Porcupine Ridge When the chips are down

for when you have time <3

Midnight. Above the mountains, the Milky Way sprawled like a sparkling beaded shawl. Under cover of darkness Tousaint returned to his den and left it in ruin. From the earth he pulled his rooted sea lavender, stowing it hastily in the dried pouch made of woven kelp. He collected his treasures as well, and raided his most recent larder so he could scarf down the last meal he had caught.

He left with everything that he had come with- save for the hours he’d spend patrolling, the advice he had offered Chaudry, and the potential that the pack had had when he’d been a pledge. 

He cut a course that took him East before he looped back around, and approached the Ridge from the border most distant from the Vale- if Viskani sent her sons after him, he would prefer any altercation happen in territory that only @Muskrat could claim. He called for her, using short yips akin to the ones she’d used when she had visited last.

The boy’s cheeks were hot, flushed; he shrugged the kelp pouch so it might sit higher up on his shoulder as he waited. The scent of lavender was soothing, but it wasn’t enough.

<3

midnight, and the sky goddesses sent out their searching hands to guide muskrat in confident stride through the fallen night. moonlight broke across the hard-muscled form of hex's warrior as she trotted noiselessly across leaf-litter and carpets of fallen green needles.

voice in appealing tones rose now, wolven and not. compelled, muskrat held still in the creamy yellow light of stars who looked down upon she and showed a tiny path where she might eventually meet

"tousaint." from a shelf of rock she dropped down near the montagne petal of a creature. but beauty was its own knife; sliver of moonglimmer showed their eyes to one another.

razored grin; muskrat took in the lavender and its bindings, fashioned from foliage she did not recognize. but now her stare flicked to his face, searching. "why you call to me?" came the purling voice, more sibilant in these times since she had come to live in a serpent's dark.

She emerged from the inky shadows and into the moonlight, the warm tones of her pelt now turned silver yet her eyes lost none of their flowery lustre. By the tone of her voice, he inferred that she was not irritated to be called upon so late, and to the very outskirts of her claim. he'd avoided the clearing with the cairns, though he wanted nothing more than to go back and knock them over out of spite. 

"Muskrat," He greeted, with a dip of his head. "I call you because I am a spiteful creature." He said with a light shrug of his narrow shoulders. "Long story short- I be leavin' de Vale, and I be takin' wid me all my possessions- except for my secrets." Lavender eyes searched for sunflower. "I leave dem wid you, if you be wantin' dem." Unlike the fox, his gift did not come with a tether.

leaving. this brought an interested cant to her head, followed by a slow blink that suggested she was considering his offer.

nothing was free.

but perhaps tousaint offered in grace what muskrat might spin to gold before time was high.

in magnanimity she spread her forepaws and nodded at him. "i listen." already he brought her news of a fracture inside the vale, for the man in front of her seemed more wise than to quit a packland for no reason at all.

As he unleashed his secrets, he felt powerful, as if a cluster of matches had all been lit as one. He devoured the opportunity to weave with his words what might become an ornate tapestry, a warm blanket, a cloak of chainmail. Something had boiled within him; now the cauldron bubbled over. 

Viskani t’ink less of you because you be ‘alfblood.’ She believe only in de purity of ‘er bloodline so any respect she shows you? It be fake. He said. Muskrat might not be offended, but at least now she would be made aware that Viskani would never see her as an equal. 

But Tousaint had disdain not only for the racist leader of the vale, but for the slave-keeper of the Ridge. 

She take de fox as a t’reat. She take it to mean you be plannin’ a raid- so she start plannin’ one dat will take place on de night of de new moon, when it be darkest. He advised her. His voice lowered.

She ‘ave two weaknesses. One be dat she ‘as underestimated me, an’ underestimated you. An’ de ot’er be dat fox. He said and sneered as he recalled how Viskani fawned over it. She keep it as a pet, raise it as ‘er child. It be almost as precious to ‘er as ‘er own children…She keep it in ‘er den.

He let the implications hang between them. He gave no advice, and could not guarantee that Muskrat would take any action- but if his words had any flammability to them, he hoped they caught, and started a wildfire.

throughout, muskrat's eyes seemed to glow more brightly, luminous as tousaint offered one sweet after another. that viskani thought less of her had not only been an assumption, but mutually felt. yet to hear it assured brought a faint smile to her lips, one which deepened in open amusement to hear that the vale woman meant to raid — them?

weaknesses of underestimation were how muskrat plied the strength in her smaller frame quite well. self-assured was her laugh then, gentle in the night, holding an ice that marvelled almost admiringly at viskani's daring.

"stupid woman," the warrior said at last, "to trust fox." stupider woman to devalue tousaint.

claws clicked as she flexed her paws against the stony earth and considered. muskrat held no fear of viskani, and if tousaint was an example of what loyalty the montagne woman commanded, it would be no hard thing to break the vale.

sunflower eyes glowed. he had no loyalty to them. why did he spill viskani's unsaid things before her now in pretty baubles? what did he want? "where you go now?" muskrat asked, testing to see if tousaint's want was a place among the ridge.

Indeed, He agreed. He'd fawned over the creature for a moment, merely for its resemblance to wolf children- and to appease Viskani who seemed utterly enthralled with her new pet. Ruefully, he replayed the way she had so deftly dismissed him- and then turned to look on the kit with adoration. Her mistake, he thought. Yet another to add to the list that she had already made. 

His brow raised as Muskrat expressed some curiosity regarding his next moves. Far from here, He explained. Not only for his personal safety, but for his own sanity. He would leave the wolves of the Ridge and the Vale to pick away at each other like scavenging buzzards. Surely, there existed a better place for someone like him.

so he did not seek a rank with the raiders. for this, muskrat was rather grateful. the choice belonged to hex.

tousaint gave so freely of viskani's secrets that she wondered if there was more to know. "be well," she at last said. "you come back, you have peace with us." peace, independent of the vale. he was someone with which the warrior might work well.

and he knew the details of viskani's stronghold. almost worth offering payment — almost. but why give what had not been asked?

that the fox was a treasured child in the montagne land amused muskrat to no end; its cries and yips might well draw all the vulpines in the sunspire down upon the vale, especially now that wolf had put fox to death in their own home.

quietly she lifted her chin, waiting for him to speak or to be gone.