Heron Lake Plateau And hell I took you up on all your threats to leave

wc:458

So I did a dice roll for Niamh and she ended up getting a 5/5 so the coyote will definitely be dead by the end of this thread. Anyone who is up for a dice-roll decided thread, feel free to join :) Given the first strike, the options can and should prossibly be weighed in the wolf's favour. So like... with a 1d5, the coyote would only manage a successful attack if it rolls a 1 or a 2, with 3-5 favouring the wolf. Or something like that. DO WHAT YA WANT :) It's more for trade progress than anything.

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If there was something that Niamh both loved and hated, it was an intruding varmint. She’d come across a coywolf near the ocean just days ago, but this one was a pure coyote, and in other words, a purebred varmint. It had trespassed into their territory and had found a cache, which made Niamh shudder slightly. This one wasn’t going to get away with it. Snow fell in soft, fluffy flakes, but Niamh ignored the serene beauty that held the Plateau in its grasp and beat a wicked warpath, following the coyote’s tracks until she could smell him not far up ahead. At that point, she arched away from its trail, as it was headed toward the borders- and put on an extra burst of speed to bypass it and stop it from escaping.

Once she felt she was far enough ahead, she changed direction, arching her trail back in toward the heart of the packlands until she could see the sandy coat of the coyote moving through the part of the pack’s territory where the plateau slanted down and leaned into the thicket, which was neutral territory. She’d found it just in time- a few moments longer and it would have made it out of their territory and possibly to safety.
But not today, Junior.

Niamh snarled and launched herself toward the coyote which abruptly dropped the half decomposed rabbit it had found but didn’t have time or the footing to get away from her sudden attack. Niamh smacked into the coyote with so much force that it knocked the gangly creature off its feet and sent it rolling, but Niamh was still on the offensive, and managed to snap viciously at one of its legs, feeling the bones crackle between her jaws. The coyote let out an awful scream, alerting other wolves in the area to its presence. Niamh didn’t care- this thief was going to pay, and there was no way it would be able to get away with a broken leg. She backed off for a moment, willing to let the coyote stumble in anguish a bit, though it couldn’t run. She considered grabbing it by the scruff and dragging it back for the Quiven kids to take down- but she knew that not all wolves were coyote killers, and that her well-meaning instruction might have been seen as something a bit more macabre than the pack was willing to tolerate. Still, the coyote had tried to steal from them, and now it was going to die. She didn’t mind sharing the task, nor did she feel bad about inevitably sealing its fate by breaking one of its forelegs. She circled the creature which snarled at her now, but remained in a defensive position.

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i did roll a d5, but i'll keep it secret and incorporate it in my posts. :D

Eljay liked to patrol these days, not really to keep an eye out -- he always hoped nothing happened -- but mostly because it was a great way to process the many and complex thoughts that plagued him. As Eljay was wandering along the borders, occasionally marking something or other, he suddenly heard a shriek nearby. Eljay nearly fell over, startled by the noises, and stared around him wide-eyed. He didn't see anything and didn't really want to go check out the noise, but he knew he had to at least check if it wasn't a pack mate in trouble.

Oh, shoot, it was a pack mate, though she hardly seemed to be in trouble. Eljay awkwardly approached at a trot that was intended to look fast but wasn't very fast at all -- though likely, Niamh was too busy fighting to notice anyway -- and with a racing heart Eljay reached the wounded coyote and pack mate. He wanted to know what had happened, though he guessed that it was an intruder, considering it was near the borders and wasn't, as far as Eljay knew, a part of the pack (and, unless it was a very coyote-looking coywolf, was also a coyote).

The coyote remained on the ground and Eljay watched as Niamh circled it, not sure what to do. Should he attack, or just stay defensive until his pack mate would decide on the next attack, and then help? He felt sorry for the coyote, really, as it lay crumpled on the ground, but Eljay also knew that they should kill it or it would probably return. Besides, it didn't look too good; if they didn't kill it now, then maybe it would not be able to get by and die a slow, torturous death anyway. Still, the caretaker in Eljay liked to think that he could do something to help it if they chose it so. He wasn't dumb enough to question his Beta's decision, though.

While Eljay stared at the wounded leg and contemplated trying to diffuse the situation, mere seconds after his arrival, the coyote suddenly leaped up at him. Eljay shrieked but instinctively bared his teeth. His first reaction was to freeze, as the coyote leaped up at him and grabbed a hold of his chest, but then Eljay jumped up to try and shake it off, teeth snapping though he was unable to reach the coyote with them from his vantage point. Luckily he wasn't alone.

EEEEEE-ris!!!!! <3 Thanks for joining! lol, Niamh got a 5 too...but feel free to fling the coyote back at her whenever you want.

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Niamh circled the coyote, trying to figure out exactly which way would be the best to dispatch it- and then where would she bury it afterwards, so that if anyone became desperate, they could dig it up for a mid-winter snack. Coyotes didn’t taste good- no predator seemed to taste goo, but that didn’t discourage Niamh from wanting to destroy anything that could potentially be a threat to the pack, its puppies or the caches that they’d worked so hard to maintain. It wasn’t that Niamh was outraged by the coyote, though, or had any reason to hate them. It was a game to her, more than anything- begun by silly childhood stories where the coyote was the villain and the wolf was always the victor.

Still, at least this one wasn’t just an amusement- she’d stopped it from getting away with a decaying rabbit from one of their caches. When Eljay joined her, she wondered if he too enjoyed hunting down and bullying coyotes- but that didn’t exactly seem like something that was in his nature. As far as she could tell, he was probably one of the nicest Blackthorns on the list of them, right up there with Elwood. She nodded toward the coyote and was about to explain that it had tried to rob them when it lurched at the newest threat and grabbed a hold of the thick fur and skin at Eljay’s chest. Perturbed by its audacity, Niamh moved forward with a growl.

With the coyote in a fixed position, she could snap at its shoulders, but getting it to release Eljay without simply grabbing it and tugging on it was the trick, as it could cause more damage if she grabbed it by the scruff and pulled- if it held on. Eljay was snapping at the coyote, but with the angle of the way they were, he couldn’t get a good hold. Niamh got an idea.

She didn’t pull, when she caught the coyote’s tail in her mouth- instead, she simply bit down over and over again, clenching her jaws and partially severing the coyote’s tail in hopes it would let go of Eljay. She figured he could handle what he had, so she wasn’t in any immediate concern- but if there was any way to get it to let go of Eljay and get its attention, she figured mangling its tail was the way to do it.

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yay! it's been altogether too long since we've threaded!

i meant that i had rolled and will incorporate in my posts, but didn't share it to avoid spoilers for you on whether or not Eljay would get wounded etc. :D up to you whether the coyote actually hits Niamh / what it does.

It seemed like a desperate attempt to get some damage done from this coyote, though Eljay didn't understand it at all -- he had wanted to diffuse the situation rather than further anger this creature, but it seemed he'd entirely failed at that. "Get off me!" Eljay screamed in panic as his teeth did not manage to hit home, and he felt relief wash over him when his pack mate was upon it.

The coyote yelped in pain as Niamh grabbed its tail, a vibration that Eljay felt in his flesh through the coyote's teeth clamped into him. At first it tightened the animal's grip on Eljay's chest, but as Niamh bit down more and more the coyote eventually let go of Eljay -- deciding he wasn't much of a threat, perhaps -- and turned 'round to make a grab for Niamh instead, despite its diminishing chances in the scenario.

Eljay wished he could diffuse but he thought back to what Towhee had said about his fighting and he knew he should prove himself in some way. While all he wanted to do was have someone take care of his chest wound Eljay moved forward after the coyote and as it was on its way to Niamh -- Eljay couldn't see if the coyote had hit Niamh or not -- he grabbed the bloodied sensitive bit of its tail, hoping that'd make it flee in some way.

:)
Well, I rolled an even, which is a hit- so I'll have Niamh take that, and roll again to see if she can hit it back...And she got an even too. Mkay.

Poor Eljay- as Niamh worried the coyote's tail with her teeth, it had managed to bite the Blackthorn male in the chest, making Niamh growl aggressively even though she wasn't the one who was in pain. She tightened her grip and gave the coyote's tail a good solid yank, which seemed to be enough to deter it from its initial target and whirl around to make a grab for her. She intended to hang onto its tail, but as soon as the coyote sank its sharp teeth into her shoulder she yelled out, furious, and let go of its tail. 

She side-stepped, hoping to dislodge the creature but it continued to bite down into the thick fur of her shoulder. Fortunately, though, it couldn't go too far- as Eljay bit down on the creature's tail, causing it to yelp and let her go. With its mouth agape for a moment, Niamh saw her opportunity and took it. She lowered her head and shouldered the coyote, making a grab for the edge of its jaw where she would be able to grab a hold of the coyote without it being able to grab her back. She missed its throat, so the coyote could still breathe, but her fangs hooked the underside and outside of his jaw, holding his head very still in one position and she refused to give up her hold even though it tried to wriggle away. She couldn't make a killing bite just yet, but she could hold it still, at least, and began to use her weight advantage to force it to the ground, thankful for Eljay's assist in keeping it from using the weight of its hind end to pull away,

Everything seemed to go so fast! Eljay bit down on its tail and squeezed his eyes shut, unable to bear seeing what else may happen and fearful for the threat to head his way again. He heard growls and screams going on, and felt pressure on the tail, but all else was a big blur to him. It seemed like everything, all the sounds, all the movements, were in slow motion and at the same time passed him by at high speed.

When Eljay opened his eyes he saw Niamh's teeth around the coyote to keep it in place. There was an open spot at its neck that Eljay couldn't probably easily have grabbed, but he just couldn't. To hold it by its sensitive tail was already a bit thing for Eljay but he was too frozen too do anything else or more. He just kept standing there with the tail still clenched between teeth and bit down hard on that, unable to take any opportunities or do anything useful while he willed this fight to be over soon.

With the coyote held more or less in one position, making an aweful fqualling sound in the process, Niamh considered what move to make next. She couldn't suffocate it, as she gripped the bone of its jaw, but she also didn't necessarily want to let it go in case Eljay let go of its tail at the same time. With a broken leg, it wouldn't get far, but like Eljay, she simply wanted to get things over with. He certainly looked like he wasn't enjoying the whole scenario, so Niamh did the only thing she could think of- and gave her head a vicious shake, emitting an undulating, high pitched growl as she did so and even though it made her dizzy too, the coyote was disoriented enough that she could loose her grip and then go in for the kill. 

Once the coyote had stopped moving, she dropped it, and hissed slightly through her teeth, pausing for a moment to lick her shoulder where the creature had bit her. "Hate coyotes," She said gruffly, and nodded to Eljay. "Thanks for the help though, dude," She said. She hadn't exactly pegged Eljay for the type to help kill anything. She even found it slightly odd to picture Eljay killing something in order to eat it- but it wasn't as though he could be a vegetarian and survive. She tried to find a bit more respect for him, for having helped her- though she still had the idea that he'd only done it to save her from getting injured, not because he actually liked fighting.

Eljay squeezed his eyes shut tight, hoping that this would all soon be over. He kept biting down and felt the struggle between his teeth. The easiest thing was to just keep telling himself that it wasn't really a fight, and that nothing really depended on this. It couldn't end soon enough as far as Eljay was concerned.

Finally the pressure subsided and the screaming in his ears was suddenly gone. As the tail went slack in his mouth Eljay dropped it as if it was a hot potato that was burning his mouth. It was a dead thing now. He frowned, looking startled and shocked as he stared at the dead body. Dead. With wide eyes he looked up at his Beta as she said she hated coyotes and thanked him. "You're -- it's, uhm -- you're welcome," stammered Eljay, and he stared down at the corpse. He was a good enough hunter, but he'd never killed anything that he hadn't then eaten. Eljay felt the urge to clean the wound on his chest, but he couldn't reach it, and he also didn't want to seem like the wuss he obviously was by crying for his mommy, so he ignored the pain for now. "Should.. What do we do with it now?" He wanted to ask if they should eat it, but in case that was a totally weird question, he decided to keep the question more open-ended. Eljay stared at the corpse. The dead corpse. While he tried not to freak out.

Eljay's discomfort didn't surprise Niamh. She realized, then, that this must have been hard on him- his instincts were different than hers....There he was, a handsome, gentle creature who could take care of the pack's puppies like no other could. That was Eljay's purpose; he was their caregiver extraprdinaire. So to hang onto something while another wolf killed it...It'd probably traumatized him a bit. She softened slightly, and tried to keep her excitement in check, AND to push her own ego back down her throat. The likeness of a coyote in comparison to a wolf was likely what was setting him off, so she nodded as she dropped the coyote, and touched her nose to his cheek, hoping to distract him from that zoned out look he had on his face. 

"It stole from our caches. Probably gobbled it down before I even saw it, but I saw the open cache. But if it's that bold, it would go for a puppy in the Spring. Your job is to protect them, and my job is to protect you." She said, in case he had never heard that argument before. Niamh fully believed that the cunning tricksters would try again- so if she couldn't simply maim and release a coyote to die, she'd kill it herself. They weren't wolves; they weren't much above a weasel on her list. She noticed the wound on his chest had started to bleed, so she hunched her shoulders a bit, and scooted in a bit closer, giving him the side-eye the whole time, if he decided to step away from her, and tried to clean his wound out a little. She paused, and gestured deftly toward the coyote's carcass. 

"I'll take care of it." She said calmly, in a voice that should hopefully reassure him that it would be put to good use. Niamh had no qualms with eating coyote if she was desparate- so it would be stored away until such a point came up; same with the other coyotes she had. This time, though, she had another plan to put in place, involving severing several of its non-edible parts (such as ears, tail and feet) and strewing them across the borders as a warning. If it worked, it'd be an effective warning to all future would-be coyote trespassers.[/b]