Northstar Vale boogie woogie down with your funky feet

He entered in the green, went through yellow and into red.  @Saena @Warbone

Though Dragon was no stranger to making use of crow's nests to see what he could see, never had his well-travelled paws climbed a mountain. So, when he found a narrow pass between them, he took that route. He reckoned it was bound to lead somewhere, either to one of his 'inland coves' or to the other side at least, and he was right: the pass was no long opening up into a glen.

It was tucked perfectly amid the mountains, surrounded on all sides by their challenging slopes. It was cut midway by a meandering creek and there was at least one lake. Any wind that managed to sail down from the mountain would be met with sturdy trunks of the forest. It was... perfect. About as good a respite from winter as ever there was.

There was just one problem.

Someone else, many someone else's in fact, must have had the same idea. The place was reeking of other wolves, and while Dragon was open to joining others, others may not be open to him. His fur itched with uncertainty; most of the wolves he had met outside the realm he had been raised in were far less savage than the ones was reared among, but still he was cautious as he picked his way.

The scent grew stronger as he moved west. They had been here, but were not here now, as further evidenced by the flesh-bare skeleton of a past kill, or what was left of it. Scavengers had scattered the remains, but a rib bone rising above the snow caught his eye. He scooped it up, pinching it between his teeth and pressing his tongue against it as he continued to roam.

He slowed as he encroached on the strongest scent, that which told him the pack was near. He lowered his head, his tail trailing between his hocks as his eyes darted about and ears twisted this way and that. And still, he held the rib between his fangs.

Maybe it's irresponsible, but the first thing that Dagfinn thinks when he sees the other wolf is that he wants to play. The unfamiliar male has a pearly white bone clenched between his jaws and Dag doesn't particularly want it, but he wants the fun of trying to take it away.

He'd come to investigate, originally. The scent of strangers near their home was always something of a curiosity to the young male. He liked to meet other wolves, but he was also wary of the trouble they could cause his family. So he'd gone to see what there was to see about this stranger, and the first thing that he'd seen was the bone.

Barking loudly to announce himself, Dag bounded until he was a few yards from the wolf and gave a playful, goading bow. Gimme that, he said with a swipe of his paw, waiting to see what the other male would do.

Saena was nearly always on edge since the pack's encounter with the interloping Jackrabbit. While she couldn't imagine resuming a life where the pack was spread out to all corners of the territory with only chance encounters after this far more rewarding lifestyle, she warred with the indignation boiling in her gut. One thing was for sure: there would be no more miss nice Saena in the pack's hunting range.

The pack was traveling, but they came to a stop when Saena chanced a glance over her shoulder and spotted, from the top of a hillock, a stormy creature traipsing through the trough in the hills below. She swung around and her gait turned into a march as two pack members flanked her, but it was Dagfinn who beat her to the punch. The playful yearling came out of nowhere and was down the hill and in front of Dragon almost a minute before Saena even got there, but it was all right, because Dagfinn's sprightly attitude took the edge off things.

Nevertheless, Saena was no longer necessarily looking for wolves for Duskvale's tribe and had recent reason to be very judgmental of outsiders, so her actions were direct and not exactly welcoming. While Dagfinn reached for the bone with a pawing motion, Saena barged right into Dragon's space with her coat fluffed up, lips pulled tight into a disapproving pinch, and her ears erect, grabbed the end of it with a growl, and gave it a sharp yank as if to steal it away. Mine.

It did not take long, but the first to find him was not a captain but a happy go lucky yearling. Still, Dragon prostrated, pressing the length of himself, from tail tip to jaw, into the snow as his ears fell back against his crown. His tail swept side to side and he tilted his head, in the playfully teasing manner of this? You want this? Come and get it!

But the game had no sooner begun before the real show began. She came flying in with all the authority of a leader, and his fangs brooked no resistance as she tugged the rib bone free of his mouth. She did not know him, but if she had, she would know how strong a gesture it was for him to part so freely with his treasure.

He remained as he was, tail swishing, eyes cast down his snout at her paws, and whimpered appeasingly.

It was kind of lame that Saena wanted to ruin all the fun, but Dag supposed she had her reasons. Their last encounter with a stranger, after all, hadn't gone very nicely, and it was probably smart of her to be wary after that. Only, Dag had no such reservations, and the blue male had seemed fun before Saena appeared and plucked the bone (and the game) right out of their jaws.

Still, Dag wasn't going to argue with the first female. He continued to wag his tail, but he dropped his playful mannerisms as he followed Saena toward the stranger, wanting to be nearby just in case one or both of their tempers ran short.

The loner went down and the rib bone slipped out of his mouth as easily as if she'd picked it up off the ground. Perfect. The lead female worked it in her mouth a moment, imprinting it lightly with marks from her canines, and then she spun around and dropped it for Dagfinn's entertainment. The guy was like her kid and she wanted nothing more than to present him with the toy he'd wanted from the stranger, misunderstanding that it was play he wanted and not just the bone.

There was work to do, however, and she wasted no time coming to stand obnoxiously close to Dragon. So close she could almost feel his heart beat. So close that their chests touched, and her face loomed over his with a breath of a growl. Hell, she probably brushed him with her whiskers as she suddenly whisked away to where his hindquarters rested in the snow. Without waiting for a reaction, because after all he didn't really have much of a choice unless he wanted to have a forcible sex change, she pressed her snout to the space between his legs and drew in a breath, cataloguing everything from Dragon's age to his current mood and what he'd eaten for dinner recently (smelled oceanic and disgusting), all while rumbling deep in her chest.

By now, several pack wolves had come over to see what was up, with one particularly obnoxious one making an effort to sit on Dragon's head to test his endurance.

Dragon was not a close-quarters kind of wolf especially among strangers, and it required a conscious effort for him not to tense his muscles and whisk away on quick paws, especially as the pack crowded in and the female got up close and personal with his dingleberries. The wolf who sat on his head was the least of his concerns; it's not like that ass was going to crush him, bite him, or castrate him. He hardly moved, enduring the inspection patiently, except to beat his tail across the ground and continue to make it apparent that he was not threatening. He might have turned his cheek into the snow, but... there was a wolf on his head.

Dagfinn picked up the bone, shooting Dragon a sheepish, apologetic look as Saena proceeded to give him a thorough once-or-twice-or-maybe-eight-times-just-to-be-sure over. He was a little embarrassed that she'd come and 'won' the 'battle' for him - he was bigger than her, after all, and she ought to know that he could take care of himself - but at the end of the day, Saena did what Saena wanted to do, and Dag had contented himself with this faucet of his life.

Overseeing the ordeal instead of participating, Dagfinn waited for his New Best Friend to be let up, so that they might continue their game. I'll just hold this for you, he said with his eyes, tail wagging absently as he watched one of his packmates sit on New Best Friend's head.

Good, very good. Saena's eyes darted up to the wolf perched on Dragon's face and her lips quirked into a smirk. Classic. Fortunately for everyone involved, Dragon showed no signs of opposition. He didn't even make a peep, which was something many a wolf did during such intimate inspection. That was enough to satisfy Saena's wariness, and as she lifted herself away from him and urged the others to do the same, she relaxed her posture enough that he could get up. He still wasn't quite in the clear, but Dragon's chances were looking a lot better.

"What brings you to our vale?" she wondered as she padded a semicircle around Dagfinn and ended somewhere near his left shoulder. She was merely curious. Some wolves sought only to pass through, and if that was Dragon's intent, she would be sure to steer him in the right direction. In any case, the reins rested more or less in Dagfinn's hands, which she showed with a gentle nip to his shoulder. If Dagfinn didn't like Dragon's attitude going forward, it was up to him to make an executive decision. As one of the pack's seconds, she felt he had the right to have a greater say in things, especially since the other wolves of the pack were now comfortable and already heading back up the hill.

Dragon was chiefly an antagonist that liked to rouse others, but above that he was a survivalist that knew how to keep his head above water; his sense, unhindered by the folly of pride, served him well here. He passed the initial inspection. The lead wolf backed off, as did her subordinates, and he rose himself into a sit, keeping his ears tucked back deferentially and his head lowered beneath the breadth of his shoulders. His eyes continued to rest on the female's small paws.

"Thought it looked like a fine place to dock," he answered, swiftly correcting his coastal lingo as he continued. "Ah — to live. If you're open to it, I'd like to join you. Name's Dragon."

Skipping just to wrap the joining part of this up. @Dragon @Dagfinn feel free to continue this thread and skip Saena for the rest of it if you'd like!

As quickly as he spoke, Dragon supplied the answer to her unspoken question, and she bobbed her head in understanding. Yes, Northstar Vale was a lovely bit of real estate. She'd thought so when she lived at the plateau, as well, but between venturing into the taiga and returning here, she'd never thought of it. Now, it seemed so obvious. What could harm them here, in their bowl, besides the flooding of storms? Nothing, she thought proudly.

"Well, I've no issues," she said with a note of finality. "Welcome to Duskvale. You'll find things work differently 'round here, but I'm sure you'll catch on soon enough." She wasn't really in the mood to explain all the details right now. There'd be plenty of walking time for that. Shooting Dagfinn an approving glance, she said, "you'll want to introduce yourself to my partner, Warbone, before too long. This is Dagfinn, one of the pack's seconds." And she left it pretty well at that, stepping forward for a moment to rub her cheek across Dragon's neck in a gesture of welcome before turning smoothly on her paws and leaving the two boys to whatever it was they would've done had she never shown up.

She accepted him, and for a moment he glanced upward with uncertainty, his ear twitching. That was it? He wondered for a moment if there would be more later; pledging to a crew had always been an arduous and cruel affair, but he checked himself. He was no longer on that coast, and indeed things had been staggeringly different since he left there. The corsair would adapt. He would learn their ways.

Dagfinn. He glanced toward the yearling who still held the bone, his treasure, but his attention was drawn back to her as she came forward to rub her cheek across his neck. He turned his nose into her shoulder, and as she whisked away it occured to him that she had given him two names, but not her own. He would get it later.

His head, and his gleaming gaze, snapped suddenly to Dagfinn, tail thumping the ground. He grinned impishly, and lunged for that bone with a playful growl, intent that he might reacquire it.

We can fade here with your post, Dag, and I'll leave it up to you to decide if Dragon gets the bone back or not. :)

Sorry for the hold up, guys. We can close up here and then maybe Dragon and Dag can have a new one, just so that we get the joining thread closed. Up to you, Kris!

Finally, Saena was satisfied. Dag's tail whipped violently behind him at this development, but he waited until she'd said her bit and gone on her way until approaching Dragon, a bit of a spring in his steps.

"Wanna play?" he asked, dropping the bone and slapping his paws down on either side of it.