Set in an inconvenient basin fed by overflow from Duck Lake and Otatso Wetlands, Witch's Marsh is a permanently waterlogged grassland. Reeds and cattails grow abundantly at the edge of the water, and the only trees in sight are those belonging to the Wetlands. The soil is soggy and saturated, feeling unpleasant underfoot. Patches of tall grass conceal underlying channels, so wolves entering the area must tread carefully, lest they find themselves standing in stagnant water where they thought there was land. When night falls, the grass seems to eerily dance and move of its own accord and shadows seem to stalk the living, even when there's no wind or moonlight. Many a wolf has become lost in the maze of wild, overgrown vegetation and deceptively deep water, leading to a superstition that will-o-wisps in the marsh lead unsuspecting wolves to their deaths.
Jinx, so taken with leaving home as she was, had made her way awkwardly through the Wetlands in the direction of the lake. As a prospective Outrider, she sought to map and chart all lands and dangers surrounding Swiftcurrent Creek, that she could use her knowledge to derive strategies for the pack's defense. Say what they would about the pale Kesuk, but Jinx was thorough in completion of her duties, and had spent the whole day mapping out Otatso.
The warm weather, coupled with the swamp's natural mugginess, meant that not all of the water was frozen. Some of it was frigid and turbid with soil, whilst some of it harbored a thin layer of ice. It crackled underfoot, and once or twice Jinx unwittingly dunked her paw into the cold water. On these instances, she had recoiled with a furious hiss, shaking her paw in disgust.
But when she reached the far edge of the swamp, Jinx found something interesting that she had never noticed before. The land dipped subtly from the swamp's edge into a basin. From there, it looked like any other grassland covered in snow, and so Jinx proceeded boldly... But she came to a sharp halt when her foot broke through the thin cover of snow and ice and she found herself chest-deep in water.
She pulled back, practically shrieking, and coiled her tail agitatedly. What looked like a grassland was, in fact, an expansive marsh. In the summer, it would have been obvious, with wide swaths of grass broken by glimmers of permanent, silvery water... But in the winter, it was a deathtrap. One which, she realized, could be exploited as a trap for unsavoury rivals, given appropriate knowledge of its layout.
I made some assumptions here. If you want me to change anything, just let me know!
When she left the creek's fringes behind and turned to make the long voyage back to the ridge, Jinx's scent lingered in her nostrils. Strangely, it seemed to grow stronger, not weaker, the further she trekked away from the Kesuk's homestead. It dawned on her that Jinx must be somewhere in the adjacent territories, perhaps exploring her new neighborhood. Pied glanced at the sky, trying to gauge how much time left before nightfall, and lingered indecisively for all of two minutes before finally turning and tracking her old acquaintance's scent.
She found Jinx looking rather agitated, dirty water dripping from the lower half of her body. Pied looked at her quizzically, her eyes widening when she saw the curve of Jinx's belly, which was particularly obvious due to her soaking wet fur. She froze and blinked several times, hardly believing her eyes. Jinx was pregnant too? Jinx was going to be a mother? Someone had slept with her?
Swallowing, Pied's lips parted but she had trouble finding her words. "Jinx," she finally blurted softly, "who...?" She gestured toward the Kesuk's baby bump, her mouth shutting with a click as she tried to guess the other female's due date and do the math in her head.
A cool breeze cut through her wet fur and reminded her that she needed to be more careful in unknown settings. Part of her yearned to chart the marsh and find its safe paths and its treacherous depths, but another part of her held back. A normal mother-to-be might have thought of the well-being and health of her pups, but for them, Jinx spared little thought. If she held even remote joy for their existence, it wasn't something she was public about. Long ago, she accepted their fate, and even if their purpose had been less sinister, she would never have loved them. They were much better off without their negligent mother.
That wasn't to say she was foolhardy, though. She knew that the lives of the pups were important, but not for herself or for them. They weren't even important for Lecter, although Jinx would have spared no effort in pleasing him. Their destinies had been decided the moment she and the shaman had coupled and conceived them. For this reason, Jinx didn't slosh into the deadly waters of the marsh, and remained instead on the edge, pensive.
Perhaps if it had been different, and she hadn't been carrying babes of such importance, Pied would have found her half-frozen in the middle of the snow-covered marsh. Instead, she found Jinx lingering where the ground and ice had given way. Her approach wasn't subtle, so Jinx wasn't surprised when she spoke, but she was surprised that it was Pied, and that she was so far out."What are you doing here?" she wondered, putting aside the Ridge wolf's question for the moment as she turned, devoid of any malice she might have expressed before. There was no reason to hold Pied in disregard any longer.
Besides, any scorn Pied once spoke for her Gods was put aside as heathen folly. She need not be offended by it, for her rekindled piety told her that heathens would all die anyway. To argue their beliefs was wasted breath, and even though Pied was allegedly going to one day carry and birth a child of Atka's blessing, she nevertheless did not, Jinx thought, believe in the Bear Gods.
Had the question asked her been less clear, she might have answered something else, much like she had done with Fox before realizing she was pregnant. Pied left almost no room for confusion, however. "They are Lecter's," she responded, unable to keep a hint of pride that he was hers from her voice. "But they are of no consequence." By which she meant they would never see the light of day, but that meaning was cryptic and uncertain.
Pied ignored Jinx's question, not out of rudeness but because there was a much more pressing matter to address, at least in her opinion. Her lips pinched together when Jinx revealed that her unborn litter had been sired by Lecter. Suddenly, she wondered if this was why Jinx had left the ridge and come here to the creek specifically: to raise her pups with their father, the shaman. That would partially explain why she'd accepted Fox's leadership, anyway.
Then Jinx said something that made Pied's blood run cold in her veins. She balked, frozen where she stood. Then, "What does that mean?" she demanded, though, somehow, she already knew the answer. "You're not going to kill them, are you?" she guessed, her voice rising an octave. "Jinx, they're your children," she entreated, now visibly alarmed by Jinx's blasé demeanor.
She should have expected resistance, but somehow, Jinx had overlooked Pied's perceptiveness. She had expected the matter to more or less be laid to rest. She was much more interested in how Akhlut was faring in his mission to improve himself, or how Kisu was doing, or whether Pump had chosen to leave or not, than she was the topic of her own children.
Alas, that was what the Horizon Ridge female focused on. Her alarum was understandable, but Jinx was Jinx. There was no changing her addled mindset, not even when it came to something she should be concerned about. "Their lives are forfeit by my Alpha's hand if not my own. They are not sanctioned." More importantly, they would make Fox appear weak, or so the Alpha thought, anyway. Jinx's private thoughts reflected a different reality, one where killing a woman's pups made her look like a tyrant, but very few knew what Jinx intended to do with any children that survived their trials.
"My God has need of them," she added, relinquishing that secret intent to Pied, as though she thought it wouldn't be seen as a disgusting and heinous act.
Pied was on the verge of imploring Jinx even more vehemently when the Kesuk's response made her stop short. It was one of the most natural laws. Her mind flew to the young Fox and she understood, even if she didn't like it. A look of resignation passed over her face when no compelling reply came to her lips. The Alpha was the law and, unless Jinx was willing to uproot for the sake of her litter—which she clearly wasn't, particularly considering her past—then there wasn't much to be done.
Then Jinx said something which made Pied's eyes narrow, though her face went slack a moment later. If Jinx wanted to tell herself that Fox was sacrificing her pups for some great religious act, then so be it. Maybe it was her way of finding reason in the senseless slaying of her progeny. For the moment, it didn't occur to her that Jinx actually planned to destroy the pups herself before Fox could rightfully get to them.
"How could you be so careless?" Pied asked sharply. Regardless of Jinx's lack of attachment to her pups or concern for their fate, those little beings inside her hadn't asked for any of this. "Why did you mate, knowing this would likely happen, knowing the consequences? You brought lives into this world just to be killed? I can't argue that it's within Fox's rights but..." Her nostrils flared and she let out a long breath. "And unless I'm seeing things, you're pretty far along... meaning you conceived while still part of the ridge." She shook her head.
"Oh, Jinx," she mused, as if to herself, "every time I start to think I could actually respect you, maybe even like you..." You go and do something ludicrously despicable, she finished mentally, realizing she didn't want to pick a fight, even with little lives at stake.
"I'm expecting too," she shared almost defensively, "but I'm not as far along as you. I..." She'd meant to say something but whatever it was, she almost immediately forgot it when a thought struck her out of nowhere. "Jinx, is there any way you could smuggle your pups to me when they're born? I'll tell everyone I found them. I can take care of them. There's no need for them to die."
As she was wont to do regarding Jinx, Pied launched into something resembling a lecture. The Kesuk was bored with these lectures, and thought they happened much too often. Pretty much every time the dappled wolf found her, there was some lecture involved with it. More oft than not, it was Jinx who continued them with ceaseless defensiveness. In this case, however, she remained strangely silent, at least until Pied shook her head and muttered something about respecting her. Hah, thought the black-toed woman, like that'd ever happen.
But she didn't speak out in cutting self defense, at least not this time. Instead, her only response was a pointed, "I didn't," whose ambiguity was almost certain to be more frustrating than her situation itself. Didn't what? Whatever specific part of Pied's chiding Jinx referred to, she didn't explain further. The simple truth was that she hadn't known it would result in pregnancy at all. Naivety ruled parts of her life that should have been supplied by her parents. Jinx had been still rather young when she left the Bay, too young to ever have to worry about pregnancy, and so she hadn't been taught its ins and outs.
"You may take them," she offered, "if you want Fox to hunt you down, kill them, and then kill yours too. Seems a high price to pay for an enemy's whelps." She rolled her shoulders, not quite understanding why Pied even cared. If Jinx had an ounce of mothering instinct in her, she had yet to find it. It was weird, then, for another she-wolf to care more than herself about her children. It was well beyond the selfish Kesuk's comprehension. "Besides, if Fox doesn't find them, Sos will. They are not meant to live, Pied. One way or another, that's just how it is."
Her heart skipped a beat when Jinx casually invited her to go ahead and take them—only to complete her sentence rather forebodingly. Pied's brow furrowed and she challenged, "Would Fox really go through all that trouble? Once they're out of her pack, they're of no concern to her, so why would she? In any case, you can just tell her you miscarried or that you did away with them yourself. Tell her you ate them if you must. Considering who we're talking about, I don't think anyone would doubt it," Pied said cuttingly, aware that the Kesuk would more than likely take it as a compliment.
Pied knew that the mention of Sos presented a stumbling block perhaps even more prevalent than Fox. "You don't think the woman who's carrying Atka's blessed child could protect them?" Pied asked wonderingly. It was the only avenue she could think to explore that might convince Jinx, though she knew it was just a shot in the dark. "Please consider it, at least. There's still time for you to make a decision," she coaxed, not above begging. Pups—even her nemesis's pups—meant very much to Pied.
And then, like an afterthought, she added, "And you're not my enemy, Jinx," because, although they were both insufferable in their own ways and would likely never see eye to eye, Pied had a strange attachment to the blackfoot that she couldn't (and wouldn't care to) explain.
Pied's appeals were convincing, but Jinx was unsure. It would do no good to lie to Fox, and though she would never say it, she respected her new Alpha's command more than she respected Pied's selfless offer. She made a good point about Fox not hunting down the children, but Jinx knew if Fox found out about the betrayal, it would be her life on the line instead. Pied would get away free, Pied's children would get away free, and Jinx would find her neck in the jaws of her Alpha.
Sad though it may have been, slippery Jinx valued her life over those of her unborn children. In a heartbeat she would sell them to the devil to save herself. Pied seemed of the opinion that that devil, Sos, would not touch them so long as she carried Atka's child... But what Jinx believed, and what Pied did not, was that Sos and Atka did not share plans. Sos would kill and ravage as He would, and bless where He would, and Atka would do so Herself. Both Bear Gods may have been connected, but Their Wills were Their own.
"If Sos decides He wants something, Atka Herself could not stop Him," she said in a flat voice. Though she didn't say it aloud, she mentally added that Atka, for all Her Light and Her Righteousness, was just as happy to see sacrifice in Their honour as Sos was, though it was always the Dark Father who demanded it. Such was Jinx's belief in her furious Gods. "But," she added, before she could be subjected to another round of reasons to spare them, "I will think on your... Offer. It may please Lecter if they lived."
Jinx said she would consider Pied's offer and though the dappled female knew she might just be saying that to shut her up and get rid of her, her only real option was to believe her. "We could make it work," were her final words on the topic, spoken softly but vehemently. Despite feeling very restless about it—every glance at Jinx's rounded flanks made her heart clench anxiously—the would-be Caretaker would let it rest... for now.
"What is this place?" she asked, aware that it was quite a non sequitur but who cared? Her two-toned eyes fixed on the hole where Jinx had evidently fallen into what looked like a bog hidden by ice and snow. "And what are you doing here?" Pied echoed Jinx's earlier query before finally giving her own answer: "I was at the creek, actually, meeting your Alpha, as you may have guessed," seeing as she'd known about Fox and all.
Jinx's shoulders lifted into a noncomittal shrug, as though to indicate she hadn't known the marsh was here. The swamp and the lake bordering it were clearly the sources of it, but it looked like a grassland. Jinx would no doubt return in the summer and see it for what it really was. Now, however, she knew nothing about it. The channels of water were hidden from view, the breadth of the marsh was uncertain, and any secrets laying beneath its surface were barely conceived notions to the Kesuk. She had simply found it.
"I'm scouting," she explained vaguely, but chose to expand on it a moment later. "Swiftcurrent Creek is getting quite large. I thought it would be prudent to see what else is out here, in case we need to expand or find food further out." In reality, she was also looking for wolves that were skulking too close. As time went on, she became more and more possessive of Swiftcurrent's surrounding territories, such that a wolf on Mount Apikuni would be as unwelcome as one within her pack's marked territory.
"I'm sure she made an impression," Jinx assumed, unaware that Fox had been quite disinterested with Pied's presence.
As Jinx explained, Pied's eyes scanned over their surroundings, taking stock of them. Her eyes only returned to the Kesuk when she made a comment about Fox. Although Pied hadn't seen any overt sign of it, she'd sensed Fox's personality lurking beneath her bored demeanor. Therefore, Jinx's offhanded remark piqued her interest, leaving her wanting to know a little more about this Alpha who clearly didn't have time for small talk.
"We barely spoke, actually. She didn't seem like one to waste time on idle chatter, so I left almost as quickly as I came. Besides, I was tracking you," she revealed. "I did leave a message with her, so don't be surprised if she tells you 'hi' from me," Pied said, feeling suddenly strange about it after their little disagreement moments ago.
But Pied realized that whatever feelings of ire Jinx had aroused simply didn't last... or, if they did, they also came with a queer sort of affection, as if the two were long-married, bickering spouses who treated each other like garbage while secretly and begrudgingly respecting the other. She and Jinx had been through so much, it was impossible for them not to be bonded, even if they got along about just as well as a cat's tail and a rocking chair.
"She's a tiny little thing," Pied said after a beat, "and it honestly surprised me that you'd leave the ridge to follow such a wolf. I mean, she's smaller than me and that's saying something. But I have a feeling she's pretty fiery?" she guessed aloud.
It seemed Pied and Fox hadn't spent long together. That wasn't surprising to the Gamma, who knew Fox to be a woman of action rather than one of words. The pair had yet to have a meaningful conversation, though it was Jinx's opinion that the moral support hadn't been meaningful. Perhaps to Fox, it had meant a lot.
"I didn't leave the Ridge to follow her," she admitted when Pied finished, sharing a brief, candid glance with the female as though to say she understood where the concern came from. "Fox was nothing but a pack wolf a few weeks ago. I came to follow Lethe, an old friend of my father's, but Lethe took it upon herself to follow the creek's siren song to her death." Jinx believed it was because of the Gods, but decided that neither Atka nor Sos had any part in their conversation. She hoarded knowledge of them to herself, these days.
"She stepped up in Lethe's place. I chose to remain because she has proven herself to know us well, and seems capable enough." Fox was also young and no doubt foolish, but that opinion came from an equally foolish and not-so-young wolf whose views were almost always biased. Even if Pied shared the thinking that such a young wolf couldn't know the proper ways to lead a pack, Jinx never would have said she agreed out loud. She remained regardless, standing vigil over Lethe's pack so that the Gods would still look down upon them favourably.
Pied's head tilted ever so slightly when Jinx explained that Fox wasn't the pack's original leader. Her ears fell back at the news of this Lethe's unceremonious death. Briefly, the Gamma wondered if this was a cover story and Jinx had somehow done away with the previous Alpha in an attempt to take over the pack... but the theory flew rapidly from her mind when Jinx made no mention of trying to step up in the late Alpha female's stead.
"Why didn't you step up?" Pied asked the obvious question. There was no particular judgment in her voice, just burning curiosity. She didn't know enough about Fox to have an opinion of her eligibility as a leader, yet it truly surprised her to hear that Jinx hadn't risen to fill the position. "Is Fox irresistibly charismatic or something?" she wondered aloud, pretty much rhetorically.
Pied's question was understandable, even though part of Jinx wanted to point out that Pied had expressed some doubt in the past about Jinx's ability to lead and should have been relieved. Those expressions had been vague, though, so instead of speaking up about it and making snide comments to once more inject tension into their conversation, she let that go.
"I didn't want that territory." It was a pretty simple explanation, and certainly didn't paint the entire picture, but it was probably true on some level. Jinx didn't want the creek, and knew that the wolves there wouldn't have followed her elsewhere. Unlike Horizon Ridge, it wasn't strategically placed, and she wasn't overly fond of its terrain, either. On top of that was a sort of respect for Fox that she couldn't put her finger on. No matter how small and unimpressive she was, Jinx would rank her leagues ahead of her previous Alphas.
"I would favour a mountain," she explained, although she didn't expect Pied to care what her preferences were. Pied would never follow her anyway, even though that fact brought a subconscious regret with it. "And now is not opportune. I must remain in the Creek and make sure Lethe's vision for it is fulfilled." Not that Jinx had known what that vision was.
Jinx's answer seemed to hint that she would one day found her own pack on a mountainside. Pied almost asked about it, then decided she'd rather not get into it. She'd lived in a forest, on a ridge, next to a creek and perhaps moving up in the world (literally) was just the next natural step for her. The Gamma mused about this with a dark sort of smile twitching the corners of her lips.
Anyway, where Jinx went and what she did no longer affected Pied in any way, nor was it her business. "I see. Well..." Well what? She wasn't even sure what she planned to say next, so she paused and then ended up not saying anything at all.
Her eyes were drawn again to the roundness of Jinx's belly and she sighed softly. "I really hope you give my offer real consideration, Jinx. I don't even care that they're blighted with your genes." This was said with another dark twitch of the lips before her face slackened again. "I would look after them..."
The Gamma decided it was time to go. "I think I'm going to leave you to it and get back to the ridge. Take care of yourself." Pied delivered this sentiment with a bit of a pointed look because, by saying take care of yourself, she really meant take care of them. She squinted at the Kesuk's abdomen one last time then before turning and slowly meandering back toward Horizon Ridge.