Wolf RPG

After finding nothing at Blacktail Deer Plateau, Cicero had decided to head on west. He did not wish to scale the mountains for he knew what was behind there; the land in which he had met the white wolf, however further southeast it had been, and did not wish to risk running into him again now. Especially because he did not have a face nor a name to go on. It could be anyone. So he headed west, soon finding himself disappointed by running into the borders of not one, but two packs. Silvertip and Neverwinter were now both claimed, it appeared, and Cicero had to go all the way round if he wished to go further west. It cost him more time to travel and, had he known, Cicero would have gone north and followed the coast instead so that he would not double-check on any territories.

Surrounded by packs, it seemed, Cicero managed to find passage towards Firefly Glen by the time of nightfall. Lights danced alongside him as Cicero made his way through a meadow with tall grasses, with snow still clinging to their tops. The scenery was magical, but Cicero was not here to appreciate the aesthetics. Perhaps he ought to check out Neverwinter, for he knew vaguely of Silvertip — enough to know that they'd been around for longer than the Plateau wolves'd moved — but for now he continued on past it, hoping to run into new scents or new wolves that could hand him information. Maybe come morning he would visit Neverwinter Forest's frays to see if it would bring him anything good.

unlike cicero, caiaphas' progress inland had not been frustrated by the encounter of pack borders. she had opted to travel tunnel-side -- the grotto's tunnels were sundry and plentiful, and many tunnels carved down the mountainside and opened into sunken caverns situated beneath wealds and morass. what had stunted her advancement towards blackfeather woods was the untimely demise of a tunnel swollen by mire -- caiaphas had been forced up-land and was somewhere she had never been before. in the manner of some underground vermin the witch pulled herself into the surface world, her eyes squinting as she accustomed to the brightness. in a slow lope she made due south, and she would have continued had she not encountered the scent of a wolf that identified with the very pack she sought out. curious and thanking whatever orders above for the fateful coincidence, caiaphas came upon the piebald wolf shortly. she announced herself with a low ay yip, though by now the splotch-splattered wolf likely had caught scent of her.

Unaware that it was him she was looking for, Cicero noticed the other wolf before she reached him to announce her presence. One ear turned towards her as he continued his lope, until it became clear that she was headed specifically towards him. Cicero halted then, as he greeted her under the blanket of night and surrounded by dimly lit insects. He relaxed since she seemed to have little danger in her step, and Cicero did not fear whatever she could do unto him as much as he feared, nowadays, the presence of another male. She was smaller, like he, though there was a distinct pointedness to her features that his lacked.

Her scent was unknown to Cicero, and as she drew nearer he decided that he would just cut to the chase by asking: "Does the wolf know anything about the whereabouts of the wolves of Blacktail Deer Plateau since their move?" Perhaps she would know, perhaps not. And perhaps she was part of them; it had been long since Cicero had skirted their borders, and he did not even remember nor know who lead the pack. It may as well be her, for all he knew. His mismatched eyes shone with curiosity in the moonlight as he looked at her, sizing her up and admiring the unique mixture of black and white fur that painted her.

caiaphas swung her head towards the wolf, raking down his patchwork frame and noting the sparseness of his frame that suggested he was either an underling or underfed. her mule-length ears cupped forward as he spoke, his inquiry worded in the most strange of manners. caiaphas knew where the blacktail wolves had resided -- but she knew better than to trust a blackfeather wolf further than she could throw them. she had already been burned once by meldresi -- had she known the black witch dead and rotting she would have crowed in delight to learn of yet another one of life's cruel, delightful ironies.

"does the wolf know?" she posed, her needle-thin head canted sideways as she mocked his speech pattern mercilessly. "the wolf knows." the svelte salt-queen confirmed -- but she was not about to put lasher nor his kin in any unwitting danger. "the wolf does not give out any favors to the dark brotherhood." her expression darkened into a menacing scowl. "the dark brotherhood broke their promise. is this what the mother teaches?"

A mischievous twinkle appeared in Cicero's mismatched eyes when the wolf in front of him as she mocked him. He did not care. He was used to being mocked. To find out she knew of the information he sought made him wish that he did not carry Burke's scent upon him, for it might have made gaining her trust and information a lot easier. Yet the game was what truly thrilled him and so he did not mind. His body remained relaxed, but the twinkle in his eyes suggested that he was intrigued rather than offended by the way she mimicked his way of speaking.

It turned out that she knew of the Dark Brotherhood. Cicero wondered where these wolves came by its name, for he only knew it as Blackfeather Woods when he was out of the forest. Had others not held their tongue? A name was a name, however, and if she was not willing to give out the information he requested, it was useless to ask her which wolf, Blackfeather or other, had told her the name of their pack — or rather, the name that they called each other, for that was what the Dark Brotherhood stood for in Cicero's opinion. It was their thing, not the outside world thing. But a word was still but a word, given meaning and power only by those who wielded them, and so he pushed it aside.

"What promise was made?" asked Cicero, finding himself curious for what information she could give him; not just of the Plateau wolves, but of whatever had happened between herself and Blackfeather Woods. He asked, "Was it a promise made by Burke?" For it could well be that another wolf of the Woods, authorative enough or not, had made it, and Cicero wanted to estimate the worth of the promise by its author.

there was no mistaking a gleam in cicero's gaze not even caiaphas could misplace. she honed in onto his features, her sharp countenance mirroring a hawk's as she studied him for any measurable reaction she could use against him. he  was not entirely unlike her in many ways -- that much she knew immediately. a smile supplanted her narrow feature as he asked of burke. "no. meldresi." she implied simply, awaiting his answer.

No answer was given in regards to his question about the promise. When the other wolf uttered his mother's name, Cicero felt no pain. He had since long accepted his mother's death, and though he missed her at times, things were good in the forest. His first urge was to share that his mother was deceased, but he felt that he may not get the answers he wanted -- the answer to his prying question of what promise had been broken.

It pleased him that she played the game too, even if it would make it harder to extract the information that he needed from her. "Dead wolves more often have a hard time keeping promises," he said with a twinkle in his eyes, unable to share the morbid news once he found the perfect way to share the news. He looked at the mirrored smile, his own broadening slightly, and felt at ease despite her hostile words towards his pack. "What promise did she break?" he asked again; not just for the sake of his own curiosity, but also because Cicero wondered if it was something that he could mend or fulfill somehow.

this traveler, new to caiaphas, brought forth a great semblance of dark amusement from the wretch. it had been too long since she had coyly played the game -- in the grotto she felt both her wit and her experience rot and before cicero she seem awakened. the lance-like tip of her muzzle tilted downwards as she processed the subtly worded news: meldresi was dead.

"tit for tat - the thieve's game." she supplied quickly, assessing his mismatched gaze to see if he understood her edict. "she promised me aid in warfare - our pack brought yours a seal - enough meat to feed her pack for a week. you were but scarce more than a few weeks old then -- i met your sister. in our hour of need against duskfire, meldresi's clan did nothing and we fell -- and ankyra was sundered." while she did not know potema's name, she would have recognized her immediately if she ever saw her again. "now -- why does the wolf want to know where the blacktail deer members went?"

The information that spilled from her mouth was greedily processed by Cicero. He was surprised of speak of his sister, but the fact that this had all taken place so long ago at least clarified why he knew nothing of it. She had to be particularly wry about it, that she still held onto her wrath even now, over a year after the deed. He wondered what the war with the Duskfire wolves had taken from her, that she still felt so sour, but he was not sure if unearthing such ugly truth would give him the information that he was ultimately looking for.

She asked why he wanted the information, and Cicero said, "For keeping an eye on the going-ons in the Wilds. Cicero does not think there is bad blood between the Plateau and the Woods." Truthfully, he considered that maybe Burke had some personal relations with someone there, but he was not about to disclose that. Not that the full details of the mission'd been disclosed to him, anyway, but Cicero was pretty sure he had figured it out. Deciding to personalise this request (except without disclosing it to be about Burke), Cicero said after a moment's hesitation, "It is a personal thing, someone Cicero knew. Is there anything Cicero could do to mend what was broken, in return?" Not that she owed him anything, and he knew that — if she refused to give him the information, then at least he'd had an amusing afternoon. He hoped she would see that he was ultimately both not a dangerous threat and had nothing to do with whatever Duskfire'd taken from him while Meldresi sat back and did nothing.

caiaphas weighed her options - she could tell the truth and betray lasher, or she could lie and betray what seemed to be the promising start to a witty and spectacular friendship -- if short-lived. she had learned enough in her short dealings with the dark brotherhood -- not once had she been burned, but twice --she still recalled the tail-less abomination that had caused her hair to stand on trigger-end. 

she canted her slender muzzle, peering at the mismatched wolf out of the corner of her eye. "how can i trust you?" she queried, breaking very game's only rule - tit for tat. "there better not be bad blood - the blackfeather wolves have many allies." she insinuated, her tongue unsheathed from her narrow maw. "myself among them. i will tell you -- but only if you come to my coven as an interminable resident." a proposition she knew the wolf would refuse, though it would have delighted her to introduce cicero to lusca.

She asked how she could trust him, and he had no immediate answer. There was no way that anyone could ever truly trust another, really, but life was dull without at least trying. She seemed to ponder what to do, and Cicero wondered if she thought that there was something vicious behind his actions. If she thought that Blackfeather Woods would storm upon the plateau wolves and leave none standing. Cicero did not think that this would actually happen, though of course he did not know for sure.

At her suggestion, he grinned toothily, because there was no way that she actually expected him to say yes. "Is the wolf of the sea so attached to Cicero already that she can't bear the thought of parting ways?" Cicero tried to think of a solution to her distrust but it was difficult; he would not make promises that he could not keep, such as promising not to hurt any of them. He did not know what the future would bring, and so those were promises he could never guarantee to keep.

"Maybe not interminable. What would the wolf of the sea even wish to use Cicero's presence for, if not his wit? Perhaps an arrangement can be made for a period of time in the future." If it were to give Blackfeather Woods an advantage, then he would not mind being away from home for a month or two. He'd done it before with Bearclaw Valley, though it was different for Damien had been there.

she watched him, her expression nonplussed despite his toothy grin. he was evidently amused by her proposition -- after all, what rational (or irrational) wolf would not be struck giddy by the bold and almost improper suggestion? she was not caught off guard by his playful taunt -- she wanted him at the sound, but not solely for sentimental or necessarily benevolent reasons.

"you would see," she supplied darkly, though a similar smile crept slowly across her long muzzle. she hadn't thought that far ahead -- but if she told the wolf where blacktail was, she would have to ensure he did not use that knowledge at the detriment of lasher's clan. "so, does cicero want to know where they are?"

Cicero was clearly not intending to tell him a thing. He didn't think that she would tell him if he did come. Perhaps it was just a game for her, to ask for the world and see what she would get, if not the world. The grin gradually washed back off his face as amusement faded again, and he studied her face as she asked him if he wanted to know.

"Yes." He was not intending to come to her home, of course; not indefinitely. What use would the information be to him if he could not deliver it to his Alpha. "Cicero can give but his own word that he does not intend to stir up trouble. But he will not live at the wolf's coven. If not the information of the plateau, may Cicero know the sea wolf's name, at least?" He was beginning to see that she would unlikely give him the information unless he would lie about coming with her. But he was not sure that was worth severing ties for good with this wolf. She had already betrayed that they were still near enough, for if they were months away now she would unlikely have been so guarded with sharing her information, in Cicero's thoughts. He would just keep searching.

caiaphas watched the male closely, noting the way the amusement slowly receded from his features not unlike the sucking lap of the tide. she was disappointed she could not offer him the answer he sought -- not without some sort of insurance. it placed her in a peculiar position -- please this unique stranger or ensure the safety of a wolf that done nothing against her? 

in the end, her ties to lasher won. "i can't help you then." she finished with finality, knowing the rapport and the game were both over. a disappointing conclusion to an exciting interaction. he had asked her name -- she would oblige him that, at the very least. "caiaphas."

It was disappointing that he did not win in the end, but if there was anything Cicero had learned so far it was that you could not win them all. He nodded in understanding. "A shame. Cicero would not have minded seeing the coven, if for a while." It seemed that ties would remain neutral between this Caiaphas and Blackfeather Woods for now.

Cicero nodded again as he said his farewells: "Perhaps fate will bring Cicero and Caiaphas together some time in the future again." It was his own way of saying he had enjoyed their little meeting.

With a dip of his head Cicero then continued on southwest, continuing his search after failing to gather the necessary information from the sea wolf.

that was it then -- the game was over, the round over -- and neither contestant better for it. sourly she watched cicero depart, her posture hunched into a cat-like squat. for now she would wait until the wolf was well beyond her sight -- at length she would turn for tokota and follow the stream down to lasher's abode. she took particular care to conceal her scent and progress by hugging the coast -- she trusted the sea to cover all marks of her descent.