Moonspear don't you wish to purge your fears

On her rounds of the border's fringes, a whiff of fresh rabbit's blood caught her attention and pulled her path that way. She found it bringing her to the very edges of the Spear.. not a typical place for good hunting, not when just a stone's throw up the mountain were far better grounds. No scents of her packmates accompanied her either, none so far, so suspicion began to spike a ridge down her back. Not too long after the thought occurred, she caught sight of ruddy tans skirting along down at the bottom of a hill, obscured by a thin line of scrubby trees. The culprit's identity was clear -- from the scrawny coyote jaws swung a limp carcass.

She would happily oblige a chase. Even on the buffer zones of the claim, she felt it warranted, so sped down the hillside undeterred.

For a moment, she seized the element of surprise and was able to dig her teeth into the smaller canine's rump. It dropped the rabbit and let out an awful screech, twisting and thrashing away as it screamed nonstop. It stunk like a carcass already, thin and mangy-looking to boot, and its mouth smelled like rot. Amekaze's ears swung back and a bloodied grimace followed. He managed to slip her in his self-created chaos, but she was quick to pursue.

i will probably use this for a warrior specialty thread

The scent of blood soiled Charon's nostrils while he patrolled the lower slopes of the mountain. Head perked up, his hackles raised in instinct as he started to make his way there, albeit cautiously. His ears were cupped forward in an alert notion and he trotted on towards the scent with short, perky steps that showed that he was nervous. His tail twitched nervously as a screech filled the air around him and he stood still, fully alert now. He was pretty sure that the screech had been from a canine. The young Alpha came into motion again, though it was clear from his gait that he wasn't overly enthusiastic to check it out; but he reigned here, and so he needed to show his strong side and check it out.

As the scent of blood mixed with Ame's, Charon quickened his pace, his body still stiff, veins filled with adrenaline, carrying himself with full-blown dominance in case he'd run into a stranger. Just as Charon scaled around a corner, he ran straight in the jaws of a coyote. Startled by the smaller canine, Charon bared his teeth out of instinct. The coyote's way blocked, he was quick to attack; since Charon was caught unawares the coyote managed to sink its teeth into his right cheek, iliciting a surprised snarl from Charon, who jumped up to try and get away from the flurry of teeth so that he could launch a counterattack; giving the coyote's chaser, who'd been forgotten completely by Charon, time to catch up.

Floki was spending a lot more time near the borders rather than beyond them. He missed his free-ranging days as nothing but an outrider, but he knew that he would earn that privilege back eventually. For now, he threw himself into his new role as a Beta. Not only did he want to live up to Charon's expectations, but he wanted to show nay-sayers -- like Tevinter -- that he was leadership material.

Coming from the opposite direction, he did not scent the coyote first. Instead, he became aware of the commotion ahead and immediately grew defensive. As he bore down on the fight, he identified both Charon and Amekaze. The third presence was not a wolf, but rather a coyote -- and by the time he arrived, both Alphas had tangled with the lean canine and it was trying to escape their grasp.

His gaze landed on Charon's torn cheek, the blood visceral against his pale fur, and as the coyote skittered away Floki gave a flash of his teeth. Though it wasn't much, it was enough to spook the rangy beast back towards Amekaze, and the hair on the Beta's spine stood straight as he stalked after it.

Ignoring the smarting of her muzzle, she chased and gained her ground on him with every surging stride forward. He was fast, but so was she, so the second things began to escalate, she was just as quick to take advantage of it. Charon's arrival gave her first advantage, slowing up the coyote, although the price was seemingly his cheek. A new blood scent twinged the air although she didn't take the time to look for the details, she had the utmost of faith in her co-alpha that no mangy rodent like this would deter him.

In the very next breath, she realized Floki's presence on the scene, and this cut off another escape route for the culprit. This was when she closed in, silently descending on the coyote with all the momentum she carried forth from the pursuit. She dug her teeth into his ribs and forced another pitiful yelp from him that he, naturally, paired with more wildly desperate squirming -- and this time, his rotting teeth missed her, of that she took care to avoid.

With a roll of her neck, she mercilessly slammed him to the frozen ground. He yelped again when he hit and she sneered until his slipperiness got him free, although not without leaving a chunk behind. He scrambled back to his feet to turn his flailing jaws on the other nearby wolves -- probably an effort to create an escape opening, or just blind aggression in the face of being so outnumbered. Amekaze spit the wad of flesh and hair out before whirling back on him, ready to follow up.

Before Charon realised what had happened, the coyote was gone again, though luckily Flóki's quick appearance directed it right back to Ame. It was satisfying to hear a yelp of pain escape the coyote, and Charon was quick to spring into action and trotted in their direction with ears forward, hackles raised and teeth bared, a thirst for revenge sparkling in his eyes. He was soon given the opportunity he sought when the frightened creature leaped away from Amekaze.

This time when the coyote leaped at him to try and distract Charon while escaping, Charon jumped up instantly to get the advantage. He felt the coyote teeth snap into one of his front legs while he was in mid-air, but it was too late to stop the Charon-bomb and the young Alpha arched his neck and snapped his teeth around the coyote's neck -- or so was his intention. When the teeth left his leg with a quick, high-pitched yelp and Charon looked at his nose, he realised that he only had one of the coyote's ears in his mouth after his latest scuffle, rather than having it pinned to the ground, ready to be ripped apart by his pack mates.

Both Amekaze and Charon were given opportunities to sink their teeth and claws into the coyote as Floki watched. There was a series of snarls and yelps, and despite Charon's best efforts, the rangy beast slipped away once more. It wasn't unscathed -- Floki could see the bloody stump of its ear where Charon's teeth had severed it -- but its injuries only served to make it more manic and unpredictable.

When it suddenly lunged towards him with eyes and mouth thrown wide, Floki tried to react quickly. He sidestepped, turning his shoulder to catch the impact. The coyote slammed into him and luckily was unable to get its fangs anywhere near his skin. Floki whirled, pressing his forepaws into its neck in an attempt to cut off its air supply as it squirmed and thrashed.

"Kill it!" he cried, his words directed at the pair of Alphas -- whichever one could reach them first and snuff out the coyote's life once and for all.

If nothing else, she had to give the coyote credit for its sheer speed. It fled quickly, and rushed into the next tangle with such blinding speed that it was difficult to process the finer details of the events. Thankfully, all she needed to know was that they were wearing it down steadily, each able to further inconvenience the thief. Charon tore its ear, then Floki was next. Ame was able to get to Floki just after the coyote did, and with her came what she hoped would serve as the finishing blow. The second Floki had his paws on it, she followed through and using him to her advantage, she went for the kill. So long as it didn't slip out of his grip this time, she'd make good on this.

She dug her teeth into the coyote's flesh and didn't stop until it no longer moved. When it went limp, she let go and backed up a step to catch her breath. "Not even worth the meat," she scoffed and wrinkled her nose, both in distaste and to admire the smarting cuts on her lip from it. They had made impressively short work of the rotten thing teamed up together as they had, but unfortuneatly not without their own small hindrances. It was still worth it to her, though. "It was hunting.. back there," she gestured in the direction she'd come from, panting as she did.

The coyote dashed off with what seemed lightning speed, and while Charon spat out the remnants of its ear, he saw that it ran into Flóki again. Charon approached quickly, but he realised soon that the situation was under control as Amekaze took the coyote in her teeth until it moved no more. It was strange seeing her so aggressive towards another canine, but it turned out this one had been hunting on their lands. Charon felt his breathing and heart rate go down slowly, but adrenaline still gushed through his veins. His right cheek was throbbing with pain, but compared to the rush of victory it was nothing. "Well, it will think twice before doing that again," said Charon with misplaced humour; obviously, this particular coyote wasn't going to do anything again, nor be able to think twice about it.

As Charon noted the cuts on Ame's muzzle, he drew near and without thought (unless stopped) ran his tongue along her muzzle to clean the wounds. Ears fell back in a rare gentle and caring moment while cleaning the wounds, a flutter in his stomach each time his tongue ran along the side of her lips.

The Alphas were quick to respond to Floki's plea, but ultimately it was Amekaze that reached the coyote first. Floki bore down on its body with his full weight, wrangling against it as it squirmed and tried to escape. It didn't stand a chance, however; with a few well-aimed snaps of Ame's teeth, it soon grew still, and with a ragged gasp of air into his lungs Floki stepped back.

He looked down at the bloody carcass and wrinkled his nose as Amekaze commented on its lack of edible meat. She was right; the coyote would provide a meal for no one, but at least it wouldn't be pilfering from their caches any longer. Floki stood still as he tried to catch his breath, his gaze shifting to Charon and watching curiously as he approached his co-Alpha.

His brows raised subtly as Charon reached out to care for the lacerations across Ame's face. There was a tenderness there beyond the partnership of leaders, and a small smile hinted at the corners of Floki's lips at the sight.

She looked upon the carcass with a scowl, but to contrast, she was in decent spirits after admiring their effective take-down. Together, they'd made such short work of it that she couldn't help but be impressed. Excessive violence and resource-thieving coyote aside, she was in good spirits and thankful that it was wolves she could work alongside so well that had joined her here. "Hopefully there are not more around," she huffed, but truly doubted it.

As far as she could tell, it seemed they'd all made it out of the tangle well enough on the whole. Not flawlessly, but, they did have a healer among them should it turn out bad enough for anyone to need it. However, these worries weren't overly prevalent because Charon's approach stole her attention above all things. Unexpected as it was (so much so that her tail had arced up subtly in surprise), she still let it happen and softly growled appreciatively. Noticing his cheek even better up close now too, she offered a few gentle swipes of her tongue over the bloodied fur but didn't loiter long. She chuffed and moved to nudge her shoulder against his before she moved back to the carcass.

Since she didn't want scavengers lured to the borders by something like this, she intended to get it out of here and to somewhere she cared far less about. Grabbing the ratty thing's scruff, she grunted something between a thanks and a farewell to Charon and Floki then got to hauling it away. She'd not intended to leave their company quite so suddenly, but, she doubted they'd want to linger with her -- she could take care of this alone and they could resume whatever they pleased. Ame knew she'd be back with them soon enough anyway.

Charon wasn't sure if coyotes even hunted in groups, or if they were more on their own. Looking down at the corpse, he was reminded how much like a wolf the food thief looked.

His heart fluttered a little at the gentle touches between him and Ame, and as his bold move was rewarded by a content growl, Charon looked up, searching for eye contact. Flóki was forgotten a moment when Ame's tongue rolled across the wounds on his cheek. The touch stung, but not enough for him to break off the moment.

As soon as it had come, the moment ended with a chuff and a nudge to his shoulder. As though nothing had happened, Ame grabbed the coyote's scruff and said her farewells. "See ya later," Charon said casually in good bye. He then looked at his right hand guy and said: "Well done, Flóks. Proves once again that you were the right choice for Beta. That went well. " And with the last he didn't just mean the coyote encounter. The moment that he had just experienced was well worth the hurt cheek.

The moment between Charon and Amekaze was short lived, but Floki knew what he had seen. He was fairly certain that Charon had a crush on his co-Alpha; he wasn't so sure if she reciprocated yet. But he kept his mouth shut, his tail wavering gently as Ame stepped away from Charon and began to gather the carcass for disposal.

He made to follow Amekaze, but it seemed as though she was dedicated to completing the task alone. Instead, he turned back at Charon's words, a grin blossoming on his face. "Thanks, bro," he replied, taking his sibling's compliment to heart. It was obvious that Charon was a supporter in Floki's life, but it was still nice to be reassured every once in a while.

"I'll catch you later?" he said, giving Charon a knowing smile before slipping away. He wanted to let Wildfire know what had transpired.

Charon had kind of expected Flóki to say something about him and Ame, but maybe he just hadn't seen the specialness of that moment between them, hadn't noticed. It had to feel different being part of it rather than looking on from the sidelines. Flóki silently asked for permission to leave in the form of a question, and Charon nodded. "Yep, catch you later, bro!" Once both Amekaze and Flóki were gone, Charon let out a content sigh while he reviewed the situation and decided once more that he had acted well, and then he started a patrol along the borders, his strides long and his heart feeling high while he looked forward to warmer weather (wink wink nudge nudge).