Blacktail Deer Plateau bend and break

Hope you don't mind that I made this private!

When Fox had stepped up to the plate after Lethe's death, she had expected absolute and utter failure on her own part, even if she had not externalized this thought. Fox had thought the few followers who were with her at the time would vanish into the night, unwilling to be led by a little girl such as herself. Miraculously, they had stuck, many of them becoming her closest confidants and most loyal friends. Njal was a shining example, along with a few others who seemed to stay by her side no matter what happened. They always backed up her choices, but sometimes she feared that they followed blindly. Even a proud wolf such as herself knew that she had made a mistake.

It had not even been long since Fox had last checked in with Perry, but this was an important matter that she was sure he would want to know about right away. She had failed Bones, and in a sense, she had failed the girl's family by being unable to keep the juvenile safe. The creek wolf let out a long, sorrowful call to @Peregrine, summoning him to her.

Since they kept a den year-round, Peregrine figured he, Hawkeye and Kisu would not bother with a rendezvous site but instead begin to sleep out in the open more often, utilizing the area around their burrow rather than the burrow itself. This transition would happen in the next couple of weeks, the first-time father knew, based on his experience with his younger siblings. Not long after that, the pups' growth would accelerate and they'd begin going off on their own, doing their own thing...

This thought caused a pinch in his chest even as the Alpha male left the denning area. After going a few hundred yards, something caused him to stop and turn around, which was when he discovered his little shadow. "How'd you manage to be so quiet?" he marveled aloud at Osprey Jr., who hung back with her tail hanging limply, expecting rebuke. "Come here, ninja," he commanded and the puppy slowly came to him, head ducked and tail wiggling. She behaved dominantly around her fellow pups but had quickly learned to submit to the adults, now that she was developing conscientiously.

"Ba-ad?" she questioned him, gazing up at Peregrine with wide blue eyes as she stopped to stand beside him.

"Yes, you're bad. You're supposed to stay with mom and Kisu," the swarthy Alpha male answered. He almost instructed her to head directly back to the den site but changed his mind. "But now you're stuck with me. We're going on a patrol and it's going to be very boring," he told her, knowing Osprey Jr. would only understand a few select words, primarily boring.

After calling to Hawkeye and Kisu to let him know Osprey was with him, he led her off toward the borders, intending to wear her out before delivering her back to the group. He did not actually intend to patrol with such a young child alongside him, yet when a howl rose into the air and he recognized the voice, he tentatively moved toward the plateau's edge, instructing Osprey Jr. to stick close to him.

Rather than go down to meet Fox at the foot of the plateau, Peregrine remained up on the bluff, his daughter pressing curiously against his forelegs and peering out at the view—and their red-furred guest. "Who's-it?!" the young girl chirped, her eyes narrowing and her tail stiffening as she instinctively responded to a sense of stranger danger.

"That's Lil' Weenie," Peregrine told his daughter before raising his voice to call out to Fox. "What's up, doc?"

Peregrine appeared above, perched upon a bluff, but close enough that Fox could make out the smaller black pup sticking close to him. Suddenly, Fox's initial speech was thrown out the window. She wasn't sure how much the child would be able to comprehend of what she said, or what sort of memory she would have, and Fox did not wish to divulge certain information unless she was sure it was in the hands of only Perry. Nevertheless, there were some things that were unavoidable to speak of, and so Fox began.

“It’s Bones,” she said grimly, “Some wolves from Tortuga came and took her away. We did everything we could, even slaying several of those who showed up, but it wasn’t enough. Her kidnappers got away.” Her chest burned as she thought of the failure. “But,” she added, “One of them came back, and we’re holding him captive. I'm still not quite sure what his role is in all this, but I intend to find out.” If Fox did not so fiercely protect the land she occupied, she might have run all the way to Tortuga and brought Bones back herself. Alas, she could not allow herself to do that, and she did not want to risk sending too many of her own to retrieve the girl.

“Since you are her blood family, I thought you should know.” Despite Fox not understanding why blood relations were so important, she felt certain that Bones would have wanted her blood family to know where she was.

Her first two words made his entire body tense. As Fox told him what had happened to his niece, he peered down at the top of Osprey's head and imagined how his brother would feel when he inevitably delivered the bad news. He thought of Kraken next and the Alpha male grew even tenser.

"Osprey Jr.," he said in his most authoritative voice, "I want you to stay right here. Don't get any closer to the ledge or move otherwise. Stay in this very spot. Do you understand?" The girl hesitated, then bobbed her head. "If you move, even a little bit, you will be in huge trouble. Is that clear?" Young Osprey shrank down and prostrated herself. "Good girl."

Sweeping away from her, he began to make the trek down to the borders. He looked over his shoulder half a dozen times to keep an eye on Osprey Jr. She watched him but remained motionless. When he eventually reached Fox, he could still see her. He called out to her, "Remember: don't move!"

Turning now, Peregrine faced Fox, speaking sotto voce so the little girl on the ledge wouldn't hear. "Do you think they'll come after Kraken too?" was his first question. "I imagine Bones won't tell them of her brother's whereabouts but if they came for her, they may come for him; is that a reasonable assumption?" He looked at her unsmilingly, waiting for Fox to tell him whatever details she knew about the Tortuga wolves and their motives.

Fox fanned her ears back as Perry interacted with his child. She felt oddly out of place witnessing him speak with his daughter. The plateau wolf then made his way down the ledge, and in that moment, she was suddenly aware of how huge he was compared to herself. It wasn't that she had never seen him up close, for she certainly had, but she had apparently never paid attention. Fox found herself averting her eyes more than usual, especially once the questions started. In fact, it made her feel even smaller and younger, and she wondered if this was what his daughter had felt like.

“I don’t...” she began, then cleared her throat. “Yes, it’s a reasonable assumption.” She had actually forgotten about Kraken, so wrapped up in the loss of Bones. “They didn’t say why they took her. I didn’t stand around to ask questions.” Surely Perry could understand that. “I arrived when Bones was surrendering to them, but I told them she wouldn’t be going without a fight.” And what a fight it had been.

Peregrine sensed a certain discomfiture about her that he'd never seen in her before. Typically, Fox expressed too much sass and wit for her own good; she was always fiery but happy-go-lucky. Today, she seemed rather bothered. Given the information she'd just passed along, the Alpha male didn't find it at all strange. What he did find strange was his sudden and enormous desire to comfort her and coax out whatever was bugging her, if only to relieve her of it. He wanted Fox to be her usual cheeky self.

He took a deep, unsteady breath, then Peregrine asked, "Were any of your wolves injured?" He paused to let her answer, then said, "It sounds like they thought she belonged to them, perhaps because of her age..." He glanced up at Osprey Jr., who remained obediently still. He tried to imagine what he'd do if she disappeared from home in a few months. I'd search 'til the ends of the earth, then bring her home, he thought, though naturally he didn't say this out loud, as it would feel traitorous not only to Fox but Atticus as well.

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll be sure to ask my wolves to be vigilant. Do you have descriptions of the wolves that might show up here?" he questioned, then felt strangely compelled to add, "And sorry... you all had to go through something like that. I can't fathom how I'd react in that situation." He paused. "I have no idea how Atticus is going to react to the news..."

“Not seriously, no,” she replied to his first question. The Tortuga wolves had been outmatched in that regard, although Fox knew it had not been enough. When Perry asked for descriptions of the Tortuga wolves, Fox furrowed her brow, trying to remember any details. She'd always had a piss-poor memory, but she was far more likely to remember them by scent rather than sight. “They all had the Tortuga accent,” she replied, “but it was dark, so I couldn’t see them very well.” Another failure on her part.

“Don’t...” she choked, “Don’t apologize. I’m the one who failed her.” There must have been something she could have done differently to keep Bones safe and sound in the creek. The borders could have been watched better, she could have arrived sooner and taken Bones back to the safety of the heart of the creek.

The sound of Fox's voice breaking caused the compulsion in Peregrine's chest to spread and flare up, like a fire. Before he could think about what he was doing, he stepped closer to her, then tentatively pressed his muzzle to her temple. His tongue drew out an instant later and he gave her a single, brief lick of comfort. Then, perhaps catching himself, he drew back, though only a few inches, to look her in the face.

"If you did everything in your power to stop them—and I fully believe that you and your wolves did—then you didn't fail her." He paused. "She's still alive, right? Something tells me a kid like Bones will find her way home. She'll be back, Fox."

He glanced over his shoulder, like he had done a dozen times since leaving Osprey on the ledge, but this time he did so almost guiltily before taking another step away from Fox. Although offering companionship and moral support to a friend outside the pack would not be unusual for some wolves, it was very unusual for him. He didn't make nice with outsiders... yet, somewhere along the line, Fox, alias Little Weenie, had become a big exception.

And, since he was having a moment of personal clarity and honesty, Peregrine had to admit that his attentions were not merely friendly, either, and that when his dusky, blue-green eyes rested on her just now, he felt a deep, serious and therefore alarming tug in the creek Alpha's general direction.

Fox is going to have like twelve dudes lined up. Also, she can't handle the feels.

Fox had been looking downward and away from Perry when he moved toward her. She stiffened, thinking he might be angry with her for not doing more. However, his actions were anything but angry, and instead offered an emotion she was quite uncertain of. Comfort. Like Peregrine, Fox was quite used to giving and receiving affectionate gestures from all of her pack-mates. But this was Perry. The Alpha who had nearly bitten her throat out for pissing on his borders for fun. They had acknowledged that they would never form alliances, for such things were too easily dissolved.

When the warm and wet tongue touched her cheek, Fox could not deny that she felt an intense flutter of something. Whether it was fear, anger, remorse, or just surprise, she could not ascertain. She was going to have to have some serious processing time before she was able to deal with any of this. Suddenly very overwhelmed and out of place, Fox's ears buzzed even as Perry spoke. She nodded weakly, feeling that her legs would fall out from beneath her if she stood nearby for much longer.

"Yeah. I'm... going to go back," she muttered distantly, then turned toward Swiftcurrent Creek. On the way back, she would attempt to process and sort the various feels she had. There were far too many variables, and she attributed much of her behavior to the loss of Bones. Then again, unlike Perry, she was not exactly being one hundred percent honest with herself.

Thanks for the chance to make some incredible character developments. :3

She announced that she was leaving and her body language expressed her discomfort. Peregrine felt bad, intuiting that he was the cause of it. He assumed a stony expression and stepped back another step. He nodded to acknowledge the wisdom of her decision to depart. He actually thought it was a good idea, although there was part of him that really didn't want her to go.

"Take care, Lil' Weenie," he said, reverting back to the nickname. He suddenly thought, I sound like her older brother or something. Maybe if I give her a noogie, it'll break the tension. His mental voice paused, then redacted. Bad idea. And what would Hawkeye do if she witnessed that... or any of today's behavior toward Fox?

She was gone and he turned back to his small, thankfully mostly nonverbal witness. "I love your mother," Peregrine said aloud when he reached her, albeit more to himself than to her. "Let's head back to see her, see mommy," he added, this time talking to her directly and using the title (mommy) that he knew she'd understand.

Junior did; she jumped up and began trotting away from the ledge. Smiling ruefully, Peregrine loped after her.