Wolf RPG

If Ptarmigan had known she was entering a war zone, she might have turned the other way. She might have taken her troublesome self elsewhere, to trouble somebody else. She might even have sought out Viggo for a hunt that was more satisfactory than her usual failures. Anything would have been less dangerous than taunting a pack already on edge.

But Ptarmigan knew no such thing. The Endore female only knew that she was on the edge of some pack's territory, walking brazenly along their border. She had met wolves from this pack, it was true, but she hadn't really spared their allegiances much thought. Even if one of those wolves emerged from within the territory, she likely wouldn't regret her actions. Few things afforded Ptarmigan more amusement when she was between families than pissing off pack wolves did.

Sorry. Couldn’t help jumping in on this, mainly because WARDEN TRADE WANT and also YAY PTARMIGAN. Making this vague though, cos our other thread is still going.

Red was patrolling the borders as usual that day. The pseudo-war with Swiftcurrent Creek had put everyone on edge, so much so that the coywolf had not returned to her secret aspen forest in over a week. She missed it, but it was necessary to stay closer to home nowadays. One never knew when Swifcurrent might retaliate, so everyone needed to be vigilant. And so, when Red scented an unfamiliar wolf on the Sunspire’s borders, her hackles rose perhaps more than they usually would, and she snorted angrily. She had no patience to play with Fox and her minions today. No. Today, she would go for blood.

So when she bounded down the mountain at top speed and nearly barreled right into Ptarmigan, her adventuring partner from a while ago, she almost didn’t stop in time. Still, friend or not, the black-furred she-wolf was trespassing, and trespassers were to be dealt with the same way, no matter who they were.

Red crouched into a fighting stance, growling at the female. Her warning was obvious: “Get back, or I will move you myself.”

As she strode along the imaginary line between pack and outland, she thought of her old family. She wondered briefly whether or not Quail and Rodeo had continued their tradition of chasing out their yearling children, or whether Ptarmigan alone had been given that privilege. It made sense to keep them around, and it was what she intended to do if ever she had legitimate children.

She was broken out of her thoughts when a red-furred wolf descended from the pack's interior. Spurred by years of skirting pack lands, Ptarmigan hastily sidestepped away from the border proper, though she stayed in close vicinity. It wasn't until her hybrid friend drew nearer that she was recognized and greeted with a jovial wave of Ptarmigan's tail.

Something was different, though. Where Red had been so amiable before, even inviting the Endore to join her at the lake in the centre of the aspen forest, she was now stand-offish. It was almost as though Ptarmigan was doing something wrong (she was). “Chill,” she said as soothingly as she could, but it still came out sounding judgemental, even though judgement wasn't aimed at Red at all. “I'm not hurting anyone.”

I FINALLY GOT THIS TABLE TO WORK!

Red watched with some innate sense of satisfaction as Ptarmigan stepped away from the borderline, though it made her edgy when the she-wolf insisted on remaining extremely close by. The other’s words about chilling, and that she wasn’t hurting anyone didn’t mean much to Red. She was still trespassing. Well, she had been, at least. As long as the black wolf didn’t take another step forward, there was really nothing her lesser-bred cousin could do about it. Well, there was, but what was the point of getting into a fight with a wolf who was so obviously non-threatening? So, instead of worrying and snarling at her for no reason like an idiot, she decided to at least see what her pseudo-friend wanted.

Red decided to make herself comfortable first, and took a bit of time to find a sitting position that wouldn’t make her lean awkwardly forward on the uneven terrain. Then she turned her attention to Ptarmigan once again. Her ears went forward, her eyes widened a bit, and she gave a light chuff. which were all signals that meant, What are you doing here? What do you want?

To be perfectly honest, Red might not have been nearly as uptight had the Sunspire pack not had a recent run-in with Fox and a few of her wolves. But, of course, Ptarmigan didn’t know that, and it wasn’t the coywolf’s place to tell her. That was the Sunspire’s business. So, wordlessly — as usual — Red waited for the Endore’s response.

Red seemed to relax enough to allow Ptarmigan to ease herself, as well. Perhaps all was not lost to the line between lone wolves and pack wolves, and some semblance of a relationship could still be salvaged from it. Nevertheless, she was fixed with the coywolf's stare and a sharp reminder that they lived in different worlds entirely, with Ptarmigan possibly never settling down or maturing, while Red was coming into her own.

“I'm just wandering,” she responded to the Sunspire subordinate's unspoken question. It certainly didn't answer what she was doing lingering so dangerously close to a pack's borders, but that in and of itself was apparent. She was being a pain in the ass, plain and simple. She had been born a pain in the ass and her whole youth had been a pain in the ass, first for her parents and then for herself. She had had more than a few pains in her ass, and a few other places, if she was to acknowledge her single litter of (probably dead) children. It was time for her to be the pain again.

Wandering… The word made Red smile despite herself. So Ptarmigan was a wolf after her own heart. They were both wanderers. This made Red wonder why her friend was wandering in the first place. Sometimes those who wandered were looking for something. Sometimes they wandered simply to do it. Either way, the coywolf was curious. She herself was a wanderer by blood. Being half-Coyote meant being half-nomadic. Coyotes never truly settled in one place if they didn’t have to. Oftentimes they were constantly on the move, going from one place to the next, settling down only due to illness, starvation, or because there were pups in the family that were too young to wander yet.

So Red knew this urge well. It was why she made such a good Outrider. She could never stay in the Sunspire for long without feeling that familiar itch. Though recently, her wanderings had led her more and more to the same place: Emberwood. She wondered where she would wander to when she had her pack there. Her pack… That dream was still aways away. A pack… Perhaps that was what Ptarmigan wanted? A pack? Red had never smelled other wolves on her pelt, so she must have been a loner.

Taking a breath to steady herself — for she was about to speak — Red asked, Looking for a pack? We have room here.

She supposed, after giving it some thought, it would have been easy to misunderstand her intentions. Ptarmigan rarely told others outright that she was a lone wolf, and her reasons for it were as gossamer, thin and weightless. Perhaps the nearest thing she had to a real explanation was that she didn't feel she fit anywhere, having made valiant attempts before and having failed at them all. The closest she had come to normalcy was when she let herself fall to temptation and birthed two sons... But that illusion of a family life had shattered when she realized she would be killed for her treason, and so she had fled like a coward.

Here she stood now, just as much a coward as she had been that day, though in different ways. She, like many of her species, had a strong aversion to allowing harm to come to her. Conflict avoidance was branded in their blood as a species, for it allowed the stability of a pack and the success of a hunting party. Despite her constant trouble seeking on the borders of other packs, she never stuck around when things got heated. Even if she was a pack member, it was unlikely she would throw herself into a pack's conflict without a good reason to do it.

She preened her ears forward when Red suddenly spoke. “So you do have a voice,” she said, awed that the other could exist in silence without feeling alienated. Then again, Magpie must have had the same philosophy, for Ptarmigan clearly remembered being told the yearling didn't speak to those who weren't worth it. “No, not yet, friend. I have more miles to cover. But soon I will seek one. Maybe then, it will be yours I seek.”

Hi. I don’t like this post at all and feel like it’s crap and I could have done better, probably because I wrote it while half asleep because I only needed one more post to hit 100. I hope it’s okay. >.< Going to take a nap now…

”So you do have a voice,” Ptarmigan said, and Red smiled. She knew she did not speak very often, and that that might cause others to have some confusion about why. There a pause after this, one which the coywolf did not break with more words, or even body language. It looked like her friend was thinking, and she wouldn’t be the one to interrupt her. Then the black she-wolf finally told her that she was not, in fact, looking for a pack. At least not yet. Red allowed a small smile to grace her lips once more when her friend suggested that perhaps they would be of the same pack in the distant future. The coywolf liked that idea.

After this one-sided conversation was exchanged, Red was content to sit and feel the breeze and say nothing. As previously established, Ptarmigan presented no threat, and so Red need not have worried. However, she could not in good conscience leave the border unprotected while there was another wolf so close-by. And because she didn’t speak, the two were going to be left in a lull, unless the Endore had anything more to say. Either way, Red didn’t mind. She had gotten used to her own silence, and the silence of others. She had also gotten used to those who wished to talk because the silence made them uncomfortable. It was not the coywolf’s place to tell someone else not to speak — nor would she want to tell them this. If they wanted to talk, then so be it, as long as they didn’t drag Red into it.

They lapsed into comfortable silence. Ptarmigan had never really been the sort of wolf to push a conversation when it wasn't there, and that held true here. Rather than seeking another topic to discuss with the normally silent hybrid, she flopped down in the grass and stretched her legs out. With a wide yawn, she laid her head down with one eye trained curiously on the border guard. There was no doubt whatsoever that Ptarmigan was testing Red's patience and tolerance... Though it was done mostly as a game, and not out of some ill will for the other wolf.

Should the coywolf make a move toward her, or depart, then Ptarmigan would leave the borders of the Sunspire. Her trouble making could wait until another time when she wasn't toying with the possibility of losing a friend in the midst of her ridiculousness.

Had Red been able to hear Ptarmigan’s thoughts, she would have corrected the wolf. She was not, in fact, bothering the hybrid at all. It was hot today, and as long as her friend was here, Red could not simply walk away from the border. But she didn’t care, as it gave her an excuse to relax a little. As long as the she-wolf stayed exactly as far away from the border as she was in that moment, there was nothing to care about. She wasn’t one Fox’s dogs and she wasn’t being hostile. So Red did the only logical thing: she laid down across from her.

This reminded the coywolf of their adventure together in Emberwood. That had been fun. Red allowed her tongue to loll out of her mouth and pant to keep her temperature down on this hot summer day. She longed for the lake at the aspen forest. As she let her mind wander, she scratched aimlessly at an itch on her side and sneezed as dust entered her nose. Other than that, nothing much happened. Mainly, she was just waiting for the other to make her leave, but didn’t really care enough to actually tell her to get lost.

Silence remained. At length, Ptarmigan grew bored of it, even with the occasional shifting of Red and the startling introduction of a sneeze into their unwritten symphony. The pair simply had little to say, and for as long as the lone female persisted on the borders, she suspected the hybrid would persist on her. In another time and place, she might have made great strides in coaxing Red to chase her by threatening the borders more readily, but today, her friendship won out.

“Welp,” she yawned as last, standing and stretching exaggeratedly to give Red ample time to say something if she wished to, “best be hittin' the road. Watch yourself, packs can be dirty.” Though the specifics of Ptarmigan's reference to her forced dispersal in her youth were hazy due to omission of said past, it was one of the better pieces of advice she had ever given. If nothing else, the Endore could speak for watching one's back in a pack, even one composed of family. With that last warning, she turned and began to lope away, thankfully not in the direction of Swiftcurrent Creek.

Red watched her friend leave, wondering what her warning might meant. Of course, she was having trouble. With Ferdie, specifically. She shook her head. She needed to get back to patrolling. She stayed long enough to watch Ptarmigan walk out of sight and then continued on her way. She wondered if she’d ever see the Endore again. Ptarmigan seemed like someone who didn’t really keep friends, probably because she forgot about you after meeting you. Of course, Red was just speculating. She had no idea how her black-furred friend thought.

No matter. If they met later on, then they met later on. If not, then oh well. Red had plenty of other things to worry about. With a last glance behind her, she began climbing the Sunspire once more.

Ptarmigan

Red Wolf

Ptarmigan

Red Wolf

Ptarmigan

Red Wolf

Ptarmigan

Red Wolf

Ptarmigan

Red Wolf

Ptarmigan

Red Wolf