Blacktail Deer Plateau Teach the baby what a lie tastes like.

It had been a while. And damn, had he gone through a lot. It seemed like they just kept coming and coming, savage little shits, but he held them off as best he could. They dispersed only to regroup and try a separate section of the territory. He wasn’t fast, and they were learning where his weaker spots were. The knowledge was passed around and it became harder and harder for Siq to fight them off.
Fucking Coyotes, man. 

But it seemed after all all these past day, things were silent. 
Too fucking silent. And warnings popped off in the wolf dog. 

It had had gotten to where he had to leave carcasses all around the territory, and while it felt homely to him, it began not only to blanket the scents of the wolves who were mostly unpresent, but ward off the deer. That was the staple of their food, and it seemed only Siqsa was left dragging carcasses across where he could. But again, it seemed only Siqsa was doing things, nowadays. He hadn’t seen Mouse Kid since the day he scared him off on accident, Minori had whooped his ass and ghosted, that one dude Corvus had poofed too. He had seen the girl who’s name he couldn’t remember, the one whom he thought was trying to command him before he even made up his mind to join the pack, gone. Ruenna was busy assisting medically, and he didn’t want to tie her up with his own healing, so he took meds and went on about his life. But it seemed Liri was under bad condition as was the rest of Rue’s wards. Shit was tough here in the Plateau, and while he was the only muscle Kavik seemed to have left, he did what he could. 

He believed in in the dark leader. The gentle man gave him an alternate purpose, and even while things were seeming to crumble at the base, The Demon kept his faith in this Alpha. Not just to redeem himself, but to change into something less terrible. And it kinda felt like it was working. 

But he was at a loss for what to do. These attacks right now were increasing in both tenacity and savagery. And Siq has run out of backup ages ago. So deep in the helm of the Plateau, the navy blue hulk rose his heavy crown as high as a strained neck could, and called for the Alpha, @Kavik, to help him figure a way to atleast save what they could, together.

It seemed sometime recently, a family of coyotes had decided that they wanted to share the plateau with his pack--well, more like mooch off of their hard work. This was, of course, not okay, and the alpha had done his best to keep them at bay, but with their very low numbers and a sick mate, he could only do so much. 

He was walking the borders today, keeping an eye out for the irritating intruders when he heard Siqsa's call. The dark male had been the his biggest ally against the coyotes, as well as being loyal and hardworking despite their uncertain future. He was extremely grateful for his packmate's continued presence. 

Siqsa wasn't too far from where he had been patrolling, so it didn't take him too long to reach the other man. When he arrived, Kavik greeted him with a, Siqsa, and a dip of his head before coming to stand in front of him. What can I do for you? he asked. He wondered if there had been more problems with the coyotes. He and Siqsa had worked tirelessly to keep them from infiltrating the plateau, but it just seemed that lately, there wasn't enough wolf-power to be as effective as they needed to be.

The swaying giant was rewarded for his call with the man himself, and after a lowly tail swish of a greeting, the mountain of wolfdog launched into the situation.“What are we gonna do, Kavik?” He threw the question out there, his filters forever and ever never working when it came to social structure. “I’ve gotten 4 of them last week but they’re learning. That’s where it’s all fucking up at. They’ve been watching us and we ain’t got nothing to stop em. This week? I haven’t gotten any of em.“

He wanted to just find out where the little pack of assholes stayed and charge that shit, but he was just reviving from whatever type of whatever it was he was going through. Plus they were small, agile, and he would more than likely get overwhelmed should he do the suicide mission. 

“What do you want, Kavik?”

Siqsa began to talk about the coyote infestation, which wasn't too surprising since it had been an ever-present problem recently. Keeping them from penetrating the borders had taken up a good amount of his time, making it so he had little time for much else. It wasn't like he had a huge pack to keep in line, though, so he supposed he had the extra time to devote to this task. And they were getting smarter--learning his routines. He had to start changing up his patrol routes because he found that they would memorize them and try coming into areas he already been through. 

His dark packmate's last question made Kavik frown a little. What did he want? He wanted things to settle and for them to have a quiet winter. He thought that once they finally claimed a territory and were no longer constantly on the move, life would calm down a little, but there had been one problem after another, and it seemed they would just never get any peace. I don't know what else to do except just keep trying to hold them off, he answered first with a sigh. Surely as winter progresses, they'll move on, especially if they see we're not going to make it easy for them, the alpha added. Why would they continue to stick around when there had to be easier, unclaimed places elsewhere?

“[color=0800000]That’s a hell of a lot better than my idea[/color],” the Rogue admitted, auds splaying outwards in his dismay. “I considered finding out where they’re holed up and just destroying them all.“ Suicide more than likely, but it was just so much going on. The few packmates remaining, should there even be any, were more than likely at their wits end, themselves. But Siqsa had been so busy doing patrol work, the last face he had seen was Ruenna’s, and that was while he was healing. 

“But we can go with that,” he nodded his low hung crown. Siqsa however had been contemplating and threw his conspiracy out there. “I think they either used those Foxes as a trial to see how ready we’d be, and then decided it was a good time to come at us. Either that, or they had some kinda agreement with the foxes and are trying at a vengeance game right now.” Honestly, he didn’t know who was doing what. But it was just too olanned, and plans were lethal. Even to predators like wolves.

Going after them was not a bad idea, Kavik just didn't think they had the wolfpower for that. If Minori and Issun were still here, maybe--but even then, it would be rough. They would need a pretty large group to be successful, and if they had that, he suspected they wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. If we had more wolves, I would definitely be right there with you, but I think with our low numbers, we'll have to just keep a more defensive approach, he replied with another sigh.

He listened as Siqsa informed him of his theory. It did seem a little too convenient that all of this was happening so close together, but he hadn't really thought about the foxes working with the coyotes. Kavik just assumed the coyotes already thought they had some claim over the plateau, and now they sensed the pack's weakness and were using it to their advantage. The two incidents could be related for sure, he replied. He wasn't ruling anything out at this point. The coyotes are definitely smarter than I've given them credit for, Kavik added. That was probably his first mistake.

Man, if this blockhead knew anything about anything, it was plotting. And conspiracies. Always watching and waiting for something to come up ‘too close’ to something else. Gave him a good reason to seek these fuckers out and kill em. But Kavik’s logic won over regardless.

Inwardly, Siqsa hated having to defend against some whelp ass mini dogs.

”Whenever we get more members, could we trial them with seeking the coyotes out and destroying them?” he asked half-jokingly on this ‘trying an attempt at being nice’ thing and half serious from his own experience with trials. His banner swished back and forth, a slight excitement at the potential proposal being accepted, whether it was a joking yes or not.

Kavik's eyebrows lifted in approval and he nodded. I think that sounds like a good idea, he started. Maybe then we'll only get members who are loyal enough to stick around, the alpha added bitterly. He tried to remain positive in the light of their dwindling numbers, but even Kavik had began to wonder if his tactics were too lenient. Maybe in the future, he should expect more of potential and new members. It was definitely something to consider. Maybe we could covertly search out the area, too--gather information so we can start to form a plan to push them out permanently, he suggested, shrugging a little. They had to do something.

Siqsa was genuinely surprised at Kavik, both because he took Siqsa serious with that half-joke, and because Kavik had gone a bit dark, there. Siqsa has seen the Alpha as a pacifist mostly for the reforming talks they shared, but it was clear that there was much more to the darkie than Siqsa could merely assume.

There wasn’t anything wrong with it. Atleast not to Siqsa. He actually respected that. 

“I shoulda beat Mouse Kid’s ass in the past for leaving in the future then,” he snorted, shaking his sloped mane out. But covert? He was terrible at stealth. Great at making foxes piss themselves sure, but he was kinda big to be sneaking up on littler things. Had hadn’t gotten very far in learning stealth from Arana either, so any time he got a meal, it was from the thing running too close to his range. 

“I’m awful at recon,” he admitted, dark navy ears splaying in expulsion of a weakness. “But if you can do it, I guess I can too?” he asked a bit unconvinced that his big ass could even try to not be seen. The night aided him, and that was as much of a lucky stroke as he would get. “I’ll go with you when you go.”

He was unsure to whom Siqsa was referring when he spoke of 'mouse kid,' but he didn't think beating his ass would have made him stay any longer than he did whoever he was. He shook his head a little. I don't think that would have helped anything, he said, smiling a little despite himself. 

Kavik wasn't surprised to hear the other man was bad a recon, but he was willing to teach him whatever he knew. He was glad to hear Siqsa accept his offer anyway. I can show you what I know, and if we go at night, our coats will make it easier to blend in, the alpha explained. The coyotes would be more active at that time anyway, so it would be easier to gather information on them. Something had to be going on, and Kavik wanted to get to the bottom of it.