Ocean's Breath Plateau Blue

She hadn't meant to come this far north—she had wanted Floki to be the one to introduce her to the ocean when they visited the bay—but all of a sudden, the wandering Wildfire found herself gazing at a lake so vast and endless that she instantly knew this was no lake at all. She was staring at the sea. She didn't know it but she was standing on Ocean's Breath Plateau and the ocean absolutely took her breath away.

She gazed for what felt like hours, until the salty breeze began to sting her dry eyes. Blinking a dozen times, Wildfire turned to begin studying her more immediate surroundings. But every few seconds, she caught herself glancing out at the open ocean again, watching as the sun sparkled off the royal blue waters as far as the eye could see and, nearer, the foamy white crests rolled up on the pale beaches below...

Vlad had been planning his attack on Wildfire when the wind changed and brought word to his nose that she was, in fact, a wolf - not some coyote-fox abomination, and certainly not lunch. Saltwinter's recruitment agent was not above cannibalism, but not today - he had a group for the winter, and this girl would be of more use to him as a working pack mate than a potential meal.

"Small fox bebe!" the Russian hollered from his spot further inland, unaware that his nickname was just a 100% accurate description of the Moonspear youth. He waited to see what his target would do, angling his ears forward to catch her response above the ever-present wind.

A voice shouted from somewhere close by, startling Wildfire and spurring her to whirl on one red heel. Her amber eyes combed her surroundings, eventually landing on an agouti wolf with stark yellow eyes. He wasn't moving; he seemed to be poised, waiting. Seeing no one else, Wildfire assumed he must have been the one to shout. Her large ears drew backward slightly as she cast him a questioning look.

"Um," she said only loud enough for herself to hear, then added more loudly, "Hello?" Her silky black tail twitched but otherwise she remained motionless, her posture neither friendly nor unfriendly but entirely neutral. She didn't think she was anywhere near claimed territory, yet with the bracing sea air whipping around up here and the enchanting ocean view, it was possible she could have missed the markers.

Vlad prowled closer, slightly hunched and with both ears flapping against his skull - the wind was to blame, but it made him look more intimidating than intended. She offered him a questioning 'hello', and the Saltwinter wolf responded with an eyeful of teeth. "Hielo!" he greeted her exuberantly, stopping just beyond swiping distance. Up close, she was quite obviously a wolf - but her colouring was unusual. She seemed healthy, though - perhaps a bit young to be wandering around unassisted. "Vat you do hiere? Make luke for peck? I hev vinter deal for Fox-Biebee - much gud deal!" Vlad offered, still grinning.

The stranger cut an intimidating caricature, causing Wildfire to bend downward slightly at his approach. When he bared his teeth, she quickly realized he was trying to smile, not show aggression. Her lips pursed and she coaxed her muscles to soften somewhat. She then slowly sat, though she remained poised to leap back onto her feet at a second's notice if it proved necessary.

Not only did his strange accent remind her of Roo, so did his mention of baby foxes (or so she thought). Wildfire's brow furrowed, though she was more amused than anything as she replied, "Am I looking for a pack?" She paused to verify that she had understood him correctly, then shook her head lightly. "No, I'm with Moonspear. I'm just exploring. What's this about baby foxes...?" she prompted wonderingly.

Vlad's demeanour changed the instant she revealed herself to be a claimed wolf. The corners of his lips sagged, and his brows pinched down to form a suspicious frown. "Exploring" could be code for anything - scoping out hunting grounds, recruiting... Vlad would be damned if a weird-looking baby was going to rob him of a warm body.

"YOU," he told her impatiently, "Small gerl heving look like fadder put menn-steek in fox. Vat you explore? You sneak? Plenn atteck Vlad peck?" The accusations were a scare tactic, but convincing. Stray wolves were rather more likely to follow a pretty girl, and Vlad didn't want to deal with that kind of competition.

Something she said or did prompted a swift change in demeanor. Suddenly there was an unpleasant pinch to his face and he spat questions at her with a less than friendly edge. Wildfire didn't catch half the words due to his accent, though the words sneak and attack jumped out at her. She rose slowly back onto all fours, prepared to retreat (hopefully walking, although running wasn't out at this point), while shaking her head again.

"I'm just an Outrider having a look around," she assured him. "I'm not a spy, or a fighter for that matter. I wasn't even aware there was a pack close by, if I'm honest." Wildfire would have asked, Where is it? But this felt more like an interrogation now, less like a conversation, so she let the query hang in the air, implied.

She could have backed off and left, though Wildfire knew that unless she was infringing upon his territory somehow, she had as much right to be here as he did. She was no longer a Warrior by trade but she wasn't weak, nor a pushover. She resisted the impulse to depart, standing her ground in the hopes this situation could still be saved.

She explained herself - politely, but without apology. A biopic of their lives would have some sort of drum crescendo in place of the silence that followed. Vlad squinted hard at her, as if he hoped to reveal some hidden truth with the power of his mind.

And... cymbals! "OK! You say trutt," Vlad declared, losing all signs of hostility as quickly as he had picked them up. His tail began to wag, and the ever present display of teeth became a smile once more. "Vat Moon Spar? Sound no gud peck - you come to Salty Vinter peck! Hev so gud fuds, also many hendsome wulf. And if that wasn't enough to tempt her: "Hev also beeg cave, many tunnel for gud hide!"

His demeanor shifted gears again. If this kept up, Wildfire would surely get whiplash. She exhaled, feeling her chest loosen with relief when he grew friendly once more. She didn't trust it, though, and quirked a brow at him to suggest as much. She was still having trouble deciphering about half of his words, though she could pluck out one here or there and get the gist of things.

"Moonspear's a great pack," she assured him, halfway expecting him to get all surly on her again. "No offense to Saltywinter, of course," Wildfire continued, not sure if she'd picked up on the correct name, "but caves and tunnels aren't my thing anyway. Are you located near here?" the youth now felt comfortable asking, although she was still prepared to get her head bitten off any second.

Alas, she seemed wedded to Moonspear. Vlad knew what the moon was, and presumed the territory had been named in its honour - a crescent-shaped lake, or something - I d'no, round? Saltwinter was easy - the ocean was salty and a bunch of wolves would be weathering the winter there. If the alliance survived beyond that, there would need to be some kind of meeting.

"You regret!" he returned with a shake of his head, but his voice was not unkind. There was time yet to convince her, even if it wasn't today. Vlad angled his head in the direction of Donnelaith's claim. "Not thees one forest - make many walking, ees next forest. Ver being Moon peck?" He couldn't even guess; was it a mountain? Or a lake?

Although he rather forcefully insisted she would regret declining his offer, there was no malice in the male's tone. Her brow arched further, though she gave him a tight-lipped smile of bemusement. He indicated the direction of his pack, which caused her amber eyes to wander along the coastline. It stretched on forever. It was easy to feel small up here, she thought in passing.

Her attention snapped back to his face when he asked about her pack. "We live on a mountain southwest of here," Wildfire answered before suddenly realizing out loud, "I never got your name. I'm Wildfire." She wondered if his moniker would be as peculiar as his voice and mannerisms.

"I name Vlad. Wiiilde-fire," he copied slowly, scrunching his face up around the syllables. A harsh name for a sweet face - not suitable at all. "I calling Fox-Biebee," he concluded whilst looking in the direction he presumed to be south-west of their present location. There were a number of distant peaks, but nothing that stood out immediately as a territory that would suit the name 'Moonspear'. "You miek walk to home now," he instructed gently, nodding his head at the occupied forest to east. "Ees also beeg peck hier. Maybe ees bedd peck, make keel Fox-Biebee eef seeing you." His motivation for sharing was not entirely selfless; if he was going to recruit her for Saltwinter (and he was determined to), Wildfire would need to leave the coast with her life. Who knew what kind of wierdos had settled among the sequoias?

His name was strangely underwhelming in contrast to his personality. He seemed to think the same about her, if his nickname was any indication. It was strange how accurate his little pet name was, though Wildfire assumed he'd come up with it because of her likeness to the critter in question. She didn't bother telling him she actually took after a dhole more than a fox, mostly because in the next moment he busied himself with trying to usher her away.

"What?" she asked dumbly, making no move to leave. She had a brief flashback to the time when she'd passed through Sleepy Fox Hollow, only to be escorted away by the nearby mount's taciturn Alpha female. This situation was similar, though Vlad wasn't steering her away from his pack but another, nebulous one apparently taking up residence in the nearby woodland.

"What pack is it? What makes you think it's bad or that they would attack me here?" the Outrider pressed, her curiosity genuine. Was Vlad just being weird (probable) or was there an actual threat close by?

Now it was Vlad's turn to ask "Vat?", looking as confused by Wildfire's reply as she was by his warning. He had no particular reason to think that Donnelaith posed a threat, but assumed they would not take kindly to unidentified lurkers skulking about in the places where they likely hunted. Winter was upon them, and the cold amped up aggression in every wolf. "Vlad not knowing! You vant taking reesk?" he asked her, genuinely perplexed. "You close! Many wulf vaiting esk kvestion efter keel. Namber one - keel! Namber two - kvestions! You understend? You knowing thees peck?" Clearly she didn't - geeze, had she been raised by pine cones?

Vlad seemed perplexed by her questions. He iterated the risks inherent in traipsing along the fringes of a pack's territory. She glanced off to their right, toward the forest in question below the plateau, then her eyes shifted back toward her fellow wolf. Having grown up in the caldera, she knew all about territorial behavior. It made her think of those loiterers in Haunted Wood. There was a big difference between Wildfire and them, however.

"I'm not hunting and I'm not looking to stake a claim. I'm just having a look around. I'm not even close to their borders," Wildfire pointed out sagely before leveling her gaze on Vlad's face. His eyes were like a bolder, brighter version of hers. "I'm not worried because I'm no threat to them or to you. I just want to admire the views." She jerked a foreleg in the direction of the ocean. "I'd never seen it before today, you know."

She dismissed him with the confidence of a much older wolf. Vlad was still for a moment, then shattered the silence with ten second's worth of loud, grating laughter. "OK small wulf!" he roared, giving his head a couple of rough shakes. The movement sent ropes of thick slobber flying - some stuck to his cheeks whilst others made a bid for Wildfire. "Ees being right - you no threat," His accent did much to lessen the sting of sarcasm, but it was clear that he did not share her trust in the unspoken rules of the wild. Bad choices and poor luck had seen to that.

He should have left her there, but hated the idea of returning to the Sound without a new recruit. At the very least, he could gather some information about the youngster for future use. Did she like her pack? Did she have a mate yet? There were plenty of questions to ask, but Vlad's first question was prompted by the revelation that this was her first encounter with the ocean. "Fox-Biebee not making menny trevel? How old being?"

He laughed at her, a grating sound which Vlad complemented with some head-shaking and slobber-flinging. Wildfire's brow furrowed slightly and her lips pursed when he sarcastically declared that she was no threat. He might have gotten a rise out of her, had she been a more hotheaded wolf. Yet despite her parentage, Wildfire was quite slow to anger. She found Vlad's mercurial behavior strange and slightly unpleasant—and maybe she ought to leave after all, if only to get rid of him—but he hadn't managed to get under her skin.

"I'm not sure I follow you," she admitted at his next inquiry, though she cherry-picked the word travel and told him, "I've done a lot of traveling. I'm an Outrider—a scout—by trade. I'm almost a year," Wildfire added, which was somewhat of a fib. She wouldn't hit that milestone until the end of winter. But she was an adult and definitely old enough to travel by and take care of herself.

She looked younger than she claimed, but Vlad assumed she must have suffered a harsh first winter that stunted her growth. His eyes lit up at the mention of scout - a word he knew, and a profession he was practiced at (with varying success). His expression changed for a tenth time, making a dramatic leap from scornful smirk to childlike glee - further confirming Wildfire's theory that he might have the odd screw loose. "Vlad being scout!" he declared. "So gud scout - mek veenter deal veet five wulf." He was clearly proud of the fact - and rightly so. Without Vlad, there would be no Saltwinter. "So menny trevel also. Fox-Biebee hev go to much steenky feesh swamp?" Fishblight Mire. "Many day walk, but hev much gud feesh. Slow, fett." He nodded - the Mire was a fully stocked larder for those wolves brave enough to venture in. "One day I show!"

His mood swung again, though by now Wildfire had come to expect it, so she took it in stride as Vlad spouted off about being a scout himself. She didn't really understand his remarks about five wolves but before she could even open her mouth to ask for clarification, he started yammering about a stinky fish swamp. So far, she hadn't found him particularly amusing but something about the way he pronounced those three words cajoled a burst of laughter from her before Wildfire clamped her lips together.

"Sorry," she said simply on behalf of her rude and unbidden reaction. "Um." Wildfire wasn't sure what to say. She wasn't following him (again) and it quietly terrified her that Vlad wanted to see her again some other day. Although she didn't actively dislike him—it wasn't often that she found a wolf totally irredeemable—Wildfire didn't think she had any desire to reacquaint beyond this impromptu encounter.

Again, leaving would be the easiest option but Wildfire stood her ground, eyes still skating out to the ocean views every so often. Her glazed gaze scoured the horizon now as she searched for something else to say before finally blurting somewhat absently, "Tell me more about this Saltywinter." For starters, "Where'd the name come from?"

Wildfire was so polite that Vlad was led to believe he was doing rather well, and he could only interpret the brief giggle as a positive thing. It set his tail wagging, and a pink tongue slopped over his parted teeth and into the open air. In his head, the poor creature was already planning the route for a repeat encounter - the Moonspear youth might have avoided the coast forever if she had known it.

"Vater salty," he explained, nodding towards the ocean. Perhaps she didn't know that, this being her first visit. "End.. Peck ees veenter peck only. Salt - veenter. Saltyveenter! Many flower come - wulfs go away, making trevel addur place. Maybe Vlad join Moon-spar?" he half-jested with an exaggerated waggle of his eyebrows in Wildfire's general direction. He had decided that she was a bit of a cutie, and the poor girl was doing herself no favours by lingering in his presence.

"Want a banana, Kat?" - Kat's manager while she's trying to type this post.

Wildfire became so engrossed in Vlad's description of the transient pack that his little knowledge bomb about saltwater went in one ear and out the other, much to the detriment of her future self. Although his speech was still difficult to interpret, she understood him to mean that the pack had clumped together for winter with the intent to disband again in spring. The young she-wolf blinked. She supposed it made sense, though if they all got along well enough to form a pack, why would they want to part ways come springtime?

Wildfire decided against pressing the issue—it was none of her business anyway—but then Vlad joked about joining Moonspear when the time came, prompting Wildfire to interject, "Why don't you just stick with them even after winter's over?" Maybe he actually hated them—or, more likely, they hated him—and they were only joining forces for the sake of convenience or even survival.

Vlad had not thought that far ahead. He had fully expected to die from some combination of exposure and hunger, and the bonds between the Saltwinter wolves were not strong not enough yet to fully eliminate the possibility. Rosalyn would have no problem securing a place elsewhere, and Caiaphas was wily enough to weather the winter alone. And the Rat - well, he had been among the first to crawl out of the primordial soup, and might even survive the end of the world.

"Hm.." For once, he was stumped. Thoughts of so distant - and uncertain - a future looked to be causing Vlad physical discomfort, and eventually he just dismissed it. "Maybe ded!" he told her smilingly. He had clearly accepted that it might happen. "Maybe Bleckface - ees elfa wulf - also ded. Not knowing, not making plenn." You might die too, he was on the cusp of telling her, but it sounded threatening during dress rehearsal and was promptly cut.

Did you want a banana?

Nah, I wasn't DTB.

It was pretty clear he hadn't thought that far ahead. When he did, the first thing he could picture was his death, evidently. Wildfire smiled thinly at this bleak (if enthusiastically enunciated) declaration. She had never experienced winter, so she couldn't speak to the subject personally. But she had heard it was the harshest and most difficult of the seasons, albeit the most plentiful when it came to large game as the herds migrated. She gnawed thoughtfully on the inside of her left cheek.

"Living in the moment, huh?" Wildfire said a bit lamely (and rhetorically), glancing past Vlad again to take in one last swig of the beautiful views before finally turning to go, lest he keep venturing down a path that might lead to Moonspear. "I'm going to head home now. You take care, Vlad." Good luck, don't die, her fleeting smile said before she turned and began trotting toward the plateau's rear, the wind and sea and hopefully not Vlad at her back.

When she finally bid him farewell and trotted off, Vlad felt a little dejected. He rarely spent time on wolves that weren't a potential recruit, and it had been rather nice to be on the receiving end of questions asked without any ulterior motive. He watched Wildfire go, noting the direction for future use. Perhaps he would pay this Moonspear a visit one day, when winter had run its course and he was a free wolf once more. They could visit the Mire then, and sample the fetid swamp's suprisingly well-rounded menu of creatures.

When the dhole-wolf eventually dropped out of view, Vlad turned east. He had been gone from the Sound long enough, and it was time to rally the troops for a hunt.