Greatwater Lake Fledgling with a Broken Wing

<: @Khaba !!

She arrived limping. 

Her head was down, her eyes were shifted to grass that only recently dried of blood. To them, she came hurt. An injury upon her neck, punctured deep from another's teeth. Her ears were back, tail low and swishing to what could be assumed as stress relief. She had just crossed the border where a strong scent and track line of paws hit her nose. Slow in walk, paws gently placing down on the ground, only for a heavy push as her weight fell down into each step. 

No god to help the little raven. She burned, and pain set in. Pain reigned. New aromas flooded into her nostrils, and those foggy gray eyes of hers were quickly looking about, and yet slowly taking everything in. Whines pushed out of her throat, and she walked ever so low to the ground with feet that would take her lower should the presence of a figure demand it. Oh, how submissive and meek. Tiny bodied and hurt.

Like any other day, Khaba patrolled his land.

Slow, but purposeful was his pace.

Nothing had been expected — but yet, it would not be nothing he found. There was an estranged scent here. But something familiar also. Blood.

A deep set growl in his throat, he marched straight for it (whatever it was, teeth at the ready.

Whine, whine, whine. Her eyes fluttered up towards the skies, upon the great trees before her and the wind blowing the scent of water past her nose.

Her inky nose grazed along the soil as her head swayed about, went up towards the sky, and then ran back to the home of the ground. She'd done nothing but walk endlessly for miles, going forth. Did poor raven's paws hurt? Did they cry the same? Oh, and how vulnerable a flightless creature?

Sand familiarly started to touch her homesick pads. Only strangers treaded these lands. Nothing but a stranger would find her. So, she continued to slowly push forward, nose wiggling and twitching about with a body she forced not to rest. 

Sunspots walked near that area, trying to detect the presence of some prey. However, when he caught the scent of a stranger, he didn't hesitate to follow the trail. What he saw was a female, and the first thing he did was try to approach her in a way that was more curious than defiant. He kept advancing until he was several meters away. That wolf was smaller than him, and her injuries made her look helpless.

Despite that, there was something about her that made him wary. He didn't like the way she moved. Her eyes seemed to reflect both madness and kindness. Then Sunspots heard a very familiar growl: Khaba. Sunspots started and turned away from the stranger, lowering his head.

He hoped Khaba hadn't seen him approach the intruder instead of snarling at her, and to cover his mistake, he turned to the stranger and, advancing towards her, bared his fangs as he snarled. As if he had done it before, he suddenly stopped and narrowed his eyes, looking at the female. His whole body tensed waiting for Khaba's reaction, or if he gave him an order.

He came near to find one of his omega's snarling toward a stranger. And after a brief exploration, he learned quickly that this was the intruder he in fact sought out.

With a warning glare toward Sunspots, Khaba advanced upon the frail, injured form.

You are not welcome here. His cold tone suggests, tail flagging high to assert his dominant and assertive presence within this territory.

A wolf of ginger and sun! He was not so small as her! He looked at her interest, and she returned it back! He was interesting. This stranger must be nice! Very nice! She nearly offered a slight smile to him. So, she decided then that she liked this stranger. Swishing her tail, wagging it about low to the ground and tip-toeing closer to the first male that had come her way, she had immediately been scampering back when his once nearly friendly demeanor had changed from curiosity, to turning away from her only to greet her back again in a snarl. A snarl that was intertwined with another's. Trickster! Trickster strangers! Pushing pitched air out of tight, stressed nostrils, she whined again, this time in confusion before pain. 

This time, she was approached differently, and by a being far less accepting in the moment than the other had once been. Shaking her head and continuously offering her cheek to the great giant cloaked in father moons night. Even the stranger she must have wrongly seen as open, she offered submission to. She was low enough that her hocks were nearly dragging. Running her tongue repeatedly over her lips, she licked the air in their direction. He was big! This fascinated her as much as it forced her to give him herself as more peaceful.

Sunspots felt guilty seeing the stranger forced into submission. She seemed nice, and he liked her. He would have loved to come close to her and lick her fur, enjoy her company, but not in front of Khaba.

When Khaba gave him a warning look, Sunspots relaxed a little and stepped back a few meters. As much as he wanted to, he would not go near the stranger, he had learned that with Aliki. It was a show of respect for Alpha, but he stressed him out. Every step away from her stressed him out. Would he be able to attack her if Alpha asked him to?

However, Khaba loved females. He showed them affection and let them enter the herd without doing any kind of test. That made him wag his tail in annoyance, but she covered it by snarling at the stranger again. He circled them several times, until he was behind Khaba. Then, hoping he wouldn't notice, he lowered his head and wagged his tail, looking at the intruder in a friendly way. He wanted to apologize to her for her sudden change in behavior, he wanted her to forgive him.

Though he felt guilty, he wanted with all her might to have her close to him. alone. Powerless, he just stared at Khaba.

Like many before her, she shrunk with submission, seemingly pleading that he might accept her. But he did not know what it was she wanted from him. Clearly, she was in rough shape. But was she worth wasting resources on?

It would be offered nonetheless. Perhaps, at some point, she might prove useful. 

Commanding Sunspots away with a heavy growl, he turned, tail flicking toward the darkling. If she followed, she would be made into one of his own. If not, he would leave her without a second thought. His merciful offer would only ever be made once.

lil cameo!

Never a day of peace in the Lake, Zaahira had come to learn. 
With the foreign scent at the border, the only thing the snake could think to do was investigate. Her patience had begun to wear thin, hanging on by only a fragmented string. Restlessness was growing within her; the rise of tension, both in the pack and outside of it, was enough strain as it was. 
This newcomer, as it turned out, was not appreciated either. 
She watches her Alpha as she rounds a curve, a low chuff coming from flared nostrils, approaching with a stone gaze and an ugly show of her teeth. But it was not at him. 
She saw in this stranger, this little raven that groveled at Khaba's feet, the spitting image of her own bird. Emaciated, fragile, small. Weak.
And in Zaahira, a storm began to brew.

And from the corner of her eyes behind a behemoth of night, she saw the shiver of a little tail and a bowed head. Oh, she liked him! Her head went crooked, offering a slight smile before her gaze darted back to the authority figure. "Hello!" then her tail swished low again!

With him, she followed, quickening her pace forward and offering no mind to the newcomer who spat angry noises. Integrate. It was fine! She didn't know much why she was here anyways, and her little heart that was pushing blood out her veins also fluttered. It did not seem so bad here. Perhaps they would be useful, and as to all, she would offer herself to them. It would likely not be their first encounter. 

Should they ask of Legend of her person, she would answer in honesty! In fact, she hoped it.

Where are you, stranger?

good fade?<: