Sheepeater Cliff Times change, that doesn't mean I have to

@Finley (at the base of the mountain)

The large female sighed and sat a few feet from where the mountain began to rise. She did not want to return home; she wanted to take the pups away and leave forever. She wanted to rip out Peregrine's throat and take her rightful place as Alpha. "If Pied were still here, I am sure she would do something about what's going on." Her entire world was stripped from her bit by bit, and now she sat like a statue, half-glaring at the place she once loved to call home.

After a frustrated groan, Hawkeye turned away from the plateau. "Place makes me fucking sick..." she mumbled, her stomach churning. She laid down on the grass, brow narrowed, wondering if she should head back to Blackfoot Forest.

Thanks for starting!

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Finley loved the Plateau she now called home. She enjoyed her packmates, enjoyed her den, and just everything about the land. But still, she was not very good at staying in one place for too long. She was good at going back to the same place when she was done, but boredom often struck her fast and hard. And before she even knew it, the Blackthorn had her paws on the road again, meeting new lands and new faces.

The last thing Finley expected was to meet another Plateau wolf so far from the Plateau. She recognized the scent before she recognized the face, probably because she had never seen it before. Though Fin hadn't spent too much time with every single one of her packmates, she recognized them by sight as well as smell. This one she only knew because she smelled like pack.

The strangeness of that meant little to her. In fact, it didn't occur to the silver lady at all. "Hey there!" she called as she bounded forward, tail wagging merrily at her haunches. The woman's apparent frustration went unnoticed in her eagerness to make a new friend.

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Hawkeye turned slowly, sensing the female behind her rather than hearing the unfamiliar wolf call out to her. "Hey," the large she-wolf spoke when the other female grew nearer. She tried to make her voice sound at least halfway cheerful, fighting the "blah" mood that she happened to be in.

"Where are you headed?" Hawkeye was forcing herself to speak and be interested in what the female was going to say. Perhaps she would become interested as the conversation progressed, pulling her from her introverted (moreso anti-social) state.

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Finley strode up to the woman with a smile on her muzzle. Her obvious discontentment was lost on the silver fox as she wasn't much in the mood where she noticed those types of things about others. As Fin approached, she admired the sleekness of her flawlessly obsidian coat and brilliantly emerald eyes. It wasn't the first time she had been jealous over the beauty of a solid colored wolf, though usually she was longing for a silvery white pelt over black. Still, her packmate carried it so well, she couldn't help herself.

To the woman's question, she responded with an easy, "I dunno!" Finley stopped once she had gotten a respectful distance away. "What about you? You're a little far from home yourself, aren't you?"

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First the female said that she didn't know where she was going — something Hawkeye knew well. Then, the girl asked Hawkeye where she was going, and the midnight female replied, "I was heading back to the Plateau, but was enjoying my alone time before returning."

Hawkeye felt like she should say more, not really knowing what else to say. "What's your name?" She asked, not really sure if she cared or not. The dark female already examined the she-wolf who had approached her previously; Hawkeye enjoyed the look of the girl's coat, but did not say anything. Yet, at least.

Finley shared an exasperated sigh as the woman responded to her question and gave a knowing nod. "I know what you mean," she said with a smile, "I mean, sometimes it's like, come on, I just need a minute here with my own thoughts, you know? Well you know." Her silver and black tail waived like a banner, telling of her enjoyment to get to vent with someone new. "It's like some people just can't stand a minute of silence," She shrugged and shook her head with a chuckle. Some people. Geez.

The Blackthorn was thrilled when her new companion was quick to continue the conversation. After all, she really couldn't stand even a minute of silence. "I'm Finley," she said, "I haven't been a part of the Plateau for all that long yet. How about you?"

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Hawkeye smiled at the irony of Finley's words and actions — the girl seemed passionate towards the fact that some people couldn't shut up, and here she was...rambling on and on. The green-eyed wolf did not mind, though.

The she-wolf nodded when the shaded girl replied, but was startled by the question following; Hawkeye had not expected the question to be turned on herself. "Uh..." she started, before catching herself. Her mother had hated pointless noises before talking. "...I founded the Plateau with my sister right before last winter started." Hawkeye chose her words carefully, and a small part of her felt like a failure for no longer being able to rule her pack.

Fin's eyes grew wide with revelation as the dark woman revealed her history with the pack. She knew of this female! This must be the one that Blue had mentioned to her when they had first met. The one who was underappreciated and forgotten. The one who had made her feel sad until something shiny had caught her attention.

"I know!" she yelped excitedly, "You must be...! Oh... shoot... You have a name... Don't tell me..." Fin furrowed her brows in thought and began to nibble on her bottom lip. What had Blue called her? Something to do with a bird. An eagle? Falcon? Duck? There were two parts to it too. The other part was like.. nose. Or face. Or it was... Son of a bitch, what was it?

"Duck...foot?" Fin said slowly. She peered at the woman for a second before starting to laugh at herself. "I'm sorry, I know it's not that. But it's a kind of bird, isn't it? Robin's.. Head? Cardinal... Elbow? Hawk..... pie? Hawk.. eye? Hawkeye? Wait, is it Hawkeye?" Her eyes lit up as she stumbled upon it finally, her tail wagging expectantly as she waited for confirmation that she had finally gotten it right.

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A somber smile wrote itself upon Hawkeye's dark face. She once again recalled Pied's plan to take over Koontz's lands, the journey there with her late sister, the pride she held for having her own pack like her parents did. Then, the previous members of Bon Dye slowly dwindled until it was just Hawkeye. And now the wolf was mostly forgotten, and soon she'd be the last one of her kind.

But, for the moment, the large dark wolf found amusement in Finley's fight to figure out her name. "Actually, you were right the first time with 'Duckfoot'." Hawkeye smirked at the grey and black she-wolf, giving a sway to her tail. I hope she knows I'm kidding, she thought briefly before wiping the thought from her head. No one could be that dense, Hawkeye thought humorously in her mind.

The confirmation she was expecting did not come except for in the form of a sarcastic jest. Finley grinned appreciatively, thoroughly enjoying her packmate's sense of humor. "Duckfoot it is then!" she replied with a gentle laugh, "Your parents were pretty creative, huh?"

Fin's mind trickled back to the conversation she'd had with Blue about how the pack didn't appreciate Hawkeye or respect her like they should. She felt compelled to show that appreciation. "Blue told me a little about the history of the Plateau. That's pretty cool that you were a founder," she commented.

Hawkeye smiled. "Yes. They named my brothers and I after the first things they saw. You have my oldest brother, Skybranch; me, Duckfoot; and my baby brother, Duckfoot number 2, since the first thing the looked at was me." She was having fun imagining someone naming their children after the first things they saw. "Poopcone" (a mix between "poop" and "pinecone") was Hawkeye's favorite.

Hawkeye felt awkward — even if recognition was desire, she felt uncomfortable receiving it. "Yes, I suppose it is," she said, not knowing how else to reply. It felt harder to pull air into her lungs. "My sister was a founder as well," spilled out of her mouth before she even realized it. Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck fuck! Now she was introducing her dead sister into the conversation. We'll both feel awkward now.

Finley laughed as the woman carried on with their little joke. It was nice meeting someone with a sense of humor that was similar to her own. She wondered vaguely if this new friend was one who would be up for the kinds of adventures that she enjoyed going on, or if she was more the type to find fun in doing things that didn't involve near death experiences. She definitely needed to find out before they parted ways.

Lucky for Hawkeye, Fin was not one to be sucked so easily into awkwardness. While it spread like a plague through others, the Blackthorn tended to be a little oblivious when it came to other people's emotions unless they were so severe you'd have to be blind and/or dead to notice. So, when her new friend began to struggle internally with the conversation, Fin was unaware. In fact, she was already onto the next topic in her mind.

"That's neat, I doubt that I could ever do anything like lead a pack. Too much responsibility," Fin said with a shake of her head. Without hardly skipping a beat, she bowled right on forward, "Do you like chasing bears?"

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Hawkeye sighed a breath of relief. I guess I am seeing too much into the things I say. I need a vacation." She did not view the girl a simpleton, just more of a carefree wolf than she. Hawkeye had once been the same, but ever since moving away from her parents' (and the others) pack, she'd never really been able to relax. Her mind flickered to Ferdie Von Pelt, and a small smile appeared on her face. She'd felt comfortable with him, even able to relax (even if it was only slightly).

Her mind returning to Finley, Hawkeye heard something about bears and chasing. She widened her eyes. "Hell no," she stated loudly. "I mean, maybe my size would be intimidating, but in my old pack, a pup was swiped away by one. A group of them thought it would be fun to play with it, and it ended in sadness." Hawkeye paused and hmm'ed, thinking what the experience would be like. "Do you like chasing bears?"

There wasn't a doubt in Finley's mind that the next words out of Duckfoot's mouth were going to be OMG chasing bears is ToTeZ my FAV!! or something to that affect. When Hawkeye burst out rather vehemently with the exact opposite, it was probably fortunate that shock kept Fin's face from moving away from the genial, excited smile, for otherwise it would have betrayed the absolutely heartbreak that she felt over the news.

As the Blackthorn came to, she abandoned her smile to a look of concern and completely understanding. Even sympathy as Hawkeye went on to talk about a pup that had been killed by a bear. Wow, did Fin know how to feel a crowd. "That's terrible," she said softly, shaking her head and casting her gaze downward. When Hawkeye turned the question on her, she looked up with wide eyes that could have been read as guilty, but hopefully would be deciphered as incredulous surprise.

"Nope," Fin replied, shaking her head fervently, "Not at all. I mean, I knew this girl once who was all about it. She was one of those thrill-seeker types. I always thought she was stupid, totally irresponsible. I always told her, 'one day, you're going to get yourself killed', and, yeah, she totally.. died." Hm. For once, all of those lectures her family had given her were coming in handy. Who'd have thought.

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Hawkeye choked out a laugh of surpise, which might have seemed quite morbid. The delivery at the end of Finley's story had been sudden and unexpected. "Well, it looks like neither of us will be chasing bears anytime soon, then." She did wonder, though, what did bears taste like?

Her mind flashed to her pups, namely Junior. She was curious and ready to fight anything, and although Hawkeye hadn't seen any bears around, she hoped that her daughter would be smart enough not to take one on.

"Where do you come from Finley? Do you have a 'home' pack?" She thought the girl could possibly be a roamer, like Blue Willow or Robur Aqua had been. Hawkeye's mother and father also traveled a lot, mostly before she was born.

Finley grinned stupidly as she waited for Hawkeye to respond to her little story, terrified that she was about to see right through it. Even as the female laughed and Fin laughed mechanically right along, she was still a little worried. But finally, her new friend continued the conversation with words that made her quite confident that she was safe and everything could go on like normal.

Or as normal as things with Fin ever got.

"A place," she responded quickly, only moments before she realized that that wasn't quite a normal thing to say. "...not far from here. It was.. overcrowded, we'll say." She flashed a grin. Talking about where she came from always made her feel a little uncomfortable. She couldn't really figure out why. She had a wonderful childhood, full of love and family and comfort. There really wasn't any reason why she had felt like she needed to get away from it, except for the fact that she had felt suffocated from all the family and happy and the comfort and the smothering and the attention everyone else always seemed to have and how no one could EVER stop talking about how great all of it had been.

Oh. Maybe that was it.

"What about you!" she chirped a little too brightly.

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ooc: sorry for late reply!!

The dark wolf's eyes caught a hint of something in Finley as they laughed at the greyish girl's story. She shrugged it off, not concerning herself with anything that wasn't put out there in words.

Once again, something off in Finley when she spoke of her old pack. When the wolf saif it was overcrowded, Hawkeye nodded. It made sense. It was crowded in her gypsy pack, but that's how most liked it. Some left when they got older, but most stayed. It was a big family with wolves with talents and skills of all kinds. Protection and comfort was the way of their life, and Hawkeye often missed it. If she hadn't left, she would have met her younger brother and probably found a mate within the pack — mystery and unfamiliarity wasn't always a good thing. The dark wolf had learned that.

The green-eyed wolf shot some air from her nose in a quick laugh. "Well," she started, finding it amusing that she had just been thinking on her old pack. "My family is south from Blackfoot Forest. I am from a pack of gypsies. Many, many generations back, my family's pack and another pack lived on the same territory and taught skills and traded. Soon, a third pack was brought it, though it was only four wolves. A few generations later, a fourth pack came in and they all decided to create a rendezvous point in the center of the territory. Let's just say the rendezvous point is huge. We all are a big family, no matter the pack we are from. There are only four wolves left from my biological family's pack. Well — six if you count Junior and Tytonidae. We tend to have an adventurous spirit and we don't breed often and it's usually in small numbers." Hawkeye took a deep breath in and let it out. "Anyway, I am rambling, but that's basically the pack history." She gave an awkward smile as an apology.

Finley was a fortunate one in that she had no regrets at all over leaving the pack of her birth. She had loved her family and even missed some of them from time to time, but that part of her life was well behind her. Fin was fairly good at letting things go, but then again she had yet to experience anything in her life that was so detrimental and scarring that she would have actually had a difficult time moving on.

She listened quietly as her packmate told of her family's history. It was quite the tale compared to Fin's--of course, she could have stopped after "I am from a pack of gypsies" and she would've had Fin beat at least length-wise. She tilted her head thoughtfully as the woman's story came to a close, wondering about why there were so few left of her pack. She probably should have been wondering about why she never before realized that Ty and Junior were Hawkeye's kids. Actually, she'd never really wondered who mothered any of the pups--she just assumed they were all Peregrine's and moved on. But no, what she wondered about was whether or not the rest of Hawkeye's family had suffered horrible bear-related deaths, or if their demise was caused by some other dangerous act that Fin considered to be one of her hobbies.

Figuring the possibility was probably too close for comfort, Fin skipped inquiring further about it just to stay on the safe side. God forbid Hawkeye responded with something like "They were killed racing an avalanche to the bottom of a mountain" and Fin's eyes would light up with excitement at the idea and she'd immediately start planning out the adventure. That's pretty cool--I've never heard of gypsies before, she commented.

There were many tales about Hawkeye's family being so small — one from each of the packs. The pack that resided in Amestris first (along with Hawkeye's family) were the Elrics. Golden-colored wolves with Amber eyes. Their story was that lightning had taken everyone in a blue fire, except for Hawkeye's great-grandfather and great-grandmother.

And then there was the Sumatran family. They were the pack of four that had come, and the pack who were the most prone to staying. There were a total of twenty of their kind, at least the last time Hawkeye had seen them. They were a reddish grey color, with black stripes upon their bodies, and greyish orange eyes. Their story was that it had been raining hard that night — so hard that the other wolves could not see even a foot in front of their faces. Obviously, the story leads to them all drowning.

As for the last family, they had no last name. They were all colors; brown, grey, rust, black. It was the same season they had come to join. Their story was that a gust of wind had taken the family away. It was not unheard of for Amestris to become very windy at times, and there had even been legends that generations before were plagued with the same problem.

Her great-grandmother and great-grandfather refused to acknowledge that their children, their brothers and sisters — everyone — had died. So, they never spoke of it. What Hawkeye knew, though, was that it was some sort of natural disaster — maybe even all three combined.

If Finley had known that Hawkeye fell in a landslide and nearly died, the dark female was sure that the girl in front of her would be surprised. Everyone in the past had been, but Hawkeye didn't know that the thought had touched Finley's thoughts.

A smile appeared on the midnight wolf's face. "Not many have. It is strange to others. Some of the things that packs do here I am not used to. I feel like an outsider sometimes with my habits and ways of thinking." She sighed, wishing that she could just return to her home. Even better, return to Ferdie Von Pelt. Maybe she would fit in there, though Hawkeye severely doubted it.

Last post for meee! You can post again or archive <3

Finley stood quietly, observing her new friend as the woman seemed to lose herself in her thoughts. Finally, a smile twisted across her dark lips, though there seemed to be little joy in it. The silver mockingbird felt a pang of sadness for her. She was not usually very perceptive when it came to the emotions of others, and sympathizing was typically beyond her capabilities. But she felt for Hawkeye, through what others had said of her being under appreciated and through what she said of herself.

I know what you mean, Fin admitted gently. It was true, the sterling wolf's habits and ways of thinking were outlandish to most, including Hawkeye. It didn't typically bother Fin all that much, though. She was too busy getting herself into trouble to think about it.

Tell you what, she said with a sudden smile, Whenever you start feeling like an outsider, you just come over to my place and I'll tell you all kinds of stories about that really dumb friend of mine and the stupid things she did before she died. I promise, after a couple of stories about her, you'll be feeling extremely ordinary.

With another smile, Fin offered, Come on, I'll walk back with you, and turned to head back towards the Plateau, suspecting she had a Hawkeye in tow.

A smile slowly crossed Hawkeye's face. "I would love to hear stories about your dead friend." She paused. "I suppose that sounded a bit harsh." But it is the truth, so... Even if she was blunt, Hawkeye never meant any harm. Unless she meant harm.

It is being able to meet you, Finley. There aren't many I enjoy talking to as of late, but you are definitely one of them." Hawkeye would not call her a friend quite yet, but she did hope that Finley would be one someday.