Swiftcurrent Creek flume

For @Njal. Being extremely vague about the meeting with Jinx. As in, not mentioning it until I know what's going down.

The clouds hung low overhead, threatening to rain, but they somehow managed to contain their desires. Fox's grey eyes raised to meet them, and she wondered how much longer the gray skies would last. Thankfully, the creek was on the side of the mountains that would get more sunshine. It was those closer to the coast who would have to endure months upon months of gray skies and drizzle. The creek would see a little bit of that—evidenced by the current state of things—but not nearly as much as the western edge.

Idly, Fox swished her tail back and forth, wondering what Tuwawi and Njal were up to. Or even Haunter, for that matter. Those three, along with Jinx, had become some of her closest, dare she say, friends. The yearling had never been much for those kinds of relationships, and yet she could not help but think that those she thought of now were becoming closer to her. Perhaps it was merely the events they had endured together that had made them feel close, but Fox smiled faintly at the thought of them.

For a few seconds, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, creating a bright light all around the fireball. But as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished once again, and Fox sighed.

I'm being vague about Njal's mental state cuz idk what is gonna happen in his thread with Lecter yet.

There was a tangible energy within Njal as he passed close to the river pack's border. With the life-blood of the pack rushing by, he was invigorated. The pounding beat of the river mirrored his own pulse as it thrust along, both forces equally unstoppable.

At least, that was how Njal felt. He was thrilled to have returned from his trip abroad (if the term even applies to over the mountains, which technically isn't that broad at all) and after his strange encounter with Lecter, things had fallen in to place. He nimbly skirted the borders - more agile now than he had ever before been, with strong desires flooding him as soon as the scent of the creek's recognizable soil reached him.

As if to welcome him, the clouds briefly parted. A shock of golden light streaked the sky, pinpointing a flash of red on the horizon; and Njal, with his mind made up for exactly what he wanted to do on his return, was quick to take up the chase. He barely got a glimpse of the slender woman made of fire - and with the belief that it was his fire he now pursued, his gait became fiercely insistent.

Can you bump up the text size in your table to at least 12px? My squinty eyes are bad. :(

With the sun back in hiding, Fox had intended to go seek out Haunter, but the sight of Njal stopped her. Her smile returned, and with her grey eyes watching him come near, she was curious to see if he had made a successful trip to the plateau and back. Fox was also interested in what Peregrine might have had to say about her recent foray into leadership.

She was disappointed that it had taken so long to finally get word to her only outside acquaintance, but things had been rather eventful in the creek since she had taken over the reigns. Hopefully, now that prey was abundant and morale seemed to be getting better, the creek would be back on its feet and things would settle down.

Derp, sorry! :)

He caught up to her quickly, and even with Fox's petite self sitting smack-dab in the middle of his vision, he could not see her. He saw his wife within the girl's figure, in the smile that graced her face upon their meeting. Perhaps it was the time away that drove him mad, his head wound coupled with the hormones brewing in his body, or whatever concoction he had ingested with Lecter in the previous days, but Njal was oblivious to his Alpha. This could prove to be a costly mistake.

When he was close enough, the man rumbled a lustful sound - a greeting, or an invitation, but there was a clear wanting there. The warden marched upon the lands he knew so well and rounded Fox's figure, circling her with adamant haste and drawing himself up quite close. The musk of Fox should have thrown him off-kilter, or maybe brought him back to reality, but instead it only reinforced his growing need for Tuwawi. The scent was open and airy. The crisp odour of the creek he held so dear.

Boldly the man reached to nose at Fox's shoulder, and the crook of her neck. Greeting her as he may have greeted his wife - if only he had seen her first. But to him, he was in her very presence, and the need to couple was intense from that reunion.

Njal drew nearer, and Fox did not object to his friendly greeting. She greeted her fellow pack-mates as he was doing often, and so nothing seemed off about the situation at all. Fox was, to say the least, unobservant, and she did not realize his intentions even now. She simply assumed he was happy to see her after being away at the plateau. Her tail wagged in a happy manner. The lack of speech did not even indicate to her that anything was strange, for their very first encounter had been a silent one.

She returned his gesture with one of her own, nuzzling his neck with only the friendliest intentions in mind. Fox, of course, was too young to have any real desires, though if she'd had any at all, Njal's mindset would have been perfectly fine with her... provided he had not already been with Tuwawi. Haunter was the only unsullied one in her mind, for Njal had been branded unworthy as soon as he had brought Tuwa in unannounced. She had been a stranger, an outsider, when Njal had so boldly allowed her within the confines of the creek.

It was possible that Lecter's concoction was still within him, imbibing him with this bold sense of entitlement to the girl. Had he been clear-headed perhaps Njal would have recognized Fox as the leader - not as his wife - and avoided the entire situation. It was not something he could control.

Perpetuated by Fox's reciprocated physicality, Njal placed himself closer to her. His silver fur slid against her ruddy side, nearly cat-like if the boulder of a man could be such. He murmured a pleased sound, a hungry sound. His snout buried between her shoulders, wiggled along the point of her spine, so many things and with such a desperation! Playfully (or predatory with all things considered), Njal slid one of his front limbs against Fox's hip. A second attempt brought it over her rump as he directed her in to a hug with strong implications.

Fox had been taught about the birds and the bees at a very young age. She knew, at least to some degree, where babies came from and what the process of being pregnant was like. Her parents, however, had skimmed over the gory details when it came to what went where and what it actually looked like. The yearling had never spied anybody doing one of these acts, nor had anybody shown her charts or drawings on how this whole "sex" thing was supposed to work.

So when Njal attempted to mount her, Fox took it as a sign that he was trying to dominate her. Her mood did the fastest one-eighty this side of the Mississippi, and in one fell swoop she was snarling and lunging at his throat. The fireball would not tolerate such insolence, especially from Njal. She had no intention of breaking the skin, but if she made contact, she would force him to the ground with all sixty-five pounds of her body weight.

Njal was in the same boat as Fox when it came to knowledge about carnal acts - he knew the basics, but not much else. To think that the man would soon be fathering a litter was laughable, for it would surely involve a few awkward attempts. Perhaps this was his awkward stage - playing out early and with someone who wasn't his mate.

The man pushed with his limb and felt Fox begin to descend, and in that moment he pushed towards her - his chest just touching upon her rump when realization seemed to dawn upon the girl. At the very least she would not take his dominant state and her teeth were in direct contact with the man's scruff. She had whipped around quickly, escaping the hug he had wrapped about her hip, and the weight of the leader's body brought him down.

He wasn't quite in the dirt but the surprise attack was enough of a jolt to stir some semblance of sanity within Njal. His ears went back and eyes widened in surprise, at first thinking that Tuwawi was not ready for this. He growled lowly at Fox's pulling but woke up from his delusion long enough to recognize what was going on.

Swiftly enough the man went prone with the girl's teeth upon him. He deferred to her with a different note easing from his lips, one of apology for his brash behaviour. Ears pinned and tail swept in to a brief tuck, although it was difficult to keep it there while his boulder of a body sank down low.

Her warden submitted quickly, and for that, she was thankful. Such displays of challenge were not uncommon where she came from, and so she was not overly surprised by his challenging behavior. That did not mean that she enjoyed such things, only that she understood them for what they were. Fox released him as soon as he lowered himself to the ground, and she sprang back triumphantly. She had made it clear who was boss (and who wasn't).

Fox shook her coat, signaling with her body language that she was no longer a threat and he was free to move about like nothing had happened at all. “You went to the plateau?” she asked, her voice devoid of any anger or frustration at his actions. Perhaps his foray into the outside world had awakened some dormant need for leadership in his bones.

The hold was brief, but it was enough to bring Njal back to himself. He wasn't entirely aware of what had happened on his return - only that he saw Tuwawi, and now she was gone. Perhaps he had forgotten. The thought of his memory deteriorating made him nervous, but it too was sloughed off; placed in the corner of his mind in order for the warden to focus properly upon Fox. She released him and he assumed a calmly submissive state, barely raising to his own achieved rank. The leader questioned him and he rumbled a soft assurance, nodding a little.

"I was brief. Peregrine does well to patrol his lands." Njal stated as he gathered his thoughts, remembering that the swarthy male had not been too kind about Fox's ascent to leadership - and he was quiet for a moment, unsure if he should quote the boy word-for-word. "When I told him of your new position, he said, 'I don't give a fuck'," As the quote rolled off of his tongue, the phrase felt quite odd. It lilted with his accent but was void of emotion. The man watched Fox for a display of reaction, and then continued - not wanting her mood to sour too much. "He believes..." Oh, but was this really something he should share? His voice halted and the man's gaze strayed from Fox's shoulders down to the ground, feeling odd as he conveyed the messages. It felt like he was spreading rumour and gossip, which was something he had never done before.

"He said that you are going to be a terrible leader. And warns that if you mark their borders again, you will be dead meat," His voice rumbled once more, enunciating the words that Peregrine had used in order to get them right - he wanted to do a good job, but was also a bit nervous about angering their little fireball of a leader. "Oh," Right, there was the other bit of information - the children. "The plateau has four new lives to protect as well. Most likely Peregrine's children. I wished him well on our behalf." It was a neighbourly thing to do, but Njal now doubted that choice, given the animus that Peregrine had shown him during the encounter.

Fox grinned at Peregrine's relayed words. If she had a shadow of a doubt that Njal had not delivered the message, that was whisked away by the tone that he took when talking of the plateau's leader. It was just the kind of the Perry would say, and Fox was not surprised at all. And when Njal relayed Perry's harsh opinion of her, she could not help but agree with him just a smidge. “Yeah, well, I never said I’d be the greatest,” she replied, though she did not expect a reaction from the northerner. Fox was young, inexperienced, and hot-headed. Not exactly a prime trio of traits for a leader, but she thought she was handling things alright. Nobody had booted her from the throne, so she must have been doing something right.

Her relationship with Peregrine was a strange one. They were hardly friends, although she couldn't quite call him an enemy, either. "Frenemy" was probably the best term to describe how she felt about him. Her brow moved with interest as she learned that Perry's wife had popped out four little ones, and the sensation of jealousy washed over her. It was so frustrating not being able to be "grown up" this year. She lacked the ability to bear children, but she was hoping Njal and Tuwawi would do well with their brood. “I suppose I should have warned you that he’s a bit of a brash one,” she remarked, though Njal had handled the situation well enough. “Speaking of little ones, have you and Tuwawi…?” she trailed off, wondering if they had done the dirty yet.

Having expected anger from the fire-made girl, Njal was pleasantly surprised when she was calm - more than that, she agreed with Peregrine's assessment. The grizzled man's face creased with a subdued concern, although that evaporated as the conversation wore on, and Fox mentioned his wife. The question was met with a blush (or it would have, if possible). Njal's ears fell back briefly and he peered away from her, at the surrounding flat lands they currently stood in - studying the sky briefly, awkwardly, as if the entire concept of children was strange to him. Really it was the thought of breeding that made Njal nervous; he'd never done it, they'd never attempted, and the way that Fox brought it up so nonchalantly made him sputter a little.

"No, ah, we," Njal shifted like a nervous child, fidgeting and unable to stand at attention for a few moments, "We haven't done... Anything. I was hoping now that I'm back --" Oh, but that was too much information for the mountain man to expose; he bowed his head briefly and tried to calm the hungry energy that surfaced within him, but only managed to take a few steps around Fox instead - circling her as if to bypass, and find Tuwawi now that she was on his mind again. "But I wanted to report to you first. I hope I did well." Yes, the job. The message had been conveyed - it's response as well - and Njal took to watching Fox with an eager glimmer in his eyes, wanting his glorious prize.

Despite (or perhaps because of) her lack of knowledge on the subject of sex, Fox handled it like it was eating or drinking. In her mind, it was simply something that was done to further the line of the pack, to ensure that they would continue on. It would solidify the bonds between the creeks' members to have children to raise, and she was eager to bring Swiftcurrent's residents closer together. It seemed that Njal and Tuwawi had not started the process, and a sense of urgency rose up in Fox. While it was still fairly early in the spring, she knew that the children would need to be big and strong to survive the following winter.

“You did,” she replied, “Now go make some babies, you turd!” Fox grinned and nipped at his back leg, hoping it would get him going in the right direction. Tuwawi was likely waiting for him, and Fox wanted the new lifeblood of the creek to be strong when the cold weather hit them. Besides, a litter of strong pups would signify their strength in numbers to anybody who heard of them, which was always a plus.

The man chuffed when Fox's teeth slipped by his foot, turning and grunting playfully at her. When she ushered him to leave though, there was little prompting necessary; his body was already slipping away, and he voiced his glee with a bark, which would probably alert anyone nearby of his arrival in the territory. He was home and he wanted to find his wife - so, without further ado, Njal left his leader behind with her ruminations and charged in to the plains, heading straight for the den the two wolves had built together.