Whitefish River Summer dress

I'm really sorry for the wait! I've had some awful luck with internet lately. >_>

“A variety of things,” she offered vaguely in response, canting her head to look sidelong at him for just a moment. “A pack on the coast is led by one who thinks he can lead without engaging his followers. The pack is a ramshackle mess of complete strangers that do not know the meaning of teamwork, thanks to his incompetence. They are no hornets. They are scarcely a bother.” She paused, picking her way around a large stone that jutted out of the riverbank, then continued. “Swiftcurrent Creek is an honourable pack as a whole, but the leader is too young. She has too many mistakes still to make... Security cannot be assured there. Still, not hornets.”

“The hornets are the wolves of Blacktail Deer Plateau,” here, the Kesuk gestured vaguely with her snout in the direct of the plateau, which was somewhere behind them, “and those of Northstar Vale inside the mountains.” As though searching her mind for a moment for an appropriate place to begin, Jinx pursed her lips and drew back her ears thoughtfully. “The Plateau wolves, particularly their Alpha Hawkeye, behave as though they are all-knowing. She is arrogant, and does not hesitate to seek out anyone and everyone she disagrees with just to tell them how much she disagrees with them. But best think twice about disagreeing with her. She holds a mean grudge. She extended a treaty once to my Alpha that would supposedly allow our wolves to pass through her lands unharmed to reach the other side of the mountain, and would allow her wolves to pass through ours. It was a ridiculous proposition but not one I thought they would dishonour... Yet, I once scouted near their border for my own pack's sake, and was outright attacked by a black male in her service. I can only presume it is because I disagree with some of her philosophies.”

Unconsciously, Jinx had made Peregrine's active defence of his home the basis for her own behaviour. Previously, the woman had been much like these Teekon Wilds wolves who allowed others to stand upon their borders as if there was a tangible threshold, but ever since tangling with the Plateau's demon, she had been much less accommodating. It was this that she would shape her mountain pack upon, but she never would realize that it was Peregrine who had inspired it.

“And the Vale... Full of wolves who do not understand proper conduct. I did not witness it, but my Alpha informed us all that they approached our pack in a party of four. They called it diplomacy... My Alpha called it a threat.” Jinx called it a threat as well, if only because she was militaristic and believed four wolves was two or three more than was required for “diplomacy”. “On several more occasions a particular female from their tribe approached members of my pack seeking this “diplomacy”, yet failed to respect my pack mates' superiority on our own lands. Recently, the female made threats to myself, that she and her wolves would hunt near the Creek pack's territory as they please while the Creek wolves are expected to remain fully within their borders or... Mm, face the consequences, I suppose.”

She took in a heavy breath, realizing she had spoken quite a lot (and also left out a few things), and finished with, “My Alpha's inaction toward these Vale wolves for their threats and their behaviour is a major reason I chose to leave that pack.”