Blacktail Deer Plateau Homeland

Edit on 02/03: I'm adding a conclusion to archive this, since Vires has been removed.

Although it was a blunt question, he meant no particular offense by it and his eyes narrowed when Vires tensed. If she was bothered by his inquiry, however, she didn't let onto it beyond that. After a moment, her tension passed and she gave him her honest answer. Peregrine coaxed the stiffness out of his own muscles and, to his credit, he listened with an open mind.

"Hold on, you've described a spy, not a messenger," he pointed out to her. "I can understand the role of a spy a little more but my overlying question is: why are we bothering with other packs at all? We're neither friends nor enemies with those who aren't in our pack, right? Unless they try to take our territory or our food, why do we need to take them into consideration at all? That's all I'm asking."

Vires scarcely had a chance to reply before the two wolves stumbled across an unmistakable scent trail. "There's your deer," Peregrine observed dryly, pausing to tilt his black muzzle into the air. He read the invisible messages there as easily as a human reads a book. "They're moving north to south-southwest. There's... it's just two does and their fawns, though I imagine those fawns are nearly grown at this time of year. We could try taking one of them." His dusky eyes locked on Vires's face.

She looked back at him with an expression that accepted the challenge—the opportunity—presented to them. Wordlessly, the two black wolves bounded off into the brush in pursuit of hot meat, the outcome of their hunt revealing itself a bit later on in the scent of blood on the wind, the low notes of a triumphant howl and the taste of victory in the air.