Lost Creek Hollow for the line in my life

@Laurel @Xan @Mona @Stigmata @Nunataq @Marten @Wyatt @Merrick @Piper @Fire - keeping who is with them + also certain events vague. set for tomorrow (10/31)

armed with laurel's conviction and stigmata's ominous words, indra crested one of the last ridges of pine-land before the weald dipped into conifer-studded forest. they had decided they would not go to easthollow -- while the puppies shared blood with the wolves in the stone-faced flatlands, it would be going to the hearth of his family. no, they struck for greener pastures -- with or without the arctic-blooded apaata alpha.

while the distance was not particularly daunting, keeping their troupe assembled and orderly was taxing; indra was hypervigilant as they passed under the imposing faces of wind scoured trees: it was very likely they would meet wolves along the way, and indra wanted no part in dealing with strangers while they were so vulnerable.

their journey had not been free of chaos, but finally, they neared. keeping terance's mention of the pack's new location in mind, indra was relieved once the scent of borders fluttered through the autumn rain. drawing to a halt, the redleaf signaled for the band of wolves to stop -- here their expedition would end. happily, indra hoped -- and then with a grit of teeth she threw back her head in a howl.

Fire's escape has been approved by @Maegi and @Kalganov.  Keeping things a little vauge on my end, too.

Ceara had always hated the rain.  True to the namesake her family had given to her, she had tended to shrink beneath the water.  She didn't like the cold, or the wet.  She couldn't swim.

But oh, Ceara was dead and rain had never tasted so much like freedom to the girl-turned-woman who'd replaced her.  Though her thin form shivered and quaked, she embraced the cold because it made the sunlight on her back stronger.  

Phoenix stuck close to Indra's side until it was time for Official Leadership Business Stuff, then was content to fade into the background — alone.

also being a lil bit vague

terance had not expected indra's call. and when he headed towards it, expecting a friends sort of interaction, he was surprised to find not just indra, but a number of wolves. his ears pricked, water dripping down his brow and onto the thick fur of his cheeks. he stood proud before the gathering, his tail swishing once in a friendly manner towards indra, but then holding steady above his back as he maintained his rank.

"indra," he greeted simply, green gaze finding the red woman, "what brings you to the hollow?"

She stood by Indra's side, proud and tall. It was some time since she had stood this way: she knew she must make an impression now, as Alpha of Bearclaw valley, away from the grief of her lost child. Here she could start anew in many ways with what remained in her life.

She smiled sweetly at Terance as he approached, and though the questions were directed at Indra Laurel said: Heya. I'm Laurel, Alpha of Bearclaw valley and Indra's sister. Our numbers have dwindled and our territory can't offer us enough safety over winter -- we've left in search of a new home. We were hoping this could be it. She gave Terance the sweetest eyes she could; she knew how men worked, and though they had something to offer to this pack, they still relied greatly on acceptance here. It'd been long since she had needed to put on a mask, and it made her feel so much in control; it felt better than she had imagined it would.

Rain had probably slightly muffled her approach, with all the nice little pitter-patters on leaves dead and alive, but Treason had also shown up here on the borders, more curious than anything, since this was the first visitor she'd seen here at their new territory.  Back at Sunspire, Treason had usually left the howls to other people -- it wasn't her responsibility at the time -- but now she obviously would have to get into that habit, among other things.  Could be worse.

She'd come in to view probably about a third of the way through what Laurel was saying, taking her time to walk towards Terance with her typical unhurried stride.  Really, probably more of a prowl.  Treason took the final curve to come up next to him a little tight, debating whether she wanted to nudge him like he often did to her or not.  She voted for not, settling for a sharp exhalation that he may or may not feel.  For all the moments when the beta seemed to have zero fear, she was apparently kind of a chicken socially.  If he looked her way, she'd slightly nod her head, sort of in a, "Yep, I'm here, can bite faces if needed," sort of way.  As far as she was concerned, she was still not the one to run any sort of more major diplomatic event.

Seemed like a pretty wide range of folks.  And then there was that damn pup again (assuming she didn't get abducted by aliens along the way).  Her pointed gaze lingered a few moments before drifting away on to the next wolf, exact expression illegible beyond her normal serious state, partially because her player hasn't figured out what to do in that other thread yet, oops.  Back to the group.   Treason was obviously doing some sort of mental evaluation of the soggy crew that wanted to join them, but she wasn't sharing her thoughts yet.

just wanted to throw a reply up to keep things running, but everyone is still welcome to pop in!!

in the back of the redleaf woman’s mind, there trickled a stream of self-doubt: what if she was wrong to bring them here, placing her entire family st the hands of a man that for all intents and purposes, was just little more than a stranger? she fretted besides laurel as they waited, relief sinking into her tensely held shoulders as she beheld the scarred male in his arrival.

alongside the cubs, fire, and laurel, indra breathed a long-held sigh. she was sure their arrival was unanticipated, and frankly, unprecedented— she could read the confusion in terance’s soft emerald eyes. he was soon flanked by a woman Indra could not read; she did not miss the pointed look to one of their pups, but did not have the opportunity to inspect further — for the confident voice of her sister broke clearly over the crisp fall morning. indra thought laurel had summarized their rather deplorable position admirably, and had little to add besides a small smile that did not light the cold halls of her tired eyes with its warmth. we need a family; not just a pack and home. indra’s voice was quiet but plaintive — she knew their decision had been right, but it didn’t make things any easier.

The little group had acquaired a stranger along the way, who kept close to Indra, thus stealing Nunataq's spot and earning very dark and jealous looks, until the adolescent decided that his strategy was not working and decided to sulk at the end of the whole group. Eff you! Don't need you or anyone else! Is the best verbal description of demeanor she radiated, while she pretended to be intereste at some other stuff and either stayed behind or strayed further off from the rest. And, whoever got too close to her, she would be more than happy to growl and snap at.

When they arrived to a place that she had been once before, Nuna was a little confused. Why here, why now, what were they doing here? Were she no so upset with Indra, she would have come near and asked, now she simply sat down, a little distance away from the rest and watched the whole scene unfold before her eyes. First, a dark pelted scarred man arrived, who was soon followed by - could it be? Oh, yes, it was. Treason's look of disapproval, whas met with a shameless, toothy grin and wagging tail. Now this was going to be interesting.

his ears pricked as laurel began to speak. her sweet gaze had little affect on terance, who had grown tired of manipulation and games. he read others easily now, and a mask simply wouldn't work here. not with terance. not anymore. he noted her gaze with a narrowed gaze of his own, his ears pushed forwards. he nodded once, and then looked to indra, at whom his gaze softened. a family. he wondered why the valley hadn't provided them with that. especially since they themselves were family. 

"we have room among our ranks," he said to the redhead. he added with a soft dip of his nose, "for family." his forest gaze scanned the wolves around him, landing on laurel, analyzing. "who is with you?" he directed this question at the liver-coated female.

In the time that it had taken Rannoch to scale Lost Creek Hollow's territory, a proper meeting had congregated. Thankfully, he had arrived just in time to hear the reason for Bearclaw Valley's unexpected visit.  Even in his approach, he was contemplating Laurel and Indra's request—for not only a pack but a family. Rannoch was intrigued, to say the least. 

Truthfully, their ranks had abated, and there was plenty of room for the group. Terance replied before Rannoch could, and he nodded; the Beta had questioned his only concern. "I agree," he appended, "I'm Rannoch, by the way. Alpha of this territory." His introduction was directed to Laurel and Indra in particular.

he had not left indra's side until they arrived in this strange place. and when newcomers began to emerge, merrick gave a low growl and bristled, slinking away from his mother to flank nunataq. the pair of young wolves seemed to share the same opinion of the goings-on, though the boy stayed standing, unsure of what his friend found so amusing. he followed her sharp gaze toward the woman who regarded their family less than warmly, and his head dipped below his shoulders in consternation. home? with them? why?

their journey had been relatively easy, save for the outburst by stigmata. she watched as wolves filed to meet them; first a man, then the woman she had met some time ago, both on sunspire and in the hollow. they were joined by the proud power of another male, but it was the wolf who greeted indra first that held mona's attention.
mona took in the sight of his intelligent green eyes, the mingling of snow and charcoal in his pelt. she swallowed, not wanting to stare too long; thankfully, her attention was diverted to merrick, who moved away to join his friend nunataq. this was a place of health and strength; she was glad that indra had led them here, even if stigmata had challenged their departure from bearclaw.

truthfully marten was pretty bummed that they were moving, but he was more bummed that merrick was hogging all the leg seats. :/ he travelled along, walking instead just to indra's right, carrying rupert in his mouth. sometimes the frog croaked, and it peed once or twice on his tongue. it was disgusting! and marten was not a fan of it... but... there was nothing to be done.

he just sucked it up. allowing the taste to linger along their journey, but made a screwed up face for roughly 20 minutes each time after it'd happened. he'd have a stern talking to rupert once they'd gotten wherever they were going.

and then they arrived. nunatuq seemed coy, or, something. marten didn't understand why she looked like that. or how mama knew the big grey man with all the scars. they were scary, marten thought, but indra had her fair share of surface level marks and so marten tried to think he was just like his mama. he seemed nice, after all. he spoke all big and tough. and. and. and... big. yeah. laurel didn't speak so big, but she still spoke. 

marten stayed quiet, toad in mouth, and listened to what would happen.

there was a broad space between stigmata and the rest of bearclaw's damp remnants. he stood casually and inert, for the moment, letting his tarnished silver gaze wash over each of the new wolves who had come to accept them, and then huffing to himself in mild disappointment as he recognized them all as more youngsters. burly and strapping as though they all appeared, the warhound was immediately put-off the idea of falling in line behind more young wolves.

especially, not wolves so heavily scarred. wolves with such grievous wounds did not make smart choices to begin with.

his back stiffened when they had all finished their pitiful pleas for a unneeded extension to this "family", and slowly - without challenge - stigmata made his approach. "i am stigmata," he said first, retaining a neutral expression as he regarded the leaders before them. he was impressed most by the dark-hooded amazonian silently judging them all, but he couldn't afford the giantess any more attention than he gave her male counterparts; and he had more class than to let his fancies be known right away.

"i will not be joining your ranks," he finalized in his smoky timbre. "taking on more superiors, this time of year - for me - would be unwise. this is as near to your home i will come, and so i must ask," stigmata could not help his glance towards indra; "if your lot would consider me a lone, foreign ally, and allow me to remain unaccosted in the surrounding territories, should my family need me."

Laurel cringed as Stigmata stepped forward to announce his departure. She'd expected this, of course, after how he had acted during their meeting when they left Bearclaw Valley, but to do so now seemed like adding insult to injury to her. Laurel bit her tongue to not tell him to fuck off herself when he first spoke, but when he looked to Indra and called her family, she could stay silent no longer. "You are not our family," she said coldly, "And if you choose to leave us here you are not part of this pack in any way and like any other loner I see scurrying around nearby." She refrained from saying 'you're dead to me', however tempting it was. It was perhaps not her place to say these things considering there was also leadership of the pack they were joining available. Maybe it was a remnant of Laurel's time as Alpha that made her speak up, or maybe just her anger towards Stigmata.

In reply to Terance's question, she said: "Me, my sister Indra, our children," this was said warmly and she gestured to the pups then, "Mona," who was also mentioned fondly, "Xan," her tone of voice was cool there, for she and Xan were still on awkward terms and matters had never truly gotten resolved, "And..." She glanced at Fire, then at Indra, allowing her sister to explain that one further.

i'm not sure what the order is anymore with so many participants, so i hope posting again is ok. ^^'

Also wanted to keep this going.  I r tired, sorry if it makes no sense.

So far, for what it was, things weren't out of the ordinary.  Or they weren't until some greyish guy stepped forward and spoke up.  Treason was expecting he was some higher ranked member of the pack who knew something important.  Or something.  But as  he continued, she wasn't sure if she should frown or be perplexed.  What he was saying just simply didn't make sense to her.

This time of year?  Like, right before winter when it's generally a good idea to have a pack?  What did different leadership have to do with anything?  No matter what he was going to have to find a new pack unless he somehow thought he could make his own before then (and since he seemed to be lacking even temporary compromise, she doubted it would happen) or he could turn into a wolfcicle.  Perhaps he figured in the middle of winter he could come whimpering back and beg.  Might be fun to turn him down then -- force him to deal with what Treason saw as a very stupid choice.  And yet, he also wanted to stick around.  Yeah.  She just didn't get it.

And then Laurel pretty much dealt with that for her.  Treason didn't even have to figure out what to say to that disaster of a decision!  She couldn't help but faintly smirk at that retort -- from the NippyKindLangur of it all, to use a Dota meme.  Whatever.  Aside from the free entertainment, it was up to Rannoch and Terance to deal with this, in her eyes.

there was no hiding the disappointment -- and hurt -- that seeped across indra's visage. stigmata's outburst cut her down, and she looked upon him in the manner of a dog that had been unjustly struck. if he wanted to linger on the borders, he may as well leave them -- she was just gathering up the hurt and churning it into rightful rage to speak when laurel spoke for her.

laurel had never let indra down; laurel knew where to go, what to say -- she looked upon her sister with a sort of anguished admiration then, her gaze stealing darkly to stigmata for whatever rejoinder he might issue.

it wouldn't matter; by her body posture alone, indra was unreceptive to any further argument. while she was silent, her body spoke for her -- rays of tormented disgust seemed to radiate from her clipped posture. she could not trust herself to answer laurel's question about fire without betraying the hurt in her voice, so instead she gently nudged the she-wolf so she might offer her own name if she wished.

wanted to post again bc i figured this was a new round/no posting order + it makes the most sense icly

though he should have expected such vitriol from the more clueless of the redleaf sisters, stigmata was visibly taken aback by laurel's assertion that he wasn't family - first - and that second, he wasn't welcome to linger if he didn't want to stay. he almost couldn't process the words, but as indra turned beldam right before his eyes, he knew what the bitch had said was true.

he wasn't family. no amount of aptitude, platitude, or servitude would make him so.

his ears folded, and stigmata took a bewildered, wounded step back. "i... misspoke," he choked bitterly, overcoming the embarrassment of having been denied by his own (ex)packmates, by returning a stiff, proud look towards the lead male(s). "it would appear that i have been ousted for daring to refuse hospice," he snorted with a tense roll of his shoulders. he had no intention of rebutting anything they had conjured about him, and what the leaders of lost creek said after laurel's spiel almost didn't matter. 

the wolves here seemed to think that their lives were at stake because of the cold weather, but stigmata knew that his life was only at stake if he did not spend it breeding a legacy in his own stead. winter was as exciting as it got for wolves - and the fact that these so-called carnivores all wanted to live easy, and grow like mold onto a single territory their whole lives, was proof enough that he didn't belong with any of them. he should have known when he met the wolves of bearclaw, who never ventured as a pack outside its stone confines, that these lands were too different for him to negotiate.

the sandraudiga's had ran an entire range of mountains, all year long, taking and losing as it happened. prey shortages were common, but they had never aligned themselves with the competition. would have failed down to a single member before turning to another's ranks. not ironically, stigmata was maintaining this tradition by having fallen again into forced bachelorhood, because of the way he saw things.

and these things had come to past, not for lack of trying. he had done his passive stint, lolling about in bearclaw's ranks, allowing himself to be considered a peon, and it had gotten him less than nowhere. so time for  the meandering paths were over. he could not conceive of the weakness the wolves of teekon had been born with, but he would not let himself turn into one of them, he vowed at that moment.

"i shall harry you all no more," the smokehound assured those gathered, and then turned to make a swift, cantering exit.

She's prompted to offer her name and she opens her mouth a beat too late.  It's frightening to know she's already considered family here, by this woman she doesn't know and her family she's tailed.  It's comforting, too.  She knows she'll betray them like this man has betrayed them — she knows she has to go home.  Phoenix, she whispers, after whatever drama has found its way here has dissolved, then turns more solidly towards the two women of Bearclaw.  Phoenix.

going to wrap this up ~

everything seemed to sort itself out. terance didn't even get a word in before the strange male was revoking his statement and slinking away from the territory. terance's brow furrowed as he went, stealing a glance at indra. she seemed... a mix of emotions, terance couldn't quite read them. and then laurel was speaking again.

terance merely nodded, giving a gentle chuff to phoenix. and then rannoch, with one sweeping gesture, took the wolves in, terance following suit, hanging close to indra.