Bearclaw Valley new beginnings

for the sake of keeping things moving, this will be a one round thread and i've assumed they are all gathered there already. if you want your character to not have been there, please let me know and i'll edit them out :) i will be gone this thursday to tuesday, but @Indra will take the lead in the journey to LCH that follows. :-) just want to get things moving and not have y'all in limbo for too long is why it is all going rather fast.

@Xan @Mona @Stigmata @Nanataq @Merrick @Marten @Wyatt @Piper

Laurel had spoken with Indra and taken her council, but the advice to their next step should come not from her sister and Beta, her best friend... but from her, to show that though beaten, she was still the pack's Alpha. Their numbers had thinned considerably throughout summer and though they had tried, their odds of surviving winter were narrow. Then there was the advice that Indra had received from Stigmata about staying in Bearclaw Valley and all things combined, it just seemed like a smarter move to find a different home.

So when all wolves were gathered Laurel told them: "It's not safe to stay here for the winter with the numbers we've got. We need to find a new home. There's other packs nearby -- Indra knows of a pack with friends where we can stay. Indra and I are going there. You can decide whatever you want to do yourselves." Some of it was a bit of a long shot and no certainty at all; such as if they were welcome there. Laurel certainly wasn't an inspiring or controlling leader; if any of the other wolves didn't want to stay, then they could go their own ways. Only after speaking did Laurel seek eye contact with Xan in silent question. There was a small moment of longing in her eyes before they hardened and she nudged the youth into action, then started making her way out of Bearclaw Valley, which somehow felt a bit like leaving a -- albeit gilded -- cage.

It was a lucky coincidence that Nunataq happened to be back at the Bearclaw valley, when Laurel and Indra called everyone for the meeting. She had been out on her own for the past two days and had come home one morning dripping wet, stinky like a swamp monster, ravenously hungry and very, very tired. She had crawled in the corner of the shared sleeping corners and slept for several hours straight without moving.

Therefore no wonder that she was not too hyped about being woken up and asked to join everyone else, who had gathered. But, since it was Laurel speaking and Laurel doing, she got her stuff together and paid attention. As much as she could make sense, some action was happening. She shot a questioning glance towards Indra, as if asking, if she knew, what was going on. But then without much hesitation she got up and followed.

marten gathered, clinging quietly to his mama nervously. they were leaving? all marten had ever known was the valley-- where would they be going now? he was so big now, so much older, but the security and familiarity of the valley made marten feel so childish. he didn't want to leave. this was home. 

but aunt laurel said mama was going. so, marten too was going. his ears fell flat to his head, and he huffed quietly.

then, in a 180, marten gasped. "rupert!" he exclaimed, shooting indra and apologetic look before explaining, "i gotta go get rupert first-- then i'm ready." and he shot off to find his beloved pet toad.

the day had long been coming, but even then in the hour it neared, Indra felt something akin to sorrow in her heart. she had loved Bearclaw; as much as her heart could love a place — but Bearclaw had not been a home to her in some time.

her children were growing, and with them, the walls of the stone faced valley seemed to lurch nearer. Lucas was not coming back; Xan had hardly cared at all he was gone (or if he cared, Indra certainly could not tell). now, all that remained of her home was its brokenness; Laurel’s incomplete happiness, Piper’s departure, Lucas’ sudden disappearance — it was all a sign they had stayed too long.

Stigmata’s growling words were heavy on her mind as she gathered by her family; a family which she would follow to the ends of the earth if Laurel so willed it. as Marten dashed off for his pet, Indra trailed behind calling for Merrick so that they could make their leave.

History had a tendency to repeat itself time and time again within the Apaata clan.

Like his father before him, Alexander could only watch as things fell apart. Perhaps it was his own fault, his troubled mind having secluded him for far too long now, but that made it not the least bit better. For the second time now, he was losing his home. The valley he’d taken back, the land that housed so many of his memories—it was to be left behind yet again. He felt his stomach drop at the thought of it all, from being without a home again to losing another family, it was maddening.

Rather, it’d nearly been. Xan, though he could not prevent things from replaying in some aspects, could at least change one piece of it. He could keep his family, unlike Kove had, or at least what of it remained. So, whilst he truly hated the thought of leaving his birthplace unattended, the act of following in his parents’ footsteps, he would leave home that day—he would leave in order to remain with those close to him, those he could not abandon.

they were leaving? but why? merrick dashed for the departing caravan of wolves, drawing up alongside his mother in a lather. were they going hunting? why was xan with them? the boy paused to marvel at the patriarch of their clan, before his eyes shot to indra for answers? "mama?" came his tremulous whisper. there was something different about their departure this time, and he did not like it.

looming at the fringes of the group— reminding everyone in attendance of a lone and somber raincloud— stigmata was alarmed by the news he received. lightning crackled from that cloud. an umbrage rattled up from the smoky wolf's chest and he barked out as the wolves of bearclaw began to retreat in shame from their prison walls. "this is a mistake," he snarled, passionate in his anger. "a travesty! unfit for this pack." 

he looked over the shoulders, over the milling few, and he targeted laurel with his accusations— since it was most clear the females ran this ragtag bunch, accompanied by the fact that indra seemed inexplicably (to him) subservient to her sister— as she was the only one who could stop this madness.

"we are few, yes, but to resort to this? joining the competition? forgoing our chances to breed? each of us are more than capable of feeding ourselves, as well as each other— there is absolutely no need for us to seek charity. we are enough," he asserted with a prideful lift of his chin. he suddenly thought of laurel as too dependent on the servitude of her packmates; if she wasn't, then numbers wouldn't have mattered so much.

she wasn't willing to struggle, even a little, to forge and keep a kingdom of her own. stigmata prickled, taking her retreat as the sign of a weakness he was meant to exploit.

shadowposted van!

her duty was to the sisters, and when the decision to leave bearclaw valley had come, there had been no question within the little mayfair that she would go. laurel set off at a quick clip; she watched as merrick drew to his mother's sides, and drew up to flank indra on the opposite side. offering her russetpelted friend a quick nudge, mona turned her eyes to the horizon. leaving the valley was not easy, but she was eager for the prospect of what was to come.
however, the angry tones of stigmata sounded then; the scout turned her wide swampwater gaze upon him.  electrical; tension snapped in the air, and mona pressed closer to merrick and indra, red hackles bristling as she flashed her teeth in warning. there was little need to do this now, not when the decision had been made. her loyalty was to the redleaf sisters. where did his lie?

considering the replies, figured I'd respond again! Feel free to reply, no post orders.

Laurel hadn't expected the harsh words from the one wolf who'd convinced Indra that they should leave to start with. She narrowed her eyes as this wolf she didn't even know well, a wolf who didn't know shit about her, talked such trash. Teeth revealed as gums peeled back into a snarl. You don't have the right to say shit about this, she warned. Winter is coming and we need numbers to survive, so you can either choose to follow, or fuck you, asshole. Laurel didn't stay to have a shouting match but instead she started making her way out of the valley; her first priority was getting the children to safety, so that they would survive the coming winter.

stigmata felt a stab of white-hot anger as laurel lashed her tongue at him like a whip and then turned her back to dismiss him entirely. no right? the hound's eyes swelled as he received the great indignity; every part of him straining to control his reaction. she was right in one aspect: he was not stupid enough to attack her, not when every tooth would have turned on him in the act. they were defeated and grieving, and he wasn't about to make himself a target for all of their pent-up angst.

but their leader was wrong on almost every other account. his complaints had been about their location, not their numbers, and he was far too confident to resort to filling into the ranks of some unknown entity when he knew very well that he could support himself and every wolf here could do the same for themselves. the young here were not infants. and this concession, to him, was foolhardy and inexcusably weak. if he had known his words would incite a migration into the helm of "friends" and leave those this had just been sprung on with the sting of basically a flippant "we don't care what you do," he wouldn't have said anything at all.

and this sort of treatment was fine for everyone else?

he looked madly, helplessly for support in the crowd. mona's face stuck out to him, contorted in a distaste he had not thought her capable of. a silent criticism for his timing. but if not now... if not when this was so abruptly decided, without discussion or regard for any of their followers... then when? when they had already been driven straight into the dark and off a cliff? sandraudiga wasn't interested in losing his name that way. he wouldn't be treated like he had no rights, when he had every single one of them.

the wolf felt himself ready to lash out, felt his need to resist this so firmly— that he felt almost startled when he met indra's gaze and remembered, with an intense flash of guilt, her accusations from not long before.

he was ready to abandon them on his principles. driven away, just as she had predicted.

it was the only thing that leveled him; her eyes demolished what emotions had been urging him to rebel, and for now, stigmata backed down. simmering rage carved a deep scowl into his features, and the wolf returned any response he had to the locked, blackened pit of his chest. he turned and disappeared, fuming like a put-out fire into the lonely depths of the abandoned valley.

an hour later, he reappeared, reluctant in his acquiescence, and following the group at a distance as they made their uneventful trudge to lost hollow creek.  

last 1 from me! my bad for not realizing this was supposed to be one round xD

mama? a quiet shadow had slid along her elbows, his eyes wide and filled with an emotion that pained indra to witness. was it fear?

for not the first time, indra marveled at the intuition of children - but before she could offer much more than a reassuring nudge, stigmata's disapproving gaze darkened the mood of the already grim group. indra felt something similar to a raw current outpour from his passionate form.

a hostile wrath threatened to move her; indra was surprised by the tenacity in which it roared to life from within her belly and ribs -- quickly she drew breath and extinguished it, but could not help the reproachful coldness of her eyes. it was a good thing laurel pulled no punches and held nothing back -- without ever needing to speak, indra watched as laurel plainly laid out for the male his options.

a new feeling settled in the pit of indra's stomach as she ushered the children along. she had already felt terrible for this move, but now a feeling of dread and burnt-out grief (extracted by stigmata's belligerent outburst) settled around her shoulders. for perhaps the first time, a twisted feeling that she wished she had never met the man burned in her quickly-closing heart.