Cerulean Cape O sea that beats when wild hearts beat no more

AW but tagging packmates @Steady @Mason @Krypton @Ezekiel @Niita y'all up for a hunt?

After traversing the mountain for a few days, Phocion needed a change of scenery. The famine was beginning to take its toll on his body; his usually slim figure had grown gaunt, his ribs clearly showing underneath his white pelt. He staggered down the mountain and began to trot toward the ocean. The sight of the sea waves and the smell of salt might do him a world of good.

He had not even more than a mouse or rat here and there; the majority of his kills, as he had promised Steady, had gone to Zaria and her four pups. He did not begrudge the alpha and her brood the food--they needed it much more than he did. Yet hunger pangs held his stomach in a vice-like grip, and it constantly grumbled, seeking nourishment. His dreams had been taken over by food, juicy meat, tearing into the bloody haunch of an elk or buffalo. He often woke up salivating.

It was slow progress getting to the coast, but he finally made it, gazing for a long while at the majestic gray-blue expanse before him. Above, gulls squawked at him and at each other, while they fought for morsels of fish on the beach. Out in the distance, he saw a humpback whale leap, its fat form hurling back into the water with a mighty splash. Clearly, the locusts had had no effect whatsoever on the ocean, Phocion thought, a bit sourly.

He began to watch the gulls and other assorted wildlife behind a bush, leaves just beginning to bloom again with the summer. Suddenly, he saw a pelican quite close, its beak thick with a fresh catch. Phocion's ears pricked; didn't it notice him, crouching a few feet away? Perhaps not. He lowered his pale body even farther to the ground. The pelican continued to stand, eyes fixed on something to the north. With muscles bunched, Phocion murmured a fleeting plea to God for good luck and pounced.

What happened next was chaos, absolute chaos. A small blizzard ensued, with the white blur of Phocion's pelt mixing with the pale feathers flying everywhere. The pelican squawked in alarm as the wolf landed atop his back, reaching back with his huge bill to nip at his attacker, who was only just barely larger than he was. "Damn you!" Phocion growled savagely as the tip of the beak connected with his left shoulder in a stinging pinch, and opened his jaws to seize the back of the bird's neck in his throat, severing the spinal cord with a powerful, prolonged bite. With a final sound, the pelican shuddered and dropped dead, beady eyes beginning to glaze over.

Phocion looked down at his kill in triumph. The creature weighed about twenty pounds; it was his biggest catch since arriving here in Teekon. While Zaria and the pups could still use much more meat than they were getting, at least this beat the rabbits and voles they had had to subsist on for weeks. Phocion smelled his own blood, and looked over his shoulder; there was a small laceration where the pelican had bit, just above his left leg. He licked the wound gingerly, the salty taste bitter on his tongue.

Yummy in the tummy!

Steady had been patrolling the borders when he caught the faint smell of Phocion. The trail was a little old, but not old enough not to follow. Steady had no reason to follow his new pack mate, other than curiosity and maybe the hope of finding something to eat.

So, he followed the trail that lead towards the ooean. When he arrived, his gaze caught sight of Phocion, a bird between his legs, and licking his shoulder. Steady trotted over, his tail wagging at the sight of the plump bird. 

Looking to Phocion, he grinned. Great job! he exclaimed, before his gaze shifted to his shoulder. Are you okay? he asked.

Niita could think of no reason to follow the scents of both Steady and Phocion except maybe that she was curious what the two of them were up to. She set out on a fast lope, following the scent trail to the beach where seabirds wheeled and cried above. 

Phocion was crouched over one such bird, it lay dead between his legs and Steady stood off to the side. "Good going, Phocion!" Niita called out in encouragement, moving to both males' sides. 

Seeing the small gash on his shoulder, Niita frowned slightly. "Oh, you're hurt." As she would any friend, Niita moved closer and licked the tiny wound clean;effectively washing away any blood or germs from the bird's beak. After giving her work a scrutinizing look, she decided it was clean.

It wasn't long before the pair of Steady and Niita joined him on the shore, whilst he still stood over his kill, resisting the urge to salivate. "I'm fine, Steady," he responded, closing his eyes in bliss as Niita licked his wound. It felt good. No, great. He wouldn't mind such ministrations in the future. "Thank you, Niita. I feel better already."

Phocion pointed with his noise toward the shore, looking at the gulls. "Look at how many gulls and pelicans there are, there. We could have a feast." Phocion didn't have much of a taste of feathered creatures, but he knew that beneath the downy feel was meat, real meat, and that Zaria and her pups would gobble it up hungrily. "Let's hunt," he said, with a wink toward Niita and a nod toward Steady.

@Phocion Your inbox is full! ^_^

Niita arrived suddenly, to Steady's happiness, and he gave her a smile and wag of his tail. He rather liked being around her. She lifted his spirits like no one else, and he just couldn't seem to get enough of her. 

His mood changed drastically, however, as she approached Phocion and began licking his wound. Steady's ears flattened on his head and his smiled disappeared from his face to be replaced with something akin to murder. His eyes bore holes in Phocion as he nonchalantly talked about birds. Steady blocked his words out then. They only distracted him from the scene in his head where he had already ripped Phocion's head off and was chewing on his spine. 

Did he just wink at her? Steady was seeing red, his muscles tensing under his ragged fur. Yes, hunting was a good idea. But, for Steady, Phocion was on the menu.

Niita moved back, smiling her welcome at him. It wasn't a big deal for her, she had just cleaned his wound. It was what she would have done to anyone. Niita turned to return to Steady's side, ears tilted back to listen as Phocion spoke, but she halted midstep at the utterly furious look on his face.

Wary, Niita instead stood off to the side of the pair and waited until Phocion had finished speaking before voicing her opinion. "Sounds like a great idea, let's go!"

Niita nearly stopped again when Phocion winked at her. Her ears half flattened, unsure once more if he was flirting or if he did that with everyone. Shaking it off, the pale waif made her way for one of the seagulls with high hopes of catching it.

Oh man, Niita had a sweet gaze. It played a very interesting counterpart to Steady, who stared at him like he wanted to set him on fire. Phocion wanted to laugh. It was clear the black beta had a crush on the newcomer. How could he stop him?! Obviously, the beta could have the choice of mate of whomever he wanted. Phocion was simply an underling, an opportunistic flirt.

"Good luck, you two," Phocion said, smiling. He began to slink toward a seagull, picking at a fish it had caught. Still as the moon, he crept forward and pouncd, but the damned bird got away, flying off with a cry of alarm. Drat. This looked just great on his resume, especially in front of a pretty female like Niita.

"Welllp," he drawled, stepping back toward his large pelican kill. "Hope you guys have better luck than me." He watched them with interest. Steady looked at Niita liked he wanted to possess her there and then. Phocion resisted a laugh. He had been turned down so many times in life that he barely noticed this proclivity of Niita's toward the beta. Whatever. There would be other wolves. Right?

When Niita turned towards him, he tried to change his expression, but it seemed stuck in the "kill Phocion" look. If Phocion noticed, he didn't seem to acknowledge it. That only made Steady more uptight. There was a silver lining, however, in that Niita stayed by his side while the other male went off to hunt. Steady took the opportunity to extent his neck to her and attempt a brief nuzzle of her neck. Enough to show some affection, but now enough to show off, even if he wanted to claim Niita for his own and scream it to the world.

Phocion returned, empty-jawed, and Steady was torn between being joyous at his failure, and being sad because that meant less food for the pack. He settled for a general frown, refusing to look at Phocion, and instead scanning the area for something he might be able to catch.

His eyes caught some movement in the waves moving across the sand. He stood, trotting towards it. It wasn't something he had ever seen before but it looked big and juicy. Upon closer inspection- why didn't the thing scurry off?- he realized it was a bit bigger than expected, with its super long legs, and those round things all over them. Well, if it wasn't going to run, Steady would just walk up and grab it. 

It began to move its eight legs in a weird formation, but didn't look all that scary. He got closer, opening his jaws with the intent to grab its fleshy head. Before he could, he felt something wrapping around his own front leg, and looked down. It was the thing, wrapping itself around his leg! He tried shaking his leg, but the thing refused to let go. Instead, it began moving up his leg, towards his chest. 

Steady danced sideways, as if he could get away from it. When he realized he couldn't, he began to freak. Get this thing OFF OF ME! he yelled to his pack mates. He turned in circles, trying to shake it, but only ended up tripping over himself and landing in the wet sand. It's gonna eat me! he screamed as it crawled up his shoulder and onto his back. He rolled onto his back and onto the scary creature, attempting to crush it. While he didn't, the thing did release him. Steady jumped up and ran to what should have been grass. His ears swiveled, his heart pounded as he turned to make sure the thing wasn't following him.

It's an octopus XD

Niita did pause as Steady nuzzled her, letting him do so with a smile before continuing towards the bird. She fell into a type of crouch, stalking the bird as it hopped about in complete disregard to Niita. Taking no chances, she leapt for the gull and grabbed it by the leg. 

It sqauwked in protest, trying to fly away as it pecked her head angrily. "Otay, otay, oww thad hurs. Vewy wude o' you." Niita mumbled to the bird around its leg, she swung her head back and forth to stun the bird before thumping to the ground on top of it with a crunch. 

Hearing Steady's shout, Niita rushed to his side, peeking around the huge male to stare at the odd creature in disgust. Ignoring the scratch on her head from the gull, Niita leaned around him to get a better look. "What is that thing?" Niita whispered to Steady.

He had been watching a seagull closely, ready to pounce, until he heard a guttural shriek from Steady and some muffled complaints from Niita. He spun on his heels and walked toward the pair. Niita's head was bleeding--albeit in possession of a dead seagull, good for her--and Steady was standing beside her, his eyes wide as if he had seen the fires of hell materialize before him.

"Lord, I leave you two alone for five minutes. . ." Phocion chided them jokingly, laughter in his voice. He gave Niita's head a quick lick, wiping the blood from the wound, before attending to a rattled Steady. "Hey, man, you're all right? What happened?"

For curiosity's sake, he followed the black beta's trail back to the beach, where he found an eight-legged creature he had only seen once before, wriggling in the seafoam. He laughed aloud, giving the creature a ginger prod with his paw before racing back to the others, feet kicking up white sand in his wake.

"Did the legs get you? A friend of mine down south says it's called an. . ." His voice trailed off, trying to remember the name. "Octo. . .octo. . .pus? Yeah, octopus. Yeah, they look pretty sinister." He looked over at Niita, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "You're supposed to protect your packmates from these sort of attacks, Niita," he said gravely, voice breaking in a giggle at the end of his sentence.

Covered in wet sand, and thoroughly embarrassed, Steady stood there as Niita came over to inquire on the creature. The blood on her head stood out from her white fur, but before he could say or do anything, Phocion was there, licking it away. 

Steady's ears flicked back on his head in irritation. He had reached his limit on this nonsense and knew he needed to get a handle on himself. He wasn't sure what, if anything, was going on between Niita and Phocion, but right now, he just didn't want to deal with it.

Without a word, he turned on his heels and began the trek back home, not bothering to stay for Phocion's inspection or explanation of the creature. 

Last from cranky Steady

Niita smiled her thanks at Phocion, turning to Steady with a grin. "At least I managed to catch something." She teased him gently, nudging her seagull proudly. 

Seeing Phocion touch it fearlessly, Niita moved forward and gave it a sniff. The creature-apparently an octopus-was just as disgusting up close but apparently harmless. 

Thinking Phocion's reprimand was real for a moment, her ears began to flatten before she caught on that he was only joking. Niita's tail wagged and she turned to their other companion with the hopes of including Steady in their banter. 

Niita was stopped in her tracks by the angry look on his face. Her brow furrowed and her lips parted to ask him what was wrong but suddenly he turned and left without a word. Niita stared after him in confusion, wondering what she had done wrong this time. 

Maybe he just doesn't like Phocion? Well that's tough shit. I'm not picking my friends based on who Steady approves of. I'm not even his girlfriend or anything! With a huff, Niita picked up her seagull, nodded a farewell to Phocion, and started back towards Silvertip Mountain making sure to choose a path away from Steady. 

last from a confused Niita

He was about to formulate a plan to bring the prey back to Zaria and the pups when Steady left without a word, face dark, and Niita followed soon after, though going a different way than the beta. Astonished, Phocion watched them go, shaking his head slowly.

It was clear that Steady's fondness toward Niita had twisted his once-kind feelings for Phocion into something sullen and ugly. It was best just to back away from this situation. He respected Steady too much for something like this to go down. And Niita, while certainly kind and pretty, refused to return Phocion's flirtations, was shy and demure. She would make a wonderful friend, but pursuing her was not worth the trouble it had brought down already.

He looked down at his dead pelican with displeasure. The twenty-pound bird, while not terribly heavy, would still be quite a haul up the mountain, especially for a smaller wolf like Phocion. He was going to suggest to his pair of friends that they divide the pelican in pieces and take it up that way, but, alas, they had departed early. With a small grumble in his throat, he took the bird by its skinny neck and began to carry it away, trotting slowly toward the mountain, weighed down both by the weight of his kill and by the uneasiness between Steady, Niita, and him.