Blacktail Deer Plateau hear this news, bear my gold

She curled tightly into the place Pema had shown her, slipping away once to return to the pools, before returning and cramping herself back into the tiny place. She simply slept, wrapped herself into the little dark place, drawing up the corners and tucking them away. She did not know how much time had passed, only that now was early dawn, light just beginning to creep into the grey sky.

Unfolding her limbs, she slipped into the morning, blinking as she stood motionless a moment. She was thirsty; the hunger was unimportant. She crept along the rock, ears pricked as slowly, carefully, she navigated the rock, searching for the familiar trickle or roar.

it’s when dauntless’ patrol takes him close to the wall that he catches the foreign scent crossing into their territory. he pauses, bowing his head to drink in the unfamiliar scent with a bristle of guard hairs at his nape made coarse by his heavy winter coat. a low growl rumbles in his throat as he adjusts his course and follows it. It ends at a small crag that he wasn’t going to fit into but a new scent trail, fresher than the one that had led him to this hiding hole was leading away. pursuing it was a no brainer and his pace quickens the closer he draws, knowing he is gaining upon her as the scent grows gradually stronger and stronger. her flaming red pelt is impossible to miss even saddled by rust as it is. the cub’s tail raises over his back in dominant posturing as he errs to assertiveness. she is a trespasser here, after all ( as far as dauntless is aware, anyhow ). he moves quickly around her in a half circle, keeping his distance as he seeks to directly intercept her and block her path abruptly. it occurs to him that he should make a beeline to tackle or attack her …but something stills it. “you do realize you’re trespassing, right?” he rumbles the inqury not bothering with any sort of courtesy chuff. there is something undeniably bold about her presence here that both irks and impresses dauntless; and is likely the only reason he has yet to take action.

Steps behind her have alarms ring shrilly in her mind, the approach of a boy who moves to intercept her setting off another dozen. His tail is held high, everything about him screams dominance, and the girl's tail is quick to wrap tightly around her rear, falling motionless as she stares at the boy with wide eyes. He is young, a deep umber, and has yet to fill out into his adult form. He has none of the silent danger of her attacker, nor the frame, but the fear rises in her all the same, the sharp tang of it tangible. She replies then, softly yet firmly, "no." The fire-touched girl creeps backward, on the verge of fleeing, caught unawares and afraid.

dauntless does not expect to be waylaid so abruptly with a concoction of guilt as she cowers down, tucking her tail against herself tightly. for a moment the teenager is perplexed as he watches what he perceived to be boldness utterly shatter like the barest touch of a fingertip to a severely cracked mirror. he is only protecting the pack and doing what he thought he was supposed to do when confronted with a believed-to-be trespasser; so why does he suddenly feel like the world’s biggest jackass? his secondary growl dies in his throat and his tail lowers as she softly but firmly tells him ‘no’. no she didn’t realize she was trespassing? or no she wasn’t trespassing? as that hadn’t been made very clear to dauntless. regardless, what he initially perceived and what has unfolded before his eyes are starkly different and leaves him with perplexity in the wake of aggression. “wait,” dauntless sighs heavily at himself, in the hopes of keeping her from fleeing as it looks like she’s about to take flight at any given second. “I’m not going to hurt you.” he assures her, though he’s not overly confident that she will believe him. “‘no’s a little ambiguous don’t you think? are you trespassing or aren’t you?” he asks, settling cautiously upon his haunches to show her that she’s in no immediate danger from him.

He pauses, the boy seeming to deflate, slowly before her gaze. This gives her little comfort, however, for did she not think the man harmless before he had struck? Still, she sank a little onto her paws again, though her heart, like a frantic bird, beat in increased tempo against her chest. He reassures his ceasing aggression with words, though they to do little to calm the gamine creature, staring at him wide-eyed. She looks every bit the guilty, fearful trespasser, but when she speaks again it is to contradict her appearance.  "not trespassing." She breaths, the words barely loud enough to be heard, wishing she'd stayed cramped in the little den.

dauntless notices as she sinks a little further down and continues to stare at him with fearful, owlishly large eyes. the guilt continues to gnaw at his stomach and in his chest and he takes a deep breath, letting it out in a shallow exhale and swallows thickly because her continued prostration only further makes him feel like a jackass and reaffirms that he doesn’t like feeling like this. he was only trying to do his job and there’s a slight swell of frustration at himself because if he wants to be a proper mercenary he can’t let every pretty, wide-eyed, fearful girl crack him; yet, he believes her when she mentions that she was not trespassing. presently, there’s no proof that what she speaks is the truth but he gets the feeling that a trespasser lying about having permission to be in morningside’s territory would not have fear that is so genuine. “ok,” he says with a slow nod. “i didn’t know. i’m sorry.” dauntless feels a little relief as he apologizes for his aggression but it’s still a present knot in his stomach and throat; dauntless wasn’t sure if she was common knowledge among the morningside wolves or if, perhaps, no one had bothered to keep him in the loop because he’s still a cub. it’s impossible to say and doesn’t matter now given that he knows she’s here. dauntless’ ears flutter back to rest against his skull.

“I’m dauntless,” he draws his salmon pink tongue across his jowls after he offers his introduction. “or you can call me mirza if you want.” he adds, with a small smile realizing that ‘dauntless’ — while it is his name — might sound a little arrogant. it’s true he hardly ever goes by ‘mirza’ but mostly because it’s the only thing he has left of his estranged mother, khoe. he keeps it because it’s his singular way of acknowledging her participation in his creation as the title of ‘mother’ and the love associates with it no longer belongs to her. He has catori and pema for that and two moms were infinitely better than one who left them. the name always feels so weighted upon his tongue on the rare occasions he introduces himself as such like an expectation that he has yet to live up to, too formal. "are you a new pack member or just staying temporarily?" he asks next trying to ease some of her fear by keeping up a conversation not realizing that she may not want to head in the conversational direction that dauntless is going in.