Dragoncrest Cliffs Siren song

He sought the woman and could not find her. The scent of her drifted hotly through the snow, circling and winding, and so Drusk abandoned it in favor of the opposite direction since the phoenix appeared to be avoiding it.

The land rose rocky and chaotic from the white snow. Flanked in spots by pine, scoured by a salt wind, the beast lingered as he hunted for the woman - or a woman, now that he had experienced this life changing thing.

Perhaps more could be tasted, here.

but a woman would not receive him—at least, not yet.

val's death (chief among other calamities) had greatly altered lafayette's usually sunny demeanor. there was extra weight in his step these days, a heaviness to his gait that belied the heaviness of his heart. he was at the edge of the great sequoia forest when the fleeting brown form caught his attention.

a man. a strange man. had manman not warned him about such wolves?

with a sigh and a growl in his throat, the ruddy boy slipped through the trees, hackles lifting as he confronted the unfamiliar face.

what you be doin' so close to our lands? lafayette demanded. there was an odd smell about the man, one he couldn't quite place. that made him even warier within this encounter.

Drusk lived by keeping away from settlements. The change which the fire-woman had brought about within him served as a sudden shift in his desires and it was a difficult thing to carry out, given his propensity of avoidance.
When a stranger did arrive to where he lurked, the man was reluctant to stick around. He felt the familiar pull of instinct to flee, to be away where it was safe, and he considered doing so — for maybe five seconds.
The stranger carried deep red tones to their fur, a dark mask that could've marked them as a sibling had Drusk not known better; they had questions textured with warnings. Drusk heard the low sounds in the man's throat and wanted to rebuke them, that nagging instinct to brandish his teeth almost too hard to ignore.
He had no words, only posture — because this stranger did not speak in the way of the mountain men, or the desert people, Drusk relied now upon what came naturally. He made himself small, which was irritating but necessary: his head lowering between shoulders, his tail low, going so far as to tuck it neatly against his haunches.
He remained standing, but kept his gaze properly averted.
All things saying, not a threat and do no harm and even, stay?

the man showed proper submission, but did not speak, letting body language do the talking for him. for loquacious lafayette, that was not enough, and he cast his verdant gaze around, looking for the proverbial adult in the room.

but mireille's scent had led away recently. so had chacal's. he could call for them, but they may not hear—or at least not come straight away. others had been distant. pepper was old.

and papa val was dead.

"your grandmamans built this place from nothing. what we have now did not exist when even i was a puppy. and now you, and your children, will forever have a safe place here to raise your own kids and see your legacy continue. our legacy."

all that remained was his faith in and fealty to sapphique.

him, alone, facing this stranger on the border.

who are you? lafayette asked, each word slow and carefully punctuated, his shoulders and brows lifted in query. an' why you come here?

The stranger did not drive him away.

There were more words instead, and at least they were familiar given that others often asked these things.

Drusk, he intoned, finally looking at the man eye-to-eye, but only long enough to motion to himself with a tilt of his jaw, Drusk halekat voj.

He moved sharply then, not towards the man but towards one of the patches of stone and earth that held the mark of the woman he had bedded, and he motioned to it, snuffling at first like a pig for truffles.
When he came up from that he said, Hilehelat.

A proud wave of his tail followed the quick flat-line of it, and he chuffs, looking around — where is the woman?

drusk, lafayette repeated, with a brusque nod. the man said other words he did not know, and then began to sniff along the boundary line. he was uneasy already, and as he lowered his nose to scent where the man had, his blood ran cold as he found an all-too familiar aroma—

"once a man followed your matant chacal back to dis place 

an' said he would return again an' again!"

—manman.

bile hit the back of his throat, and he swallowed it down, beginning to tremble. he somehow found the strength to rise again and look the man in the eye, shaking his head with grave finality.

no' here, he told drusk. gone. you can try lookin' somewhere else.

He was understood. The pantomime of seeking Mireille's scent had done what he had intended — mostly.

There was a shift in the guard's attitude which Drusk had not anticipated. He had come looking for the red-woman, but now that he stood before the rising stones of the cliffside and had scented the limits of the claim, he had learned of other women. Perhaps he could be of use to them in the same way.

The man proved to be an obstacle, though.

Drusk reri! He made a point to stand proudly in that spot, planting his feet, almost squaring off against the red-and-black figure before him. His posturing became a little less friendly. He huffed and motioned towards the land beyond Lafayette then, and lunged a step, as if to insist he move beyond this point.

resistance.

he knew the history of sapphique. he knew that others had fought and died to secure this land. the boy had visited their graves and heard tales of their bravery.

lafayette was young, lanky, and lacking in experience—but he would not back down.

no! he exclaimed back, voice breaking on the word, then called for his packmates—here or not. @Pepper, of course, and his siblings, and even cowardly @Jean-Heron. the newcomer @Dogfish.

@Mireille and @Chacal, wherever they were.

but he prepared to stand alone, and he thrust his fiery head into the air, closing the ground between him and the man with a flash of fangs and clack of jaws.

When the stranger moved to stop him Drusk saw more, learned more, in that instant. It wasn't a man who stood there trying to make him stop, but a boy. They couldn't have been far apart from one-another in age; but where Drusk had inherited his mother's largesse and his father's feral nature (or maybe it went the other way, what did he know about his family) — this boy was lean and tall like a deer, and had likely subsisted on fish rather than red meat.

The boy shouted and Drusk answered with a snarl and a snap, curving himself towards the obstacle, intent on putting him in his place - not to maim, or even to break the skin if he could help it, but to dissuade the boy away from his persistence.

He wasn't timely enough to do any of this before the call-to-arms, and he would likely regret that. But Drusk was keen to stick around, and he wasn't going to let this boy drive him off for nothing.

The distressed call of the young boy snapped Pepper from his half-assed attempt at catching dinner, which had devolved into him staring at his reflection in the water’s surface. 

The wolf was quick to action, bolting as fast as his old legs could carry his worn, hungry body.

the two wolves collided, with lafayette taking the brunt of the impact. he stumbled backward, tumbling head over heels, struggling to catch his breath and gather his thoughts while on the ground.

but he couldn't let this man go further. he couldn't.

stop! the boy hollered, though the cry came out reedy and hoarse from exertion. he began to scramble to his paws, trying to get up before drusk could charge into the territory in search of—

mireille? was she all he wanted? or was it something else?

nevertheless, he was a threat.

The boy went down hard and fast. While he scrambled, Drusk launched himself across that neutral zone to cross the invisible limits of what constituted the claim; he wanted to climb, to seek out the woman or other women of her ilk, because the taste for such things had been finally unlocked.

There was the scrambling of feet on stone, of claws against soil, and the boy was on his feet again, and chasing him. Drusk had half a mind to lag a moment and properly put the boy down; either by pinning him or wounding him so he could not protest further—but that required more action than he wanted to put forth.

He rounded upon the shape suddenly, and snapped his teeth in a warning, as if to send the boy away, as if Drusk had become the guardian upon that invisible line. His tail thrashed behind him once; his shoulders bristled.

Grimacing, snarling, he paced as if ready for anything.

The wolf breached line of site in time to see a large wolf colliding into Lafayette. 

He didn’t recognize the large wolf, and certainly didn’t appreciate him attacking a younger pack mate. 

He turned to intercept the wolf, previous worry turning to outright anger. Old paws picked up speed, bones protesting with each footfall. His lungs struggled to keep up a steady breathing pace. 

He was still fast, if he ignored his body. 

Luckily the wolf stopped for a moment, seeming to take pride in pushing around Lafayette. It gave Pepper a proper moment to speed forward with an aimed lunge, teeth bared hoping for contact.

he couldn't breathe.

okay, he could—but not much. the impact had knocked the wind from his lungs, and the panic of the situation compounded that even further. gasping for air, he saw pepper come onto the scene, sailing toward the stranger with a snarl.

breathe, he told himself, turning toward the melee. breathe.

lafayette summoned one giant inhale, puffed out his chest, and sent two bellowed words toward drusk:

GET OUT!

he then charged back into the fray.

Put three men together, and what do you get?

A spectacle. 

Tousaint moseyed forward with the coolness of a cat closing in on its food dish. Of the three, he recognized none- but assumed at least one of them must belong to Sapphique and was willing to place his bets on the youngest, a boy who had inherited his mother's red fur, emerald eyes, and spitfire courage. It took only a moment to see that the fight was two-against-one, much to his relief. He wasn't interested in sweeping in to aid his birth-pack in the fight if the fight was going to be even. 

He loitered on the outskirts of the fight with a reluctant sigh; if only his mother could see what these men were doing...She would shred the stranger limb from limb, especially if one of them harmed the one he assumed was either a brother or a cousin. 

You be outnumbered, t'ree to one, Came his singsong voice over the ruckus. I suggest you do as de young man says an' beat a path away from 'ere.

Drusk wanted to climb the ridge and follow the red woman's scents until he found her, but he knew she wasn't here. He knew also that he was not welcome; this boy fought him - not well, but enough - and then there was a second snapping at his heels, and Drusk spun so that both were in his sights.

The boy was struggling on the ground, winded. The other was older and seemed intent to harm, and Drusk chose this as a greater threat. He parried jaw-to-jaw a few times; but then a voice slid between the snarls, and he saw a third had joined them.

He might not have had a mind for math, but Drusk knew that he was swiftly being outnumbered. If the boy managed to stand again - and if this newcomer joined in - he would have no chance.

He managed a few quick snaps and a chorus of snarls as he made his escape attempt. At least he had tested the borders enough to learn more about them: the many men, the layered scents of the red woman and others; he would be back.

Loathe as he was to turn tail, Drusk cut away in to a run and backed off. He would go until he knew none followed.

He caught a few sharp teeth to his face, but nothing he would give up on. He hoped he returned the favor. 

Eventually the wolf fled, but Pepper knew he wouldn't be able to catch up. And he was more worried about checking in on Lafayette, anyway. 

He stood his ground for a moment, seeing the large wolf off with a snarl. He waited until he was no longer visible before turning to the grounded wolf. 

"Y'alright?" he said, nose moving closer to better inspect him. He couldn't see any immediate injuries.

before he could launch his futile assault, another wolf came into the mix. lafayette was about to round on this young man when the stranger opened his mouth and uttered the sounds of his family, sing-song and flowing from his tongue.

thus outnumbered, drusk departed. lafayette was left, mouth agape, sides heaving.

i'm okay, he assured pepper, and fired back, you okay, too?

then he turned his face to the third wolf, who had clearly made the difference in casting out the interloper. the reddish color 'round his eyes and ears caught lafayette's attention, but he was already bought in.

t'ank you, lafayette said sincerely. i know you be one of us by 'ow you speak. you must be some kinda cousin, hmm?