Bramblepoint loyalty, loyalty, loyalty

@Towhee

 

@Alya and @Lyra had ventured out with her, though naturally they set apart to cover the span of Bramblepoint once again. With Rannoch's troupe having moved out, Hydra wanted to investigate what was leftover. She drifted through the woods slowly, heading close to the Caldera but nowhere near close enough for one to think she had any ill intent. Her snout simply pressed against the earth as she followed a relatively old trail of some injured mammal that she had yet to meet, but she stopped short upon finding a cache left behind perhaps by one of Rannoch's followers.

Towhee was establishing herself as quite the apprentice mercenary. She badgered the adults constantly to take her along on patrols, even first thing in the morning and late at night. But sometimes a change in pace and scenery did a body good. Today, she pestered Raven into letting her come along as the medic took advantage of the recent spring growth and hunted for medical supplies. They invited @Phox along too. The trio traipsed toward the borders, with Raven hesitating slightly before deciding the three of them could handle a short field trip to Bramblepoint next door.

"Stay close to me, both of you," she said as she led the pups toward a veritable smorgasbord of greenery. Soon her medical stash would be fully stocked and then some. "Don't go too deep into the trees; keep the caldera in your sights at all times." Raven gave Towhee and Phox pointed looks before proceeding toward the tree line.

While the two darker wolves busied themselves with a cluster of wildflowers, Towhee meandered a few yards away and peered off into the forest, eyes narrowed as she tried to see if there was anything interesting in there. She thought she saw a flash of black moving between the trees and she huffed, body going very still as she tried to pinpoint the movement from a distance.

This cache was found easily enough, but it was unearthed and ruined. The tracks of who had done it were left behind and seemed... odd, to Hydra. Upon closer investigation Hydra could tell that the thing that had done this was not, in fact, some foreign creature. Not only that but this scent belonged to the very same injured thing she had smelled but moments ago. Hungry, and irate that she had missed an opportunity to scavenge herself, Hydra trailed the injured critter. It was not yet in her sights, but she knew the animal was near and bristled.

She had just discerned the distant animal as a fellow wolf and was about to alert Raven and Phox when a separate movement, much nearer, caught Towhee's attention. Her orange eyes zeroed in on the beige blur off to her left, tracking it even as it closed the distance. When the trees thinned, Towhee realized she was looking at the very same three-legged coyote that had attacked her a few weeks back.

Both canines froze as they locked eyes. Then an intense need to protect her pack mates burned inside Towhee and she flung herself at the skinny prairie wolf with an overly loud and savage snarl.

Hydra closed in on it and heard a snarl, not from the canine she saw the rear-end of. Observing that it was distracted, Hydra capitalized upon this by making a bid for its rear-end, her own strike silent and certainly filled with deadly intent. Hydra observed the other, a squat, disproportionate child (at this stage in their life)—her teammate in this, she supposed. Together they could certainly put down the three-legged animal, though Hydra had faith she could do it on her lonesome by now too (as she had, not too long ago, done so with a fox... though coyote's might be different, who knew?).

The coyote attempted to dodge her by whirling and shooting back the way she had come, yet she found her path blocked by an even larger and blacker wolf. A sharp, snarling cry rose up from her throat and burst from her lips as she fell beneath the second attacker, even as the first barreled into the fray.

Towhee ended up missing the dropped coyote and accidentally smashing into the other wolf instead. Since she was the lighter, smaller of the two, she crumpled to the ground, partially on top of their common enemy. She found herself violently shoved aside as the coyote kicked out from underneath her and then slipped to her three feet and began to run.

The bewildered Xi tried to recover as swiftly as possible by bouncing back onto her feet. She shot the stranger a quick, inscrutable look before taking off after the coyote, who had plunged deeper into the forest again. Towhee wouldn't let her get away this time and made a heated pursuit, largely forgetting about her unfamiliar cohort and deaf to Raven's cries of, "Towhee, no!" at her back.

The other running into her caused her to let out a low ooph, before she untangled herself and snapped at a flailing limb of the coyote. She had missed the first one, though would not miss again—as the coyote dashed off, she did not spare Towhee a second glance. She moved headlong into her strides, and one ear cupped backward to hear the sound of Towhee following. There was another voice, too—but Hydra was not Towhee, and in hot pursuit of the critter she did not register that the girl trailing after her was who the other spoke to. Hydra had gained on the coyote and now reached forward to attempt to grab at a hind leg, teeth seeking to yank so it would lose its footing entirely.

She felt heat and pounding footfalls at her hip, then her shoulder, then moving past her as the dark stranger gained on the coyote. Towhee ground her teeth together and pushed harder, trying not to lose ground in the chase. She was almost too busy trying to keep pace with her fellow wolf that she hardly noticed that both of them were quickly catching up to the coyote.

But then a black foreleg swept out and the coyote went rolling with a yelp Towhee couldn't hear. She crashed through the underbrush and a growl bubbled in Towhee's throat as she tracked the blur of motion with her eyes and then sprang, crashing down on top of the spindly canine. When the coyote began to writhe and kick again, Towhee's lips wrinkled back from her teeth and she pressed her weight down as hard as she could, trying to overpower her and maneuver to get in a (hopefully fatal!) bite.

It fell, a mess of flailing limbs, and again the young wolf was upon the creature. Hydra watched as the coyote fought back, fought for its life—its focus now was primarily upon Towhee. Hydra used that advantage once more. She drove for the creatures throat as it went to retaliate against Towhee, whose fangs tore at the tawny creatures face when it opened its mouth to protect the area the girl had sought. Hydra sought to grip its throat from the side and now let out a fearsome snarl as she pressed the full strength of her jaws together, looking to end it and kill the critter before the coyote could bring any harm at all to the dark Caldera youth (or herself).

The struggle was too difficult; she could not seem to pin the squirming coyote long enough to place a bite, much less a life-ending one. But the other she-wolf swooped in and deftly struck the fatal blow. The ripe, hot scent of blood flooded Towhee's nostrils as the coyote jerked beneath her, then went abruptly limp. Breathing heavily, the Xi backed off the carcass, ears folding backward as she regarded the carnage for a long beat before glancing up at her makeshift teammate.

She didn't know what to think of the impromptu partnership. Before Towhee could come up with something to say, she sensed the thudding of feet behind her and pivoted to see a worried Raven racing up to her. "Towhee!" her elder sister cried, braking to a halt and nosing the pup even as she eyed the other wolf warily and then glanced down at the slain coyote. "You don't run away like that!" The words gushed out of Raven so quickly that Towhee could only scarcely read her lips, yet she could guess enough from the caregiver's expression and posture.

-Sorry!- she signed quickly, tail drooping. -It's the same coyote that attacked me before!- she then rushed to explain, pausing before gesturing at the blue-eyed stranger and turning to face her. This time, she spoke out loud for the other girl's benefit. "We worked together." There was no particular tone to her words—such a thing meant nothing to Towhee—but there was a bit of a begrudgingly respectful look in her eye as she inwardly marveled again at collaborating with a total stranger and outsider.

The warmth of its blood spilled into her mouth, and as its jerking ceased Hydra knew she had succeeded. She withdrew for a moment, licking her chops before she went to snack upon it—but the same voice she had half-heard before sounded off, yelling again for Towhee. Hydra stood tall, wondering if this was the girls mother; Hydra was not good at guessing ages, and the way the other regarded the she-wolf caused Hydra to further believe this. There was a mute exchange between them that Hydra did not care to articulate, and when Towhee spoke Hydra merely nodded. For one so young, Towhee had done well enough. A little reckless, but that had been Hydra's own style once and it suited her just fine then. She looked to Raven and said, more for the worried wolves benefit, she did well,—though had Hydra not been around, who knew how it would have turned out? 

Hydra glanced toward the coyote and then toward Towhee. It occurred to her that maybe the girl wanted some, and so instead of taking it entirely Hydra moved to tear a portion of it to eat. Food was food, and Hydra wasn't one to waste it.

It was a little difficult, though not impossible, to read a stranger's lips (not that Towhee had much experience with it one way or the other). She was able to discern the three words spoken to and about her. A faint smile teased at the corners of her mouth, yet she quickly schooled it. Much as she had thrilled during the chase and capture, she still wasn't entirely certain how she felt about associating with someone who most definitely wasn't a Redhawk.

"Thanks," she did think to say, her voice slow and garbled as usual. "You too." Perhaps it would have been polite to introduce herself then, exchange names and information, but that wasn't really in Towhee's nature. Instead, she watched as the silky black youth bent down to begin consuming the coyote, lips pressed together and body motionless.

Raven, of course, wasn't above niceties. "What's your name and where are you from?" she asked from behind Towhee before scooting closer to her younger sister and quickly signing Phox's whereabouts (she had made him stay by the edge of the woods). "Thank you for helping Towhee eliminate the threat," she added, smiling down at the top of the Xi's head.

Her ears leaned forward as Raven asked two questions of her and, after swallowing a mouthful of her lunch, Hydra lifted hre head. She did not think to introduce herself as, like Towhee, it was not in her nature to simply do so... that, and she knew who Towhee was. Her counterpart and her identity would be nice to know, but Hydra (initially) had not cared enough to find out. Her priority had been her stomach... but now that it was filled some, [some of] her grace returned. Hydra, of Moonspear. You? And, at the others thanks, Hydra grinned. No problem. Really, it had not been. And Towhee's presence, though she had gotten in the way at first, had truly helped. Surely there would have been more of a chase and struggle with the coyote had Towhee not been there, though there was no doubting she would have preferred the assistance of her sisters.

"I'm Raven of Redhawk Caldera," the medic introduced in turn, "and this is Towhee. She can't hear," she explained right before turning to the pup and signing a spelling of Hydra's name as well as her pack's name, which took several awkward beats.

Towhee watched carefully, then licked her lips and turned toward the outsider. "Hydra? From Moonspear?" As always, she sounded like she had a wet sock stuffed in her mouth, though hopefully her pronunciation was good enough. "What is a Moonspear?" she wondered out loud before she could stop herself.

Redhawk Caldera. Her father hadn't been a fan of their previous alpha, but as that alpha was no more he seemed indifferent toward those wolves. Except for that one... but this wolf wasn't that one. Raven spoke on, now confirming what Hydra had assumed... and providing another fun fact. They couldn't hear? Hydra hadn't known such a thing was possible. Hydra counted on her ears for much—though the other seemed more than capable of handling herself, anyway. She wondered if something happened, but decided the circumstances didn't matter. It was how it was. Perhaps that was why the other sounded weird—something Hydra hadn't been too aware of when downing the coyote. 

Hydra looked toward Towhee when the question was posed. The pronounciation seemed fine to her, on top of it; for a wolf that could not hear, Towhee had a good grasp on the way things sounded. A mountain. That way, she gestured in the general direction of the territory. If the other did not understand, she gathered that Raven could translate.

"A mountain," Hydra said and Towhee bobbed her head in understanding. Beyond that, she wasn't sure what else to add. She wasn't one for small talk and was still on odd footing in this situation overall. Truth be told, she sort of wanted to turn and head home.

One thing stopped her, however: the smell of blood. Like Hydra, she didn't see the coyote as a cousin so much as raw meat like any other prey. Her stomach rumbled and she gestured at the carcass wordlessly, orange eyes practically boring holes in Hydra's face. She wasn't exactly asking if she could eat some—they had killed it together, after all—but she waited to see what the older youth would do before imbibing.

Hydra had resumed eating once silence reigned. Feeling Towhee's eyes, and noting her gesture, Hydra swallowed her own last bite and withdrew with a curt nod. She had taken the liver—her own favorite part of any morsel—and whuffed lowly in goodbye. Hydra supposed she could begin tracking Rannoch and his band again but, like Towhee, she suddenly simply desired to return home.

Seemingly have taken her fill, Hydra not only backed away from the kill but began to depart. Towhee's lips parted as if she was about to say something (perhaps "goodbye") but she pressed them back together and returned her focus to the coyote's remains instead. Licking her lips, she stepped over the body and began tearing off pieces, which she ravenously consumed.

After chowing down several mouthfuls, she looked up at Raven, grinning to show off her bloody teeth. The caregiver smiled and said, "You look very fierce, Towhee. Would you like to take some of that to your brother...?"

Nodding eagerly, Towhee wolfed down a few more bites, then grabbed what was left of the coyote's slight body and began dragging it behind Raven. The medic led her back to the fringes of Bramblepoint, where a relieved-looking Phox helped the other two gobble the rest of the scraps until there was nothing left of @Regipre but a pile of fur and bones.

After their meal, Raven and Phox resumed their scouting for plants while Towhee took up a post nearby. Nothing else happened in the few hours before they returned to the caldera, yet there was a sense of immense satisfaction in the young girl's breast as she watched her loved ones' backs.