Wolf RPG

Bazi regained function of her olfactory senses some hours after Fox and Jinx had accepted her into the Swiftcurrent family, and after a surreal encounter with the wolf charged with vetting the state of her health, began putting it to use. By the time she had charted the boundaries of the pack's territory (and reinforced a few gaps), it was an hour shy of dawn and she was as dirty as she was drained. With no concept of where the dens were located, she curled into a mud-and-white ball by the creek, hoped that trespassers would never reach this far, and slept - and slept, and slept, and slept.

Haunter was eying the new girl like she was a pretty little lamb he could choose from a slaughter line. It was mostly her white fur that caused him to stalk, but also because he was curious as to how long he could follow her without being noticed. Remaining in the midst of the darkness (as dawn would surely give him away soon), he always kept about a mile between them and stayed downwind. It proved Haunter's prowess as a hunter, because he successfully trailed her for nearly two hours before the "game" stopped with abrupt finality.

She slept by the creek, mud caking her pristine fur, and Haunter felt uninterested all of a sudden. Besides being a creep, he wasn't bored enough to actually watch someone sleep. He returned to the borders, but was back within an hour, yellow eyes leering at her still-sleeping frame.

He ventured closer, choosing a spot some yards to her left before reclining slowly into a sit. The one-earred wolf wondered how long before his nearness (and staring) would wake her. If not soon, he'd wake her himself because he wanted to know what that underlying scent was. He'd smelled it before, as he'd passed human scents before, but it was very vague on her and he'd never actually encountered a human so he thought that this was what he would ask when she was conscious.

Bazi dreamed of fire. She had seen fire only once - the lucky combination of dry weather, lightning, and a field of dry grass. The heat and smell of it had thrilled her, but it was the colour that rooted her to the spot until the fuel ran out. Bright, ferocious orange and yellow, unlike anything she had ever seen in the North. It was as beautiful as it was fierce, and when the blaze finally turned to smoking ash she had felt and overwhelming sense of loss.

When the yearling opened her eyes, she saw fire for the second time. She unfurled, sitting up slowly, and regarded her stalker with a calm, blue gaze.

Haunter was her direct opposite. She was petite - he was imposing. His eyes were fire - hers was water. She was painfully white against their increasingly green surroundings - he could melt into the night, and disappear. She felt suddenly self-conscious about the dirt and grime that clung to her underside. "You're staring at me," she murmured.

When she finally stirred beneath the holes that Haunter was boring ruthlessly into the top of her skull, he looked unabashedly into her eyes, which were a soft shade of blue that would've undoubtedly been pleasant to another wolf studying her. He saw that she was young, mainly a tell in her gently tapered features not yet sharpered with experienced or blunted with age. He licked his chops as she pushed herself into a careful sit, eying him calmly though it was clear she didn't know what to expect from the inky wraith.

"So I am," he agreed with a quiet huff that would have otherwise suggested he was bored or uninterested if it weren't for his continuance to stare. His singular ear twitched, an indication that he had been thinking and was done now. "Did I wake you?" the dog rasped to the dirt-licked snowflake, feeling a little petulant and wanting to know if he was the cause of her unease—not that this was his intention.

"So I am."

Bazi thought that was a very strange response. Most wolves would have apologized, or offered an explanation - this peculiar stranger seemed to think that intruding upon her personal space was well within his right. Defiance warmed her chest, but never reached her eyes.

"I think you did. It doesn't matter. What happened to your ear?" she asked, equally bold. It suited them both to say exactly what was on their mind, though Bazi came equipped with a rudimentary filter and often garnished her direct questions with pleasantries. Even so, foot and mouth had met on numerous occasions during her stay at the Creek, and she wondered how (or if) Haunter had managed to stay out of trouble.

He blinked slowly at her words, appearing slightly pleased with himself but it was difficult to tell with his invisible, omnipresent unibrow and his twitch-less lips. You mainly had to see his expressions in his eyes, which was mostly a little unnerving to do. She asked about his ear, which was almost as much the topic of conversation as it wasn't.

"My mother used to tell me that if I continued not to listen to her that my ears would fall off..." he told her pensively, licking his jaws and staring a moment longer before turning his strong, pointed muzzle out over the Creek. He realized at that moment that he had never told anyone the real story behind his missing ear, though he wouldn't be able to explain why he danced around the question each time it was asked. It wasn't like some big secret—clear as day as it was that the ear had been removed uncouthly, violently, and by jaws no larger than another wolf's.

"My mother used to tell me that if I continued not to listen to her that my ears would fall off..."

Of all things, that made Bazi smile. Her own mother had ripped an unrepentant offspring's ear clean off in front of the entire pack, pups included, and proceeded to read the riot act whilst the unfortunate miscreant writhed and cried and bled. It wasn't something you forgot. So homesick was the little female at this point that any shared experiences, even awful, traumatic experiences, fostered closeness. She rose onto thin, mud-caked legs took a delicate step forward just as Haunter looked away, peering at the ragged remains of his ear. It didn't look like a clean cut, as you would expect from a meeting of teeth and flesh. "Did she take your ear? What did you do?" she pressed, closer to him now than he had dared come to her since the stalking began.

From the corner of his eye he saw her move, get up and then come nearer into his peripheral. He wasn't afraid of her, as dainty as she was, but her scent still bothered him—tickling a memory he didn't know he had—and the muscles in his shoulder twitched, making his dark fur shimmer briefly. This was the only sign of his wariness, as his expression didn't change and he didn't look back at her, not even when she spoke.

"I imagine she had something to do with it," he grumbled, sliding down to his elbows and onto his stomach even though she had just come to stand. Laying down didn't make his feel more relaxed, but it certainly gave off the illusion and right now he was eager to forget his inhibitions about the dirty lamb he had been stalking. "I told her I didn't want to marry the girl she had chosen for me and I simply woke up the next day without it. No trace of it or pain, really."

Haunter's already lopsided head cocked towards the newcomer now, and he shrugged. "I listened to her after that. Hence, why I still have one ear." He was lying, though because his tone of voice nor expression ever changed, it would've been difficult to detect as such no matter how implausible the story sounded. In fact, the real event had been excruciating for weeks and his lack of care for the wound had almost led it to fester, hence its rough edges.

"I told her I didn't want to marry the girl she had chosen for me and I simply woke up the next day without it. No trace of it or pain, really."

Bazi stared. No pain? What sort of witchery had allowed that kindness? Zimri had disappeared mere days after his own ordeal, so Bazi did not know how long it had taken for the wound to heal (if it ever did) - but the pain he suffered was extreme and obvious. To emphasize her disappointment, Shar-Kali had forbidden him access to a medic.

Haunter dropped to the ground, and Bazi moved around to face him, lowering her head rather than taking a seat. "I don't believe you," she said, narrowing her eyes but fighting a smile. "About the pain. How can you take an ear off without pain? And what kind of girl would make your mother do that to you?" Whether or not Haunter had really changed his ways after being so severely reprimanded wasn't something she thought to question.

When she lowered her head, it caused Haunter to stop looking at her sidelong and turn his head fully in her direction. "I don't believe you," she remarked, and had he been a wolf more inclined, he would've smiled quite toothily at that moment. But as it were, he only stared, listening further as she refuted his story.

"Fine, there was pain," he drawled as if only just grudgingly admitting to something. "It was excruciating and I couldn't lick it or even scratch it for weeks after." Now that part was true at least. He paused when considering her secondary question, "recalling" the appearance and personality of a wolf who didn't quite exist. "She was a pretty little thing.. white fur reminding me of a cloud, and gentle blue eyes."

He blinked at her, actually describing the small mud-nymph before him but it seemed only coincidental coming from his dry-toned lips. "Sweet girl too. She might've even made me into a good wolf in time if I had taken her..." Haunter turned his head again, appearing to gaze in reminiscence over the water. "I, however, was smitten with a wild, impolite little red minx that my mother didn't want in the family," (now he was describing Fox in this story of almost complete falsehood) "and she had my ear whisked away because I refused to change my mind."

After that he fell silent, realizing that he was talking more to her than he had in quite some time with anyone else.

In her naivety, Bazi did not make the connection between Haunter's description and herself - or their pint-sized alpha - and was too engrossed by his tale of love and drama to question the facts. She listened with rapt attention, sitting down half-way and letting out a gasp when the "red minx" made an appearance. The whole thing red like fiction, but the dark male's delivery had her hooked - the fact that he had watched her sleep had become a minor, unimportant detail. "What happened to the red wolf?" she asked, ears forward and eyes wide. "Did your mum chase her off?" The yearling paused, suddenly frowning. "But you are here now.. so you must have left your home pack. Why didn't you follow the red girl - or did... did she get killed?"

But before Haunter could answer - if he was even going to - a summoning howl rang out. Bazi's head nearly flew off her shoulders. "I'd better answer that," she told him, gaze lingering on her enigmatic pack-mate - as if hesitant - before she rushed off to answer their leader's call.