Blacktail Deer Plateau turning the world back on itself

This is for @Peregrine, if Kat has time/inspiration for it. If not, somebody else can hop in.

The sun and set and risen, then set again. Fox found herself gazing at the plateau with dull, grey eyes and an expression to match. She had not eaten in a day and a half, perhaps more, and the wound on her back had become a dull throbbing pain that kept her from losing herself completely. In a way, it was a good thing Ferdie had taken a chunk out of her. Without that pain to keep her grounded in this world, it was quite possible she would have lost her sanity completely.

Fox had not spoken to Perry in quite some time, as she had been so preoccupied with her own existence. Fighting The Sunspire, plotting to take back the two that had been captured, spending what time she'd had at the creek with Haunter. “Haunter,” she half-sobbed, half-whispered. The ache in her chest was far worse than the one between her shoulder blades. With a whine, Fox slid to the ground, hoping that Perry was ever-vigilant in his patrols.

Dawn arrived and Peregrine slowly came awake. He lay still for a long time, as had become customary the past several weeks. Some days, he didn't move much at all. But instead of letting the hours pass him by, he finally pushed himself upright, then climbed onto all fours. He stood for a few minutes, gazing at his slumbering family, then sighed lightly and began to walk.

For about two weeks now, Peregrine hadn't done much of anything but go through the motions. Today could be much of the same. Yet as he walked slowly through the woods, toward the plateau's edge, he felt a flicker in his chest. He longed suddenly to watch the sunrise. For the first time in a while, he moved now with purpose.

When he arrived at the ledge, he stared at the glowing horizon for only a minute before a sound below drew his attention. It took him a moment to locate the source of the noise and another for recognition to register. Feeling another flutter in his breast, Peregrine shuffled as quickly as he could manage down the slope leading into neutral territory.

"Fox," he murmured, surprised to see her looking tearful and wounded. Feeling a strong protective urge, he closed the space between them, placed his swarthy head over hers and drew her petite body against his chest, mindful of both their wounds. He felt his own slow heartbeat. "What happened?" he whispered into her ear, finding it strangely comforting to reach out to someone else in pain. Maybe it was true that misery loved company.

I was trying to figure out which foreleg it was that he broke, but I was too lazy to investigate further.

When she looked up at the voice, noting the hulking black figure above her, she had thought it was Haunter, back from the dead. But she did not believe in such things, as much as she wanted to, and she knew it was Peregrine after only a few moments of pause.

Maybe, maybe if Haunter had been there when she had gone to The Sunspire, Magpie and Leaf would be safe and sound. But they were not. Maybe if he had just held on a few more days, he could have died a noble death, fighting for the firecracker he had cared so much for. But he had not.

“I fucked up,” she rasped, admitting her folly. “I let them get stolen, and then I let him die.” Fox licked her lips, trying to muster the courage to say what needed to be said. “I can’t bring him back, but… but I think I can save them.” She did not know, did not care, that she was probably just muttering nonsense to him.

I had to check, lol. It's his left.

Because of where and how they stood in relation to one another, he could see the wound on her back quite clearly. His brow furrowed. As soon as he ascertained what was wrong, he would fetch Blue Willow to have a look at it, supposing Fox was open to it.

The furrow deepened when she spoke. At first, he thought she was referring to objects when she referred to them being stolen. Yet the contextual clues indicated that she was speaking about people (well, wolves). His heart throbbed when she spoke of a death. Obviously, that hit close to home for him.

He didn't mention that now, though. "Who was stolen? And who... passed away?" he asked in a soft voice, touching Fox's red ear tenderly.

Also! I hope this makes Perry more fun/inspiring to play for you in some way. :)

“Bones,” she said, although she could not bring her back. “Bones and… and Magpie and Leaf.” She had barely known them, Magpie and Leaf, but it had been her duty to keep them safe. Fox had told them to run, ordered them to, but they had lingered, wanting to keep her safe instead. “I should have let them tear me to bits.” It would have been less pain than what she was feeling now. “I don’t want to talk about him, Perry. It hurts.” He hadn't known Haunter, or even her relation to him, as far as she knew.

“I have to go there. I have to go and let them take me instead. Will they let them go free?” she asked, murmuring. “They have to. I have to get them back.” Fox was becoming restless, wanting to dart out from underneath Perry and head straight for The Sunspire, but all the energy had drained out of her. She would not have made it half a mile before she collapsed, and then what good would she be to her comrades?

Fox was distraught, so the information poured from her in an anguished jumble. Somehow, Peregrine was able to make sense of it. He already knew about Bones (she'd told her himself just after it'd happened) but now something similar had happened to wolves called Magpie and Leaf. He concluded that Tortuga must be involved somehow, even though the two given names didn't seem to fit the theme.

"Tortuga? Are they responsible for this?" he questioned. Seeing the look in her eye, he tried to gentle her by reasoning, "You can't sacrifice yourself, Fox. It's a noble thought but it might not even work and then what happens to your pack? Hey," he added, trying to get her to look at him. "I'm here. Tell me what's happened and I'll do what I can to help."

Fox screwed her face up at him, for a moment unable to comprehend what he was talking about. “Tortuga?” she asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. “No, they haven’t been back. It’s The Sunspire. They settled too close, Perry. I tried to talk to them, but they didn't listen. And then I was just screwing around. I fucked it up real bad. I never meant for...” Magpie and Leaf were supposed to run at the first sign of trouble. But they hadn't. They'd lingered too long, and too many of The Sunspire's wolves had shown up. They'd swarmed them, and Fox had fled to save her own ass.

“Can I stay here? Just for a little while?” she asked. The thought was absurd, but she couldn't go back to the creek right now. She wasn't even sure if she could ever go back. Whatever claim she'd had to it felt as if it had been taken from her. Perhaps it had been taken the moment she had deserted Mags and Leaf, but it had only been when she awoke next to the dead body of Haunter that she had realized the truth in it. Maybe she could hide away at the plateau with Perry and never go back. Just stay here and drown in her own gloom and self-loathing.

Evidently, he hadn't understood. Fox quickly clarified for him and he deduced that The Sunspire was a newly founded pack. He wasn't overly familiar with the geography in Fox's neck of the woods but she gave him enough details to comprehend what had happened. He wondered if Fox had confronted them with aforementioned pack mates, which would explain their fates as well as the wound on her back...

When she asked if she could stay here, it took him by surprise but it didn't show. "Yes," he answered without missing a beat, "of course." If not for everything that had happened to each of them, respectively, he might have been delighted at this turn of events and cracked a joke, perhaps requiring Fox to agree to be his mistress before allowing her entry into his lands. This was no time for joking, though, and neither Alpha was in the mood.

"Come on," he invited, nudging her neck and motioning toward the plateau. He began to walk slowly, favoring his injured leg, though it wasn't so bad anymore. "I broke it," he explained in case she noticed, "a while ago now..." He said nothing more, leading her upward in silence for a few minutes.

When they reached the ledge, he turned to face her and asked, "Would you like my Healer to take a look at your back? It looks painful. She can give you something for that and probably something to prevent infection..." Peregrine trailed off, patiently awaiting a response.

It went against everything in her that was wild and wolf, but Fox began to follow him wearily. It was one thing to go trundling into somebody's packlands with the intention of getting yourself roughed up, but another one entirely to be invited in. Fox wasn't even sure she would have done the same for Perry, and the thought made the taste of bile rise in her throat. How could she be so careless? So undeniably heartless?

When he spoke of his leg, she glanced at it. If he hadn't said anything, she probably would not have noticed it at all, so wrapped up in her own head. She lumbered along behind him, head hanging low as they reached the plateau's edge. When he asked if she wanted a healer, Fox shook her head. She had never believed in them, and she wasn't about to start now. Just because she had been through a lot of shit the past few days did not mean she wasn't still as stubborn as a rock.

“It just needs cleaning,” she replied. “Don’t let anybody know that I’m here, Perry. I don’t want them to know.” News traveled fast at the most inopportune times, and Fox did not want her pack to know what she had done. She had abandoned them, for gods' sake.

Let me know if you mind the assumption/power playing and I'll feex.

Fox quietly refused medical help and Peregrine wasn't about to force it on her. "Okay," he said simply. "I'll clean it for you. Let's find somewhere..." He trailed off thoughtfully, then made eye contact with her briefly before again motioning for her to follow.

He didn't know whether she meant to keep it secret only from any inquiries that arrived at his borders or if she wanted to be hidden away even from members of the plateau. For now, Peregrine didn't worry about it. He led his companion through the quiet morning woods, toward the rear of the territory. They wound up at the rear wall, not far from Pied's and Osprey's graves, but far enough to avoid being discovered should anyone visit the burial site.

"Lie down," he commanded her gently, then waited for Fox to settle herself before neatly wrapping himself around her like a black shawl. They fit together neatly, her little spoon fitting perfectly into his big spoon. "Let me know if I hurt you," he said before gently nosing the wound and then doing his best to clean it, thinking vaguely to himself that he was, in a way, kissing away Fox's pain.

Whoop. Got on a 2-hour phone call with my sister and then had to skip out to a birthday party. I'm going to go ahead and fade out here since it's a good opportunity, but we should have another!

She didn't know where they were going, exactly, but she followed without a peep. She felt like they had walked another day and night, although the sun had not fallen and risen again. Finally, Peregrine halted, and Fox stumbled to a stop behind him. She did has he asked, gently moving to the ground as he curled around her and began to work his tongue across the wound on her back. It stang, but she did not whimper. Fox forced herself to relax and slowly but surely, his touches did begin to feel more soothing and less like torture.

At what point she fell asleep, she was not sure, but soon she was breathing deeply and evenly, wrapped in Perry's embrace and letting herself go far, far away from this world. Her dreams were ripe with flashes of Bones, Magpie, Leaf, and Haunter.

She didn't say anything, so Peregrine continued to lick the wound until he felt satisfied that it was as clean as possible. He then leaned back slightly, listening to his friend's slow, deep breaths. She was asleep, which was good.

After a moment, he let his chin come to rest lightly over her neck. Although he'd been enjoying Lasher's company, it felt good to hold a woman close again. He drew in her scent, gently nuzzling her soft earlobe. "It'll be okay..." he murmured, aware that she wouldn't hear him. He was speaking as much to himself as to her anyhow.

Although it was tempting to join her in sleep, he remained vigilant. He would have to inform his pack mates—or his co-leaders, at the very least—about their guest, lest someone discover her and mistakenly attack her. Yet he would make sure nobody bothered her and let her stay as long as she needed before she was ready to go back home.