Felltree Marsh Unjaded

for Bruce @Banner

He had nearly made a complete circle of Hushed Willows, keeping it on his right so that he might catch a glimpse of it where the terrain allowed for this. Crossing the ravine had been unpleasant, but he had discovered the absence of the Seadogs at least, which at least left him with the knowledge that that leg of the journey hadn't been entirely useless. He avoided traveling further, towards the Tangle, and instead came to pass a pungently familiar marshland. Warbone wasn't interested in venturing the swamp— knowing he likely wouldn't find anything there he would enjoy in any way.

On a whim, the bronze titan began to move along the scope of Felltree towards the curve of the Keep. He did this more out of muscle-memory than choice, moving in a seamless trot without having a destination clear in his thoughts.

A failed venture to the Thunder Dome behind her, Banner had returned to her home among the willows.  Surprisingly, she didn't let it get her down.  Maybe she'd attempt it again another day.  Likely with capable help.  For now she'd been content to patrol the borders along the marsh.  It wasn't her usual haunt - especially without the cover of nightfall - but moving paws and a busy nose were better than nothing.

While she was deviating from her usual routine, the Marauder figured she might as well take it a step further.  She'd traveled away from The Keep and into Felltree Marsh, though her patrol route continued.  The pack was at her left shoulder as she moved at a slow pace toward the north.  Her posture was relaxed, head held at a normal level.  Her bright green eyes scanned the area as she moved along and only a few moments passed before she saw a wolf in the distance.  Huh.  She slowed to a gradual stop and watched the large, copper-colored male as he trotted in her direction.  He was still a fair distance away and as such Banner didn't think it appropriate to shout a greeting.

So she'd wait.  Standing there and staring.  She couldn't even be bothered to feel shame at how awkward it all was.

A figure had paused ahead; feminine in conformation, but this was about all he could make of the other at his distance. The morning breeze carried her scent with it, brushing against him lightly... hauntingly. From her russet fur drifted the telltale scent of the willows, and almost just as stringent as this was the cologne of Stark. Warbone felt his stomach turn slow, like a spit churning over lit coals, until it almost hurt to continue approaching her. His pace slowed in clear acknowledgement of her appearance there, but she seemed to be waiting for him— and he did not seek to disappoint her.

The pain, like cinders in his throat, he thought originated from a sense of dread, but the closer he came he realized it was a discomfort born entirely of jealousy. The she-wolf of the Keep should be his companion. It should've been his scent clinging to her coat and cloying her from being mistaken as anyone else's. She should be running and hunting with him as her brother and friend, unaware that she shared such typical enjoyments with her actual brother— and the family they had forged and protected of their own volition. It was his dream still, he knew, and it hurt more now to see a product of the greatness risen in his absence, than to arrogantly face the leader of it.

He approached without a hitch in his step, cautious because of the wolf's allegiance, but generally unafraid to meet her. More of the woman came into detail, as the cyclops watched her, and he couldn't help but become more miffed at the fact that she was sternly attractive. He stopped several yards back, and pressed his ears forward with mild interest, wondering if he had been talked about. If he had anything going for him, it at least hadn't looked like she was hunting him on purpose. This seemed to be a chance meeting, if anything. Or perhaps fate, for those who believed in such things.

"Hello," he first offered neutrally.

She watched him approach, her body still relaxed and neutral.  With Marauder's Keep at her shoulder Banner felt no fear.  One call and she'd have any number of wolves running, her scarred mate likely leading the charge.  Ah, but she had nothing to worry about.  The large male was not showing any signs of aggression.  An easy smile spread across her maw when he offered a greeting.  Hello, she replied in her low voice, nodding her head for but a second to round out her own greeting.

The distance between them was respectable but he was now close enough for her to take in more detail, namely his missing eye.  Banner studied him briefly, her bright green eyes not lingerig too long on any one detail.  Warbone was certainly a large creature - he far outmassed her and she'd fair quite poorly in a fight.  Then again, the short lady wasn't looking for one.  Out for a stroll? she asked politely.

With her voice low and her eyes green without emotion, Warbone gathered that she was no immediate threat at this time— and it was a pocket that he wanted to remain in for as long as he possibly could. The less he riled the Marauders, the better, and though he had specifically told Stark that he was the only one he sought to dominate, the cyclops didn't genuinely trust the message to have been delievered in strict honesty. He could only hope that the truth had been given, and that it was the very reason she now regarded him without the ire of a wolf who's alpha was being threatened by an unknown entity...

He supposed that he wouldn't be unknown to her for very much longer.

"Aye," he rumbled, inclining his scarred muzzle once in a slow sort of nod. He watched her a beat longer, blinking his one eye in naked observation of her, and then he inhaled in quiet thoughtfulness. "Care to join me for a while?"

He, too, studied her openly and she did not falter under his gaze.  Her lack of reaction to Warbone surprised the chocolate-colored lady, though she wisely kept this observation to herself.  Banner was more known for her awkward mannerisms even among her close friends and family and as such the calm she felt here in the moment was.. empowering.  It wasn't likely to last.

Join him?  She blinked twice, the question taking her off guard.  Surely he knew where she hailed from.  The scent of Stark and the willow trees clung lovingly to her thick coat.  Still, diplomacy might be a better route.  I suppose, she replied slowly, her tone cautious.  .. as long as I'm not interrupting.  Banner wanted to give him a graceful out in the event he changed his mind.  And in the even he didn't, she turned her body to face the direction he'd been headed, keeping her small frame between Warbone and the borders that separated the marsh from Marauder's Keep.

At the suggestion that she might be "interrupting," Warbone's mouth twitched into the ghost of a clandestine smile. He thought maybe she was making a joke (even though she wasn't)— considering that anything he might've called a life had been lost to him through unforeseeable circumstance— but he found only amusement, not resentment, in the truth that was his copious amount of unoccupied time. "Of course not," he affirmed, beginning to move in a direction parallel to the Keep, so she wouldn't feel as if he were trying to lead her away from it; though he did maintain her on his right side, so that he wouldn't be blind to her should her civility wear thin. He kept his stride easy, so as to accommodate the length of the cocoa she-wolf's legs.

He tried not to glance at her too often as they went, but he was inherently interested in a member of a pack he no longer owned but coveted. "I am Warbone," he told her at length. "Though I suspect you knew this." There then begged the question as to why she was treating him so cordially, but he wasn't particularly interested in knowing this reason. He wasn't sure if it even meant anything. "You and your pack have nothing to fear from me, truly. Though it seems you know that too."

If nothing else it was a good thing that she hadn't interrupted any plans he might have.  With a shrug, Banner follwed along as he moved with the willow trees to one side and the marsh to the other.  Her bright eyes scanned the area as they went, a habit she'd long since taken up during her patrols around the borders even though they were just outside where Stark had marked.

It did not surprise her that he spoke next and got down to business.  The coppery male was more polite than she'd imagined but, as she'd discussed with Stark, he likely didn't have a choice in the matter.  Hosility toward a pack he sought to lead with no allies would have been a tactical error.  Sparing him a sideways glance, the dark ear closest to him flicked.  Word travels fast in a tight-knit pack, she replied quietly.  We don't fear you.  Though it was clear in her own head, she meant herself and Stark.  I am.. wary, however, she admitted flatly, her eyes once again focusing on the area ahead.

Though he would be loathe to ever disclose as such, Warbone was unintentionally hurt by the phrase tight-knit pack. He wasn't entirely expecting its effect on him either, so he was quiet for a while after deciding how to respond. "I misspoke," he said evenly. "I did not mean that any of you are afraid of me... Rather, I think your leader supposes I have come to take or disrupt something of yours, and that simply is not true." If he had intended to force himself into the situation, then Stark would've been attacked the moment Warbone realized he was in charge. But it wasn't like that for the Solothurn. He was more homesick than anything, and too proud to answer to anyone except perhaps a partner, which he had proposed and been subsequently denied.

His rumbling had stopped for moment, and his single eye rolled from their familiar surroundings to land on the young she-wolf in appraisal. His gaze traveled the length of coffee fur along her spine, and then settled resolutely upon her face. She had admitted to him her wariness, so he felt inclined to admit something to her as well. "I would not be here if I had left the Keep willingly, or if my heart lie anywhere else. I am a wolf who can understand if I had lost my pack by being bested in battle, or if my supporters had hated my rule and I was usurped. But I... I cannot understand this. What happened to me. To wake up one day and suddenly remember that I was someone else, that I belonged elsewhere, and to come back to find it almost entirely changed. It is... difficult, for me to understand something like that."

This moment was one of genuine clarity for him, as he realized that he'd been stuck in the mindset of four months ago— not realizing at first that it was no longer that time. That he might have to let go...

Every word was taken in, every thought carefully considered.  His assumptions about Stark - though partially correct - caused the short female to stiffen for a few paces before her legs could relax enough for normal, fluid motion to resume.  Banner had no doubt that her one-eyed companion woud take notice, but she didn't care.  He was well aware of her cautious thoughts and actions, and who could blame her?  This male came to her home, demanded a rank and respect that had been well earned by her brother, and now he thought it fine to wax poetic about his misfortune.

Okay, poetic was a stretch, but Warbone was clearly passionate about Marauder's Keep, if not a little verbose.

It is difficult for me to understand how a wolf with no ties to our leadership could expect the title of Alpha to be handed to him, she replied simply, her eyes still set forward as she kept careful watch on the marsh ahead.  His story was tragic, sure, but being soft on sob stories didn't sit well with her.  Could you follow such a wolf? she asked before turning her head to look him in the eye.

If he had noticed anything about the woman's behavior, he didn't let on. Just as she couldn't bring herself to care about him, he couldn't allow himself to be judgemental of her. Especially considering that if the roles were reversed, he would be a lot less diplomatic than she was being. "Well, I certainly did not intend to come back to no ties. If Octavia had remained, this would not be the issue, but I suppose my feelings and expectations became moot the second it was Stark who received me and not her." He looked to her, as she looked to him, and his disfigured face curved lightly into an unfortunate smile. "I could not. But to to be fair, I could truly follow no wolf, hence the dilemma I currently find myself in and have found myself in before," he answered, recalling his time in Sleeping Dragon, and the packs he had attempted to join before that. "I understand you, though."

"And I only ask that you try to understand me, and the wolf that I am." Starting at the bottom of the totem pole would only incentivize a wolf like him to try and dominate those higher in the ranks. It was his most pure and honest nature; a nature he had thought dictated his entire canine species, but apparently not. Wolves hardly ever seemed to follow who was strongest anymore— they just seemed to cling to who they loved.

Her bright green eyes narrowed a bit as she listened, but the action was not done with ill intent.  Warbone spoke of Octavia and Banner found herself uncomfortable even hearing the name.  After all they'd been through with the former Alpha female - not to mention her recent death and how it took a toll on Stark - it hit a raw nerve.  And, being who she was, the dark brown Marauder couldn't afford to touch on raw nerves at the moment.  Not when she'd done a shockingly decent job at this whole diplomacy thing.  Still listening to his words, her head turned to face front again.

She fought with herself for a moment to retort with any number of fill in the blanks: "if Octavia had" been healthy, treated Stark right, been a mother to her son "this would not be the issue." Banner realized then how bitter she felt toward the other female.  And she knew, really knew that none of it was Octavia's fault due to the illness and all that.  She swallowed hard and exhaled sharply in a sad attempt to focus her mind.  These thoughts weren't productive and best left to mull over in quiet, private moments.  I understand the wolf you are, she began.  Most of them had the same instincts, after all.  I can't say I agree with it.  Not when it came to her family and the home she'd grown to love so dearly.  Even as the words left her mouth she knew they'd come out wrong, but she didn't feel any pressing need to explain herself.

We don't know you.  The Keep has always been wary of outsiders - you know this, she finished quietly.

"I do," he admitted, knowing it was a value within the pack he had instilled himself; he couldn't be unhappy that the principle had bloomed. The wardog took a deep breath, angling his head so that he could look at the stocky Keep guardian squarely in her bewitching green eyes. "Nothing I say truly matters to you, as you are loyal to the Keep and any outsider is just a naysayer in your keen view. I hold that trait in high regard, so I respect you immensely for it, but I also think that means it is time we part ways now..." he murmured gently— and then flagrantly added in that same breath: "lest our emotions boil over and we fight or fuck."

That trait he held in high regard was the same one she loathed.  Banner blamed the staunch isolationist stance of the Keep for many of the pack's troubles.  Friends and allies meant they'd have others to turn to in times of crisis or when they needed a helping hand and they'd found themselves without for too long.  Holding back a sigh at those same old thoughts running through her mind, she redoubled her efforts to really take in what Warbone had to say.

Oh, how delightful.  The short female couldn't decide if she wanted to laugh or scream at the sheer lunacy of his comments, so she kept her face passive aside from one brow that lifted of its own accord.  That position has been filled, I'm afraid, she said dryly, a small smirk causing her lips to tick upward.  As is the one you seek.  Clearing her throat, Banner dipped her head politely to the large male.  She hadn't bothered to introduce herself - what was the point? - and she doubted he'd care.  As far as he was concerned Stark was the only Alpha of Marauder's Keep.

That wasn't true, of course, but why rain on his parade?  Until next time, Warbone, the Alpha said in her low voice before turning to slip back across the borders of her beloved home among the willow trees.

She replied with a dry sort of humor, though the civility of the matter was lost on Warbone. They were inherently different wolves. She thought him crazy and he thought her too tame, too reliant on the introspective rather than physicality and pure chemistry. He watched her go, knowing that if that had met on different terms, under different circumstances, he would have likely courted the bull-headed woman. She disappeared without making sure he had gone first, which he found ironically amusing but did not try to think of an advantage to it.

After staring for a while, Warbone turned and disappeared into the marsh.