Redtail Rise A Leaf in the Wind (IC joining)

Since being forced to leave home at 3 2 years old Oliver had become a vagrant, drifting from one place to the next, never staying in one place for too long. The lifestyle suited him fine, he rather enjoyed traveling, meeting new faces. He was happy to go where the winds took him, until he needed to eat. Being too unmotivated to hunt for himself, he'd taken to asking for charity from other wolves. He'd found that most were unwilling to share food, unless he could come up with a believable sob story to pluck at their heartstrings. As he stood at the border of Redtail Rise, he rehearsed his lines to himself. Today, his strategy was to look as miserable as possible and hope for the best. The sick grandma routine hadn't quite been getting the results like it used to.

Lifting his muzzle, he sent up a weak howl to the resident wolves, then threw himself dramatically to the ground to await a response.

The hot, summer sun beat down on Reek's messy back as he took his daily patrol at midday.  Summer had crept into the north like a specter and tossed away the spring like yesterday's news.  Luckily for the wolves of Redtail Rise, their geographical location had shielded them from the bulk of the heat, leaving only a comfortable warmth to be basked in and enjoyed.  Reek knew his window of relative comfort was unbelievably short... the winters in the Taiga tended to be brutal and the nip of fall lingered around the corner.  But now, it was pleasant, and the raggedy wolf was determined to enjoy every minute of it.

Turns out, after a while, patrol wasn't such a bore after all.  Though he wasn't much of a physical defender, he had an eye for detail and he was slowing becoming a competent warden.  However, this job shift wasn't necessarily wanted... but, alas, it came with the territory of his new position. A betas gotta do what a betas gotta do.

While plodding along the borderline, Reek heard the weak howl of wolf who had decided to ring their doorbell.  He diverted his course toward the sound at a brisk pace, only to find a rangy black wolf who rivaled himself in the mess factor.  Reek cocked a wolfen brow at the newcomer and said, "You look like shit," with a smug smirk plastered across his maw.  In turn, Reek looked like shit as well, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a joke out of it.

"What do you want kid?"  He finally asked, hoping to gleam the nature of this newcomers visit to the rise.

If I end up being slow here, you guys have full permission to skip me indefinitely to keep it moving, I just wanted Saena involved with one of the newcomers at least.

Unbeknownst to either of them, the Alpha female was diligently patrolling the border on the opposite side of the ridge from her recently appointed Beta. Having mostly healed from her ordeal with Fox, with only the larger injuries still sore and especially itchy, the Alpha threw herself back into her duties with astounding fervency. Patrol was no longer something she dreaded, but something she relished. She wanted to be the one to intercept a wolf on the border, and if it was a Caldera wolf, she wanted to be the one to tear out their throat for their Alpha's poor behaviour.

She wasn't murderous, but the experience had changed Saena, even if she remained mostly upbeat. She would not hesitate if it became necessary to show violence, not the way she would have before.

When a howl lilted through the warm air, the female picked her ears up and turned quickly in the direction. It took her understandably longer than Reek to reach the source, and even then she had to follow the border for about a quarter mile for having mistaken the actual location of the caller. She wasn't surprised to see the man already there, and padded up to stand just slightly behind him. Her eyes fell on the bedraggled stranger, not unlike the ragged Beta himself, but she let them speak for now. She was here to observe and supply information as needed, and of course, to judge the character of their most recent visitor.

Oliver squinted up at the dark wolf standing over him. He wanted to snicker at Reek's comment and return a sarcastic remark of his own, but he held back. Instead, he let a pathetic whimper loose from his throat and crawled on his belly across the dirt to beg at Reek's paws.

"Please sir, I'm sorry to bother you," he said, his voice a raspy whisper. "I've been traveling for so long, and I'm so hungry, and I was hoping you might be able to spare a little food."

It was then that a second wolf appeared on the scene. She didn't say anything to him just yet, just stood by her pack mate's side and observed them. "Hi there, miss," he greeted brightly, flashing a toothy grin. Oliver had to fight to stop himself from gawking at her. She was absolutely gorgeous! He mentally kicked himself for letting such a beautiful girl see him begging in the dirt.

Pardon Reek's general assitude!

The wolf in question lowered himself to the ground to grovel and beg in a pathetic display.  Reek's eyes narrowed as he looked over this harbinger of mediocrity as he pleaded for their hard earned food.  Ain't no way in hell.  A wolf with nothing to trade was worthless in Reek's eyes, and his take and no give attitude would eventually wear thin.  "No," he said coldly to the wolf splayed out in front of him.  Surely, Saena would agree with his sentiment... however, Reek could be less kind.

"Why the hell should I help you?"  He chided bitterly.  "Give me a proper reason, and I might think about it."  One chance, that's all he would get.  He turned his head to Saena and gave her a nod.  If it came down to it, he'd chase this loner out of the territory with reckless abandon.

haha, that's okay :)

The hungry wolf's plea was not well received by the other male. Oliver's ears drooped sadly. Having been in this position at least a dozen times before, he knew what came next: he'd be chased off, possibly injured. His yellow eyes darted to the pretty red-eared girl, hoping maybe she'd speak up and take pity on him, but she seemed indifferent.

"Would you let me join your pack?" he asked them. He was doubtful that they'd want a bony scrounger like himself in their ranks, but he could think of nothing else to offer. "If you help me out now, I'll help you for the rest of my life, I swear."

Saena's eyes rested on the lone wolf at her borders. Though his bashful greeting was endearing in any other circumstance, right now, it didn't move her. Her lips remained pursed, her head aloft and her ears alert. Her gaze went to Reek as he refused the loner's request. Of course the Alpha female approved. Once, she might've been willing to help a starving soul, but that part of her died when Fox lay fang to her skin and proved that untrustworthy wolves weren't worth a bit of her time.

"We don't do hand outs here," she emphasized, wrinkling the bridge of her muzzle ever so slightly to demonstrate the severity of Oliver's current situation. He was about to be run off their borders and surely he knew it. Reek offered Oliver one, and only one, opportunity to plead his case before that happened, and the loner pledged himself, just like that.

"How can you help us?" she queried, maintaining that aloof facade that she took to wearing around strangers lately. It was hard not to lapse into warmth at the pitiful sight of him, but Saena knew she had to appear outwardly strong and intimidating. It was one of the lessons she was quickly learning about being an Alpha. It wasn't at all how it looked when Dante did it in the Plateau. It was much, much harder than that, and she couldn't allow her emotions to seep beyond her borders, lest others take advantage of her kindness.

They would laugh about their cold seriousness later, how unlike them it was, but right now, the Alpha and Beta pair were dead-set on it.

The loner offered to pledge himself to the Rise, but Reek was not so quick to extend a helping hand.  His alpha had matched his cold austerity with a biting remark of her own. No handouts.  It seemed the free-spirits of the rise weren't so free-spirited no more, at least not with strangers.  Not after that week from hell: Junior was still gone and Saena had come back bloodied and bruised.  The outside world was no longer a friend of theirs.  Trust no longer came easy to the bedraggled beta, and no one entered his family without trust.

"I'm not so sure about this Saena," he warned.  "I mean, look at him.  Unless he's goddamn brilliant — which I doubt, or else he'd have a better plan than this — he'll be of little use to us.  We need defenders, wardens, not scrawny little fucks that look like me."  In truth, if Reek had shown up on the pack's borders to be judged by himself, he would have turned himself away.  Ragged. Boney. Physically useless.  "We should make him do something," he added while he narrowed his eyes at the newbie.  "That way, we'll know he means business."

The she-wolf didn't have any sympathy for him either, and Oliver realized he was going to have to try and sell himself as best he could if he was going to change their opinion of him. Slowly, cautiously, Oliver picked himself up off the dirt, both so he would look more respectable and so he could be quicker about his escape if they decided to run him off. And that was certainly where things seemed to be going. 

"Hey!" He protested when Reek called him a scrawny little fuck. Not that he disagreed with the other male's assessment of him, but it was just so uncalled for especially coming from the likes of him. 'Hello Pot, my name is Kettle, you're black,' he snickered inwardly at his own joke. "I'm not useless, I mean, I don't have a trade yet but I was studying to be a healer back home." It was true, his mother had been instructing him in the healing arts. Whether or not he'd actually retained anything...

There was one other area where Oliver had truly excelled. "Do you guys have any pups? I'm a great puppy sitter, kids love me," he added. Back home, he'd always been called upon to watch his younger siblings, nieces and nephews. It was the one thing he'd been useful for.

When Reek proposed that Oliver prove himself, the skinny wolf tried his best not to look intimidated, which he of course, was. "Whatever it takes, I'll do it," he declared. Of course, he didn't know what it was and he hoped it didn't involve risk of bodily harm.

Reek raised a very valid point, one which Saena had thought of herself. However, if she operated on her Beta's principles, then he wouldn't be her Beta in the first place. He would still be out in the world, probably with Wynter, probably with another pack. The circumstances had been different with Saena's priorities differing (she was a little more desperate back then), but the fact still remained.

Yet when Oliver offered up his skills, it was Reek she gave the stand to after quietly saying, "those are decent skills." While Saena had some botany knowledge from her Naturalism, she was by no means an expert in the subject. In fact, she hadn't practiced it in quite some time, so she didn't feel at all qualified to give Oliver an assignment. "You're the healer, Reek," she said, tilting her snout down to him. There were no puppies as yet, and Saena wouldn't have trusted a strange wolf with them yet if there were, but a task could be given regarding plants or healing.

Exactly what, though, she didn't know. She didn't doubt that Reek's task would be very challenging, though, and had to keep herself from smiling in mirthful anticipation of her Beta's likely attitude.

Another healer, great.  That was Reek's turf. His medical knowledge was the only thing of use he had to offer the pack aside from being Saena's buddy.  However, having another healer in their ranks would take the pressure from Reek, who had become mostly homebound as he waited patiently for the next tragedy to happen to the rise.  With the newbie around, he could travel again and leave the rise knowing someone would be there to patch the pack up just in case something were to happen.  

If he was actually good with pups, that was only icing on the cake.  However, until Reek knew he could trust this newbie, there was no way he would let him within eyeshot of his family.  "I'm might be a father by the end of the season,"  said Reek to the newbie as his demeanor softened. "We'll see how you do before then."

Saena delegated the responsibility to Reek to decide the newbies task.  He paused for a moment as he tried to think of something reasonable.  Sure, he could send the newbie on a snipe hunt to some impossible task, but that wouldn't be fair.  Saena would probably want fair.  "So you're good with plants, eh?"  He began as the corners of his muzzle turned upward into a sly simper.  "I need nettle leaves, lots of 'em.  They grow south of here.  Careful, they sting."  If the kid knew what he was doing and handled the leaves correctly, he'd be fine.  But, that was all the information he would get from the bedraggled beta before he left him to his own devices. 

so is this thread done? and I'll start a new one when he completes his task?

Stinging nettle was a plant with which Oliver happened to be quite familiar. He'd been stung so many times before he'd finally learned how to properly handle the leaves. "No problem," he said confidently. "Be sure to have a big hunk of meat waiting for me when I get back."

And with that, he set out to find the herbs, oddly determined to complete the assignment and prove to Reek and himself that he wasn't totally useless.

Saena listened to Reek's instructions, but said nothing more even when Oliver jested about a big slab of meat. Only when the aspiring new member turned and left on his mission did she snort and smile at Reek. "He's got some balls," she noted, "I like him. Hope he doesn't come back here all puffy with dozens of welts." That was likely, though. She didn't know what use Reek could possibly have for nettle, but she knew enough to know that it was nasty stuff. If given a task to collect it, Saena would nope out of the pack that instant, but Oliver seemed determined to persevere.

He could be a useful addition yet.

The newbie set off to complete his task and Reek settled back to his haunches with a smug smile plastered across his face. He had no use for nettle leaves what so ever. He just wanted to see the newbie squirm. The beta turned to Saena and flashed her a sly smirk. Apparently the newbie had left a better impression on her than he did on Reek, but if he could complete the task without injury, maybe he'd prove to be clever... if not, Oliver's swollen form would still be a funny sight to see.

"Maybe too much moxie for his own good," he mused, watching the newbie fade off into the distance. With a final nod, he bid Saena farewell and began his patrol once more.

-Thread End-