Moonspear strict but relatively just

hoping for @Heldi and/or @Judas since we haven't threaded in a while, but anyone is welcome too! :)

Times had been eventful for the Moonspear pack, yet things had settled down somewhat since Althaia and Harley were run off. For the moment, Charon was content enough, since things were looking up with Amekaze, even though the damage Lazarus had done would likely not fade fast. He was reminded every time of what Lazarus'd done to Ame and to him — and wanted nothing more than to feel his blood between his teeth. Some day his revenge would come, but for now he had set out many requests for information; hopefully one of them would catch.

The evening was beginning to settle in, the sky still light but the first stars appearing on the sky already. The young Alpha had settled on a ledge to watch the stars for a little bit, but soon he had grown restless once more and so he had gotten to his feet. He started to make his way down the mountain, following a trail that lead towards the woods at Moonspear's base so he could see if Ame was near the den — probably not, as she wasn't usually, not yet — and if not, work on perfecting it some more.

Judas had gone to check on the cache, to see how the rasberry leaves he and Pyx had collected were doing. He didn't know a thing about it's lifespan away from the plant itself, and would need to know so he could figure out when was the best time to get more.

Instead he got the scent of his alpha. He had not checked on him since the accident, and felt stupid for not doing so. So he made a detour, to check on his alpha as he should have done some time back after the hunting accident. He secretly hoped there were no injuries, since Pyx was the best at that. And he also wanted to get on with checking the cache.

Heldi was returned from hunting the squirrel, having buried it in the pack's caches, before wandering through the territory with no real intentions. Perhaps she would go patrol later on but for the moment she was pondering what she had learned from Harley and Althaia. Her opinion towards her Alphas had shifted slightly, apalled that they would insult someone so much as to diregard their own name. How much one must have offended them to cause such anger.

[indentThe bastard of Vledfest wasn't entirely sure what to think of the situation and wasn't sure she would have stuck around if not for Dash. Her inner turmoil led her to one of the Alphas, Charon and an unknown male. Heldi paused, uncertain if she was interrupting but then decided it didn't matter, if they didn't want her there they could say so.

Heldi approached with a submissive stance towards Charon and a nod towards the other, a slight smile on her features.

It seemed it was Judas' lucky day, because as he came around the corner to see Charon descend a pathway towards the forest he looked decent enough. He'd gained a couple of scars, but someone who didn't know where the hoof had clipped his face might not even have noticed. The headaches had been really bad but they were slowly fading away too, luckily. Charon's ears perked up as he noticed Judas headed towards him and he said, "Hey, Judas. What's up?" He felt like he hadn't spoken to his pack mate for a long time; time to make up for that.

Heldi soon approached too, without a word. She remained submissive as she approached, a thing that Charon appreciated though didn't expect so much from wolves who were in the pack for as long as they were and had never acted out before. "Hey, Heldi. How are you?" He was tempted to ask how things with Dash were and add some winks and nudges, but decided to hold himself back on that one... for now.

From her nook in the vertical cliffside, Chihiro could see three wolfies: one white, one brown, and one sort of... complicated. The little pika looked at them thoughtfully, her nose twitching. She smelt raspberry leaves nearby, but the three wolfies were blocking her path — if she tried to dart between them now, they'd gobble her up. And worse!

But she was a clever daredevil, so she compromised. Staying where she was, knowing she could escape up the cliff and under the tree roots further up, Chi chimed in:

I have a question!

He dipped his head in greeting, keeping his tail low. "Greetings, Charon. I have been well, stocking up the cache and checking up on members who were involved in the 'ram' accident." Another wolf came, and he dipped his muzzle in greeting to her. Then, what he counted as the weirdest thing all day, a little critter came. And spoke.

"I must have accidentally eaten some bad herb. Anyone else seeing the talking little mouse?" He'd never seen a pika. And to him, it looked like a mouse. That talked. He had to blink to make sure he wasn't seeing things. And he was used to hallucinations during little 'tests' he used to have. Over and over he thoguht he accidentally swallowed a bit of a herb he had not seen while on a cache stocking trip. "If not, this is by far the weirdest freakout ever. And I've seen a two headed goat in one." That was something he regretted letting slip.

"I'm good, you?" Heldi was surprised that this was the same Alpha that she was having doubts about. He had always been nice to her but Althaia was a different story. Maybe it was just overprotectiveness. Confusion swirled in her mind and Heldi pushed aside all of her doubts, deciding that whatever was going on could remain between the Omega, her mate, and the Alphas. 

The rather squeaky voice drew her attention, drawing Heldi's eyes low to a fuzzy little poofball that she identified as a pika. "No I see her too, uh what's your question?" Heldi had never met a food animal that spoke and was a bit shocked. She thought that only wolves could talk. 

The male's last question drew an odd look from her, somewhat questioning, before she shook her head slightly wondering what exactly the male had been eating.

Charon wasn't sure how to answer the 'how are you' question with anything other than 'fine', even though he wasn't all that fine. Well, he was better than before, at least, so there was that. Things were actually looking up with Ame again. It was notable that Judas'd checked up on wolves that were involved in the ram incident but he hadn't been seeing Charon. The young Alpha couldn't help but feel a little suspicious in light of recent incidents, but he decided to push that gnawing feeling aside, for now.

To Heldi, he said, "Good to hear. I'm —" But before he could finish his sentence, there was a squeaky question coming from, seemingly, the mountainside. Except Charon was pretty certain no one was there.

He turned to look at the mountain, but saw no one there still. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Judas asked if anyone else saw a talking mouse and Charon realised he needed to look a little lower. He blinked as he looked down at the mouse, not sure why it was even talking to them. Heldi confirmed seeing it too, which made him feel a little less crazy, but still kind of pissed a lowly rodent would invade on their conversation. "The fuck..." he said and blinked at the little mouse.

Still in her nook in the cliff, Chihiro watched patiently, but when the white wolfy said the f-word she let out the biggest gasp. Staring at him in disbelief, affronted and haughty, it took her a while to return her mind to the subject at hand. When she calmed down from the unacceptable swearing, she blinked towards the girl one, who had been kind enough to let her speak her question.

I was wondering, you know — where is the rasberry leaf? I smelt one, I really did, and I was hoping to get a bit of it. For my haypile, she added proudly. Chi was all about the haypile.

Judas only stared at the little mouse, remaining silent. "We should eat it" murmured the voice in his head. A flicker of hunger went by in his eyes. He found himself feeling a little hungry in the stomach. And it wasn't a wolf. But it seemed that one of them had engaged in conversation with it, so he held himself back.

Heldi had heard swearing before, uses it quite a bit herself when she was alone, and wasn't phased but the pika seemed to be. The agouti just waited patiently, blinking in surprise when the question came.

She wasn't much of a healer or naturalist and couldn't have begun to tell you the differences in plants. 

"I don't know what raspberries are.." Her voice trailed off, glancing at the other wolves alongside her to see if they knew what to do now.

Charon glanced between his companions as the little mouse chattered on about his haypile. Charon couldn't give less fucks about the creature's haypile, to be truthful, and he wasn't sure why anyone even cared what it was saying. It was out of reach from his teeth, but Charon considered snapping at it anyway, if not only to make it go away.

Judas stared at it, Heldi said she didn't know what raspberries were, and Charon stared for a while before he eventually said: "Look, nobody gives a fuck what someone like you wants, and if you weren't in a place where you could just scuttle off, I'd already have you between my teeth." He squinted his eyes slightly, figuring nobody minded him telling off the mouse — who cared, it was only a mouse — before he turned back to Judas and Heldi and said: "Right, where were we..."

Chihiro looked patiently from wolfy to wolfy, but nobody knew about the leafs! She sighed in frustration, for she really had smelt them and she really, really wanted one. But when they got to the white person, he swore again and was so harsh it felt as if he really had bitten her. With a gasp of hurt and surprise, the young pika turned and scuttled away accordingly, tears stinging her dark eyes as she tried and failed to keep her mind on the raspberry leaves.

Judas stared at the little thing as it scuttled off. He was unsure of what to make of it, but Charon brought him back to the two wolves before him. "Right" he said, turning his gaze back to his alpha. "As I was saying, I was checking up on others...There is another thing I would like to address." he was uncertain about his chances, but they were better than none. "I'd like to get out more."

Heldi watched the pika scurry away, not feeling guilty in the slightest though she was rather confused about the whole ordeal in general. She turned back to Charon and Judas as they spoke, trying to put the odd encounter with the prey out of her mind. 

What Judas spoke about didn't concern her really, so she kept quiet though she too thought it would be good to get out and work her leg some. Heldi searched the surrounding area with her eyes, watching in case another talking rodent appeared.

Charon's ear flicked in Heldi's direction as she kept her eyes on the rodent. He didn't mind overly much, especially as Judas addressed a different subject to him. He wasn't sure what he meant by 'getting out more', but thought maybe he meant that he wanted to become a scout and explore more.

So he asked, "What do you mean? You want to become a scout?" Deciding it would be easiest to clarify what they were speaking about before elaborating, so they were on the same page.

Judas nodded. Scout, adventurer, spy. Whatever they called it. He wanted to move around, stretch his legs, see the sights. As long as it kept those dark thoughts back. "Yes. I wish to be a scout." He knew how dangerous out there, so he wasn't stupid enough to go out alone. He still remembered that one wolf that wanted to kill him, just for his appearance. Back then, he would have laughed it off. But since he had changed, it only gave him chills.

Heldi lost in thought and searching for the pika in case it came back, hadn't been keeping many tabs on the conversation. Hearing the word 'Scout' had her head whipping back around excitedly in search of whomever had an interest in her trade. 

"Hey, I'm a Scout, maybe we could go together," Heldi exclaimed suddenly, tail wagging exuberantly.

Charon wasn't sure why Judas had tiptoed around the subject so much, if this was what he wanted to say. Charon didn't mind having more scouts, so long as they understood when they were needed at home, too. He nodded in agreement after Heldi excitedly exclaimed they could go together. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Actually, I have something to ask of you as scout. Maybe you could go together. My uncle Mordecai, he lives somewhere in the east. I'd like to invite him to visit in a few months' time, when our pups are born, and inform him that I live at Moonspear in case he doesn't know. He lived in some hollow beyond the sunspire mountains, but that's last year. I don't know where he's at now." The information was scarce, and Charon didn't really expect them to succeed in their mission, but the least he could do was try.

Judas nodded. It gave him a challenge, something to take his mind off of...well, his mind. The coywolf had little knowledge of where these 'Sunspire Mountains' were but the direction east gave him enough to work with. He was hesitant on asking Heldi, but he had someone he trusted in mind. A friend he had in mind. But first, he wanted to head west. He doubted anyone had been around there yet, as he had heard no mention of anything west yet plenty of east.

"I can get it done. Give me a few weeks." That would certainly be enough. "I'll find your uncle. Just have to head east, ask around. How hard could it be?" In asking that question, he didn't realise he might have just tested fate. He gave Charon a reassuring wink of his eye and and then bowed his head in farewell before setting off to prepare himself. Which really was just eating and drinking a bit. And checking with the one he wanted to join him.

Heldi was on the verge of nodding in agreement, eager to take on the challenge Charon was presenting, when Judas completely ignored her offer and spoke of getting it done himself. Her ears flattened, eyes narrowing in affronted anger as he left. 

"Whatever. Guess he can handle it all by his big-bad self," she snorted, turning to leave herself without bothering to see if her words offended Charon. I'm not apologizing, I don't care if Judas is his best friend. I wasn't the one so rude to ignore him the whole conversation. 

It didn't matter, Heldi would find some other reason to go on another Scouting trip and maybe find some better company to go with her.

There was something about Judas that Charon didn't like that much, and it was probably these sort of things that were part of that. He was flighty, all over the place, and he didn't often listen to what others actually said. He seemed to have no clue where he was actually going to go, and Charon didn't see how he'd ever even find uncle Mordecai with that sort of attitude. Yet before he could make comment on it and force him to take Heldi so that he'd not get lost somewhere in the far east and die a lonely death, Judas already made his way off. "Good luck," Charon called after him, though the tone of his voice indicated that he didn't entirely agree with Judas' course of action.

Then, when he was gone, he chipped in a: "Can you believe that guy?" It seemed Heldi agreed with that sentiment considering her own words, though before Charon could actually hook into what she had said she, too, turned to leave. "Uh, bye to you too," Charon called after her, a similar frustration seeping through his voice as he previously had voiced towards Judas when he said good bye. He didn't understand one bit why Heldi was being mad at him and leaving, rather than slandering Judas' actions together in mutual disagreement to them.

And so he was left alone, ears splayed in a mixture of frustration, anger and loneliness gripping at his heart. A similar feeling as Heldi had given him before when she completely locked herself off from him. He didn't get what her deal was, but he knew that she made him feel vulnerable and alone whenever she pulled one of these and he didn't like that one bit.