Rising Sun Valley Frostflame Ridge

Near Duskfire Glacier, on an unclaimed part of the mountain.

The only sound across the barren mountain ridges was the whistling of a high wind, and the hidden clicking of a wolf's claws as it skittered along a thin edge.

This wolf didn't particularly resemble any regular mountain wolf. Its features were sharp and pointed and it moved without any characteristic regality. Its steps were an erratic start-and-stop, with every stop the result of the animal's head lifting and its snout twitching as it sniffed. This wolf was Cthulhu, a thin and scraggly wolf hybrid with strange tendencies, and presently, she was looking for a source of food.

She debated aloud with herself in whispers whether sneaking in to the nearby claimed land was worth the risk, and her indecision was obvious in the way she turned purposefully toward the adjacent glacier, only to skitter quickly back when the scent of wolves blew by on the wind. Every so often she would duck her head down and open her mouth widely, uttering a sound of dismay at the nature of her impossible choice. She didn't want to bother them, but she was so hungry, and soon it would outweigh her usual harmlessness.

Although hungry and lonely, Junior had never felt so in tune with her own wolfish nature after a week alone and on the move. When she crept forth from the foot of the strange, distant mountain — she had slept beneath a narrow overhang — and padded into the crisp autumn daylight, she looked forward to another day of exploration and adventure. Maybe she would never grow tired of it. Maybe she had been born for this, a life of endless wandering.

After locating a spring and slaking her thirst, the youth began to trot away from the crag in search of food. That was the one rub of this lifestyle. She had never been much of a hunter and now she couldn't rely on anyone's skills but her own. Junior had eaten a lot of carrion in the past few days, as well as a few things that couldn't be considered food, strictly speaking. She wasn't dead yet, though!

When she hit a scent, Junior froze like the glacier looming overhead. It wasn't prey. It was wolves. Quickly, the dark youth spun on a black heel and began to lope in the opposite direction. But in her effort to avoid what smelled like a pack, she instead ran directly into a wolf. Junior's ears flew back against her head and she slowed as she came closer to the peculiar-looking stranger. Her instincts had sharpened these past ten days and Junior sensed something amiss.

“Consequences if caught are bad, very very bad,” Cthulhu muttered under her breath as she dropped her head once more and began scuttling hastily forward. Her eyes seemed trained on the ground as though it was extraordinary to behold, and so transfixed was she that she ran headlong into an unfamiliar she-wolf.

She backpedaled quickly, with fast steps that resembled the hops a crow might take. Her tail curled inward and her ears flew back as she lifted her head, appraising Junior with featful eyes. “Wasn't doing nothing!” she whined frantically in a voice that carried a breathless quality. It was clear from the way that Cthulhu dropped herself to the ground and squirmed that she mistook Junior for a member of the pack. She stretched her neck and nose out toward the female's broad black paws, seeking forgiveness for encroaching.

“Just sooo hungry,” she moaned at no one in particular as she snaked her tongue out to briefly taste ground. It was as inedible as every other mountain, and that made her whine.

The inevitable impact wasn't painful, though the stranger reacted as if whipped in the face. She dropped and squirmed, which elicited an entirely instinctual response from Junior. The juvenile arched her neck, her large ears bending forward. Her tail stiffened and raised. She made no aggressive overtures, though her eyes grew flinty.

"Hungry enough to eat dirt?" the youth questioned incredulously. "I can't help you," she added, taking a step backward as if fearing the odd she-wolf might lick her toes next. Her nose wrinkled and she made no effort to mask her repulsion.

She could have just turned and went on her way then, though she found herself glad for some company, even if it was strange. "Are you from a pack?" she questioned. Even as the words left her lips, a thought came to her and she added, "I'm from the pack nearby. Did you smell it? My name," she continued with only the slightest pause, "is Dagger. What's yours?"

The lie made her heart suddenly thump faster in her chest. If this stranger was part of that pack, she could call Junior's bluff. The youngster had a feeling this was no pack wolf, though if she declared herself a member of its ranks, Junior was prepared to reel out more fibs. In fact, she looked forward to it. She'd only just gotten started but already making up alternative identities was fun.

“Not eating dirt!” protested Cthulhu, despite the dark debris that lingered on her tongue as it poked between her teeth. The auburn-streaked thick hair upon her nape seemed to prickle as though she was offended by the accusation. The truth was that she was fearful—the very thought of this creature casting her back into solitude was a real threat to Cthulhu, in spite of her lacking social skills.

“The ground nourishes, see,” she said quickly, nodding as though to affirm her own point and solidify it in their mind. “Can't eat it but it... it takes the pain away. So it nourishes, see?” Oh, how desperate Cthulhu was to have her compulsion to lick the ground understood. She really had no explanation for having done so, other than sheer desperation, but an attempt to make some sort of logical sense, however terrible an attempt it was, was made nonetheless.

Dagger introduced herself with the stiffening of ears and tail, and Cthulhu grovelled more readily in light of this being a wolf of the glacier. “Oh please oh please oh please,” the emaciated coywolf whined into the ground as she wriggled toward Junior, “please, Dagger, spare this one! This one's name is Cthulhu, Dagger, Cthulhu of The Dread. I... I meant no harm!” The shift out of semi-third person into normal first person was seamless and yet jarring, but Cthulhu had always spoken brokenly, switching tenses without even meaning to. It had a lot to do with being stuck in the same den with the same deranged mother and siblings for almost five months longer than a typical wolf pup was—she was plainly inept.

The youth offered nothing but a long blink in response to the stranger's explanation. It takes the pain away? she mouthed to herself, though she didn't have long to speculate over this peculiar declaration before the wolf practically prostrated herself at Junior's feet, begging to be spared. Junior flinched away from her, momentarily distracted from her con and nonplussed by the stranger's exaggerated behavior. Then she remembered herself or, rather, her introduction as Dagger of the nearby pack.

Dagger sounded like the name of an assassin or something cool like that, so Junior deliberated a moment before coolly replying, "I'll take mercy on you, Cthulu, but only because you're not quite trespassing." She switched her tail as she eased into this false identity. "I'm the Alphas' daughter," she added with a pointed look. "If my parents caught you here, they'd make you eat dirt. What are you doing so close to claimed lands, anyway?" This question, at least, was genuine.

“Oh thank you, thank you,” whispered Cthulhu into the dirt underfoot, switching upturned eyes between Dagger and the glacier in the background. She began to shake lightly as her broken brain took the reins over her body, but it was nothing life-threatening, a by-product of her imperfect genetics. It was as normal as breathing to her, though it certainly drew the attention of others.

Dagger revealed her social status, causing the strange, scrawny female to grovel even further into the dirt. “It's an honour, Dagger, a true honour! True honour truly...” she trailed off, frowned at the ground, then continued. “This one didn't know there were wolves here, but this one knows now, Dagger, and won't do no harm.” Even though all she could think about was food.

“Perhaps... Perhaps they would make me eat... Something... Not dirt?” she asked quietly, averting her eyes to her paws immediately and flinching as if Dagger had already attempted to cuff her for practically begging.

Although the shaking and the other peculiarities implied there was something very wrong with Cthulu, it did not stop Junior from reveling in her own success. The strange, stringy she-wolf accepted the youth's tale at face value. She even groveled at her feet, treating her like some sort of royalty. It would have been a big fat lie to say Junior didn't relish that particularly, as a naturally dominant creature.

Cthulu's question was so ridiculous, it earned a shrewd glance and then a bemused snort from the youth. "My parents would never share food with an outsider," she said, nostrils flaring. "Do you know how to hunt, Cthulu?" Although she didn't look the part, Junior needed food just as badly as this weirdo. Perhaps if they teamed up, they would be successful. And since she wasn't actually Dagger, Alphas' daughter, she definitely wasn't above it... though, of course, she would spin it as a charitable cause.

“Right,” mumbled the strange she-wolf in a small voice, “but maybe Dagger woul—”

Before she could finish the thought, Dagger cut her off to ask if she knew how to hunt. This was a good thing for Cthulhu, who immediately broke out into a wide grin that showed off yellowing teeth and pink-and-purple mottled gums. “Cthulhu can hunt, yes,” she said with a vigorous nod that made her rap her chin against the ground. Whining softly, the coywolf continued, “this one can hunt small things, but they are fast, yes, very fast...”

The last thing she'd managed to catch was a skunk. That had been almost four days ago, long enough for the putrid aroma to wash out in whatever water she crossed. Hunger gnawed incessantly at her stomach and she groaned softly, raising her gaze hopefully upward to Dagger's broader neck.

Cthulu's smile looked more like a crazed leer, though Junior didn't let it put her off too much. She paid more attention to the words coming from that frightening slash of a mouth. Her ears drew backward slightly at the dull thud when the hybrid's chin rapped against the ground. Junior swore she heard the other female's teeth rattle in her skull... or maybe those were her loose marbles.

"Well..." Junior said contemplatively, mismatched eyes scanning the nearby crags. "I bet we could find some small prey in the foothills or slightly further up the mountain. One of us could flush, the other could pounce. Then we split the kill. How's that sound?" She licked her chops, eyes returning to Cthulu's face. She looked at her piteously, just like a well-fed Alphas' daughter might, though the expression was entirely genuine.

The dark wolf's head turned upward as she looked over the mountain, momentarily revealing the entirety of her throat. For a split second Cthulhu stared at that throat, wondering what wolf flesh might taste like. Her ears twitched upward, but before she could act on any impulse she had, the juvenile was looking back at her.

She shuffled to her paws, standing but remaining somewhere beneath the other wolf's level. “Sounds good to this one,” she said in a breathless tone laced with excitement. It had been too long since she'd had a good meal, and it showed in her scrawny figure. Even if what they brought down was barely enough for the both of them, it was more than Cthulhu had had.

She stood a little straighter and twisted back her ears, ready to follow Dagger to wherever she thought the food was.

Cthulu seemed amenable to this plan, so Junior said a lofty, "Let's go," and began to trot toward the crags. She walked with her head and tail high, remaining true to character. Although she said nothing aloud, Junior mulled over this role in her head. She would have to flesh out this Dagger's character and perhaps use the name as an alias during her travels. The idea of embellishing on this fake identity put some spring in her step, which was just as well, since she was supposed to be a high-stepping blue blood.

When the land began to slant upward, she began to climb. It made her think of the day spent climbing cliffs and hunting sheep with Lasher. That felt so long ago. Junior could barely remember Lasher's face. With a start, she realized it was difficult to recall her father's face, or her mother's. She froze with one black paw in the air, trying to bring the mental images into focus, staring vaguely into the distance with an unhappy expression on her face.

Cthulhu scuttled along in Dagger's wake, close enough that she could likely reach out and snap at the juvenile's tail if she chose to. Although the erratic thought crossed her mind once or twice that Dagger's tail might make a good treat, Cthulhu refrained from making a mess of her situation. Too often she did that, and the dirty silver mongrel knew how unlucky those situations turned out to be.

When Dagger stopped suddenly in their climb, the hybrid continued right on passed her as if nothing had happened. She made several bounds up the mountainside before realizing the leader of their little hunt was gone. She turned and squinted, staring down at Dagger as if from some great distance, though she was only several feet higher.

“C-coming?” she panted down at the juvenile with a gleeful little shiver, apparently oblivious to whatever was troubling the pack wolf.

She didn't snap out of it until Cthulu's simpering voice broke the silence. She frowned and almost replied curtly, then she remembered that she was supposed to be Dagger, the graceful and charitable Alphas' daughter. Instead, she smiled patiently and nodded, resuming her climb and soon catching up to the scrawny beast.

"Smell anything yet?" she questioned loftily.

She angled her crooked snout back toward the ground when Dagger spoke, but combing the chill stone gave no indication of life here. "No," she stammered back through a shudder that sent her hackles prickling. She'd been on this mountain for some time and it seemed to be devoid of life, aside from the wolves who'd set up headquarters next door. It was likely that Cthulhu had missed all the prey, but she was beginning to doubt their success, and doubt was never a good thing for the hybrid.

"M-maybe there is none," she suggested quietly with a backward glance at Dagger that simply begged to be proven otherwise. "Cthulhu hasn't smelled any foody things, not one..." She trailed off, looking positively depressed as the idea that there might be no food here—and none from Dagger, either—settled on her like a heavy blanket.

Junior grimaced when Cthulu reported zip, zilch, nada. "Something has to live on this mountainside," she said, trying to sound hopeful and upbeat but coming across a little more desperate and whiny than intended. "We can't give up, Cthulu, because you can't live on dirt."

She shot the mongrel a weighted glance, then climbed upward toward what appeared to be a small trail wrapping the mountainside. Woofing for her companion to follow, she began to pick her way along the narrow path, her right flank pressed to the rock wall to avoid teetering over the edge to her left. Moving carefully, she dropped her nose and began to sift for scents, trying to hide the edge of desperation in her movements.

Her ears wilted back when Dagger told her they couldn't give up. Cthulhu wished she could agree but it had been ages since her last good meal and she was getting colder by the minute. Despite this, she followed Dagger without complaint when beckoned.

Besides, the dark female had a point. Cthulhu could certainly eat dirt, but she couldn't survive off it. In fact, it would have a severely adverse effect if she tried. She needed real meat in her belly and the only way to ensure that was to catch it. Sadly, she still caught no prey scent as they walked their thin, treacherous path. Cthulhu was about to say as much when suddenly, the scent of a hare of some kind passed by her nose.

It lingered so briefly that she stopped dead where she was and hissed, "this one smells something!"

Junior, alias Dagger, became so engrossed in her tracking that she practically forgot she had company. Cthulu's hissed cry reminded her, however, and she stopped and whipped around, backtracking in an attempt to catch the scent too. She did. It belonged to a rabbit, by the smell of it. Junior began to drool.

"I think it's further up. If we keep following this trail, we should be able to get at it, wherever it is," Junior said hungrily, optimistic only because a) it was her only option and b) she figured that's how Dagger should be. "Does the ground feel hot to you?" she added absently as they scurried further up the ridge.

Dagger picked up on the scent and Cthulhu bounced eagerly on her narrow paws, bobbing her head and lolling her tongue. "We founds it! We founds it!" she chanted quietly as she followed the glacier wolf further up the ridge. She practically radiated excitement. The intensity of her trembling increased as though to indicate this.

When Dagger asked about the ground, though, Cthulhu looked down at her feet. Like the stupid creature that she was, she stopped dead and waited for the telltale prickle of heat on her paw pads. Like Dagger said, it was hotter than it should be. "Yep! This one feels it!" she confirmed in a yip, beaming strangely before loping to catch up with Dagger, who had probably pulled far ahead and maybe even found the rabbit.

Hello. My name is Junior and I am a dick.

Junior expected to track the scent to an overhang, a crevice, something... but, much to her surprise, something darted right across the path, practically over her forepaws. She lunged with the instinctual desperation of a starving predator, managing to catch a small pika by one of its spindly hind legs. Her teeth crunched right through the delicate bone, causing the small animal to scream. Junior's blood heated in response to that sound and she gnashed her teeth, quickly drawing the pika into her jaws and disemboweling it.

The pika was tiny and Junior didn't actually think about it at all; she simply devoured it, including every last scrap of blood, bone and gristle. She licked her chops with a satisfied growl, only to suddenly remember her partner. The jig was up. Now Cthulu would realize she was no regal Alphas' daughter trying to help feed her. Junior had used Cthulu to find a scent.

"My bad," the adolescent uttered, glancing at Cthulu, then pushing past her and trotting swiftly down the ridge, ignoring the warm tingling in her paws as she hastily descended and ran away. While she highly doubted Cthulu would give chase or otherwise try to harm her — if she even could — Junior didn't want to take any chances. She made like a banana and split the scene the scene of the "crime."

When she saw Dagger lunge forward suddenly, a spike of adrenaline squeezed through Cthulhu's veins and she hastily moved closer. Her excitement was beginning to mount in response to what must surely be a meal. She licked her chops expectantly, politely waiting for Dagger to finish and hand her the rest, but it never happened.

Instead, Dagger stepped away from where she caught the pika, leaving nothing but a bloody smear on the ground. The coywolf trembled frantically for a moment, trying to decipher what had happened, and by the time her slow brain figured it out, Dagger was already heading down the mountain. With an ugly snarl the coywolf turned and began to pursue her, but it was half-hearted. Dagger was too far away.

That didn't stop her from screaming shrilly to the sky and crying out, "That one's a monster! A monster! A lying, thieving, cheating MONSTER!" after the retreating black female.