Verdant Basin Living your life cutthroat.

What began as a rather aimless meander—she left the plateau behind to see the sights due south—turned into an impromptu tracking endeavor. She didn't fancy herself a hunter, much less one specialized in sleuthing out quarry, yet the trail was so darn obvious that Towhee couldn't ignore it. She followed the bent grasses, hoof prints and strong scents until they led her over a gentle, rolling hillock that overlooked a blue basin below. The she-wolf paused there at the crest, blinking down at a herd of black-tailed deer milling on the shore. She then looked upward, lips curving into a smile when she saw X circling overhead.

There was no way she could attempt to hunt here all by herself, yet the Beta lowered her belly to the grass and simply observed them from afar. There were fourteen individuals in the herd: a buck, eight does of varying ages and five fawns well on their way to full size as summer carried them closer to autumn. One of the does appeared to be getting on in years, judging by the slow, careful way she moved herself, as well as her relative distance from the young. Towhee watched her particularly, wondering if it was worth sending X—who swooped down to crouch low beside her—back to the plateau to fetch some pack mates.

Making reference to her deafness, but I can take it out if its too much PP!

He had been sleeping in the forest south of here, lingering, trying to figure out where he should head next in his search for his next adventure. When the boy had started out that morning he had a keen interest to find is thing he'd heard about — "The ocean," one of his pals had called it — but Ambrose didn't know where to look exactly. He headed north just because it seemed like the natural progression of things, and soon the forest petered out around him and he was left looking at a green horizon. The landscape that spread before him was undulating and bright with life. As he went along he found signs of other animal life — deer scat, mostly.

It had been a while since he'd eaten anything bigger than a vole or a squirrel, and he was mightily hungry. There wasn't much chance he could take one out by his lonesome, but he was a bit of a dreamer — so he took to watching them and investigating, seeing how close he could get before one of the bucks took notice. Maybe he could cause a stampede and pick off one of the fawns? He spotted a few older ruminats among them, and they glanced his way, but Ambrose was hardly a threat. 

As he got closer he noticed a wolf scent on the wind, and was veering off in the direction it was going, his interest in the deer adjusting to this new pursuit. As he came upon a canine figure he called out behind them, Hey! You hungry too? But when he didn't get any sort of response he was a bit perplexed, and his pace dropped off a bit.

"Why don't you," Towhee said after continuing to watch the elderly doe a while longer, "head back to the plateau and find some hunters for me?" She didn't look at X as she spoke, though she finally cast her eyes toward him to catch his reaction. He nodded his head quickly in assent, then spread his wings and blasted off like a feathery rocket. Towhee's head tipped back as she watched him wing back in the direction of the plateau. As soon as he disappeared from view, her attention returned to the herd.

But then something stole it. As with her recent encounter with Rueger, Towhee probably wouldn't be able to explain it to someone else. But having lived her whole life without the benefit of hearing, her other four senses had sharpened to compensate, plus she'd developed a sort of sixth sense which alerted her to presences even when there was nothing to see, smell, taste or touch. Perhaps Raven could come up with some physiological explanation for it, but Towhee didn't care that much. She was just glad to have developed this nifty ability.

Here was another stranger approaching her, though he hadn't gotten quite as close as Rueger (her skill was increasing!). Towhee immediately assumed all fours and pivoted to face him, orange eyes quickly assessing his body language. He didn't appear to be a threat, yet he was a total stranger all the same.

"Can I help you?" she asked, voice bearing its typical toneless brusqueness.

It had taken some time, but Elwood had finally gotten to the point where he understood some of X’s communications. He squinted up at the sky when he spotted the bird wheeling overhead, assuming that Towhee’s companion was simply passing by, but X swooped lower. He watched as the bird winged past his head, almost seeming to gesture for him to follow. When he didn’t immediately move to trail the bird, X gave a screech — was that impatience in his tone? — and Elwood shrugged and began to trot along in X’s shadow.

The hawk led him outside of the territory, but with no real urgency; thus, Elwood was able to infer that it wasn’t an emergency. Not surprisingly, after traveling a short distance, he spotted Towhee ahead, and she was accompanied by a stranger. Even as he approached, he could see that her body language was not particularly defensive — just her typical Towhee reaction to an outsider. His gaze slid between the two as he slowed to a halt, and then he looked up at X with a smirk as the bird announced their arrival with a cawing sound.

“You rang?” he addressed Towhee playfully, inclining his chin slightly in a wordless greeting to the unfamiliar wolf even as he glanced behind them and took note of the herd of deer down near the water.

Right when he was considering turning tail and finding somewhere else to lurk, the stranger seemed to realize he was there. Her tone wasn't exactly friendly but at least she'd noticed him. Ambrose opened his mouth to reply but as he started, I said— he saw the glinting silver of something moving towards them, and so he shut up. The new arrival was older, and male, and seemed to be on friendly terms with the darkly-coated girl. You rang? he said, and briefly the two wolves glanced at one another. Ambrose felt more out of place now that there was another man present, so he shrank back a step, but otherwise he remained poised with his own unending self-confidence.

After a beat his voice cut in again, this time more insistent but still not too loud, because he was still hungry and did not want to frighten the deer. If you're here to hunt then I'd be willing to help, if you'll have me. Bit of a hunting prodigy if I do say so myself! he grinned as he said this (mostly for the girl's benefit), knowing full well that his larger size and generally good health would strengthen his claim. He wasn't as good as his sister but they didn't need to know that. Ambrose and Niamh had always worked in tandem and it had been an adjustment learning to hunt with other wolves, and then to be stuck hunting small things on his own — ah, but it would be better now. There were wolves here he could (probably) charm in to helping him.

Before the stranger could respond, a wild Uncle Elwood appeared. When he materialized beside her, Towhee was surprised but pleased to see her godfather. Her tail waved briefly, though she quickly returned her attention to dark, unfamiliar male.

Her brows rose at his self-confident claim. "We only hunt with our pack," Towhee said before her retired uncle could get a word in edgewise. Truthfully, she didn't hunt much at all—her strengths lay elsewhere—and she didn't even really know how she felt about collaborating with a stranger, much less how Elwood might feel. But she picked her stance, however arbitrarily, and she would stick to it.

With that said, she paused for a moment before adding, "If you're such a great hunter, maybe we could use you. Are you spoken for?" Recruiting definitely wasn't her forte but the Beta knew that @Quixote and @Raven trusted her judgment. If this guy really proved to be a hunting prodigy, then surely they could use him in the Redhawks.

Elwood's brow arched at the loner's quick offer to assist the two Redhawks with a hunt, but he wasn't initially opposed to the idea. He had hunted with strangers before, though it had been quite some time. These days, he rarely ventured outside of his home territory. But Towhee was quick to turn down the male's suggestion -- and Elwood didn't argue. She outranked him, technically, and while more teeth and claws were always helpful, he wasn't nearly as trusting of unfamiliar wolves as he once had been.

Rather than excuse themselves, however, Towhee took a different approach and asked about the male's loyalties. Elwood's ears cupped towards the dark wolf and he tilted his head slightly, his body language communicating that he was attentive and ready to hear the answer to Towhee's question.

At first he was a little offended. Taken aback by the easy manner in which the stranger denied his offer, he physically took a step back and gawked for a moment. It wasn't often that Ambrose was told no, and even less frequent that anyone fail to acknowledge his prowess, and it bothered him a little bit too much. But she added a question a moment later, one he nearly missed because of how perplexed her felt.

No, I ain't spoken for. What an odd way to go about things. He only wanted to help, and maybe get some intel on his sister in the process, but at this point he was a bit put off by the whole idea. But its a mutual thing—I'm not here to join up with just anybody. How about we get some chow and then figure it out from there? 

Okay, so he had a bit of attitude and that might hurt his chances, but he wasn't wrong. He needed to prove himself to them, but why should he? What made them so special? He waited for a verdict, shrugging his shoulders and passing a smile between the two strangers.

Ignoring the fact he needed to play nice, and that they were more than likely friends of his sister, of course. His pride was a pretty big obstacle right now.

In response to his rejoinder, Towhee immediately opened her mouth to say, "No," and then probably something like, "that's not how any of this works." But before she could get out anything else, movement caught her attention. She turned her head to watch as the herd of deer suddenly began to trot along the water's edge. At first, she wondered if they'd detected the three wolves somehow, yet they didn't scatter nor appear particularly hurried. It was much more likely they were simply moving on from the watering hole.

It would've been a fool's errand to attempt to chase after them without a solid game plan, so Towhee could only watch as the herd cantered away. Her orange eyes did flick to the stranger, as if curious what he might do. There was no reason to refute his offer now, since the opportunity was gone. Really, there was no reason to linger, regardless of what he planned to do next. She, Elwood and X should get back to the plateau.

"No deal," Towhee finally said, expression cool. She shrugged. There was no malice intended. He knew as well as they did that their opening had closed here. Turning to Elwood, she said, "Let's head home."

Wrap up since Ambrose is PPC? Or we can continue with just these two if you want. :)

The male didn't seem willing to take Towhee's offer at face value, and made a suggestion of his own. Unsurprisingly, Towhee turned him down. With that, it seemed like their interaction would be coming to a close; as Towhee and the stranger talked, Elwood had watched the deer take their leave. He made a mental note as to the herd's general location, in case a group of Redhawks decided to come back and hunt them at a later time, but had no problem walking away from them now.

Following Towhee's lead, he turned back towards the plateau. Although his little field trip hadn't yielded much, it had still been nice to get out and stretch his legs briefly.