Blacktail Deer Plateau does a match box?

@Tallulah is now allowed in any Grayday thread unless otherwise noted! All welcome! Maybe a new Morningsider?

He was walking more carefully these days, since he often had a chipmunk attached to him. He was pretty sure the tiny creature was either absent or asleep, as he couldn't feel her moving around and couldn't remember the last time he had. It made hunting rather uncomfortable - the male's kills had been much more economical since meeting Tallulah.

Mostly, though, things had been the same. He was still a father and a leader with many responsibilities and individuals to look after. There were times he almost forgot about his new friend as he went about his daily routine.

Now was one of those times. He was following the trail of a porcupine, worried that, should the creature remain in the area, one of his children would find it.

*snaps up thread*

the days were getting more and more regular as he stayed on the plateau. no longer was he a vagrant, ek awaara, wandering up and down the coast with all sorts of adventures to be had. his duties here were simple: provide for his new family. filling the caches for winter, mostly. and getting to know everyone.

besides dawn, the wolf he was most intrigued by was grayday. he was only a year or so older than aditya, but his eyes, clouded slightly over, looked as if he had lived a decade longer. he wanted to hear more of grayday's story--what had brought him here, and what had made him stay.

as if fashioned from his thoughts into thin air, grayday appeared around the bend, nose following some sort of scent. with a friendly wag of his tail, adi trotted towards him. he was about to speak when he noticed something small and brown nestled into the leader's thick pelt. upon further inspection, it was. . .well, some sort of rodent. aditya's jaw fell open, for a moment at a loss for words.

"what in the bloody hell is that?" he exclaimed softly after a beat of silence, pointing with his nose toward the stowaway on grayday's back. "and what is it doing on you?!"

The leader turned jovially in Aditya's direction as he caught the other male's scent. He opened his mouth to call out a greeting, only to snap his jaws shut and flash his teeth in warning as Adi reminded him of Tallulah's presence. "Shush!" he insisted, taking a half-step back and turning his body away from Adi to protect his chipmunk friend. "I think she's sleeping!"

Feeling that the male had been sufficiently warned, Grayday relaxed his dominant posture, a sheepish look falling onto his face. "She hurt her paw," he said defensively, as if daring Adi to tease him. Other than that, though, he felt he didn't need to explain himself. "There's a porcupine somewhere around here," he said to the male, returning to the trail he'd been following. "We need to encourage it on its way before one of the kids decides to do it themselves."

at the flashing teeth, aditya took several steps back, eyes wide. it's sleeping?! what, did grayday have a pet now? he looked at the. . .squirrel? nahin, too small, and no tail. on second thought, that was a chipmunk. he had mostly ignored them throughout his life, as they were merely a light snack.

taken completely by surprise, he laughed, the sound just a whisper, as to respect grayday's wishes. "she hurt her paw?" he asked, one corner of his mouth twitching wryly. "lucky for her you didn't eat her."

now grayday was following a porcupine. he took the alpha's explanation, though adi hoped it wasn't a cover for grayday trying to add another to his army of woodland creatures. chipmunks were innocent enough, but quills were a completely different scenario entirely.

"those things are nasty. a friend of mine got quilled once trying to hunt them." stepping alongside grayday, he started to follow the trail as well, casting the occasional sideways glance at the leader's new. . .friend.

Grayday let his shoulders rise and fall in a tiny shrug, careful not to disturb the chipmunk too much. "She started beggin' - how am I suppose to have an appetite with that going on?" he replied, though he knew it was a rather weak excuse. He wasn't sure he'd ever eat chipmunk again - not that it had been on the menu very often before.

Thankfully, the conversation moved on, and Grayday let out a laugh of his own. "Must be pretty desperate to hunt a porcupine," he noted, pausing to kick dirt over a small pile of porcupine scat that laid to the side of the trail they were following. The last thing he wanted was one of the kids finding it and getting interested in where it came from. "One of my aunts died after trying to eat one. The quills got stuck in her mouth and she starved. My mom said it took weeks and weeks."

despite himself, aditya smiled. grayday could come off a bit aloof, but it was clear that the alpha had a big heart hidden in that thick gray pelt, especially if he was willing to have mercy on a poor injured hunk of living meat. and it was kind of. . .cute, seeing that little brown blob nestled into wolf fur.

"not desperate, just an idiot," he answered, rolling his eyes. his face grew solemn as he took in the rest of grayday's words. "i am sorry. that is. . .a terrible way to die." he couldn't even imagine. struggling for life, quills piercing the delicate flesh inside your mouth, no food reaching your belly. . .  he shuddered in revulsion.

with a whiff of that scat, adi was hot on the trail as well, and he lowered his nose to pursue it. it had been a long time--since his idiot friend, in fact--that he had even seen a porcupine. he was sure they looked a lot less menacing than the fearsome creature he had built up in his mind over the seasons.

Aditya apologized, but Grayday was quick to wave it away. "I didn't know her," he placated, not wanting the other male to think Grayday was reliving tough memories. By the time his mother had told it to him, it was only a cautionary tale.

The scent-trail grew in instensity. They were closing in, and rather than speed up toward the end, Grayday fell back a foot or two to allow Aditya to lead. With his bad eyes, he was the worst wolf to be hunting porcupines, which always seemed to blend in rather well this time of year.

But he needn't have worried. As soon as the creature was in their line of sight, Grayday had spotted it. It was a fat blob of movment in an otherwise stationary scene, and as they drew closer, it took on its proper form. "Look at the size of it," he said to Aditya, keep his voice low. He didn't want to offend the porcupine, after all - merely encourage it to move away from the rendezvous area. "Don't get too close, okay? We just need to get it to move out of the area."

his mouth quirked as he looked the thing over. nope, not a monster; just the same rotund, quilled thing that had gotten his friend so many seasons ago. grayday cautioned him to stay back, and he stopped, surveying the thing with narrowed eyes--which soon shifted to grayday, looking for further instruction.

"i'm used to chasing things and catching them," he said sardonically. "what's your plan? scare it? distract it?"

the dark bristling thing was staring at them, too, still as though made of stone. it seemed so innocuous, from this distance, but anecdotal evidence and, well, common sense suggested otherwise. even as a prey animal, there wasn't much meat to the thing. not worth pursuing.

Grayday cast his eyes around for some kind of tool he could use, and almost at once, caught sight of the perfect implement. "Annoy it, actually," he replied, trotting over to the long, dry branch that laid a few feet away. He looked it from side to side, wondering which end would be better to grip. "I'm not planning to get close enough to kill it. I just don't want it where the pups might get curious about it. So we're going to poke it with sticks until it goes away."

Finally seeing a good angle, the leader plucked his long stick from the ground and teetered uncertainly a moment before finding his blance. Then, he marched toward the porcupine and gave it a firm jab.

lol I typed "graydaddy" accidentally...I'm totally calling him that from now on xD

grayday was full of surprises today, it seemed. adi broke into another grin as the alpha picked up a long stick and began prodding the creature, which let out a disgruntled squeak at being so rudely disturbed. but, with a resigned shrug of his shoulders, he picked up another long branch nearby with his mouth and sidled just a tail-length or so away from grayday.

clenching his jaws against the stick, he jabbed, feeling the impact on soft, thick flesh. he kept jabbing, and the porcupine, thus bothered, began to lumber away from them with slow, agitated steps.

it was a weird way to spend an afternoon, but, he supposed, not the worst way.