Shadow Mountain Hellraiser returns

Title totally reffing the Gundam Wing soundtrack song which was definitely on good ol' Oni's playlist back in the day.. And probably a thread title of hers too. >P

The dying marks brought her a certain sense of glee in the low dawn light, if it were at all possible for her to feel such a thing.  She could just barely smell the hints of the old pack.  They were gone!  A few stragglers, maybe, but they weren't going to be an issue.  Unlike them, Treason had a pack behind her, and not too far away.

Treason had at first approached with caution, expecting that her recon would just be that, a quick trip to figure out what trouble might head their way after the event at the crash.  Stealth was apparently unnecessary, so she gave it up quickly.  A final few sniffs around and she relieved herself over one of those decayed scents purely out of spite.  The real question was if there was anything left in the area.  Did they have caches that had been left to fend for themselves?  Who all made up the pack, so she could keep an eye out for them later?  Only way to find out was to head in, her rolling stride carrying her confidently, even if she kept an ear out for a straggler's ambush.

As far as Treason was concerned, their verbose surrenders had been the most telling of all things.  They were inferior wolves who thought that thought their petulant whines meant something, but they were too wrapped up in their own egos to see they were just dirt.  Time to metaphorically bury their remains.

He looked far ahead of his paws, selecting his footholds with care and even then his large paws churned loose gravel and dislodged fragile soils. He searched for holes in the canopy, for some outcropping or ledge from which to observe the lands that sprawled at the foot of these slopes. He had no love of mountains but he did have a use for them.

His attention was soon drawn elsewhere as he passed by an old scent mark doused in fresh piss. The black wolf took his time to sniff at it and then pressed his nose to the tracks the female had left; the wind far too indecisive and slight to rely on for tracking her.

Practiced in the art, he was not long in locating her. Her pale coat was bright against the greening vegetation and the shadows of their surroundings, the contrast of her inky markings catching his eye as he drew nearer. He woofed to draw her attention to him, if the sound of his steps did not do it first.

"These slopes — reclaiming them?"

It was almost disappointing that it seemed they were actually really gone.  None of them wanted to put up a fight for their claim, huh?  On the one hand, that was probably a good thing -- it meant less effort, that she didn't have to go on adventure to make sure all the nearby packs hated the ex-pack as much as they deserved to be hated.

Treason moved from the borders to a game trail that wound across the mountain, though nothing too interesting came to her attention thus far.  She wasn't moving at a very quick pace, so the fact that another had caught up to her wasn't particularly unexpected.  A potential ally for this rather low-risk raid?  That or maybe one of those Shadow Mountain wolves were a bit more intelligent than she suspected.  Eh.  Probably not.  The dark male wasn't too threatening, considering he'd purposely drawn her attention instead of trying to bite off her tail.

Reclaiming it?  She scoffed at the thought, No, telling anyone left behind to go the hell away.  Was a wannabe pack here -- not good neighbors.  As if Treason herself was a good neighbor.  She grinned, a not exactly amiable expression for her, Wanna see if they left a cache?  Regardless of whether or not he agreed, she was gonna do it.  And wreck anything else along the way, of course.

He arched a brow at her response and grunted a note of amusement.

"Mmhmm," he agreed with a nod, setting aside his quest for the peak or another observation point to fall in beside her as they started forward. "Your pack must not be far," he surmised, glancing sidelong at her before casting his gaze about them. Periodically, the black wolf would break from her shoulder to sniff at a likely location for a cache, or to better shove his snout into the breeze for any discernible scents there.

Nearby?  Yeah, close enough.  On another mountain.  She flicked her muzzle sort of towards the Sunspire.  They weren't exactly in the greatest position on the mountainside to point it out clearly. 

She was trying to think along the lines of where she'd put a cache but she hadn't seen anything that looked great so far, and all her nose was giving her at the moment were the decaying scent marks, not anything of interest.  She looked up and down slope, but eventually saw a clear spot that looked likely to her, veering off the path that way.  As she approached there were the faint scents of old blood and meat, but even as she got closer, they stayed that way.  Some earth had been disturbed, but anything there was long gone.  So there were some.  But this one was obvious.  Certainly if there were any still left to scavenge, they'd be hidden better.  She started to circle the area, trying to pick up an individual's scent to follow, but the scents were pretty old.

His eyes followed the line of her muzzle to observe the nearby peak she indicated. He wondered momentarily if her pack ever saw his own meandering through the gaps in the forest that flanked the creek they were named for. If nothing else, he was sure they must have heard their howls.

Like his companion, the black wolf was not detecting much of interest on these once-claimed slopes. Then she reacted, seeming to catch the scent of something worthwhile, and he stopped with erect ears and watched her a moment before following after her. "Hmm." He lowered his nose to the turned soil. He confirmed there was nothing left.

"So who were these wolves? What made them poor neighbors?" He asked as he too circled, carefully inspecting the nearby surroundings for a better concealed cache. Crossing a fresh dribble of coyote urine brought a frown to his face.

Well, how would she describe them?  Far too easy to provoke and willing to do so into greater numbers.  The kind who bite then call everything 'petty' when they're gonna lose.  Hell, the whole mountain probably picked a fight with the wrong wolves and got nuked for it and she wouldn't be surprised at all.  As far as she was concerned, they were doing it wrong of they enjoyed staying alive.  Wouldn't be surprised if they got up to other trouble too.  Seemed the type to think they're untouchable.  Like who else would go on an evil villain monologue besides someone completely out of touch with reality?

She took a little more time to investigate near the empty cache as well.  Treason started spiraling the opposite direction, looking for another path.  Surely they had to have multiple ways to get to this place, even if they hadn't lived here that long.  What would be the point of making a cache if a fair number didn't know about it?  So then another path might head to another.  A D20 rolling 12 meant that Treason found another possible track, but she wasn't sure it was the best of leads.  Hm.

Jagwyr snorted, a sound mixed of humor and derision. Not at her — but at the wolves she described. They sounded like a real pleasant lot. Shame he never me them.

"Didn't go under the name Blackfeather, did they?" He tossed that out there on the off-chance this band of wolves were the same perverted ones Raven had made mention of.

The black wolf found no leads. The female, searching adjacent to him, did not either. He lifted his head, scenting the air and looking around. He had a different target in mind, coming to think that there was little left to be scavenged. "Better off looking for live game."

The trail that lead away... Eh.  She didn't know if it would produce anything either.  Blackfeathers?  Hm.  Pretty sure that name came up, but probably was a while ago.  Don't think so.  Pretty sure Blackfeathers are in a namesake forest somewhere.  Sounds right at least.  Might be one of those in one of the lowlands to the west somewhere. Dunno.  Think this is uh..  Shadow Mountain?  They never said their names, but wouldn't be surprised if that's what they went by.  Shrug.  One got called 'Skullchaser' or something but dunno if it's a name or a title.  If he knew more about 'em, maybe that would ring a bell and answer his question.

But now what?  Treason snorted.  Yeah, I guess at this point, probably.  Likely will take too long to search the whole area.  Kinda wish there was something to ruin.  Now all that was ruined was her fun.  Nobody to taunt, no free food...  How was a girl supposed to have any fun?

"Skullchaser? Sounds like a bunch of try-hards." He scoffed. He was not unfamiliar with the kind of wolf that barked more than they bit. That tried to sound scarier than they were capable of being. He shook his head, imagining these wolves were little more than run-amok yearlings and not even worth reporting back to Constantine about.

"Kinda wish there was something to ruin."

Jagwyr turned his head toward her and cocked a brow.

"Like what?"

For the moment he held his own suggestion behind his teeth.

After grunting something that must have been agreement at his assessment, she paced around, eventually heading back to the emptied cache to sniff around again as if it might make something appear.

She shrugged, pacing another loop around to look for clues, I'd hoped there was still going to be stuff stored or some straggler lurking around to chew on to get the point across.  Hadn't realize they'd run like rats.  Must have been not too long after my pack last crossed paths with them.  It was just so... Unfortunate?  Disappointing?  Something like that.  After the initial fit of conflict near the time of Sunspire's founding, things had gone quiet.  Most wolves would be happy with that, but Treason was young and wanted to fight.  It'd hone her skills, make her feel powerful.  It was quite basic, really, and probably better she caused trouble somewhere other than home.

Oh well.  Time to go home.  She did one last pass of the area, then wandered back to Sunspire.