Hideaway Strath Why boys snore

Set for the evening of the 9th, since I don't have a thread on that day (yet).

Phox piddled (in more ways than one) along the outer ridge of the rendezvous site. This was where he wanted their scent to be strongest, and he didn't feel like venturing out any further right now. They'd managed to pick up another recruit: Dingo, and Phox had thought he was fine. Vetted by Towhee, so how bad could he possibly be? In a matter of days, it seemed as though their small clan was growing. He could only hope that they could keep up the momentum.

Stepping up on a log, he surveyed the rendezvous site, watching Fig and Fennec interact in whatever way they were doing. The Redhawk smiled, glad that they had made this move. Even though both Towhee and Fennec were struggling a bit, he still felt this was for the best. All that bullshit tension had washed away the moment they'd come here (at least for him), and he was happier for it.

A sudden movement caught his eye, and before long, Phox was chasing down a squirrel to its untimely demise. No time like the present to start building up those caches.

It wasn't his job to watch the kids, thank the fates, and he'd likely never earn enough favor with the resident couple to be forced in to that role. He was glad to have free reign of the woods and took to the trails easily enough — at first keeping pace with the trail of scents that were somewhat stale, until they grew in strength. Sometimes he'd pause to scratch the earth, other times he'd add his scent with a lift of his leg or by rolling on a bare patch of grass. May as well look the part so they didn't chase him out right off the bat, right? The sooner they had the bodies the sooner Dingo would get to eat, and that was all that mattered.

Speaking of food —

There was a hasty scratching in the trees as something tried to climb down - no, it went along some branches -- up, across -- down again, never quite reaching the forest floor, whatever it was. Dingo couldn't keep track of the little varmint but he need not bother, because moments after spotting it there came a black shape zooming through the forest and nearly took him out. Dingo hastily reversed and almost tripped on some roots, but righted himself just in time to watch Phox careeeeeeen through the black between the trees.

Woah, He gasped, eyes bright and trailing after him as he raced along - and before he knew it, Dingo was following after him, step for step.

Intent on the squirrel zipping through the trees, Phox completely missed the fact that he was being closely followed. With a swipe and a snap, the bushy-tailed vermin was in his jaws, and another crack sent its soul into the netherworld. Still breathing heavily, Phox turned around to go back to the rendezvous site only to find Dingo come careening through the grove. Sidestepping just in time, he managed to avoid a collision.

Phox dropped the squirrel for now, perking his ears up at Dingo who had presumably stopped by now. Dingo! he greeted cheerily, Towhee said you were a decent hunter. Want to help me catch a few more of these?

There was no squeal of death like with the rabbits, but in the quiet of the woods there was a crackling, a popping, like branches catching on branches. Dingo didn't really notice it because of his stomping paws. He was petite for a dude but he wasn't graceful and tended to be heavy-handed (so to speak). When a black smudge crossed his vision and sprouted bright eyes - and the smell of blood - Dingo realized it was Phox and tried to slow down. He nearly careened in to a tree but scrambled against the roots and the dirt, kicking up some debris.

As the dust settled his little ears pivoted to listen at Phox's voice. Learning that his rabbit-baby-murder-spree had such a positive effect on Towhee was a stroke to his ego but also made him mentally recoil, because -- work? Ugh. When'll they be done with all that so Dingo could laze around and get fat, like he dreamed?

Ah, haha, yeah, He tried to play off the compliment with a toothy grin and his usual laissez faire attitude. They're pretty fast. I can give it a shot though, unless you've spooked them all away with your ninja skills. His brow-dots raised as he said this, somewhat hopeful that the trees were void of squirrels for the forseeable future. Dingo had a reputation to uphold, see.

Phox could have sworn he saw a moment of hesitation in Dingo, but it must have just been a trick of the eye. Whatever it was, it had vanished, and Phox didn't think anything of it. Dingo seemed up to the challenge, and Phox chuckled softly at his joke. If I'm the ninja you say I am, hopefully I've been stealth enough to not scare them all off, eh? he asked with a raised brow. He left the one squirrel where it was, eyes skimming the nearby trees and ground for any movement.

There! In a dark flash, Phox was off again, paws trampling the earth as he sought to bring in his second kill of the day.

Phox made a comment that left Dingo pondering, and bolted after another target while he was coming to grips with the boy's logic. When the older wolf did reach a moment of understanding and focus his attention on Phox, the soon-to-be Alpha was an obscured black shape among the trees and shrinking by the moment. Dingo jolted in to action and followed after him as best he could, clamoring against roots, scaling fallen logs, scattering detritus among the rocky soil, all to try and catch up.

Rolled a 3/10.

This time, Phox wasn't quite fast enough. Before he could nab it, the nimble creature was up a tree, and Phox was left at the bottom, barking up at it. He knew better than to think that the squirrel would come down, and it chittered at him angrily. What was he supposed to do? Not eat squirrels? That sure wasn't going to happen.

Mildly annoyed, Phox pushed off the tree where he'd had his front paws up, and scoured the forest to see where Dingo had gone off to. Maybe he'd had some luck with the bushy-tailed rodents.

Rolled a 7/10.

He caught up in time to witness something hilarious but he was too out of breath to comment on it, or to laugh really - wheezing, sides heaving, Dingo sucked in a few breaths and then craned his neck to watch where the squirrel had gone. It was entertaining to see Phox trying so hard; his barking likely ruined any further chance to hunt in the area, but maybe if they could work together they could reach the damn squirrel.

Dingo was circling at the base of the trees where the squirrel roosted itself, lurking, waiting, while the creature was aptly distracted by the dark shape of Phox. He kept quiet and tried to suss out a way to reach the squirrel without being noticed, but... Short of climbing the damn tree himself, there wasn't really anything he could do. The angle of a few logs helped; he could climb atop them and get a bit closer, but the squirrel knew not to go anywhere. Eventually the hounds would give up. It was a surprise Dingo hadn't yet, actually.

Then there was a burst of energy from behind Dingo's head — another squirrel, or a bird, something, made quite the ruckus as it veered away from the two wolves. He chuffed and withdrew from his efforts to combat the stupid rodent and bolted after this new target - urged by the strong instinct to chase while the object moved through the trees. He left Phox to handle his target alone.

Rolled 6/10.

With the escapee squirrel left to its own devices, Phox watched as Dingo-dango shot off after another target. Meanwhile, something caught Phox's eye, and he galloped in the other direction. This hunting session was pure mayhem, but it was the most fun Phox had had in quite some time. The squirrel that he chased after zipped through the forest, darting around trees, over logs, and through bushes, until at last Phox was able to catch up to it, snapping the small critter up in his teeth and clamping the life out of it with a crunch.

That made two for him, and zero for Dingo, as far as he could tell. Phox dropped his second kill along with the first, pleased with his success so far. Two outta three wasn't a bad score at all.

He was gone for a few minutes, doing much the same as Phox and running with his eyes focused on the treetop, feet scrambling and teeth snapping. He couldn't get closer to the squirrel but if he was patient and quick, maybe the squirrel would make a mistake and he could benefit from it. The little critter was very small from what he could glimpse of it - probably young, maybe even born in this passed spring -- ah! There! It ran out on a narrow beam and took a leap of faith, but the distance was too great. The squirrel flew for all of three seconds before Dingo's ears caught the sound of its head cracking against a stump. He doubled back to gather it up, and soon sought out Phox, tossing it upon the pile.

Dangus Dingo returned with a kill of his own, and when he tossed it onto the pile, Phox sniffed it and nodded approvingly. Not bad at all, he said, glad that they had a good start to the cache now. I'm gonna take these back to the rendezvous site. Sorry kids, you won't get to eat these just yet. They would make good midnight snacks, though.

You wanna come along? Phox asked. Dingo was proving himself to be a valuable asset, and Phox had every reason to befriend him for that very reason. If there was some ploy underneath it all, Dingo was doing a rather good job of hiding it (or Phox was just blind to that sort of thing).

I read part of that as "midnight sock" and choked.

Ah, yes, his favorite currency: praise. Dingo didn't go in to detail about how he acquired his offering for the cache and would've made up some convoluted story if he was asked about it, but he happily ate up the positive commentary. If that's all he needed to do to get Phox to like him, then it would be easier than Dingo thought to ingratiate himself to this little family. Out of the two of them, it seemed more like Towhee was the abrasive and protective one - but they got along pretty well as far as Dingo could tell.

With the plan laid out (his internally, Phox's verbally), Dingo nodded and smiled. You probably don't need an escort but I'll go with you, sure. Maybe the squirrels will notice us leaving and chill the heck out. Then he could come back and fake some more of those mad skills.

Grabbing up all three squirrels (after several tries to get them all stuffed into his mouth), Phox trotted alongside Dingo back to the rendezvous site. He realized Dingo might be a candidate for his first ever friend, which was pretty sad considering he had broken the two year mark recently. Perhaps Niamh had been a friend for a brief stint, but she'd sullied that connection the second she had chosen Colt over Towhee and the rest of the Redhawks. And really, Niamh had been Towhee's friend, and only Phox's by proxy, hadn't she? Whatever the case, he was glad to have a potential friend around.

There was just something about Dingo that was charming.