Sleeping Dragon Stedaunon don gon we, en kikon ste enti.

Open to all! Tagging @Lucani for visibility.

It did not take long for the youth to tire of her time here, having already explored most of the kru limits; she had seen some of whom followed Thuringwethil, but thought little of them. They were passing fancies, entertaining her for short spurts of time while she, the fos goufa, waited for her audience with the heda. There was much for the new recruits to talk about, and so it did not surprise Seregryn to find herself alone, waiting, letting the night fall and the morning come. She was restless, and so she did not sleep. But when the rest of the pack began to slink out from their nightly hiding places, Seregryn was greeting the dawn upon the highest ridge she could find. She sat sphinx-like with her limbs outstretched, and toes overhanging a perilous ledge; and there she would sit until someone came to fetch her, watching as the pale light sifted through the sky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be6I7_TVUgw

Hush greeted the dawn before it ever arrived. He stretched, leaving his little dug out cave under an outcrop to the chill of an early spring morning. The hybrid arched his back, yawning and releasing a cloud of warm air. He shook out his pelt and stepped out into the world, intent on starting his patrol on the northern most side of the Dragon. It would mean climbing over the peak, but needs must.

He trekked over the Dragon, paws turning red with warmth as his pawpads touched the cold stones. He panted, quickly regretting his decision to climb over the mountain, stopping near the top. His tongue lolled as he looked around, trying gauge how far away the bottom of the mountain was from here. He hardly noticed the woman nearby him until he turned his head towards the sun, seeing her sphinx like figure silhouetted in the rising sun.

She imagined it would take some time for the wolves to truly wake. Despite being a gathering of warriors, Seregryn did not expect much movement, as the morning was already beginning to seem like a warm and lazy thing; the day would be even warmer, limiting the activities of most creatures. It would be a good day to hunt, but they would have to get a party together before the midday sun began to beat down upon the mountainside - otherwise they would be prone to over-exertion and dehydration. Seregryn was content to sit upon her temporary throne as she watched the sky, her gaze slipping down along the perilous cliff's edge, where she could spy upon the angled birch trees that clustered below.

This grew boring though, and soon she was crossing her paws and adjusting herself, ready to plant her chin upon her wrists; it was within this moment of subtle movements that she caught a gleam of color in her periphery, and instantly her mood shifted. The wolf that idled by her, watching her, was soon met with a direct look from her crimson gaze. She narrowed her eyes at first, seemingly to avoid the light, and then gave a small chuff of a greeting -- wondering if the stranger would come closer so she could properly see them, or escape before the pompous child could do any harm.

Hi~ ^__^

It was curious and fascinating to remember the day they had howled skywards to spread the word that Sleeping Dragon had become a pack. Lucani was one of the pack's founders and part of its first moves from fledgling to bird of prey. Since then, their numbers had only grown, and among them walked some of the fiercest warriors Lucani had ever known — Thuringwethil at their forefront.

And so she paid no heed to the shapes and smells of two local wolves resting among the scenery, it being common to find strangers hereabouts. Of course it was Lucani's instinct to go to them and regard them in their entitreity so that she might begin to learn their stories, but she had a more pressing matter to attend to. One of the small bushes she most commonly used for herbal remedies had slipped into the river during a rainstorm, and floated away. Given the number of fighters (and therefore wounds) in the pack, the healer needed to find a replacement fast.

The grey wolf moved gracefully along the waterway, yellow eyes trained on the muddy path ahead, and muzzle low as she searched.

A chuff turned his attention to the fellow hybrid laying near him, her blood red eyes the antithesis to his baby blue. Hush smiled, knowing her as one of the new wolves that came in a flood towards Sleeping Dragon. They all had something in common — they were related to or were a part of Heda's original pack. Whether she met the former requirement or not did not truly matter to Hush for he walked towards her as he would any other wolf. His tail wagged slightly, though raised in a show of his higher ranking and nothing more. He did not expect a challenge like he had from the large brutish wolf — it was far too early to fight — so he greeted her civilly, his nose twitching as he neared close enough to smell her.

He couldn't hear or see Lucani in the water nearby, too intent on greeting this newcomer, though he still had not met the Gamma personally. It was one of his goals to meet his other superior, but she had always escaped him. Too busy, he thought, like he was.

It was her intention to avoid involvement with those beneath her - in this case, physically beneath her - but the manner with which the stranger approached did appeal to her. Seregryn remained passive as the stranger reached with their snout; it did not appear that this wolf was about to attack, but perhaps she was too sleepy to notice any malice that they held. When their face was closer, Seregryn loomed over them with her own dark face. She stretched out her neck so that she too could investigate, sniffing softly at the other creature. She misjudged the distance though, and was suddenly sliding forward, chest-first, off of the boulder. Once gravity had taken hold of her any hope Seregyn held for staying upright was demolished. She tried to catch the stone with her paws, but nothing helped - there was no time - and suddenly she was slamming down off of the boulder, hitting the ground in a pile of flailing, graceless parts.

Only at the sound and peripheral sight of calamity did Lucani finally cease her tracking and stand up tall, ears erect as she gazed startled at the commotion. As she'd subconsciously noted earlier, she did recognise these wolves, but not their names, though the pretty teenage girl was now a mess of limbs and scree, and Lucani was already swiftly on her way over. Half her attention was on the fallen wolf, and the other half was on the boulder, concerned that it might shift...

The two wolves quietly began to take in the other's scent, their necks stretching to meet the others, only for the wolfdog to tumble forward off of her perch. Hush leapt back in surprise, but he was not quick enough to avoid the flailing limbs of the hybrid female, bowling over onto the ground beside her. He was quicker to leap up onto his feet, having not fallen from a height, and began sniffing her and nosing her in an attempt to rouse her to her feet. He looked up at the sound of pawsteps and saw a gray male- no female? with yellow eyes approached. Her eyes kept flickering in between the downed hybrid and another object. Hush looked where she was looking and saw the boulder. His eyes widened and he looked down at the fallen hybrid, urging her to get up and move before that thing would (possibly but who cared at this point) fell.

Her fall was abrupt, and knocked the wind out of her. She lay there for a moment or two just trying to catch her breath, and struggled to her feet when the other wolf came to her aid. Seregryn accepted it for a brief moment, thankful, but just as swiftly resisted. Once she was halfway to her feet, she nosed towards Hush and snapped her teeth; there was no direct conflict, no resistance from flesh, but she wasn't really trying to hurt the other wolf. She just wished to dissuade them — falling had hurt her pride more than her body, and Seregryn was not about to look foolish before these lessers. When the second wolf came in to view, Sere ignored them. They were a silvered mass in the corner of her vision, and of no consequence yet.

It was often the way with the young, she'd seen it over and over again. A fall that resulted in an injured behind often also resulted in injured pride. But she wasn't a fan of this type of uncivilised behaviour, all that pointless growling, and that was when she recognised that she'd met this girl before. Ah, such a savage thing. Oh they were all wild animals, but language and intellect were far more powerful than muscle in Lucani's mind. I would give her some space, young sir, she advised the male gently, and of course kept her distance herself before she told the girl: if you take some deep breaths, you'll dispel most of any initial discomfort you're feeling.

Hush tilted his head at the gray healer, wondering if a fall of that length fell within her jurisdiction, but he backed away anyway as the dark female snapped at him with annoyance. He respected both women's wishes, but suspected that they would clash soon as Lucani did her job and the hybrid pushed everyone away.

And just as suddenly as she was down, she was up. The sound of the woman's voice came to her and Seregryn, irritated by her awkward tumble, cast a chilly glance towards the sound of it. Once her eyes landed on Lucani though, her expression narrowed, her brow squeezing together with brief confusion. This was the healer woman Seregryn had been tracking, days ago — the one that taught her vague things about plants. Still, she wasn't a friend of Seregryn; nobody here was worthy of that except for the heda. So the girl simply snorted, wheezing out a struggling breath while her lungs continued to lightly spasm, and rounded upon her boulder - in the next moment she was finding her way back atop it, but this time her rear-end faced the gray woman and the silent wolf, and she chuffed to herself, tucking her legs close and ignoring both of them like the event had not occurred at all.

Last post from me~ ty for the thread!

Judging by the way the female's ears reacted to stimuli, Lucani took a guess that she was not deaf but simply proud, purposefully ignoring the healer's advice even if it meant going through a bit of extra pain. It was not a direct challenge, but Lucani made a mental note that this girl would likely come after her rank some day soon. For now, however, she had to be on her way — she had business to attend to. So she continued to follow the river as she had been earlier, and by the end of the day she found a bush like the one she'd lost. It was old and gnarled, but its leaves would be useful in remedies as intended. And while it was indeed old, it had, shall we say, life experience.

Hush watched the red-eyed woman as she scowled at the healer. It didn't surprise him that the hybrid ignored Lucani and promptly jumped back up on her perch, facing away from them. He looked towards the gray healer and shrugged in a gesture that probably said: "What can you do?". Luckily the healer didn't take offense to the woman's prideful display, and quickly went back to her business. Hush went back to his as well, continuing down the mountain to begin his patrol.

Having returned to her perch, Seregryn was left to cool off after her clumsy display, and by the time she was coherent (and her anger is subdued) she realizes that she is once again alone. It does not dishearten her as it might another child; Seregryn has been alone for most of her life, or placed in situations where she is separate, making this not so different. She turns her head to survey the area — wondering briefly where the two have gone — but before long she loses interest.