Wolf RPG

She was feeling adventurous today. And hungry. Well, mostly hungry. But a fleeting sense of recklessness had overtaken the little magpie today and she felt the need to satisfy her hunger with more than the usual worm or berry. She craved meat. In the warmer months, Shiv was usually able to scavenge through the carcasses left over by packs of wolves or coyotes but now, with the snow settling in, it was an increasingly rare sight to see carrion out in the wild. Prey would be becoming scarcer as winter tightened it's grasp around the Wilds. It was now or never...or, at least, until next spring.

Having scouted the lands all morning, Shiv finally came across the telltale signs of a wolf pack nearby. She had been told of these places, that packs lay claim to whatever territory suits their fancy just as her own flock had overtaken certain trees and forests. Hopping around the base of a tree, the bird inspected the scratch marks upon it's bark. The stench of urine also wafted around the area and the two signs inspired hope within her that perhaps a cache would be nearby. Surely they wouldn't notice a little bit missing?

Scratching through the frosty ground, Shiv began her search, keeping her head on a swivel just in case one of the pack wolves happened upon her.

ooc: this looked lonely. :)

It was not often, when Osprey attempted to hunt birds. In fact - it almost never happened, because she had learned from very early days that there was easier prey to catch. Plus, birds were tricky - they appeared big, but in reality, half of their mass consisted of feathers and bones, leaving very little for anything edible. So all in all... birds were not something a reasonable wolf could survive on.

Yet it did not mean that there wasn't fun in watching them and at least pretending to hunt them. Therefore, when Osprey caught sight of a lonely magpie searching the ground for scraps, rather than going away on her business, she stopped, lied down as quietly as she could (not wanting to scare the bird away) and, after resting her head between her extended forelegs, she began observing the small creature.

In all honesty, Shiv had no idea what she was even looking for. She knew wolves had caches — almost every animal that lived in a pack did — but she had no idea what it actually looked like. Did the wolves bury it underground? Did others guard it? What if they stored it in one of their dens, next to where the pups slept? If they did the latter, Shiv would have no hope of getting a meal. Even for one as bold and unafraid of wolves as she, the magpie knew not to ever mess with a predator's young.

Hearing a soft snap of a twig nearby, Shiv suddenly stopped her search, looking up with a soft, slightly startled chirp. She gave the area she faced a quick sweep with wary eyes before bending back down to continue prodding the ground with her beak — remaining unaware of the grey female who had begun to observe her.

The funny thing with birds was that with all their beautiful feather coats, their expressions never changed, therefore making them very hard to read and predict. Osprey hadn't been as careful as she had wished to be, because, while making herself comfortable, she put her weight on a twig that snapped with an audible "crack". The bird caught this, looked around, but somehow missed the predator lying and watching it nearby.

Encouraged by this lucky turn of events, she carefully got to her feet and, forgetting all the need to quiet and sneaky, charged at the bird full-speed with an intention to make it jump and fly off.

Disappointed with her admittedly rather short search, the bird stared at the ground for a moment, wondering if she should try elsewhere within the territory. Or try searching further into the surrounding forest. Or maybe she could find a pack member and figure out how to get them to tell her where the cache was hidden. Lost in her pondering, the bird failed to notice both the scent and the sight of such a pack member readying herself to attack.

It was only the sound of paws pounding against dirt did Shiv turn her head and let out a shrill cry of surprise. "No eat!" she yelled in defence, taking to the air as quick as she could. With a sharp turn, she then swooped down on the grey-furred attacker, in an attempt to intimidate her, before gliding over to a nearby branch where she could peer down at the intruder safely. Heart thrumming in her chest, Shiv glared at the wolf, angrily chirping away in annoyance. "Stupid, sneaky wolves," she muttered to herself.

Osprey had missed the bird by a feather, because it swooped up in the air at the last moment, leaving the wolf standing on the spot and following the creature's flight with her eyes. However, it was not done, because it made a loop in the air and aimed for the wolf's head, before flying up and perching atop a branch.

She caught sight of the glare and was surprised to hear somewhere in the unintelligible speech of the bird, words she could actually understand. "Now, what do we have here - a talking bird," Osprey mused out loud to tease the creature. "Is there anything else you can say?"

Shiv glared daggers at the wolf, her scruffy feathers even more ruffled as she got over the shock of the surprise attack. The nerve of some wolves! Why did they think it was okay just to appear out of nowhere like that? Didn't they know birds had tiny, weak hearts. Chest heaving, the bird cocked her head as the female spoke. She gave an indignant huff in reply. Well of course she could talk. She was a magpie — not all birds were dumb chittering creatures like those silly finches.

"Shiv say many things," she said in her broken version of the wolf's language. "But Shiv not saying them to wolf." And, with that, she spun on the branch she was perched upon in a flamboyant display of ignoring the wolf.

Osprey had no knowing of bird's fragile hearts and it was a good thing she didn't. Otherwise she would soon develop a special hunting method of "scaring a bird to death" and picking up corpses one by one. If it came to prey - the hunter could be cruel like that. But she did not have this knowledge, nor any idea that birds had hearts at all. To her they were like curious mechanisms jumping around, chirping nonesense, eating, pooping, mating, but not being capable of rational thinking.

Yet now she had to revise her views, because the bird answered. In an odd way, that's for sure, but what they had looked like a conversation. She sat down and kept her gaze locked at the bird. "Then you are just boasting. I bet that these few words is all you know," she announced in a haughty manner with every intention to provoke the creature.

Despite having turned away from the wolf, Shiv still kept an ear out for any other words it decided to throw her way. While offended, the bird still couldn't keep her curiousity about the fellow inhabitants of the Wilds at bay. She was fascinated by them — as much as she was about anything, really — and their strange ways. They seemed to work like a flock, kind of. A big, wingless, beak-less flock of creatures that ate caribou instead of bugs and berries.

Shiv cocked her head to the side as she listened, before releasing a loud, defiant squawk in response. A few words! She spun back around on the branch with a quick hop, leaning forward as she eyeballed the jeering female. Quickly forgetting her former announcement that refused to speak to the stranger, the magpie responded, "Shiv knows many more." With another warble, she flitted down to the ground before the grey wolf, though kept a wary eye on her in case she decided to attack again. "Can talk as well as any wolf!"

Osprey had achieved her goal - ruffled the feathers of the bird, because it turned around swiftly to glare at her (it was not that the gray wolf actually saw the exact expression, it was a gaze she thought the bird would regard her with - Osprey certainly would have, if the roles were reversed). "Is that so?" she replied, keen on keeping the conversation going and seeing, how far would it lead them.

Then the bird did something that was either reckless or silly, because it left it's safe spot and flew down to stand in front of the predator. "Do you think like one too?" Osprey asked lazily, getting to her feet."Because - you know - I am hungry and I eat meat and you are just the thing," and after this she pounced again, but didn't put much effort in it, because catching the bird was not her intention.

Had Shiv a slightly larger brain, perhaps she would have had the processing power to think through her decision before she made it. Coming down from her perch in the trees to land before a wolf who had attacked her only moments ago just to prove a point — it was something that an animal with more intelligence would consider rather moronic. Yet it made perfect sense to the little bird as she glared at the stranger, daring her to insult her grasp of the wolf's language again.

Instead, the woman rose herself from the ground and suddenly attacked again. Giving a shriek of surprise, the magpie leapt backwards, frantically taking off from the ground and grabbing ahold of a nearby thin branch, proceeding to then hang from it half-upside down. It was probably just the fear talking but she swore she had felt the hot breath of the wolf on her wings and the firm grasp of her claws wrapping around her body. Clicking her beak at the female as if scolding her, Shiv retorted, "Wolf has no manners."

Thinking for a moment, she wondered if she could take advantage of the wolf's hunger. "Perhaps wolf can eat from meat cache, instead of Shiv!"

The bird might not have been that smart in making his decision to land before Osprey, but it surely was quick to react and once again it got out of her reach and perched upon a branch nearby. Yet it didn't fly away as his kind would do, it stayed and kept on talking. Which made the wolf think - what if there was something that this tiny creature wanted from her?

"Speak about manners," Osprey grumbled to herself. "In that case you are a very bad-mannered meal - why can't you stay on the spot so I can eat you without effort?" she teased the tiny creature. Why was it so that making fun of those, who were smaller and weaker than you, was such an interesting thing to do? Had it been one of her kind, she would not do it. But this opportunity was too good to be wasted.

"Well... well... well..." Osprey said in a manner of a gangster that was preparing for the final shooting. "Tell me - why are you really here?"

Shiv stared unblinkingly at the female as she began, a wary lilt to her voice. Oh no, she was already suspicious! Had she been too obvious in her approach? Perhaps she had to rethink this. Maybe find another wolf. A hungrier wolf. Yet who knew how long it would take to find another one. These were pack lands but it was a large territory, it could be days before she found a wolf who would be willing — or foolish — enough to lead her to the cache.

Mind whirring, the bird flitted from the hanging twig to a more solid branch, lower this time so she could keep a closer eye on the strange grey wolf. "Wolf said she was hungry, yes?" she started in an attempt to distract the female, tilting her head before gesturing towards the trees where she supposed the heart of the pack lands lay. Was that where packs kept their stores of meat? "Come, come, Shiv can help wolf hunt. Wolf can then save rest for pack, yes?" As if her plan wasn't obvious before.

The bird's intentions weren't that obvious - mostly because of the reason mentioned before - it was hard to read it's expressions. A keener observer would be better at it, but Osprey who hadn't had much to do with birds (apart from those few times, when a bird had ended up on her plate - but it didn't really count, because dead didn't tend to speak too much) wasn't. Therefore she gained as much information she could from whatever this odd little magpie told her.

"I am good on my own," Osprey declined the bird's offer. "Besides I have stashes of food hidden. I can always go to them, if I feel very hungry. Do you stash food?" she asked.

At the stranger's rejection to her offer, Shiv gave a huff of annoyance, fluffing up her white chest feathers. The wolves she had encountered so far had been so helpful, so friendly and accommodating to her. This girl, however, was proving to be an abnormality. The plateau did seem to be rather secluded place to live, tucked away up high in the mountains, perhaps they never ventured down into the Wilds and interacted with the other inhabitants.

With a small nod, she concluded that that must be why the wolf wasn't playing to the script Shiv had written up in her mind. The mention of stashes of food caught her attention again, though, and the bird leaned forward on her branch. "No, no, Shiv have no stash," she said, trying to feign sadness. A lie — she had plenty of stashes. It was remembering where the stash was that was the hard part. "Shiv is so very hungry."

When it came to creatures other than wolves, Osprey tended to be arrogant. She had learned early on that it was safer to make friendship with your own kind, because you never knew, when would the moment come and you ate that bird-/rabbit-/deer-friend of yours. Even foxes and jackals counted in cases you were terribly hungry. For obvious reasons no one made friends with bears, lynxes and cougars - they could always decide to eat you. Therefore it was a lot easier to pretend that these animals were dumb and good only for eating. The world would probably end, if you started to feel sorry for your meal.

"Too bad Shiv that you have no stashes..." Osprey said in a mock sympathy for the bird, although she found the situation utterly amusing. "Now you will die of hunger and then I will find your dead body and I will eat you."

ooc: I am amazed, how nasty Osprey can be...

The wolf's reply caused a jolt of fear to shock Shiv's tiny bird body, her feathers suddenly rising as she instinctively tried to make herself look bigger (even though her threat was way down below her and much, much larger that she could ever be). She gave a shrill cry before leaning forward and glowering at the nasty wolf. How utterly rude! "Horrible wolf!" she proclaimed. "Shiv will peck out wolf's eyes!"

Yet the magpie made no move to actually act on her threat, too afraid as she was of the silver-furred woman. She wasn't risking going anywhere near her again — even if it was just to swoop her — she had proven much too feral for Shiv's liking. Tiny flakes of bark fell off the branch she was perched upon as she anxiously scratched at it, eyes trained on the wolf. Perhaps she should find another, friendlier stranger that would be kind enough to share their cache with her. This plateau seemed to be too much of challenge for what it was worth. At least, it this female was anything like the other wolves' in this territory.

Had Shiv been a bit more imposing bird - an eagle, for example - Osprey wouldn't have dared to mess around as she did now. Because she knew that those predators were really dangerous, there were numerous tales, where they had snatched pups away from home and eaten in their nests, tearing them apart limb by limb, while their yelps of pain and horror found... Sheesh... Osprey shook her head at this sudden morbid idea that had come to her mind.

"I would want to see you try," Osprey told him/her, lifting her muzzle and squinting her eyes to better see the branch the bird was perched upon now. "Just land on my muzzle and I promise that it will be the last thing you knew," she then became silent, sat down and yawned, as if this whole conversation had been very exhausting for her. After a while she peeked up to see that the bird was still there and came up with another idea that demanded to be shared with the bird.

"You know what - I could feed you. You could become fat and juicy and then I could eat you? What do you think?" she said with a toothy grin.

The female's challenge caused Shiv to narrow her tiny bird eyes, peering down at her from the safety of the branch. She toyed with the idea briefly. Perhaps if she just flew down really quick and gave her a quick peck on the eye. How much force was needed to render a wolf blind? The bird cast the idea from her mind with a rough shake of her head. No, she didn't want to risk being eaten. She was the one who supposed to be getting food here, not the wolf!

The magpie continued to stare as the pesky female suddenly let out a yawn and fell onto her haunches. She made a small movement, as if about to fly off, before the stranger spoke again, capturing her attention — but she was only intrigued by the offer for half a second. How dare she tease her like that! Shiv cawed in frustration. "Shiv not for eating!" she scolded. Fed up with the female's games, the bird took off from her branch, bits of snow flying off the leaves. She decided to find a cache to raid elsewhere; flustered as she was with the current encounter.

However, before flying off, the bird thought she should leave a little gift for her troublesome friend. With a strange sound that sounded suspiciously like a cackle, she veered in a tight circle above the wolf, aiming to drop the only weapon she had on her — her last digested meal. Quickly, and without seeing if she had hit her target, the magpie then flew up and over the treetops, fear spurring her to fly as fast as she could lest the grey-furred female somehow grew wings and chased after her.

ooc: Shiv is one cool character - I hope that she sticks in Wolf for a long time. :) Thank you for the thread!

As expected the bird turned down Osprey's generous offer and much to her amusement, it even got angry. This made her smile grow even bigger and she waited for the next move. Which did not follow, because the bird left it's safe spot on the branch and flew off.

But just before leaving, it swerved and with an evil cackle dropped the "white-bomb" at Osprey, missing her just by a whisker. "It was nice to meet you too!" she yelled after the avian, while feeling even more amused by the turn of events.