Stone Circle kangaroo court

@Valette. ?

She’d begun to fill back out over the last several days, looking less like a gangly mess of limbs and bones and more like an actual wolf. With that come strength and stamina and she’s able to make it through the whole day without getting tired anymore. Fatigue and malnourishment has been an exhausting process that she’s more than thrilled to make it from sun up to sun down and not feeling worn out by pushing herself too far. The day prior, she’d even taken down a rabbit with relative ease and nearly swallowed it whole.

Today, she moves along the border she’s grown familiar with. Not having the mountain to go up and down likely would have slowed down her healing process but their home now is rather flat with few obstacles and so making it several miles really hadn’t been much of a challenge.

It is when her stomach growls again—something that equally becoming less frequent—and she sets her path a little differently. With her nose to the ground, she searches out for the scent of a rabbit that has crossed by recently. It doesn’t take much effort to catch it off guard, ending up dangling in her jaws just a few seconds later. It hangs and Adeline takes several deep breaths to bring her back up to speed, slowly lowering herself to the ground so she can eat her prize.

Valette was out to check on their herds. It was quite common for her to just watch the herd and see what kind of behavior they were showing. She hummed softly as she watched them from the stone circle. It looked down on the meadows below, which were now snowy plains.

She then realized that the bison still weren't there. She let out a sigh and turned around from where she was. There was no use looking at herds she had watched just a day before. No one could get that much knowledge from just looking.

The female then looked around, wondering what to do. She decided to walk past the borders for once. Maybe there was something interesting she could spot. The smell of blood invaded her nostrils which caught her interest. What she found however was Adeline just having a meal. "Oh hi, Addie," she greeted.

She hasn’t gotten too much of the rabbit down the hatchet before Valette shows up in surprise. Her ears swivel forward and she stiffens, slowly picking herself up and nudging what is left of the rabbit in the direction of the woman. Just because they’d known each other a while, or that she is her dad’s mate, she is still her leader and she hasn’t forgotten the manners in her time away. It isn’t much left but it is an offering nonetheless.

“Is everything okay?” she asks after a moment, noticing the long look on the woman’s face. Her head tilts a little and she closes the distance between them, letting her nose gently touch her cheek to try and push a smile to her features.

Valette watched the female instantly offer her meal to her. Even though she liked the respect that came from it Valette wouldn't really want Adeline to give away her meal. She bobbed her head in respect back but then nudged it over to her paws. "Please eat it. The gesture is noted," she smiled in a friendly matter. It widened when the younger female tried to cheer her up.

"We had a bison herd on the plains before that terrible winter weather. Three bison died of the cold and the herd seemed to have left. I am scared they left our territory permanently," she explained to Adeline. She had been interested in hunting before, so it could matter to the female. "I've been watching the plains for their return, but nothing worth mentioning yet."

Valette does not take the kill and instead returns the few inches it moved back in her direction. She hadn’t really suspected the meal would be taken from her but she stares down at it for a moment. The gesture has been noted but Adeline doesn’t know what to make of it. She doesn’t linger on it long, though, as she moves on to what is troubling her. A frown appears on Adeline’s face and she wrinkles her nose, looking out over the expanse before them as if the herd will show up any second. Three bison should keep the caches full for a while yet but she hums softly to herself.

“Do you know which way they’d been traveling?” she asks, with a curious tilt of her head. Grayday may have taken her out of the territory a few days prior but chasing after a herd of buffalo that may or may not be somewhere nearby certainly has more of her attention. “We can go search for them,” she suggestions with an eager wave of her tail. If they know the general direction—even in the snow—they can possibly track their vicinity.

OMG so sorry Mica!

Valette should her head in reply to the other. "I do not. They left after the snow storm and all tracks and scents are gone," she explained to the other. She was not sure where they would go. Valette had a feeling they couldn't be too far gone but she hoped they would return on their own. Maybe it would not be so silly to expect that from a herd animal. Perhaps she could also scout the neighboring lands to see where they are.

She nodded. "We could. Would you like to?," she asked the female. She knew that Adeline was interested in Hunting. Perhaps they could get some tracker speciality going as they would try and locate those big herd animals.

Adeline frowns with the news about the buffalo. They’d fed the wolves while they were here and she wonders if someone could even count on them to stick around. If they could not survive, or faced a great threat, why linger? Even if they did not provide a threat for some time, surely they wouldn’t wait around for a move to be made. Still, on the other hand, she knows the importance and smiles once Valette gives her an offer in return. “I would, yes,” she says, if only that it may better understand buffalo for her.

Valette nodded in agreement. She would like to find them too. The young alpha female knew the bison weren't to their main source of food seeing that they were incredibly tough to hunt. They still had their deer herds but the occasional bison that died or would get injured would be a feast for days if they managed to take it down. Those three bison that froze to death kept their pack from starving.

Valette trotted out into the open away from the borders. If she was really honest she didn't know where to start. "I think we might want to look North? Or North East? I don't think they travel over the mountains would they? What do you think?" she questioned the younger female for her opinion.

Valette begins to explain the best course of action and Adeline nods her head. She’s mapped a different way in her mind but she knew very little of the herd and the older woman likely knows better than she does anyway. Her head turns to the north, curious if they’d go that way. She doesn’t really know the land around them except their immediate surroundings and even then is still very little. It surprises her when she’s asked of her opinion and her ears droop, flicking her tail once or twice.

“You’re probably right,” she comments before her head drops and she pulls apart the carcass so that she does not waste it. What is left is discarded and she puffs out her chest a little, ready to follow wherever her companion chooses to lead.

Valette gave a firm nod and turned more towards the north. She had been exploring those areas. After all she was not only the pack's hunter but also a scout. The female was quite keen on knowing a pack's location and their resources. It was always good to see how a pack thrived from that. And if there was a pack close that could steal their bison they needed to be quick.

Once Adeline was done she headed out in a quick trot. She let out a howl to Steady to tell him they were leaving for a short while. Only to check and find those herd of bison. Maybe then she could also see if that other pack formed or not. This could be very interesting indeed.

Valette breaks into a trot that Adeline falls in line with rather easily. Her stamina has only just been returning and she feels confident she can keep up with the older woman, at least long enough to get where they are going. In addition, she lets Steady know where they are going and her tail wags. They won’t be going far, she doesn’t suspect, for leaving the territory for too long sets her on edge. Having gone out with Grayday had been anxiety-inducing enough that without him, she’s sure to feel the tension at any moment.