Wolf RPG

@Rahzie

The smell of wolves seemed to assault Ptarmigan from all sides. Something about this coast must have drawn a number of her species, for the criss-crossed paths of dozens of wolf paws had left the ground permanently marked with their smell. With her senses assaulted and natural born wolf instinct exciting her, the petite female had made her way onto a stout little mountain to the south of the coast, unaware that once upon a time, a pack had considered this territory their buffer zone.

Now, it was nothing but gyrfalcons and shore birds, and their cacophony of rattling cries assaulted her ears as readily as the wolf scents had assaulted her nose. Finding no relief from the stimuli in this area, the female began to pace along a towpath, growing more and more agitated by the second.

[size=x-small]ooc: oh my goodness I can't believe I keep forgetting about this D: hope it's all right if I join now, we can back-date it or whatever you want :)[/size]

For the majority of her time in the Teekon Wilds, Rahzie had been wandering around the eastern edge of the area. A couple days ago she had decided to finally fulfill her wanderlust and see just how far these wilds went. She followed the Whitefish River until it ended in a forest. In the distance, now, and interesting smell of humidity and salt and fish tickled her nose. The coywolf had heard of the ocean before, but had never witnessed it first hand. Intrigued, instead of heading straight to the beaches, the small woman climbed the nearest mountain to get a better view.

She immediately encountered a number of birds - snowy colored falcons and other avians she was unfamiliar with. Rahzie, in contrast to the other woman she was going to unknowingly run into, was enjoying the large amount of stimuli in the area. It gave her energy, the extroverted girl she was. It drew her interest - and so did the sharp line of deep blue on the horizon. The coywolf decided that must be the ocean.

But before she could climb down the mountain to go inspect the beaches, a dark form caught her eye on a towpath not far below her. Rahzie briefly wondered if there was an overabundance of black wolves in this area. "Hey!" She barked down to the stranger. "You heading to the ocean?"

A hint of a frustrated whine crossed over her lips moments before Rahzie called out to her from above. Ptarmigan had been heading down the towpath at this point in time, but she transitioned smoothly to heading back uphill, toward the dark-furred hybrid who had hailed her. She paid minor attention to the other's stature and dark coat, as well as snorting softly to filter in the other's scent, but made no other mental notes about her. Rahzie didn't seem aggressive, which put Ptarmigan somewhat at ease.

However, that ease was instantly broken when the other asked if she was going to the ocean. The question of what an ocean was supposed to be burned on the tip of her tongue but, adopting a facade of cool nonchalance, she forced herself to swallow it. Instead of asking, she shrugged and said, “Psh, yeah,” as though it was an obvious and extraordinary thing all at once.

“Care to join?” she asked, indicating she had already assumed the answer by turning and beginning to head back down the way she had been going. The gyrfalcons screeched in the background, made nervous by the presence of two wolves in their nesting grounds, but the Endore did her best not to grate her teeth together and sharply yell back at the still, stony mountain face.

[size=x-small]ooc: excellent :)[/size]

“Psh, yeah,” Rahzie's tail swished in excitement, not even getting the slightest hint that the other had no idea what an ocean was. “Care to join?” This was perfect! Someone to chat with on their way towards the ocean. "Of course!" The coywolf loped with an easy grace down to the towpath, trotting up beside the dark woman. She also heard the gyrfalcons' screeching, but they were all but background noise to her now.

As Rahzie came up beside her newfound companion, her gaze traveled over the horizon, taking in the view. "Beautiful up here, isn't it?" She mused, half to herself. The sunshine and busy nature of this area was bringing out the wiry woman's talkative in full force. "I haven't been to this part of the area before. I've been wandering around in the east mostly," She said lightly. The coywolf had no idea that she was more than likely annoying the other woman. "Are you from around here? Or are you just exploring, too?"

A svelte ear trained itself on Rahzie as they descended the squat little mountain. The coywolf said something... And then said something else... And over the cries of the gyrfalcons and the headache steadily building behind her eyes, Ptarmigan only really comprehended half of it. Screaming “what” in the other's face seemed tactless, so she was left to guess what the other had said.

“Uh huh,” she replied casually, the standard reply when one hadn't heard what the other said, at least in her experience. She did pick up on Rahzie's last question, fortunately, as another nod and sound of affirmation wouldn't really have slid past that one. “Just exploring,” she huffed, shooting an irate glare past her slim shoulder at the birds on the mountain. “These guys are too loud, though.”

“Uh huh,” The other woman affirmed, and Rahzie was completely fooled into thinking she had understood her. The coywolf stepped nimbly around small stones on their way down the mountain, avoiding little jabs into her paws where she could. The other woman confirmed that she was just another explorer, then turned her eyes over her shoulder. Rahzie's brown eyes followed hers for a brief moment, thinking she was looking at something in particular, but quickly understood when she spoke again.

"Eh, I don't mind them. It think they're pretty cool actually," Rahzie said with a shrug, and rounded a small boulder in front of her. "I'm just exploring too. I've never seen the ocean before," She mused, imagining it. "I've heard about it, but never been there. I was born in the Dawnlands, which are pretty far east of here, but never had a chance to see the eastern ocean." The coywolf was holding a giddy lightness in her heart, caused by her excitement to have this aspect of her wanderlust satisfied. She couldn't care less if she was talking way too much. She did pause for a moment, looking again towards the horizon - by now the blue line of the ocean had sunk beneath the trees. Then she looked at the dark-colored wolf out of the corners of her eyes. "My name's Rahzie, by the way."

Rahzie seemed to be a woman of many words, contrasting Ptarmigan, at least in their meeting. The Endore was capable of loquaciousness herself, but this hybrid easily surpassed her for wordiness now. Her companion had been born and raised in some place called the Dawnlands, which must have been near this "ocean" thing Rahzie kept referring to. Ptarmigan saw no other need for that information to be given, otherwise. The gyrfalcon comment went mostly unanswered, although the slightest tweak of her brow betrayed her discontent.

“I haven't either,” she admitted. It was half true: surely she must not have seen an ocean before, seeing as she didn't even know what an ocean even was. She paused in her step to splay her paws, preventing herself from sliding, and shook her coat out. “I'm Ptarmigan,” and then, as sort of an afterthought, “I hate nicknames.”

The dark woman introduced herself as Ptarmigan, pausing to shake out her coat and then add that she disliked nicknames. Rahzie raised a brow slightly, thinking that was probably unfortunate for her as she had a longer name that most would attempt to shorten - which she knew all too well. "Good to know," Rahzie said with a nod. After a moment in thought, she spoke up again. "'Rahzie' is actually a nickname. My full name's Rahxethe, but that's harder to pronounce for a lot of wolves, so," Rahzie shrugged. She really didn't have a preference either way.

Rahzie continued down the mountain, silent for a brief moment. The screeching gyrfalcons were, albeit slowly, beginning to fade in the background as they descended through some sparse trees. "So..." She started to break the silence, turning her eyes over her shoulder to Ptarmigan. "Do you have any grand plans? Like, are you looking to join a pack or anything?"

“Huh,” exclaimed Ptarmigan. The coywolf's name was difficult to pronounce, so much so that the small Endore didn't even try, despite an initial temptation. Repeating such an exotic name would only result in humiliation, she thought.

They were nearing the foot of the mountain now, and the foliage was beginning to bunch into a proper forest, albeit a sparse one. “I haven't thought about it,” she confessed with a shrug. It was the same generic response she gave to everyone. She had decided that she wouldn't be joining a pack in this particular part of the Wilds, but beyond that, Ptarmigan planned very little for herself. When opportunity came knocking, she would weigh her options then.

“What about you? Anything or anyone caught your eye yet?” The draw of living in the Wilds, which were infested with wolves from what the pureblood had seen, was lost on her, but there was still the chance that Rahzie could give her some insight into its allure.

[size=x-small]ooc: this is going to make Ptarmigan's take over of OS a little interesting for Rahzie...[/size]

“I haven't thought about it,” Rahzie was a little internally disappointed with the answer. She was looking for something a little more interesting, something engaging. But she just nodded slowly as they arrived under a sparse tree cover. When Ptarmigan asked the same question of her, Rahzie hesitated a moment before speaking, wondering how much to tell her. She decided, as far as they were away from where she planned to end up, it couldn't hurt to tell this other woman.

"Well," Rahzie began, a hint of mischievousness in her voice. "I met this priestess who's planning on leaving her current pack and starting a new one in this territory she discovered." She paused for a moment. "I think I'm going to have to join her current pack, down in the Spine, until she's ready to leave." She thought of Mordecai. "Plus, there's this guy who also convinced me to join the Spine for a little while at least."

Ptarmigan could never have anticipated what Rahzie's plans were, so it came as even more of a shock when the hybrid admitted to throwing her lot in with a... Priestess. The Endore family was traditional enough that religion and magic were considered beneath them, and this held true for Ptarmigan as well. She didn't even think clerics were useful, and snarled at any wolf that attempted to spit leaves on her wounds, let alone the concept of a wolf who thought herself tied to a non-existent god.

“Ew,” she said unabashedly, “you're gonna follow some crazy bitch who believes in bologne?” The concept was repulsive to Ptarmigan. She silently vowed never to put herself beneath a wolf who was dumb enough to believe in gods and heresy. She required a leader who was grounded in reality, who had a strategic and intelligent mind unclouded by fantasies.

Though she expressed her distaste openly, the wolf nevertheless remained with the coywolf until they reached the huge lake, at which point the pair split and went their separate ways.