Phoenix Maplewood i'm not throwing away my shot

There had been a sudden influx of new members, new scents he’d begun to pick up over the last few days. He hadn’t seen Spring or Esaro since they’d become members and he considered seeking them out to see how they were fairing. Perhaps they’d even run into the alphas but he’d begun to question that. If they’d proven to have fooled him, he would have known, though the confirmation is a little uncertain. For the moment, things were smooth, and he isn’t going to let it distract him when he could do nothing about it.

A grumble roils in his stomach that he tries to ignore but he realizes his patrolling had turned into an attempt to find something to eat and tide him over. With extra mouths to take care of and feet, Ukko caught himself a little weary, unsure of how to pocket the stress into something useful. He moves, carefully, as he noses for a cache he thinks he remembers using once before. 

Once he uncovers the snow, the scent of @Reek wafts the air and he takes a step back. His stomach urges him onward, but he decides against the instinct and watering mouth and works to cover up the cache he'd discovered.

I hope the mild PP is okay. I can change it otherwise. :)

It's fine with me!

Reek made quick work of the leftovers of the doe that he and Laika had cached days prior.  With a full stomach, Reek felt a wave of contentedness wash over him and he failed to stray far from the cache site. A nice, long nap was high on his list of priorities, so Reek settled at the base of a maple tree— there he soundly with one of the doe's ribbones grasped sofly between his jaws.  

Idly, he gnawed in his sleep and babbled incoherently like a newborn child.  His back legs kicked and twitched as he dreampt. The dreams were pleasant, but they would unforunatly fade from memory almost as soon as he awoke.  

Stirring from the sound of Ukko covering the cache with snow, Reek's eyes opened to slits. Ukko's form was blurry in Reek's frame of vision, but after a brief moment he finally came into focus.  "Ukko," he murmered with a yawn.  "There should be some left if you're hungry... or whatever."

Having gotten wrapped up in hiding the evidence of disrupting the cache, Ukko hadn’t noticed the wolf not too far off. He’d blended in with the snow on top of him and the shadows of the trees. His own distraction had been a big part that the moment he noticed Reek’s scent, he’d assumed it to be a marker The wolf doesn’t appear aggressive with what he’s found and, instead, offers some to him.

Ukko takes a deep breath and hesitates going forward the remainder of the kill. 

“I didn’t realize it was yours,” he explains. With the mixed up snow and dirt, the freshness of the marker fading.

His stomach objects to the decision waiting to eat, looking down on the work he’d done to cover it back up. He sits though, so he can at least exchange a few words with his alpha. “So, uh…” he begins and reallizes he doesn’t know where he’s going. “What’s up?”

Erg, tired Reek is my favorite Reek.

Reek stirred in place and stretched his forelegs outward as he tried to shake himself awake.  He was far too groggy to rise to his feet, so he writhed on the ground like snake, slowly squirming his way forward towards the cache in a nearly comical manner. Making it a few feet forward, Reek finally settled back into the snow with another great yawn and laid still.

"I wouldn't say it's mine" he mumbled, shutting his eyes once more.  "It's like, you know, communal and shit." Hardly eloquent in his tired state, Reek's words flopped out of his mouth with the gracefulness of a live tuna.

"I'm just taking a quick break... napping and stuff. Important buisness and the like," muttered Reek in response. "How 'bout you fam?"

Laika was very satisfied with her hunt. She had caught a pheasant and another young doe who was stupid enough to wander among the territory. She had the pheasant carcass slung over her shoulder, and was just managing to drag the doe along the ground, slowly but surely making her way back to camp. She had used the same hunting routine as she had the last doe, having found it around the same place her and Reek had found the last one.

The scent of Reek and the beta she has yet to meet, Ukko made its way to her nose as she tugged the carcass along. She stopped to take a break, the doe slipping from her mouth, and pheasant sliding from her slender shoulders. She panted her a moment, her sore neck throbbing from the weight of the deer. After a a couple moments, she slung the pheasant back over her back in a small puff of feathers, and sink her teeth into the fresh hunk of meat. 

She aimed to let the two males be, turning abruptly to the left to head back to camp, but she was forced to make a detour. There was a steep slope slanting upwards, where the trees and young foliage grew thick. She kept on walking until she was so close to the two wolves, she could hear them speaking. So much for giving them privacy.

Reek clears the air that the cache is open to others and even if he still feels a little out of place, he doesn’t pass the opportunity. His stomach growls with need and he leans forward while his leader continues to speak on what he’s doing. He shakes the leftovers free of dirt and snow he’d tried to use to cover it up. Breaking it apart and biting it, sending it and the burial mixture with it, and his belly finally settles long enough for him to pick his head up.

He opens his mouth to speak when he hears something to the side, ears twitching and turning to see a wolf he doesn’t recognize. She has a kill in tow and he buries his brows before he glances back to Reek. With the new influx of members, he’s bound to run into one he hasn’t met yet but he gives the alpha a chance to respond before he makes a hasty assumption.

Once again, Reek opened his tired eyes upon hearing the sound of Ukko tearing into the cache.  There was more than enough food for all of them for now, but in the dead of winter, Reek wondered when their next meal would be.  Until then, he would feast until there was famine and he expected his pack to do the same.  

Blinking several times in rapid succession, Reek's eyes refocused on his beta. Ukko's attention had trailed off somewhere else. Reek followed Ukko's line of sight with his own gaze to see Laika, one of the newbies. It seemed he had no reason to worry about a food shortage with her around, as she carried two fresh kills ready for cache.

Reek yawned once more and nodded in greeting. "Laika," he said. "Have you met Ukko? He's the beta here. I'd suggest you two get to know eachother, or whaterver... you do you." He pointed to his beta with his muzzle and hoped they would get along.

Laika finished dragging her kill into the small clearing where the cache lay, setting the doe down in the snow, and letting the pheasant drop from her shoulders. She turned and dipped her head to Reek with a respectful smile, remembering when her eyes made contact with his. She would never live that down!

"Hello Reek, Ukko." The newbie said, dipped her head to the beta as well. She knew he was of higher rank as well.  "I brought some prey for the cache," She explained. Then she realized she didn't have to say that and she smiled sheepishly.

She sat down on her haunches, tail curling around her paws and she turned to Ukko, but didn't meet his gaze.

"I'm pleased to meet you, Ukko. Spring can't stop talking about how kind you were to let her join the pack."

The way Reek puts him on the spot, as if he didn’t matter, made his skin crawl. He looks away from the dark alpha and smiles at the new wolf, giving her a slight nod of his head. She seems to be the capable sort and Ukko once thought himself the same but Reek blowing off the introduction so lazily makes him question whether or not he actually is a beta. Already to Saena, he is not, but Reek plays it as some sort of game.

“Nice to meet you,” he says offhandedly, looking back to the remains she’s put in the cache. A good hunter in their midst makes him feel a little better but he brushes it away from comment. His opinion wouldn’t impact it too much but she speaks of the wolf he met on the borders not too long ago. “I hope she’s settling in well,” he adds, realizing he hadn’t seen her since she’d taken her in. Perhaps soon he would find her and see how she’s settling in hopes she has done better than Esaro thus far.

Laika smiled and shifted her weight, tail tip twitching. Her blue eyes wandered around the clearing taking note of how the snow was beginning to melt. She knew they still had many more cold days ahead of them, but maybe the snow would leave for a while. It would definitely be easier to hunt if so. 

"Well, I best be going. I have many things to do." She yawned an enormous yawn and stood up on her silvery paws. "It was very nice to meet you, and to see you again Reek. Do you two need anything before I go?" She was always in service.

She smiled and her ears pricked forwards to listen. The answer will probably be no, but you never know. Either way, she would be glad to do anything.

@Laika. So, I dont mind in this thread, but for future reference there's a post order to be followed and stuff. It's not necessarily a big deal to me, but some other roleplayers aren't too keen on that sort of thing. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a PM!

There was a sick pleasure to be gained by putting Ukko on the spot. The game Reek played was grim indeed, but he tried his best to hide his sinister intent with a saccharine tone and wire-thin grin.  He would get his vindication eventually, Ukko would break and Reek would prevail.

"She's doing just fine," chimed Reek. "I'n fact, I'd say she's a model subordinate. As long as she keeps the caches stocked, I'm sure she'll have a great and longstanding relationship with the pack." And so she went, cached her kills and turned to leave with a final offer of service.

Needing nothing, Reek shook his head and returned to gnawing on the rib bone he kept close.

Okay, so sorry!

Laika dipped her head in a smile, turning on her heels to trot back into the depths of the forest. Her blue eyes wandered along the frozen landscape, wondering when it would be filled with with bird's songs and bees buzzing about the abundance of flowers. 

She sniffed the air for any signs of prey, but so far, the breeze carried cold emptiness. she huffed and moved on, paws crunched the thin layer of snow. She couldn't smell Ukko or Reek any longer, and knew she was far enough away, that maybe the small critters would be out and about, undisturbed by the wolves talking. 

She found a frozen brook. The water had formed into jagged daggers, almost looking unnatural. That's when she heard some scratching off to the right. A leaf shifted. The small, fur-less tail appeared and Laika dropped into a stealthy, silent crouch. Her hunt had begun once again.

Ukko could barely listen to the words Reek gave him before he went back to chewing on his bone. Laika soon disappeared after that and he barely got a chance to talk to her. Another time, he’d see her again, but for now he’s glad she left when she did. He wishes she hadn’t shown up at all but perhaps she didn’t even notice the exchange at hand and what it meant. 

He gives one last look over at the older male, unable to stomach anymore of the cache, and turns his shoulder. He’s not a beta to him, either, just like Saena. A joke, he’d go as far to admit, but his title means nothing to them. A large breath is released as he moves, leaving the alpha behind.