He imagined Lasher would run back to the plateau and immediately inform the leaders there of the truth. Would he twist Peregrine's story? Almost definitely, the Alpha thought as he plodded around the borders, shaking his head lightly. Lasher would surely paint Junior as some poor, innocent victim who was not responsible for her own actions. It was all Peregrine's fault, all of it! Of course, he was to blame: for idiotically trusting the duplicitous, unstable yearling and putting the innocent Wildfire in harm's way.
Lasher wouldn't even have to do that, though; they would require no extra incentive to hate him. Although he hated to think that they would all turn against him, even Blue Willow and Osprey, there was nothing Peregrine could do about any of it anymore. He had given them all a choice: come with him or stay at the plateau. They had all been too busy blaming him and bemoaning sentiment to realize that. They had all chosen their allegiances of their own free will and now, unfortunately, circumstances had forced them to draw lines in the sand.
And though he stood by his actions when dealing with Junior, Peregrine did acknowledge the part he had played in all of it, despite Lasher's beliefs to the contrary. He knew he had messed up, though he had done nothing to deserve death. Wildfire certainly didn't deserve a death sentence either. He found himself shaking his head again, reflecting back on how little Lasher seemed to sympathize with the instinct to protect his young. Those poor kids, was all he could think. Their dad would hesitate to save them; this dad would stop at nothing and happily dispatch even the smallest threat to his offspring.
Speaking of which, he stopped and turned to face outward, toward the northeast. He wondered if Lasher's intent was to gather forces and try to storm the caldera. The thought was absolutely ludicrous, so he didn't concern himself with it for long. The caldera had slain a trespasser for attempting to kill one of the Alphas' pups; any wild wolf pack would (and should) do the same. Blacktail Deer Plateau and its members were far too sentimental for their own good. Well, their butts would hurt right along with the rest of them if they did try anything. Peregrine resumed his patrol, confident that nothing could break through the Redhawks' defenses.
She traveled south, creeping around the edges of the Sunspire range by means of the Rising Sun Valley as she had a number of times before. Did the walk take longer? Yes. Was it easier than crossing a giant ass mountain? Definitely yes. She'd done it before and she would do it a thousand times again because she'd rather walk than climb that sucker any day. Cardio in that form was overrated. Walking was wonderful and blissful.
If memory served her correctly, that bumbling idiot of a wolf she'd tried to train and later save was from somewhere around these parts. She sniffed, hunting out the scent of the pack he belonged to, though the scent she recalled was somewhat fuzzy. It'd taken her awhile and she'd nearly lost her way before at long last she found something that smelled familiar. Funny. She was like a shark with plants. They couldn't escape her. Other wolves, creatures, things? Fat chance.
She skirted the edges of the pack, somewhat distracted and similarly impressed by the vast quantities of plant life this pack had so close at hand. A shame her poor excuse of an alpha didn't take such things into consideration when he'd chosen a bipolar area for himself. Half frozen. Half melted. It didn't know what it was. Fitting, if only because she was certain Tezcacoatl didn't know what he was either.
Her mind wandered until suddenly the scent of another crossed her path. Finally. Someone she could talk to. But a male... her lip curled in disgust. Oh well. Nothing she could do. "You!" she announced, trudging towards him. "Is this Bedrock Santerra?"
Thanks for joining!
He saw the wolf from a distance and paused watchfully, waiting to see if she (according to her scent) would come this way or skirt around the caldera. When the she-wolf showed no sign of giving his territory the berth it deserved, he growled under his breath and began trotting in her direction, his head high and ears thrust forward. The ridge of fur along his back stood on end, all the way down to his upraised tail. He looked the picture of a dominant, aggressive Alpha wolf, though even as he approached, she showed no signs of fear or respect.
Rather, she barked an order at him like
he was standing on
her border. Peregrine blinked at the strange question, then curled his lip and snarled openly at her before breaking into a run. Hopefully she would turn tail and flee, though if she didn't, he would charge until he impacted her outright.
The wolf saw her and bristled. Her face immediately flattened, ears falling as she frowned in his general direction. This, was why she did not like to have any sort of dealings with males. They were far too quick to growl and snap and snarl and far less likely to stop and listen before they pushed their bodies around as if they were good for something other than cannon fodder. Ridiculous really. All this nonsense and grandstanding could have been avoided if he'd take a moment of his time to answer a simple question or direct her to somewolf who could.
And then he charged.
A heavy sigh escaped her as she rolled her eyes. Of course he would want to barrel into her and make a mess of what could have been super simple. With resolve of her own, she widened her stance and made herself something of a brick wall. She was heavyset. Large. Burly for a female. Big boned and thick in stature. She was also slow, but in his pursuit of her she was able to quickly shift so that if his teeth wished to connect with something he'd find her nape or shoulder, both of which she could easily tend to on her own.
They collided. She counteracted his force with a push of her own, which left her nails scraping across the earth as she lost a few feet of ground. Fine. If he wanted space she could give it to him. She shook herself, uninterested in his snarls and growls as she retreated a few paces and looked at him as if to say, 'Happy now?' She lingered at her new distance a moment longer before repeating herself. "Is this Deadsquawk Sierra?"
She stood her ground, flinging out her shoulder to take the brunt of his blow. His teeth clipped the flesh, though he mostly just got a mouthful of thick, fluffy fur. Spitting and growling, he pushed back even as she did the same, widening a space perhaps six feet across between them. Yet still she did not flee, barking another question at him.
"Get the fuck off my lawn," Peregrine spoke over her, leaping at her again. He snapped his fangs at her. Technically, she was far enough away from the caldera that she scarcely posed a threat, yet the Alpha was still defensive this close to the edges of his territory. His ears flattened and he leered, giving her one last chance before he went for the kill.
Oh? This was his lawn now was it? She glanced around. Well. It was certainly in need of a significant amount of grooming. His lawn. Pfft. If he was alpha here, then she was the queen of Sheba. No male could possibly rise to such a rank. It simply wasn't the way of things. As such, she looked passed him to see if there were any females lingering in the nearby woodworks. No? A pity. It appeared as though she'd be dealing with him or rather his teeth.
"That's a dirty word," she sputtered, though she had quite a colorful vocabulary herself. Nevertheless, she took a few paces backwards and stepped into a patch of dirt where the grass did not grow. "Satisfied?" she asked, shuffling her furs upon her shoulders. It still stung where his teeth had connected, but she would live and her pelt would grow back just as thick in that place.
"Is this Redflock Riviera? And if so, did Bastien make it home safely?" There. She'd combined two questions in this instance and hopefully at least one of them would be answered.
She continued to back away, yet only little by little. This could have made him feel better about her proximity but it infuriated him instead. She was paying absolutely no respect to Peregrine or his domain. She seemed entirely unconcerned with his dominant display and his threats. He found the disrespect intolerable.
"No," the Alpha replied emphatically. Why was he even bothering with words? Without listening to her next question, Peregrine's fuse ran out and he exploded at her in a flurry of fangs and paws, unleashing a terrible snarl as he aimed his snout at her plushly furred throat.
Or none of them. Perhaps that was the way of things here too. Were their males meant to guard only in that they were not privy to information of any kind? If that was the case, then she definitely wished to speak to some female who might have a more expansive vocabulary and a broader idea as to what answers her questions may have. This one seemed to have only one intention... which seemed a shame if only because she was now far enough from pack borders and into neutral territory. No man's land. In a sense, that made both of them somewhat equal now that rank went unsupported by claim of territory.
He lunged at her in a fury of flesh and fur and fang. Citali dropped immediately, lowering herself to her stomach as she made no move of aggression towards him. Her ears fell as she guarded her throat against the ground and made herself as flat as possible. If he wished to continue pawing and snapping at her back, so be it.
She dropped, finally showing some manners and sense. Instinctively, Peregrine ceased his attack. It wasn't in his nature to attack a wolf waving the white flag. (Although if she had been inside the territory, it would have been a different story altogether...) Still growling under his breath and glaring, he backed away about two dozen yards. He kept his eye on her, though any effort to move nearer or speak would be met with more savagery. She was an outsider, an onerous one, and he didn't have the patience to deal with her.
Eventually, the Alpha male began pulling back even more, moving closer to the caldera. He kept his jade eyes fixed on her, his posture threatening. As long as she moved further away, Peregrine wouldn't heckle her anymore. Despite himself, he wondered who she was and why she was coming around here barking questions. But he didn't care enough to find out the details. He had painted all wolves from outside his pack with the same brush, which meant that she was a rival not worth the time of day.
She held her silence as his attack continued and then stopped. About time. While he may know nothing of her intent here, he might have found out if he'd stopped growling for a fucking minute and started asking questions of his own. Whatever. He'd stopped. He'd stopped and he was backing up, putting significant distance between them.
Citali held herself to the ground, watching from the corner of her eyes as he withdrew. When he was a significant distance away, she rose, shaking off her pelt as she turned to make her leave. She took a few frustrated paces before turning and looking over her shoulder. If this was his pack and he had made it home? "Don't give him any more goldenrod!" she advised. She'd told Sebastian it was to be used in case of dire emergency. No doubt, that had been his go-to herb in this circumstance, but if he overused it, he'd kill himself before he could return to full health.
Whatever. Hopefully whatever healer they had within their midsts was capable. Doubtful, but if the wolf died it wasn't without her lack of trying. She moved to leave.
Thanks so much for the thread! :)
Only later would Peregrine recollect her words and connect the dots, when Sebastian eventually arrived on their doorstep looking like minced meat. For now, he just snapped and growled from a distance when she called out to him
again. His black tail stiffened and he thrust his ears forward in warning. But she was leaving, he could see, and he visibly relaxed.
He stood there a while, watching her until she disappeared, ears upright and tongue lolling out in a pant. Only after she had been gone several minutes did he finally turn and resume his patrol proper. He couldn't resist shooting the occasional glance back over his shoulder, though soon the altercation was pushed to the back of his mind... at least until Sebastian's homecoming, anyway.