Lost Creek Hollow Integral

I think they should be back by now so.  Uh??  WHATEVER.

Whatever happened on the trip happened.  Who knows what went on at this point!  We'll just have to be vague and hope nothing life-changing occurred.  If something did.. Uh. I dunno.

Anyway, she was getting back into routines.  The weather that had followed them back wasn't exactly pleasant and for now she was pretty happy that she was back under the trees.  Wind and a fair amount of snow made the open areas pretty miserable, and even here in shelter, the noise was pretty irritating after a point.  Her path through the territory was fairly aimless, but was likely to end in a patrol eventually unless something else came up.  She kind of hoped it did -- she'd done enough walking for a few days.

There were things that needed to be done.  Perhaps she could find @Joss and put him to work.  It didn't seem like he'd fled while they were gone, good, but he'd definitely made himself scarce right after being added to the ranks.  Hiding wouldn't get him out of the hole he dug for himself very fast, but eh.  If he wanted to stay in the pit, he very well could.  If he was still being a coward, perhaps Treason would cross paths with someone else worth talking to, though then that probably meant it wasn't going to be someone she'd be able to conscript into manual labor.

Though Nunataq did not try to actively communicate with her extended family at Lost Creek Hollow, by now she was aware of, who was who, knew the approximate numbers of their ranks and could easily tell apart a stranger from one, who was her ally. Therefore it had been a little confusing that soon after Indra and Laurel's departure, some of the pack had headed off too. In their absence, she had done her best to play a fearsome guardian on her own or follow her father and learn the trade herself.

Though repetitive and occasionally dull, Nunataq found joy in patrolling, checking each control points along the way, taking notice of critters and larger non-wolf beings that had crossed their lands during the night and leaving marks of her own. And one of these solo walks in the morning she came accross the big, scary piebald wolf, who alongside Terance was her superior. She approached her in a polite manner, offered few appeasing wags of her tail and some fleeting smiles and then stopped to see, what would the woman respond with.

Since Joss wasn't showing his face, she guessed she was back to doing more normal boring things.  At some point she would  drag him into it though.  The one that showed up was Nunataq, that pup that screwed up her hunt and now she didn't know what to do with.  And she wasn't much of a pup any more.

A good deal of Treason's actions were more cerebral and she didn't mind a good conversation (which usually ended up snarking at someone).  So how was she to deal with someone who seemed to be so limited?  It was one thing to indicate something was good or bad -- that was easy enough to do -- but what about something more complex?  What problems would it cause later?  Oh well.

Still, Treason was restrained in all her emotions as she always was, replying with a wag or two of her tail and an inquisitive tilt of her head.  After all the work practicing to attempt to be slightly more amiable around normal wolves, it now seemed awkward to just say nothing when previously she'd have been fine with it.  She spoke more for herself than anything, Joining me on patrol, hm?  She wasn't going to stop, but did continue on closer to the borders.

In some ways Nunataq was similar to Treason with the exception that instead of a good conversation she enjoyed a meaningful silence, unburdened by words. Now that the girl had got the adult's attention, her previous appeasing demeanor was taken off and tossed away like a mantle in a hot day. All of a sudden there was a self-confident, calculating youth standing before the leader, who was appraised from head to toe with a furrowed brow and narrowed eyes. The inspection was brief though and just, when Nuna had come to a conclusion that this person was worth getting to know better, the other spoke, suggesting something. Girl's ears perked, she tilted her head to the side slightly and wagged her tail in agreement. Whatever had been put on the table, she would tag along.

And yet Nunataq kind of responded.  What if the whole thing was just a prank?  Sure, it'd be a hell of a drawn out one, but she did have to wonder.  What if she knew everything but was just taking advantage of everyone's pity or something to do whatever she wanted?  Either way, she was pretty sure that this youth was going to take more watching than any of the others -- and possibly unfortunately for her, Treason wasn't against using her fangs to prove a point if needed.

But that would be some other time.  At least for now, it seemed Treason would have a shadow for the patrol.  She swung her head towards the border, ending with an upwards nod of her nose to point.  She started walking over that way, assuming Nunataq would be following along.  Honestly, Treason didn't expect to find anything super exciting along the territory edge today, but the world could always surprise her.  It was more a routine than anything.

Nunataq let Treason take charge and walk away, before starting to follow her at a comfortable distance. This was a familiar routine - whenever there was a chance she trailed along her father or did this on her own, replaying and mimicking everything that she had spied adults doing. Sniffing, marking (for the record - she had learned to control her bladder and dispense marking material sparingly), observing the distance, reading the messages and prints left by other inhabitants of the forest, hunting and at times setting down for a meal.

They had walked like this for a while and neared a particularly dear spot of Nuna's. There was a large rock, which by unknown force had been put randomly on the borders, being the perfect lookout for a cub, who wanted to have a view of the valley from an elevated point. Seeing it ahead, she ran past Treason, jumped up on it with one leap and turned around to face the senior guardian victoriously. Cool, huh?

So far it seemed like it wasn't a particularly exciting day on the borders.  Probably a good thing after the one-two punch of the bear then the cougar (then didn't the cougar come back again, even?) it was probably a good thing they were actually being left alone.

When Nuna took off, there was a brief moment when Treason was kind of concerned, her senses going into overdrive to make sure she wasn't missing out on some sort of danger, even taking a few faster steps, but nothing was hitting the alarms.  Treason slowed to her former pace, and Nunataq ended up jumping onto a boulder at the borders.  Treason relaxed -- Nunataq seemed pretty happy with herself, wasn't she?

Treason came over, placing one paw on the side of the rock and lifting herself up a little bit to sort of look around, then back to Nuna with a tilt of her head and a slight wag of her tail, See anything?  If Treason was more energetic, perhaps she'd have had a similar response, but as it were, she was cool, calm, collected, and vaguely amused by the younger wolf's antics.  At least it wasn't as boring as a normal walk.

Encouraged by Treason's interest in her finding, Nunataq retreated a little to give her some space and then turned to scan the immediate vicinty - meaning the vast plains that were visible beyond the tree-line. She observed the area in detail, her gaze carefully following every shape, form, seeking signs of movement or anything particular that would stand out.

At first it seemed that there was nothing. Then upon the second glance, Nunataq froze and her gaze became intense and very focused on something in the distance. Two darker spots moving at the ground level and, from where the mute girl stood, she was unable to tell that they were dark tips of a jackrabbit's ears. She growled to herself, shot a glance at her companion, jumped off the rock and with a second glance, that inquired, if the adult was coming along, she began to walk slowly towards the animal.

Amazing the difference a bit of height made.  Treason had dropped fully back onto the flat ground and hadn't seen a sign of what Nunataq had.  She was figuring they'd be continuing on their way and even looked farther down the route, expecting the youth to get bored when she growled and drew Treason's attention swiftly back.  Her ears flicked forward attentively, as she looked first to Nuna, then the way she was looking.  But again, not really a clue from there.

Obviously she'd seen something, but it wasn't exactly easy for her to interpret whether it was a danger, oddity, or dinner from the lack of words -- but she was leaning towards one of the first two, generally you didn't growl at dinner.  Treason would certainly prowl along behind, though.  At the very least she was good backup for whatever Nunataq had seen, and it was kind of improper for her (both as a fully fledged adult and a leader) to just let her run off on her own into questionable circumstances.  Treason was following, attentive to their surroundings, watching for anything suspicious.

The piebald she-wolf followed Nunataq, though her cluelessness as to their main purpose did not escape the mute girl's keen gaze. This would be good time here for her to contemplate that, perhaps, being able to speak would come handy. Except she never did think about "what if..." matters at all and continued the already trodden path with the knowledge that the lady would catch up later on.

The next instant, however, she forgot about the adult, who was trailing behind her, entirely, because the hare had sensed danger. Nunataq froze, not daring even to breathe, while the white-pelted lagomoroph took in it's surroundings and decided on action. As with all of his species there were truly only two choices - flat-out sprint or freezing and blending with the surroundings, until the danger went away. For time being the animal decided for the latter, giving the two wolves an opportunity to draw even closer.

She wasn't spotting anything right off the bat.  What had been so interesting? Hm.  No scents that seemed ominous.  Then Nuna froze and Treason also came to a halt, following the direction she was looking.  Oh, dinner it was, then?  Okay, so they had a differing vocabulary.

Treason had a minor advantage as far as camouflage went but was certainly a more imposing figure that probably canceled out her ability to be looked over from the hare's perspective.  She moved slowly, cautiously, but Nunataq was up front by a few paces so it wasn't like she could just pick a path and try -- that was on the younger wolf's shoulders unless she just stood there like a rock.  At some point, though, regardless of how quickly or slowly they moved, the hare was likely to have a change of heart and take off.  It was just a matter of time in Treason's eyes.

If she could actually communicate, Treason would go find a place to cut the hare off, but this was just a giant guess.  If she positioned one way, chances were Nuna would chase it the other.  That was just the way things went.

Nunataq crawled closer and closer, until the hare could not ignore the suspicious rustling of a fur against the snow any longer. A change of wind, which blasted a handful of the young wolf's particles in lagomorph's face, helped to solidify the decision that now was a good time to run. Which it did a split of second before, before the girl had managed to pounce on it.

When it came to fleeing, hare's did not play by particular rules, they ran for their lives and the only thing a predator could do was follow it and hope to outsmart it on some lucky occasion. For now the hunt was fresh and both animals had not expended their energy in the chase.

There went the option to quickly dispatch the snack, not that it was likely to happen.  Oh well.  The chase was on!

Nunataq of course got to take the lead while Treason cut corners, taking the most straight line she could possibly manage.   From where she started, Treason wasn't going to waste more effort than that -- she was, in a sense, the support crew.  Not to mention the younger wolf probably needed more practice at the whole leading the chase thing than Treason did, so she wasn't going to go bullying her out of the way -- and certainly not when the idea of food was still just an idea.  If the hare zagged when it should have zigged, it would probably run close enough that it would probably reconsider its path and double back... Or just run into her jaws.  She wasn't gonna be too picky if it was going to be stupid.  She was, however, better built for hunting larger prey that wasn't quite so zippy and mobile, but at least Treason would be able to go for the long haul if it came to that.

Where Treason had life's experience to aid her, Nunataq had the excitement and all-or-nothing attitude to the task at hand. She made a mistake of putting all of her energy in the run, and not noticing that she was following the hare's exact trajectory.

Well into the chase the girl began to tire out, her lungs burned and she was getting out of breath. The distance between the hunter and it's intended prey grew bigger, until the chances of her catching it at all became a zero, when she stumbled and fell on the ground, twisting a paw in the process.

Perhaps, where Nuna had had no luck, Treason had fared better.

For Nuna the hunt is a fail, but the hare is Treason's, if she wants to.

Dice says no, boo!

The younger wolf seemed to be faltering a little, but hopefully that meant the hare would as well.  Except then Nunataq went down -- maybe she'd hit a hidden root or something, Treason was paying more attention to their prey than she was to why what happened happened.

She kept going for a little farther before she realized Nuna hadn't just bounced right back up and kept running.  Treason slowed and turned back -- she maybe could have had a chance if she kept going, but considering Nuna couldn't just say she was all right, Treason felt somewhat obligated to head back and see what happened.  Still, the hare might have been a stretch without someone else to ping-pong it between anyway.  Better to have this in her quota of failed hunts than at some time where it was more desperate.

At least it wasn't a huge trot back.  Treason tipped her head slightly, ceasing her panting as she got closer.  Well?  What happened?  She wasn't a healer, obviously, but at least she knew when stuff looked bad, so she approached somewhat nosily to look Nuna over to make sure she wasn't in dire need of someone with actual medical skills or something.

Nunataq pulled herself up to her feet, wincing as she accidentally put weight of the injured foot. However, she hardly complained and other than taking a quick inspection of the offended limb. It was not the first time she had failed to coordinate her limbs, though these kind of mishaps had happened less frequently now that she was older. Treason was met with a non-chalant look, a shrug and a small wag of her tail, telling her that there was nothing to worry about. Maybe in not so quite many words.

Then the girl spent a minute or two staring intently in the direction, where the hare had fled, as if considering, whether she should resume the hunt, but admitted it to be a lost cause. She shot Treason an inquisitive look and then began to limp back to Lost Creek Hollow.

Another time maybe.

You can fade it out in your next post, if you wish? Thanks for the thread!

And that's a wrap!

It didn't look like she'd been horribly mangled or anything, so she'd likely be fine.   And basically her confirmation that everything was ok?  Yep, Treason was done fussing at that point.  She was certainly not a mother hen in this case, and turned to start heading back towards the territory.

She did walk a ways on her own before she stopped and looked back to wait for Nuna, who seemed to be contemplating the meaning of life or something.  Treason wasn't quite sure why.  The hare was long gone and she didn't see anything else interesting out in that direction, but she would wait to make sure Nuna was going to make it home without some other creature popping out of nowhere and deciding an injured wolf was delicious.  But ah, finally, she was following along.  Yeah.  Time to go home.