Wolf RPG

Thoughts of work were far from the Kalderon's mind that overcast afternoon. Despite the fair weather, he'd had an off-day at the hunt, and so had resorted to patrolling the borders with hopes he'd make himself useful there. But after setting into his usual routine, he found his attention constantly stolen by the distant horizon, the dark smudges of what he thought to be a forest, the rise and fall of far off peaks. His nose still stung from where he'd collided with an inconsiderate birch, and his distraction had nearly sent him toppling over a jutting root more than once. To say his thoughts were not with him was an understatement: his mind was somewhere else entirely. While Malachi couldn't describe the satisfaction he felt when he caught scent of the others who called the Glacier home, he'd forgotten his love for other lands, a draw that had been rekindled in his journey to the Coast. Now that he was home he yearned to see more than just the same old trees and the same old mountain he had tied himself to and had passed time and time and time again. He wanted something new, something fresh - something he didn't think could be found here.

But the thought of leaving again brought him guilt, and it was for this reason he climbed the mount today. Perhaps, he thought, the thirst could be quenched by simply seeing the vast domain that lay beyond their island of a kingdom. It had worked before, back home when Adah had convinced him to sneak out with her just to dream. Of course, her dreams were nothing like his own, or like Benji's had been, for that matter. But the thought he'd be doing the same tonight brought a certain tightness to his bones - nostalgia, or apprehension. He'd had company then. Today, he'd be alone, without even the company of the sky to look down on him from overhead.

So truth be told that he didn't expect to find anyone at such a height, and he paused mid-stride when he caught wind of Scarlett's scent drifting from a while up. He struggled to pick her out in the white light, but he didn't need his eyes to tell him she was there. What she was doing at such an elevation was beyond him, and for a moment he considered turning around, leaving her to her own and him to his. But after a pause, Malachi set himself stubbornly against his reservations and drew up behind her, the crunch of the snow beneath his paws the signal of his approach.

The pale female also had another reason for being all alone at the peak of the glacier. A very good reason why she kept to herself and tried to focus on her interest for weather patterns. And well, because it was so mild it was easier to reach the top. Scarlett could imagine that in mid winter it would be difficult to reach the top. The strong winds at least blew most of this horrible strong scent away that came from her. Scarlett felt hot and bothered. The female had never felt this before. She craved for something... someone. Her tongue hung out of her mouth even while she was sitting down in the snow. That would mask her scent more, probably. Even when she had her heat she couldn't just sit and lay in her den. The young female had such a drive and ambition. She wanted to be useful to the pack.

A strong wind ruffled through her pale fur, which was surprisingly clean. The female had bathed herself regularly today to get rid of this weird scent that had been hanging around her. After serval baths she realized that this was something else. She had scented it before with her mother but now it was she herself who smelled like that. Scarlett knew the mechanics of getting pups but, there was no mate for her to have them with. It made her sad and useless. It was no secret that the female, badly, wanted a litter of her own. She was very late getting her first heat but it did made sense now she came to think about it. At her old pack she didn't feel welcome or at home. Plus her mother would never allow her how to breed. Then Scarlett was on her own for awhile also not great circumstances. But now. Now Scarlett was in a pack where she felt at home. She had caught more than enough food, especially when she cared for Néa or helped Maera how to hunt. All these things were adding up. Scarlett had met a handsome male called Raziel and hung out with him a lot. The albino even got a new den close to a small stream on DFG grounds. All these little things had her biological clock ticking even more.

Her ears fell back when she heard the light crunch of the snow. She moved her head to look over her shoulder. Oh no... Malachi. How come they always got these awkward situations going on!? She tried to push her butt more into the snow to mask the scent coming from her. But who was she kidding? Malachi was a male, his nose was practically programmed to sniff that type of scent out. Her ears flattened more in shame than in anger. "H-Hi.. Malachi," she stammered out a greeting. She turned to face him out of respect but kept her ass to the ground, which probably looked silly to begin with. The small female held her head low, red eyes on the alpha, just because she felt very embarrassed about this situation.

It was only when the wind shifted that Malachi wished he'd have listened to his instinctual warning to turn away and find another cliff to occupy. The boy stopped some paces from Scarlett and froze like the falling snow. There was something different about the woman today, another scent intermingled with her own. Yet where another might have found the smell enticing, he found his paws treading back two paces on impulse. Something was off, and it was then he noticed her discomforting posture, as if she had something to hide.

In different circumstances he'd have dismissed Scarlett's stammered greeting as a product of her shy nature. She'd been nervous around him since he'd given her a place in the pack. But paired with her anomalies that moment, the boy took her struggled words as another red flag and he didn't dare approach closer. Was she sick? Injured? Both struck a chord of concern, and Malachi's ears twitched to the side as he tried to study her further from the distance he was at. "You alright?" he asked, lifting his paw in hesitation. He could tell she was embarrassed, but for what Malachi had little clue - and some quiet part of him wasn't sure he wanted to know.

The girl watched the alpha approach and winced internally because the male shouldn't come so close to her. She herself couldn't really back up because then the female would tumble down off the cliff and she rather not have that. She liked to live even with this damn scent hanging off her. It would probably last a week. Tops. "Yes?," she hesitantly. "I was just looking and tracking weather patterns you see?," she stated babbling. Something she did when she was nervous. Scarlett would talk so much all at once to distract that someone from what was really happening. "Because you know winter has been fair and it did had some effect on our hunting. Did you notice? I did. Yep. Because of the the fair weather less big game dies for us to scavenge. And well that is a shame. The rabbits are getting harder to catch too. The winter should have set in by now, don't you think? I think it should have. The weak ones we hunt are getting stronger because the cold is not killing them for us or making them weaker for us to grab."

She took a deep sigh to catch her breath. Her head was still low and her ears still back. She had been better around Malachi, less.. nervous. Néa helped her calm down more. But Néa had been absent. Scarlett was starting to worry about the teenager. Why wasn't she around? And now this damn heat was pestering her too! She wanted pups so bad. In her hormonal stage she was just ready to burst in tears. Why was it so unfair that she had to wait being a mom?! Scarlett wanted pups so bad. Others were carrying and she had no one to carry them for. Her whole dream of having the perfect charming mate and giving him the cutest babies wasn't going so smoothly. The female suddenly looked miserable when she thought about it. But having pups without a mate would also make her sad. And might even got her kicked out if Malachi didn't approve. She would be devastated. She loved this pack.

"I'm.. not really okay," she then admitted because Scarlett hated lying. "Ehm... I got my first heat today. That is what you smell. I decided to go here to well.. be on my own. But... Yeah. Now you are here and... I feel really embarrassed." Honestly if she would stand up she would be leaking everywhere. Maybe she should have stayed in her den. After this encounter that was definitely what was going to happen. Yes. Definitely.

He didn't know why he'd expected a straight answer, for it was clear now that that was something Scarlett seldom gave. The white wolf's ramblings provided him no sense of ease or distraction, and he found himself placing his wary paw one step further away from his long-winded packmate to lengthen the distance between them. Her words flowed absently through his ears, and though her concerns sounded valid, she spoke at too fast a frequency for Malachi to process on spot. The boy had shrugged off the warm winter as a Southern thing, but perhaps the weather was atypical even for this region.

She finished with a sigh, and he responded with a blink, torn on how to go about this. He couldn't just leave without addressing her worries - what sort of leader would he be then? But he couldn't stay, either. Her antics stressed him, and right now he couldn't deal with that. He'd take a rain check and meet up with her on a better day, when both he and she could think with clearer minds.

But as he struggled to take his leave, Scarlett spoke again and he flicked his ears forward, only to feel them burn when she confessed to the real reason she had scoured out a ledge so removed from the body of the forest. The boy had only encountered a woman in heat once, when he and his siblings had gotten too curious about their parent's courtship for their own good. Malachi found himself shifting his weight on awkward paws, and his belly tightened with a boyish squirm. One thought stood clear in his mind: that he really shouldn't be here, but how to leave without making the woman even more embarrassed was beyond him. "Oh... alright then," he paused to swallow hard and nodded, though his face furrowed with unease. "I guess that's good. I mean, it means you can have kids, right?"

Scarlett noticed that her babbling about the weather hadn't helped to distract her alpha at all. He seemed more tense the more she babbled. She didn't know if Malachi knew about her pursuing the Naturalist trade. She wondered if she should mention it. But then again. This wasn't the time to discuss that. Scarlett swallowed a bit when Malachi shifted his weight on his paws in an awkward manner. The albino just felt horrible for making the alpha feel that way. She needed a girlfriend she could talk to or something. Malachi was not the person to discuss this matter with. Unfortunately he asked that dreadful question.

Scarlett instantly looked like a kicked puppy in her hormonal state. "Yesss," she whined out. "But it is so unfair. So unfair. I want babies of my own, so badly, especially now. But no one is remotely interested me," she whimpered, tears filling her eyes. She couldn't help it. Her emotional state was just too high to keep it all in. Sure, she had Raziel who liked her but he was from a different pack. They weren't mated so that wouldn't be right to go to him. It all would feel real to spend a heat with a male. She wasn't sure if she was ready for.. that. But she wanted babies badly and she know what needed to happen when one wanted babies.

The light female was laying down by now and sniffled a bit. Her red eyes looked at the alpha and then her embarrassment returned. Oh and now she was just a mess in front of him. To then grow sad again because she had a vision of herself being an old hag that only ever got to care for the stranded teenagers of Duskfire Glacier.

Well, he sure handled that well. Malachi felt his cheeks burn beneath his fur, and the cold winter air suddenly ran far too hot for comfort. If only he'd kept his big mouth shut, or left when he'd had the chance. He didn't know anything about girls, let alone girls in heat. His sister was the closest he got to first-hand experience, but she had been tougher than he and his brother combined.

So the boy listened quietly, but aside from giving her a listening ear, Malachi didn't know what she expected him to do. Was she telling him this because it was his duty to give her pups? The thought startled him, and he shook the idea as fast as it had come upon him. Scarlett reminded him more of a mother than a potential mate, and sweet as she was, the idea made his stomach squirm.

He turned instead to search for words to offer the stricken girl, keeping well away from the topic of babies, sure it would do more damage than good. "But you're still young," he offered slowly, hoping something he said would encourage her. "You've got loads of time. Someone will come along." It wasn't like there were many options as it stood. Asides from himself, the only other male in their pack was Adlartok, and he was much too young to even think about having children himself.

Scarlett could be tough but in this moment hormones were stronger. A sniffle came from her lips as her red eyes battered up at the alpha. His words did sooth a bit. She was young. But she kinda wanted them now. Scarlett shrugged a bit in answer. She was still looking sad. She didn't feel like someone would come along. Surely wolves looked different at her here than when she was back home. But she didn't saw herself getting a mate anytime soon. "I'm actually pretty busy..," she muttered. Scarlett was pretty busy with care taking and getting her trades. "And it isn't like this pack has a lot of mate material to offer... No offense to you of course."

Eventually that was what made the girl laugh a bit through her tears. No, Malachi and she would not make a good couple. Their meetings always had one of the two wolves tense or there was something awkward going on like this. Slowly the female sat up, her tears drying. "I'm sorry, Malachi. It is the hormones I think that drive me to these emotional states." Standing up wasn't the wisest move since her strong scent immediately filled the air. Scarlett shook her head lightly because she could feel the embarrassment flush her cheeks.

"I should go," she decided and stepped to the side. "I will leave you to do your.. Alpha job and stuff." She wasn't sure why Malachi was here all the way at the top but it did give an amazing view of the Duskfire lands. The lake of meltwater below and the overview the forest aside from it. Scarlett liked to watch the world from above in all quietness.

For a moment Malachi wondered if he could do anything to cheer the girl's downtrodden mood. Nothing he said seemed to cheer her, and she still peered at him through eyes shadowed with despair he couldn't fix. So he offered her a simple shrug, in a way of excusing himself from offering further advice, if one could call it that.

But when Scarlett observed what he'd just considered, he felt a pang of offense at her words, though she meant none. So he wasn't the greatest with her, but did that make him less a man because of it? He shook the thought, and instead cracked his lips into a grin and laughed, coming back with, "Don't worry, I'm not looking." Because he wasn't.

She stood and he stepped aside, nose twitching at the strong scent again, but he tried to ignore it for her sake. "We all have our days." Though he was grateful that as a man he would never go through this himself, if this was a typical cycle for all women to enter. He imagined he would find out soon enough - with the dominance of females in the pack, perhaps he would grow used to dealing with women in these states - and maybe next time, he would check the air before approaching anyone sitting alone on a desolate cliff.

He let Scarlett pass with a wide girth. "Alright. See you some other time." The scent on the cliff made him nauseous, and he wouldn't be staying here. He'd search out a different peak, or maybe return to the forest altogether and take his leave to the plains around Duskfire instead.