Lost Creek Hollow we would only hold on to let go

@Mordecai

Bhreac hadn't yet had any official correspondence with anybody in Lost Creek Hollow's leadership. She knew her sister had met the necessary parties and gone through the appropriate channels, and though Eshe spoke highly of everybody involved, Bhreac reserved judgment — whether or not she liked every one of them, or any one of them, to be honest, she was going to do whatever she needed to do to join the pack and stay with the only family she seemed to have left. She'd met Riordan, who she'd liked, but still. Nothing official. She felt a bit at ends.

She supposed this was about when she should take some kind of initiative. Well, not initiative, per se. She didn't really know how to do this. The pack was new, she'd learned from Eshe, and she could sense the beginning of borders, which she obviously knew not to cross. But she had lived in the same pack her whole life. Should she call for somebody? Should she have brought a gift? Wracked with indecision, she paced a bit along the fringes of Lost Creek Hollow, trying to decide how to proceed.

*bludgeons internet to work*

this is awful, it's been so long since i've dealt with people trying to join. @__@

but hiiiii

Another round of their growing borders. Mordecai found himself pleasantly surprised with the way things were going. Day by day, things were coming together smoothly. And their numbers grew bit by bit. There was a note of satisfaction in doing so, the events of the last few weeks suddenly behind him without so much of a secondary consideration. At least on that day, anyway.

As he rounded yet another bend of a path that was still becoming worn by them all, he picked out the light hairs of another up ahead. For a moment, he wrongly mistook the figure for Luke — the pacing and lack of bluish features changed his demeanor considerably. With a bark to garner their attention, his approach was swift and dutiful. It came to him as easily as the urge to project his status did, something which had been slow coming in the days past.

This is likewise awful, neither Bhreac nor I have any idea how to do this anymore. x_x

She didn't have much time to deliberate before a bark over her shoulder caught her attention, and she wheeled around, shifting her weight a little uneasily as the stranger approached her. She caught the same scent on him she'd found around the area, and the same vague claimant that held her sister. Logically, she recognized that this was probably one of the wolves in Eshe's pack, but she still wasn't entirely used to or comfortable dealing with unknown wolves on a regular basis. Still, she'd have to make do.

She relaxed her posture respectfully, dipping her head slightly and tucking her ears back on her head. Eshe had told her not to worry, that everybody was pleasant and she hadn't had to jump through any flaming hoops to find her way, but she'd never really done this before. Perhaps there were dance steps she'd be expected to know that she'd simply never learned.

"Hey," Bhreac said, when he was closer, giving her tail another wag for good measure. "I'm Bhreac. You have my sis — well, you don't have her, but she joined you, I think, and I'd like to too because — she's... my... you know, sister." Bhreac clamped her mouth shut, and then relaxed just enough to huff a sigh. "Usually my sister is around to babble enough for the both of us and I get to maintain my cool."

hah, i've been back at this for like a year now so to speak and i'm still crummy. not that i was particular ever any good to begin with, but sometimes my posts are just... cobbled together. horrifically. :D

With a cant of his head, he listened as she rattled off a few things. Namely that her sister was among the wolves that were helping to make the hollow a home. Intrigued, Mordecai thumbed back through his own memory whether or not he recalled anyone who seemed similar to her. There may have been one or two instances, but he couldn't have claimed to know who she was talking about. Some of the recruits that had come into their fold he had only skirted past in passing, basically.

With a snort of amusement to her parting statement, he returned the good-nature wave of his tail. "Who's your sister?" Maybe a name would have been easier to focus on rather than trying to possibly match whatever few differences in features or colors that could have tied one wolf to another. "And what makes you think you'd be a good fit here?" Maybe if Bhreac wasn't the brains of the sisterly duo, then perhaps she was the brawn. And as it were, Mordecai hardly had the chance so far to assess whether or not they needed any sort of skill in particular.

Hush, no. I'm constantly struggling to remember how to write in past tense because I don't remember the last time I did it, SO. We can be messes 2gether.

"Quill," Bhreac said immediately, having spent the hour before coming here trying to remember what Eshe had said she introduced herself as, realizing it would've been sorely embarrassing to roll up looking to join a sister whose name she didn't know. She thought about explaining that Quill wasn't Eshe's actual name, because Bhreac was certain to slip up at some point, but that was probably more Eshe's place than hers. "We look alike if you listen to us both natter on about nothing long enough," she added wryly.

The next question put her back into focus — wittering really was Eshe's modus operandi, not hers. She tended to be more economical when it came to phrasing, especially when it came to strangers, but she was nervous, and she hadn't had much cause to be nervous in her life. Even when things had gone south at home, she hadn't been nervous; there'd been too much to do, too much to consider. Now there was room for nothing but nerves, but at least the straightforward ask was something to grab onto.

"Not to lean too heavily on my sister, but she's all I have left, so her opinion means double what it ever did to me. And she feels you all are trustworthy, good wolves," Bhreac said, "and I really need that. Which... is less why you need me and more why I need you. I, uh, am a useful hunter — I'm good at keeping track of prey, good at organizing. I'm," she paused, licking her lips and taking a beat to consider before continuing. "I don't seek it out, but I found recently that I am useful in the event of physical altercations. I'm stronger than I look. And I swear to you I have never in my life spoken this much in a go, shit."

awesome, we're #teammess and i love it lmfao

Yeah, he couldn't have said that he knew Quill much more beyond in name. Someone that Harlyn and the others had found, or really had been found by in a manner of speaking. Someone who had answered the brief rally of sorts that had been put together... and that he had been absent from. All within good reason, of course, because even Mordecai was prone to wandering off to check something out. But since then, he had stuck a little closer to the territory, even if the urge to go off and track after something tempted him.

"Those are good qualities," he said with a lingering thin smile. They could always make good use of hunters, and of course of those to defend their territory. He already knew of one pack that was not too far off from them. And though he didn't quite know it yet, there was another that was just as quick at forming as they were. And Bhreac seemed in good spirits, nothing that really told him that she was about as far out in left field as they came. He'd have none of that again if he could help it, the lingering flashes of lunacy within the Spine had been enough to steer him clear of that lot for a good while.

"Now normally I'd been inclined to put your skills to the test, but I don't see much point in that now. I guess it wouldn't be very good to tarnish the reputation your sister's already given us if you were to fail," he went on to say before the silence lingered on, his own humor trying to break though. "How about you come with me and patrol, though? I'm Mordecai, by the way." He figured the real test of whether or not she was in it to win it was if she could stand his company for a bit. Perhaps it would do them well to get acquainted, and it wasn't like they needed to be too choosy right then and there. First impressions had a lot to do with it and more importantly, if she didn't own up to her own skill later on... well, one could use their imagination how it would turn out.

AMAZING

Bhreac breathed a sigh of relief as Mordecai seemed receptive, and also disinclined to put her skills to the test. Not that she was bluffing, or anything like that, but despite having been settled in the area for a couple of days with Eshe, she still felt a little ragged from everything that had preceded, and was uncharacteristically nervous to boot. She tended to reserve judgment on strangers, for many reasons, not the least of which was that she wasn't used to interacting with wolves she wasn't related to.

As she'd thought earlier, when interrogating her sister about a somewhat embarrassing crush on another wolf, there were possibilities open to them here that hadn't been even blips on their mental horizons at home. A silver-lining, even if it wasn't one she was ready to fully appreciate.

She snorted at his comment about embarrassing her sister, and barely bit back the sort of light-hearted cocky remark she'd throw at her sister, and instead just nodded, smiling gratefully at the rest of what he said. "Sounds great," she said. "Nice to meet you, Mordecai."

She waited for him to take the lead, not wanting to be presumptuous, but once they'd begun to walk, she asked, "[b]my sister says the pack is new. Can I ask what brought you here?"[/b]

Quick post before work aieeeeaieieieaei

They moved along, falling into an easy rhythm along the swath of terrain where the borders inevitably wavered. Mordecai's gaze shifted to what lied through the outskirts of the forest, a forest in which thinned considerably as it opened itself back up to the rush of terrain that had brought them so swiftly down towards the woodland to begin with.

"Wanted a change, I guess you could say," he said softly, chuckling. That was quite a loaded question, and one he didn't quite know how to answer and yet avoid answering altogether. It was complicated. "I suppose you could say we're either late dispersals, or repeat ones. A bit of both, really. Wanted to settle somewhere else and see what happens." Technically it had been more of Harlyn's thing to do the settling, but he found that he was coming around to the idea of sticking to one place more and more. Somewhere over the last couple of years, things had changed fundamentally for him. He was willing to chalk it up to age, if nothing else.

Pausing at a scent marker briefly to "refresh" it, he returned the question once he had finished. "What about you and your sister? Not very often I see siblings travel together." And if she evaded the question, well, he wouldn't take offense to it either. They all had their demons and the way Mordecai tried to see it, whatever had happened, happened. There was little they could do to alter the past and ultimately the best thing they could do was focus on the present and future. Yet if only it were that easy.

They moved along at a comfortable pace. The area was lovely, but beyond being in a low point between great heights, there wasn't much familiar about it. She thought that probably appealed to Eshe — something completely new. It was strange to think that after more than two years of spending nearly every day together, there were still things she could learn about her sister, like the fact that in the face of sadness or struggle, she wanted to turn her back and start over. Then again, their coping mechanisms had never been tested before.

"You've been in the area long, then?" Bhreac asked. She hesitated slightly. "Where I grew up, it was only our family. I... worry about all the packs I smelled, on my way here. Are they — that is, is it peaceful, here?" She'd assumed, of course, Eshe wouldn't bring her into a war zone, and she'd been given no reason to think otherwise. But her only encounter as a member of one pack with members of another pack was the total annihilation of everything she'd known, and so experience, however limited, told her to be wary.

She took a moment before responding to his question, picking over her words. "We grew up in a small pack. Just family. Months ago, a bigger pack challenged us for our lands — it was a very bad day," she said with a wry smile. "I stuck with the bigger pack, after, hoping someone would come back. Eventually Eshe did, so I followed her here. Maybe we're all that's left." She hoped the sparse detail would prevent it from sounding overly dramatic, or any sort of grab for pity. It was as she said — a very bad day that still influenced her behavior, but like all bad days, it would pass.

If was overly dramatic, it was lost on Mordecai. The occasional savagery of their kind did not surprise him. Whether it was by luck or simply good conscious none of the packs had truly dissolved into trying to take over more grounds than they could hold. And sure, sometimes there were spats over food or area, he didn't dispute that in the slightest. But nor did he comment on the story that she gave him, preferring to once more stick to leaving the past so firmly in the past.

"I've been here long enough to know that for the most part, everyone tolerates everyone. I mean, I'm sure there's some tension between packs here and there, but for the most part they're content to stay away from each other." He paused briefly, only verbal. "I think most of the packs here are also largely composed to family, though. Whether or not blood bounds them together. They look out for their own and leave it at that." Which to say that their own pack would deviate from that was largely undecided. Mordecai was just as content to them being their own entity, quiet and unnoticed. Yet with the knowledge of at least one pack nearby, he knew there would be some sort of tentative agreement at hand, spoken or not.

"Of course, I guess I can't speak for all them. There are a few who are more aggressive than others. Always will be, I suppose." A smile punctuated the decline of his statement.

"That's good," Bhreac said, nodding. Mordecai's words weren't entirely comforting — although she supposed it was better for him to be honest than to tell her what she wanted to hear — but it was good to see that he didn't seem particularly worried about it. Resources seemed more plentiful here; there was more grass for prey to eat, more woods in which prey could hide. She hadn't explored terribly far, yet, but it wasn't as dry and sparse as where she'd come from, so perhaps that had been the problem.

The world was large and varied and filled with strange faces who'd lived lives she knew nothing about. It was an obvious thing, but still a fact that hadn't really occurred to her, in the insulated bubble of her family. She would simply have to get used to it, after she took time to understand it.

"Is your group many?" Bhreac asked. She was appeased somewhat, but worried still that if they were too few, they'd be vulnerable. She decided in that moment that — assuming Mordecai didn't find her questions so irritating he had to get rid of her — if she were to be part of this pack, she'd have to devote time to figuring out how to protect it. She wouldn't lose a family again.

When it really came down to it, Mordecai really couldn't have spoke for the other packs.  He knew snippets and could make generalizations of them and that was truly about all of it.  He knew without question he would avoid Blackfeather Woods and as it were, he doubted his presence would be a welcome one if he were to try and visit either the Plateau or the Bay.  Yet in the same sense, just like the Spine, they were more than likely places he would not venture towards again.

And besides, a mountain range split them now, versus just the vast river plain of the flatlands.

"There's six or seven of us now, I believe," and maybe he shouldn't have sounded so uncertain.  "We've been working at keeping the borders secure, and it's how we've found others to fill our ranks incidentally."  They had started with four and since then had swiftly acquired others that were willing to follow.  That were willing to believe that they had something more than some other already established pack out in the boonies somewhere.

And so, the two continued on their way chatting, before parting ways.