Neverwinter Forest Don't tell me this is all for nothing.

Would love for a NWF toon to pop in here. Maybe @Mal?

In the days since her arrival to the Teekon, the tension in her shoulders remained. Now that hunger's ache no longer clouded her mind, Lupita felt far more aware of the destruction around her as she lingered on the lower ridges of Silvertip Mountain: many fallen trees, the crumbling of rock and sinkage in the earth. It was something she had never experienced in her lifetime, and knew at the heart of her that this was far from normal despite the vast difference from the terrains of her childhood.

The prey was much scarcer than was expected for the time of year, as she could not find even a sniff of bird or rodent when she attempted to hunt in the nearby territories. What she did find was the fresh scent markers of her own kind, the distinct aroma of an unfamiliar male. It stopped her from venturing into the forest, though she chose to skirt along the edge of its trees - testing as she went.

It was not a strong claim, and luck had been on her side before - was it possible that fortune could favour her again? The little Mexican she-wolf considered venturing through to source a cache to raid, every intention of getting in and out before someone could catch a whiff of her trespass. Lupita traced an upper lip with her tongue in fresh anticipation of her mind's suggestion, truly tempted by the idea of thieving her next meal as she stared with quiet contemplation into the dark woods.

Tag can be for ref!

After the Nightwalker weirdos showed up, Mal did some housekeeping -- he condensed what few things were left in the scattered small caches to a couple at the very heart of the territory near some of his favored sleeping spots.  They weren't as good for long term storage, but it was much more defensible, and then @Cèilidhh wouldn't have to spend forever figuring out all his hiding spots yet either.  If someone really wanted to try?  Well, not only were the older caches easier to find (and probably still nice and smelly), but it'd be a much higher chance they'd get found out before finding the "good" ones.  Doing that had made him a bit farther behind in border-keeping than he'd wanted to be, so as he was patching up the no trespassing signs, it was easy for him to spot the chick who was standing and staring at the forest.  See, if he'd gone and been here yesterday she probably would have just buggered off.  Well, maybe.  He kinda thought the worst of people at this point, and recent events gave him less of a reason to trust than usual.

It wasn't like he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt or anything, but he saw her as practice.  Not for anything bad (as far as he knew) but if he didn't have to outright chase her off right now, no point.  That'd just waste energy.  So, Mal plotted as he moved closer through the trees, then prowled out of the branches' reach in her direction, master of this domain.  Mal was aiming for something confident (easily enough), reasonably cool (?), with a slight imposing edge.  Basically, this dude has a clue, a plan, and if you want in on it, you better impress him or you're not getting into the club tonight.  Look, those trees aren't gonna read your mind no matter how much you stare at them, so do you want to tell me what you want?  Ehh.  Saying it out loud sounded weird to him.  Note it down, pick a different version next time.  He wanted something a little bit better than just "Can I help you?" because that was boring as hell.

It could be so easy, she thought. Sneak in, take whatever she found first, then get the hell out of dodge. Lupita had stolen from so many over the years - it was a way of life. This time was different, however, for normally she lingered on the outskirts of a pack just long enough to determine their numbers, their strength, their weakness. She'd never been genuinely struggling before, not like now.

The world was dying, and she was hungry. But Lupita was determined not to succumb to whatever curse had fallen over the lands. She would do what she had to do if it meant survival.

Just as she prepared to creep forward, there was a sound. A tall, rusty ear chanted in the direction of an unfamiliar male, and she shot him a doe-eyed look of feigned surprise as she slackened her knees and lowered herself considerably. The musk on the tree roots belonged to him, unmistakably, and although Lupita would stand no chance against him should he choose to attack, he posed no immediate threat.

Yet, he went on to mock her. His words were not of her mother tongue, yet she knew enough to understand that he made attempt at patronising her - maybe even suggested she was an imbecile. Lupita twitched her nose, blinked her big golden eyes up at him. If that's what he wanted to think, then she could surely play along, especially if it meant getting what she wanted.

"I like forest. You are, uh..." insert pause here as she pretended to consider the best word to use, "new? This is new pack?" She smiled brightly, tail giving a few low sweeps at her backside. "I seek new place to call home."

Mal actually was trying to not be a jerk.  He was trying to be cool, and maybe that made him a bit patronizing but that's about it.  There was no saying he was perfect, but he was at least trying to be something other than an angst-ball.

However, it wasn't like he got taught manners, because hearing her talk, well.. That kind of killed his hopes that he could learn to talk his way into anything if she was gonna have issues understanding in the first place, and his face fell a bit as he tried to figure out if there was a way to salvage it besides just outright finding out if this chick was a potential recruit or not.  The fact she hadn't called struck him as a little odd, and her particularly amiable behavior otherwise reminded him of Elysium, so he wasn't entirely sure what to think. Ugh.

It wore away at what little polish he'd tried to put on things, and he dropped the lame attempt at (for Mal) florid language and put him back as the blunt, negative guy he always was -- someone else would get to be a test subject, apparently.  Yeah.  I'm Mal and this is my pack.  So you're gonna have to tell me who you are and what you could provide before you'd have a chance of joining up, but if you can't I can point you in the direction of a pack that'll let in anyone.  Except Elysium was gone.  Not that he knew.  He was still left in the dark when it came to that but assumed that Okeanos and Ibis and Eshkrawhatsit had ran off to gallivant around in the hippie commune or something just to spite him. It would be typical.

"Lupita," she chirped at the request of her name, "but everyone call me Pita."

The suggestion of another pack, one that was apparently a free-for-all, captured her interest iimmediately. Her ears sprung forward and her golden eyes glimmered as she considered how easy it would be to take advantage of their stores. "This... pack," she said, taking her time with each syllable on her foreign tongue as she did her best despite a strong Spanish accent. "Por qué... uh," Lupita took a moment to collect herself, "why they let anyone in? They tonta? Foolish?"

She lashed her tail, feeling particularly enthusiastic to finish things up swiftly so she could explore this mysterious clan and help herself to whatever might be available.

Since he didn't say Elysium's name out loud, shall I pretend she didn't say the name but still looked stoked at the idea? :P LMK if that's not a fair assumption, can edit!

Maybe it was a good call mentioning that he expected people to hold their own?  Her reaction kind of confused him but he did his best to not let it show.  Was it a good thing he'd said that?  Why would people want to be with weirdos like that?  It was probably a good thing then if she went to Elysium instead of wanting to stay then, right?

I think so.  But that's their whole thing.  They're a 'sanctuary' if you believe them, Mal obviously didn't.  Honestly he thought it was just a trap to make people stroke their egos about how great they were. So they let people stay and.. I dunno. They gotta get something out of it. Hell if I know.  They certainly weren't nice enough to him for Mal to believe that they were doing this out of the goodness of their heart. What, you wanna go see them?  He squinted.  Well, if she did go that would solve one issue. If she couldn't help out for some reason, then he wouldn't have to make sure she got food.

I edited. Apologies, it was a rubbish pre-world phone post.  xD

He looked at her, confused, and she blinked right back. What was there to cause such uncertainty? Had she grown antlers all of a sudden, changed colour? If Mal seemed to fail in seeing how this foolish and vulnerable pack could be of benefit to him, then she supposed she'd just need to go and have it all for herself.

Still, he went on the better explain. So these wolves saw themselves as selfless beings, taking in the weak and the lonely, building them up. If they stayed, they stayed. But if they took leave after mooching what they could, then so be it? Lupita hummed to herself, thoughtful. She couldn't understand why Mal seemed so bitter about them.

"Si," came her jubilant retort, "prey is scarce. We raid caches on land, they not fight back?"

Mal had no reason to believe that they would do anything effective.  I don't think they have the heart to fight -- I yelled at them when I was a kid and one of them started crying instead of doing anything about it.  Might be a bit different now, they had a couple people die, leaving out the fact one of those was his own father, and also the fact that he didn't know how.  But they never seemed very smart about that kind of thing.  You could probably walk over, make some big show about how you believe in their sanctuary stuff, relax a while and take what you want, and just walk on out when they're off planning some weird party or whatever.  They'll probably just frown at you if they ever see you again.  They'd never demanded anything of him -- but pretending he didn't exist probably helped with that.  They demanded nothing, they did nothing.  Doing nothing was their specialty.  Maybe they just sat around and looked pretty?

He pointed northeast-ish.  Elysium is on the other side of the mountains there.  There's willow trees and stuff.  I don't know if there's a good route through the mountains now with all the earthquakes and stuff.  I haven't been there in months, intend to keep it that way.  It would be hilarious if their softness caused them harm, though.  Teach them that their little dream was foolish at best, cruel to others at worst.  Even better, Mal wouldn't have to get his hands dirty.