Lost Creek Hollow You've got nothing to fear

Things had quieted again, for good or for bad.  The meeting would be soon (unless it gets backdated), and hopefully that would liven things up a little. Things could have been worse.  Everyone should otherwise have been settled in by now and things should be going fine.  Blah blah, normal stuff.  Though honestly she did creep on @Terance a little. Since their last conversation, she was curious if he actually would do something crazy, so she made a point of following the trails he'd left through the territory a bit to see if it lead to anything interesting.  No such luck, and he hadn't been in this area today either, near as she could tell.

Today Treason was making a more detailed survey of the territory.  She was looking for the perfect spot, but to a certain point she wasn't sure what that actually was. What qualified as perfect?  What did she want?  Honestly, she had no idea.  She was just kind of winging it and wandering through looking for a place that didn't seem to be someone else's typical sleeping spot.  Her thinking at the moment was that before the snows really locked the place down it would probably be a good idea to scope things out and make sure she knew what was where.  And if she found something perfect? Claim the hell out of it so nobody else got any ideas.  She would take what was the best, and as far as she was concerned only one wolf in the pack could prevent her from doing so.  And so, Treason continued on under the trees, sniffing at the odd rabbit warren and checking who had been by this particular small fork of the creek.

if treason had been stalking him, terance hadn't noticed. the pair of them did a lot of border patrol, so if she was after in the same place as him it was merely coincidence. so, she had that going for her-- in terms of stealth, anyway. terance had put some thought into her suggestion to get wild and reckless with someone-- but he hadn't actually exercised the idea just yet. whether it was because he wanted to or not wasn't really the problem, terance just wasn't really sure how to go about it. pick up someone off the streets? find someone willing inside their borders? both seemed dirty, and terance wasn't sure he was ready to accidentally get attached to someone-- which seemed to be a common trend.

but either way, he'd come across his deputy as she sniffed around the forest, his ears pricking as he too took a quick moment to scent the air. nothing particularly interesting, so he wondered what she was up to. the stone gave a low woof of greeting before padding over to her, ears pricked. "what's up?" he asked casually.

Because of his lack of presence here, Terance was probably the last wolf she was expecting to run in to.  Okay, not the last.  That would be Rannoch.  Or a trespasser. But of able-bodied members of the pack, he was still pretty far down on that list.

Her instincts weren't providing too much of a help at this point either, distracting her more with food and just general activities through the territory (not that the former was bad, always nice to know where the food was).  She stuck her head into another hole, possibly an old fox den since it was larger than a rabbit but considerably undersized in comparison to her, sniffed around, rejecting that one on all fronts.  It smelled especially damp.  She was probably too close to the water.

Extracting her head, she started investigating further along when Terance called out.  Treason had been pretty well caught up in her own thoughts, so she hadn't noticed a damn thing, and for half a second she actually seemed startled. Go figure, had to happen some time.  She bowed her head, Surveying parts of the territory I haven't yet.  Hadn't expected to see you here.  Which was definitely the truth.

It wasn't like she was totally trying to keep secrets from Terance -- he knew more of her thoughts and plans more than any other wolf in the pack -- but she was a little self-conscious about whether or not he had believed she was serious.  Well, that and she had an image to keep up and this didn't exactly fit with the mundane interpretation of it.

intrigued by treason's display of surprise, an expression she didn't often have so genuinely, terance's ears swept forwards. a small smile found it's way to his maw, a bit amused by it as well. there was a first time for everything, he supposed.

sure, maybe he spent a lot of time along the borders, but terance was not a machine, and he was sometimes other places. besides, he lived here-- it was his home too. he was allowed to be in any part of it at any given time. so, what gives? he was thoughtful, trying to decide what she meant by that, but ultimately decided to ask instead of ponder it for himself. "why's that?" he pressed her, dark head tilting to one side.

Treason would have to scold herself later for not being her usual hyper-aware self.  Terance seemed to have not missed a beat, and if any of the other packmembers did similarly, she'd be in an awkward place.  Part of Treason being Treason was the fact she acted more like some sort of judging immortal rather than some normal wolf.  Part of the whole 'better to be feared than loved' scheme and all that.

She made a show of sniffing at him then at the air around her and musing, Didn't smell like it was your most favorite haunts.  The line between her normal snarky self and her being slightly defensive was a very thin one, and in this case she was probably wobbling all over on either side of it.  Treason was keen to try and redirect the conversation so she was the interrogator instead, So are you out here doing similarly or what's dragged you this way today?  She apparently wasn't going to continue her search right this instant though, not when she was feeling particularly watched and out of sorts.

ah, a simple enough answer. terance merely shrugged to her comment, tilting his chin up as she sniffed at him pointedly. "i'm full of surprises," he mused, but even terance knew that that was a stretch. he was very vanilla in his decision making, which is probably why he still hadn't made any moves on treason's suggestions.

he'd actually done the opposite of what she suggested-- he'd checked in on @Rannoch earlier that day, @Liffey as well, bringing the couple a meal and some friendly conversation. rannoch was still pretty out of it, mostly drugged up. terance remembered how out of it he'd been during his own bear attack. he tried not to worry too much about it, because his friend was still definitely alive. it was just sort of hard to see him like that. but since nothing had changed, terance tried to focus again on something else, since it was far more productive than worrying. than being anxious.

he didn't want to just talk to treason about it though, because that felt weird too. felt kind of gross. 

suddenly... he wondered... maybe his 'doing something for himself' could be stupid and casual-- but not physical-- terance wasn't sure how productive that would be. but he'd caught treason off-gaurd, and though typically she was good at grounding herself, he found she was a bit off balance in their conversation. he was a little out of practice but... he could give it a shot. have a little fun! loosen up!! things could be worse!!

so the dark brute gave her a look, focusing his whole attention on her. "just you," he commented idly.

She thought this was going to end up being another of those awkward moments where she had to figure out whether to treat Terance more in a friendly way or more in a boss way and that somehow it was all going to devolve into her somehow being kind of in the wrong and wanting to bury her secrets.  Always better to be prepared, after all.

Except then he kept talking.
It was just two words but the chain reaction searching for context definitely set her neurons firing. Oh really.  She was split on whether to take it literally or not.  To play it safe or reach a bit, push limits again.  She tilted her head, then slowly turned towards him, ditching her plans for the moment for a faint smirk.  What, looking for my particular brand of trouble?  It looked like she was contemplating continuing the thought, but made the conscious choice to cut it off there.  Toss the further explanations away and see what happened.  It also wasn't the normal terse way she was speaking a moment ago, but wasn't quite into 'cat ready to pounce' territory.  It was floating somewhere in the middle.  Uncertain.

it was interesting to terance that treason would want to regard him as some sort of boss. his rank was superior, but terance was well convinced that the two of them were on a close enough level that treason could respect his rank without treating him like... a boss. maybe he was entirely wrong in thinking that. he'd never considered he and treason to be best friends, but with rannoch out of service and literally everyone else in his life gone, treason was his last friend left. so he was sort of working on making their relationship closer.

apparently messing with her through casual flirting was how he was going about this. tbd if it would actually work.

also-- terance realized right now he had news for her since the last time he'd seen her. drats, this would have to wait. maybe he'd try to weasel it in slowly over time-- maybe that would be his goal. in it for the long haul. 

eh. 

"i'd always prefer your brand of trouble to the rest," he returned with a flick of his ear and a warm but toothless smile. he was quiet for a moment, and then huffed gently, "but... i do actually have something to discuss with you." he stepped towards and past her, shoulder brushing against some part of her. it was a silent request to follow him, treason was not stupid, he was positive she would understand. 

"i spoke with hydra-- my old friend from moonspear-- recently. things have transpired between the wolves of the redhawk clan and the wolves of blackfeather woods. apparently titmouse-- do you remember that asshole?-- is alive, and kidnapped one of their own. hydra warned us of him, apparently he's on the loose," he began to explain, in more words than he cared to say, but it was necessary. and then, as a side note, terance added, "and since i'm leading this pack now, i don't want moonspear to be looked at as our enemy. when liffey led, she was afraid of them, and rannoch took her side. but moonspear was always kind to me, and they don't deserve that label."

he knows treason's whole cult theory, so he kinda wondered what she might say to that. hopefully something positive.

It would probably make more sense if Treason was at all open about her background, but she wasn't, so about all that could be confirmed was that she definitely treated alphas with more reverence than others of the pack.  Then again, it could just be she wanted to butter up the person in charge so she could get more out of them.  Who knew.

The shift back to more normal topics did kind of throw her off a little. Maybe she had been reaching, in which case she should reevaluate things.  It wasn't like she knew what she wanted, nor had an ample library of experience to draw on outside of her training to be a soldier.  It's almost like something drove people away.  Gee, wonder what.  The balance slid back towards her normal behavior again.  As he brushed by and she turned to follow, there was another quiet click as she nipped at the air just past his guard hairs.  With them moving again, Treason fell a half step behind him at one side, her attention mostly lingered on Terance, but did steal away to scan the area around them just in case she saw something promising.  Treason wasn't going to waste the walk, after all.

She remembered him as Screech -- well, remembered would be putting it kindly.  Most of her focus around those events was around Redshank and his little screwed up buddy didn't really have much of a speaking part, so she shook her head. Titmouse, Redshank... Was it the same person and she'd just scrambled names somehow?  Is that the one who wanted to attack Rannoch?  Either way, the rest kind of made sense, especially as Terance was likely to clarify who he was talking about.  Some crazy guy running around trying to kidnap people, and though she wasn't privy to the full extent of Blackfeather's dealings, she was ok with being careful should she run into any of their members.  Not to mention Treason herself wasn't exactly an easy target -- it was everyone else that was gonna have more of a problem.

Treason nodded, smiling wryly, I do wonder if they told their little cultist boy this.  Little wasn't really a proper description for the gold male, but Treason was pretty sure that particular combination of words would drive him up the wall, so she'd use it to amuse herself.  If she ran into him again, she'd have a fun time rubbing his face in it.  How he'd been wrong and could very well have caused a war that his leadership would have been unhappy with.  Gloating about being right was always good fun.  Do you expect we'll continue to see not much of their members because of their distance, or would this encourage them to come visit?

"redshank, yeah," came terance's reply, which was easy enough. terance didn't have much else to say to that-- unless treason asked questions. it was all pretty straightforwards. 

to her comment, the hollow's leader snorted. he hoped so, assumed so. terance really hoped that they wouldn't have any actual problems with moonspear. really hoped. they'd had enough, he just wanted it all to be over. friends again... that was something he wanted. but her question was not one terrance anticipated, and his tail swung as they walked thoughtfully. "i don't think we should anticipate visitors unless anything happens..." he said, ears pressing forwards, "after all, the hollow isn't an easy trip." which was true, they were further than just a valley away now.

Her nose and muzzle crinkled slightly because that response wasn't entirely clear.  Did that mean they were the same person or had he just misunderstood her question?  That bit of confusion was enough to make her forget Terance's earlier words entirely.  Wave goodbye to that momentary bit of dangerous fascination and say hello to the standard Treason.  The whole thing had been kind of a disaster in the first place so maybe she missed something in the moment.  Who's on first?  Whatever.  If she came across anyone vaguely familiar she'd confirm who they were before doing anything.  Even though it would be hilarious for her to think Redshank was Titmouse if they ever crossed paths again, it was likely one way or another it'd get sorted out by the time the meeting happened.  But apparently right now she wasn't going to say anything because she didn't like ever seeming confused.

Mm.  So then probably won't change much in the grand scheme of things for the rest of us?  If Terance had directly made peace, then the only ones left that Moonspear had an issue with would be Rannoch and Liffey and they likely weren't going anywhere any time soon.  And if they were far enough they weren't going to have visitors, then... Meh.

Treason's eyes then went back to wandering a little.  If he just was here on business then she expected things were wrapping up here soon.  She could go back to her quest and not worry about sharing it, but as it were Terance was still leading their path both verbally and literally so she wasn't going to take any actions until she was sure.

terance shrugged. "probably not," was all he had to say to that. he didn't note any actual confusion, and didn't realize he had been unclear... so he didn't bother bringing up redshank or titmouse again. whatever. that was a problem that maybe they'd face at a later date.

also, the flirting had gone rather poorly. terance was unsure if he was off his game, or if treason was just entirely uninterested in him. either way, he had dialed it back already and hadn't planned on starting all the casual banter. plus, she seemed pretty distracted. whatever... terance would maybe try his hand on someone else. or, actually, fuck it, terance wasn't gonna try this again. it was a stupid idea, he shouldn't have taken treason's advice so literally. 

ugh. he was overthinking again. 

"that's all i had to say, though," he said with a wave of his tail, "i guess i'll leave you to it." he hesitated for only a moment before giving treason a soft smile and a dip of his head, then, he ducked away through the territory.

Okay.  Later, then.  Was there a little hint of confusion there?  That's what the whole thing had been: a giant batch of confusion.  Had she imagined how he'd been acting?  Which wolf was which?  Hell, which bit of confusion was worse?  Then again, did Terance really want Treason's actual response to his flirting? It might not be the one he'd want in the end.. Or would it?  How many other bizarre questions would the writer come up with?

On the bright side, she could keep looking for a den spot without feeling self-conscious.  Little wins?