Hunger has become a faithful companion, never leaving one’s side save for when callused tongues graced the finer meats of silken organs and drenched flesh. Yet even then, a wanderer was not without its companionship for long, as it reared almost instantly in the early hours of the morn or at worst; the deepest spells of night.
The irritable gnashing of acid against barren flesh, the quake and curl of muscle waning in strength was neigh unbearable. It was bitter, this friend, calling attention to itself any and all times it deemed fit til one’s constitutions were tested… then overwhelmed by the unfortunate reality by which it was faced with. The lupine breed was not meant to wander alone, unless it wished only for hunger and discomfort.
She knew this, clearly, but had begun her excursion from the dwindling ranks of her prior home regardless. No muzzle had turned to stop her progress, no kind word uttered in the hopes she would remain. Though their lips would not part, their eyes spoke the truth; how glad they were to be rid of the looming thing. Quiet and cold as the distant mountains of which they rested upon. Of which she was no longer a part of.
Perhaps if she had had a meal before departing, she would not have felt as hollow as she did now. Nor would her thoughts have taken root so deeply on the recent past. It was the fault of her companion… her hunger, this she knew. Though she could not muster a means to escape its presence. At least not yet.
In silence she traveled from jagged mountain to lush plateau, leaving no mark save for the impression of her paws upon the earth. Her presence was to be discrete. Little more than a figment upon the boundless expanse. Even as she trod through plains as they gave way to onyx spires, she was meant to be no more than a ghost amidst their humbling graces. Or perhaps a wraith when the occasional morsel skittered by… |
Following the fight with the devilish she-wolf, Peregrine took it easy for a few days, fed and tended by his brothers. He groused at them for waiting on him like some weakling, though only halfheartedly; in truth, he was grateful for their help. He sparsely left the small dugout they used as a makeshift den, resting his aching body and allowing his wounds to knit.
On the third day, he went for a stroll through the woods, walking slowly. He was stiff and sore, yet he knew he was on the mend. Every time he experienced a particularly painful twinge, he paused and growled under his breath, cursing the damned she-wolf. During one particularly extended respite beneath an oak tree, the pain lingered long enough for his mood to sour and he cursed her, Tyrannus and every other filthy creature who'd ever wronged him.
A breeze slithered through the trees, bringing a strong whiff of his pack mates, particularly his brothers. It wiped away his bad mood and Peregrine stood again and began making his way toward the borders as a matter of course. He tried to stay focused on how much Atticus and Crete meant to him and how happy he was they were here. Who would have kept him company these past few days if not for them?
When he arrived at the borders, Peregrine's happy mood vanished again. Ignoring the pains in his swarthy body, he loped swiftly down the incline, head and tail raising as he approached the stranger there. Unlike the black-footed wolf, this she-wolf did not appear to be a threat. She did not skulk discreetly about the borders but instead stood out in the open, clearly visible. Thusly, instinct commanded Peregrine to stave off an attack.
Still, he appeared rather intimidating as he stopped just short of the cream-colored female. "What is your business here?" Peregrine asked gruffly, his dusky blue-green eyes boring into her face. She was rather lovely, actually, but looked a little worse for wear. He took in her scent, catalogued it and stood there like a stone statue, waiting impatiently for an answer.
...but it was too much to ask for apparently, when within her own realm of the woodland. Luck came as both a giving and cruel maiden having graced her desperate nostrils with the fragrance of prey. To her stomach yet filled, it was blessing to be pursue even if it meant boldly crossing into territories beyond that lay claimed. Desperation would incline she care little, though the semblance of etiquette to a pack’s territory would remind the wanderer that no scent was worth pursuit if her reward would be the pain of flashing fangs. How she despised the ethereal fae called Luck; giving and taking within the same cursed instance.
In silence, she remained at the threshold in contemplation, blatantly testing the idea of crossing in with a swift step. Perhaps if she were bolder, it would not have required thought but action. A quick enough step to continue the trail to its blood-filled end then run tail high far enough to avoid an angry following. But she was not so bold. Not so foolish as that. Yet she loitered none the less, even took to a short stalk… til a sound from the rear invoked her halt with a turn of both ears and tail pricked high and alert.
A spire of black peeled from the shade of the encompassing woodland, drifting over with ease… a certainty regarding the land in which he stood. The female was still as he came nearer, her piebald eyes of brown and gold never leaving his muzzle as he stood within her proximity. Her body remained poised with an air of wild comfort, gracelessly and skewed as the weathered autumnal tree. A twitch of her nostrils told of his communal claim to the land and yet she regarded him no differently and simply turned her gaze back to the intangible trail. “…my hunt trails into these lands…” she uttered quietly, simply. |
He knew he shouldn't need to say it aloud, yet nonetheless he punctuated his stature by saying, "I don't give a shit where 'your' trail leads. You won't be passing beyond these borders. If you try, I will personally tear out your throat." Peregrine was brutally straightforward, leaving no room for misapprehensions.
Her ears drew back as he asserted himself before her, even going as far as to threaten her person. An act no less of a territorial creature. The very kind she had hoped to avoid in the instance she had been bolder in her pursuit.
Smoothly her lips peeled back as she lowered her head slightly, though her eyes remained carefully locked on his muzzle. Last she needed was to look away for an instant then find the sharp weapon pressed to a vulnerable artery. “…hungry,” she stated simply, unabashed of its implication. “…it was found on grounds unclaimed,” she whispered. “The first I have tracked in days. You would keep me from it… rather than shadow to find my intention true… or spill my blood and attract larger teeth than either yours or mine.”
Her tongue flicked across her lips impatiently, tasting not desire blood but earth and a healing sore. Each moment spent explaining was another that gave her quarry the advantage in distance. Each moment brought it deeper into lands she could not cross. It was a bothersome circumstance, but one she imagined was necessary in these parts. Afterall, she hadn’t before crossed near another packs borders before now, let alone threaten to traverse their threshold for food. |
Still, his tongue lashed out in anger. "And the moment it crossed into our lands, it was no longer yours to hunt, end of story," Peregrine replied. "I will tell you right now that I don't give a shit about your wellbeing, so you won't get anywhere trying to play the pity card." He paused, eyes flashing. "Believe me, I'm not worried about attracting predators." He sounded almost amused as he said it, as if he found the notion ludicrous—which he did.
"In other words," he said summarily after a few beats, "if you have no other business here, get lost." He complemented this statement—nay, command—with a severe scowl and a predatory lash of his long, black tail.
Seconds slipped by as a moment had come and gone by their fruitless interaction. In ignorant hope that honesty would have afforded her the prey, it served only solidify the state of her empty belly. It churned in anger eliciting a silent wince from the like-tongued female. Her show of disappointment was told by an audible sigh through flared nostrils, dismissing both his scent and that of what had once been her quarry.
“…disappointing…”
Carefully shifting forward with a cant of her head, she proceeded around ginger steps around the dark male. She spared neither an ill or concerning remark, nor did she try for a final time to make her benign intentions known. She simply did as instructed and turned from the border, placing her muzzle in vain to the ground in hopes for another scent to follow.
Luck was cruel female indeed. |
"Wait," he blurted suddenly. "Wait here," he added, giving her a dark, introspective look before turning away and trotting up the towpath leading to the upper plateau.
He snatched a hare from the closest cache, clenched it in his jaws, then pressed down on it with a forepaw. After ripping it it half, he stowed the anterior bits back in the stockpile, then plucked up the hind legs in his mouth. Wondering if he was doing the right thing—robbing his own pack of meat to feed some stranger—he nonetheless padded back to the borders and dropped it at his feet.
"Here," he said simply, kicking it in her direction. Peregrine felt a little awkward as he waited for her to take it, so he added, "Are you alone?" Obviously, she was here by herself but what he meant was: did she have a pack?
Or perhaps Luck was simply complicated in her ways, presenting one instance with the intent of another. The female had hardly increased the breadth between herself and the aggressive male til he called for her to stop, distracting her from the fruitless endeavor at hand.
A curious amber orb glanced meekly over her shoulder til it was joined by its brown other focused intently on the male. The she-wolf remained silent as he trudged off beyond his border. His intentions were far from known to her considering this was the first time she had encountered such behavior. For all she knew, he could have been summoning the rest of his pack to converge on her, yet there was no sound by him other that the shift of leaves as they fell to his weight. She gave her muzzle a curious lick, her eyes wide and observant as she scoured the trees for more living shadows among them.
Yet there was only his, departing once more from the natural veil to stand within the light… with a bit of meat in tow. Her brows perked noticeably. For her? She bared no modesty in the face of a meal. Towering protectively over the morsel she bent her muzzle down into it, letting yellowed fang slip seamlessly through flesh to grace her tongue with the delectable privilege of meat. Oh, how she missed the taste. But her meal was not given without a question to follow. An ear perked forward then just as quickly drew back. “…I am,” she replied quietly, caressing the limb favorably with the width of her tongue. |
Not one to apologize, Peregrine nonetheless tried to make things right by saying haltingly, "I didn't mean to come across as such a dick. I was recently attacked near these borders and, well, I'm territorial by nature to begin with." His lips pursed and he looked away a moment, then back to her face. "My pack has space, if you're looking for a place to stay. There's, uh, more meat where that came from."
Shifting and clearing his throat, he waited a beat and said, "My name's Peregrine. What's yours?" He was no good at making nice with strangers, nor engaging in small talk, but if he was going to possibly recruit her, he supposed they needed to at least get introductions out of the way.
A few final licks as she deemed herself fed, then smoothly seated herself on folded haunches. Skillfully, she fitted the bone of the limb between her forepaws then lowered her maw to grind her teeth against its top. Though her present state did not convey her care for grooming, she was mindful of her need to see her teeth cared for. What was a wolf without teeth to hunt… to reprimand… to bite? Now able, she took care to rid the surface of some of its plague but without a larger, more hollowed bone to assist, she could only make due with a minimal scraping. Though even for that, she was grateful.
Her ears had remained bent forward as he spoke, explaining both his actions and the status of his pack. There was no need for apology, as she had learned to cater to near all dispositions and attributes. She could change them no more than she could change the flow of a river. The instance of her bartered rights from one pack to another conveyed this truth painfully well. As did they raise her suspicions of communities as whole. However she would have been foolish to believe that she would not come to need one for her survival in time.
“…Xi’nuata.”
She let the bone fall away from paws as she pushed herself to stand joined by a swift ruffle of matted fur. “…thank you, Peregrine,” she uttered softly in turn. At least it could be said that some semblance of manners remained. |
Perhaps a bit impatiently, he asked, "Well? Are you interested in joining? I can call for the Alpha if you are. If not, I'm going to ask you to move along." He spoke brusquely, though not as harshly as before. Peregrine just didn't want to waste time along with the other resource (food) he'd possibly already wasted on this Xi'nuata creature.
Was her name so strange that he would look at her oddly? Granted, it was not the first time she had seen that look on another’s face, and certainly would not be the last. Why her dame decided to hold deeply to her clan’s roots was beyond her. A simple name would have sufficed, instead of the calling that reminded the bitter mother of her original home. After a while, X’inua had taken the name with a grain of salt, rarely letting the mispronunciations or looks given bother her too much for comfort.
An ear however did flick at his note, noting with some amusement the inquisitive edge to his voice. Was she interested in joining his fold? A more prideful beast would have proclaimed no, and attempted to live out their stubborn days in the wild scraping the fat of the land. And truly, she had a mind to do just the same, lest she fall victim to yet another turbulent existence she had only just left. But as any sentient creature would, she believed in living more than she did suffering to death in the wilderness.
And most importantly, a pack meant food.
Rolling her tongue across her muzzle, she tipped her head slightly. “…where is your alpha?” |
"I don't keep a radio collar on her, so I don't have a clue where she is at the moment. I know she's within howling distance, though. But I'm not going to waste her time along with mine until you make it exceedingly clear you actually want to join. Well... Xi'nuata?" It felt too familiar to call her Xin after all, especially when he was trying to sound stern (because everybody knows there's nothing sterner than busting out someone's full name). He ended up enunciating it as something like sin-squat-ah, much to his irritation.
Perhaps it was the way of males to make even the simplest task seem urgent. Or the more likely reason for his shift in disposition was the female herself carrying on quite distantly. A female of few words, she was exchange more in this instance than she had in some time, and was quickly finding that the chore was incredibly irritable to her chords. What more did she need to say to bring the Alpha forward? Perhaps if she howled for the sovereign of the land herself…
The female nearly scoffed at the thought. Her, singing. Her exuded breath was hardly something she recognized even now. She could not imagine how her heart would take her singing fully.
“I do,” she sighed softly, hoping to preserve what she could of her tender voice, lest she lose the sound completely by this impromptu exchange. She could already feel the flesh creaking as plainly as she felt the woodland become colder. Each breath of wind a chilling tickle down her spine foretelling the concluding drift of early evening to night. |
"Here's a pro-tip for you: when she gets here, be a little more forthcoming with your answers and intentions," Peregrine advised crisply. After throwing her a vaguely dirty look, he threw back his head, his jaws parting to issue a howl that reverberated loudly in the cold air.
His head dropped and he looked at Xi'nuata, his tongue flicking out to wet his lips. He knew he could interrogate her further, perhaps press her for her skills and other information in which the Alpha female would be interested. However, Peregrine couldn't bring himself to engage her any longer. He just looked at her, rather blankly.
The instant Hawkeye gets here, he thought to himself, I'm out of here.
The black female walked slowly through the forest, taking her sweet time. Why should she be on everyone else's schedule? I mean, if it was an emergency I would know it she assured herself in her excuse.
When she arrived, Peregrine seemed wildly impatient and she looked at him with sadness in her eyes. He had been hurt. She dared to walk up to him and lick his neck; she would hear the story later, but figured that the fight was not for a useless reason or among brothers. The dark woman wondered why she was not summoned, but this would be addressed at another time, for there was a cream colored wolf that looked about as pathetic as her subordinate.
"I assume you want acceptance into the pack, otherwise you would not be here. Peregrine, you can leave now. I know you've been waiting." She held his gaze for a moment before swaying her head back to the female and her business at the borders.
Had the female a commendable trait, it would have been her patience. The ability to withstand the stillness of time whilst in wait; a direct contradiction to her darker counterpart. She this instance she was calm, only shifting to adjust the weight on her legs but remained upright, fixed where she stood. A blessing that came with stillness, was the opportunity for the mind to wander, walk cautiously back down the weathered path of the past then return full circle to the obscured present. And as fate would present, it would be in the visage of a dark female on approach.
The silent one remained as she was, watching the exchange between the pair of packmates. A more bothering image there was none in her mind, yet she stomached the display in the hopes n of keeping her recent meal down. That did not however keep her from turning her head away until addressed.
Was she there to join the pack? She would have thought her present, the summoning of her subordinate would have made that fact apparent. She did not linger simply for a chance for conversation. She was a hungry thing and needed their strength to live on... at least for the moment. "Correct, " she confirmed quietly, lifting her gaze to the muzzle of the female. |
"She's all yours," he said, preparing to trot back up the incline. He would probably return to his brothers' side.
Even as he began to move, he caught the look on Hawkeye's face and it momentarily baffled him. He stopped. Suddenly, he realized she must be ascertaining his wounds. Peregrine shrugged as if to say, It's no big deal. Aloud, he added, "Tell you later." Truthfully, he didn't think anything of the altercation. He'd taken care of it and that was that. As a wolf who paid no mind to the goings-on beyond his pack, he did not contemplate the possibility of warfare or any such thing.
With a parting wave of his tail and a last blank glance at Xi'nuata, Peregrine shuffled away up the slope and disappeared.
Hawkeye's words were harsh, but she was not patient in this moment. The female was not submitting in a way that she preferred and her answer had made the large black wolf stiffen in annoyance.
All she had wanted was to feed herself, but now she could see that Luck was far from favorable to her. Perhaps if she had surrendered the hunt in the first place she would not have been faced with not one, but two temperamental beasts. To his apparent reprieve, the male wandered off the moment he was excused, leaving the dark female to stand before the quiet one alone. It did not seem like the wisest action on his part. What subordinate would leave his leader without a guard? But perhaps this comfort came with enduring far greater threats than a lone, famished female. Who was to know.
Smoothly she returned her bi-colored sights to the lone Alpha, once more holding her gaze along the length of her muzzle. The calm beast sighed softly, having nothing but time to ponder her response, though the irritable twitch of her ear could not be mistaken. Wanting to join was a generous notion. Needing to join so she could eat, that was an entirely different matter all together. If only the male had remained, he could have relayed the answers for her. She found no pleasure in repeating herself. If this was the cost of finding a meal, she would have done better starving another day...
Carefully she shifted her weight as she turned, her tail low and ears relaxed as she dismissed the borders. Perhaps she could find another trail elsewhere. |
Oh, yes, her patience was being tested harshly. First, this wolf did not submit, and now she walked off and dismissed her questions. Hawkeye's brow narrowed. The other female was asking for a fight.
"You are mistaken..."
If she could offer anything of merit, then she would have it be a charitable word. The female hadn't gotten far, little more then two of her lengths before the voice rose behind her. Irritable and stirring, just as the male's had been when she had tried to leave the first instance. For an impatient pair, they shared an odd trait in having the final word. Even if it was strung under pretense at best.
"I do not stand at these borders in the hope for pity," she spoke quietly, sighing softly as she was encouraged to exert herself. She did not turn completely toward the female, but brandished her large side with her tail still relaxed. "My trail ran into your borders. That is all. I forfeit the hunt when he made it clear he would not escort me to complete it, but it was his engagement that kept me there...'Like some starving fool'.'" Her tongue rolled indifferently."His decision to offer me meat from your cache. His question regarding my interest in this pack which summoned you." Pausing for a moment, she slipped her tongue atop the bridge of her nose. All this time wasted explaining, she could have possibly found another scent by now. Something more substantial to fill her gaping belly. Instead she was here, frittering away the precious minutes if not hours of the day.
She breathed once more.
"As you are female, and perhaps have been hungry yourself, you might understand the reason for my interest; one cannot survive alone without food. And I have no intention of withering away in the wilderness. However," she raised her head slightly, looking from the female to the snow dusted earth itself. "If I must endure the forward hostilities of the whole, I would do better to pursue another trail, it seems." |
Her words were stern, but they rung true. Though she had never gone hungry herself, and she was pretty annoyed by the other female's actions, Hawkeye had pitied others who had step foot near her lands and were near skin and bones.
Prove herself. She could have gagged on the bile that swelled in her throat. Prove herself to be within numbers to better hunt? To eat at the charity of others? Intelligence would have been to continue along the path she had started not once but twice now and walk out of the territory. It too would have been being mindful of her proximity to the lands that smelled like those she had left behind. Had she wanted to remain subject to further insult, she would have remained within the mountains rather than at least stepping from them.
"I will keep that in mind," her voice remained soft and cool. Only a few minutes in this female's presence, and already she had the frightening recurrence of the past coming true. Except in this instance there was no sire beside her to batter her off. Nor a crowd of wolves she was made to bow to. Better she cease now before even that part of the history became her present as well.
"I will take up no more of your time," she rolled her shoulders forward as she shook out her matted mane, bearing down if only slightly to ward off the winter chill as she turned once again to leave. |