Heron Lake Plateau how many people have to pretend to die.

@Niamh

Finley stalked in circles around the tree, growling and glaring into the upper branches where the hawk sat with the mouse in its talons. She did realize she wasn't capable of climbing trees, much as she would've liked to. Back when she was young, she definitely would have tried. Oh hell who am I kidding - she'd definitely tried to climb a ton of trees in her youth. It had never worked, and Fin had finally grown wise enough to accept defeat in that particular battle. She wasn't about to now, though. This was about justice.

The Blackthorn stopped and reared up onto her hind legs, placing her forepaws against the bark. "That was my kill, you son of a bitch," she barked fiercely. The bird merely blinked at her, though, and began to lower it's head towards the small carcass in its talons. Fin tilted her head, her eyes widening. "Don't you dare..." she growled, causing it to pause. It blinked at her once, then tore into it with its beak.

Fin's muzzle parted as her rage spilled out. "How DARE you, you little fucker, I will fuckin'.. I... RAAAAAA--" she roared as she dropped back down onto all fours and began pacing again, fuming. "You know what? Huh? Think you're all bad ass and shit?" she said in a slightly wild tone, suddenly excited, "I'm gonna go get my god daughter, and her bird is gonna kick your ass! Yeah! How do you like that? Ya dirty old bitch."

The hawk went right on eating, and Finley determined that her trash talk needed some work.

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Though Niamh had been with the pack for the better part of a year now- minus a few months but she wasn’t really counting- there was still an area of the pack that she generally avoided, and that was anywhere within sight of Finley’s den. Her first encounter with the harpy-like Blackthorn matriarch had more or less set the tone for their relationship and had defined Niamh’s view of Blackthorn females. Over time, of course, that had changed with each interaction as it naturally would, so long as Niamh continued to mature...But it was slow going, really. Ceara had been gone for months now, as had Fiadh, and Niamh’s relationship with both Clover and Finley seemed to have gone from reluctant acceptance to something perhaps a bit more fond than indifference. Feeling that the ice was still incredibly thin, though- especially since she’d married Finley’s brother- she did her best to behave and leave the Blackthorn women to themselves.

When she heard Finley shouting, though, she couldn’t help but draw a bit closer to the area she usually avoided, and though she wasn’t able to make out Finley’s words, she could see that something about the tree was making her quite angry. Without any leaves, the tree did a poor job of hiding the target of Finley’s accusations, and Niamh bristled as soon as she saw, vaguely through the skeletal branches, who Finley was shouting at.

It was X.

At least, it looked like X. Niamh was still a good distance away, she’d missed the gist of Finley’s threats, and all birds looked more or less the same to Niamh (sorry, X), especially ones that were predators….So all she could think, immediately was how dare her crone-of-a-sister-in-law yell at X?! Had she been closer, she might’ve noticed the different colour of its tailfeathers and beak which would have defined its species- but Niamh was too quick to jump to conclusions and as Towhee was her Person, and X was her Person’s bird, she set herself up for sure failure by barking to catch Finley’s attention.

Finley was a respected wolf in the pack. Heck, she’d had something to do with the founding of it- and had been alpha at one point, back in the dinosaur age, or so thought Niamh. So she didn’t pull rank, but she was pretty ruffled as she approached Finley, tail swaying behind her at a neutral position but she couldn’t keep the look of judgemental concern off her face. ”Why’re you yelling at him?” She asked, her tone conveying the accusation that she thought Finley was actually yelling at a treasured feathered sort-of member of the pack, and how insulted she felt that Finley would do such a thing. She’d picked up a trot to close in the distance, but had kept her skeptical gaze on or close to Finley, in case she decided to go ballistic on her, too. In Niamh’s opinion, X could do no wrong. So what the heck gave Finley the right to yell at him?

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All things considered, Finley hadn't been nearly as hard on Colt for his relationship with Niamh as she could've been. I mean, they were hella old, and she was not at all. She had children that were older than Niamh for god's sakes. But, Fin had decided to take the more mature stance on the subject and just be glad that her jackass of a brother had found someone to put up with him for the rest of his potentially short life. 

So, when Niamh showed up, Finley didn't feel the need to regard her in any careful or attentive manner that a tense interpersonal relationship may otherwise have dictated, and thus she missed the whole offended look on the younger girl's face. "Oh, hey Legs," Fin greeted after a brief glance at her out of the corner of her eye, "I'm yelling because this bird is being an asshole. It stole my kill and now it's just up there taunting me with it like a bitch." She narrowed her eyes again, but the hawk just munched away. Apparently it didn't mind being called names.

She turned to Niamh then, a new thought occuring. "Hey, you got a pinecone or a stick or something I can throw at it?" she asked, still completely missing her companion's (rather obvious) annoyance.

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Niamh didn’t particularly appreciate how blase Finley was being about yelling at Towhee’s bird. Fortunately for her, though, the nickname she’d been given caused Niamh to snicker and take her sour gaze off Finley long enough to give the bird another glance- which was exactly the moment that her sniggering stopped and her mouth fell open. A cool wash of fear cloaked her as she realized just how close she’d potentially come to really pissing Finley off. She couldn’t believe her luck- Finley persisted that the bird was an asshole and that it’d taken her lunch- and wanted to know if Niamh had something to throw at it, all the while missing the fact that the leggy blonde had realized just how close she could’ve come to being a real asshole to one of the pack’s most respected members.

She shook her head as she approached, but she still left a good distance between herself and Finley, feeling the need to explain first. ”Jeez, I thought it was X for a minute there- sorry I yelled,” She said, realizing that in the end, she really had no place to pick X’s side over Finley’s anyway. ”’Me give this a try,” She said, crouching to the ground for a minute to get her muscles ready. Finley had wanted to throw something at it- and maybe had Cinder shown up, he could have shown her exactly how good he was at throwing rocks (something he’d learned from his new family member) but it looked like Niamh would have to do it herself.

Naturally, the bird was far too high up in the tree for her to reach, but if it truly feared that the wolf might get at it, it might just take off and drop the mouse. She wiggled her hindquarters for a second and then dashed toward the tree with the speed of an Olympian, and only leapt into the air when she came as close to the tree’s base as she dared. For a moment, it might’ve looked like she intended to shake the bird out of the tree by running straight into it. But Niamh had done this a few times before- without success, of course, as wolves weren’t meant to climb trees, but she at least had learned that leaping  at the tree from further back would only make her rebound, whereas leaping closer to the trunk and using downward force wither her feet made her go up.

There was one branch she could grab, which was low enough that she probably could have grabbed it with her mouth, jumping from a standstill. Having launched herself off the tree’s trunk, her midsection came up high enough for her to get her front legs hooked over it, but her momentum had been misjudged. She scrambled with her hind legs, but she couldn’t get a grasp on it as it was too thin. Still clinging with her forelegs, she did a nose-dive, almost in slow motion as she arced over the branch, but got caught by her hind knees just as she thought she was going to fall. Her front end dangled as she looked down at Finley with a huff. So much for climbing the tree. She straightened out her hind legs, grimacing as she more or less slid off the coarse branch and fell swiftly back to the earth with a grunt. ”Garbage,” She huffed as she righted herself ”d’It work?” SHe said, squinting back up into the tree.

Fin frowned at Niamh for a moment before hre gaze shot back to the hawk in a brief spasm of doubt. "Oh fuck, is it?" she squinted up at the hawk, but shook her head after a beat, "No, no. Definitely not. Though I am considering enlisting X for a counterattack." This hawk did look quite simiar to Towhee's counterpart, but Fin knew that X knew better than to fuck with her like this. She'd been threatening to kill and eat him since he arrived and she was pretty sure he knew that she wasn't completely kidding about it. Towhee might not have caught on yet, though.

Fin's thoughts fell quiet as Niamh began setting up for... Well, Fin hadn't figured out yet just what this was. She quirked a brow at the blonde, then glanced back at the hawk. Two and two were just sliding into place at about the time her sister-and-law launched herself at the tree. All in all, it was a fairly impressive display. She wasn't sure if she would've done as well even before her hip had gotten all out of whack. She would've either laughed or at least smiled if another, more frightening thought hadn't ocurred to her while watching this.

Her brother had decided to settle down with someone who was exactly like Fin had been when she was young. Now that was unsettling as fuck.

Fin shook her head to clear the idea out of her mind. She had sat politely watching the whole thing unfold until Niamh prompted her to speak. She glanced up at the hawk, noticing it had moved further up the limb by a couple of inches, presumably because it had been startled by the attack. Other than that, it seemed it had been a wasted effort.

"Well, you got some good height out of that one, but no dice," Fin answered, pausing before deciding to add, "Maybe on your next go, try waiting to jump until you're a little closer to the trunk and aim more vertically." She looked quizzically up at the branches that the hawk was perched upon, trying to hide the humor from being spied in her eyes.

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Niamh grimaced when Finley admitted that the hawk had instead moved a bit further up, taking the mouse with it. She should have thought twice about that tactic- the hawk had pretty good claws, so it was unlikely that it would simply let the mouse slip from its talons just because her ass went tumbling down the tree, making it shake. She sat herself up a bit and evened out the ruffled fluff of her shoulder before standing up to flex her slightly sore hind knees, still gazing up at the hawk as Finley spoke. 

Until, of course, she referenced there being a 'next time.' She gave Finley a wide-eyed sort of are you dead serious?? sort of look, as she hadn't intended to give it another go, having failed so badly the first time. But Finley had been so relaxed as she'd spoken that Niamh actually took her half serious. No wonder she got Elwood to do whatever she wanted- Finley had a sort of cool authority still that made Niamh feel obliged to give it another shot. "Uh, sure," She said, trying to search for any sign of a joke in Finley's tone of voice or facial expression, but she saw none. With a somewhat reluctant sigh she stood up and stretched out, but just before she shot off like a broken rocket again, she hesitated. 

"--Y'know, I could always find you something else for lunch, if you wanted?" She volunteered.

Holy shit. Was she actually going to do it again?

Fin tightened her lips in an attempt to keep from laughing as Niamh awkwardly agreed and repositioned herself for another go at the hawk. It was clear she didn't really want to make a second attempt, which simply delighted her even more. It was not lost on her that the blonde female was now higher ranking than she was and yet she was going out of her way to make a good impression. Truth be told, Fin had never really considered herself ranked lower than even Quixote. She and Elwood were still the most respected and highest ranked in the pack in her mind. They had simply shifted the responsibility that typically went with that rank off on the youths. But that was a thought just for her brain, not to be shared with others. So uh. Pretend you didn't read that.

"Uhh.. Seriously?" Fin replied, quirking a brow dramatically, "What could you possibly hunt down that's more filling and satisfying than a field mouse?" She did her best to sound serious in spite of the absurdity of her comment, and the heavy drama to her tone and expression. She didn't really want Niamh to catch on yet, but she also found it all the more amusing if she didn't in spite of how obvious Fin was being about it.

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Seriously? Niamh couldn't take Finley seriously...But at the same time, did she really want to piss off the Xenomorph queen? This was Colt's older sister, and Niamh wanted to keep whatever good impression she had at the moment- knowing that she would inevitably one day screw it up....Until she had his children- at least then she figured that she'd be safe...Though she still fully expected Finley to look down on her inadequate parenting skills. Especially if she'd ever caught wind of the fact that Niamh had basically taught Cinder how to throw rocks and she'd tried to teach Tywyll to befriend trespassers in order to get closer to them so that attacking was easier. This was probably just payback for the poor influence she'd had on Finley's kids. 

She sighed, and finally decided that it didn't matter. It was just a tree, and Finley had had a point- she needed to be a bit closer to it the next time, maybe. If Finley was trying to call her bluff, then Niamh was going to raise the bet. She tilted her head to the side, rolled her shoulders, and gave Finley a half-grin. "Mouse it is, then," She said, and without hesitation, she launched herself toward the tree again. 

To say she was successful would be a long-shot. The hawk, perturbed by the creature that was much more of a nuisance than it was a threat, took off with the mouse in its claws the moment that Niamh's front feet hit the tree. She kicked off the ground pretty hard and reached the first branch with one bound- managing to actually get her hind feet up on it this time. She then propelled herself shakily upwards and managed to touch a higher branch with her front feet, but that wasn't going to do it. She grabbed hold with her teeth and dangled, then, swinging slightly back and forth as her teeth gritted into the bark. She moaned slightly, looking sideways to try and see where the branch was below her and managed to find it with one hind toe. Even then, the distance between the lowest branch- where her hind toes hovered- and the one she gripped with her teeth was too much for her to stand for very long. 

"Trr brr errnest," She said, through gritted teeth, "Err drrn't plrrn thss errt vrrr werll." She said, just as one of her hind feet lost its traction on the branch below. She growled softly and tightened her grip on the higher branch while trying to fish for the lower branch with her hind foot again, more or less looking like an odd tree ornament. 

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Finley couldn't help it this time. She snorted loud with laughter as Niamh took off towards the tree and was nearly falling over with laughter by the time she had managed to actually snag a branch. Fin paused in her mirth to pay attention, her laughter turning to impressed surprise as her sister-in-law actually made some progress this time. She saw the hawk take flight out of the corner of her eye, but she had long ago let that whole thing go. She was more interested in Niamh and.. ah... we'll call it, "getting to know her".

Fin canted her head heavily to the right as she peered up at the female who had latched herself onto a branch and was now dangling overhead. Her brows were lifted high enough to have nearly merged with her ears at that point, the latter of which she perked to listen as the tree's newest and blondest pinecone attempted to speak to her. She pursed her lips and nodded in understanding, tilting her head back to the other side as she considered her companion's predicament.

"Yeah, I'm not totally sure how you get yourself out of that one," Fin replied honestly. It didn't appear that she had many options to her. It was let go and fall back to the ground or bust. And even letting go and falling to the ground seemed to have a high chance of resulting in some busting. Ever helpful, Fin asked, "Whatcha thinkin' you're gonna do?"

This is basically something I feel that Niamh would do in her spare time

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Niamh couldn't see Finley, but she could hear what she interpreted as a pretty smug-ass smile in her voice when she responded. There wasn't really anything Finley could have done at that point, so Niamh merely stayed where she was, looking this way and that until she thought she might have found an option. Maybe she could lower herself down onto her hind feet on the lower branch and jump down from there...But that branch was only about as thick as her forelimb, and danced below her weight. There was no way she could balance on it, even if she tried to hug the trunk of the tree. The lower branch couldn't help her- but as she gazed down the shivering branch she had a hold of with her teeth, she got another idea. 

She hoped that the tree was young and that the branches were supple- and could really do nothing about it otherwise. She tested her weight on it and it seemed to bend a bit, so she took one hind foot off the lower branch, and then the other. She began to swing her hind end back and forth slightly, simply assuming that the branch she held onto would bend and gently lower her to the ground. For a few seconds, it seemed like it might obey her, a bit- just in that it bobbled under her weight for the first few swings. But she was holding on far too close to the trunk for it to bend and gently set her down. 

Instead, the branch bobbed up and down twice more before it cracked just beside her mouth, with half of the branch remaining more or less attached and the other half pulling away like a strip of long wallpaper off the branch and down the trunk as Niamh's weight pulled it to the ground. In the end, it might have slowed her down just a touch, but she still hit the ground gracelessly with a loud grunt, the branch still clutched in her jaws. 

It took her a second to sit up, with her haunches sore as she'd landed mostly on one hip. But she was young, and young wolves could bounce back- she'd fallen a little over a metre and a half, but thanks to her long legs, she hadn't been as high up off the ground as she would have been had she not been practically a wolf on stilts. She shook her pelt out and nudged the branch toward Finley. "Y'can't eat it. But if you shake it at Elwood he'll probably bring you something to eat." She said, slightly out of breath as she stretched each of her limbs out, wincing slightly as they groaned from the abuse.

Finley winced as her sister-in-law landed with a thud. Niamh looked like she weighed about as much as a handful of leaves, but Fin assumed that fall probably didn't feel too great still. She leaned forward to look over the blonde for injuries, but Niamh was standing and shaking herself already. Damn these youngins falling down and just getting right back up again as though they were made of jelly and not brittle old bones.

Her eyes fell to the branch that was being pushed towards her now as she listened to the latest offer. Finley smirked and gave a chuckle, looking back at her sister. "Thanks, but I've got something else I shake at Elwood to get him to do my bidding," she replied with a devilish grin. "Not bad work, though," she added, looking back up at the tree, which was looking a bit worse for wear, "You may not have gotten the mouse, but you at least showed the tree what's up."

Niamh's ears flicked forward at Finley's suggestion that she could more or less charm Elwood into doing what she wanted. It wasn't exactly the sort of tactic Niamh would've assumed that Finley would use- but she hadn't exactly seen that side of Finley, and had simply fallen into the assumption that Finley just yelled whenever she wanted or didn't want something. She chuckled and nodded, taking Finley's confession as advice of sorts. She could probably do the same trick with Colt....But then again, he was much more stubborn and proud than Elwood and would probably laugh at her first before doing her bidding. "Maybe I'll take it back with me, to keep Colt in check then," She joked, gesturing vaguely toward the stick.

Niamh glanced up at the tree and shrugged. "Yeh. Doesn't exactly put food in front of you though," She said. "Not that a mouse would really fill a belly anyway. Had you already caught it, or did it like swoop down before you could catch it?" She asked, more interested in hearing exactly why Finley thought that that was her mouse to begin with.

Fin gave a nod of agreement at Niamh's idea to take the stick and use it to keep her brother in line. Colt had always been her best friend and favorite travel companion, so she knew perfectly well what was required to put her brother in his place. His skull was too thick for words to do anything to move him, but a good ass kicking usually did the trick.

She followed Niamh's gaze up towards the tree, then looked off in the direction the hawk had flown. "Uhhh... The latter," she admitted, "And I may have only seen the mouse because the hawk was already diving towards it. But it was in our territory, so that damn bird should know I called dibs, on like, everything." Seriously tho.

So it turned out that Finley hadn't even spotted the mouse until the hawk had begun hunting, but Niamh had to smile and shake her head. "Everything the light touches, damnit!" She said, raising her voice a little bit so the bird might potentially hear. She shook her head and shrugged. "Joke's on it. We'll just find X and sic him on its ass later." She said. After all, X lived here and probably wouldn't want the competition, unless, of course, that wasn't exactly another dude bird, but it was so hard to tell. All birds basically looked alike- and delicious- to Niamh, save for the one that she could tell was X simply because of his friendliness. 

She glanced at the tree for a moment, and then did a double-take. "Oh, shit," She said, standing up and getting a better look at it even though her shoulder didn't really want to do anything just yet. "I know this tree. I planted a rabbit.....Under that one," She said, gesturing to the next tree over. "You still want somethin' to eat?" She asked, having finally remembered the location of one of her caches.

hope ya dont mind, this seemed like a good closing spot! <3

"That was my plan exactly," Fin admitted with a smile. She didn't always get along with Towhee's seeing eye bird, which is a completely incorrect reference but oh well, but it was obedient to Towhee and Towhee was (usually) obedient to her. She'd get her revenge someday. Just like she'd eventually get her revenge on that damn fox that showed up every once in a while to fuck with her. She just had to bide her time.

Fin considered Niamh's offer briefly before shaking her head. "Nah, that's alright. I think I'll go find Tegan and pester him into catching something fresh for me," she said with a grin that showed she was teasing, "I mean, that's what I had kids for, so." She pulled herself up onto all fours with a wag of her tail. "Thanks for the offer though, Legs. And for trying to reclaim my mouse for me. You get an 'A' for effort," she said, smiling, before dipping her muzzle as her good bye and turning to head off. Maybe she would find Tegan and make some absurd demands of him, just for fun. She was a good mama like that.

Niamh's ears perked at the mention of Tegan's name, and she sniggered. That's what kids were for? She'd have to remember that- and put the kids to good work...Alongside Colt as well, while they were growing up. She really wouldn't have minded, helping Finley hunt- but at the same time, she did have a border patrol to get to, and she wanted to walk off some of the sore feelings in her legs as well- without having Finley see that she was a bit hurt. She nodded, gratefully. "Just doin' my best," She commented, before she too headed off on her own way.