Horizon Ridge Where the sun don't ever shine

@Kennedy

Gavriil had grown used to his normal routine. Rise at dawn, hunt for the pack, eat for himself, patrol, go to his overlook at the beach, sleep, rinse and repeat. On this day nothing seemed out the the ordinary. He caught a white tail deer, while it was weak, it was still prey. After placing it in the pack's prey cache he wandered around the territory dancing around the borders, trotting around trees and taking in all the scents of the surrounding area.

Gavriil after a while stopped to rest. During his hunt he had grown really weary. Sleeping had been harder for him the previous few nights. His dreams...well nightmares have plagued his sleeping hours. Resting his head on his large paws Gavriil closed his deep orange eyes, but not truly sleeping.

Dull-eyed and sullen, Edy arose and coughed. His condition had not improved much in the past week, though he was slowly testing his weight on his hind leg. Clearly, it was not ready for prime-time, but a few more weeks would prove beneficial should he not die in the meantime. And quite frankly, the Razorback would have been fine with that. At this point, he had given up on being friendly, on trying to be likeable. He wished only for peace and solitude, since it had become obvious that he was not going to get what he really desired. What he deserved.

Kennedy headed toward a source of water, thinking that he would perhaps dig up some of the pack's cache's to keep himself from starving. He had eaten very little ever since the rockslide, consuming only enough so that he would not perish. His figure had grown scrawny and skeleton-like in the meantime, giving him an almost spidery appearance. Along the way, he spotted somebody he did not know. A stranger, no doubt, but a member of the pack by his scent. Edy stopped, staring at the (from what he could tell) sleeping male.

Gavriil even with his eyes closed could sense a form gazing at him. Slowly lifting one eyelid Gavriil caught sight of a wolf. He seemed like a shadow almost. He seemed too skinny, almost half of what the male could be. Likewise in size of Gavriil, in the ebony wolf's full health, he could have been a worthy opponent of the male. Gavriil tilted his head as he rose and trotted over to great the male, his packmate. 

"I am Gavriil. It's a pleasure to meet you...uh what's your name?" Gavriil questioned in a cheery tone stopping a few feet away from the male trying not to intrude on his personal space. It was clear the male was injured and weak, Gavriil felt bad for the male but didn't let that show. For now he was to be treated like a healthy wolf, one capable of surviving on his own.

“Kennedy,” he replied, his voice gravelly and worn. He did not return any further pleasantries to Gavriil, and instead continued to stare at him. Perhaps he would have struck up a conversation a month ago, but now he did not have the energy or the mindset for such a thing. Ever since the rockslide, Kennedy had become a changed wolf... and certainly not for the better.

Where once he had been cheerful and outgoing, he was now sullen, sad, and generally sour toward others. It was a miracle Pump had not kicked him to the curb. He had thought, with all of her no-nonsense attitude before, he would have been sent away long ago. But it seemed she had changed as well. She had become more social, more cheerful. It was almost as if they had switched personalities in a way.

Gavriil held back any empathy that he had for the wolf. He assumed he had gotten enough of that in the past few weeks. "Since you don't seem to want to start a conversation it looks like I will have to be the one to carry it." Gavriil thought about something they both had in common, from all he knew the pack was the only thing they had in common, so he'd start from there.

"How do you feel about Thistle pups. I mean honestly." there were few things Gavriil didn't like, being lied to was one of them. He wanted to know the male's true feelings on the aspiring healers new pup.

The other was insistent on conversation, and Edy would have groaned if he did not think it would provoke Gavriil into more questions. “They should die,” he replied curtly, giving the other male a glance to show that, yes, he was telling the truth. That was his completely honest opinion, whether it was an unpopular one or not.

Bastard children were not to be tolerated, no matter how much their mother was a good sport in the past. If she had truly been loyal to Horizon Ridge, she would not have gotten herself knocked up by some random outsider. But she had, and so Edy had avoided her even more now that he realized what she had done to them. They would now have extra, helpless mouths to feed for months.

He wanted to kill the pups, while Gavriil didn't agree with his answer at least he was honest in his statement. That much was clear with the look he gave the cinnamon Mae afterwards. "If you believed that why did you stay silent during the meeting?" Pump likes you, a whole hell of a lot, she would have listened to you above anyone else there." Gavriil spoke truthfully. From her conversations it was quite obvious she cared for Kennedy and wanted him to get better.

Gavriil knew the pack was small, while he understood why some would think the pup should be killed, he didn't. The pups didn't do anything wrong, it was their mother fault. The child shouldn't be punished for the crimes of the mother, or father for that matter.

Why did everybody insist on reasoning with him? Did they not understand that he just wanted to be a bitter old grump? Why would they not leave him alone? Still, he knew that by remaining silent, nothing good would come of it. He would only be bombarded by more questions and demands. “I have my reasons,” Kennedy replied, not wishing to elaborate further.

Being unpopular and disliked had become some kind of twisted goal for the green-eyed wraith. If he could get the others to dislike him enough, perhaps they would put him out of his (and their) misery. It would be so much easier that way. They would be rid of him, and he would not have to listen to their drivel any longer.

Gavriil could sense the male's obvious rejection to his simple small talk. The cinnamon make didn't understand why the ebony wolf instsited on being rude and standoffish to everyone. "You know we are all trying to help you." Gavrill spoke with an underlying borderline anger tone masked with a want to be nice to the male. He didn't understand Kennedy's problem. Gavriil assumed as of recently he had started to treat everyone this badly.

“And I don’t care,” Kennedy responded in the next beat. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I'll be going.” The Razorback was anything but fast, but he hobbled his way past Gavriil, holding his back leg close to keep it out of harm's way. Not that it would do much good, considering the damn thing was never going to be the same again.

There was a time when he would have considered such an exit rude, but that time was in the past. This was the new Kennedy, and since nobody was really correcting him on his behavior, he would continue to act in whatever way he pleased. If they all insisted on keeping him alive and continuing these methods of making him happier, they were all going to be rather unhappy.

Exit Kennedy!