Bearclaw Valley and i will rejoice, and be glad for it

set shortly after the challenge thread - paging interested parties @Xan @Laurel @Reigi but all are welcome

the troubling altercation at the border had roused indra into a paranoid state. swiftly, she pressed through the snow and the pines, calling for xan. she thought it would be right to inform him of the insubordination the nameless female had exercised -- to tell him that in her own eyes, that woman was no more trustworthy than a rabid stoat.

suffice to say, indra would never look at the mute wolf the same way again; what had started as tentative apprehension was now outright suspicion, as well as a mix of persistent and enduring disdain. as far as she was concerned, reigi now scraped the bottom of the barrel - the silent wolf would find no comradeship in the russet girl any longer.

she howled once more for xan, and circled around the rendezvous with worried little steps. she wondered if blondine would be there, or the others that she had come to know in the valley. bitterly she wondered if that woman would come too. perhaps she would defend herself in front of xan -- perhaps she would be powerless to. whatever transpired, indra knew reigi had been wrong to attempt to assert her dominance over the longest standing member in the pack -- and this, more than anything, compelled her to seek audience and be done with the untrustworthy creature once and for all.

Alexander was on the opposite side of the river when a summoning howl reached his ears. Exiting the forest of fir trees, he made his way towards the riverbank to search for a shallow part to cross over at. He wasn’t too quick with his motions, the lack of urgency in her voice allowing him to take his time. But then another howl followed after the first, which spurred him into action; he did not move as quickly as he would if under attack, but his steps were still faster than usual, bringing him to stand before Indra.

He didn’t see anyone else around her and she didn’t appear to be injured, but he still inspected her from a few steps away; visually, all seemed well, but the collection of scents lingering with her own made his previously relaxed body tense up. As was usual for the young albino, he feared the worst as he asked, “What happened?”

indra's agitated circling ceased as xan came into view. she took a moment to assess him, gaze flicking about as if half expecting that wretched companion of his to appear any moment. when she didn't, indra took tentative steps towards him.

she was still well aware of the confusing nature of their last interaction, so she concealed her shame by rousing her anger. she reminded herself that laurel had been threatened, and an inhospitable, adamantine glint appeared in her gaze as her features hardened. she had yet to know of xan's coupling with her sister, but she assumed on some basal level he cared for her at least a fraction as much as he cared for the insensate hound that sorrowed the border with her presence.

"that - that heifer that you like." she strode towards him, her lips set in a thin line of heated displeasure. it still rankled her to think of the mute wolf's outright audacity -- how dare she stare down laurel, or attempt to defile the natural convention of ranks. indra knew if the other wolf (who looked suspiciously like that miserable dog) and sif had not appeared, the redleaf girls would have torn her then and there into blood ribbons. "she threatened laurel!" she paused to assess his reaction: if it was not instantly crestfallen and concerned for her sister and not that wretched wolf, she would be even more apopleptic. "we were at the borders and she came down from her rock and challenged laurel! she needs to be put in her place. she's unpredictable and dangerous! it's winter, several of our members are already hurt -- we could have been hurt!" indra's voice fell at the last statement, and she twisted her tone in such a way that implied that the two girls feared for their life around the unhinged creature. indra herself had no fear of the brute, but laurel had shown her one thing in the world: find your enemy's weakness, and use it. indra knew xan felt that she was someone feeble, that she was soft and shelless and fragile -- she resented that impression, but it was an impression nonetheless -- and she would hedge as much as she could into aggrandizing that impression if it meant that reigi would be punished for her insubordination.

The albino knew not what he should expect. He was sure something had happened, something that he would not like or want to hear about, but he knew he had to listen—and he hoped, as she began to speak, that his worrying over the worst case scenario would have been for naught. Yet, instead of finding clarity in her words, he was greeted by confusion and his brow furrowed as a result. Heifer was not a word he recognised nor knew the meaning of, but the tone alone suggested that it wasn’t anything good; it took him a moment, too, to realise who she was talking about, though the phrase that you like made it almost painfully obvious. His jaw clenched as he felt the need to defend his friend, though he wasn’t given the chance to act on it. In a matter of seconds, he was forgetting about what he assumed to be an insult and focused on the news he was being given, fur bristling as a result.

“What do you mean she threatened her?” he asked, confusion wiped cleaned from his expression and replaced by concern. “Is Laurel okay?” Although he cared for Reigi, too, he couldn’t help but worry less about her well-being than Laurel’s. Having seen and fought alongside her in battle several times, he was well aware of his friend’s ability to hold her own, as well as how much damage she could cause—he worried for the safety of the tawny girl, whose ability to fight he’d never seen demonstrated; there was also the matter of the moment shared between them, the freshness of the memory contributing to his train of thought.

We could have been hurt.

Alexander’s body stiffened and he strode towards her before circling the girl, examining her body before stopping in front of her again. He did not see any wounds, nothing that struck him as being out of place, and so he asked: “Was anyone actually hurt? Should I call for Blondine and send her to Laurel?” For now, that was his top priority—making sure everyone was alright and no one was in dire need of medical attention. He’d deal with everything else later, once he knew for sure that no one was at risk of dying.

indra knew the news she delivered would be received roughly -- she stiffened as she saw his hackles bristle, a rightful scowl clouding her features. was he worried for the nameless wolf more than laurel? indra simmered as she envisioned that was the case -- had she known in only a few short days xan would descend upon laurel and the two would share a clandestine tryst in the snow, perhaps her opinion of him would be different.

but she didn't know. she had no way of knowing.

indra also did not know the tawny woman's name, nor how to address her -- which resulted in some colorful nicknames in her mind devised for the wretch that habituated the boulders. "laurel and i were leaving and as we walked by, she sighed exasperatedly at us." indra recited, still feeling heat come off of her face as she recalled the tense situation at the borders. in truth indra found the woman's odd refusal to obey societal norms and hierarchy strange - she had not postured in deferral to laurel's superior status, which when one looks at the situation from an examination standpoint, had been what started it all. had the female an ounce of common sense or an ounce of social awareness, she would have realized how refusing to defer in the presence of a superior was a catalyst to any hierarchal dispute.

"laurel heard the noise and turned around and asked her what her problem was, and she slipped down off the rock and stalked towards her as if she were dominant over us. her tail, ears, everything higher than mine and laurel's in gross insubordination.. and she growled at laurel, showing her teeth." indra's breaths came in outraged and shaky gasps. "she showed her teeth!" she repeated, as if still stunned by the woman's chutzpah. "we're packmates and she threatened us for no reason at all. she should have minded her station, submitted, and nothing would have happened. instead she came at us, and so did that other wolf that looks like her - i've never met him before and he threatened us. he bared his teeth at both of us as if we were the ones in the wrong. we weren't. no packmate would ever support another wolf's insubordination that way - he is no packmate of mine." she paused for a moment, taking in a deep breath as she reflected on laurel's or the other wolf's injuries. she shrugged her shoulder - she did not give a single whit if that other wolf was injured. it was not her problem, she was not her sister, and she was certainly not a packmate indra trusted or respected any longer. "i'll get blondine. this shouldn't have happened... to disrespect your packmates like that... what happens when she does it to you?" she looked at xan then, as if accusing him of harboring such an unstable wretch in their midst.

As the details of what happened came to light, his concern faded, allowing confusion to take over once again. He had to repeat her words over in his head, ensuring he’d heard right and that it truly was just a sigh that started it all; he didn’t know if he should feel irritated then or not towards the clear waste of his time. It was not a blatant attack, but a mere sigh—an audible exhale. Frowning, he was about to cut her off with an interjection of his own, but words continued to flow from her mouth and he thought better of it. And, as it turned out, there was much more to the story than just a sigh.

Alexander kept his mouth shut as he listened, taking in the information as more of it was revealed. He had a soft spot for Reigi, that much was obvious, but he couldn’t not feel anything towards Laurel. Her and Indra both had been there since the start of things, long before his friend’s arrival, and for that reason alone they deserved respect—yet, at the same time, he’d seen and even been involved in challenges for rank before, he knew they were often unavoidable, and thus he was at a loss for what to do. Sure, he could punish both the girl and her brother—he wasn’t surprised to hear about his involvement, though the albino’s hackles did bristle when his role in the ordeal was explained—but how likely was that to prevent it from happening again? “Were either of you physically attacked?” he asked. Although he wanted to believe that Reigi would never attack a pack mate, he did not know how she would react in the situation described—and he knew absolutely nothing about her brother’s behaviour.

The possibility of his own rank being challenged made his body stiffen and his jaw clench. “She wouldn’t challenge me,” he stated, unable to picture such a scenario in his head. But maybe… he gave a dismissive shake of his head, stopping his suspicions in their tracks. “I’ll take care of this,” he tried to assure her. “Just try to avoid her and the male both for now—Laurel should, too.”

Honestly, he hadn’t the slightest of clues how he was going to deal with this.

indra was still roiling, still bitterly festering like some turbulent sea. xan's concern did very little to slake the sharp fury, it only served to funnel it. was he really concerned for her and laurel? or was his concern for that stupid, wordless wolf?  she wondered if she was misinterpreting the concern on his face as concern for both parties -- what if he was worried more for the mute wolf? 

indra's gaze raked across him as she tried to decipher from his features which it was, but she was no emotional savant -- his eyes betrayed nothing. his expression looked genuine.  his pale features sharply contrasted her own -- indra had no concern for anything but vengeance. she might have spent her entire life as a doormat, but watching laurel be disrespected -- and then accosted -- stirred an ugly sense of bitter injustice in the girl.

"they fought. laurel won." her voice was clipped, as if her anger choked any faculty she had responsible for coherent speech. she turned to xan and gave him a grave look, anger clouding her expression: "whatever that bitch's name is - she's lucky her friend was there to stop me. i told her to stand down and she ignored me - and then her friend came." her tone grew progressively dark, and her inflection slowed to a sinister crawl: "you and i know what happens to the wolf that challenges its superior." she was referring then to redirected pack aggression -- in her eyes, the wolf was lucky she was even alive.

As it was revealed that they’d fought his lip twitched, threatening to turn upwards with a growl. He did not approve of the physical altercation, believing that the only thing such actions accomplished was the weakening of his ranks. He kept his thoughts to himself, however, letting it slide this once as his focus remained on easing the tension; he was an awful diplomat, more likely to fail at settling a dispute without his teeth than to succeed, but he tried.

“I’ll take care of this,” he repeated, this time through gritted teeth. “They’ll both learn their place.” The male could be spoken with, his rank beneath the girls could be hammered into his head, but Reigi? Sometimes, he felt she could understand him, but most times he could see how his words went right over her head. It would make things difficult but not impossible; he wished he could hear her thoughts, discover what it was that drove her, but he was destined to remain in the dark.

With a slow shake of his head and a glance towards Indra, he said: “Just relax, okay? You won’t have to worry about either of them acting out against you or your sister again.” Had he the ability to predict the future, he would have seen the lie in his words. In an effort to soothe her, he made a move at closing the space between them, muzzle trying to find its way to her cheek; she was but one to ease, but even settling one could lengthen the distance between peace and an internal war (he’d also yet to realise that some issues could not be so easily solved by a gentle touch).

never in the history of woman-kind had any woman taken kindly to being told to 'just relax'. indra's gaze pulled from the snow to xan with a resentful flutter, and she seemed to puff up like a small, angry bird. she bit her tongue, if only because she was damned if she did and damned if she didn't -- if she replied as hotly as she wanted to, he might accuse her of being hysteric. 

so she said nothing, even though her tongue pressed desperately against the roof of her mouth and all manner of sharp riposte played easily across her mind. she was quiet, but that didn't mean her displeasure couldn't be conveyed -- with an annoyed huff she turned her muzzle away from him purposely, denying him the satisfaction of even seeing her eyes. keeping him deliberately out of her sight, indra rose to leave.

time would tell if he was true to his word -- if any of them were.