Heron Lake Plateau We are young, we have years ahead maybe

After having twisted her ankle, Niamh was left sore, and in a fairly contrary mood. She couldn't patrol the borders and felt quite useless. Two days had passed since she'd injured herself and there was a noticeable improvement, but still- she knew if she was patrolling and had to defend the borders, she'd be at a distinct disadvantage and could possibly get injured further, as well as let someone hazardous into the pack because she couldn't properly fend them off. Hunting was ridiculous too, as she couldn't run, either; she could trot, with a limp, but knew she'd be better off simply giving it time to heal rather than causing more stress to her ankle. She didn't need a medic to tell her that. 

Feeling restless, but resigning to her uselessness, Niamh swam across the lake to the Roost, where she pulled herself from the water and into the shade of the small group of trees at the islet's centre. She looked up, to see if X was around, but caught no sight of the red-tailed hawk. He was probably off with Towhee, or hunting. She stared across the lake toward the rest of the plateau, and slumped to the ground, setting her chin down gingerly on her good forepaw. Maybe she'd just relax for a bit, and wait fo her foot to get better...But for the time being, she certiainly felt like she was a waste.

She was not unaware that Tegan and Niamh had returned from their trip to Drageda the previous day. Though she was eager to hear how it had gone and if there was any news from up the coast, the alpha had opted to give them a day to rest and recover from their long trip. Today, though, she searched for them in the hopes of getting all the details. She wanted to know how her sister was doing, how Wildfire had reacted to the news that demure little Raven was an alpha now (and pregnant!), and if the two of them had run into any trouble along the way. That worry had nagged at her the whole time they'd been gone -- what if they're injured or killed along the way? Hearing that they'd both returned safely had been an enormous relief to her.

She made her way toward the Roost, which was a fairly well-traveled part of their territory. If they weren't here, odds were good that their trail could be found from here and she could track them down that way. There was no need for that, however, for as she walked she spied the tell-tale color of Niamh's coat amidst the trees ahead. Raven had always found the young she-wolf's sunny blonde fur strikingly beautiful, and as she approached Niamh, she grinned at her and waved her tail good-naturedly behind her. "Welcome home," she said by way of greeting to the girl.

When she first caught sight of the dark-furred female in the distance, she lifted her head- maybe it was Towhee, that'd be perfect. Certainly Towhee would be good company, and maybe help her suss out her stormy disposition...But the wolf in question, as she moved closer, didn't have the telltale markings. And the shape of the body wasn't robust and muscular- so it wasn't Quixote, which left only one other wolf in the pack that she knew, and recognized as she came toward the Roost. It was Raven; and she'd been spotted, so it was too soon to get out of the way. 

Her ears turned back as the alpha approached and she forced her tail to wave back and ground, and she didn't lift herself from the ground when Raven came toward her, like a dog expecting to get beat. In truth, she didn't want Raven to see that she was injured- but she also didn't know what to say, given what Screech had told her. She didn't want to see Raven at all- she'd intended to avoid her as much as possible. What if what Screech had said had been true? That she'd either cheated on Quixote, or was using him to cover up the fact that she'd mated with some grey stranger. All she could do, to keep herself from running her mouth, was push herself to a sitting position, wincing visibly as she did so. Raven was a medic. At least she could keep her mind clear of other things if Raven was just there to help her with her ankle. 

"Thanks." She said, straightening herself up slowly, favouring her right ankle, still. "I...Uh...Took a tumble down the plateau the other day. I'm not...Not that graceful, or something, I guess."

Raven possessed a great many talents as well as shortcomings, but one of her greatest strengths was her ability to be extremely observant in the moment. Right away, something struck her as being somehow 'off' with Niamh. Ever since her last run-in with Screech, the alpha female found herself questioning people's motives and behavior in ways she never had before. Her brother's threats to tell everyone about their tryst still rang hauntingly in the back of her mind, but she wasn't sure what to do about it. A smart alpha would have driven him from the pack, but Raven had always had a soft spot for the troubled Redhawk boy.

When Niamh winced while attempting to pull herself up into a sitting position, and then explained that she had twisted her ankle, Raven figured that was what was going on with Niamh. "Oh no," she said softly, taking a step or two closer to peer at the injury. "Mind if I take a look at it?"

Niamh nodded, and glanced to Raven, as the woman drew nearer. There was a softness about Raven that made her feel the tiniest bit comfortable having her look at her ankle, which she held out for inspection. There was a mildness about Raven's muzzle that proclaimed no devil, and an honesty in her bright yellow eyes. Damn, she was pretty. No wonder Quixote liked her...And they made a striking pair together. The corners of her mouth tugged, wanting to turn downward into a frown, and she remembered what Screech had said- and turned her head away. She was still angry with him; and didn't want to put any weight in his words right now. 

"I think it twisted," She said, glancing back to Raven. "But it's better today than it was two days ago." She said. "How long should I like...Take it easy for?" She asked, rotating her leg this way and that, hoping she'd get the clear in a day, maybe two, if absolutely necessary.

The girl flexed and moved her leg, which was a relief to Raven. Sometimes it was easy to mistake a sprain for a fracture, but the healer didn't think she'd have been able to move her wrist like that if she'd broken it. She was glad to hear that it was already on the mend, and she nodded with approval. "It's not too terribly swollen, which is good. Give it a few days and see how it feels." She looked up at Niamh, concern clear in her golden eyes. Ever since becoming alpha, Raven had found a vast reserve of caring and compassion in her for her packmates that she didn't think she'd possessed before. She'd always had a vast amount of love for her companions, but that was magnified tenfold now that she was their leader. They were hers more than ever before, now. "If it doesn't get any better, or if it swells up more or starts to hurt too much, be sure to come see me, okay?"

While she was close to Niamh and examining her ankle, Raven detected an unmistakeable scent on the girl. She'd seen Screech recently, which filled the healer with a mixture of concern and bitterness. Unable to stop herself, she mentioned it as she withdrew, "So how's Screech doing?"

Niamh breathed a gentle sigh of relief, and put her foot down, careful still not to place too much weight on it. She'd have to take a few more days off- mostly hiding away either in her den to heal or relaxing on the Roost, waiting for Towhee to show up so she could have a talk with her. Fortunately, the sprained ankle was a distraction, but it only went so far to keep her mind off things- and it seemed like as soon as she'd found something else for them to talk about, Raven steered her right back toward the one thing she didn't want to discuss.

...Okay, there was more than one thing she didn't want to talk about with Raven. But one thing at a time there, cowboy.

She turned her eyes up, dolefully, to look at Raven, her frown becoming more pronounced, and the corners of her lips quivering again. She looked down, ears turning back. "He's Screech." She answered dejectedly. She realized, then, that she shouldn't be so vague when being questioned by the alpha. "We just...Had a little, I dunno. Thing. It's nothing big." She said, continuing to avoid eye contact, as the tears still stung her eyes.

Raven's initial misgivings about Niamh's demeanor seemed to be correct, after all. No sooner had the alpha dropped Screech's name did Niamh's composure begin to fray a little at the seams. He's Screech was one of those descriptions that needed no explanations, particularly to Raven. Nobody knew her brother better than she did. The healer noticed Niamh's shaky lips and the glassy tears that lingered unspilled at the corners of her delta's eyes, and immediately Raven was concerned about her in a way that didn't involve medicine. Seriousness came over her face and her voice was soft and calm as she asked the girl, "Has he hurt you, Niamh?"

Raven's caring question pushed Niamh just far enough so that a tear spilled from one eye, which was hastily wiped away on her stationary leg. She breathed in deeply, and stared straight ahead, hard, not willing to let anything else show. For a moment, she took the question for face value- and she could have said that yes, Screech had been a jerk to her. But then, after a moment's consideration, she found herself wondering if perhaps Raven thought Screech had done this to her- that he'd been the one to hurt her leg. She shook her head vehemently.

"No; no, I really did fall down the hill. Ask Colt. He saw the whole thing." Screech had lucked out- she could have pinned  this on him, but it wasn't like the truth wouldn't come back to bite her. She shrugged. "Screech and I just...Argued, sort of. It's nothing, really." She said, having pulled herself together a bit more.

Raven's question had had nothing to do with Niamh's leg, although she figured it was plausible that he could've been responsible for her fall. But the girl vociferously denied that, so Raven didn't pursue it. She nodded, but her gaze was still heavy with a lot of things she left unsaid. She couldn't let it go completely, though, lest Niamh become the next victim of Screech's manipulative bullshit. "Be careful around him," she said, her voice quiet and full of what could also be interpreted as maternal concern for Niamh. "He...likes to hurt those he's closest to. Trust me on this." She had no idea of the lies Screech had told the delta about her only the previous day, but there was a wound deep inside of Raven that wouldn't heal, and she hadn't yet found the capacity to forgive him for what he'd done to her, and how he'd twisted it to his own advantage.

She hadn't expected for Raven to be on her side about Screech- or warn her about him. She looked up, brow creased with confusion and worry; why was Raven telling her this about Screech? Screech had just been telling her all these horrible things about Raven, making her out to be whorish and manipulative; and she couldn't tell, now, who to believe. She was silent for a moment, still frowning, before she ventured another question. 

"Does...Does he lie a lot?" She asked. "He just...He says things, and I've believed him before. But then everybody else seems to kind of...Contradict that." She said. She wanted to believe Screech was a good person- but as she'd learned a few times from the other Caldera wolves, he wasn't quite what he seemed to be.

Awkward because I’m phone-posting lol

The healer believed in her heart of hearts that Screech wanted to be a good person, and in spite of how he’d made her feel recently, there was still a measure of love in her for him. But that didn’t erase the fact that he could be extremely selfish and immature, so thoroughly caught up in his own victim complex that he couldn’t see that everything he said he wanted was being offered to him.

She shrugged a little hesitantly, a troubled and slightly sad expression on her face, and said somberly, ”The only wolf in this pack that Screech truly cares about is Screech.”

She shook her head a little and a smile touched her lips as she refocused her attention on Niamh. She had no desire to sit here and bad-mouth her brother or darken Niamh’s day with rumors and gossip. She relaxed into a sphinx-like position, no formality or authority whatsoever in her body language. She was at ease and she wanted her packmate to feel comfortable with her. ”So tell me — how was your trip with Tegan?”

Raven seemed slightly reluctant to talk about Screech- maybe because she wanted to protect him and salvage one of his very few friendships, Niamh couldn't tell. Maybe it was because the truth hurt her feelings too, Niamh thought, and frowned. If this was how most wolves felt about Screech, then Niamh couldn't understand why he'd hang around. Who actually did like him? She had, but then again...Things had changed. So when the truth came out, it stung. 

How could Screech not care about her? She'd been nice to him- she'd backed him up even when there was a thread of being killed. She'd gone after him when they'd been chased off- and had followed him back when he'd decided to join the pack. As far as she was concerned, she'd done everything she could have possibly done for Screech, and then some...She'd even offered herself to him, and he'd discarded her. Her ears turned back, and her lips tightened. 

She was still dwelling on Screech's opinion of her, and how much she mattered to him, and how unfair it was- when Raven relaxed, and changed the subject. Her expression softened a bit, and she nodded. "It was good." Finally, a tiny smile was tempted to gentle her strained expression. "He's actually pretty fun. And Wildfire's really nice too." She said.

Then, a thought hit her, and her features suddenly brightened considerably, as though a light switch had been turned on.

"We brought back crabs!" She exclaimed. "So hopefully, when they multiply, there'll be enough for the whole pack!"

The subject of Screech was complicated and loaded with baggage for Raven, so she was glad that Niamh didn't pursue the topic further even though the alpha was sure she still had questions. Perhaps at a later time, under more appropriate circumstances. Raven wasn't here to talk trash about her brother or to smear his name (that might have been different if she'd known he didn't seem to have a problem doing the same to her), but rather, she had just wanted to warn Niamh to be cautious. Screech was a sweet boy, underneath the bullshit front he put up for others to see, but in the end, he looked out for #1. It had taken a long time and a lot of really messed-up shit happening for Raven to see this, and she didn't want to see anyone else fall into the same traps. Particularly the ones that involved "demonstrations" of "playful wrestling".

Raven's face brightened considerably when Niamh mentioned her sister, Wildfire, and her tail brushed the ground behind her. She missed Wildfire a great deal, and part of her was still disappointed that her fiery littermate had gone back to Drageda after she'd healed up from her injuries sustained at Blackfeather Woods. Raven understood, of course, that Wifi couldn't turn her back on her family and kids, but that didn't make it any easier to accept. Sometimes she felt like the only person in the world who really understood her was Wildfire. They'd grown up together, after all.

Niamh mentioned that they'd brought back crabs, and Raven's curiosity was piqued. "What are crabs?" she asked, cocking her head. For all her intellectual prowess, the nerdy little healer had never spent enough time at the coast to experience all the flora and fauna unique to that setting -- tasty little crustaceans included.

It surprised Niamh to hear that Raven didn't know what crabs were. It cured her, even just a little bit more, of her downtrodden feelings to be distracted from her woes. It also helped distract her from the fact that she was talking to Quixote's mate, or so she'd been told. But her mind had been far more occupied by her ire toward Screech than it had on her jealousy toward Raven, regardless. 

"Crabs," she began, "Are delicious. They're these bug-like sea creatures, like...uhm, yay big," She said, carefully indicating with her raised, injured paw and the other to show roughly the side of a crab's shell. "And they live near the ocean. Super easy to hunt, you just have to watch out for the claws on them- they have like...Two big arms that stick out of their face that have jaws on the end, but it's not even that hard to avoid them," She said. "I thought we could start a crab colony at the lake; let them multiply first, so there's enough, then use those as like...Treats, or like, even someone hurt like me could catch and kill a crab, easy- so injured wolves don't have to really hunt."

Niamh gave a good description, but Raven still couldn't picture in her mind what a crab actually looked like. It simply sounded too bizarre. Giant arms growing out of its face with jaws on the end? What? Honestly they sounded more terrifying than anything else. But she was intrigued at the delta's mention that they were delicious, though, and looked forward to the opportunity to try one. She briefly thought back to her recent trip to the coast, the day she had met Hemlock from Undersea, and wished she'd seen a crab then. What a strange-sounding creature.

"That's a really great idea, actually," the alpha said to Niamh's suggestion of a crab colony for the pack. The medic in Raven especially liked the idea of an easy food source for wolves who couldn't hunt. "I wonder, though... if they're from the ocean, can they survive in fresh water?" She remembered the bitter, horribly salty water she'd tasted at the beach and wondered if there was a difference between animals that lived there and those who lived in freshwater lakes and rivers.

Raven seemed to like the idea of having crabs nearby- though the expression she'd had on her face while Niamh had described them had been kind of interesting. She'd looked a bit surprised, and possibly a little bit confused by the mental image of what Niamh was trying to describe. Regardless of how odd it sounded, she at least didn't seem so perturbed by the creature's odd shape to think it was a bad idea. But Raven was clever enough to think of something that had completely slipped Niamh's mind. 

"Fresh water?" She asked. Of course, Niamh hadn't exactly tried to drink from the ocean, though she had noticed the funny smell it carried, but had assumed it had something to do with the sand, the same way a pond smelled funny too. "I don't think it'd hurt them." She said. "I guess we'll see, anyway. Not like it's a big deal if it doesn't work," She said. After all, the crabs were meant to be eaten, not babied like a pet.

Shall we wrap this up? :)

Niamh seemed a bit confused by Raven's mention of fresh water, so she explained briefly, "Ocean water is salty. Really salty. It tastes absolutely awful. But I think there's a difference between animals that can live in that kind of water versus un-salty water." She would have to think on that more later. It was an interest prospect if it was true. She mulled it for a moment before continuing, "But keep me posted on the progress of your crabs. I'm really curious about them." She flashed the delta a grin and wagged her tail, rising to stretch as she did so. The afternoon was growing late, and she wanted to do one last trip around the territory to check on a few of her packmates before she called it a day.

What Raven said made sense. There had been a smell to the water- which was unusual. How anything would really want to live in it was beyond Niamh- but obviously, sea lions and crabs did fine with it. She still didn't quite see how the absence of salt would effect the crabs- surely drinking clear water would be better for them, wouldn't it? But Niamh was far from being an expert on the matter, and hadn't exacly thought her plan through. She nodded, though, when Raven asked for an update. Before the two parted, though, she dipped her head, almost sheepishly, to the alpha. "Thanks, Raven. For everything." She murmured quietly. Maybe Screech was wrong...And maybe she'd been wrong too. Raven wasn't so bad after all.