Redhawk Caldera Please don't make any sudden moves

So much had happened lately—the locusts, the famine, Peregrine's expedition, Peter's death, the father's (stupid, secret) suicide attempt, the birth of the Beta pair's children—and it put the Redhawk monarch at odds and ends with his surroundings. But the lands were making a slow but sure recovery now; the herds were returning to this neck of the wilderness; and things seemed calm, at least for the moment. It was time to get back into the swing of things as a wild wolf and Alpha of the pack.

He started the day with a patrol, then a hunt, and delivered his catch to the Blackthorns' den before passing by the rendezvous site to check on the boys. They weren't there; they were probably following Fox around somewhere or, hell, they were old enough (four months!) to roam freely a bit now. Peregrine prowled toward the caldera next, slinking to the water's edge and taking a long drink before reposing and thinking of what to do next.

There were a few newcomers he had yet to acquaint with properly. So he summoned @Hatshepsut and @Sassafras—well, he didn't necessarily know how many or their names, so he actually just summoned "the n00bs"—the tone of his howl not a request for their presence but a command.

The small dark female’s ears pricked on auto-pilot when she heard Peregrine’s howl, and her heart sank just a little when her brain caught up to the call. It was now or never, she supposed, and she didn’t exactly have a choice if she wanted to remain with the Redhawk wolves and prove that she was worth more to them than history claimed. They were the only reason she had returned to the Teekon Wilds when she had never previously back-tracked before — not even to the lush northern forests where she had been raised. Although he was not to know it, Peregrine had been the one to truly win her over.

She turned away from her hunting trail and picked up a swift pace in his general direction so as not to keep him waiting. Still unsure as to whether or not the alpha male would recognize her, she approached him there at the water’s edge with caution when she finally arrived, giving him all the space in the world. With a slinky and submissive posture, she looked like a skinny black cat poised before the uncertain. Sassafras gave a light chuff to alert him to her presence, then stopped dead in her tracks. "Peregrine..." she started, lacking her usual level of confidence. "I can explain."

There are new children among them, though Hatshepsut steers clear of their den as well. The death of the alphas' son is well-known, but the woman cannot find it in her heart to grieve. Death came for them all, its jackal-head rearing from the shadows beyond the sickbed -- better to be killed swiftly and consumed than die a slow and aching death of starvation. 

but the prey has returned, and with it her strength. Hatshepsut's strength flares in a welter of killing; each day she departs the borders, and returns more often than not with a dangling carcass for the caches. She is content to be away from the tumult of the Caldera, in which she has never felt welcome.

The saltking comes to mind; Hatshepsut considers that she might join him alongside the sea, but the brine holds no appeal for her. It is Peregrine who shakes the woman from her reverie; she lengthens her stride to heed him, jaws aclasp 'round the body of a rabbit.

The dark yearling who stands before the alpha male is ignored. Hatshepsut, despite the anger that roils in her gut, dips her head to the man and lies the rabbit between them in silence. His weakness is tangible from where she is, and the Egyptian considers what it is this means for the Caldera.

For gits and shiggles, I decided Perry wouldn't remember Sass. :D

Two she-wolves arrived one after the other and Peregrine nodded mutely at both, then looked past them as if expecting others to show up too. When nobody did, he gazed over these new recruits and their offerings. The slightly more familiar of the two had brought a rabbit, which he drew toward himself with a woof of acknowledgement. The other, a black stranger, offered an apology which made him freeze and look at her oddly.

He had no idea who she was or what she was apologizing for, though it made the fur on the back of his neck prickle warily. "Explain what?" he demanded softly. Before she could answer, however, his gaze slid between the two and he added, "You both know me"—even if he didn't know how, with the one—"but do two know each other? Some introductions are in order, I think. And the reason I brought you here is so I can get to know both of you a bit better, see where you fit into things here at the caldera."

A golden female, sylphlike in her beauty, soon arrived as well, to whom Sassafras extended a weak smile despite the fact that the woman observed Peregrine alone. She’d brought an offering of rabbit, whereas Sassafras had perhaps only brought trouble for herself. She sighed very gently and nearly inaudibly through her nose, and Peregrine once again had the attention of both females a moment later.

The strapping alpha responded to her attempt to explain with uncertainty, which could only mean he hadn’t placed her in his memory. She tilted her head very slightly at him and was about to answer with fumbling words, but instead bit the side of her cheek when Peregrine proceeded with the reason for their summons. Her personal turmoil would have to wait. Her posture relaxed somewhat as he called for introductions between she and the other newer female.

She nodded firmly, acknowledged his wishes and turned her head to gaze at Hatshepsut, shifting her feet beneath her ever so slightly in doing so. "I’m Sassafras," she offered with a sunny sort of brightness to her otherwise soft voice.

Ebony asked me to PP Hat outta here, so here goes.

Sassafras introduced herself first, then Hatshepsut gave her own name. Two pairs of eyes then looked to him again as Peregrine considered how he wanted to do this. He was glad they'd both showed but it occurred to him that this would go a whole lot better if he had a chance to acquaint with each of them one-on-one. He mulled for a moment, then came up with a game plan.

"I'd actually like to speak to each of you privately. You're up first," he said to Sassafras, who had showed up first. "If you don't mind," he added, looking at Hatshepsut, "just hang out here for a bit and I'll come collect you in about an hour." Perhaps that was rude of him, yet Peregrine was the Alpha and it was his prerogative to direct his subordinates this way if he was so inclined.

Dipping his snout to the golden she-wolf, Peregrine motioned for Sassafras to walk with him, putting a little distance between themselves and Hatshepsut. "So, what is it that you feel the need to explain?" he prompted.

Their Alpha was silent for a moment, then overtly decided to split them up for a face-to-face instead. Sassafras easily guessed it was because only two had showed up and he had initially expected others, or perhaps, she realized with a little tremor of anxiety, it was because she was looking and acting guilty as hell. She glanced inconspicuously at the very lovely golden woman to gauge her reaction, but it wasn’t long before she pulled her eyes away and submissively sauntered after Peregrine.

She drew a breath when he asked her what she wanted to explain, then bit the side of her cheek again as she wondered how to put it. "You don’t remember me," she said point-blank, angling her shoulders towards him with ears that splayed back in apology for what she was about to confess. "I sort of… disappeared last year after you let me stay the first time, just before winter." And there it was; everything was out in the open. She would only explain the details if he wanted to hear them, but it was possible that he didn’t care for them because he didn’t remember her in the first place.

Even when she pointed out that he'd once accepted her (only for her to bail), it didn't jog his memory. That was kind of strange. Fox was the one with a terrible memory, not him. Had Sassafras just been that unmemorable? He looked at her speculatively. No, that probably wasn't it, exactly... more like, he'd probably invited literally a hundred wolves into his ranks over the years and it was just impossible to keep track of them all properly.

"Well, lucky for you," he observed with a wry look, "I really don't recall. I appreciate your honesty, though, so... clean slate, I guess?" He lifted his brows at her, then couldn't help but ask, "But why'd you leave? Better yet, why'd you come back...?"

It would have been a complete lie if Sassafras insisted it didn’t sting just a little that Peregrine still didn’t remember her, but she was so happy that he was willing to overlook what he didn’t remember that she beamed at him as all her worries drained away. It would have been odd if he remembered every wolf who came and went through his borders, and really, she’d only been around for a couple of weeks. She’d never had a one-on-one with Peregrine after that, and she hadn’t even met Fox until she’d returned. There was no reason to remember a blip on the screen like that.

"Clean slate," she agreed buoyantly with shining eyes. "I had a little hunting accident past the steppes that-a-way," she began to explain with a quick nod to the direction she meant. "I was lucky. If the most enthusiastic healer you can imagine hadn’t found me, I honestly don’t know what would have happened." She could envision any number of things, but because she knew his son had recently been brutally killed and because Sassafras wasn’t a social dolt, she left it at that. "I came back because I’d wanted to be here in the first place. I took so long to do it because I wanted to repay those wolves, if I could."

If the look on her face was anything to go by, Sassafras was a lot more relieved than offended about Peregrine's memory lapse and willingness to start fresh. When he heard her reason for disappearing, he was almost grateful that he couldn't remember to hold it against her. She had almost died in a hunting accident. If there was ever a valid excuse, that was it. If he had recognized her, though, and assumed her to be nothing but a traitorous flake, the Alpha would have surely chased her away.

Not for the first (nor probably the last) time, he wondered if something like that had happened to Pan. Would his lover one day reappear like this? It was a brief, fleeting thought that Peregrine gently set aside as he realigned his focus on Sassafras. She had come back and that had nothing to do with Pan. But it was her second chance and now that Peregrine knew all the information, it was given freely.

"Remind me of your assets. Sounds like you may be into hunting as a trade...?" All wolves hunted, so it was definitely a leading question.

It was true: every wolf was a hunter. With that in mind, she wasn’t entirely sure she would pursue it as a trade, even if 90% of her waking hours were spent on the trail of something. "I am, but my track record really blows," she said bluntly with a slightly sheepish smile. "I’m better with small game and fish. I grew up on the coast," she added informatively to explain the latter. Not everyone knew how to fish well.

"Last time, though… I mentioned that I was interested in keeping an eye on things around the borders. I’d like to learn the finer details if you know of anyone who wouldn’t mind me tagging along." Of course, there was always Shrike, but as much as she really didn’t mind pestering him, she knew that she would have to space herself out a little more if she didn’t want her pestering to lead to downright annoyance.

"And I should really know how to better defend myself and the pack," she added for good measure. It was a veritable smörgåsbord of ideas, suggesting plainly that she hadn’t really carved out a niche for herself yet. She cast him a gaze of mahogany and a slightly raised eyebrow as if to ask, did you get all that?

He took in her words in silence, weighing and measuring them as he pondered his response. As she talked, they continued walking along the lake shore. Peregrine glanced across the glassy surface, studying the sky's reflection, before tilting his head ever so slightly to gaze at the real thing. There were towering white clouds gathering overhead. A twitch of his nose told him that a storm might be arriving on the horizon soon.

His attention shifted back to Sassafras. Boy, she was really saying all the right things. "There's always room for small game hunters, especially after what we just went through. And patrolling is simple: walk the borders, renew the scent markers, kill any intruders. But you'd be welcome to accompany me anytime. I typically patrol alone but I don't mind company, makes it slightly less boring." Peregrine's lips twitched. "Are you saying you need to learn how to fight? Maybe some sparring?"

She gazed ahead and back at Peregrine as he spoke, considering what he said. He made patrolling sound simple, but she was sure there were a few things up his sleeve in terms of the experience he’d accumulated over the years. Supposing that her tracking skills would serve her well enough in terms of noticing things that might be out of place, perhaps he wasn’t just exaggerating. She made a mental note to take him up on his offer, but it wasn’t until he suggested sparring that her eyes shone with excitement.

"Exactly that," she affirmed with a nod of her head. She had sparred with her large brothers and cousins as a child, but the number of real threats she had faced in her young life could be counted on one paw alone. By leaving Eidolon Ridge, she had meant to expand her horizons, and there was no reason to let the myriad opportunities that offered pass her by unacknowledged.

"I think I was more interested in hunting as a kid," she admitted with a lingering gaze on her Alpha. It was easy to train in something she was inherently good at, but it was time to dive into something new.

Sassafras lit up at the suggestion. Peregrine made a mental note. He could spar with her himself, of course, but he would have to recruit others into the effort to make sure she had a well-rounded training with opponents of varying size and skill. He might have offered to do a short spar with her now but he suddenly recollected that Hatshepsut was waiting on them.

"I was born and bred a hunter myself," he said a little distractedly, then paused and said, "Hey, let's make plans to do some patrols and spars together. But right now I ought to get back to Hat. Thanks for coming when I called, Sass. Can I call you Sass?" But he didn't wait for an answer. "I'll see you around." He shot her a quick grin, then made a fairly abrupt exit.

Somehow, he was not surprised when he returned to where he'd left the other she-wolf just to find the area deserted. "Hat, uh, Hat-sheep-suit?" he called, peering across the lake as his voice echoed off the bowled walls of the caldera. "Huh." The Alpha stood there, face blank, then his expression clouded somewhat. He knew he'd made her wait but had his subordinate actually just walked off?

Indeed, she had, and though Peregrine sent the next half hour searching, he not only never found her, he never saw her again.

It would take time for her to pin down the trades she would choose to pursue, but that seemed to be the only hitch she faced in having so many interests. At the very least, Peregrine sounded as though he was supportive of the specialties she had rattled off, and she took that alone as encouragement. When he offered to personally nudge her along in her training, she couldn’t help but beam and excitedly flutter her tall ears at him. There was little wonder surrounding the reason Sassafras had returned to Redhawk Caldera even after circumstances had stolen her away.

He was preparing to take his leave and attend to the other new recruit when he thanked her and wondered aloud if she would mind if he shortened her name. He was not about to wait around, however, so she bobbed her head in silent consent and wuffed an enthusiastic farewell. Pivoting swiftly on her paws, she turned and departed from the stunning panorama at the lake’s shore. She was feeling inspired and eager to hit the borders and get a patrol in by sundown.