Golden Glade I thought the suits had come for me

@Hyacinth

The sun had arched high in the sky around noon, but not high enough to shorten Niamh's shadow- a sure sign that Autumn was drawing near. She was lured away from her border patrol by a rumble in her stomach, and she became quickly aware of just how hungry she was when she caught the scent of blood. Something had made a kill, and she thought she may as well investigate; from what she could tell, the scent came from a deer, so she tracked the blood droplets until she saw a heap of tawny fur in the distance- and something else. 

She wasn't sure whether the coyote had made the kill or not- it seemed very unlikely, but it had perhaps chanced upon a wounded or old doe and had managed to track it until it was able to bring it down. From the smell of it, the deer had been dead for some time, and the coyote had already been feasting on it for a while- but in Niamh's opinion, it had had more than enough, and it was her turn to feed. With a growl, Niamh charged the coyote, which looked up, startled, bared its teeth but when faced with a much larger opponent currently hurtling toward it, it thought twice about fighting back and ran off. Figuring it was best to chase it off some small distance before returning to feed, Niamh continued, hot on the coyote's heels, snapping and growling as she went- more for fun than anything else. She'd have an easy meal to return to in no time.

Her wanderings took her further then she'd intended to go, but she didn't mind the distance if it brought the possibility of food. There was no small game around Sunspire, their hunts hadn't been very successful for larger game either. She was starving, her body slowly growing thinner and thinner. The berries and edible herbs she ate were starting not to be effective in filling her belly at all. She wandered down the mountain further until the wind blew the scent of a carcass to her nose immediately making her  stomach growl.

In a rush she moved forward foolish in the fact that she did not pause to smell for the one who had made the kill or anything else that may have made claim. Instead she lunged at it like a starving woman and in a frenzy tore and swallowed meat like it would be her very last meal at all. The sweet, soft spoken country gal was nowhere to be found at the moment and was replaced by a feral beast.

Niamh wasn't about to pursue the coyote to the point where she could kill it- but she definitely did want it far away so she wouldn't have to keep chasing it away from the carcass. Once she felt she'd sufficiently terrorized the creature that ran away screaming in fear, she turned and loped back toward where she'd left the deer carcass, but bristled as soon as she saw another wolf at the kill. True, Niamh hadn't marked it, but her scent was in the area- nevertheless, the female was an opportunist, the same as Niamh had been, but Niamh still felt anger stirring inside her. She'd been the one to find it first, and chase the coyote away- this kill was hers.

As per usual, Niamh's knee-jerk reaction to anything that outraged her was to charge headfirst at the intruder. She issued a loud warning growl, and thundered toward the female, aiming directly for the part of the kill she was currently chowing down on. "That's mine!" She snarled, lowering her head, and preparing to collide with the female should she not move away in time.

Before she had gotten more then a few mouthfuls into her belly, she was interrupted by a snarling charging she wolf. For a moment her mind wasn't functioning right and she responded with a startled and defensive snarl, that one moment allowing for the she wolf to slam right into Hyacinth. She yelped and was knocked directly onto her side, snapping at the areas around the stranger's face not trying to bite but to make her draw back so she could scramble to her paws and get away. "I thought it was recently abandoned!" she snarled her tone defensive and explanatory.

Niamh continued to snap at the female who was knocked sideways. She snarled and continued to stalk forward as she allowed the female to get to her feet and move away from the kill. Her defense was valid, but Niamh certainly didn’t care- she wanted Hyacinth to get the hell away, so she struck out again, tail flagging above her back, more aiming to chase the female back a bit where she could wait until Niamh had had her fill- but if she chose to fight back, Niamh would naturally defend the kill she believed to be hers.

Hyacinth's posture turned defensive as she scampered sideways away from the kill, her teeth nipping the air to deflect any bites aimed toward her. Her ears flattened back against her head and tail tucked down as she gave a exasperated but accepting whine, hurriedly moving far enough away that she was visible but not a threat. This female surely couldn't eat the whole thing and Hyacinth intended to grab some for herself and maybe take back a bit for Sunspire too. Pointedly she glared for a moment before turning her head away and passively licking at her fur.

WC: 470

The pretty pale femme scampered away from her nimbly, avoiding Niamh's clipping fangs and deflecting with a few snaps of her own which were just enough to keep Niamh from going in to hurt her. She wasn't terribly interested in actually injuring this female anyway- maybe bruise her up a bit just to punish her for trying to take a meal that she'd scavenged, but Niamh wasn't the sort to inflict needless injuries on a wolf who hadn't hurt her first, or offended her terribly. The pale wolf submitted, tucking herself down to the ground, so with a snort, Niamh turned and walked with a stiff gait back to the kill and settled down to eat.

It was slightly annoying that the female remained close to the kill. Niamh looked up and snarled every now and again, possessively keeping one foot placed on the carcass as though to reiterate the fact that it was hers- and she wasn't planning on sharing with anyone. She didn't know who the female was, but Niamh was not only hungry but hangry. The way the female watched for a moment was unsettling- and she sensed a great deal of resentment but at the same time- if she really wanted the kill, she could have challenged Niamh for it, or put up a better fight for it. Instead, she eventually began to tidy up her fur, which had likely been ruffled by Niamh's sudden onslaught and Niamh relaxed a bit, and took her time eating her fill.

Naturally, she didn't want to over-eat, just in case the white female attacked her. Fighting on a full belly wasn't something anyone ever enjoyed, so she would have to avoid that even though she wanted very much to simply inhale as much as she could until she couldn't move- and then have a nap, then wake up and eat some more. That wouldn't be an option as long as the pale female was hanging around, as Niamh knew the moment she drifted off, the pretty female would move in to grab a snack if she could tear off a piece before Niamh woke up. The only option left, then, was to bring the carcass back with her to the plateau where she could eat it safely.

Growling a warning, she stood up and circled around the deer carcass, trying to choose the best place to grab onto it to drag it to the pack. She was some distance away, for sure, but once she got close enough she could simply call out and summon someone to help her drag the rest of it back with her and gain themselves a free meal. But if the white female was hungry at all, now was likely her chance- Niamh couldn't both drag the deer and defend it with her fangs.

Change of slight plans due to mentions of scrapes and looking a mess in other thread ;_; you have permission to pp a first blow and if you don't want a quick fight then I'll have Cin run off. I was thinking an outcome roll for winner to make it easy?

She had finished tidying herself up a bit and noticed when the female slowed in eating her meal. A glimmer of hope sparked but was quickly squashed as the female growled and inspected the carcass, looking ready to drag it off. Of course she knew that they both had packs to feed and maybe Niamh's was just as hungry as Sunspire was, but her first thought was that the female was greedy. She gave a look of surprise and disgust standing up and fully bristling. Her hunger made her desperate and the need to prove she was more then just a medic made her even more foolishly ballsy. She trotted quickly back over to the carcass and growled, eyes flashing and teeth bared "You ate enough" she hissed through gritted teeth, hackles rising all along her spine. She stepped closer, deliberately trying to make a threat toward the carcass. She wanted it and Sunspire needed it, even if there was only enough for a few mouthfuls for only a few wolves.

WC: 401

As Niamh had suspected, given the fact the alabaster female had hung around, she expected Niamh to abandon what was left to let her eat. She regretted, then, not inflicting more fear when she’d first charged the female...And maybe she should have run her off altogether and chased her far enough away so that she didn’t have to deal with another challenge. When the female spoke and growled, Niamh stood tall, still with one foot possessively claiming the carvass, and tilted her neck from side to side, cracking it audibly. She shimmied her shoulders to loosen them, and then grimaced, baring her bloodied teeth at the female who thought she had some right to the carcass that Niamh had clearly found first.

”It’s mine. Finder’s law,” She said, as though she even understood what that meant- but it was just a fancier way of saying finders keepers. Meals in the wild weren’t a buffet, where you ate your fill and then left the rest, in Niamh’s opinion. She’d found it, chased off the competition and had eaten- but the rest was still hers, or so she felt. ”I have children to feed,” She supplied, wondering if that would have any effect. And it was true- the pack had young, and she would cater to them first if this female would back off. ”Eight of them.” She said, sounding a tad exhausted. Keeping up with the Quivens, the Blackthorns and Caiaphas’ two kids was not easy, as they were fledgelings yet when it came to hunting. 

When the female stepped forward, Niamh stepped over the kill and squared her shoulders, chin lowering to guard her throat, and all along her spine the hairs stood up on end, like golden quills. She tilted her head slightly, turning the left side of her face toward  her pretty foe with the intention of using the scars on her face- four parallel lines from a cougar’s claws as a badge to prove she was a fighter. When she bared her teeth, only three canines shwoed- the upper left was missing. Battle wounds they were, but still she stood, a testament to her skills of survival. If the female still wanted to take her on, Niamh was ready- but there was a savage light in her honey eyes and a chilling note in her growl to warn her- she wasn’t the kind wolves ought to mess with.

Hyacinth hesitated when children were mentioned, heart squeezing briefly. It showed clearly on her face the war of survival instinct and moral. If she brought this back she would have the right to eat what she wanted and not feel guilty about not providing but if she took this she would have the guilt of denying babies food. Unfortunately tough times these were and even Hyacinth's southern Belle do gooder nature was lost to the fear of starvation. "Then maybe your pack should place laws on how many children are born" her words came out forcibly cold as she distanced her emotions, survival winning out.

As Niamh stepped to cover the carcass and displayed her battl scars, Hyacinth bared her fangs again. She wouldn't be a scared little tail Tucker anymore, she had to fight for the right to live. A man wouldn't care for her here and she had responsibility too. She lunged and made to headbutt the female right in those scars and if she connected she would begin a flurry of frenzied, maddened bites to back Niamh up. She was prepared to come out of this scarred but she was also intent to win.

WC: 281

It tickled Niamh slightly, when Hyacinth spoke. She had a point- had they not had so many kids, they wouldn’t have been in a situation where they had so many dependant wolves- but at the same time, how could she ever have guessed that Raven would pop out four children? Even Finley had two and she was practically a relic. She half-sniggered at Hyacinth’s comment, unable to keep her funny bone in check, but there was no time for her to make a reply as the female charged forward. 

Given the fact she’d been headbutted once before and the dire consequences she (and the whole pack) had faces both from her injury and especially Screech’s, Niamh was somewhat headshy and instinctively moved her head out of harm’s way. One more good conk on her noggin, she’d been warned, and she’d be as useless as a potato. She moved backwards, and her heels brushed up against the carcass. She snapped in retaliation, but had been caught by surprise. Now she knew- all someone had to do to disarm her a bit was make her laugh before attacking. She’d have to keep herself more...Serious in the future. She felt the female’s teeth clip through the fur and skin of her shoulder. But pressed back against the carcass, where her footing was compromised, she couldn’t keep herself as well grounded as she wanted to. 

So she went for plan B. She bounded backwards and slightly sideways and grabbed the torn-apart carcass by one of the hind legs- the only one still attached to the body. She wrenched it toward her and snarled, insisting yet again that this was -her- possession thank you very much.

It somewhat took her by surprise that the female responded to her comment by laughing and therefore her attempted headbutting was clumsy and easily avoided. What they both did not account for was that the red furred female was pressed back against the carcass and therefore stumbled causing Hyacinth's teeth to graze at her shoulder flesh while she managed not to fall. Her blue gaze watched as the female moved and grabbed the carcass by the hind legs which caused a snarl to tear from Hyacinth's maw as she was torn between attacking or also grabbing hold of the dead deer. She chose the latter and a hanger fueled game of tug of war ensued before a disgusting noise filled the air and suddenly she was flat on her ass with the Carcass in her mouth. She thought she had won but instead of gloating she simply stood and snorted, eyeballing the other female, the sight of half the Carcass in her jaws making her pause and blink a few times as she slowly realised what had happened.

WC: 502

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As Hyacinth grabbed another part of the carcass, Niamh growled roughly and pulled backwards, pinning her feet against the ground and leaning back, spreading her toes to give herself more traction. She likely had a bit of a weight advantage over the pretty, petite female, so she pulled directly backwards, lurching every now and again as she sought to get a better foothold and pull the carcass toward her. With the frail state it was in, she tried to avoid the temptation of shaking her head to tear it from Hyacinth’s jaws- but given the fact that it had already been picked over a fair bit before she even got to settle down and eat her fill, there wasn’t much left and what was left, was hardly holding together well at all.

Joints and sinews began to tear, but the sounds didn’t gross Niamh out at all- those were simply the chorus of sounds one would expect when eating a meal on any normal occasion as a wolf. It was a slight warning of what was to come, but Niamh stubbornly refused to give up on her hold of the deer’s hind leg. She scanned over the carcass, paying particularly close attention to the remains closest to Hyacinth’s mouth and caught herself grinning as she noticed that the flesh and joint there had begun to separate and thought for a moment that she had the upper hand. If she gave her portion a good shake, surely the part nearest Hyacinth would tear and she would get away with the greater share. What she failed to notice was that the knee joint only inches from her mouth was in far worse condition- so when she gave the carcass an aggressive shake, she didn’t end up coming away with a hefty chunk of meat- instead, she was left with no more than a spindly hind leg, as though she’d just lost in a wishbone pulling contest.

And as if that wasn’t enough, due to the fact that her portion was so small, Niamh had pulled far too hard for her own good. Though Hyacinth was sent backwards as well, at least the weight of the meat she’d won had balanced her out more than Niamh’s portion balanced her out. With the sudden dislocation of the joint, Niamh was sent flying backwards, tumbling arse over tea kettle in a heap of long, gangly legs, smacking her head on the ground with an audible thud. It was a hard enough impact to make her dizzy and feeble, and kept her grounded, though still clinging onto the deer’s leg which had now been bitten into two portions as well. Dazed and reeling, and likely worse off than normal due to the fact that she had had a severe concussion once in her life already, she tried to stop the world from spinning by staring at a spot on the ground directly before, but ended up squeezing her eyes shut, and hoping that the unpleasant feeling would pass.

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