Wapun Meadow i stay out too late

Flagging @Scimitar because I want to be super mean to Spine. <__<

Spine had avoided the Wilds like they were the plague, almost as determined in it as she was to avoid her homeland. Blackthorn Forest represented a place where she had been invisible, drowned out by the clamoring voices of her many relatives. The Wilds represented a place where she had tried to be the most visible and subsequently failed. She had disappeared, unwilling to show her face to the wolves that had believed in her; the wolves she had let down. She was a coward, and had drifted ever since. From pack to pack she had bounced, always on the fringes.

Inexplicably, she found herself back in the Wilds, tiptoeing in the flowered meadow that the Sunspire had overlooked. Spine hesitated as anxiety welled into her chest, tightening it and her throat; she thought she might be sick if she continued toward the mountain. Paralyzed with indecision — as she always seemed to be — the female flopped heavily to the ground and moaned pathetically.

ummmggg

The herds were on the move, and while the agouti male toyed with the idea of having a pack hunt, he also knew he should allow another to take the reins of organizing it. The Creek, as usual, was hustling with activity, and his mind was instead stuck on Neverwinter Forest and the mystery pack that had claimed along the forests edges. He wanted them gone -- he needed that land for himself. But.. could he oust another pack from their home to fuel his own desires? And more importantly.. would his wolves go with him?

His paws strode across the cool grass of the meadow. Last time he had been here, the silver trickster, Shadow, had been trying to make waves with Swiftcurrent Creek. What he wouldn't give now to turn back the time and take the boy's tongue as he had threatened -- though it only would have been satisfying momentarily.. surely, Paar's wrath would have come down upon him then, and he knew he could not distress his friend in such a manner.

Lost in these thoughts, he almost missed the suspiciously familiar scent. His eyes directed upon her before he truly clued in, and as his aqua eyes trailed over the slim body of the she-wolf admiringly (he was, after all, newly single and heartbroken), horror slowly dawned on him as he realized who it was. "Muirrin?" The words spat from his mouth as his lips peeled back in a quiet snarl.

As the sound of paws moving through grass reached her ears, Spine began to end her pathetic display, the groan dead in her throat. Still, she lay there for a moment, considering "play dead" as an option; that is, until the incredulous hiss of her name — her true name — cut through the air like a knife. She opened a golden eye to peer at the speaker, then groaned all over again: "You've got to be kidding me." She was being punished by the universe, she was sure, and the agouti female suddenly felt as if returning to the Wilds had been an enormous mistake.

Spine considered laying there in stubborn silence until he moved on, but that would surely antagonize him further... though she wasn't convinced that anything she did at this point would be able to soothe his ire. With a sigh, she returned to her feet, glancing at his face. He seemed different, now; as regal and as attractive as ever, but somehow more sure of himself than he had been when they first night. She cleared her throat, "Spine, now. Muirrin was a coward." At least Spine was (usually) invisible, though that particular superpower was failing her now.

The female seemed to recognize him, and at her words, he withheld a roll of his bright eyes. He recalled the first time he had met her -- the series of personal questions she had attempted to divulge from him, and the implication he had been trespassing on land prior to her claim. he had taken it in stride, and it would prove to be one of their last -- Muirrin would have won the prize for flakiest alpha ever, he was certain.

Of course, she was no longer 'Muirrin' now. Apparently, she considered the change of her calling to be a cleanse of sorts -- as if she was a new wolf. He wanted to express his thoughts on it -- 'if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.. it's a fucking duck.' But that was simply too many words, and he was definitely not that interested. "How ironic to name yourself Spine.. as if you have one."

"Paah," she said emphatically, golden eyes growing narrower by the second. This would be her punishment, to returned to the Wilds only to be judged — fairly judged, of course, but judged nonetheless — by the one wolf that would really twist it in her wounded pride. "I didn't ask you to stick around for a chat," Spine told him irritably, "but I suppose this is just tickling you, isn't it?" He was getting off on this, she was almost certain.

She watched him grumpily for a moment, mind racing. Spine wanted to defend her actions almost as badly as she wanted to turn and run with her tail between her legs; the conflicting emotions let her painfully paralyzed and silent. She knew, however, that neither would really accomplish much. He likely wouldn't take any of her justifications, anyway, and leaving would only confirm his opinion of her.

Their conversations at best had always been interesting -- the spare few they had. He had blindly joined her cause, claiming The Sunspire under the name of the Tuatha De.. and then she had promptly disappeared. Had he not, he never would have made a friend in Luka, and so it was impossible to regret such a time.

But that did not mean he had to waste anymore of it.

"Honestly? I don't put much thought to you or the pack you left behind," he murmured with distaste. His eyes regarded her gently, wondering what she was doing these days.. Why she had even bothered to show her face here once more. She seemed in good health, so he could only assume her chosen life treated her well. He wished her no ill will.. nor prosperity. He simply did not think of her at all. "If anything, I'm simply surprised you even came back to the Teekon Wilds."