Lake Rodney the story of small pox and barf face

@Finley ?! if you don't have time, pm me and i can make this aw. :)

A plan was beginning to form in regard to the bear problem, but Charon wished he knew a bit more about bears and how to kill 'em. He thought back to the time that he and that female, what was her name... They'd gone looking for bears, and even found one. Right, barf face, that was the name. She knew lots about bears; how conveniently it'd be if he remembered where she was from. But he'd been a lot younger and smaller then, so he didn't remember much more than her grey appearance and the name 'barf face'.

Anyway, presently the young Alpah was checking out the west side of Lake Rodney to get a better grip of Moonspear's surroundings; his side of the lake gave a stunning view, with the Caldera in the background, and the young Naturalist stopped for a quick drink before he would continue.

OMG so I saw this and then forgot about it, and then I saw your PM and then forgot about it, and then I remembered at work and then I forgot about it. Please forgive my impressively feeble brain ;____; Is it alright if we bump this to present day?

Finley had not made any definite plans yet to take Eljay out. Partly because it worried her to ask him and partly because she was not always convinced that it was a great idea. Elwood had given his consent after some compromise, but now it was up to Finley to figure out how to work within the boundaries he'd set. So, the Blackthorn set out that day to do some territory-charting. She needed to make sure that the path she took him on would be safe (though she was sure it would be) and that it would keep her within howling range of the Caldera (which she was also sure it would be). It was mostly an excuse not to actually suggest the trip to Eljay that day since even after her accident, Finley just didn't have it in her to take that much precaution. But it would make Elwood happy to know she'd done it, and she was all for winning some bonus points with her mate.

So, Finley set out along the familiar trail that lead her away from the Caldera and along the shores of Lake Rodney. As she'd suspected, the trip had been uneventful. The most interesting part of it were the few scents she'd caught on the frozen lake's shores of various predators and prey. She came upon a muskrat's frozen carcass at one point and went ahead and divulged in the cold meat before moving on to find an hour later the scent of a wolverine, which thoroughly claimed her attention as she began to pursue it eagerly.

What she found was not a wolvering in the end, but another wolf. Fin didn't at all recognize the young boy she'd met upon the mountain once (though she may have recognized his imaginary friend were he about. Maybe). He made her pause in a way that the wolverine had not. She became immediately self-conscious, turning her cheek away so he couldn't see it though he hadn't even spotted her yet. She stood still near the shore a number of yards away from him, debating how to proceed.

no problem, and we can bump to present time! :D

Charon stared contamplatingly at Dhole's former home while he thought about Moonspear's bear problem, unaware that someone else was nearby. It was only when he looked around (for nothing in particular) that Charon saw that there was another wolf nearby. He realised it with a start, and wondered if the wolf'd seen him, since she was turned away. Ears cupped in her direction and the tip of his tail twitched tensely while he elevated his head, naturally dominant now that he was Alpha at his homestead and feeling protective in case this wolf wanted trouble.

"Hello," Charon said as he looked in her direction, waiting for a response of any kind to determine whether or not this would be a friendly encounter.

Ah fuck. Fin nearly cringed upon hearing his greeting, which signified that he did indeed spot her and it would indeed be socially awkward of her to ignore him and continue jaunting along past him. She groaned at a hopefully inaudible volume and turned her paws to face him, padding a bit closer before calling back, "Sup."

It was then that Finley finally took a moment to study him through her sideways gaze. He was tall, broad, pale, and freckly. Kinda handsome, if you were into that sort of thing. He didn't have the sweetness, patience or calm strength that her mate exuded, but he was nice to look at on a purely superficial basis. Not that Fin was like that.

Wait a sec.

"What's a guy like you doing out here?" she asked, tilting her head with a bit of a smile, her prior reluctance melting just a bit. I wasn't like she was doing him. she was allowed to be nice to another man. Elwood was welcome to be nice to other women after all. ......if he wanted them to die. But anyway.

lmao, Finley's hilarious <3

There was something about her as she approached that reminded him of someone he'd met before, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it. As she approached and spoke, Charon still could not quite grasp what it was about her. Oh well. It'd surely come to him, sooner or later.

Shaking off the thought of deja vu, Charon said: "I'm Moonspear's Alpha. Just exploring, I suppose." He glanced in the spear's direction, in case she did not know it by name. "Are you from a nearby pack, too?" It was never a poor time to try working on interpack relations, even though he had a bear problem on his mind.

"There's a pack at Moonspear now?" Fin replied with barely a moment of hesitation. That might've been useful when she'd fallen down the damn thing. "I need to get out more..." The second part she muttered more to herself as it was more an admonishment of how much she'd neglected her responsibilities as an outrider. She hadn't exactly had much choice for a while, but now she did, and it was only fear and guilt that held her back from it now.

Yeah but anyway. "I'm beta of Redhawk Caldera," she informed him a moment later, since they were introducing themselves by titles alone - a fact that did not go unnoticed by her, mind you. The fact that she already knew about the pack did, however, go unnoticed. But how was she supposed to remember that was where her niece had run off to? She was beta not census keeper of the Teekon Wilds.

Charon felt insulted when she said that she didn't even know there was a pack at Moonspear yet. If she lived in the area, how could she not know? Yet he held his tongue about it, deciding to withold from being rude at least for another bit. When she mentioned she was from Redhawk Caldera -- it's Beta, even -- he was even more surprised that she didn't know about Moonspear. "Redhawk Caldera?" he said, and he squinted his eyes slightly as he looked at her, still unable to shake off the thought he knew her from somewhere before. "Dhole — I mean, Wildfire — moved to live with us on Moonspear from there. You sure you haven't heard of the pack before? I'm her good friend, Charon."

And then it suddenly hit him. There was a lightbulb moment shining in his dark blue eyes when it did, and he lifted his head a bit further in realisation. "Wait a second," he said hastily and excitedly, "... Barf face? It's you, isn't it?" He had never gotten her real name, but he remembered her because at the time he had idolised her and worshipped the ground she walked on, for she was a great bear fighter (and he a pretend bear fighter) and wrestler. Since he had never gotten her name she had gotten a special place under the name of Barf face rather than her real name.

Dhole? Who called Wildfire Dhole. Well, her mother. But who did this guy think he was, calling her by the petname her mom had picked for her? That was just weird.
Fin blinked at the stranger after a moment when it occurred to her that she was getting distracted. Once that cleared her brain, she also realized that she had absolutely had heard of Moonspear. Her goddaughter had moved there - she knew that! Dhole herself had told her!

"Oh shi- of course, I knew that.." she murmured, only to be distracted when the handsome lad continued in a rather unexpected fashion - referring to her as barf face, which was fairly off-putting. She frowned severely at him, not liking how sure he was that such a name belonged to her. But then the memory triggered in her mind. Only one wolf had ever called her that (thank god).

"Noooo..." Fin said I surprise, closing the distance between with a few quick steps so that she could look at his bespeckled face, "Smallpox?? What.. how.. who said you could get so tall!" a smile spread across her muzzle, in spite of the fact that she remembered mostly just being annoyed with him when she'd met him as a pup. But now he was hot, so that all was forgotten. But ew weird.

At first there was disdain on her face and for a moment Charon wondered if she wasn't really the 'Barf face' that he remembered. But then recognition dawned on her face and he grinned as she called out the name that she had dubbed him that had spurred him to call her Barf face in the first place. With a playful twinkle in his eyes he said: "More like Tall Pox, now." Well, that was kind of cheesy, and soon after Charon decided to intervene before the nickname caught on: "But Charon's probably better to call me."

He was actually glad to meet up with the bear wrestler herself and with a twinkle in his eyes Charon said: "I'm running into you at the perfect time. Moonspear's got a bit of a bear problem. Care to share any tactics on how to chase 'em off or kill 'em?" He had not forgotten about that part of her; well, actually, that was pretty much the only part of her that he remembered at all. And it came at the perfect moment.

Fin snorted at his comment. Tall Pox. He righted it soon enough by declaring his actual name, but Fin couldn't help but smirk at that. She knew what he was trying to do, but he would always be Smallpox to her.

His question intrigued her, and she studied him thoughtfully for a second before smirking again. "I didn't know first class bear-biters needed advice," she quipped, chuckling. "Ah man, you were such a little asshole..." Her head tilted slightly as she returned her thoughts to the issue he'd presented. A mass bear eradication mission... this was a new one.

"And should I keep calling you Barf face, or do you have a real name too?" asked Charon, his eyes dancing. He felt put down by her comment about him being a first-class bear biter, but he swallowed down the resentment it made him feel, because he didn't want to argue with her. When she said that he was a little asshole when they'd last met, he snippily said, "Well, I'm Alpha of the largest mountain in the area now, so, y'know." Not that there was much to know from that — wasn't like assholes couldn't be Alphas — but whatever. He couldn't think of any better retorts in the moment. It was like seeing your high school sweetheart happily married at your reunion and telling them about how successful your career was.

Anyway, he wondered if she intended to help at all, since so far she mostly seemed to be mocking him. Charon had never liked being mocked, as much as an adult as he had as a child. "I don't want anyone in my pack to die, least of all Dhole," he said snarkily, trying to use Dhole to manipulate her into helping, even though he was sincerely beginning to doubt if she knew anything about fighting bears at all, or if that, too, had been a laughable joke. "So it'd be nice if you'd help out, you know... If you even know anything about battling bears like you pretended to." He said this casually, hoping to manipulate her into feeling offended at his apparent lack of trust in her abilities. If she was any good, he hoped this was the way to draw her out into helping.

"Finley," she answered simply, smirking at his words. She definitely didn't want to keep being calling Barf Face, and had she been smarter she would've realized that continuing to call him Small Pox would lead to her being referred to by home as her less preferable moniker.  But, that would make her far less Finny than she was.
Fin had to fight back a laugh at Charon's very obvious irritation over her comment. Apparently he was still a little asshole, only taller. She tilted her head slightly when he mentioned Wildfire being whom he especially didn't want to die. It didn't occur to her that he was trying to play to her sympathies. Instead, she was taken aback by his apparent interest in a female Finley still considered to be a precious little baby (in her mind anyway).

"I know plenty about battling bears, son," Fin insisted when pressed, giving him a wily grin, "I've never dealt with a mass relocation effort like what you're talking though. How many would you say you're dealing with?"

Charon didn't like how Finley, whose name he knew finally knew, was starting to treat him kind of like he was that kid again. He'd liked much better when she had seemed nice and, well, like she was trying, or something. Well, whatever. Deciding to just gloss it over (something Charon hadn't ever been particularly good at) he listened to what she had to say, rolling his eyes at 'son' (he wasn't sure whether it was a reference to how young he was or a reference to how old 'n crusty she was) and then snorting as she mentioned a mass relocation.

"I'm more looking for extermination," said Charon. "There's two, and they're dangerous. If we chase them off they'll just come back and might hurt some of us. I'd rather kill them in some way, whether it's straight up fighting or more." He didn't know at the time that they would take care of one of the bears during the winter, of course, but the second one would still be lingering about. Charon didn't want to take any chances that when there would be pups upon Moonspear, there'd still be one or more bears thinking they owned the place. He wanted no risks to his offspring, so he wanted them dead.

Two? Fin had anticipated something more like thirty from the way he'd been talking. Not that he'd really alluded at all to the number of bears he was having issues with. Her mind was just ine akin to embellishing, and it always surprised her to be wrong.

"Well, do you lnow where they're denning?" she asked, "A clean way of doing it might be to cause a cave in if they're in a crevice in the mountainside or something. Keep them trapped until they starve." She had other ideas, but she paused for now to see his opinion of the suggestion first. It always helped to know as much about your opponents as possible. She hoped what she'd said might bring up more information that could be of use.

Charon hadn't at all considered where the bears were denning -- or that they were denning at all -- until Finley asked about it. He was surprised, but positively so, for now finally the good advices were starting to come in. She suggested trapping the bears with rocks if they knew where they denned, which sounded like a good idea.

"We've only run into them outside in the mountainside. I've been tracking their patterns though and I know they've been to a cave. We could maybe try to trap them there!" He sounded excited about the idea. Though a highly imaginative boy, Charon had never once considered this an option. He hadn't ever before really had to deal with bears. Besides, the death sounded cruel and he liked the idea of that. They had let the wolves to whom this mountain belonged suffer enough.

"Thanks for the advice! I'm going to head back now to draw out a plan." Charon smiled at Finley and with that, he turned round and started to saunter off back in Moonspear's direction. He forgot to give her a proper good bye or invite her to come round to see Dhole, but he had no time for that. He needed to slay some bears.

slapping on an ending if you don't mind since it's getting old! i'd love another some time in the future :3