Otatso Wetlands my words would just evaporate

I was thinking this thread predated the pack meeting in my headcanon, but if that's not meshing here LMK and I may twiddle and retweak things as necessary.  :o  (The last paragraph here, at least...)  ...I think it did technically stuff itself in threadlogs after the meeting, mind you, too, lol...hhhmmm.
So rooting Soltero on OOCly here though either way, especially with butthead Talos being the only other option to side with.  XD

Talos scowled more blackly than her fur at the older male whom she very strongly suspected was subtly attempting to make fun of her, here. Ee-yeah, dragons! she insisted, doubling down in the face of resistance to this idea. How dare this ingrate not appreciate all her hard work keeping the pack borders free of vicious firebreathing reptilians. Maybe she'd just have to let one slip by and "accidentally" get ahold of him while he was being so mocking and unwary; now what fun would he make of good ol' Talos and her brilliant dragonhunting skills then? Yep: would darn well serve him right, too! I'mma kill an' eat 'em if I'm hun'ry 'nough, so there! She knew her anger was likely to lead her down pathways she was likely to later regret, here, but at the moment with her furious continuing to boil and build and with such a convenient target to direct it all at right here in front of her now she really couldn't much bring herself to much care, or find the wherewithal to even try reining it in.

Until an unexpectedly welcome and intelligent suggestion popped the bubble of her anger quite suddenly. It deflated into a more nebulous and halfhearted emotion, compared to the righteous chest-swelling and all-encompassing red haze of it mere moments before, as it penetrated her skull just what this officious and all-too-snarky wolf was next suggesting. What if Aria had gone looking for dragons and done gotten herself eatened all up? All of a sudden an invasion of the vicious and scaly beasts didn't sound all that bad to the young supposed former dragon-hunter here. In fact it sounded almost downright welcome, as Talos's vivid young imagination suddenly surged down a couple of heretofore unseen pathways... What if a dragon did live right here in this swamp for instance, and if it did manage to eat up Aria...? Would that be enough to magically make her parents reconcile, and glue her little family firmly back together again? It seemed implausible on some level, and yet... and yet... Talos could only stand there staring with wide eyes at Soltero, her gaze going a little unfocused as her mind drifted wide of their conversation and her tightly-held anger for a moment to go running after the dazzling possibilities that fluttered just out of her reach. Maybe... maybe this was even something she herself could try to arrange, if Fate herself wouldn't just obligingly plop such a scenario in Talos's waiting lap? The young Frostfur-Mayfair stood there with tail drooping at half-mast and fur floating slowly and gently back down to its normal state parallel to her backbone as it too forgot it had been bristling in self-aggrandizing anger only a short while before. After a long moment of thought she recalled that she had been trying to communicate with another after all and cautiously offered up to him a, Maaaayyyy- beeee...? The first non-hostile word of encouragement she had offered to Soltero thus far in their short acquaintanceship. Congratulations dude; perhaps they could make you a medal or something. (Though of course it would take violence to reconcile little Talos to all this, naturally!)

Talos's eyes sharpened into focus again quite suddenly and riveted themselves to the other wolf's face however as he casually surmised about the whereabouts and doings of her mother. And...perhaps even more shockingly and importantly...her brother? Talos had been very much out of the loop these past weeks in the packlands; she hadn't been aware that she was not the only pup gone MIA. She thought back in bewilderment to the last time she had seen her sibling, and genuine concern unadulterated with fury washed over her this time as she considered the possibility that Viinturuth might have gotten himself into real trouble and found himself not unwilling but unable to come home. It was too much, far too much to handle... so Talos's brain immediately dug itself up a fresh burst of fury to mentally direct toward her parents, toward Aria, toward any wolf or creature that might possibly have ever had anything whatsoever to do with any of this. How dare they chase her brother off to who knows where, too! It was all so confusing and overwhelming and unfair! Talos choked back a sudden loud sob and hastily ducked her head to scrape at her face in embarrassment as her rump slumped to the muddy ground in defeat. She tried, she really did, but how was one young wolfgirl supposed to handle all of this?! Wasn't this what the alphas were supposed to do?!