Redhawk Caldera sexy jazz music

For @Vienna!

With her foot now in tip-top shape, Fox was more vigilant about her routine patrol around the outskirts of Redhawk Caldera. She chased off every small predator she found that might be competition, and made sure to take note of the prey that she could spot from the higher reaches of their kingdom. The prey would be essential as the colder fronts moved in, she knew, and already she had begun to squirm closer to Peregrine in the night to share his warmth.

Sniffing the air lightly, she caught something upon it. A wolf, she thought, and not one of her own. A loiterer at least, a trespasser at the worst. Fox trampled toward the smell, nose flaring and eyes wide as she braced herself for the worst (and hoped for the best). When she could spot the outline of a figure some distance away, she barked a warning, letting the other wolf know that it was too close for comfort. Granted, the stranger wasn't trespassing, but Fox was a cautious and territorial wolf.

While Vienna was starting to stray from the Spire less and less, that didn't mean she was going to stop completely. Heck, even when winter came she doubted she'd refrain from ever crossing the borders. If she tried to stay in one place too long she got antsy, and when she got antsy she tended to become a little... overwhelming to those she was around. At least, that was her experience in the past.

Besides that, she hadn't come this far south yet. And from the lack of scents on the way down, it seemed that not many others had either. It was her experience from this area, though, that you couldn't travel too long without bumping into a border by necessity. This one just happened to be pretty darn far away from the rest.

When she caught the scents that claimed these lands, she did a double take, and her mind traveled back to a certain meeting on the border. No way. Last she had heard, Fox was with the Plateau wolves. She was the last wolf Vienna had expected to run into down here.

She was just about to turn tail and leave when a warning bark sounded out, the source a familiar-looking ginger figure. Vienna couldn't tell for sure, as it had been a while, but a part of her wanted to find out. Because a part of her was curious as to whether all she had heard was true.

Curiosity always won out in the end with her, so instead of leaving, she approached. Slowly, of course, and stopping still quite a ways from the border. But a clear invitation to the other that, if she wasn't aiming to chase her away, Vienna wouldn't mind a chat.

As she neared, Fox realized this was not just any wolf. This was a Sunspire wolf. Her hackles raised, though her teeth remained hidden behind her lips, not curling into a snarl as she might have done some time ago. This little thing could do her no harm, considering she was far, far away from home. Fox wondered if it wasn't another of Ferdie's "pledges" who had abandoned him due to his stupid ways. If that was the case, it would not be the first one that Fox had spoken with. But as she approached, there was an apparent lack of Ferdie's scent mixed with Jace's. And the one dark she-wolf who had called the creek home once upon a time was laced more thickly in the girl's scent. Fox made no mention of this as she drew closer.

When she had barked, the Sunspire wolf had not darted toward her aggressively, but she also had not departed, as Fox might've liked. A curious approach indeed. She could not imagine what sort of witchcraft would urge somebody from The Sunspire to come all the way out here. “What do you want?” Fox asked sharply when she was within earshot. No doubt the fiery leader was infamous in the north.

As she drew closer, it was confirmed without a doubt that this was, indeed, Fox. Her greeting was less friendly than the usual that Vienna had encountered around here, but she hadn't made much of a habit of approaching borders either. It was warranted.

"Complete honesty, to meet you. I've heard a lot about you... well, you can imagine. I was curious if the stories matched reality." She smiled amicably, posture completely non-threatening. She knew how bias could twist things and she liked to see for herself.

It seemed as though Fox was somewhat of a legend. Still a few months shy of two years old, that felt like quite an accomplishment. The young thrice-alpha smirked at The Sunspire wolf, amused that she had become some kind of fairytale that mothers told their children at night. “So you’ve come to see the Big Bad Wolf,” Fox replied. “I’m afraid I’ve already disappointed you by failing to be big.” The Redleaf-DiSarinno was a small creature, many pounds under the weight of the average wolf. Whether or not she was "bad" was up to debate, although she was most certainly a wolf (despite her name).

“So what kind of stories have they been cooking up about me, hm?” she asked. Ferdie and Jace had likely painted a picture of some terrible monster who rabidly went around biting through the throats of every wolf she encountered. The truth was far from that, of course, but she wanted to hear what delicious lies they were telling, first. It no doubt started as an exaggeration and slowly snowballed into a rancid tale of the evil witch of the west. That seemed to be the way things were going with Peregrine's children, at least, and she had barely even known them.

Vienna laughed. "Don't worry, not too disappointed." She wasn't surprised Fox didn't recognize her... she hadn't been one of the forerunners in their skirmish, nor had she confronted the former Swiftcurrent alpha directly. Still, she remembered her quite well.

"You know, forcing wolves to kill one another, terrorizing rival packs, eating children. The usual horror stories." She kept her tone light, determined to be unbiased in this and hear the other side. True, she'd met other Swiftcurrent wolves, but this was her best shot at learning why the hell this thing had started. Fox had no way of really knowing for sure that she was Jace's sister and she intended to keep it that way. She loved her brother and trusted his word completely, but sometimes hearing the way others saw a situation could teach her a surprising amount.

"In all seriousness, though... I'd love to hear what happened. I'm a bit of a story collector." Fox had no real reason to want to explain things, but she had to go for it anyway.

Wolf History 101. :P

"Ah," Fox replied, pausing to consider. The truth was not far from what the Sunspire wolf spoke of, but Fox had her reasons for doing what she had done. But to explain that, she would need to start from the beginning. It would do her well to include the history of events that had happened in the creek.

"I was there at the birth of Swiftcurrent Creek," Fox recalled, "A short while after I arrived, the Alpha threw herself into the river and committed suicide. I did not know her well, and I do not know why she would ever do such a thing." Fox suspected Lethe had not been right in the head for one reason or another. "Leadership fell into my lap, so to speak, and nobody opposed my decision to take over." Apathy was probably the best way to describe how Fox had come to be the Alpha of Swiftcurrent Creek. "During that time, we had a cougar encroach upon our lands, which we defeated, though not without losses. We also defended the creek against a band of coyotes." Both of these had been threats that Fox and her comrades had dealt with swiftly.

"Somewhere before all that, a young wolf named Bones had joined us. I have always been uneasy about taking in younger wolves, but she proved herself to be an asset time and time again. Her mother, a wench from Tortuga, came with a few of her cronies to take her back, even though Bones did not wish to go. We killed those we had to in attempt to rescue the lass, but her mother stole her away in the end." Fox said this with a frown. It still haunted her as her one true loss of all the battles she had fought. "I could not send anybody after her, as much as I wished to."

"Some time after that, Jace came to me to tell me of some problem he had. I listened, although I thought it was bunk. Ferdie, a wolf I'm sure you're familiar with, had also joined us at some point, and he spent much of his time with Jace. Ferdie was always a queer wolf, behaving oddly at the most inappropriate times. I should have chased him off long before I did." It was a mistake on her part; she realized that now. "Ferdie attacked a young wolf, Nightingale, and I was not there to stop it. Jace was also involved somehow, and he defended Ferdie when I confronted them. Worried for the safety of the pack, I ordered Jace to finish the job and kill Ferdie. He disobeyed, and so I chased both of them off. I could not have such menaces living in close quarters, especially when we had an expecting mother." But that was only half of the saga.

"Ferdie and Jace stupidly decided to make their home close to the creek. Far too close for my comfort. They are monsters, even if they will tell you lies to make them believe otherwise. We went peacefully at first, giving them ample time to relocate somewhere else, but they would not abide. So I went back again and again, trying to make my point clear. But they did not listen. During one of these expeditions, they captured two of my comrades, one of whom was only a child." Magpie was back with her now, safe and sound, but there had been many months when Fox had thought that she was dead... or worse. "I managed to escape, but tragedy struck the next morning, and I was... not myself for several days, leaving the pack without warning. It was not something I ever intended to do, especially at the worst time possible, but life has never been terrible predictable for me. When I returned, my Beta challenged me, saying I had no right to be there. She won, and I went to the plateau to be with Peregrine."

"He elevated me to the position of Beta immediately, which caused a stir. Shortly after, the Alpha female stepped down to care for her own betrothed, and I took up her spot. It was natural, as the mate of the Alpha male, although few wolves seemed to understand this. I gave the plateau a fair shot, but in the end, I knew it could never be my home. Few of the wolves accepted me, and I told Peregrine of this. We scouted for land, and after injuring myself here, it was decided that we would stay." Fox fell silent, wondering what this stranger thought of her tale.

Vienna listened silently, attention raptly held by the tale her fiery companion told. And even though the story's nature was somewhat personal, she still enjoyed most of it immensely. When Fox termed her brother a monster, however, the gentle girl felt a spike of anger. No one had the right to say such a thing of him, not even Vienna, though she had the scar that some might term justification. Her brother worked so hard to control what he hadn't chosen to be born with... And it just as easily could have been she to have the misfortune of the inheritance. This woman had no right.

She kept her mouth shut, though, not wanting to end the conversation prematurely. When it was finished, she was silent a moment. It might have surprised Fox to know, but Vienna agreed with many of her points. However, she did not agree that the spire wolves should have left. They claimed an unclaimed territory, it was simple as that. And there was space between the two. She had little doubts that they would have had no interactions had Fox been content to leave them be. Not only that, but she noted that Fox failed to say what she had been doing on their borders when her wolves were taken captive. An answer she knew.

She knew speaking of such would get her nowhere, though, for she understood the other to be territorial almost beyond reason. No, she would ask the other question. The one she did not understand.

"Why kill Ferdie? Why not just chase him off? Surely you were a strong enough pack to do so , and to ensure that he did not return. Then you could have lost only one that day." It was odd to her that Fox would have immediately resorted to such a drastic punishment, and forced her brother to carry it out instead of doing so herself.

A more observant wolf would have noticed the minute changes in Vienna's expression. To her question, Fox answered evenly. "I needed to know where his loyalties lay," she replied. "Instead of offering an alternative, to chase Ferdie off, Jace chose to disobey completely." Perhaps that had or had not been her thinking at the time. It made sense now, and it was plausible that she would have used that order of thinking to come to the conclusion that they should both depart from Swiftcurrent at the time. Idly, Fox wondered how her current pack-mates would respond to such a dilemma. Hopefully, she would not have to find out.

"Besides, would you not kill somebody who was known to attack young wolves?" she asked of the stranger. He was a threat, and Fox thought it best to extinguish threats as soon as possible. As time had proven, Ferdie grew to be a large threat and had ultimately forced her out of her home.

It did not surprise her that her brother had not offered an alternative, though she did not believe it was a result of a lack of loyalty. It was more likely that he was too worked up to think of an alternative at the time. The words sounded pretty now, but Vienna wondered how much truth they held as to her logic then. Her name was Fox, though, a creature known to be shrewd and conniving. Vienna couldn't be faulted for being a bit skeptical, though, since her only encounter with the new Redhawk Alpha was when she had come with only two packmates to take a piss on their borders.

"I would never kill as a first option, but rather only if all other routes were exhausted." She responded, shrugging. "Seems to me it would be a logical move if he'd already been banished, but tried to return. As a first offense, though, it's pretty final. Such things can be overcome." Her brother was a prime example of that. She couldn't fault Fox for not wanting the danger in her pack, especially with young pups around, but she could for dealing with such a heavy paw. This conversation was one of the heavier she had had in recent times, and she was quite enjoying herself. It was strange, using words like 'logical'.

Sorry Fox is mega-bitch. D:

Fox twisted up her face at the girl's response. “I’ve told my story,” she said curtly, “and I won’t justify my actions to some Sunspire gawker.” Fox didn't give a flying rat's ass what this girl would have done, nor was she keen on taking advice from somebody who was not only a stranger, but a friend of an enemy. The Redleaf was becoming increasingly agitated, and she did not like one bit being talked down to by somebody on her borders. If she wanted to hear her side of it, fine. But Fox would not be told she was wrong for the decisions she had made for the safety of her pack.

“Is that all?” she asked, suddenly ready to be rid of this girl and get on with her day. Fox now wondered if this girl had been sent here to spy on her in some manner. Would Ferdie and his gang come down here to heckle her in her new home? Had they somehow found out about her injury (which she had now spoken freely of) and were they planning an intrusion as she sat here and waxed about days long past? Fox wasn't sure, but she decided that she had done all the history lessons she wanted to for the day.

Lucky Vienna's kinda immune :D

She thought they'd been having a discussion, not an argument, but apparently Fox saw her as preaching and desired to cut their talk short. Somewhat disappointed that she was being dismissed so soon, she shrugged. "Alrighty. Can't really argue with ya." Nor did she want to. Despite what Fox may think of her now, Vienna wasn't one to preach. She had her own views and understood that they might be considered soft in some aspects. It was why she never sought the responsibilities of leadership. She didn't have the iron in her for it.

"That's pretty much it. It was nice meeting you, though, Fox." And it really was. It was hard for Vienna to imagine that this woman had caused so much trouble within her pack, but that was done now. And much as she didn't like the way she spoke of her brother, she did respect her.

Wrapping up here. Thanks for the thread!

Fox huffed when Vienna excused herself and waited until the Sunspire wolf was out of sight before she turned back to Redhawk Caldera. Shaking her coat to rid her of the uneasy feelings and frustration she had felt with the girl, Fox limped back toward the inner workings of her home. Reliving the entirety of her life (or at least a huge chunk of it) left her feeling exhausted, and she wanted nothing more than to take a nice, long nap.