Lost Creek Hollow There's some miscommunication

Shikoba was happy for once since the past year and over. The alpha Mordecai had accepted her into the pack of Lost Creek Hollow. It was her first day and Mordecai departed away. She didn't mind though, she liked isolation from time to time. Besides, her new home was very quiet and peaceful.

The Native woman rested atop a smooth stone, paws peeking over the ledge. Her head rested gently on top, breathing quietly. Hackles were flat, legs curled together tightly, ears twisted to the sides. All in all, she looked sleepy.

She wasn't really doing anything important, she wasn't going to run off to go and chase the cougar. No, Mordecai told her to only defend, not chase. Instead of disobeying, she stayed in her spot and wished to meet new pack members. Deciding to want to meet others, she let out a few loud barks, giving a specific message. "New wolf! Can Shikoba meet someone?"

Anyone who hasn't met the native women, she can't speak English very good

Jazz's days were simple as she adjusted to the role of pack wolf once again. Thankfully, the Hollow was a quiet place and she was making decent use of her time just by covering ground around the territory when she had nothing else specific to do. Usually she patrolled, though, so it was doing this that she was able to maximize the mileage put underneath her paws because doing that helped her learn the territory too.

It was different from the home she'd known before, but she was learning it was a good place too.. especially now that she was beginning to put some weight back on her bones -- weight that wintertime homelessness had stripped from her. But even that was a slow and steady process and she still felt like her stamina was far away from what it had been before she'd been run off from home. However, she'd get back there one day.

She hadn't been planning on socializing, but was in the area when the barks caught her ear. An unknown voice -- Shikoba, apparently -- called out. Jazz hesitated a beat before changing her path to go that way. She knew she had to get acquainted sooner or later and turned her paws accordingly.

The silver female approached as casually as she could. Her posture hung lax but she was a little nervous to tentatively feel out packmate bonds beyond what she had with her sister. "Hi," she greeted not long after she came into view of the one that had called. Jazz hoped she was a suitable someone for her to meet. "I'm Jazz," she introduced while she pulled up to the female perched upon the rock.

Shikoba was waiting quietly to see if anyone would reply to her barks. Her tail thumped itself against the rock in boredom, her eyes switched off from laying on the right side to laying on the left. Every so often she would hear the flutter of bird's wings that brought her back home. She missed them so much, maybe she would see them later in the cape of darkness. Her ears flexed back when she heard paws coming towards her and a greeting. "Hi, I'm Jazz."

The earth clothed woman ripped her attention away from her dangling paws and turned her head to face the new wolf, Jazz. She was pretty in Shikoba's eyes, however a little thinner than what would be considered normal weight. Perhaps she suffered from the hardship of winter as well and lost her weight? Shikoba sat up, bowing her head at the higher-ranked wolf.

"Greetings. I Shikoba, new wolf. Mordecai recruit me, I no speak language good here" The native's sentence was choppy, but pretty understandable. Hopefully this Jazz would understand the native.

She found she didn't really have any specific expectations going into this so just held herself neutrally and almost let herself relax (the best she could, anyway). Root had not mentioned anything about anyone matching this description, and as she listened on, Jazz quickly realized why. This female was even newer than she was. She leaned back on her heels and considered this, as well as the simplistic phrasing of her newest acquaintance.

"Oh. Well.. welcome, then. I'm still pretty new here too," she explained. "Mordecai accepted me not even a moon ago," give or take, she supposed. Honestly, Jazz hadn't been tracking the days exactly.. especially since she had slept through a few of the first ones. Being alone had worn her out, evidently. But she was here now and things seemed to be on the upswing for her. "Do you come from far away from here?" she asked, considering the accent and not sure exactly how else to ask about it yet.

Shikoba's man attention laid upon Jazz. She seemed to have understood the druid's words, the said woman felt pleased that she did. Sometimes it was hard to communicate with others, and sometimes there were mix ups. She hated not being understood, hopefully she would learn english more as she lived her longer.

Jazz spoke about being new as well (Shikoba filled in the blanks in her head). The woman spoke about not being here for very long, same situation as the druid woman. She nodded her head to acknowledge Jazz that she understood. Her other words became jumbled, but mostly understood. A question rang from her lips that made Shikoba perk up. Was she from different land?

The multi-colored woman nodded her head and looked towards the higher-ranked wolf. "My homeland far. Speak different language than here." Her sentence was a bit less choppy than normal, it probably rolled off the tongue a bit nicer than before. "You?" She asked curiously, leaning forward the slightest.

Jazz nodded slowly when she answered, and almost mentioned how she wasn't surprised to find out she was from far away. But, since the question was turned back onto her, she just shook her head. "Not really too far away, I guess. A few days travel," she said. At least, that was how long she thought it would take approximately. Her own way between there and here had not been a direct path so it was not easy for her to gauge the distance.

Then, on a similar vein of thought, she decided to elaborate a little on why she was here now. "A lot of my birth-pack got killed.. but my sister and I both made it out okay. She got here before me -- Root, if you've met her yet.." Jazz explained, wondering how Shikoba's path had gone to bring her to the Hollow.

The druid awaited the other's response patiently, her ears pricked forward and eyes content. This Jazz seemed nice and didn't really care about Shikoba being foreign. That pleased her, acceptance from others made Shikoba feel less insecure. Jazz spoke about being from a land not so far away, only a few days of traveling. That was pleasant to hear, the druid's home was much farther away than a few mere days worth of traveling.


Jazz began to elaborate why she was at Lost Creek Hollow, Shikoba filled in the blanks quietly. Jazz's family was killed but her and her sister were fine. The native woman felt saddened by this, she was not alone with being without a family. However, jazz had a surviving family member, a sister named Root who lives with her and the rest of Lost Creek Hollow.

Shikoba smiled gently, happy that Jazz had someone she was related to with her here. Shikoba started to speak in a soft tone, her eyes flickered towards Jazz. "Shikoba's family dead too, no survivors except Shikoba. Shikoba happy Jazz has sister here. If it makes Jazz happy, Shikoba happy too then."

When her voice quieted down a few notches, Jazz's ears pressed forward even further."Oh," she murmured, then let her ears droop to show her sympathy for the female with no surviving family. Jazz liked to believe she knew what it was like, since she had once thought they were all dead for a while.. but thankfully they weren't entirely eradicated. Still, it did seem to her like Shikoba handled it fairly well with all things considered. Jazz wasn't sure what else to say about that, since just an 'I'm sorry' seemed like it didn't begin to cover it. It certainly would not have made her feel any better about such loss, and whined very softly before she spoke on.

"Oh, yeah.. her being here does make me happy. I joined because of her, but I do like it so far so I'm really glad I did. How about you?" the silver female returned, if Shikoba had been here long enough to make a real decision on the matter, that was.

Shikoba was happy Jazz had someone here with her related by blood. She was lucky, despite her tragedies. Shikoba didn't even have a relative to talk to, just the stars instead. Shikoba didn't mind though, she just wished she could destroy those humans who killed her family. Until then, she would remain here in Lost Creek Hollow and wait it out while planning to destroy the cougar.

Jazz said she liked being in the pack and asked how Shikoba favored it. The woman nodded her head with a gentle smile. "Pack is nice. Pack is family." A pack was always a family to the druid, nothing could change that. The ties between one another were too great to sever, packs were almost bound to each other.

Jazz couldn't help but agree readily. Pack was what was best for her. It was what she had always known and her brief stay as a loner taught her very clearly that it was a not a lifestyle she was suiting to leading all by herself. While she liked the traveling aspect, the loneliness and the difficulties that one wolf could encounter were enough to drag her down significantly. "It is," she agreed with a firm nod.

Speaking of the pack reminded her of what she planned to do with herself to better the pack as a whole. "I'm thinking about working more on being a guardian for the pack.. and maybe eventually once spring comes, I might see if I'd make a good scout," she explained, feeling kind of wordy suddenly and hoped Shikoba wouldn't mind (and would get all of her words). "Do you want to go patrol with me?" she offered suddenly with all of that in mind now, because perhaps Shikoba would be interested in the same sorts of goals -- even if not for the trade title specifically, but for the pack.

Fade after your post and start another thread?

Seeing that Jazz agreed with her words, Shikoba's tail thumped happily. Jazz's words became a bit of a blur to Shikoba, but she paid close attention to her words and listened the best she could to interpret the words. Be a guardian, scout in spring. It sounded like a good plan, scouting seemed fun!

Being able to protect the family though was the upmost importance to the druid. If she could not protect who she loved, what good was she to the world around her? Her thoughts began to jumble themselves again, however Jazz's question about wanting to patrol made the woman nod and stand up to walk over.

"Lead on" She offered, happy to follow Jazz since she probably knew the territory a bit better.

sure thing

Jazz was probably bound to head to the borders sooner or later, with or without Shikoba. Besides, if the native female did not want to go, there was always Root she could try to get to go with her, but it seemed there would be no need for that right now. Shikoba answered affirmatively and Jazz's tail waved merrily.

Since it was her lead, the silvered female paused to consider where to take them for a beat and once she decided, she swung her muzzle that way. Knowing Shikoba would follow her, she set out purposefully.