Dense mud puckered around the Lambda's sides as she wrestled her treasured spike back to the ground. A fine acquisition, it boasted four prongs and a strapping core -an impressive first set for whatever young buck had originally owned them. Fastening her teeth around the highest tine, Creidne pecked and chewed contentedly -quite proud of her ingenious little game.
Yet, she was not inclined to make the same mistake as yesterday, and so remained at least somewhat mindful of the receding evening light. After all, tomorrow would bring an end to her weekend behavior. The time had come for her to begin her professional tenure within Ouroboros Spine.
Still, deferment had its rewards and they were noted as they grey wolf rolled to her side -creating yet another dimple in the mud. Grappling the antlers between inept paws and her mouth, Creidne promised to dote only a little while longer.
Tyrande was fond of mud.
It was there, she could find fresh clay, or good bits of mud that can help keep her broken pots intact. She had come here to find such things when she heard the squish of fresh mud. Curious, the toxicologist decided to see whoever was making the racket.
It was there she saw the mud-splattered she-wolf, wrestling with what looked like a buck's horn. The sight honestly made Tyrande stop and stare for a moment, rather dumbfounded.
She had a brace of prey clamped in her jaws, ready to be placed in her den. While the pack was trying to set up a camp for them all where wolves could relax and get a bite to eat, she simply made a cache for herself in a pocket by her sleeping area. She planned to place stones in the crevice to protect the carcasses from decomposers, which she thought was a good defense.
The priestess grunted softly as her paw sunk in the ground. There was a squelch as she retrived her paw from the mud, and even more as she crossed the mud. Nearby she could hear more creatures moving about in the mud and as she kept walking, she saw two wolves, one of which looked familiar. Tyrande, along with another packmate, a gray female. The gray wolf was holding a buck's horn in her jaws and paws. Meldresi looked at the female with the same dumbfounded look as Tyrande. What in the name of Oblivion is she doing?
Jinx is making a brief appearance, maybe one or two posts before she runs off!
Her condition had worsened over night. She had been comprehensive when Creidne joined the pack, and though she'd been a little off during the pack hunt, she'd known what was going on. But the morning following the hunt saw Jinx in a totally new state, with bloodshot eyes and a strange anxiety she couldn't explain. In fact, she was so out of it that for the time, she forgot where she was, and
who she was.
She slunk through the territory on extreme alert, blinking whenever something weird happened in front of her. The constant sound of whizzing seemed to follow her everywhere, but there was nothing actually causing it. She passed by dozens of wolverines at one point, with one staring out with ghastly blue eyes. The rest were indistinguishable from one another. She pressed on through the forest, thoroughly frightened by these sounds and sights, and it did nothing but spike her natural paranoia.
When she found her pack mates, she was staring off into the distance, walking in a staggered and drunken line, until her gaze found Creidne. Cradled in the female's arms was an antler, but not just any antler. This antler was made entirely out of mouse corpses. The Alpha salivated heavily and began to sway her way toward Creidne with the intent of taking it for herself, slack-jawed and frightening to behold. She stared at the antler like it was the best prize in the world.
In the reality of her mind, the mice were singing to her, and she was transfixed.
I love how everybody else has been all aaaah rabies and Cree is just like bish gimme my s#@&
A series of irritable sounds came from the young DeForge when the rack accidentally slipped into her chest. At worst it was a moderate irritation, but still she made the effort to free herself and stand. It was only then that she noticed the first two members of her accumulated audience looking on from a relative distance.
Muddied, the female may have appeared less than admirable, but her expression was one of seriousness. What in the hell did they want? Snorting her next few breaths as she attempted to distinguish their scents from the pungent earth, she decided that they were both older females. Unimpressed, the apathetic Lambda lowered her head to lick her chest, but snapped up at the sound of another approach.
Jinx's footfalls made a small sucking sound in the mud as she came forward -intent. Following the line of the female's fixed eyes, Creidne recognized that the Alpha was obsessed with what was her's. Lowering her head as her ears flattened, an almost inaudible
grrrrrr slipped over her teeth. However, it was just as soon turned to a whine. It was hard as shit to decide how she felt about getting punked by Jinx.
Finally able to hush herself into silence, Creidne tried inference instead. Clasping her mouth to the opposite end of the antlers she attempted to wretch them away from the other's reach.
"Oh no..."
She watched as Jinx slowly waddled forward towards the antler-chewing wolf. It was obvious she wasn't going to give up her chew toy for anything. Despite being the alpha, Jinx was ill. Jinx was crazy. She was no longer the alpha Tyrande had grown to respect.
The toxicologist glanced at Meldresi. "We need to make sure that Jinx doesn't bite that wolf. If that disease spreads, we might as well kiss ourselves goodbye."
She slowly began to pad forward, and called out the the younger wolf. "You! Back away from Jinx, she's more dangerous than she looks! And I'm saying that not to offend you."
Her hackles raised slightly in fear when she saw the white queen trudging madly towards them, head swaying and mouth dripping saliva. Her mad orange eyes were fixed on the antler, and she was slowly approaching the horn with the intent of taking it. Meldresi's tongue clicked in disdain as the gray wolf held firmly onto the antler. Even if Jinx was sane you didn't deny what your alpha wanted. But since Jinx was mad now, she guessed it didn't matter.
Tyrande glanced at her with fear and worry in her eyes, instructing Meldresi to help her get the younger female away from Jinx. Tyrande called out to the wolf, attempting to persuade her to get away. "If she bites your or even gets her saliva on you, you'll be just as sick as her!" She knew this disease now, had seen its effects on wolves and other animals. It was not a plesant way to die, and she pitied Jinx. What a way to go.
She shook herself, flinging ropes of drool everywhere, but thankfully the other wolves would need to actually lick her drool or get it in an open wound to be affected by it. She, however, didn't know that. She continued her steady approach, slipping into a walk more capable of spreading her weight over the slick mud as though it was second nature. The mice were singing a more upbeat tune now, and the world seemed to bow and bend at the edges of her vision, temporarily distracting her.
Creidne's antler continued to be the most interesting thing that the Kesuk had ever seen, and she boldly pushed forward and closed her jaws around one end of it. The mice screamed, causing her ears to twitch uncertainly, but she still tightened her grip and gave a firm tug. She was met by firm resistance, which triggered some twisted instinct inside herself. They were playing a game, and the mice were cheering for Jinx.
Growling and readjusting her grip, the rabid Alpha pulled harder, wheezing through her nose and feeling her hide begin to shiver with the usual ticks of her condition. The females on the sideline were calling words out, but she couldn't understand them. They sounded like blurred, slow motion demands made in another language to her addled ears.
A wiser creature would never have allowed themselves so close to such imminent danger. However, Creidne was an obtuse individual -and a bullish one at that. So when Jinx finished her ominous advance the Lambda remained unflappable. Instead of conjuring a sense of fear, the ill leader only provoked all of the reasoning that had originally inspired Cree to leave home in the first place. She wanted to succeed, without the stigma of her kins' overwhelming religion. She wanted to sink her teeth and claws in the soil and thrive. Thus, she was unconvinced by the onlookers warnings, and instead held fast to the prize.
Starting to snarl again -albiet at a somewhat playful pitch, the wolf jerked herself back with force as her feet struggled for their footing. Waving her tail all the while, silvery ears swung back as her right eye aligned with Jinx's -lit with a happy fool's smile.
Tyrande's eyes widened in horror as she pressed on to a full sprint, attempting to bowl over Creidne, hopefully to jar the wolf's grasp away from the now tainted toy.
"You fool!" she screamed as she rammed into the side of the wolf. "Do you want to die?!"