This is a discovery thread. Here is an image for inspiration--imagine that the mountain shown is smaller and wholly covered in conifers! @Lecter if you'd like a new thread I'd love you in this one but no pressure!
She hadn't gone home that night. She had howled out to her wolves to report her safety, but without the intention of returning to Silvertip Mountain. It was too far a journey to make in a matter of hours, anyway. Merely climbing out of the rich temperate forest she had found would take nearly two hours, and then there was the long trek back to the mountain. It would have been nearing dawn if Jinx chose to leave, and so she had stayed.
Morning came uneventfully. Jinx's senses were assaulted the moment she stirred by the rich scent of mink. The creature was bold to stroll right past a sleeping wolf, but it was fortunate for the Silvertip Alpha, who immediately pursued it and, over half an hour later, tore it to shreds and consumed its hearty flesh. She had stuck to the higher rim of the curiously cyclical mountain range, and today she sought to venture down into the valley. Reaching the floodplains revealed that the land stretched much further than she'd initially thought, with the lake tucked neatly into the northeastern side of the bowl.
All in all, it was a beautiful place, unmolested and exclusive. It was perhaps the first time Jinx had ever set foot in a place and noticed its magnificence, which was a feat all on its own. As she strolled amongst the noble spruce and pines and drank in their perfume, she could only imagine what secrets it might hold.
He was prepared to head towards the new territory Jinx was exploring in order to search for his alpha, but stopped as he heard the faint refrains of her howl. I'm alright, I'm fine. the call told him. It was already dark, so she would not be heading towards home until daylight or whenever she pleased. He however intended to head towards this new place at dawn, so he curled up in the closest shelter he could find and slept.
The dark Gamma woke at the dark hours before the sun climbed over the horizon. He had enough light to see his way around, so he stretched his body and made his way towards the new land without a name. The sun slowly and steadily rose and by the time he saw the mountains, it was partially in the sky. The air smelled of fresh pines, prey, and freshwater....and no wolves. He smiled at the lack of wolf smell. They would be the first pack to inhabit here in a long time, if ever.
He ascended the mountains, noting as he climbed higher that it was a circular mountain range. He reached a part of one mountain that began sloping down into a valley, and for once in his life he was truly amazed by the beauty the valley held. The tall conifers stood proudly on the slopes of the mountains, turning it an ardent green instead of a mountains normal gray. Tucked in the northeast a blue lake contrasted against the greens surrounding it. Such a beautiful place to live.
Sighing, he sniffed the air, searching for his alpha. When he could not find her smell, he tipped his head back and howled, proclaiming his arrival and location in the hopes that they would find each other.
Following the boy's escort back towards the mountains, Tiarnan's tight-lipped ally had slipped away. Their separation during the mission had made the trip back far more tense, especially when Tiarnan had the great urge to look behind himself to see if Bazi was still there. But they had moved on too quickly, with Tiarnan doing his best to keep up with Kaname, until home had come in to view. That had been a couple of days ago. In that time alone, the hungry boy had once again feasted upon the caches; he caught up as best he could on the latest gossip (usually just by sitting around and overhearing vital information which made no sense, regardless of his efforts), and he slept.
It was a quiet life here upon the mountain, but he was adapting to it. Many of the other wolves avoided him simply because they didn't know what to do with him. Tiarnan also noticed that Jinx was vacant, or at the very least, he had missed her departure from the range in his own absence. When rooting around in one of the caches in the early morning, he caught the scent of Kaname—then, as the other wolf began to move along, Tiarnan felled compelled to follow. There was a distance between them, more than a physical one, and that needed to be fixed somehow. Even if he couldn't talk to his ally, he wished to mend the error of his ignorance somehow.
But the trek turned in to a hike, and the hike turned in to an all-out adventure. Tiarnan thought himself to be lost more than once as he trailed after Kaname, but somehow he always found the way again. When a howl rose in to the sky, the youth recognized Jinx's voice and felt compelled to respond. As he was raising his head, he caught sight of a silhouette and stopped, recognizing Kaname in that brief moment, before the other wolf took off again. Tiarnan hesitated for only a moment, and then lowered his head again, eager to meet up with both Kaname and Jinx in whatever strange new place they had discovered.
When Kaname's howl finally broke out, Tiarnan threw up his own head and let out a brief baying sound of his own. It was a long enough note to alert anyone nearby that he too was there, but it fell away before Kaname had finished. Their sounds mingled quite briefly, and as Tiarnan settled back in to his own silence, he sought of the dark-furred wolf without further hesitation. The boy came upon him with his figure low and passive, his tail sweeping the ground like a lazy broom.
Her cry had met leery ears; while Lecter was well-aware that Jinx could mind herself, he had the caution of an older wolf mingled with the typical worry of a separated mate with which to contend. He had not followed her that night, spending the dark hours on the ridge before his den in tense contemplation. A quick sweep of the borders before dawnlight and he was off, taking up the trail of her scent into the unexplored lands.
He quickly caught the twinned howls of Kaname and Tiarnan, and lifted his voice in search of them both, turning his steps toward the sound. Around him, the foliage had changed from familiar to exotic and untouched, and the blended azure and emerald made him giddy with pleasure.
She had discovered a gem, and he lengthened his stride as the dark figures of the Silvertip males came into view, approaching them with a confident stride but one that did not smack of pretentiousness. His focus now was Jinx, but his heart had lifted at the sight of what his lover had found.
Her exploration was cut short when the howling of hounds broke the silence of the valley. Jinx's head tipped up to listen to their combined sound, with wavering notes suggesting there were five or six of them rather than just the three. The beauty of a wolf's howl was its ability to confuse its listeners, which at first it did... But at length, she picked out her husband's husky tone and a voice that sounded like Kaname's. The worried prickling of her pelt was eased as she began to pick her way back up the slope toward the Silvertip trio.
Kaname was the first she saw, but she was surprised to see the slender Tiarnan at his side. Lecter brought up the rear, though her eyes lingered on him the longest. It was his reaction she most wanted to see, because once he had asked her to allow him to perish on Silvertip's slopes, and she had already forgotten her acquiescence. Perhaps he too had forgotten that request.
She gave Kaname a familiar nip to his cheek, then bumped her nose fondly against the side of Tiarnan's face, assuming the warlock didn't pull away shyly. Finally, she sidled up alongside the Silvertip Beta and, looking between them all, said, “this place is magnificent.”
Two howls, unexpectedly, joined his own. First was the low baying of the young foreigner Tiarnan and following him was the rasping tones of Lecter. He finished his song first, satisfied that Jinx heard them all and knew they were there. The ivory alpha approached them after a short while and he gently licked her chin as she nipped his cheek lightly. Jinx gave her greetings to the other two before sidling up to her mate.
"Indeed it is." he said as he looked down at the emerald valley. It was his first time exploring the place, but one look at the place made him want to come back for more.
The approach of Jinx didn't exactly catch him unawares, but he did assume a submissive posture as her silhouette took shape. Tiarnan flattened his ears and dipped his head in a long-faced nod to her. While the other two spoke, he was distracted - first by the violent green that surrounded them, and then by... A gawky looking male wolf who was suddenly in their company. He must have arrived at the same time as Jinx, but the boy had been distracted. Having not met Lecter yet, Tiarnan passed a cursory glance over his gaunt body; reaching with a curious expression with a wiggling nose, trying to gather his scent.
"Yes," Lecter murmured rustily among his fellows, reaching out to snake his jaw against the slim line of Jinx's shoulder. The shaman had not forgotten his request to die upon Silvertip, nor was he completely moved by the beauty of the hidden land, as she seemed to be. Yet his understanding of her was innate; she would sally forth and foray until she discovered what it was that would keep her heart content for a while, though perhaps again Jinx would depart in pursuit of yet another promised land.
He had not spoken of his thoughts on impending morality to his mate, and perhaps would not; the sylph had enough to worry her mind without Lecter to add anything. Icewater eyes met those of the boy he did not know, a quiet fellow cloaked in earthen hue, who seemed intent to meet him, and he fought back the curl of his lip through the younger wolf's ministrations. Soon thereafter, however, his attention returned to Jinx, and he waited to see what it was would be done.
It was settled, then. At least in Jinx's mind, the majority of the pack—the important ones, sans Cara who was also in the leader's favour—had already agreed to move here, even though they hadn't really said that at all. Their interest gave way to Jinx's assumptions, such that asking what they thought about relocating never truly entered her mind. No doubt they would soon decipher her intentions and speak out about them then or not at all.
“It looks small from here, but it is vast and full of life,” the Alpha announced almost giddily, glancing between all three males. Tiarnan hadn't said anything, but the relatively unsympathetic Jinx chocked that up to him not really understanding anything. Her eyes lingered on him the longest, though, as if to convey that she knew he had no thoughts on the matter, or at least couldn't communicate them. She thought the warlock might like how old the forest was, if nothing else. “I suspect few wolves have been through here, so the prey here is bountiful, and undisturbed by the other packs.” In other words, it was perfect for them.
His alpha looked like an excited little pup when she told them of the newfound area. A vast land, full of prey with little wolves. It was exactly what the pack needed with all of the competition with the other packs. Soon, they'd move there and be the isolated little family they desired.
He took another look at the valley, but his gaze lingered on the lake. There was a green patch in the water. Could it be? "Is that an island in the lake over there?" He asked Jinx. She had been in this territory the longest, she surely must have travelled to the lake.
Her infectious joy was palpable, and therefore hard to ignore; Lecter smiled. Jinx's intentions were clear, at least to himself, and Kaname was not a foolish man. The darker, silent wolf he had no thoughts toward, and his eyes traveled in the direction that the assassin had indicated.
There was indeed what appeared to be an island there, but though his eyesight had not yet begun to fail, he could not make out the finer details. Quietly, he waited for his mate to speak, wondering what else she had discovered in her absence.
Tiarnan remained silent, which suited Jinx just as well. His spidery language still unnerved her, and his inability to grasp the common tongue spoken by all of the wolves in the Teekon Wilds even moreso. She glanced sidelong at the yearling, waiting to see if he would eventually add something to the conversation, but her attention flitted away from him when Kaname spoke.
“I believe it is large enough to merit exploration,” she responded, seeking the side of her mate's face with her nose. She would brush his cheek if permitted, and then would move away from their small gathering. “For now I want to acquaint myself with these mountains. Fan out and report back anything interesting you find.” Although it was an order, the Alpha female would have no qualms with any of them following her, but she didn't wait for their verbal agreement before she began to lope back into the heavily forested mountain range.
Kaname had ignored the silent foreigner. The boy couldn't say much anyway, so he paid him no mind. Someone should teach him, but he was not going to be that person. Jinx noted that the island he pointed out was large, large enough to explore. Part of him wondered if that could be the new gathering place for the pack, similar to how Ghost Rock Network was the communal den of the pack.
His alpha instructed them to fan out and explore the area before departing. He eagerly headed towards the island, hoping it would be good enough for his pack to live on.
He nodded, leaning into Jinx's touch and casting Kaname an amiable glance before he too slid off into the veldt, excitement mounting in his breast for the newness of the area — and its lack of lupine inhabitants.