Blacktail Deer Plateau Heat death infinity splitter

The previous day's cold front gave way to a steamy rise in temperature. Peregrine spent the morning patrolling, then hunted down a slew of rabbits. Some he put into caches, others he took to Blue Willow's den for both the Healer and Atticus. By the time he finished with these tasks, it was late morning and the sun was beating down on his black brow, making Peregrine want to seek somewhere cool and shady to take a break.

Instead, he found himself crossing paths with an unwitting doe and her half-grown fawn. All three of them started, then Peregrine gave chase when the deer began to run. He managed to clip one of the fawn's hind legs in his teeth, dragging it roughly to the ground. As its mother fled away into the forest, Peregrine broke the young animal's leg, dragged it a few feet and then applied a killing bite to its throat.

He stood panting over his kill, black flanks rising and falling rapidly and pink tongue lolling from his dark muzzle. He wanted a drink but didn't want to abandon the fresh carcass, so he compromised by lowering his snout and lapping at the blood gushing from its punctured neck. It wasn't cold—it was actually rather warm—but it was wet, so it would do.

The strong smell of blood drew Pura from his hiding place beneath a bush nearby, where he had retreated to snooze when the sun's intensity threatened to break him. He did not suffer as much as his darker pack-mates, but found any measure of heat particularly irritating for one reason or another. Perhaps it was his size.

When he found Peregrine, the Alpha was lapping blood from the open throat of a young doe. The sight of a kill so fresh made Pura dribble, and he did so freely, without making any effort to catch the slimy ropes of saliva with his tongue. "Can I also?" he asked - slowly, but without a stutter - transfixed by Peregrine's wet muzzle.

The moment he slaked his thirst, another wolf appeared. Peregrine raised his head, still licking the red fluid from his chops as he motioned for Pura to come closer. "Sure," he replied easily. Alpha wolves always took precedence at the supper table, save for when pups were present. Peregrine stepped aside, indicating that the youth was welcome to take the first share. Although he was a growing boy, the swarthy adult knew there would still be plenty left over to take to Blue Willow and Atticus.

Seating himself nearby, Peregrine regarded Pura fondly. Some might call him dimwitted but his slowness did not in any way impede Peregrine's affection nor pride in the freckled boy. All of the children were different and if two of them were a bit more air-headed than the others—because the same could be said for Tytonidae—then he just considered it a necessary diversity. Not everyone could be strong or smart or dominant. It took all kinds to make a pack.

Peregrine moved aside to give Pura access. The pup climbed over the corpse, careful not to disturb it, and took up position in the crook of its loose, bleeding neck. He flattened his ears submissively and turned his usual blank, unfeeling stare up at the Alpha, willing his face to exude the gratitude he felt. He looked constipated, but whatever - points for trying.

Without a word, he copied what the older male had been doing, lapping at the ebbing flow of blood. The pressure had dropped considerably in the time it had taken Pura to move into position (the animal was dead, after all), and the little puncture wounds no longer bled freely. Bracing one paw against the animal's head, he closed his teeth around the skin and tore at it, ripping a larger hole in which the blood now pooled, like a bowl of dark, luke-warm soup.

When Pura had taken a few slurping gulps of dinner and covered his face in it, he straightened up and shot Peregrine a pensive look. "Why is this not sacred?" he asked, looking down at the very dead doe.

While Pura sat down at the proverbial supper table, Peregrine finished cleaning the blood from his jowls, only to move nearer to the carcass again and begin gnawing off one of the legs, which he intended as a snack. As he worked, Pura posed a question. Peregrine finished dismembering the limb before answering.

"It is not a wolf," he answered simply, knowing that the pup would understand better if he kept things simple and straightforward. "All other creatures—even our cousins, coyotes—can be considered prey. Even other predators are meat when they're dead. Only wolves are sacred," Peregrine opined. It was a personal belief, he knew, and so he passed it onto the wolf he loved like a son.

Pura nodded - he liked clear lines, and Peregrine couldn't have been more absolute. He settled down near the animal's head, chewing experimentally on its velvety lips. The texture wasn't exactly appetite-inducing. He watched his leader gnaw the skin off the doe's leg whilst the gear churned inside his skull, pushing thoughts through like a river of treacle.

"What about b-bad wolves?" he ventured. Junior was set to become a warrior, and Pura knew that patrolling would eventually involve run-ins with foreign wolves.. heck, members of their own pack were strangers once, and accepting anyone into the fold was a gamble. What happened if things didn't go as planned?

Pura's next question implied an astuteness Peregrine had formerly believed beyond the boy. Perhaps his foster son was a little slow, yet not strictly unintelligent. Peregrine looked at him shrewdly, a fond light glimmering in the depths of his dusky eyes.

"If a wolf threatens you, your pack mates, your home or your principles—do you know what those are?—then it is within your rights to defend yourself. Sometimes, that results in the enemy's death. For instance, if a stranger trespassed on the plateau, I may kill him for violating the laws of nature, as well as my property. But," he concluded with soft emphasis, "I would not eat his body. It is considered against nature to eat your own kind, Pura, unless there's dire need of it, such as during a famine."

The Alpha male paused there, giving the freckled youth a moment to digest that and pose any questions he might have.

Peregrine explained and Pura absorbed, letting it all soak into his mind like coffee into the biscuit layer of Tiramisu. If the rest of the pack thought him slow, they showed no impatience - and the pensive whelp with his metallic coat and vacant gaze was none the wiser. The entirety of his focus was on outside impressions, leaving very little for introspection - or even opinions. It would come, eventually.

Pura's eyes drifted down to the dead, black eyes of the doe. In its place, he imagined a wolf, and felt around in his mind for a reaction. Nothing. "I can do that," he said, first to himself, then again to Peregrine - confidently, despite the momentary stutter: "I can kill tress.. tr-..tres-pass-ers." Whether or not he would eat the body afterwards remained to be seen - his uncle's cautioning tone from that day at the graves still lived within him, but Pura could not help but be fascinated by the deceased in ways that weren't entirely healthy.

Surprisingly, Pura didn't have any questions. Instead, he made a statement made no less profound by his slight stammering. Peregrine regarded the youth shrewdly, suddenly noting the boy's stocky build. He nodded as if to himself. Pura could make a formidable Warden, given time and training.

"Would you like to learn about being a Warden?" the Alpha asked. Only one of his children had been passionately pursuing apprenticeships, though he knew the others must have their interests too. They were still young and not everybody could be as zealous (and obnoxious) as Junior. "I'm a Master Warden. It's my job to watch the borders, intercept visitors and trespassers and, in the case of the latter, execute the law. Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?"

Pura was swift to nod - by now he could list every one of the trades, but the endless patrolling and sniffing associated with a career as a warden of the Plateau was of particular interest. Given time, he would make a diligent naturalist - Pura was rather more keen on the slow, seasonal movements of the world than the volatile creatures that crawled on it.

"Yes," he repeated, beating his tail artificially against the ground to emphasize the point. "C-can we practice? Junior said I need.. to practice."

Omg, the quandary of figuring out whether to use this toward Gamekeeper, Caretaker or Warden! LOL.

When Pura confirmed his interest, Peregrine smiled at the young boy. "Okay. What would you like to practice? We can work on patrolling, though that's always a bit dry and boring. Or we could work on how to deal with trespassers. Some will cooperate, some won't. I can walk you through some worst case scenarios if you like, Pura. Do you follow?"

Pura nodded - yes, he followed. Understood, rather, but that was what 'followed' meant. He was a literal creature, and it was quite a struggle to sift through all the colloquialisms and metaphors that were used in daily conversation. "Tell me," he requested, adding a belated "P-please." Armed with whatever secrets of the trade Peregrine had to offer, he could challenge Junior to a re-match.

"All right," Peregrine said when Pura expressed interest in playacting some scenarios. "The worst possible thing that can happen is that a wolf will trespass and walk freely in our territory. How you respond depends on how that wolf behaves before and after being confronted. Is he simply walking around lost? Or is he hunting and pissing on our territory? Then what does he do when confronted? Does he submit? Does he run away? Does he challenge?"

The Alpha gave the freckled boy a moment to process these rhetorical questions before answering them. "It is within your right to kill any trespasser on sight. However, if you feel like exercising restraint, chasing them off our land works too. If you're feeling especially friendly and they apologize and submit, you can escort them to the borders." Peregrine shifted, then finished, "As for me personally... I nearly always attempt to kill. I don't tolerate trespassers. But that's just one approach."

He would give Pura a moment to absorb all of that, then perhaps he would pretend to be various types of interlopers to see how the young boy responded. Would he react differently to an innocent mistake versus a willful trespass? Or would he take after his dunk, treating all trespassers as deserving the death penalty?

Pura liked Peregrine's 'kill first, questions later' approach. It removed a lot of thinking from the process, and he decided then and there to copy his uncle's approach to patrolling. "Kill is best," he summarized. The very thought that he could be responsible for the pack's safety made his paws itch to head for the borders. Pura licked at his muzzle, tasting the tang of blood that still clung to his face, and got to his feet. There was work to be done. "Can I find D-Dante? He said he would practice with me." Next time Junior challenged him, she wouldn't know what hit her!

A touch of pride glittered in Peregrine's gaze when Pura chose to mimic his own approach. When the boy asked if he go find Dante in the next breath, the question surprised Peregrine. Nonetheless, he nodded in approval. The freckled pup would learn best if he had several teachers. The Alpha male enjoyed his enthusiasm, even if it was understated.

"Go on, then. I'll catch up with you later, killa'," he said with an affectionate wink, then turned and began sectioning off the remainder of his kill to be cached in stockpiles around the plateau.