Wolf RPG

Once Smash had left, the blue-nosed wolf carried on along the borders, all senses on the search for the white girl with red markings and half a tail. But Luke did not make it not twenty minutes into his search for Saena before he decided he was too eager to say hello and sat on his rump and howled, almost singing her a song of greeting with his melodic notes. He suspected she would be busy with her new pack (oh how little he knew) and would not keep her long, but hoped she could entertain him for at least a few minutes. Enough that he could express his happiness for her success.

Luke's voice wafting on the wind was the last thing Saena expected to hear, but when she did, she turned to meet it with a grin. She loped as quickly as she could with her injuries to his general area and spent only a few minutes picking up his scent and tracking him down. He looked exactly as he had the last time she'd seen him, blue nose and all. She was sure things had changed, though, under the surface. It was almost unrealistic to think otherwise.

She made no effort to hide her healing wounds as she padded nearer to him with only customary dominance to announce her position. "Hey, Luke!" she brightly said, letting her stub of a tail wiggle freely. "How're you? Still living in the moment?" She was eager to announce the name of her domain, which he had inspired, but kept it in long enough to let him talk, at least.

He was not waiting long before he saw he saw her approaching and stood to meet her. She carried herself like an alpha should, and he could not help but smile at that. "Saena!" he greeted back, stepped forward to bump her cheek affectionately with his nose. "I'm great, and I'm definitely living in the moment, I—" he stopped. He was about to tell her that he was so living in the moment that he had found himself here and had set up an impromptu date with one of her new recruits, but then he noted... she was covered in wounds.

His brows furrowed. He was reminded of his recent encounter with Fox, who had been none too happy to see him. Fortunately, Saena still welcomed his presence, but what was going on? Why was he finding his friends injured lately? It filled his heart with dread. "What happened?" he asked softly. He almost did not want to hear the answer. Had she fought with Fox?

She was excited to hear what he'd been up to, but all Luke confirmed before he cut himself off was that he was, in fact, still living in the moment. She was glad to hear it. It wouldn't have suited him to live any other way, just as it wouldn't have suited her to live his way. They all went about their lives differently, wolves, and Luke was a rare case of someone who savoured every moment as they came. Like before, she found she appreciated it, but could never commit to it herself.

Instead of elaborating, he asked what happened. As much as Saena wanted to forget about them and move on, the largest of her wounds promised to leave scars that she would be asked about for the rest of her life. So, with a quiet sigh, she told him, "I tried taking your advice and putting the past behind me. I met up with my dad, told him I was sorry. He introduced me to his kids, my half-siblings, I guess, and invited me to come help one of them with Naturalism.

I went out there recently to make good on that favour, and while I was waiting outside the borderlands, his mate come outta nowhere and attacked me. No words or nothing. Woulda killed me if I hadn't fended her off and ran for it." Gradually throughout her explanation, Saena's brow had furrowed until she wore a dark frown, and sullenly she said, "I still have no idea what I did to deserve that."

He hated to dampen her bright mood by asking her to explain something obviously unpleasant, but he had to know, and when she told him, he felt ill, as though he had been in the heat for too long. So Fox had attacked her, each had inflicted the wounds he saw on them both. He shifted his mouth with unease and chewed on a cheek. Fox had approached him too, demanded that he leave, but at least she had given him that chance. She had not attacked him without a word.

"She would not let me visit Peregrine," he said, swallowing thickly. It had taken him time to regain some composure after that encounter, and now once more a dark cloud of concern hung over him, for both Saena and Peregrine. He would have to chance seeing his dark companion again, something was very wrong at the caldera. "All she said is that someone they thought trustworthy was not, and that the threat had been eliminated. Visitors are no longer allowed inside, so I had to leave." He slowly shook his head.

"At least she said something to you," Saena said sullenly. She knew it wasn't fair to hold that against anyone, but suddenly, it felt way more personal to know that Fox had tried to rip her throat out while giving others the benefit of an explanation. In fact, it felt so personal that her previous "kill any Caldera wolf in the north," vow quickly morphed into a, "kill Fox anywhere you ever see the bitch," vow, since that seemed to be the game they were playing now.

She told Luke none of this, for luckily she suspected that the male would not be pleased to know she was allowing vengeance to thrive in her. She had no plans to seek Fox out, but if ever she did see her again... well, she wouldn't hesitate now knowing what she knew.

Luke's explanation didn't make a lot of sense, either, and brought Saena no closer to figuring out the mystery behind the Caldera's change in policy. "I don't see how that has anything to do with us, and if the threat was eliminated, what's the problem?" she muttered. "I didn't even need to go inside, but I didn't get a chance to even explain that." She had had to fight for her life. She could've run, and probably should have, but Saena wasn't the wisest wolf in sticky situations. Fox's aggression had sparked something deep inside her that overrode her sense even more. Running without inflicting pain back had not been an option, even though it had been the best one.

Luke had no answer for her and he had no answer for himself. He rolled his shoulders as helplessness tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I don't know," he answered truthfully. The only bit of logic that applied here was that an alpha had a right to defend their borders, but it seemed unduly harsh when not so long ago they had shared breakfast in each other's company, at least in his case, but Saena's was similar. It was clear that all wolves outside of the caldera's own had been painted with the same brush: they were not to be trusted because of the actions of one. It went against what Luke believed and the way he lived. "I don't believe in distrusting someone unless they give you a reason to distrust them, so it is beyond me."

He shook his head again, and quickly followed up with the reason he had howled for her. "Anyway," he said. "I didn't call you out here for that. I wanted to congratulate you," he smiled broadly, warmly, and his tail wagged. "You made it! You're an alpha! I could not be happier for you," he winked.

Although they lived very differently, Saena couldn't disagree with what Luke said next. Once upon a time, she had distrusted everyone in sight, including her own family, but she wasn't that little girl anymore. She wasn't necessarily gentle of nature, but she did want to believe the best of others whenever possible. There was justice and righteousness in her. Had she been born in her original pack of Horizon Ridge, it's likely Saena would've been raised to value those things greatly.

Luke changed the subject before she had time to comment further on it, and the Alpha was glad for it. "Thanks!" she chirped, glancing back at the ridge rising behind her back. "I even named it Redtail Rise, just for you." She winked back. It wasn't solely Luke's influence, for there were red-tailed hawks in abundance here, but she certainly had remembered the blue-nosed wolf's jokes about a Redtail Plateau when choosing the name for her home. It was fitting in more ways than one. "You found a place to stay yet?" she wondered then. Last time they met, he was just a loner without too much of a plan. He still smelled like a loner, but who knew whether that was true or not? Junior had often smelled like a loner as well because she ranged far and wide and frequently.

Her chocolate packmate had told him the name, but that did not stop the widest of grins forming on his face when she told him again and indicated it had named just for him. His tail swung wildly back and forth, conveying his happiness to hear this before his lips moved. "Just for me?" he lifted a paw to his chest and canted his head. "You shouldn't have!" He chuckled then, and at length looked fondly upon her.

Had he not promised to follow Harlyn, he would have leaped at the opportunity to join Saena, to watch the young alpha and her fledgling pack flourish, as he was certain it would. Of course, there was the matter of a lack of water features here (from what he could see). Perhaps he could get used to living the high life as so many wolves seemed to prefer, but that was not to be tested at this time. "Sort of," he answered. "I've agreed to join a friend who intends to found a pack, but I am not sure when that will happen. So I'm still just kicking around for now." He allowed her time to respond, then spoke again.

"So aside from..." he shifted his mouth, indicating her wounds with a glance and subtle head movements. "Is everything going well? Got some loyal wolves at your back?"

It seemed that Luke had some plans after all. Saena's gaze went past him briefly to the rolling hills between her home and the Sunspire Range, as though she would somehow be able to see where he chose to settle. Part of her hoped it was the northeast so that he could become part of what Saena believed was a powerful grouping of packs, but wherever he went was bound to be beautiful. She didn't imagine he would settle for anything less than that.

"I'm glad to hear that," Saena said, a truth that wouldn't have been so true if she knew just who his friends were. Ah, she was a hypocrite to the core and would not have taken kindly to the news of anyone abandoning Blacktail Deer Plateau, even if that was what she herself had done. Details, details!

"Everything's good here, aside from the Fox shit," she said, pulling up as much cheer as she could in her voice even though her heart sank for her sister. "There's a lot of guys but they're all really loyal guys, so that's good!"

It warmed him to hear she had a lot of loyal men at her back, but he could not stay the sly smile that crept upon his lips. Here was a beautiful young woman and alpha female with a good head on her shoulders. There was hardly a more attractive combination. It was a wonder she had not been snatched up yet (that he knew of).

"A lot of guys, eh?" he laughed softly, in the matter of a devilish heh heh heh. "So..." he shuffled closer, waggling his brows as his head canted slightly to the side. "Any potential beau's in the mix?" Surely, in a pack of loyal men, at least one had caught her eye. It would be a damned shame if one hadn't, for the blue-nosed wolf believed everyone should have someone.

Saena couldn't help but to smirk when Luke's tone changed and he wagged his brows at her. She shuffled one foot across the ground, playing coy, but the truth was that romance was far from Saena's mind. As she came upon her second year, that would likely change, but for now she was focused primarily on leading her pack.

"Nah," she said at length, "I'm, y'know, too cool for that stuff." She shot him a playful grin that indicated she didn't think that at all, then rolled her shoulders as if to say, that can wait. If she never found love, then Saena would be all right with that, too. She'd never had so much as a crush, let alone an actual interest in anyone.

She denied that there were any, or perhaps truly did not see any of her male followers as such. It would seem hard to believe, but then Luke had to remind himself that she was a yearling, for that she lead her own pack and possessed such a level head made it easy to forget her youth. He grinned back at her and withheld a comment about how she may be too cool now, but that there would come a day when she was too hot not to be into that 'stuff'.

"Too cool for that stuff, uh-huh," he teased, bumping her shoulder with his snout. "That's alright, it's not like there's any rush, and certainly no requirement. You seem to be doing quite well for yourself on your own." He understood too, that even if she was ready, she likely had her paws full tending to her fledgling pack. On that note; "I should let you get back to your pack." He paused, warmly gazing upon her for a few moments. "I'm really happy for you, Saena." He leaned forward to kiss her cheek, and waved his tail in farewell. "Take care, and have fun with your new home!" He winked, and then bounded away.

Luke's joking put Saena in an even better mood, if that was possible. Despite their brief chat about Fox and what an evil witch she was (isn't that what Luke said?), their conversation remained light-hearted. She was grateful for that, though she knew it was his preference to keep things light. He assured her there was no rush on romance and she nodded her understanding. Saena didn't think she would ever fall in love, having had no more than a passing crush once in her life while both her sisters hooked up with their respective beaus, but she didn't say it, for at that moment the blue-nosed jokester planted a lick on her cheek and darted away.

She almost went after him, even poised one foot in the air as though to chase him, but in the end she remained where she was and grinned. She waved her short tail vigorously, hoping he could understand it was her own farewell, and as Luke's pale figured began fading into the distance, she called out, "you better come tell me as soon as your pack settles!"