Blacktail Deer Plateau to the moon and back

Holy crap, you guys shadow-posted the crap out of me. You're awesome. :D

The echoes of his howl reverberated off into the distance and silence followed shortly thereafter, leaving Atticus to wait in anxious anticipation. He knew this was Peregrine's scent, so unmistakably stinky and reeking (he grinned) around these lands, but in a moment of doubt he wondered if he would be so lucky as to have his brother be his greeter at all. He couldn't be the only wolf that lived here, after all. Had he just unintentionally pissed off some resident Alpha? He gulped.

Only time would tell.

As he waited, he reflected back on the events of the previous weeks. His brother's pearly-white teeth so near his throat, his snarl ringing dangerously in his ears. Tyrannus hadn't even given him a chance to say goodbye to his mother or family. His brother had simply chased him out right then and there, running him until his tongue dangled limply from his jaws and his breaths came in great heaves. Only then did Tyrannus let him go, turning back to return to the Falcons. That night, Atticus had taken a roundabout path and circled back to the packlands in an effort to reach his sister — he at least wanted to talk to his sister, to tell him where all of her brothers had gone — but his brother had caught him. Atticus resisted him then, but Tyrannus — larger, stronger, and more experienced — had bested him easily, pretty much handing Atticus's ass to him without breaking a sweat. He was still bruised and sore in some places, a few cuts still knitting together under the cover of his thick black fur. And so he had been forced to truly leave at that point. Get out or get dead.

A soft growl was rumbling softly in his chest as he thought back on everything, and he was totally distracted and not paying attention when, out of the blue, a big black wrecking ball slammed into him. I mean slammed. Both of them went flying through the air, a massive, snarling, tangled-up bramble of pissed-off canine. Fearing an attack, he instinctively whirled around and snapped at his assailant, his teeth just missing some body part, he knew not which one.

Just as instantaneously as they had connected, they parted. Atticus danced away from his opponent, and his opponent sprang, catlike, to his feet.

….wait, Atticus knew that maneuver. He narrowed his eyes. Sniffed the air.

"Perry!" he half-shouted, a grin instantly slicing across his dark face. "You asshole!" He leaped toward his brother, tail waving like crazy behind him, and shoulder-bumped him affably. It was so good to see his brother's face again. All the hostility and ensuing loneliness of the past weeks had left an emptiness inside of him that drank in the familiarity of Peregrine's presence like scorched sand sucks up water. "God, I don't even…hey, Crete!"

He saw his two-toned brother approaching from a short distance behind Peregrine, and sprang toward him with enthusiasm. His heart, so broken and filled with anger, soared and sang with joy. He nuzzled Crete beneath the chin in affectionate greeting, momentarily wordless with glee, and then noticed yet another wolf approaching, this one a lovely ebony female. Good grief, it was like a goth convention, with all these swarthy black wolves hanging around. Atticus sensed from the way she carried herself that this was probably the boss lady herself, so he quickly dropped into a deep bow of respect and deference, his throat brushing the ground and his eyes wandering over toward Crete's paws as he spoke. "Yeah, uh…you probably already heard about the dick brother and all," he said with a shrug and a sheepish grin. Though he didn't reply to her comment about good looks running in the family, he felt a hot blush rise up beneath his fur. Thank god for fur. He had always been far more modest about things like that than Peregrine had. "I'm Atticus."