Moonspear and i know it's my fault

terance was actually taking a break from patrolling, instead busying himself by memorizing the territories layout. moonspear was a rough terrain to navigate, but he figured he'd adjust to in it time. he preferred the coast, which is where his family had spent most of their time, but, again, he'd adjust. he was closer to the outskirts of the territory when he picked up a weird scent, and his gaze narrowed. hydra had mentioned a fox, but right now he smelled a coyote.

he had experience with them before, so he wasn't truly worried, but his heart beat faster as he followed it's scent, nose pointed to the ground and eyes forward. he would defend this pack.

Hydra followed the same scent-line as Terance did, though she was further off. Their paths intersected soon enough and it was clear to her he had noted what she had. She moved alongside him and nipped at his shoulder companionably before lowering her snout back to the earth and bristling uneasily. This was not the first coyote she had come up against—in fact, the first was dead. This one would meet its kin soon enough, if there was such thing as an afterlife. She was confident of that, and it showed in her bold and predatory step. With the help of Terance, who was older and larger both than Towhee, she felt all the better about it.

as he went, hydra came up upon him-- at least, he was pretty sure it was her. hydra was the only one he'd met upon the borders, and he wasn't positive who else he'd really seen inside the territory-- there were too many of them and they were all too similar. regardless, he knew that this shadow had the same intentions as him-- protect.

terance began to moved faster as the scent got stronger, feeling more confident in his direction. it was at one of the northern caches that terance saw the nasty creature, his grubby muzzle shoved into the side of a deer carcass that was meant to feed moonspear wolves, not disgusting vermin. he let out a low growl, fur bristling as he awaited an instruction-- she was technically his superior anyway.

It was in their sights soon enough. She felt the change in her companions body alongside her, tense and taut—Hydra glanced to Terance, gesturing to the very spot he stood in: don't move, she expressed this way... and then, before the creature understood there were even wolves that had come upon the scene, Hydra lunged toward it, moving in a semi-circle so that the path toward Terance was open for the thing. That had been the way it was looking, and it would be its natural path and line of movement being its quickest route. It let out a series of panicked yips as it bolted, heading right for Terance without even realizing it, too focused on Hydra's fangs that snapped loudly behind him.

terance did as he was told, his tail lashing wildly like a cats. hydra snuck up behind the creature and then-- oh boy-- chaos ensured. the coyote lunged away from hydra, straight towards him, and terance bared his teeth as the creature made a beeline towards him. terance lunged, teeth grabbing tightly onto it's shoulder. hydra was still behind the thing, and terance assumed she was coming in to help with the take-down. teeth latched into his own shoulder, but he wouldn't dare let the thing go-- not yet.

Hydra knew that teeth of any size did not feel good, but that a coyote that knew how to do damage was not fun to deal with. Still, in milliseconds Hydra was upon the coyote, too, crouching low to come from beneath it to grab its throat. It, too preoccupied with its attack on Terance, realized too late what was transpiring—just as she expected, fortunately. The distraction was precisely what she needed to grab a good hold and then the creature released, flailing wildly before it stilled as Hydra shook it savagely, a resounding snap echoing off the mountain rocks. It hung limp in her jaws and she dropped it between her forelegs, panting and waving her tail. Terance had held it in place all the while, his body mass seemingly not even effected by the struggling creature. Good job, Hydra rumbled, tail waving behind her. Looks like we need to patrol more. Maybe they know new life is coming, it was possible, though her mother mostly kept within the territory depths now... so she wasn't sure. Maybe Terance would know, since his mother had given birth recently? She glanced at him, and asked, was it like that when your mother had your siblings?

terance was a rock, still in place as he and the coyote held fast to one another. it wasn't until hydra came with with a bite to the throat that the coyote released it's grip on his shoulder, letting terance drop the thing and let out a mouthful of expletives under his breath. he nodded in response to her praise, a silent 'right back at ya'.

"i can't remember," he responded with an honest shrug, "i guess we had some run ins with them, but we didn't have a specific territory to defend until we'd dug a whelping den." maybe he should've paid closer attention, but it hadn't seemed that relevant to him. hydra made a good point though, maybe it was amekaze that was drawing them in. "we've got it," he reassured her with a friendly nudge.

Hydra was pretty sure her mother had a whelping den at this point, but was not positive. Her father often spoke about the time being near. She was not sure what little siblings were like... but she hoped they were nothing like the runts Olive and Dakarai bore. Hydra smiled at his encouragement. They sure did. Their differing body-types made them a good team. Though there was no doubt she enjoyed taking things down with her sisters far more, it was nice to know that there was another capable wolf in their ranks to assist and aid Moonspear. 

Hydra took the corpse and deposited it into the cache. They had gained more than they lost. She and Terance had found him at a good time, it seemed. Thinking again about the topic of siblings, Hydra shifted her weight and glanced to him. What are your siblings like? Your new ones, she clarified. Sarah seemed cool—she'd help him fight off a stranger that had come after their meal, after all.

terance helped her toss the body into the cache, licking his muzzle and then his shoulder. it stung a bit, but it wasn't too bad-- he didn't think anyway. "tiny-- blind, deaf. they're older now but i only got to see them as newborns," he shared with a small shrug. he was sad he wouldn't get to see them... he prayed that they'd make their way down to teekon later in life, it'd be cool to see them all grown up.

"i have two other sisters though. sarah and wraen," he added, on a lighter note. he had grown up with them, he knew them well. so, despite sarah's separation, he had plenty of positive memories to associate them with. "sarah's sort of like me... you'd like her. wraen is sort of quiet and earthy, less competitive than sarah and i are."

Blind, and deaf! That was strange. She had hoped for more insight on what to expect, but that would not happen for her today. Not without asking directly, anyway. Though by the way her parents acted it seemed not... and even Terance. As he spoke more on his family, Hydra listened with interest. Wraen wasn't a name she had heard before. She sounded sweet. She sounded a bit like Lyra, what with her penchant for earthen things... though she was also airy. Is Wraen still at home? she asked. She knew Sarah and him had separated accidentally, but what about Wraen's whereabouts?

terance nodded. "yeah, to take care of my mom and the pups," he replied with a small smile. he was pretty protective over wraen. when she had expressed her desire to stay with their parents terance was a bit broken up, but he knew better. she'd be safe with dante, and they could probably use an extra set of paws around. plus, he figured he'd have sarah, and he didn't expect to lose her too. he cleared his throat.

"i think she found a male somewhere nearby that suited her fancy, if we're being honest," he added jokingly, trying to lighten the mood-- it wasn't dark, but it'd made him a little sad, and making fun of his sisters always brightened his spirits a bit.

Hydra was no caretaker herself, but understood the necessity of having them around when the alpha female was too busy to deal with the cubs (in an inherent way). That being said, Hydra had had no caretakers other than her mother and father—the whole pack, small though it was, had reared her... but mainly her mother and father, and their influence upon her was heavy. That's good of her, she said, meaning it though she didn't necessarily think she would ever in her life do the same. Not in the capacity that Wraen might, anyway—she sounded, all in all, like Lyra... sweet and patient with things, even if those things were slow to learn (and not things at all, but little creatures). 

She was given pause at his next statement, suddenly curious. Oh??? She inquired, and after a beat she wondered aloud, What's that mean? After all, Hydra had never been spoken to about crushes or fancies. To have a crush on someone was nothing to Hydra, who was unaware that she had a crush at all except when she was around that one individual, feeling strange. It did not occur to her that there might be a reason for this.

terance nodded in agreement, tail giving a few proud wags. her next comment, however, perplexed him. maybe it was just his mother and her whimsical way of explaining things-- maybe that was the only reason he had a grip on the concept, but for a girl not to know what a crush was? wild. hydra wasn't a typical girl, terance didn't think, but still. he hadn't fully experienced the sensation, but his mother always sort of felt like warm. he didn't think that that was a very thorough explanation, but osprey insisted he'd understand when he felt it.

"you know," he shrugged, shifting his paws, "like... she might like someone. like-like, more than a friend." that was a good answer, terance thought.

His explanation did very little for Hydra. She had never (recognizably, to herself) felt that way for another, she did not think... and after a minute more of thinking, she let out a whoosh of air. I don't think I've ever felt that way, her brows rose as she said the words, shrugging. Hydra looked to him and asked, have you? What did that even constitute? Hydra had few friends, anyway, but Terance was among them now. It was entirely platonic, but she did not get that in some instances there could sometimes be more.

he pursed his lips. "no?" he said, head tilting a bit. at least, he was pretty positive. he was certain that whatever this was-- him and hydra-- was not what his mother described, and he'd never really felt anything for anyone else. maybe it was timing, or something, he didn't know.

"i dunno," he then said, shrugging, "but your parents had crushes on each other before they became mates-- that's just how it works." like, love, together forever. terance's picture perfect family life led him to believe that it was that easy, and he would be shocked to find out that it actually wasn't always that easy. dakarai and olive had already been quite the mystery to the dark redleaf-disarinno boy.

Hydra's lips quirked at Terance's words. My mother spoke nothing of crushes, and even when comparing notes with her sisters, such a word never came up. Sounds painful, actually. I think I'll pass, Hydra grinned fully now, her eyes twinkling. She reflected for a brief moment before informing him, She did talk about a viable male... but that had to do with puppies. Making them, I mean, she shrugged. As for that, she had an equal amount of disinterest and that was clear. That was a long time away for her, she supposed—as her mother had also informed.

terance stared, trying to decide is hydra was messing with him before letting out a loud snort. his jaw parted and his tongue lolled in genuine amusement, his tail smacking against the ground (i forgot if he's sitting pretend he is). "hydra," he said, pearly white teeth flashing, "you can't actually think that the only reason wolves get together is to make babies." he raised an eyebrow, settling his face to something a bit more neutral. his lips closed, but they still curved into a smile. "this is like, the before part," he thought that that was a decent explanation, if the rest of it wasn't anyway.

Maybe for some, she responded, but come on—why do they call it crushes? In stories, what do the heroes say to the villain? "I'll crush you." I, for one, do not want to be crushed, Hydra did not know it yet, but she had, in the smallest degree, already experienced a small measure of "crush", and had also been crushed. The disappointment she felt when Rian had never showed his face when he had moved away had been just that to her, but fortunately her feelings had been fledgling ones. Before they had a chance to grow, she, well, crushed them. Unfortunately for Hydra, some feelings could not be controlled... but this was not something she yet considered, stubborn as she was.

terance snorted again, not as obnoxiously this time. "yeah, whatever you decide, hydra," he replied, smiling a bit, "just, let me know how that works out." as far as he was concerned, it wasn't supposed to just hit you like a boulder. it was supposed to happen over time, like if someone just slowly let a boulder smash you into the ground. terance didn't quite understand it, but he understood the appeal. he liked what his parents had, and one day would want it. maybe hydra didn't ever want to be in love-- he wouldn't hold that against her. every wolf was different.

"hey... you wanna take a break? i'm still not really back to my old self yet," he said, beginning to slide down onto his elbows. he'd sat down not too long ago, but his legs still felt sort of sore, and a nice nap sounded really swell right about now. maybe hydra would leave, but terance was really feeling this grassy patch right about now.

That goes for everything, she half-quipped. But really, he seemed to know this and take it all in stride. Hydra quite enjoyed Terance and his presence... he, at least, was a very welcome addition upon Moonspear. They had stopped and idled for a bit, and as he slid into a lay Hydra looked beyond him for a moment. When he spoke, Hydra regarded him again. I'm going to head to the borders and patrol some more. Have a good rest, she nodded toward him before she departed his company, leaving him to it.