bang bang -jessie j, ariana grande, nicky minaj
for any of the new members , come show your faces<3
It was true.
After the storm there was always a rainbow. Even if what had happened had been more like a hurricane in Cara's mind, she was now happy to say that the dark coulds looming over the Spine had been cleared. Slowly they had picked up the broken glass, each of them getting their fair share of cuts as they did so. The four-member pack had now doubled its size and though even if the Frost Queen had not exchanged more than names with them, she trusted (as much as it irked her) Mordecai's jugement for choosing them.
Cara had been more focused on tending the borders, and keeping track of the elk herd Mordecai and her had managed to chase into the territory. But today that would change. Following her nose, the pale Alpha began to trail behind any unfamiliar scent that crossed her path, sooner or later she'd have to encounter one of the newbies.
She didn't know what Mordecai had told them, but today they'd get the full welcoming speech along with their task list, given by the Queen herself.
There were no more free rides, Winter was near and they needed everyone to move around.
*rolls in* :D
Curiosity for the one who called herself "Queen" was something Harlyn had found herself plagued with since arriving at the Spine. She had not yet met too many of her new packmates save for Mordecai who had so graciously welcomed her into their home, but now that she had settled in to her new stomping grounds, she was eager to set about shedding the anti-social rep she had likely gained after so many days of keeping to herself. And there was none other in her mind that she wanted to start with than her other alpha.
As luck would have it, it didn't take long for Harlyn to find the woman after setting out. The Cinderloch had again trusted the curves of the land to take her paws where they needed to go; for intuition to guide her instead of truly putting forth the effort to search. And again she was rewarded for her faith as she rounded a bend and set her gaze upon the snowy queen herself. Little did she realize that Cara had already been on her trail and really that was more to credit for their coming upon each other than Harlyn's "faith".
"Hello," the Cinderloch said as a smile curved her lips. She bowed her head respectfully, following all of the expected protocol for a lower ranked wolf greeting their superior. She kept her gaze upon the woman's paws despite her desire to look fully upon her, only lifting them again when she received the subtle signal from her alpha that the ritual was over.
<3
The Queen carried herself with a striking elegance that bordered the line of arrogance, she kept her neck perfectly stretched and her tail waving high. She soon found her little treasure before her paws, an amber-eyed female who had 'newbie' written all over her forehead popped onto her path. Cara was glad she didn't have to play cat and mouse with the new recruits for too long.
She was more than pleased when the female lowered her muzzle in a graceful dip. The fact that they had found wolves who respected the royal protocol was gratifying for the young Alpha. She had never had to deal with cocky subordinates(except Mordecai at the time) but she did not wish to start now.
"Hello to you, dear.. " she barked in her most formal voice, making a little gesture for the female to introduce herself first.
The greeting she received was a genial one, albeit rather formal. It was a tone that reminded her of the pack she'd been born in, which made her feel all the more at ease. Harlyn had always accepted her place within the pack with grace, only reaching out to climb when the correct opportunities presented themselves. She was not one to bully and force herself up the ladder, although she certainly was not above asserting herself and making the less dominant stand aside.
"And to you," the dark woman responded with a nod and a smile, "I'm Harlyn. Am I right that you are Cara...?"
A brief flutter of butterflies flooded her chest as the female pronounced her name so naturally, she assumed Mordecai had spoken about her when he accepted the rusty female into the ranks. Now, wheter he had spoken badly of her was still unknown, while the female's face did not portrey worry it didn't show much, aside from her corteous smile Cara had no way of reading the female.
Feeling like a true celebrity, the Spine Queen nodded slightly whilst parting her lips to reveal a saisfied smile. "In the flesh" she barked with a small gesture of her tail, the thought of having loyal followers again excited her. Vectra was long gone and Keith.. well he was off her map now.
Harlyn's recognition of the queen seemed to please her, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the highly observant female. She noticed the slight change in the girl's posture, the slight raise of her head and the satisfaction of her smile. Harlyn returned that smile, pleased in herself for doing something that had encouraged it. She reserved making any judgement upon the young royal, but that didn't mean she didn't know the value of the girl having a high opinion of her.
Cara's response elicited a small laugh from the Cinderloch. "I thought so," she responded, "You have a proud, stately nature about you that only an alpha would carry." Not entirely true, since Mordecai was example himself that not all alphas carried themselves with pride. Some, like he, simply carried themselves with power.
The shower of praise was not yet over, the sublte words of adoration for her and the title she wore on her head made the pale yearling only lift her head higher. She was a vain creature that fed of the praise and admiration of others. Narcissitic you may call it, Cara would simply shrug it off.
"Aren't you a dear!" she exclaimed at last, waving her tail over her back in a joyful yet dominant manner, "Harlyn darlin' if all wolves could be like you my life would be much simpler" she barked, amused at her own cleverness with the wordplay of the female's name.
"Did you already get a tour?" she asked then, tilting her head slightly as she waited for her response. If she hadn't then the Spine Queen would be more than eager to show her the wonders her beloved Queen,Jinx, had once shown her.
Harlyn smiled pleasantly, thoroughly pleased by the clearly narcissistic girl's delight at her subtle compliments. Inwardly, she made her judgements--that this one was too young, too self-centered and too easily swayed by the opinions of others to be in her position. Harlyn's respect for her was quick to drop, but not even the tiniest bit of that was apparent by the way she regarded the girl. An alpha she may have been by only techicality, but that was enough to keep Harlyn in her place, as little pleased she was to become about it.
"Mordecai showed me a few sights, but not too many," she replied, "He left me to explore much on my own." Harlyn cleverly and subtlely allowed a hint of displeasure to glance in her tone, hoping to use it to lure out this so-called queen's opinion of her "king".
What the other female thought of her was not important to her in reality, as long as she kept greeting her with kind words Cara was fine. Her judgements would not be somthing that would move the yearling's heart -- they were unspoken criticism that would not wake any emotion in the female unless they turned into spoken words. Then they would have a problem.
So now, as her judgemental comments slid down her pelt like raindrops in a storm the young Queen poised her eyes upon the other's face, indulging her friendly expressions like a gift that had been ripped off her hands not so long ago. Vectra had been her only friend, and would probably continue to be that way considering the cheeky female that was adorning her with praise was silently judging her on the inside.
"Ah", she barked simply, wondering if the man had even thought of filling the newcomer's head with vile lies about her. Though they had not had any altercation (yet) she was unsure what he would be capable of.
"It's a beautiful place isn't it" she mused aloud, trying to get the conversation to flow elsewhere, "Who else have you met, Harlyn?" she asked then reviewing in her mind the possible faces there where to encounter at the Spine.
Sitri, the quiet beast that had grown tired of being opressed.
Kaname, the mysterious man that swimmed through the shadows of the Spine (and her heart)
Cara did not divulge much that could lend itself to encourage any assumptions. Thus, Harlyn remained in the dark about what the relationship between she and Mordecai truly was. That was alright, though. She'd figure it out eventually.
"It truly is," Harlyn replied quite honestly. She was captivated by this forest of theirs. "I've met you, Mordecai, and a fellow named Sitri," she said next, her expression turning thoughtful, "Forgive me for asking... But what is his story? He seems... different."
Mordecai was not the topic in question and if she could help it wouldn't be. She had no reason to discuss such matters with anyone other that Mordacai-- and her so loyal companion Kaname. Aside from them, (or just Kaname really) all other wolves were set out in a different circle.
She might've been trying to swoon her with her words before -- and it had worked. But no matter how many times she bowed down to her and kissed her feet, she would not get Cara to spill the beans. Information was something she was exceptionally greedy with -- even more than her own food.
"Oh Sitri" she barked, her femenine features twisting into a light smile, "He was there before us all; Mordecai, me, everyone really" she barked thoughtfully, out of all the wolves that had filled the ranks of Silvertip, Sitri was the most antique one that remained presently with them. All the others had sadly died, vanished or turned against them.
"He doesn't talk much, but he does a lot of thinking. He's one of the good guys" she added finally, rememberig his undivided devotion to Jinx, and his gentleness. He had been also the one that had killed the stupid bitch that had taken over so rashly, so that certainly gave him a lot of points.
Short post cause Cranberritas!
Cara didn't share too much on their beastly packmate, but Harlyn assumed it was only because she didn't know much. She was wrong in her belief, but it was certainly not the first time.
"He did seem to have a very gentle soul," she said,
"I was hoping you'd confirm that. He has an ugly, violent look about him, but I know appearances are not all that they seem." Harlyn included, but we didn't need to mention that.
She stared hard at the female as she began to give her view on Sitri, in spite of not being close to him Cara was fond of the guy. He had been nothing but loyal when all of the other pieces around started to crumble. She had seen him in his death bed and felt terrified at the thought of watching him die.
Many, Cara herself included, could argue that she didn't have a heart for anything that didn't affect her. But they, as well as herself, had been proven wrong as soon as tears streamed down her face at the instant of the battle.
"They aren't", she agreed. Though she had been a major instigator of such stereotypes and had classified many if not all of her contact under those tags she had begun to catch small glimpses of 'grey' in her all-white & black spectrum.
"He's gentle, yes, also devoted and smart" she barked softly, as a little smirk stretched across her features. It was funny how when she had first met him, the adjetives 'gentle' and 'smart' would have never crossed her mind, yet today they fitted him perfectly.
Maybe there was more to a book that just its cover.
Gentle. Devoted. Smart. They were the things that any leader would value in their followers, but they were very telling to Harlyn who tucked them safely away in her memory. "I truly did not spend enough time getting to know him," the Cinderloch replied with a gentle smile, not completely being dishonest. She was not completely devious, after all. She did have the best of intentions, even when it didn't seem to be quite so.
"Cara," Harlyn said, changing the tract of the conversation, "Please, tell me what it is that I can do for this pack. I want to make myself of use to you, and I want so very much to see this pack thrive. How can I make it so?" Her question was earnest, for above all else, she was completely captivated by the Spine. She was not always the most loyal when it came to her own species, but when it came to nature and the wilds that sustained her life, there was nothing the druid would spare of her devotion.
The traits mentioned, as valuable as they were did not seem to have the same effect on Cara. While she thought of herself as deviously smart and passionately devoted, she lacked the gentle nature the giant brute seemed to carry underneath his scars. Her constant struggle to keep her head afloat, even when being just a child, had forged her spirit into a tight mold of jealousy.
Not for Sitri's strenght, but for his heart.
Suddenly, the female steered the conversation into a deeper place. Cara, rested her eyes on the Cinderloch's face, tracing the outlines of her eyes to see the sincerity in them. For a moment, the scene of the pleading female reminded her of her own pledge to Jinx. "Give your life to it, Harlyn -- not me or Mordecai, but to the Spine on it's own" she barked, feeling the strenght of her eyes pierce through the other's own eyes.
Her advice, was in fact Cara's own game plan. All along, since the fall of her beloved Queen she had lived true to that statement. She had learned that leadership was the highest point of the rock, but the most unstable one as well -- she had seen so herself after riding her own rollercoaster in and out of it, before and after Ptarmigan's entrance to the picture.
Cara's words surprised Harlyn. They were so... selfless, and so very similar to what the Cinderloch had intended all along. It was strange to be so quickly shown that she had misjudged. The woman's eyes pierced her own, and Harlyn held her gaze for a moment, but cast it down in the next in deference. She did not want to challenge the queen's authority, particularly not after being shown that the girl perhaps did deserve some respect. But she also had not wanted to bow so quickly as the suggest that she herself had no power within.
"It would be my honor," Harlyn responded honestly. She had never been one to worship at the paws of her own kind, or to any other animal. She worshiped at the trunks of trees and at the edges of water. Mother earth was her god, and so too the Spine as one of her precious creations.
seemed like a good place to end<3
The brief moment during which their eyes interlocked was both comforting and relieving for the young female. She had thought that for a moment, the tawny colored female hesitated, especially since what Cara -- the superficial darling child of the Ouroboros -- was proposing was completely unmaterialistic and selfless.
With her dainty features curved into a smile, she took a step forward and craned her neck to reach the Cinderloch's cheek with her own nose. It was a gesture not only of approval, as a leader, but also as a potential friend.
After all those who shared her ideals would recieve in turn nothing less than her support.
Agreed! <3<3
The girl had nothing to say in response, but her gesture spoke more to Harlyn than words ever could. She tipped her head slightly to lean into her touch--a gesture of her own that she accepted the girl's affection and in return shared her own. In truth, the Cinderloch was not completely certain of how she felt towards the snow queen. Where she had at first seemed to have a heart of pure black, Harlyn could now see streaks of white in it that brightened and faded against the dark. Which color was the truest, the druid could only wait patiently to find, for she was not so foolish as to mistake her outward coat for what lied within.
It seemed that their meeting was at an end, though no words were spoken, both wolves somehow knew. Harlyn dipped her head respectfully to the queen. With one last smile to her new acquaintance, she turned and strode onward and away to again get lost within the pines.