs, Oogum-Boogems, or Fuglies allowed." Her quip came with a wink before she turned her grin outward over her chosen view. An unintentionally contented sigh followed, as a rimmed ear flicked faintly in the direction of her newly introduced packmate in regards to his query.

"It was the strangest thing really. I saw this peak as I was coming down from the beach, right? I lost my breath and then the feeling I got suddenly was like..." she tried to think of an appropriate comparison, and though she had never felt anything like it before, she came up with a suitable thought: "like the time I was on my very first solo hunt, and zeroed in on a rabbit. Instinct just drove me after that, and so here I am." She took quite a bit of pride in this story, despite feeling as if it wasn't accurately told. Ness would try to think of a better explanation later on. "Why did you pick Moonspear as your home, Floki?"

A chuckle sprang from Floki's throat; he stored the terms "Ugg-Muggs, Oogum-Boogems, and Fuglies" in his mind for later use. Somehow, he felt that they would come in handy to throw at Charon. When Ness mentioned the beach, however, he perked up visibly. Rather than answer her question first, he posed one of his own: "You came from the beach? That's actually where I'm from, and Charon too."

His response led into the perfect explanation for her query, so he continued. "I was born and raised in Stavanger Bay. Charon is my brother. Long story short, our pack kind of fell apart and he didn't think we would make it through the winter on the coast. So he met Amekaze and the two of them decided to merge their packs and move here," he said.

"I'm not actually from the beach, but I'd been traveling the coast for about a week before I saw Moonspear. Interesting place— I think I'll go see it again when it's warmer— but I can't imagine actually living there," Ness raised an elegant brow at Floki, wondering many impractical things about he and his brother's birthplace. "Sand gets everywhere, man." Then because she needed to emphasize this, the speckled wolf leaned in slightly and hissed: "Everywhere." She nodded sagely, leaning back into position. "Took me hours and an ice bath in a creek to get it all off."

Turning a happily attentive ear in the sand-footed boy's direction, she listened to his tale of Moonspear's inception. It was interesting to her, if only because she had never heard of packs merging. In fact, Northpaw and Southpaw were so against it that anything more than a mere trading of members seemed sacrilegious. But in the grand scheme of things, and all she was discovering out on her own, she supposed it was an entirely possible thing. Still, she pretended to know what he was talking about, and smiled, stating: "Oh okay. Thee old merge-and-move." She made it sound like some old pastime; the oldest trick in the book. "That's pretty bitchin'."

"So which do you prefer, Flo? Sand granules clinging like fleas or vertigo-inducing heights?"

While Ness hadn't originated from the shore, she admitted that she had spent some time there during her travels. Floki gave an appreciative snort of laughter at her comment about the sand; he was all too familiar with its ability to wedge itself into even the most uncomfortable places. "You got that right," he agreed in an equally conspiratorial tone.

She commented that the move from Stavanger Bay to Moonspear was "bitchin'" -- which he was quickly realizing was her favorite word -- then asked which landscape he preferred. It was a tough question, and his pursed his lips thoughtfully. There were things that he liked about both places, despite their differences.

"I dunno. I think I like it here more -- but I'll always go back and visit the beach," he replied. Had he delved into more detail, he would have shared that he had helped Charon and Amekaze found and claim Moonspear, so he felt an entitlement that he hadn't for Stavanger Bay. That particular stretch of beach had belonged to his family for some time, yet his father's lack of presence in his life had served to sever that connection. But he shook his head and passed the buck back to Ness. "So where did you come from before you wound up here in the land of beauty queens?" he asked with a grin.

"I get that," Ness agreed, nodding lightly as he responded. "I see the beach as more of a spot I want to visit than live on. I really can't wait to see the place when it's warmer out— I suspect it's more pleasant in the heat. I've only seen cold shores before." Massive stretches of ice, and water that would kill you if you lingered in it a second too long. The beach would be a stark exchange from that. And just as she was comparing them in her head, the silver boy asked her about it, drawing her copper eye to his grinning face. "I'm from the tundra. Some mountains much smaller than these, and ridiculously far from here, but not a place you really wanna grow up."

She paused, hitching some harsher feelings on her breath so that she wouldn't make it seem like her childhood had been despotic. "Don't get me wrong— the place toughened me up like I doubt anywhere else could, and I'm thankful for that," Ness admitted, her tail switching back and forth thoughtfully like a cat. "But the place was always cold and almost just as bare. If you weren't freezing to death, then you were starving to death. Or you were killed by something hungrier than you. That was pretty much it. I left as soon as I could hunt properly on my own. I knew there was something better out there."

Eyes, twinkling and hopeful, turned out on the horizon again. "I've definitely found something better."  

He listened patiently as Ness summed up her thoughts aloud. She was wordy, but he didn't mind it. She had a casual and fun way of speaking that kept him interested, especially when she started describing the tundra that had been her home. Although Floki was an outrider, he was still young, and there was much of the world he hadn't seen -- in fact, he was only familiar with the southern portion of the Teekon Wilds. He knew that there was much more beyond, but hadn't ventured beyond his own comfort zone just yet.

"Sounds bitchin'," he teased with a bold grin. Truthfully, her homeland sounded like a place he didn't really want to visit; he imagined that "something hungrier" encompassed bears, and those were his least favorite animals. But, as always, he preferred to think about lighter things -- so he focused on the fact that Ness had never been to the beach in the summer.

"When it warms up, I'll take you to Stavanger Bay," he promised. "We can go swimming, lay out and sunbathe, build a sandcastle..." Already, it sounded like a date he was looking forward to.

Her gaze remained on the horizon, but one side of her mouth lifted in thorough amusement at his use of her favorite phrase. She licked her chops, trying to ease away the taut smile in favor of a preferred look of aloofness. She didn't want to seem too affected by the alpha's brother. Her resolve had to be doubly imposed as Floki described a day on the beach, a perfect picture that had occupied the imagination of every lonely, lovesick teenage girl on the planet. Ness had never been such a bird, but her imagination was geared now, churning restlessly about a day that might not ever come. She had to remind herself that Charon had jokingly advised her to woo the beta, not the other way around.

She glanced at him. Unfortunately, she wasn't interested. Dating was probably the last thing she needed to be thinking about at that time. That being said, casual intuition drew her inexplicably to him anyway, even if it wasn't her main (or even her least) concern. She motioned over her shoulder, towards the entrance of her den, eager to deflect. "Help me finish my crib, Flo?"

She didn't reply to his suggestion, but he took her silence to mean that she wasn't protesting, at least. Instead, she shot him a grin as she maneuvered back towards the entrance of her den-in-progress, requesting his assistance over her shoulder. "Sure," he agreed amiably even as he sidled up next to her and began to dig.

A short while later, when Ness expressed her satisfaction with their handiwork, Floki departed -- only after announcing that her new den was "bitchin'" -- with a promise to hang out again soon.