Dragoncrest Cliffs it puts you in a situation where you're made to feel dumb.

After his run-in with Ibis's daughter, Penn had gone as far from the Caldera as he could (while still staying within the confines of the game map). He'd needed time to process what he'd learned, which honestly hadn't taken him very long. After all, how long do you need to think about something painful before deciding to just not think about it? For Blackthorns everywhere, it's around 3 hours. Less if you're full-blooded.

After a couple weeks of wandering, Penn found himself up North near the coast. It was not the first time, nor was it likely to be the last. He had a habit of always ending up near the ocean, or lakes, or sometimes really big ponds. A scent trail drove him to thread his way through a miserably poke-y and bramble-y wood and out into fresh air once again, where he promptly lost the scent.

Annoyed, he decided to do something more idiotic with his time and began nosing about the borders of some pack he'd stumbled upon. Winter was well upon him now, but Penn still had no intention of actually finding a pack to help him survive the season. He was driven by equal parts curiosity and boredom. His was a reckless sort, though, and so he wandered closer to the borders than he ought without actually going over. Like the Price is Right.

erzulie each day grew more and more content with the decision she had made.
and so when the sea began to sharpen in her blood; when she felt the lapping tide sent by a not-yet-arrived ship, she was surprised. surely her choice should have assured against it.
warm eyes. a pelt in shades of graphite. the arrogance of a young man, exploring their borders without announcing himself. 
erzulie descended to his position, spice-hued tail swaying above her hips. her two-toned gaze explored his features with interest, notably the stripe along his spine that her two daughters bore.
the obsidian said nothing, allowing the expectancy in her stare to speak for itself.

Penn knew when the woman arrived, but he gave no sign of recognition. He feigned ignorance for a time, just because. He could feel her stare upon him, though, and had to fight the urge to get a glimpse of it. He knew without looking it was exactly the type of stare he was after. He nearly hummed with anticipation for his success.

When finally it felt right, the Blackthorn lifted his gaze to her and started--another act for the show he'd decided to put on. A smile leapt across his muzzle in the next instant and his tail wagged, like a puppy who had just spotted their parent coming home with a fat, juicy rabbit's leg. For the briefest of moments, he considered not being an ass--she was super hot, especially with that I'ma fuck you up glare on her face. He stayed the course in the end hoping maybe they could laugh about it one day. In bed.

"Hiya, Miss," Penn greeted, letting his tongue roll from his mouth like a dope, "You smell like the ground here, did you know that?"

erzulie's brow arched gracefully. for a long moment she only stared the insolent down. or was he insolent? maybe it was only the fact that despite the gradient of looks he bore, there was nothing behind those eyes. "i would hope so," the obisidian answered dryly.
"i be erzulie. dis be sapphique." introductions made, erzulie moved closer, testing the air nearer the stranger. the stripe was unmistakable. "an' you be a bit close for someone i do not know." not a threat; not yet. he was polite if foolish and had shown no signs of threat.
but he was a man nonetheless. the woman kept her mismatched gaze fixed upon him.
for now, he was a distraction from the fact that it had been a week since she last saw mireille.

Her speech was exotic to his ears, making her all the more intriguing to the young, hot-blooded Blackthorn. He heard the warning in her tone and in her words, but he cheerfully ignored it. He was playing the sweet moron--an entertaining role in that it allowed him to push boundaries and see just how much allowance others would give when their agitation was mollified by pity. He cocked his head and gave her a confused furrow of his brow, though his smile remained.

"Uhh, you seem like a nice lady, but we just met," Penn replied, "I don't think I'd call us 'close' yet, but that sure is nice of you to think of me so kindly." He bowed down on his forelegs a little--a playful gesture, but tempered quickly as he stood straight again and gave his coat a little shake. "Sapphique sure is a pretty word," he added, attempting to interrupt any reply she might have at that, "What is a Sapphique? I never heard of it before."

she could not help but chuckle softly in spite of herself. in spite of everything. "it means that this pack be ruled by wives. me an' my own." erzulie enjoyed catching men off-guard with this tidbit. she watched the pretty stranger closely for his reaction.
"are you looking for someone? or somet'ing?" the obsidian paused, pointedly pausing so that he could remember to give his name. but her expression remained vaguely amused, for she was enjoying herself at the moment. even if she should not.

Penn had been around and met enough wolves that the idea of a pack run by females--females that liked other females the way he liked females. So, the surprise and confusion that showed on his face was another act, as was the laugh that followed.

"Uhh.. No, sorry," he answered, shaking his head as if to brush away her question, "I'm sorry, but it's just. You said wives. I think you mispronounced the word husbands, right? I mean..." He paused for a moment as though struggling with an outlandish concept, "Women can't like... run a pack? That's just silly!" His frown turned into a smile, as though he'd just been told a rather amusing joke.

the minute interest in the seawife's eyes turned cold. an emerald and a goldpiece pierced the pretty boy at her borders. erzulie's smile was icy. "would you care for me to show you how well i run de place?" the obisidian asked, taking a step forward.
the woman's cinnamon tail crested her spine with a decisive lash. there were more important things to attend than a misguided man with the curse of youth on him. in no uncertain terms erzulie indicated that their conversation had come to an end.

For fun, Penn's mother used to agitate grizzly bears to get them to attack her.

This was not dissimilar.

The Blackthorn had to fight the urge to drop his persona when the woman bristled and made her intent for violence known. He really wanted to tell her how very attractive he found angry women. Especially older, angry women. Ibis had been older, but not angry. That other chick had been angry, but not older. This woman--this exotic, wild creature--was the whole package.

Too bad about the whole wife thing, though.

Penn stepped back and tensed, his excitement masked with an expression of shock and hurt. "Wh-what did I do wrong?" he asked, cocking his head innocently, "I don't understand. How can you run the place? Women are property--their only purpose is for breeding. You can't be in charge."

Not dissimilar. Probably a lot more dangerous, though.

erzulie made a neat snap for the little upstart just as soon as he had shut his mouth. 
it was a pity. the season was working in the seawife, beyond her will and beyond what she had assumed might happen. he was a fine-looking wolf with the familiar stripe. 
a new litter fathered in sapphique would bear them again.
for now her instinctive dominance blurred against seasonal aggression. it was a stroke of luck that she was on the borders and not her wife, else the daring fool's head might have already been crushed.

Penn jerked his head away, but not quickly enough to avoid the dip of her teeth against his muzzle. He back pedaled to try and make space between them, though a smarter wolf would've taken the hint and run for it. He was being a masochist today though, and all he wanted was more. 

"Hey! Did your husband give you permission to treat friendly strangers like this?!" Penn shot at her, grinning like the devil he was openly now and bracing himself in hopes of feeling her impact.

beneath the annoyance the true anger had ebbed. erzulie found herself in the familiar element of protection with an excuse to hone her mastery and ivoried teeth on the whelp.
perhaps a good beating might aid him in thinking twice when he went to seek another pack.
he moved and she followed, silent, tail stiff, in the age-old posture of a wolf coming for blood.
her teeth flashed for the side of his neck, forelegs rising to encircle him. erzulie's eventual aim was to pin him beneath her, and not in a particularly appealing way. 
if he wished conflict, he would receive it.

Success! Penn might have cheered aloud were it not for the fact that he now had more pressing matters to attend to, such as the bristling woman charging at him. He twisted to meet her and pushed forward into her, chest to chest. He felt teeth against his flesh where his neck met his shoulder, pain searing, blood pounding.

Penn reached for her with his own teeth, though he had no intent to injure her. He wanted to knock her off balance and try to slip out of her grasp, though he didn't hate the idea of her on top of him. He didn't want the fight to be over so quickly, though, not when it was just getting good.

Short of death, I am 100% okay with whatever happens to him. Break legs, take captive, tear off faces—PP at will!

The surge of waves would not allow Chacal to eavesdrop on the conversation that took place between the stranger and her Maman. And from a distance, she observed a casual play-bow, and the lash of her mother's tail. A smile from the stranger, whose face she could see- but not the glare from her mother whose back was towards her. 

She'd been content to leave her mother to speak with the grey-toned male and tutned to rove on, further inland, until she caught a glimpse of swift movement in the corner of her eye. Her mother had lunged at the male. Chacal snapped to attention- much too far away to do anything, but she paused to assess nonetheless. Her mother was not a helpless creature after all, and for a moment it appeared as though the one correction might've been enough to ward him off. 

But the expression on his face caused Chacal to bristle. He grinned fiendishly, and his lips moved in what she could only assume was a taunt. When Erzulie lunged for him again, Chacal took her cue and began to hurtle down the beach toward them. 

Still three hundred metres or more away and closing in on them with every stride, Chacal dashed toward the brawl, releasing a sharp war-cry that might serve to give her mother confidence, and rattle the male's nerves when he realized that within minutes, he'd be outnumbered.

the lesson erzulie had meant to teach dissolved beneath her anger. it did not matter if he believed women could not lead; his smugness overrode his self-preservation. when the man flashed his teeth toward her, the obsidian smashed her shoulder against his, her teeth clipping for his cheek until she sheared fur and reached skin.
chacal's cry vibrated the air around them both; erzulie felt a smirk emerging onto her lips. she snarled, trying to drive him back and back, right into the grasp of her daughter.
it was a grave choice the boy had made. she was not so sure her golden offspring would offer as much mercy as she had here.

The woman was stronger than he'd anticipated. She slammed against him, sending tremors through his athletic frame. The taste of blood soon dampened his tongue, but not hers. It was his own, slipping into his mouth from the corner of his lips from the cut he'd felt blister open on his cheek. He twisted again, trying to throw her off of him with his weight, only to fall right in line with her intent.

He heard the steps of the approaching wolf and spun to face her, keeping at least one shoulder turned so he could keep an eye on his initial opponent. The female that approached was younger, but no less fierce. Penn saw what they were trying to do, but not soon enough to have fallen victim to it. Only then, with angry women on either side of him, did it occur to him that his actions may have possibly been the teensiest bit unwise.

It was too late for epiphanies, though, so he made a split second decision and turned his chin down to tuck it protectively against his chest before barreling straight forward, hoping to gain more favorable ground. Penn Blackthorn may have been an idiot, but he wasn't an idiot. He knew the odds were never really in his favor, least of all when he was outnumbered. He was small, built for speed over strength. Unfortunately, that had never stopped him from getting into situations where strength would've been soooo much more beneficial, such as this one.

With each bound, she drew closer. Spurts of water shot up from the sand as she thundered toward the brawl, from clams that lay below the surface and sensed danger. The spry, grey male tore himself from where her mother sought to pin him to the ground, and caught sight of the jackal speeding toward them. He bolted; Chacal gnashed her teeth together, knowing full well he might get away, if Erzulie was not able to trip him up. But Chacal, already being in motion, gained ground as quickly as she could, and put on another burst of speed hoping she could catch up and bloody him before he had a chance to peel away.

the boy ducked his head and shoved past. perhaps she was caught off-guard, distracted; the woman pulled away and he passed beyond. erzulie sliced at him as he ripped past her, whirling to snap toward his tail. he was not yet free of their territory, and this year's children —
— oh, mireille!
were now old enough to join her in throwing off this interloper;
she would run alongside chacal, teeth glinting in the seaside air and her snarling unabated, growing, cascading.
she hoped to scar him, to place her mark upon his flesh for all time as a testament to his own foolishness and the might of women he had denied.

The little one was fast. Penn was too, but clearly he was not the fastest one in the Wilds. For a brief, out-of-body moment, he wondered if he ought to challenge her to a foot race to see who was the fastest. But he came quickly back to reality when he felt her nearing his hip, heard her snarls echoing closer to his ears.

He spent less than half of a second deciding what to do, which was unfortunate because it was a terribly risky plan that was so, so likely to backfire. Without preamble, Penn pivoted, swinging a hard left to throw himself directly in front of his pursuer. His plan was to trip her, roll back onto his own paws, then fly off again. Might be a better option for when you weren't being pursued by two angry women, but maybe the rest would just work itself out.

His feet kicked up sods of sand into her face but she simply squinted and pressed forward. She was drawing almost near enough to snap at him, but wouldn't risk getting kicked in the jaw by one of his hind paws. The last thing she needed was to accidentally bite off the tip of her own tongue. 

She'd drawn level, her shoulder to his hip, when he veered directly in her path. She was reminded suddenly, violently, of @Val who used to pull the same stunt on her when they'd been young, and it used to infuriate her. But...There was also something endearing about it. 

But that was with her brother, Val. And this was not Valravn. 

She launched into the air, and for a moment, a toothy grin found its way onto her face; just the kind of look her brother would've given her. She spared her own limbs from being shoved out from under her- and after a moment of being suspended in mid-air, she'd drop, aiming with both forefeet together, essentially trying to dive down onto him with all of her bodyweight behind her.

her irritation had changed to a sportive nature. the bond inside sapphique was strong, and her ability to hunt with her packmates was stronger. more than that, erzulie had chacal with her, the sea-tested next who would follow herself and her wife.
there were many reasons for the importance of how they moved in tandem. she saw the golden flash of her daughter's nape, and lengthened her own stride as chacal arced gracefully into the air.
she sought to veer into the man's path, forcing him to halt and center him under the looming shadow of her leaping heir;
the woman was near at the end of her own speed, only her awareness of the terrain saving her from dire misstep.

Who the fuck was this girl??

All Penn saw before being smashed into the dirt by the young she-devil was a flash of a grin. From there, he rather lost track of exactly how it all went down. All he knew of it was that he went down in a tangle of limbs and fur and teeth.

The Blackthorn wasn't usually one to quit, but this turn of events befuddled his brain far too much for any thoughts of self-preservation to come through. He dropped. He yielded. He conceded. The memory of that grin burned into his mind as he cried out a garbled, "Can't you women take a joke!?" as he inwardly bade his demise welcome with open arms.

While she'd occasionally derived some pleasure from battling with her brother, she was surprised to feel just how glorious it was to have triumphed over a stranger. She straddled him, teeth bared in what could have easily been both a grin and a grimace. He submitted; for the moment, it seemed as if he would willingly accept his defeat. 

She blinked when he spoke. He seemed oblivious of just how close he'd come to tempting his own demise. Chacal hadn't heard any of the conversation which had transpired earlier, but it had obviously rubbed her Maman the wrong way. He seemed impudent. She trusted her mother's judgement. 

Still- she liked the idea of giving him one more chance to go ahead and dig his grave just a little bit deeper. 

"I like a joke. Tell me. We see if it's a -you women- t'ing, or if maybe, you really aren't as funny as you think you are."

the boy was downed. chacal stood over him. erzulie flanked her, keeping close and guarding the interloper from another escape. he thought the might of women was inferior and they were unfit to rule. the obsidian's lips spread in a mirthless smile as her eldest spoke.
she had no intentions of killing him; sapphique did not need blood upon its shores. but she would be well within her rights.
if he struggled at all or otherwise fought, erzulie would leap to snap his unguarded hindleg, securing him as she would a deer that had struggled into the pines of her packland.

Penn grimaced, trying hard not to fidget or fight against the hold the girl now had on him. He knew that would be stupid as both women were poised to murder him and likely were ready to without a second thought.

Her words grated against his ears, but he stilled the myriad of sarcastic responses that rose up in his stupid man brain. He was pretty sure already that he wasn't as funny as he thought he was, so felt no need to recap for her just what he'd said to get himself into the predicament. He didn't think that would go over too well anyway.

Clearly, he had a way better idea.

"Knock, knock."