Lost Creek Hollow time to sink way into the blue, dear

@Treason - tag in post for reference

the russet she-wolf hadn't found the time yet to be homesick; she had been too busy - the creek had been too busy. first, there was the many chores to be done as the new recruits: find a place to sleep, get a lay of the land, meet the neighbors -- then, the awful business of them losing two members. frankly, more had happened in the last week than indra cared to remember, and industrially, she kept herself very busy.

if she was busy, she wouldn't think: if she didn't think, doubt would never be able to snare its viney thorns into her. she knew it was better they were here, she knew the puppies would be safer here, but still, it didn't help - she didn't have closure.

closure. indra jerked from her thoughts with a start: what did she need closure for? her alpha hadn't just been ripped from limb to limb, her friend hadn't just been eaten by a bear. she chewed a lip in thoughtful shame, drew a long sigh (she was sighing ever so much these days) and, seeing that the kids were still in the honeymoon phase of exploring the place, indra informed @Laurel she was going out for a hunt, and slipped away from the family's densite.

it all felt surreal, walking through this forest that was not her own, but was supposed to be. it was weird too, assimilating into a new tribe: she would have to prove herself all over again, she would have to find her niche, her place, her people. all of this change might have been overwhelming to most wolves, but indra was frankly over it, so she settled into her new routine with a rather studied exhaustion.

she hoped that this would be the last major upheaval in her life - which thus far had been extraordinarily violent, and extraordinarily short. if the rest of her story was to play out this way, she might as well have been eaten by the bear, too.

Regardless of what actually happens in the other thread, Treason was her freakishly calm and collected self.  Probably the only person  less reactive than her was probably actually a cartoon butler -- and that was likely because Treason could kind of really get pissed off if she needed to.

As it were, there wasn't much she could do.  She did her job, stuff happened.  She couldn't even say "if things had gone differently" because there wasn't much she could have changed except by making them worse in the process.  The only thing now she could do was try to make sure Terance stayed grounded enough that he wasn't going to do anything stupid -- even though she was technically next in line for the title, she wasn't sure the newbies had a proper amount of respect for her Machiavellian ways to make it easy.

It did mean that things had quieted down for a few days, though, and she was ok with that.  Any opportunity to fall back into her own solo habits and not have to socialize.  It was probably for the best, because she did come off as uncaring (even if she kinda was), and it was probably best that a beta not be seen that way.

Her solitude, though, was coming to an end.  The arcing path that Treason was prowling through the territory intersected with that of Indra.  Treason supposed she should probably kind of get to know the newbies, and so even though she was tempted to adjust her path slightly and continue on like she hadn't spotted her, she didn't. She'd see what socializing got her this time, Indra, was it?

as indra walked along the quiet floor of the forest, she was struck by how beautiful — and not so different — the hollow was. the song of the river was quiet, almost tranquil, while the tall and imposing oaks and firs and douglas pine rose from the red floor like solemn but benevolent giants.

speaking of giants; ahead, indra caught a flash of snowstorm between the rioting fire of autumnal splendor. a wolf — her eyes measured the creature as it turned towards her. indra was no clairvoyant, but she didn’t need to be to see the flicker of something not entirely friendly in the wolf’s gaze. intuitive as she was she couldn’t put her finger on it. resentment, perhaps? that didn’t seem to be it, either.

maybe, thought indra, maybe this wolf was like stigmata — reproachful at best of strangers... especially those that had invaded her home.

indra tried to give her best apologetic smile, but it was more of a grimace. she supposed the last thing anyone wanted to do after dealing with a bloody loss was entertain an annoying newcomer. indra would try to read treason during their discourse - to see if maybe there was something she ought to do, or know. hi — yes, indra. and.. forgive me, I can’t recall...? her brow scrunched; she couldn’t remember if treason had said anything at all, least of all her name.

Treason was just Treason.  She existed, and if wolves couldn't bother to get past the fact she always looked dour, they probably weren't going to like her presence much.  Some day, Treason would have to learn what charisma was.  It would probably be to her advantage, but as it were, brute force had lead her along her life path pretty well on its own.  So why change?

In truth, she didn't have too much of an opinion of the new arrivals.  They also existed.  They had far too many children.  Beyond that, the only other noteworthy wolf was Stigmata and his little speech had painted him a fool in her eyes.  She didn't know what he wanted but the way he was going about it seemed counter to logic.  He didn't want to deal with new leaders because it was nearing winter?  Whatever.  If he stayed stupid, he could freeze for all she cared.

Back to the matter at hand, the pale devil dipped her head, I'm Treason.  She'd try to do her leaderly duties, even if they were counter to her base nature as a quasi-hermit.  Are you settling in despite... Pause.  What would you even call what had happened?  What would you call it without drawing too much attention to it, as if she wanted to commiserate about it?  Despite recent events?  She was not particularly creative about this kind of thing.  Ask her to think up an insult, she could craft something that matched the person, but this kind of stuff didn't strike her fancy.

now that she thought of it, the redleaf was certain she hadn't heard treason's name -- certainly, she would have remembered such an outstandingly dark moniker.

her ears did little to conceal her surprise at the name - they flipped forward almost absurdly, as if someone had just thrown a ball in front of her. "treason?" indra echoed, a bemused smile ghosting her countenance. "there is a story behind that. but to answer your question first - i think we are settling in fine. i could use a job... and, also.. i'm sorry for your loss." she looked to the impressively tall she-wolf then deferentially, still feeling a twinge of guilt to even bring mention of it to the surface.

See, unlike that Tashkent weirdo, Indra at least had one of the proper responses -- amusement was a secondary thing, often accompanied with some sort of remark.  She wasn't going to comment more on her name, though.  Things were easier if nobody bothered to pry -- it wasn't like they were going to get many straight answers anyway.  You did avoid the standard questioning, so what is it you do?  I'm sure right now Rannoch's family is mostly going to be fretting over him, so there's plenty of the usual opportunities...  If Indra was at least partially in charge of the Bearclaw kids, perhaps, Liffey might want her brood taken off her hands on occasion.  It wasn't like Treason would know, she avoided others' children.  There were other things as well, hunting and stuff, blah blah.  Normal stuff.  Surely the Bearclaw lot had at the very least basic skills to fill those gaps.

Treason was nothing if not practical to the point of being callous.  Considering the foe, it could have been worse.  We were lucky, as the world does its best to be cruel.  Rannoch really should have been dead as well.  It was only because packmates seemed to be somewhat nosy and followed him that he was even breathing now.  She supposed that Coelho's death had been honorable, especially for an omega -- perhaps she'd redeemed herself from that rank by her death.  Or not.   Treason wasn't going to put too much effort into thinking about it.

for some reason indra felt the almost-desperate need to impress treason: it surprised her, but she didn't want anyone here to think less of her -- especially not the wolf that she imagined was terance's taciturn right hand. treason's question was given a good amount of contemplative thought - what was it she did? what could she bring to the hollow, that would be valuable?

she thought of her contributions to bearclaw - somehow, they seemed insignificant - hunt, patrol, mark borders.. standard make, standard answer -- not good enough. her brow furrowed briefly, eclipsed quickly by a more neutral expression.

"to tell you the truth -- what i did in bearclaw.. was take care of someone else's pups." she had never imagined she would be a caretaker for a harem not her own, but... here she was. she supposed she owed treason the full explanation, as she somehow imagined 'nanny' was not exactly an elite skillset in treason's eyes. "xan -- the white male that came with us, was the alpha. he sired two litters.." she frowned at the rather clinical way of putting it - he fucked two women, used them up, selfishly -- could she say that here? she wanted to. "it was not.. fair to the first woman.. i think he played both of them. played us." vulnerability and a heavy weight of empathy weighed down her words - it had taken her a long time to see from the nameless wolf's perspective, and even, indra still felt a bit cold as she thought of the woman -- but she felt colder still for xan, who had done not just laurel, but reigi wrong.

"and... the woman left. she took one child, left the rest behind. and there wasn't really anyone to take care of them - certainly not xan -- and laurel.. asking her to take care of the offspring of a 'mistress', was that fair?" she didn't feel it was fair either to refer to reigi as a mistress either, as technically, laurel had been the homewrecker -- but old loyalties died hard, and indra would be dead and rotting in the ground well before she ever looked to laurel as if she were at fault. "so it fell on me. that's the abbreviated story of how i became a glorified nanny. but to answer your real question, which is what i am skilled at - before all of this, i was a good hunter. i still am a good hunter - but i liked studying game. i am not a good fighter, though."

Great.  So the Bearclaw wolves had come with a nice pile of drama that would have to be untangled at some later point.  If Terance had known some(?) of these these wolves, did he know everything that had gone on there?

Well he won't be allowed to repeat that in the future, she said with a bit of a sneer.  As far as Treason was able, she would make sure that pups born would be to actual pairs or at the very least be born to be useful.  Unless Xan suddenly climbed in rank, he'd better be planning to keep it in his fluffy white pants.  We had our own troubles. There were two women in our pack that used our resources to bear their children, then left with their whelps as soon as they were reasonably mobile.  I don't think they ever made it clear to anyone if anything was wrong before saying they were leaving.  Treason made no attempt to temper her words.  Loyalty was important to her, and them bailing like that had marked them as treacherous in her eyes, even if Rannoch had said they were allowed to return.  They would never be truly welcome with Treason around -- you couldn't just forgive them hanging out and being useless for several months like a pile of furry leeches, bailing when they would have finally been able to be more useful again.  She left out that Terance was the father of one of the litters.  He'd probably had enough random trauma happen to have that wound clawed open again unless he chose.  Treason wrapped up that tale quite seriously, Either way, these types of things won't be happening again if I have my say.  

The slight shift in topics was accompanied by a less-sharp tone.  This, after all, was discussing positive things, not "are you attempting to destroy the pack" things.  If you've had enough of pups, then feel free to take on hunting roles.  The youths you arrived with are old enough to be left to their own devices, aren't they?  She looked to Indra for confirmation, but continued. I believe Nara also does quite a bit of hunting as well.  You could probably work with her.  Either way, we arrived here with empty caches so I'm sure winter will try to catch us off-guard.  Treason couldn't blame her for wanting to do something different, as she had no desire to care for anyone else's pups but probably would have lacked the pity to do as Indra did.

indra returned a brief, bemused smile in response to treason's no-nonsense assertion: fluffy white pants aside, the redleaf woman could not endure another breeding season -- coping with infidelity and the result of it in the form of eight whole, demanding puppies had all but drained the last dredges from the summer wolf.

gods, was she tired -- and she would remain tired for a long time, for whelping and raising children (not all your own) put a cold strain on a creature: the kind of opaque and chilling film which clung to ones mental acuity, and rebounded with a spiderweb's snaring insistence each time one tried to shake themselves free of it. and more than anything, it sapped one down to their basest role: provider -- not individual.

the pups would soon be adults - maybe not mentally, but physically - and bit by bit they were dispersing... something that while it came naturally, still pained indra to come to terms with. she had an easier time coming to terms with her own death -- her own ultimate end, that surrender to bleak and black nothingness -- than she did with the idea that someday, her children (of blood and of adoption) would forge on without her.

in the middle of these grim thoughts, treason had mentioned the hollow's own sorrowful troubles. indra's expression snared into one of quiet disdain (in truth had she known one of the wolves spoken of so unfavorably was seabreeze, she might have exclaimed but seabreeze is nice! i met her myself -- surely there must be more...)... but indra had yet to connect the dots from terance's heartbreak, to seabreeze's collected departure. she certainly would not make that connection of her own intelligent merit.

she wanted to lighten the mood, maybe by saying something like 'breeding season, amirite?' with a flashy grin -- but, she didn't. she didn't think it would be taken well, and, indra was not the type to deal with rejection particularly gracefully -- especially if it was her own attempt at a joke that fell short.

"that's terrible." she remarked, and it was genuine too -- she worried about the children more than the hollow - had they made that travel okay?

the conversation shifted, and with it, the tone seemed to soften. indra still found it strange she, for all intents and purposes, was a caretaker of puppies -- she had envisioned greater things in her life.. but perhaps producing and protecting the next generation was the highest deportment there was.

"i wouldn't mind that - hunting, i mean. our pups have done a few small practice runs, but no big game.. but in the meantime i could make myself useful storing caches. we had a good one at h--" she almost said home; guiltily, indra looked away and corrected her course. "at bearclaw. if you ever are that way and walked past the two big stones at the entrance and followed the creek down to a tangle and deadfall, your nose would find it in a minute. could come in useful if we need it.. but, i'll see to it that we don't."

Treason didn't really concern herself with the pups at all.  Why would she?  It wasn't like she had been in any place to just outright steal them -- to force them to stay while their mothers wandered elsewhere.  They weren't worth it -- one set with an unknown father and the other with a mother that she was thoroughly unimpressed with even before having a litter of questionable legality.  They Their fates were up to their mothers, and if they had died, such was the way of the world.  But what would the next spring bring?

If you'd like, if you did find a good herd and a preferred target, we could always set up a larger hunting party.  Give the pups a taste of a proper hunt and all that...  Maybe more out in the fields though, not here.  It'd probably be easier for them to learn without worrying about running into trees.  It was said with a bit of wry humor -- hunts could be chaotic enough without someone more inexperienced doing something silly.  The denser parts of the forest would be the harder course, once they'd had some successes under their belts.  Just let us know what seems like a good plan.  At least Indra seemed agreeable.  Treason had yet to really talk to Laurel, but her words at the border had definitely seemed to paint her as the edgier sister.  Time would tell if that was true.

treason's words might have been pragmatic, but the mention of trees and possible impact elicited a snort from the redleaf. she looked away quickly, attempting to hide her sign of amusement -- but still.. was there any adult that didn't have a bit of a sadist side, watching kids get harmlessly hurt? they always ran around like the world was their oyster anyway, impressively convinced of their own invincibility.. so wasn't it a bit funny, when the world snapped back against their impervious charm?

a hunt with them sounds fun.. without the trees. i'll start scouting. indra could already see the chaos that followed (puppy hunting parties was sometimes akin to herding cats, right?), but she would prepare for it. i should probably start looking. indra mentioned politely, unsure of how to excuse herself -- or if treason even wanted to come along.

Treason wasn't the type to follow along after someone for too long.  Despite living in a pack, she still preferred a fair amount of alone time to keep her thoughts in order and assumed most were the same, perhaps incorrectly.  So, Indra's words gave her a convenient out. 

She dipped her head again, repeating, Let us know what you find.  So one of the Bearclaw wolves was going to find her place in the pack, and time would tell how well she did at setting something up.  Treason would have to see about crossing paths with the rest of them at some point, but she assumed that would happen at some point, one way or another.  They would find their place in the pack or she would find one for them.  For now, though, Treason would start to make her exit, perhaps to go off on a proper patrol.