bloodstream

It would take time to fully integrate into the pack. Even after several days (and participating in the pack's rally), Wicked still felt like an outsider. He hadn't even ventured beyond the pack's borderlines. He wanted to meet more of his pack mates and prove himself before he did that. He wanted to be careful and ease into things. After all, he had never done any of this before. He didn't want it to go down in flames.

That thought caused him to make a strange snerk sound as he walked a line invisible to the eye but conspicuous as anything to the nose. While he adjusted to his new home, he wouldn't just mope around the outskirts like some feeble vagrant. No, he he would make use of this transitional period by familiarizing himself with the boundary lines. These scouting missions doubled as patrols. Wicked, alias Pita, would relish any opportunity to keep the good guys in and the bad guys out.

i'm sorry i'm all over the place

Though she couldn't account for all of the wolves within their domain, Echelon still knew the sound of a new one when she heard it. They weren't exactly the most vocal bunch, but it was still hard to miss. Tracking him down was another thing entirely for her to do, but hey, nothing's entirely impossible if they set their mind to it, right?

So she had set off in search of this little light-haired newcomer, unaware that he had already been given some endearing name. Granted, the usual name-giver of the Spire tended to be on the side of abrasive and frankly she had no idea if it was truly Iqniq or Nanuk who issued out the pet names.

So like a good little Billy Goat Gruff, Echelon had been prowling around on some rocky ledge. Well, prowling may not have been the best term, seeing how she had been furiously trying to scale part of the face for a while. And she was about to tire of it along that rocky trail that they had taken the time to mark out well. Sure, there were other paths that would have made the climb easier, but she was aiming for one and only one thing that would satisfy her in an unspoken game of hey this is ours. A little sapling found itself growing out between a cracked rock and a hard place, and she had every desire in the world to mark it.

Never mind finding that other guy. If he was worth anything he'd find her eventually.

He sensed a disturbance ahead and Wicked's entire body stiffened and dropped. He prowled forth slowly, ears drawn backward, eyes moving rapidly back and forth and nose wriggling. He came around a bend in the rockery and his coal eyes fixed on a black she-wolf just this side of the borders, grappling with a sapling thrust up between some of the boulders forming the spire's base. He froze, studying her, his nostrils flaring. She smelled like she belonged here. This was one of his new pack mates.

His ears pushed forward and he lifted himself slightly, his white tail hanging limp behind his legs to show he knew his place in the scheme of things. He contemplated sneaking up behind her and giving her a fright, yet it was too early for such games. Instead, Wicked announced his presence with a low woof.

One time, and only one time, she got a footing that almost got her up to where she wanted to be. Then that all went to hell as her nails went scratching across stone, gravity deciding to kick in and firmly plant Echelon safely away from orbit. Rude. She huffed loudly, springing upwards again when that little low woof caught her attention; this time the slide back was pretty automatic and without resistance.

Safely back on terra firma, she regarded the new distraction with a loose-lipped display of her teeth. Maybe for a split-second she could have said she saw Nanuk, but this dude wasn't even her. For starters, he was definitely a dude. Nanuk may have been fairly masculine but she lacked a few pieces and parts that kind of came in the dude starter set.

Still, this didn't deter her from invading his personal bubble, cutting the travelling distance between them in half with just a couple of suspicious bounds. True to her asshole fashion, Echelon snapped at him wildly. But whether or not it was for sport or just her unjustly taking out some aggression was up in the air yet.

Her body language gave away her frustration, as did the show of teeth. When she turned and bounded toward him, Wicked wasn't sure what to expect. When she snapped her jaws at him, he flinched and turned his cheek to her, eyes narrowing. What the fuck did I do to you? he thought but pressed his lips firmly together as he backpedaled away from her. He was used to this kind of treatment back home and having it thrown in his face right off the bat here put a bad taste in his mouth.

Then he thought he saw a playful flicker in her eye. Was she just screwing with him? Was this some sort of hazing process? Had he just chosen a bag pack full of dicks for his next family? Wicked smiled uncertainly, dark eyes still squinted, his white tail giving a lash. He was tempted to engage her in a play fight, if that's what she wanted, but he was still too uncertain of his place to do such a thing. Instead, he hovered a bit awkwardly, watching her carefully.

Oooh boy, this one was interesting. Even with her actions, he didn't go bolting off into the distance yelping and crying on about how awful she was. No wonder he had made it past Nanuk, or whoever it was that had found him wandering around. When her snapping did little to rouse him into anything other than a friendly alright you're just a weird fucker routine, she found herself stopping the motions and just standing there.

Her tongue lolled out between her teeth for a moment; this action could be construed as thinking please wait.

Then the lights came on and everyone came home and she bounded back down the road where he came, taking the opportunity to goose him on the ass for the useless display she had just made. At least he seemed to get the posturing ticket done all right, she'd give him that. He hadn't tried to use her like a bowling ball and send her down some rocky lane to the deepest and darkest pits of hell just yet.

For a breathless moment, she just stood there, her tongue hanging out of her mouth and her gaze a little vacant. Wicked began to inch backward a little. The tension was building and he just knew she was going to spring at him without warning. He braced himself, turning broadside so that his flank could take the brunt of her attack. He still wasn't sure whether it would be sincere or playful.

Here it comes! he thought as the life came back into her eyes and she leaped at him like a tigress pouncing a helpless baby gazelle. She went for his hindquarters, smashing her cold nose against his left buttock and surprising a genuine squeak from him. Wicked tucked his tail to protect the family jewels (I'm the only one left in my gene pool, he thought wildly) and whirled, striking out his left foreleg to give her a frisky smack to the shoulder.

His smack to her shoulder didn't do much than send her a little off balance as she took off, the scattering of pebbles and whatever loose litter rolling away in her wake. Echelon had no idea whether or not he would give her chase and to be frank, she didn't care either. There was nothing wrong with casting some perfectly good confusion, and maybe kinda sorta alienating herself by seeming a few screws short of an efficient appliance.

And so, she zigged and zagged off towards the nearest timberline, going full on retard.

The last time he'd checked, tagging someone meant it was their turn to give chase. Instead, the strange (in more than one sense) she-wolf took off like a bat out of hell. Wicked stared after her, perplexed, then his hunter's instincts took hold and he launched after her. He was tall, with long legs and a stride to match. He might not necessarily catch up to her right away but he could at least match her pace.

While he was at it, he enjoyed the brisk breeze and let his tongue loll from his maw as he galloped like a mustang around the foot of the mountain. He would have to circle back and walk this stretch again to better familiarize himself with it but, for the moment, Wicked indulged his need for speed and kept his dark eyes on the prize.

this post brought to you by FIRRRrreeeeBALLLL

And a dark prize she could have been, if anyone was interested in that sort of thing. Echelon was fairly effective at barrelling through scenery without a care. She didn't care about those little plants that might have been for healing or poison; she didn't care about the structure of the trees either. It simply felt good to run for a change, though she had done her fair share of those things.

Though a bend she turned swiftly, taking to the rise of incline with newfound ease that had previous eluded her. Of course, having momentum on her side truly helped in this case, and the loose earth that had not been torn away by the wolves of the Spire suddenly found itself ripped to shreds beneath her worn feet.

Not once she did glance to see if her counterpart was behind her; eventually she would tire of the chase regardless if he had taken to following her.

He gained on her, little by little, though she thwarted him by suddenly leaping up the mountainside with surprising speed and grace. Wicked skidded to a halt below her, his ears falling back as he watched her climb. He was unwilling to follow just yet, so instead he lingered below her and began barking like a hound after treeing a raccoon.

Then something else entirely caught his eye. Wicked turned to watch a very small, scrawny coyote dart out from beneath a low outcropping, evidently frightened by all the noise. With a guttural growl, he abandoned the black she-wolf and darted after it. Although not a wolf, it was still a canine and therefore a trespasser and a threat, one he would happily eliminate.

Unaware that she had lost her chaser, Echelon continued on without regard. His baying stopped soon thereafter and she presumed that he was somewhere in pursuit of her. She continued up a ways on the mountainside before falling into a wait. Only he never came, leaving her to huff all by her lonesome. Figures, the one time she decided to entice a little play, she gets abandoned. Kicking at the dirt idly, Echelon continued on, more than likely off to search for someone to harass.