Swiftcurrent Creek playing house

No problem!

Bazi cocked a brow. Frisky? "What do you mean by frisky?" she asked, not one to keep her questions to herself, but Ferdie seemed keen to move things along. To that end he began distracting her with kind, fatherly words and renewed enthusiasm for digging, which succeeded for a short while. Bazi was all bright smiles as she relayed her plans for their home and the result of recent adventures.

"I've been scouting nearly every day, and meeting lots of new wolves. There's Bones - she's sweet - and Njal.. and I've visited the Plateau, and Horizon Ridge." Her expression darkened suddenly. The Viking wolf lived belonged Horizon Ridge. She had isolated Björn's strange behaviour to the part of her mind that guarded the unpleasant events preceding her arrival into the Teekon Wilds. Obscuring both of them was the recent tension with the Vale, which her subconscious had either deemed more urgent or less damaging.

They began to dig again, and it was Bazi's turn to look concerned. "Ferdie," she began, "Do you know any Vale wolves? Fox said there's been some tension, and now Jinx has come back saying that Xi'nuata - that's one of their alphas - has kind of... well..." She paused her digging to think, and turned to look at her pack-mate. "I met her, and she's OK, but she suggested that my 'ilk' was responsible or whatever's going on. And I overheard Jinx saying that they meant to hunt close to our borders just to spite us, pretty much. To show us off as weak." The youth scratched ineffectually at the ground, clearly distracted. "I don't know what to do about it, if I come across a Vale wolf around the Creek, skulking about. I didn't think I cared that much, prey will be plentiful soon, but... I don't like the idea of a whole pack skirting around our borders, giving us attitude, and making us look lax, and weak." There had been a certain fury to Jinx's words, and it had rubbed off on Bazi. "I don't mind anyone else. I met a nice Plateau girl recently; no problem. But whenever I smell the Vale, it makes me nervous. Like they're plotting something."

It felt good to empty her worries into Ferdie's open ears - the mystery surrounding his recent injury lay forgotten in the wake of her lengthy monlogue. "So, what do you think?"