Wolf RPG

She still sees it. No. . .still smells it. Even above the acrid fear, the iron-rich scent of her baby boy's blood. The pungent reek of dogs. She's blocked the sights from her mind; she couldn't have continued on if she had not. 

But the smell remains. 

Tupkuk doesn't know these canines from any other. They may as well be the ones that tore apart her only living son. To her, they are all the same, anyway. Savage, lawless. And now they flaunt their mountain claim, and, well. . .

The world shall see who is mighty, when the dust settles. For she is built of stronger things than they, and more than that: she is spurred on by a mother's grief, a quest for vengeance. If she was a force to be reckoned with before, she is practically a juggernaut, now. 

And watch them come, watch them try. She lumbers up the alpine slope, conserving her energy for the battle ahead, heedless of their pathetic borders. Just for good measure, she urinates along the way, covering their stench with her own.

If she didn't see it, she was bound to smell it.  The bear had made damn sure of that.  Kiwi's hackles rose, and as soon as she had trailed it a few lengths and seen where it's path lay, she unleashed a massive warning howl.  This would be a test, and a highly dangerous one at that.  

Likely @Dacio and his wolves would hear her, though whether they joined or not was their choice.  She intended to push it regardless, either back or out, to the nearest border.  She would not share her mountain with anything, not even a bear.

While Yami wanted to be known as an epic fighter and brilliant warrior, she wasn't particularly eager to actually get involved in any violence. She mostly just wanted to be capable without ever having to put her capabilities to practical use. It wasn't that she was a coward, per se. She merely considered keeping herself safe and unharmed to be a fairly high priority. Indeed, much higher a priority than caring for anyone else.

That's why she didn't immediately go running in when Kiwi called. She kind of hesitated. It sounded like there was some real dangerous shit going on and Kiwi hadn't spent nearly enough time training her to allow her to feel ready to just dive right in. When she arrived and saw what they were up against, she was even more reluctant to get involved, and so she was heavily considering sneaking away again another wolf arrived. A boy wolf. A super handsome boy wolf.

Well. Okay. Maybe this could be worth it.

Yami strode purposefully towards where she Kiwi and the stranger(s?) had gathered, shoving her nerves down and allowing confidence to shine past it. She pointedly ignored the handsome boy because now was obviously the time to start playing hard to get and looked at Kiwi with a mischievous little smirk, "A new sparring partner arrives?" 

She might die today.

Her fur rose at the mere suggestion of a warning howl like that one. Opalia didn't like where it came from--too close to home. She definitely didn't care to hear from the caller sending up the alarm like that, either, and a part of her thought to scoff bitterly. Couldn't Kiwi handle it herself from her little mountain?

But, there was that rough truce of theirs to consider, and their homes were awfully close. She felt like she should at least investigate something so.. well, alarming. This was enough to get her paws moving away from her work marking their grotto's territories, and towards the peak--slow at first but the yearling steadily picked up speed. When she smelled Dacio headed off this way too, that really got her moving.

Opalia arrived not too long after her brother, maybe a few moments or so, and slipped her way towards his side first--her best vantage point until she had a better feel for this situation, most likely. She was very telling in that her guards were already thrown up massively, looking prickly, wary, and ready to launch. Her nose burned, and looking at Kiwi never put her in a particularly pleasant mood, so that didn't help with the reek of literal danger on the wind. She couldn't complain about the earthy-shaded wolf yet, so that was that, but she could not say she liked any of this--except the chance at a fight.

One by one, they come -- and oh, they are young. Barely old enough to be off the teat, in her view; even outnumbered, she has no fear. This will be an easy fight. 

Many bears might blunder right on past until provoked. Not Tupkuk. Her dark eyes fix on the russet girl, the one who cried out. She gives the dog a long stare filled with an intense hatred. 

Then she begins to barrel forward, a roar rumbling in her throat, her long claws and razor teeth with dead aim on the yearling wolf.

Kiwi grinned back at Yami and nodded, her tail snapping surely as she watched the others come.  Inwardly she was taught, nervous and excited, a string about to snap.  Dacio's presence didn't bolster her in quite the same way as Yami, but it did bring a competitiveness to this.  She needed to represent herself well here. (Opalia's presence? Perhaps a little moreso).

She would never admit it, but it was good that Dacio and Opalia had come, because without them this match would likely have been certain death. With them to bolster the numbers, at least they might have a shot at the bear.

Because as they drew close, that was obviously what it was.  It was massive and Kiwi's fur spiked as she snarled.  It focused on her and charged, and immediately she went back to lessons with Artaax.  To fight something bigger, speed and brains.

She dodged left, then sprang, hoping to catch the creature's upper right leg in her jaws.  This was not a situation to latch and hold.... she would tear and leap back, attempting to remain out of range as much as possible.  

​Huh... You know, bears kinda got bigger the nearer they came nearer to you. Especially when they were real murderous-looking and running full speed. Why hadn't anyone told her that? Yami glanced anxious at Kiwi as the beast began to charge, looking for a cue as to what she ought to do. Her friend merely braced herself, so she did too. But she unfortunately didn't manage to spot it in time when Kiwi dodged seeing as she did it so fast and at the last moment, so Yami just braced, and thus was bashed by a shoulder and slammed to the ground after doing absolutely nothing to prevent or defend against it.

Apparently Kiwi needed to spend more time with her on her warrior training. Yami attempted to relocate the ground beneath her while bodies moved and roars sounded arounded her. Hopefully the bear was distracted because she was seeing stars as she tried to stand again. There was a lot of movement now, and while she knew she ought to do something useful like.. attack, she needed a minute to even locate the bear out of the blurred mass of differently colored fur.

In barely a heartbeat, it was on. The bear charged for the four of them with concerning malice, aiming mainly for Kiwi it seemed. Wordlessly, Opalia sprung into motion when it neared. Most of all, she tried to key into her brother's movements, and mirror them when she should, and compliment when she could--she already assumed they were the most experienced out of the mismatched group assembled since she didn't think highly enough of Kiwi and her tagalong, however, a bear was not a foe they knew best how to handle firsthand.

But she did know bigger opponents, and ones far more experienced than her. When in doubt, she decided this might be like that, only scaled up to eleven, with the claws much more dangerous, and the hide much thicker.. and there was about to be time to learn about that firsthand.

When the forces met, she saw Kiwi aiming for a front leg and she went wide towards the side her brother did not approach but kept going to approach from the rear. The tan wolf didn't fare well, but by then, Opalia was committed to her own charge for the bear's hindleg-haunch area so she didn't see the details of it play out really. Either way, she focused on trying to bite past the dense fur down to the flesh--yet, she knew better than to stay too close, and swung back to do it again from behind, just somewhere slightly different if she could.

Katora kicked herself for straying so far from her Alpha.  As the call came to her, she was just finishing off the remains of a squirrel.  

She turned and ran, ran like she hadn't run in so long.  Her endurance had gone down some and she found herself panting nicely by the time she reached her new Alpha.  She could smell the danger long before she reached her,however.  The stench of angry bear wasn't one she was foreign to.  There were many bears up north and any lone wolf was a fool to tangle with one. 

As she neared she could also smell the other wolves, new wolves.  She'd never met any of them before.  She could tell they didn't know each other well either.  It seemed her brand new loyalties were going to be put to the test far sooner than she'd anticipated.  

Oh well, Katora thought.  If I'm going to die today then I'll get to rejoin my family.  She didn't wish for death anymore but it was certainly a thought that kept her fear of the oncoming battle at bay.  

She saw her new Alpha lung for the bear's front foot, saw it knock over the other young wolf.  This was already off to a not great start.  

Katora followed the lead of the other wolves and ran around to the bear's back legs.  Katora knew where her strength was and it was not in speed.  She hoped she could weigh the back leg down enough to slow the bear.  Katora attempted to sink her fangs into the massive back haunch.  She snarled loudly, hoping that would distract the massive creature if nothing else worked.

The little red girl manages to avoid her wrath, but not her silvery friend, who Tupkuk shoulders away with a roar. Then she feels many teeth mar her flesh and groans, whirling, standing atop her hind legs and trying to shake the dogs loose. Another appears, charging into the fray.

One of them, the cream-colored girl, moves to slip behind her—a sneak attack. The bear will not have it. She swings a paw wide, hoping to smack a couple of wolves near her legs, and with a rattling snarl, turns again and comes down toward @Opalia. If her aim is true, she'll come down upon the girl with crushing, long-clawed paws and an open, drooling maw.

Rivulets of blood darken her brown coat: sleek, deep crimson marks of glory in battle.

 

The bear lunged with a sweeping blow, but Kiwi had already let go and was backing off, searching for another in.  This was not a creature she was going to try to go toe to toe with.  She knew the instant it caught her, it could kill her with a single snap of those powerful jaws.  Her only defense here was wits and speed, and she used both as she darted in, this time a little behind, aiming for the bear's haunch.  Her goal was to make it realize the price of this fight was not worth staying.  Killing it wasn't on her list.

Yami wasn't faring well, but Kiwi didn't have the attention to spare aside from the thought that if they survived this, they'd need to train.  Fighting a wolf was easier in some ways than fighting a bear, but harder in others.  Bears were big and strong but tended to be slow, with movements easy to track.  Wolves were faster and harder to gauge, and if they were going to have any chance, her pack needed to be up to par.  Katora at least seemed able to handle herself.  She only had time for that one sentiment, though, before she was entirely focused again on their adversary.

It took Yami an extra few seconds and a hard shake of her head before she her vision began to focus again. She didn't wait for it all to become clear, though, before she was on her paws moving. The wolves had surrounded the bear now, but it was Kiwi she found and took her cues from now. Kiwi wasn't going with the direct approach anymore, but dodging and harrassing it. Yami did the same, leaping in towards the bear's flank and giving it a hard nip before twisting away from any swiping claws. She turned back in the moment she could, though, ready to do this as many times as it took to drive the bear away from their territory and her packmates.

Up close, she didn't have the time to be daunted by the beast as its voice made into groans and bellows was unlike anything she had heard or felt so up close. The vantage of her approach gained her some headway while the others went to work too, but she wasn't left alone to do her damages undisturbed for long--the bear caught well onto her, and with a haunting snarl, came for towards her with a mighty tidal wave of muscles and force. Opalia let the fear run its course, and knew her eyes couldn't get any bigger as all she could do was scream at her every fiber to get away.

But, with such a great mass literally bearing down on her, the room for such was few and she was forced to duck in closer to the onslaught just to try to get away from the worst of it--hopefully! On her way, she still felt claws hook her flesh on her lower back, and her maneuver to finish avoiding it pulled it towards her hips.. but she wrenched away--maybe before they could do her any worse and really send her pitching into the dirt, where the teeth could follow to finish the job and snuff her out right there. She didn't make time to consider those possibilities, either.

As she went scrambling out of reach, Opalia lost her balance anyway--but it was on her retreat and although the recovery was not graceful, she was thankfully still there to make it. When she found her feet again and felt her heart racing like nothing else, she whipped her hip around behind herself, and didn't take the time to even look at the smarting stings left behind. Later. Right now, her thoughts swam and she had to size up the bear again above the din of it all; they had to make it leave, somehow, and persistence was their best bet at this point when it seemed like everything they did cost them back in return. But, she lunged back in closer to her brother's efforts, aiming to assist.

Together, with tooth, claw, fury, and guts alike, they did what they had to do to ward off this foe. Not without consequence of their own, the wolves were determined to chase this foe from their sights, and until the bear was done with their torment here, so it would remain.