Wolf RPG

Jack was exploring the land near his new home. He needed to know the area well. Not just so he would be familiar with his new home- familiar with possible future battlegrounds. If and when war arose, Jack was a natural soldier and killer, and if he played a role would need to know the land better than his opponent. These were the sort of things Jack thought about, instead of regular things. Regular boring average things were for the weak. The weak who could not accomplish anything better than normal. The weak got killed, hunted, or discarded. Like my siblings, he thought with a dark smile. It disappeared from his beak as he glided towards a smooth landing by the water. His talons gently pulled him to a stop in the grass. Then he looked into his dark reflection.

Wings tired and heart longing for home, Shiv made her way back towards the Heartwood. Her little adventure through the fields, out to the coast and then up to the mountains was filled with excitement, adventure and many encounters with wolves, though she was happy to return to her familiar forest. She would rest there for a while before perhaps exploring out further than the little lake just south of the Heartwood. How easy it was to travel, being a bird!

With a quick mid-air manoeuvre, the magpie zeroed in on a small, unsuspecting bug and ate it with one gulp, before gliding down to the glittering lake just below her. The surface had only just begun to freeze, the edges of the large waterhole still beckoning thirsty creatures towards it. One such creature sat on the edge, neck arched as if he was deep in thought. Another bird! With a series of tweets to get his attention, Shiv came to a stop a few paces away from the much larger crow, cocking her head to the side as she studied him. "Brooding, perhaps? Yes, yes," she chirped to him.

Jack's head turned around and his cold eyes settled on the source of noise. A high pitched series of chirps spurted from a small magpie's beak. Brooding, perhaps? Yes, yes, the young lady chirped. "Yes, I suppose. And you?" Even killers and cannibals could be polite. This was a stranger and a lady and a bird, three qualities that made him more polite to her. And he had no grudges against her yet. His voice told the fact that he wasn't too interested in a conversation. But hey, he was okay with it. At least it was a bird, not some annoying fox or wolf who thought that he was mere prey. Small he was, but that meant nothing, he could still kill the canines if he wished on a good day. All he had to do was pluck their eyes out. He snapped himself out of his drifting thoughts, back to the present. It was quite often that Jack's mind drifted.

He turned to her, eyes beady and black like her own but, where hers were bright with curiousity and mischief, his seemed to gleam with a sort of malice. He returned her question with a tone that implied he wasn't one for chatting but Shiv was oblivious to it. He was a bird and she was a bird — that was enough in common for her to want to know everything about him. She knew enough of the fellow magpies in her family; seagulls were too rowdy and loud; finches were pompous and hostile; hawks were just plain terrifying; but crows, crows she didn't mind talking to.

Dipping her head in a nod of respect to the fellow corvid, Shiv responded merrily, "no thinking, no." Of course, she was thinking all the time, her thoughts raced through her mind, faster than she could even keep up with sometimes — but it was easier to just to say that she had no thoughts at all rather than try to explain them. "Am thirsty, though," she said, bouncing past the man to dip her beak into the water. After a quick drink, she turned back to the crow with another tilt of her head. "Crow's name?" she questioned, almost demandingly so.

"no thinking, no." This little lady confused him. Her speech was like that of a small chick, although maybe magpies were not as advanced as crows. Or maybe somebody dropped her from the nest when she was a egg. Either way, he got it that she wasn't thinking, although that confused him too. Thinking was something one was always doing. She then stated she was thirsty and hopped over to the lake. His dark eyes watched her, a thin smile on his beak. Her strange behavior was amusing to him. "Jack Sombre Mort. You may call me Jack." He said, with a quick polite dip of his head to her. He looked up again. "Magpie's name?" He said, his tone slightly mocking of her speech, although not enough to be mean or condescending.

A seemingly dark name for a dark bird. It fit him, if Shiv knew anything about names. Her own brothers and sisters were named for the qualities they displayed in the nest — she herself gained her own for her tendency to spear things. Though crows, it seemed, had different naming conventions. At the dip of his head, Shiv returned it with one of her own, stretching her wings out slightly in a sort of curtsey. She had been told by her mother that crows were rather serious and formal, Jack seemed to only reinforce the stereotype.

"Shiv," she replied with a cheerful click of her beak. "Jack has pac—...flock?" she then inquired, stumbling over the correct words. She had been hanging around wolves for too long.

He was glad she returned his respectful gesture, along with a little wing thingy. Jack's middle and last name were very dark indeed, Sombre meaning Dark and Mort meaning Death. Both his middle and last name were passed down from his father. Shiv was this girl's name. Jack wondered if she had a last name at all- maybe not, he guessed. He chuckled lowly when she almost said pack. Maybe this girl had been speaking in wolf terms recently. He found it funny, this bird alone was quirky and amusing. "I have had flocks before, but I never stayed in one much longer than a few months. I am currently independent, and only recently arrived here." He told the magpie. He found it interesting that the two could still converse despite their different ways of speaking.

Crows certainly were very different from magpies. Shiv gave a cant of her head as Jack explained his situation with flocks, how he hadn't seemed to settle in just one. She couldn't imagine that, flitting from flock to flock and going through the whole process of earning their trust over and over. Perhaps crows were more accepting of their own kind? At his mention of being a loner currently, the magpie gave a loud whistle of excitement, leaning forward as she exclaimed, "Me too!"

Technically, she had a flock, but they were further south for the winter. She was an oddity, having refused to leave her birthplace even as the cold grip of winter tightened around the Wilds. Jack, too, was an abnormality among birds it seemed, though Shiv had no idea how flocks of crows worked. Perhaps it was a common thing for them to become loners?

Bouncing forward and disregarding any sense of personal space, the magpie studied the man. His feathers were ruffled, just like hers, with hints of blue and green shot through them. He was larger than herself, though that didn't deter the magpie from her inspection. "Jack have home? Can come live in Heartwood with Shiv!" she invited cheerfully, gesturing in the direction of the forest. She could always use more friends.

The little lady magpie exclaimed that she was also a lone bird. He didn't know if it was common for magpies to be in flocks, but Shiv was one strange little lady, so whatever she was doing was probably not the norm, at least in Jack's thoughts. His eyes narrowed and his feathers ruffled aggressively as she got a bit too close for comfort, but made no move. He calmed down and smoothed his feathers back, although they went back to their regular somewhat ruffled look. Shiv then told him she lived in the Heartwood, and he should come live with her. He chuckled and shook his head. Despite her strangeness, Jack liked this little Shiv. She was funny in her quirky ways. "Maybe. I will definitely visit, I don't know if I will live there permanently though." He told her. Jack barely knew her, so he wasn't going to immediately agree to anything or promise anything. But he would visit, and check the place out, find out if it was a good place for him to live.

He would visit, the crow said, and Shiv's shoulders sunk slightly. Well, at least it was a start. For Shiv's plan apparently was to get every creature she befriended to come live with her in the Heartwood. What a grand time they'd have! It was the perfect place, so she thought — she couldn't see why others weren't rushing to live there too. If she lacked a little less decency (and perhaps intelligence), the magpie would have probably poked and prodded Jack all the way to her forest.

As it were, he had declined her invitation, and Shiv begrudgingly accepted his response. Shrugging it off (she'd try again one day!), the bird scratched her head with one foot, before looking up again to Jack. She didn't think she had ever seen a crow up this close before. "Jack have friends?" she asked, her tone implying that, even though he hadn't a flock, he still knew other crows, right? Without waiting for his answer, she clicked her beak together, fluttering her wings as if to shake off her sudden excitement. "Shiv has made many friends!" she exclaimed. "Wolf friends!"

Jack tilted his head. Did he have friends? He used to. But at the moment, no. "Not at the time. I had some, but when I left the flock, they faded away. Although I suppose you are a friend." He said, his tone not happy, although not unhappy. A little suspicious about being friends in only one meeting, but that was okay. He needed allies around anyway, even if it was just a slightly too happy magpie called Shiv. His dark eyes widened with her next words. How did such a tiny little creature become friends with wolves, of all things? "You befriended wolves? Without being hunted?!" He exclaimed in shock. He often kept his distance, since they would just try to kill him, even though he'd escape.

She hopped from foot to foot with a happy gurgle as the crow spoke. Although he had said he only supposed she could be his friend — since he apparently was on his lonesome for now — the magpie took this as meaning they were BFFs now. She hadn't had a proper friend who was the same species as her! Mysteriously, all the other magpies she came across avoided her. Although she wanted to hop forward and wrestle him (that was what friends did, right?), she restrained herself. Jack had made it clear he wasn't one for physical contact.

At his surprise, she chirped and tilted her head with a laugh. "Yes, yes! Wolves do not hunt Shiv," she said, before growing suddenly serious and leaning forward, staring intensely at the crow. "Wolves try to eat Jack?" If anyone tried to hurt her newfound friend she'd peck their eyes out!

Jack watched in confusion as she hopped around happily after his words of him supposing they were friends. Was it really that exciting to have a friend? Even if that friend was Jack? With her question about wolves, he nodded sadly. "When wolves see me, they think I'm just their food. Most wolves, at least. How do you avoid being eaten?" He asked her. Was it something about her species? Maybe her personality? What spared her from the jaws of a wolf?

How odd! Shiv listened with intense fascination as Jack explained his woes with the wolves. He wasn't even that much of a meal compared to the prey wolves usually ate, if she was being honest. Perhaps he had only encountered really hungry wolves. Or coyotes. Did Jack know the difference between the two? When he asked how she avoided becoming a meal, the bird laughed and thrust out her wings in a fearsome display. "Shiv stabs 'em!" she stated, before craning forward and quickly digging her beak into the ground, pretending it was some wolf's hindquarters.

While she had never actually attacked a wolf before like that, she was sure it would frighten them enough to leave her alone. A wolf had never tried to eat her before, though, if you didn't count the grey-furred female at the plateau. Or that rude golden-furred male. Or the countless others who had at least threatened it.

After a few more back and forths, it was clear Jack wanted to finally be left alone. For once, Shiv recognised the others' exasperation with her antics and, with a quick farewell to her new — slightly grouchy — crow friend, the magpie took off back to the Heartwood.