Fox had said a quick goodbye to Peregrine before heading out for the day. He was often interacting with his children (not to mention Lasher), and Fox did not wish to intrude. If she could have had her way, she would have him all to herself, but the girl knew that was unrealistic. Besides, there were plenty of wolves here that she had yet to meet, and she was eager to show them that she was meant for leadership. To them, she was untested and new, but Fox had spent nearly half a year at the head of the creek, and she had done them well (in her eyes).
In a small, sunny clearing, Fox peered about herself to see if there was anything out of place visually. Concluding that there was not, she moved forward through the elbow-high grasses and toward the wooded area on the other side. She had gotten almost all the way across when a rabbit decided to notice her and went darting off into the forest. Startled, Fox jumped backward, but calmed herself once she realized it was nothing more than a bunny.
*is incapable of just having a character walk into a thread and say hi* Sorry for the length. I don't.. um.... I don't know >______>;;;;;
How long had she been chasing this thing? It certainly seemed like it had been all morning. For as many wily tricks the sterling-pelted Blackthorn tried, the little red fox seemed to constantly be five steps ahead of her. For a while, that had been part of the fun. But now that the morning was waning into afternoon and Finley's belly was uncomfortably empty, the game was getting extremely old.
Fin suppressed a snarl as she crouched down amongst the roots of a gnarled old tree, her eyes narrowed in frustration as she watched the fox. It was sitting upon a fallen log near the edge of the woods, licking a paw and flicking the tip of its tail like it didn't have a care in the world. It knew she was there... The god damn critter knew it, but still it flaunted the fact that it hadn't been caught yet, sitting there like it had nothing else to do in the world besides just keep on living and not being dead in Finley's stomach. Good god, she hated that thing so. much.
Even though Fin knew that it knew she was there, she bided her time before striking nevertheless. A sound outside in the clearing startled it and drew its attention for a second. Wordlessly praising god for the rabbit that broke cover, Fin took off in a flash of silver. The fox didn't even turn to look at her, simply leaped off of its perch and darted out of the woods into the clearing beyond with the epsilon in fast pursuit. In only a moment, she was on its heels with a red and white tail flashing so deliciously close. A few more feet, another burst of speed, she had it, she had it now..!"
Without warning, the fox disappeared before her very eyes. Fin hardly had time to yelp in surprise before she felt the ground beneath her feet disappear and suddenly she was flying over the tiny creek she had been too close to victory to notice they were approaching. Fin made a crash landing on the other side of the stream in a tangle of limbs and grass and dirt and most of all, no fox. Fin groaned as she clambered back to her feet, grimacing from different places on her body where she knew she'd find bruises later. She turned then to see what she had tripped on and saw the two foot drop off that led down to the creek. There it sat, on the opposite side of the creek from her, licking its paw and flicking its tail, eyes dancing with amusement as it watched her casually.
"You fucking piece of.. FUCK!" Fin spat at the little bastard as it giggled and pranced away. She stared angrily after it for a moment, contemplating pursuit when suddenly her senses caught onto the presence of another wolf. Surprised, the Blackthorn twisted her head until she spotted Peregrine's recently revealed lover standing not too far from where she had burst from the forest. In a second, all irritation and rage was gone and a happy smile took the place of the I-want-you-dead-and-bloody glare that had been there moments before.
"Hey! Fox!" Finley called out, pausing for a moment to ponder before adding, "These things I assume you're named after suck!"
It's good to be writing with you again! I miss Syntax+Dhani threads. (YOU DID PLAY HIM, RITE?) ;-;
A rustling of the foliage, followed by a rather loud slur of curse words, caused Fox to tilt her head in the direction of the noise. It was one of the wolves that had been at the meeting prior (or so Fox thought; she'd never been good with remembering folks). The Beta did not know her name, where she was from, or any little detail about her. Clueless was the best word to describe her thoughts on the other girl, although she could certainly write down her first impression as "amusing."
“Aye,” she replied,
“They’re little bastards who can’t be trusted.” Fox could relate to that in more ways than one.
“I’ve never eaten one, but I imagine they’d be sour anyway.” Besides, it just seemed so very
wrong to eat the very animal that was her namesake. There was plenty of easier prey to catch, and Fox enjoyed the taste of rabbit. It was a shame she no longer lived in a place with plentiful fish, for she'd grown quite used to the taste.
I did! I did! ^_^ I miss being your brother ;-; That's not a weird thing to say, right?
The cinnamon-coated beta seemed amiable enough as she responded to her packmate's comments. Fin remembered first seeing her at the pack hunt and the flare of jealousy and betrayal that had felt like a thick leather strap tightening around her chest. Looking back on it now, betrayal was rather a strong word for it... It was more just... irritating.. bothersome, that Peregrine had brought such an attractive young piece of woman to the pack when being attractive and young was Fin's job. Fin's. Not this little... tart's.
Fin blinked the thoughts away and brought her mind back to the present. "They're actually not all that bad," she said in reply as she clambered back onto all fours, "A little stringy and.. gamey... Definitely not enough meat on their bones. But they have redeeming qualities."
Fin eyed her new leader for a moment. Part of her wanted to play the icy bitch card and find a way to out-hot the hot girl. Luckily for both of them, she was having one of her rare mature(ish) days and decided that it was better to give the woman a chance. After all, she doubted very many of her other packmates were doing the same.
"How are you adjusting?" she asked with a friendly wag of her tail.
You could be Viggo's brother. :o
Fox grimaced at the thought, but didn't comment further. It would have been like eating another creature named "Finley" for the girl standing in front of her. Fox made no mention of it, and she instead listened as the girl asked her a question about how she was settling in. It was not the first time somebody had asked, nor did Fox think it would be the last, but she knew that being polite and answering their questions was the quickest (and easiest) way to win their loyalty.
“Well enough,” Fox replied,
“I’ve run into more familiar faces than I expected.” Rina and Finn were among them, along with Lasher. Pausing to scratch an itch, Fox returned her attention to the girl who stood before her.
“What’s your name?” she asked. She couldn't remember her from the meeting, nor could she recall Peregrine pointing her out.
Don't you tempt me! I'm already playing Viggo's.......... great cousin? My BF and I seriously had a ten minute conversation about what Summer x Viggo's relation to each other is, which led to us looking up "great cousin" on google. The definition is a complete brain murderer.
The Blackthorn couldn't help herself as she contemptuously watched her beta roll her words around in her mind. It served her right for being hotter than her. The good thing was, that was about all the vengeance the Blackthorn needed to satisfy her bitterness.
"Finley," she responded with a smile, "Finley Blackthorn." She lifted a paw to her muzzle and ran her tongue along it a few times. There wasn't really any reason for it. Really, it was only because I felt like I needed a few more sentences in this post and my creativity is NOT my bff right now.
"Do you like doing stupid things?" she asked. It would probably seem random to others, but it was a very important question to Finley. If this wolf only liked to do things like.. have conversations and.... look out for others, than she was not the type of wolf Fin wanted to have leading her.
Teehee. I was actually playing around with my huge WWS/Wolf family tree a little bit ago...
Finley Blackthorn. Fox thought to make a joke about Finn, but she decided against it. It'd probably already been done before, and she didn't want to seem like
that kind of girl. Besides, Finley was already on her way to asking another, seemingly odd, question.
“Stupid things?” she asked, furrowing her brow,
“Generally, I try and stay away from them, as it makes others distrust me, but I’ve been known to do a few stupid things in my time.” Fox wondered if that made her sound ancient. She was only halfway through her second year, but there were times when the young leader felt like she had lived a few lifetimes already.
“Why do you ask?” she inquired, curious as to why her new pack-mate would want to know such a thing. Maybe she was convinced Fox was about to do something particularly "stupid." Then again, "stupid" was really in the eye of the beholder, wasn't it?
O_O Is this tree somewhere accessible to the public where I might gawk at it??
Fin had learned from her run-in with Hawkeye that you never really could tell what a wolf's hobbies were just from gauging their sense of humor. The woman had been witty enough, but was quick to express a very negative view on the sort of pastimes that Finley very much enjoyed. So, she was quick to pose the question to Fox since clearly there was no point in trying to get to know her and then asking.
Fox's comment really did make her sound ancient to the young Blackthorn, but she kept that comment locked safely away on the back of her tongue. Fin was confident in her assessment that the woman was at least younger than her, though older than.. well, puppies, I guess. Old enough to have led a pack in the past, which wasn't saying much to the wolf who didn't pay much attention to such things. Fin tried to keep an open mind about her, regardless of the thoughts that seemed to determined to clog it. She was used to others surprising her.
"I dunno," Fin responded, turning her gaze down to the ground which she was pawing almost coyly. Truth be told, there was another reason for the little game she was playing, and it may or may not have had something to do with Fin's desire to see if she could succeed in getting this pristine little vixen's paws a little dirty.
"There's... kind of this guy in the pack that I have a little thing for..." the trickster started slowly, "Don't ask who! I'm too embarrassed. But anyway, he's been talking about how he really likes to eat bats, but he can never catch any because they live so deep in these caves and it's really dangerous trying to get to them. So... I've kinda been on the lookout for someone who'll go catch some with me......"
Fin shifted her sweet brown eyes onto her beta's face, biting her bottom lip as she awaited the woman's response. I don't think I need to explain that there was no guy, and if there was, Fin was not the type of girl to run off making a man's dreams come true. If she wasn't the only thing he ever dreamed of, then she had no time for that fool. All she wanted was to see if this fair damsel would be willing to go cave diving with her. And she was clever enough to know that blaming idiotic whims on emphatuation was typically the way to go when the goal was to play on the sympathies of other women.
“Bats?” Fox echoed when Finley explained her intentions to hunt the winged mammals down. She didn't know much about the strange creatures except that they flew around far above her head and only came out when the sun went down. They made odd noises, too. Beyond that, Fox knew little of the creatures. To be quite honest, she did not even know what they ate. Or if they were safe to eat. She'd try it, of course, especially if she saw somebody else do it first.
“That doesn’t seem that stupid,” Fox replied with a wag of her tail.
“I don’t think I’ve ever known a time when hunting was stupid.” Unless, of course, Finley planned on hunting cougars. That probably was a stupid idea. But bats were small, and as far as Fox knew, harmless.
Oooooh! New toy! *playplays*
She was rather surprised when Fox accepted her story without question, and even sort of seemed like she'd be perfectly okay with going on this little trip with her. What was going on? It wasn't usually this easy. Good lord, even when she was screaming in that one dude's face about how he was about to die, the guy had still mixed in a little suspicion with the panic.
But, whatever. Fin had found a cave-diving buddy. A bashful smile slipped across her muzzle and she turned her gaze down to her paws for a moment. "So you'll go with me? To hunt bats? In the cave? Where they live? All the way to where they live? In the cave?" she asked as she looked back at her new beta, making her eyes as sweet and round with innocence as she possibly could.
“Sure, why not?” Fox replied, “Just come and find me when you want to go.” Of course, Fox was assuming that Finley wasn't planning on going right now, but she could have just as easily been wrong about that. What better way to bond with her new pack-mates than go on an adventure with them?
“Where is this cave, exactly?” she pondered aloud. Would it be a day's trek? Longer? Fox certainly hoped it would not be too far away from the plateau, but she was willing to go a little further away if it meant getting along better with Finley. Fox was making a solid attempt at making her new minions subordinates comfortable with her presence.
You can post a final thing, or just archive it. :D
That didn't sound too bad. If anything, it would be good for Fox to get out of the plateau every now and then. She knew for a fact that Peregrine could rarely be found outside the borders, so surely
somebody needed to go make sure there weren't hobgoblins hanging around just outside their reach.
With some tentative plans in their future, Fox felt like she had some sort of future connection with Finley, even if it wasn't an immediate one. A sudden longing for Peregrine washed over the young leader, and she glanced behind herself, as if she expected him to be there. When he was not, she turned back to Finley.
“Let’s plan it for a month or so down the road. Once I’ve gotten settled and everything.” That wasn't
too far off, but close enough for Fox not to forget.
“You can come find me… or I’ll come find you.” With a step forward, Fox nudged her future traveling companion on the shoulder and then headed off to find Peregrine.