Porcupine Ridge i was dared to write this ok

never say that i will not give the ppl what they want!!
i haven't even written this thread yet & i already hate it.

After the initial sighting, she sets out; pays no mind that it had only been mere hours after the beast's leave-taking; the scent of blood and the vibrancy of flesh still ensnared within her mind; leading her to the little glen where @Andromaque and herself had, by whatever means, come face-to-face with that hulking thing itself. And in the sleuthing, the investigating of this unknowable scent, the crannies and the nooks that it has wended its very way throughout, she finds its—

— ... leavings.

For all of it, her pallid face remains a relict of impassivity; and for all her dignity, the blanchard strides with as stately a manner as she can to this fuming, festering mark upon the very earth they all seek to claim. Would that she wished to howl for @Abedi ... but could not; not without gagging on the repulsion of stench.

All the same, perhaps there might be something to discern of its initial origins beyond the valley.

Something -- curiosity, perhaps -- brought her to the clearing where she had seen the beast. It's face, barren and void of detail from where she had crept through the underbrush, still haunted her. Andromaque would not let such a thing wander freely through the Vale, not while the rest of the Court rested there. She frowned as she walked, pace hurried.

The flame-licked wolf had not expected to see Andraste there -- and had also not expected to be bombarded with such stench. 

But perhaps it would lead them to the beast again so they could take care of it once and for all, as Andromaque so desperately wanted to.

"Andraste," she called from across the clearing, drawing ever closer. "It was here. Do you think it's nearby still?"

Andromaque, again— 
"I am supposing,"  came the terse grit-out of cautioned breaths,  "that this ... mark ... is at least a day old."  Nevermind the repulsiveness that still lingered; the silver rounded the indifferent heap, ears fallen back to preserve their own modesty within her wisping ruff.  "Perhaps it has wandered here, before we ourselves set foot in this valley. But we must track it, I think, and make sure it does not return to turn our bones to meal."  Their numbers were rather decent, she thinks — but there is not enough brawn within the midst of this famine to ever hope of overwhelming such a creature to dine from.

Though, if the Court could not keep it from these lands, then, perhaps ... ?

No. She would ruminate later; for now, she sniffed with a guarded air at said heap thus discovered, before raising the blushed nose skyward to see if she might be able to track some tell-tale notion.

She dared to lean charcoal face a little closer, trying to catch any hint of a scent that might lead them in the direction of the monstrous creature they had seen just days before. The flame-licked wolf retreated, taking a few steps away. Andromaque lifted her head, ears perked as she tried to catch perhaps a sign of anything lingering nearby -- but no twigs cracked, no leaves rustled, no paw-steps caught her attention.

Yet there was a hint of something. Her tail swished behind her, a hint of excitement about her as she turned to follow the scent. "Here! I've caught a whiff of it," she said, voice quiet as she ventured further from Andraste and into the wood. The scent was growing stale, at least a day old -- maybe older -- but it was enough for her to follow.

A whiff— 
though neither knows where exactly this trail leads, it must lead somewhere, however insignificant-seeming. And so the stricken draws up alongside the unburnt once more, not even several long hours after their first pursual of this creature. Follows her, as she had with Andraste before, and keeps both ears and her still-seeing eye out of anything tell-tale along the way. That this creature had moved beyond their lands was well enough.

If only it would settle further.

She wound through the trees that had become familiar to her as she scouted the Vale, settled comfortably between two mountainsides. Andraste followed and Andromaque kept her pace quick, fearing she might loose the scent if she did not move fast enough. She followed it until she came to a cliff face, a crack in the rock big enough for something far larger than them to slip through. She stopped and turned to the pale wolf who followed her, tail swishing behind them. "Should we go inside?" she asked, hesitating at the entrance. It didn't seem like anything was home, but she couldn't be sure.

A crevasse in cliff-face; hollowed, yet desertion remains to be seen. The firebrand looks to her in askance, and the shorn face draws itself into quiet ever-pensivity; flute-thin ears aquiver, straining to listen for anything that might lurk within; pink nares likewise, for what-ever might be scented. But the traces of stench and all else seem stale ... and with an absent nod, the flame and starlit make cautious advance.

Halfsight soon adjusted to dimness; which through it were the great, grinning skulls of one of several bear skulls; smattering of anatomical bone, some grounded to a meal. Worn and shagged carpeting of tattered furs; no trail that she could discern leading further or from the cave save from their entering.

Andraste remained quiet, ruminating amongst the remains.

She followed the pale wolf into the crevice and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dusky light. Faint light slipped through the entrance and illuminated bones strewn throughout the den. She shuddered and moved further into the den, the scent that they had followed here strong and hanging heavy in the air. But it was stale -- whatever lived here had been gone for days at least.

Andromaque followed the edge of the cave -- it did not extend too deep into the mountainside and she quickly found the back of it. The flame-licked wolf moved back towards the front and looked to Andraste. "What do you think lives here?" she asked.

"Perhaps it is ze resting place of our very ... considerate guest,"  the fée murmured, turning to look upon the flicker likewise.  "With any hope, what-ever it is, it has ze decency to acknowledge our markers and to refrain from a return."  But even then, there was no telling what, exactly, said behemoth would do; and the stricken felt that there was quite a possibility of its making being ... of an unnatural sort. Beyond even their own comprehension. And so, to even try to begin to understand this thing, its lair — perhaps it was nigh unreachable in that understanding.

Without further thought, the silver promptly headed towards the entrance-exit of this crevasse; rolled the spires of her shoulders in relief of being out from the murk of the cave.  "Part of me wonders if it is responsible for ze disappearance of quarry along these few ranges or so. ... I would not be surprised."

Andromaque knew not what might linger in this cave, though she feared whatever it was. As long as it drew breath, she felt that the Court was in danger. A frown tugged at darkened corners of charcoal maw and she listened to Andraste speak. She thought it was the beast from yesterday. Andromaque found herself agreeing with the conclusion, unsure what else might be big enough to eat as much as this creature had. She looked again to the bones that piled around the cave and then to the pale wolf.

"Whatever is here, it's dangerous," Andromaque said, teal eyes drifting to the mouth of the cave. "Should we allow it to remain here?"

Halfsight tread after the glint of seaglass gaze;
"What are ze odds that it might become a warden?"  A listless inquiry, not at all meant for the ears of the earthen and yet the stricken cannot help but simper all the same; beckons Andromaque to follow her from this district entirely; stepping slow.  "I have only heard tales, from my norths, of those who have had some unspoken ... accord with such enigmas that wander ze earth. Not that I intend for our courtlings to do ze same, mind you,"  she wisps, but a quirk of entertainment remains upon the shorn lips,  "I only wonder if such had ever been true to begin with."

As for it remaining, its being a danger ... she was not sure. But with the winters coming, and the possibility of, perhaps, those within her Court who wished for pups ... no, no. They were not there, yet. And so:  "We will expand our patrol, for now. It would do us well to monitor this area, and give our own better vantages from which to preside upon."

Andromaque had learned to be cautious and the prospect of some mysterious beast lingering in the Vale made her nervous, fearful for the well-being of the other members of the Court. She listened to Andraste, ears perking up as she listened. Andromaque was unsure what to think, doubting that this beast was some mysterious enigma -- more than likely it was a bear or some other large predator. Andromaque was logical, calculating, and did not believe in fairy tales.

"I'll warn the others not to come near here," she said, moving slowly towards the entrance of the cave. "It'd be best to leave whatever lives here alone, I think." She stepped into the light and looked around, eyes searching for some trace of the beast.

Mid-dimming light, sifting through into the meager cavern;
nevermind the thoughts of eldritch creatures: whatever it was that lurked amongst these ridges, the stricken finally assumed that Andromaque's jurisdiction was as well-meaning  (and logical)  as could be. And so the fée merely nodded, the consent of such a claim at the very forefront of this entire encounter. As the two she-wolves began their return trek to court — the silver could only feel further lifted that the firebrand had again been in her company, in this.