Phoenix Maplewood just observe

Saena had told them to explore the surrounding areas, so Arion did so. Except he wandered the whole North instead of just the territories around them. They couldn't blame him though, because technically the whole north surrounded them and truth to be told, they needed to know about all the different lands and places in their region if a war with the Calderians ever came. They, the wolves of Redtail Rise would be lost in the south because mostly, they kept to the North. But if the Caldera wolves were stupid enough to go to the taiga, then the northerners would be at an advantage because of their extensive knowledge of the region.

It was nice to take a break from his constant obsessive patrols and hunts and leave his stress and duties behind him, even if it was just for a while. These days, everyone else in the pack seemed to be in a good mood, all rainbows and flowers and fairies for them. They didn't even bother to check up on him anymore,— seemingly the only sombre one of the lot — so lost in their newfound joy (whatever stupid thing it was that made them happy) that they had totally forgotten him. Perhaps he should just run away after all, because it didn't seem like his family cared for him at all. He was better off without them. Or was he?

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid emotions.

Arion gnashed his teeth together in anger, honey golden eyes flashing with barely concealed frustration and fury as he walked through the Maplewood. But that was only for a moment. After a second, his features shifted back into his stoic facade and his eyes became cold and emotionless. The mix of negative emotions still churned within him, but he forced himself to concentrate on doing something productive; he began taking in the beautiful scenery around him. 

Couldn't be civil to a male. Humph! She could be civil if she do desired. Half the time she simply didn't desire if only because she found no need. Males. The other half of the time she couldn't bother because they were bristling porcupines of fur and fang. Who could have a polite conversation with fur and fangs? Conversation was best served over temperate dispositions with a common, shareable topic in mind. She had yet to find anything favorable about their gender or a topic worth discussing and she highly doubted anything of the sort would present themselves to here which meant Nochtli's challenge of attempting civility would forever go unmet.

Nevertheless, she ventured. A lone wolf now, she had little means or capabilities when it came to her natural tendencies. A nomad, she had no place to store herbs or tend to a garden of her choosing. Could she scatter these parts with caches? Perhaps, but she used a variety of remedies that required precision, skill and significant training or they were dangerous. She'd run into enough wolves in these parts claiming to be healers who knew nothing (ahem, note they were all males) and would sooner kill their patients or themselves with an overdose or overexposure before learning a damn thing about what stash they'd found. And thus, she lost valuable time for collecting summer season herbs. Do no harm... Ha! These wolves were a danger to themselves.

She, however, would be a danger to herself if she did not eat. Nose to the ground, she tried to sort through a number of scents as she sought fauna, not flora. It was a difficult task. Her nose was fine tuned to herbs, not animals, so when she picked up the scent of a pine marten she considered it a stroke of good luck. Citali quickened on the trail, pursing the creature to the best of her ability before she spied it in the distance. There. She threw her lumbering gait into a sprint and the chase commenced!

Over hill, over dale. The forest weasel was elusive. It escaped her only to reemerge like a trickster and she set after it again. There was no doubt in her mind that she was some kind of terrible at this hunting business, but after a while it wore out, just as she too was near to losing breath, and she gave one last push in effort to snag herself a meal. She ran, pressing through the brush only to have the rascally varmint slip through the legs of another wolf to make its escape. With her momentum, she could not bring herself to a halt and instead collided with the broad side of a darker wolf.

She grunted in her sudden contact before she began to quickly untangle herself form the wolf. Male, she realized, which made her movements all the more frantic as she scrambled back to her feet. "Did you get it?" she asked, shaking out her pelt and skimming the immediate area for where her supper might have disappeared to. It took her a moment, but she soon realized who she'd encountered. That wolf from before. Her gaze narrowed. "Well, which way did it go?"

Arion was never a forest wolf, having grown up on northern mountains near the coast. But ever since joining Redtail Rise, he resigned himself to hunting and sulking in the forest. He hated it at first, feeling as if he was suffocating as the thick canopies above blocked out the sky above and the tall, towering tree trunks seemed to be everywhere, blocking his path wherever he went. It was just so annoying you know? But with time, the Greek got used to it and while he loved the open area of the ridge more than the forest anyday, he found that he could endure long periods of time in the woods and still not feel like he was dying.

That was why Arion did not mind taking a walk through Phoenix Maplewood. Before, he would be in a hurry to leave and get some fresh air, but now, he was able to enjoy the beautiful view the forest offered and for once he was glad he got rid of that habit for he could stroll through the forest like a normal wolf once more. He was enjoying the walk until a pine weasel slipped through his legs. "What the-"

The chocolate stallion did not manage to finish his sentence as a burly brown furred female collided roughly onto his side. "What the fucking hell?" Arion spat as he too attempted to untangle himself from the female, which in turn only delayed their untangling. Seriously though. Was he fated to encounter unpleasant wolves everywhere he went? Honestly! These wolves here have problems. Serious, serious fucking problems.

Disgruntled, the wolf of the Rise glared at the female as he shook his own coat free of debris. He recognized her from Larksong Grotto, she had been the one trying to take Sebastian back to her own pack but failed in the end. That didn't help the situation at all, as it only made him even more annoyed.

Arion's velvety chocolate ears twitched irritably at her words. "Of course I didn't get it. You barreled into me, causing both of us to fall onto the ground! How the hell would I be able to see which way it went, let alone catch it." His eyes narrowed and flashed with concealed exasperation as he did so. He couldn't even have one break. He wasn't even asking for much. Just one break, he couldn't even have that.

"What the fucking hell?" Uncivilized... Such a dirty mouth for such a dirty wolf. She struggled to untangle himself, just as she did which only entangled them further. With a huff, she gave up on her endeavors, let him finish, then fished her legs for herself and scrambled back up to all fours. She shook out her pelt, hoping to shed whatever masculinity he might have forced upon her in their entrapment and looked to him. Well. Had he seen where the varmint went or not?

Definitely not. "Well, I didn't put you in my path." She affirmed. She simply been chasing the pine marten and it was long gone by now. That meant, she would be without dinner... which would also mean she'd be chasing of the hangry moods later. And bathing. Definitely bathing. She was not about to go prancing about these wilds wearing the passing scent of a male.

"How was I supposed to see it? It was running between your hairy legs!" Not that hers weren't hairy by any means... as wolves were cloaked in fur... but since they were both spouting nonsense, why not add to it? She huffed again and shook herself once more. She couldn't help but have a lingering feeling of being "unclean" and her coat was throughly ruffled. "And now I've lost my dinner and need to bathe." She looked to him with narrowed eyes.

"Which way to the nearest water spot?" she asked. Her sense of direction was terrible. If she searched for plants, she was a falcon. If she was looking for anything else, she was absolutely hopeless unless she eventually stumbled upon whatever it was she was looking for.

She stopped trying to untangle herself when they both realized it would only delay the untangling altogether, Quickly, Arion stood up and brushed off his coat, scowling at Citali as he did so. But the moment she uttered "Well, I didn't put you in my path." A small smile crept up his lips for a brief second, just a second. Why? Because that was something he would say and it was just refreshing to know there was another soul around that had similar thinking to himself. God, three years, three years before he found someone alike.

"Hairy legs?" Arion shot her a wry glance. "Oh, I suppose your legs are bare huh? In case you haven't noticed, you have more hair on your legs than I have on mine, you're practically a walking hairball," the stallion said rudely, but since they were both being mannerless, who cares? She couldn't rebuke him for doing so as that would only mean she was rebuking herself. "That wasn't a compliment, by the way," he added just in case she misunderstood. Most wolves in these wilds didn't get the damn point and he usually had to add a few unnecessary words here and there for them to understand. Stupid.

The chocolate wolf narrowed his eyes and tilted his head in a birdlike manner as Citali spoked once more, saying she had lost her dinner and needed a bath, then without missing a beat, questioned him about the way to the nearest water spot. What? She was asking for his help? Ha! That was one difference between them, Arion was one stubborn wolf which he somehow thought of as a compliment. And he was too prideful for that.

"There," Arion said, his muzzle pointing to a puddle nearby. Obviously he was just joking. "If you want a bigger one, you can follow me and if we're lucky, you can catch your dinner while we're on our way."

Was he listening to any of the nonsense he spewed from his mouth? "I'm a hairball?" she repeated with heated question. She was naturally big boned and bulky. She'd never be a slender female. Her coat was thick enough that she could never bother to consider herself even somewhat skinny. That she knew. But never in her life had she had anyone dare call her a walking hairball.

She glared daggers in his direction. If looks could kill, he'd have suffered a thousand deaths and a thousand more on top of that simply because she was that petty. "If I'm a hairball, you're a rat's nest. An absolute tangle of filth." In which case, he likely needed to visit the closest water source a heck of a lot more than she did. She groomed. Regularly. He, like most males, needed constant reminders of their poor hygiene and... male stench.

Citali turned her nose aside. She did not wish to breathe in the likes of him and was very thankful when a light breeze managed to slip through the trees. She was upwind. Nature was very much on her side in this, less so when it came to hunting, but she'd count this for the victory it was. Until he mentioned that puddle as a viable option for water, at which point she death glared at him again and mentally murdered him a thousand more times.

"I find your sense of humor lacking..." she droned, her ears flat upon her head she continued to scowl in his general direction. "A lady does not follow. I shall walk astride." She moved, positioning herself shoulder to shoulder with him, if not a little bit ahead to soothe the part of her that refused to let herself be bettered by a male even if it came to something she was terribly hopeless at. Like directions. "If we spy dinner you can catch it like the gentleman you are going to pretend to be."

Arion smirked when the brown walking hairball glared at him and spoke, saying that if she was a hairball, then he was a rat's nest, an absolute tangle of filth, apparently. Instead of being offended, the Greek laughed. The two of them were arguing like children; it amused him. He always wanted to talk with someone else who didn't act like a 'grown up', who could bicker with him as if they were kids again. It was like a breath of fresh air, to be with someone similar to himself. Obviously he didn't say that out loud, he didn't want to die just yet.

"I find yours utterly impeccable," Arion replied to her comment about his humor, his voice practically dripping with sarcasm. She looked as if she was born a princess, looking down at him in such an arrogant manner. But, who was he to judge? He was probably just as bad as her; Chiron was always going on about how he kept showing off and yada yada yada. He remembered that one time, when his golden furred friend said he was showing off, Arion had retaliated by saying that that was what he was supposed to do; to show off.

"Whatever suits you, woman," he said when she said that she would walk beside him instead of behind him. Wow. Prideful much? "Why should I pretend to be a gentleman for you?" he questioned with a cant of his head, shooting her an amused glance. "Who are you to order me around?"

He laughed at her. Citali's scowl deepened. She was not a wolf to be laughed at. She was very much serious in all of it despite how ridiculous her accusations may have been. She huffed, bristling a bit as she glared at him over her shoulder and stomped one foot against the earth. It seemed as though he were just as stubborn as she was. A rightful combatant, surly if only he were female enough to handle it.

She made no comment as his words bit. An ear flicked as she paced beside him, waiting for him to begin to escort them in the direction of water. Any kind would do. A lake. A river. A stream. Anything to clean herself of the maleness she'd accidentally accumulated in running into him.

Why would he be a gentleman? "Because you have nothing to lose and everything to gain." Expending a little energy seemed like something he could handle. "And you need the exercise." Perhaps a little more training in dodging. Poor fellow would be trampled in a hunt if he didn't work on his agility.

The last question she ignored. Did he not know that being female was reason enough for her to do as she pleased with him?

"Contrary, I think I have quite a lot to lose," Arion drawled annoyingly, purposely slowing down his pace so she would get to the water source slower. He didn't really know why she needed water in first place, nor did he really care because while he was a curious being, these mundane things did not interest him at all. If the chocolate stallion decided to inquire on every single thing that caught his attention, his hard drive would be full and he would no longer be able to remember the 'important' details, therefore making him as ordinary as others. Arion would rather die than let that happen.

"Need the exercise?" Arion scoffed and flashed her a smirk. "I bet I'm much faster, agile and stronger than you are. You need the exercise, woman, not me. Have you seen yourself? All furry and fat." Well technically she wasn't fat, but a little insulting wouldn't hurt considering the fact that they were both hurling disrespectful comments left and right.

Black leathery nostrils flared as the wind blew the scent of a squirrel towards him and in a brief second, the Greek quickly contemplated whether or not to catch the prey. He came to a decision quickly and bounded away in a chocolate blur without informing his companion on what he was doing. Arion was downwind of the prey and his skills in stealth were extraordinary, so when he leapt to deal the final blow, the squirrel was a second too late and died in his jaws.

Arion returned to Citali and placed the prey by her paws. "There," he said with a smile. "What's your name?" he asked with a tilt of his head.

"If you're talking about your weight, then certainly," she shot back, since now they were taking smack about each other's frame and over all health. She was a stoutly woman. She'd not deny that. Her big boned nature and overall lack of desire to exert energy in the form of cardio or strength training outside of the necessary travels to collect herbs, a quick hunt here and there, etc... she did not go out of her way to maintain an overall level of fitness.

"Mm," she murmured. She'd not deny the fact that her thick pelt and large frame made her far more robust than most. If she applied herself, she'd make something of a tank, but she mostly used that bulk to pin down the wolves who refused to take their medicine. She was quite the frightening nursemaid, if need be. "Are you afraid I'll corner you and sit on you or something?" she asked instead, redirecting the conversation.

It didn't last for long because he slipped away. She rolled her eyes at his rear end and pressed on in the direction he'd been oh so slowly guiding them. He returned some time later with a squirrel in his mouth. She lifted a wolfish brow in his direction as he placed it by her feet and asked for her name. "What is this? The appetizer?" she questioned. She'd specifically asked for dinner, not a snack. She lowered her teeth to the squirrel, snapped it in half, the tossed the head and front limbs of the tree dweller back in his direction. "Citali." Short simple. "And who might you be?"

She sniffed at the rear of the corpse and sucked out some of the entrails before running her tongue around her lips and looking back towards him. The only thing that would make eating this better would be that water source he'd said he would show her. Had he forgotten their original intentions here? "A river? Lake? Pond? Water of some liquid form? How far?"

Arion snorted and flashed her his trademark smirk. "Whatever helps you sleep at night," his honey golden gaze twinkled in amusement and he shook his proud chocolate crown, various thoughts passing through his head as he walked. The chocolate Greek hadn't been lying when he claimed to quicker and much more agile than the Amazon, he wasn't named after the horse that was so fast he could run over the sea for no reason. The brown furred female, on the other hand was covered in thick fur and while saying she was 'fat' might be going too far, she didn't seem the type to be able to outrun him.

Arion's features contorted into a grimace when she asked him if he was afraid she would corner him and sit on him. "I'll be too fast for someone like you to catch," he retorted with a playful shove. He didn't know if she minded him pushing her nor did he care what she thought. After all, the chocolate stallion did what he wanted to do whenever he wanted to do it and no one would be able to change that no matter what.

"Catch a deer yourself if this doesn't sate some of your appetite," he told her. "I've been nice enough to catch you something and not eat it yourself, the least you could do is thank me for exerting physical energy to feed your sorry hide." Arion watched as she snapped the squirrel in half and tossed the head and limbs to him. He raised his eyebrows in confusion for a moment, before he dipped his head and demolished the rest of the flesh, licking his muzzle clean of blood when he was done. "Arion," the Greek replied after debating whether or not to use his 'official' given name.

"Be patient," Arion said in a condescending tone, lifting his nose as he did so. The stallion stopped in his steps, inhaled the air, swiveled his ears and looked around before he took a sharp turn to the left, weaved his way around the trees and arrived at an average sized stream. Arion cast his gaze away from the river to her and smiled, "Big enough for Your Fatness?"

He was convinced he was faster. She'd not contradict him in thinking that. He likely was. Running was not one of her favorite things and therefore it was not something she made any effort towards unless it proved necessary. Fleeing. Hunting. Those things required running. Day to day? That motion was tiresome. She'd rather walk.

"Trust me, you are not worth catching," she said, recovering from the recoil of his shove. She straightened herself, fluffing her fur once more where he'd flattened it. How dare this wolf think he had permission to touch her. She offered him a glare of warning, but nothing more. She wanted to find that river so she could clean off his cooties. The sooner the better.

That he thought he deserved some form of thanks baffled her. "Did it cost you any energy to stand there and ruin my original hunt?" she countered. It was thanks to his interference she'd gone hungry to begin with. The way she saw it, his slender offering of a snack barely scratched the surface of repaying her. Plus, he was currently devouring half of his payment. He did not compute.

She polished off her half of the squirrel and left the corpse behind for some other scavenger to finish off. Done eating, he resumed his mission to guide her towards fresh water with a reminder to be patient. Ha. She knew nothing of that sort of thing, but she remained quite all the same in hopes that it would encourage him to find water all the sooner.

Her silence paid off. They rounded a corner and happened upon a river. A small stream, but a source none the less. She padded towards it, lowering her nose to sniff at the surface of the water before she quenched her thirst with a quick drink. His quip caused her ears to swivel across her head as she waded into the water. "Careful now. I might make waves."

Ankle deep, she lifted a damp paw to her ear to groom before she remembered she had an audience. "Well?" She questioned, looking to him. "Off with you."

Arion rolled his eyes, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he did so. "Is that a compliment or an insult?" he asked, not really interested in the answer. The only reason he was even wasting effort in opening his mouth and forming words on his tongue was because he was currently enjoying the conversation between them. Citali was unlike any other girl he had met before but perhaps that was Arion's own problem as he never really had any interest in the fairer sex. Or any interest any wolf for that matter. Even if he had any interest, his brusque, sardonic and dispassionate nature usually threw them of.

Arion returned the glare, though a faint smile played at his lips now. He turned his head, fixing his attention back on the path in front of him and the mission: to find a source of water for Her Fatness beside him. Why was he doing this? Truthfully, even the chocolate furred Greek did not know, which annoyed and baffled him at the sametime. Annoyed him because he hated not knowing things; baffled because it was rare that he didn't know things and it was rare that he would help someone he had just met.

"Yes," Arion replied with a lift of his shoulder, "it takes energy just to stand, you know." He retorted in his typical know-it-all fashion, fixing her with his piercing, falcon-like eyes for a moment before he shrugged once more and began walking, paying no more attention to the burly healer beside him; lost in his own thoughts as he drifted into a pensive mood. Arion pulled himself away from his mind and into the present world as Citali trotted towards the stream and made to drink from the water before she waded in.

"Would you?" Arion asked, somehow sombre when he did so, though his mischievous mood quickly took over once more. A frown touched the Greek's features when the Amazon rudely spoke, saying 'off with you.' He scowled and took a few steps forward until he was by the stream's edge. "Nah," Arion smiled. "The view's too nice."

She ignored him. There was a smugness to him that more than answered his own rhetorical question. She held her silence lest he mistake another retort as her somehow attempting to smooth over his fragile ego... or worse. Compliment him. She shivered at the mere thought of it. Nochtli had challenged her to be "civil" to a male. This encounter sure as hell better count towards that.

"Minimal effort," she returned, breaking her silence to glance over her shoulder and look back at him. He caught her gaze. She held it until he shrugged and broke eye contact. Ha. At least they knew who was in charge here. Which was still her, regardless of whether or not he was the one actually hunting down a water source. At this point, she was starting to think she was doing a better job of finding it.

Regardless, it was some kind of miracle that they happened upon a stream. True to her original intentions, she walked into the water and paused when she remembered she had a snarky audience. She scowled, her cheeks tightening as she lifted a paw through the water and splashed at him. Soggy was a good look for him. Drowned rat was better, but her current objective was to obtain a little privacy.

He ignored her request for space and instead came closer. Her head lifted, nose lowering as her ears rose atop her crown. Her tail lifted as she narrowed her eyes towards him and scoffed at his words. "It's a river. I'm sure it looks much the same half a mile that way." She jabbed her nose in the direction of downstream. "I'm sure that view is much nicer."

one more post from you and archive? :)

"Whatever," Arion threw back, making a rude face at her before he focused on the road in front of him and blocked her voice from his head. Gah. How could he focus on the task at hand if she kept somehow managing to annoy and amuse him at the sametime?! Did it make sense? Obviously it didn't. Nor did the fact that he was having a conversation with himself in his mind. Arion had once asked Chiron if that was deemed 'normal' by 'normal wolves', his golden friend had told him that everyone did it.

Arion now wondered if Chiron had only said that to make him feel better.

He watched her now, having been shook out of his reverie, as she strode towards the water, paused then scowled and lifted a paw through the water, splashing him with the clear liquid. Arion backpedaled and spluttered indignantly, though the smirk on his face spoke only too clearly of how he felt. He was amused, rather than angry. "Good job," the Greek grinned at her, a twinkle evident in his fiery golden gaze.

When he walked closer, she lifted her head and tail, narrowing her eyes at him. Cluelessly, Citali said that the view would look much better downstream. Arion lifted his own tail, cocking his head at her as if saying: what can you do about it? But when she replied to his comment about the view, it was his turn to scoff. "You're the most clueless woman I've ever met," the Greek said, not unkindly but in a mixture of mild exasperation and amusement. "I wasn't talking about the river, I was talking about you."

Then with another crooked smile and a shake of his head, Arion turned and departed, making his way towards Redtail Rise. He was hungry and he was sure food awaited him back home. He thought no more of the brown furred Amazon he had met in the Maplewood, not knowing that soon, they would be packmates.

Sounds good!

She caught his gaze just as well as she caught the crazy look within his eye. Her ears fell flat. Well, that certainly had not had the desired effect. Quite the opposite it seemed. Whatever he thought or was after, she'd be sure to squash the notion from his mind just as quickly as it rose. Evidently, he did not know what type of wolf he was dealing with, but she wouldn't hesitate to let him know should push come to shove.

A growl rolled within her throat as he stepped forward. It brewed, her lips beginning to curl with warning as he tipped his head and lifted his tail as if to challenge her. Citali's growl escaped, the sound nearly eclipsing his words that only confirmed her own suspicions. Her growl thickened. That was what she'd been afraid of and if he wished to bark, he'd find out quickly he was barking up the wrong tree.

It was beneficial for both of them that he scampered off. She lingered, watching his scrawny ass disappear into the thick of the trees. She waited, giving the male a chance to get far, far away before she settled into the quiet contentment that she was, in fact, alone. Satisfied with this, she made herself at home within the water and began to remove the filth of him from her fur.

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