Dragoncrest Cliffs only the brave

All Welcome, but hoping for @Dacio

It had been made relatively clear to Kasatka that, once you were in, you were in. But she was trusting and naive, and she hadn't fully processed the implications that came along with joining Drageda. Despite her somewhat tragic origin story, she was still a hopeful young girl, and she didn't fully understand that there could be consequences to her actions and choices - consequences worse than Mom or Aditya giving her The Look.

Luckily, she had no plans to abandon her new pack. She was relieved to be among wolves again, and heartened to see that there were families living together here - no her family (not yet), but it was a home-y feeling all the same. And yet, there was an undercurrent to the pack that Kasatka had come to know in the marrow of her bones: grief - grief and righteous anger.

It was an uncomfortable feeling, but Kasatka had learned to live with it. Still, she walked on eggshells around her new pack mates as she went about her business - which was mainly wandering the areas that were open to her while she did her best to hunt small prey. It would be better if she could find a river, or reach the ocean. She was a dab hand at fishing, but still pants at hunting over land. This was probably clear to any who came across her this day as she tried to capture a squirrel.

By climbing a tree.

It was a short tree, at least -- and one of the few iin the area that was not a redwood. Instead, it was a coastal cypress, and it's branches were a low and tangled mass of rough bark and prickly needles. Kasatka was balanced precariously on one of the middling branches, inching closer and closer to where the squirrel sat on the far, narrow end of the branch.

Dacio woke with a start, sucking in a breath to fill his lungs as though something (someone) had been crushing his chest. He pulled himself up onto his elbows, wild grey-green eyes searching the darkness of Hougeda's deepest caverns. It took some long moments of discomfort to realise that his attacker was not upon him, that he was entirely alone, and the sterling youth allowed himself to slacken.

He took the time to breathe again, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly, before carefully gathering onto his dark paws to loosen his pelt with a quick shake. Wincing at the sting of the scabbed marring behind a charcoal lobe, Dacio chose to ignore the wound by gritting his fangs and making his way calmly through the hollows toward the forest beyond.

The young Gona chose no path in particular, but naturally made to avoid his late mother's more favoured haunts. It was the crack of a branch nearby that made him pause to listen, an ear canting in its direction before his cool gaze followed. He felt torn: anxious that he might find something he didn't want to see, yet fiercely protective as he considered Rusalka's attempted raid on their land just the week before.

Hackles lifted, the peppered Drakru arched his feathery tail and prowled through the trees to find a long-legged girl attempting to climb one. Dacio's nostrils flared to test the air as he failed to recognise the young wolf and while she bore their pack's scent, he maintained some uncertainty and kept his distance to observe her hunt in silence.

Kasatka had learned a little from her lessons with Vercingetorix, but even after the recent battle with Rusalka, she had not yet learned to be on guard or wary writhing Drageda's borders. Everyone was so big an strong, and even she was learning to fight - could they really be in serious danger?

The answer was yes, obviously, but Kasatka couldn't see it. Perhaps things would be different if she'd actually seen the fight go down.

Anyway. All that to say she didn't notice the grey-trimmed male. Not at first, while she was still inching toward the squirrel. The branch creaked uncertainly under her weight, causing the squirrel to chatter at her - but it was talking to fast and its accent was too strong, so she mostly ignored whatever it was saying.

Screwing her face up in concentration, she prepared to leap toward it. She'd judged her distance from the ground to be... not too dangerous. She was good at landing on her paws and she was obviously going to fall either way - but perhaps this way would get the squirrel between her jaws before she did. Before it could really see what she had planned, Kasatka sprang forward and caught the small creature between her teeth. And, of course, the branch there couldn't hold her weight, and she wouldn't have stuck the landing either way. Instead, she dropped along with her branch, a bit if scrambling keeping her from falling directly on it. Instead, she rolled a few yards - knocking her head painfully on the way - and skidded to a halt nearby.

Half of the squirrel still hung from her bloody mouth, but the rest was... somewhere around here, she was sure. Wobbling slightly but with a wagging tail, she hopped to her paws and looked around, only to stop short as she came face to face with three green-eyed boys. 

H-hi, she said, the small half-carcass dropping from her mouth. She was mortified to have had an audience to what had been a very stupid stunt.