Swiftcurrent Creek i'm just the muscle

For anyone working toward the warrior trade; I'd love another spar to accompany this thread. :)

Rain. Rain, rain, rain, rain. The weather matched the Beta's mood - grey and promising to get worse. It also suited the general mood of the pack. With Ferdie and Jace gone - taking Nightingale and Sky with them - there was decidedly less activity going on. Swiftcurrent Creek lacked 'buzz'. Jace had been the worker bee, always up to something - hunting, patrolling, guarding - and whilst other wolves had picked up the slack, things weren't the same.

Bazi was patrolling again, legs working hard to keep a swift pace along the border. This was her second round of the day, and she yearned for an activity that was more explosive. A cocky intruder would almost be welcome.

Scim, despite his indifference to the pack he had yet to fully connect with, was rounding the borders once more.. a task he found himself doing most frequently, if only to keep himself moving. Successful hunting required a larger party, and after the news that the pack had seemingly lost two of their loyal members (or so the agouti male had drawn the conclusion they were), it had been unsettling with silence.

His large strides were casual still, his figure held more neutral than he would have in Neverwinter Forest when he had been higher on the totem pole. His thoughts clouded with the flash of ivory fur and turquoise eyes that haunted his mind -- he had barely known her, and yet it was much like proposed happiness had slipped his grasp.

Before, it had never been an ambition that had crossed his mind, and yet as the days passed his considerations lengthened on the matter -- perhaps, following was not his best suitability. Perhaps, at his age, he was ready to lead. Fox had never offered him much insight to the home he had chosen, and aside from witnessing two members banned from their home and a meeting called by the Betas that had been as brief as a breeze of wind, the agouti male had no follow up on any of the matters of the Creek.

Each day that passed, he found himself caring a little less.

His pelt was damp with the rain -- his nose flitting to the ground to inhale a stagnant scent of a loner that had seemingly passed by. It was then that a scent more familiar to him than others drifted to him, and blinking, Scimitar lifted his creamy muzzle, his eyes regarding the moving form of the ivory Beta with stoical indifference, despite his larger figure shifting to lower within her presence.

Fortunately - or perhaps not - the first wolf to wander into her sights was the polite sort. He dutifully lowered himself in her presence, but Bazi saw that his eyes were dull and distant when she trotted to close the distance between them. Scimitar had kept to himself since joining. The younger beta had scarcely heard him say a word since introducing himself to Fox, and she wondered if their prematurely virile had made her move on him yet. He would look less deflated if she had, Bazi reasoned.

"You look glum," she told him outright, stretching her neck to sniff at the halo of air around him. Generic wet dog, but there was a hint of Scimitar's own scent there too. "Fox not taking care of you?" Subtly was not and would not become one of Bazi's primary conversational skills.

His eyes slid over the Beta – her words stirring confusion that did not reach his gaze – as was so carefully masked by heritage. The implication was almost enough to draw a snort of surprise from him, and yet the flippant demeanor she held now left him questioning to whether or not she was truly joking.

“Does Fox take it upon herself to do so with all of her newcomers?” He drawled the words slowly, rising subtly, though not enough to ignite a challenge between the two.. at least in his mind. There was something intriguing about the wolves of the Creek – Fox and Bazi were small in height – impish, almost, and yet there was a fiery nature that seemed to surround them, and indicated to the male that they could both easily best anyone in a fight.

Depending on the nature of Bazi’s words, a few things suddenly made sense – the silver male (Ferdie, if he recalled correctly) and the jealous glare he had received. Or.. perhaps, his leader’s flitting absence within the lands (at least within his knowledge).

Scimitar's face said very little about what he was thinking, and Bazi was starting to wonder if he had missed the joke. His eventual response lacked the colour of jest, leaving her to presume that he actually wanted an answer. "No," she replied flatly, fanning one ear back in thought. Fox had never etched her rules into stone tablets, but they were simple enough to deduce - keep the peace, protect the pack. Beyond that, the wolves of Swiftcurrent were free to do as they pleased; Fox did not actively demand loyalty or do much to inspire it in herself as an individual. Hers was a casual style of leadershp, and it didn't suit everyone.

"She seemed interested enough in you at the borders," Bazi clarified, unaware that Scimitar was already makig his own connections. "You're.." A good specimen? A sudden rush of girlishness rushed through the feisty little beta, softening her gaze and leading it in a swift, you-didn't-see-me-do-that glance at the vast brute's broad chest. ".. her type," she settled on, complementing the statement with a somewhat uncertain smile. He didn't seem the type to chit-chat about personal matters, and Bazi was quickly learning that holding back sometimes got you more than pushing.

The flat tone in which she responded drew his own assumption that she had in fact been kidding – briefly, he wondered what the feisty Alpha’s response would have been to her pale Beta’s humor. He knew neither of them well at all – a reminder that he either needed to make a better attempt at pushing himself in to the pack he had chosen, or simply moving on with life.

Amusement flickered across his features as the she-wolf cast a glance to his chest, a small smile flirting across her features. Scimitar was unused to female attention in such a variety, though he held little belief in Bazi’s words – to him, the fiery she-wolf had regarded him as if he had mattered very little in the grand scheme of things. Though she had request his company on a quick round of the borders to better acquaint him with the land. “Given those I’ve met, I imagine many of the males here are,” he drawled, suddenly recalling the large sizes of the males he had seen in the creek thus far.

He shrugged then, shifting his weight and casting his aqua eyes upon the rather brazen dove before him. “Perhaps she’s not mine.” He doubted she would lose sleep over it – but that didn’t stop the smirk that twitched at the corner of his lips at that moment.

The lightest touch of mirth swept Scimitar's features, so subtle that someone that wasn't actively looking for the signs would have missed it. The ghostly beta's wavering smile took root and widened - she certain now that they were on the same wavelength.

"Isn't she?" she pressed, head cocked coyly to one side. "But she's the alpha. Isn't that the wolf to aim for?" He was right about the trend among the recent recruits. Most were large, strapping males, as if Fox were gathering pledges for her own version of the Hunger Games to help decide the future king of Swiftcurrent Creek.

Bazi’s smirk seemed coy in nature – a side to her he had yet to see and was very different from the stern Beta he had witnessed upon his arrival. A rumble of amusement pressed past his lips form his chest, though no true laugh escaped – the idea of it seemed ridiculous, if anything.

“If I was set on rank, I would have aimed to create a pack of my own,” he murmured, a small shrug following his words, though they remained light in jest. The prospect seemed far more tempting as of late, and perhaps that was spurned by his age and desire to procreate now – the desire to find a mate, claim lands, and raise pups. It was a simple life he had not bargained for, and yet the moment his eyes had caught the swelling sides of Tuwawi, he had been further pressed with the thoughts.. that.. and of Chakra’s sudden disappearance from his life.

But more importantly.. “If that is what a wolf is to aim for.. why do you simply settle as the Beta?” Inquisitive in nature, Scimitar also found himself drawn more to Bazi – the coyness that flashed across her features.. the delicate movement of her body.

Scimitar made a sound that might have been distantly related to a laugh. Bazi suppressed the instinct to giggle back, the result of which was a brief shudder and audible swallowing. He was very together, presumably an artefact of age, and she envied him that effortless calm. It was an aura shared by Njal, who commanded respect simply by existing. The much younger beta female struggled here, fluttering erratically between cold decisiveness and the much sweeter, much more likable character she seemed to suppress. It didn’t suit the position to prance gaily about Swiftcurrent Creek (Fox certainly didn’t, and Shar-Kali never had), and Bazi wasn’t yet confident enough to just be, without editing or forethought.

Scimitar’s answer and then his question was met by a short silence, during which time Bazi started intently at the older wolf’s impossibly bright eyes, as if hoping to find the correct answer there. ”Beta .. is enough for me,” she eventually managed, her mouth forming the words awkwardly. ”And I like Fox.” True enough, even though she sometimes felt the pack would benefit from a pushy, more obviously inspiring leader. Bazi filed the question away to ponder further, and turned the spotlight back in Scimitar. ”Why didn't you? Start a pack. Where did you come from?”

Her words weren’t quite what he was expecting – not that he had expected her to dislike her Alpha. It almost appeared as a lack of ambition, but he knew better than that – just because a wolf did not strive for greater rank did not make them ambitious. It was the pause in her words.. as if she wasn’t sure what to expect from life just yet.

The teasing from his eyes shifted with the tone of conversation – she delved deeper to him, asking him of his reasons. Why this path right now? Truly, he held no answer. “I was born in a pack west of here. My heritage extends within other valleys, and while I have a large family, it seems I have yet to come across any here.” There was a small pause as his muzzle bowed down, his teeth nibbling at an itch upon his forelimb before he shifted his attention once more to her. “I left to seek place in the world when I was one. I traveled as a lone wolf, offering my services in battle or the hunt for a meal and a place to stay. After I came here, I settled upon the Sunspire mountain under the lead of a she-wolf called Muirrin. The pack was called Tuatha De, and it lasted only a few months before she fled.. leaving only myself and another.”

Clearing his throat, his thoughts traveled briefly to Luka – curious as to where the male had gone. “Luka and I traveled south of the mountain and came across a proud she-wolf that had laid claim to Neverwinter Forest. Again, we joined ranks and attempted to settle. Once more, the Alpha fled and the pack dispersed only a few months later. After some more travel, I have come here.” The last word was stated with a drawling flourish – his paw lifted in the air as if some grand gesture. The humor did not quite meet his eyes though, and a small snort escaped his jowls. “I guess you can say it’s hard to trust others now.” Jaded musings aside, his eyes studied the cheeks of the she-wolf, not quite glancing her in the eye. "But what about you? Why are you here?"

Scimitar offered his story freely. It was short and lacked the explosive drama she had come to expect, but did go some way toward explaining his lack of.. enthusiasm? Bazi couldn’t think of an appropriate word, but would have - had she been human - likened his attitude to someone that like the idea of soccer but hadn’t found their dream team. He went through the motions, hunting and guarding and peeing on things, but lacked the fervent devotion of a super-fan. So far, anyway, and that wasn’t surprising. In her short time with Swiftcurrent Creek, many wolves had tried and failed to fit in. There was only a hard core of devotees left, like stubborn lumps of carbon when all else has burned away.

”Me?” Bazi had stared intently throughout Scimitar’s story, even when he stopped to address an itch. The question jolted her, and her previously steady gaze began to flit around the male’s broad face. ”I.. same sort of story,” she started, but the words had a peculiar taste. That would not be enough. ”I had a family pack, much further north. There was a fire - “ a somewhat off-white lie ” - and we were tragically separated. I woke up here - don’t ask me how. This is much further south than I’ve ever been. I assume… that someone carried me.” In truth, the northerner had spent several months in a rehabilitation center after a devastating outbreak of sickness - something that, unbeknownst to Bazi, still lurked in her blood. Her eyes found Scimitar’s again, anchoring themselves in the deep, tropical blue. ”Everyone has such a sad story - don’t you just get sick of it? I can’t for Tuwawi’s normal, happy babies to be born - their stories will be so wonderfully plain.”

Her tale was a strange one, though Scimitar gave no indication that he believed it to be so. The thought that another carried her without her knowledge as to who seemed to hold the ghost of a lie within her words, but he did not dwell on it. Instead, a sardonic snort escaped him at the mention of the Creek's unborn pups. "Until we manage to ruin them as well," he murmured dryly, his tail giving an idle flick at the prospect. With Ferdie and Jace gone and settling so close, it would be amazing if the packs would not see bloodshed.

"After all, wasn't your life considered plain at one point? he was not sure how the conversation became so heavy, and without wishing to keep it so, the agouti male closed distance between them, his breath sliding across her cheek as he made to touch his nose to hers -- a coyness springing to his eyes as he lifted a paw to tap the ground playfully, as if hoping he could lure her to a game of chase.

Such a delicate beauty as herself should not have held such a frown upon her features.

Wrap up and continue with the spar thread? :D

"Until we manage to ruin them as well. After all, wasn't your life considered plain at one points?"

The gravitas of his response hooked into the corner's of Bazi's mouth and pulled. She too thought of the Sunspire, though the black wolf was entirely absent from her perception of the threat. The heat of her initial accusation against him had faded, and now she only saw Ferdie, poised atop the mountain like a menacing demon with poor Jace in shackles.

The conversation had hit rock bottom, and whilst Bazi was content to linger there, Scimitar was not. He broke the gloom by touching his cold, wet nose against hers, shocking the girl out of her thoughts. The frown was instantly replaced by adorably cross-eyed confusion, which in turn paved the way for a tentative grin. She shuffled backwards and fell into a low play-bow, claiming the role of 'it' with a low, playful growl. Coming to get you!

He had to refrain from allowing a laugh to shake him from his ‘task’ at hand – cross-eyed for a moment from his touch, the grin that pulled at her lips allowed for the girl whose beauty that had stolen his breath upon first introduction come forward – quick to respond, the cinnamon male was eased with the knowledge that while he might not have riveted himself within their hearts as a true member of their pack, he had, at least, gained a friend.

It occurred to him then he should have taken the advantage of a head start in her initial confusion. The ivory she-wolf bowed, accepting her role of the game and entirely ready to pounce. The game would be over before truly starting, and already sensing his loss as the larger oaf leapt away with calculation, knowing full well that within moments she would move at him like a bullet.

It didn’t matter – for now, his worries were placed on the backburner, and he would revel in the moment.