Bearclaw Valley Be Prepared

Set after this thread. Please allow @Clary to post first, then AW!

Steph laughed as her sister ran after her, doing her best to keep just out of reach. Before she knew it, they were at the base of the mountain, and Steph came to a stop. Her gaze traveled upward, taking in the view of the mountainside before them. It was a lot bigger up close! Steph looked to Clary with a knowing smile, and then promptly took her first steps onto the mountain.

At first, it didn't seem like a big deal. It was mostly just walking on rocks instead of grass. Some were big, others were small. But, Steph would soon find how different it was. She was feeling confident in her climb, every few moment looking to her sister. Suddenly, the rocks below her back leg gave, and Steph started to slide. But, she only went a foot or so before stopping herself. Her heart pounded in her chest, but she was quick to make her way to Clary. She felt being near her sister, they could conquer anything. 

Clary's size made her ideal for squeezing into tight places and getting up to no good, but when it came to running fast, her sister had her beat. Not that Clary cared too much. The air filled with her laughter as much as it did with Steph's, and whether she'd win or lose didn't matter, so long as they were together.

They reached the mountain, and breathless, she stopped and craned her neck to stare upward and upward. She had never seen a rock so big, and Clary turned to Steph at the same moment her sister turned to her. Wide eyes met the light on Steph's face, and Clary shared her smile. Any worries of what mama might do when if she found out where they'd gone fell to the sheer wonder of being here, and to the thrill of the adventure they were about to undertake.

At first the going went well enough, but Clary found that while the slope was clear from roots and bushes, the rocks acted in the same tripping manner. After a near stumble when staring wide-eyed at the peaks, she decided to keep her eyes trained steadily on the ground, tongue poked from her lips and brows knit with concentration. Every once in a while she looked up to catch Steph's eye, to make sure her sister was doing well in her own climb. A sudden noise jerked her to a stop, in time to watch the final stretch of Steph's slide, and she bounced with a yelp and a sudden the hammer of her heart. But her sister righted herself, and Clary met her approach with a shower of licks, hoping to still her own heart as much as to still Steph's.

Okay, so maybe straight up wasn't the best way to go. But she wasn't gonna turn back now, and Steph didn't seem to want to either. They could do this, together. Still pressed close to Steph, their pounding hearts in rhythm, Clary turned to the left and right, until her eyes settled on a path that looked a lot more level than the haphazard one they'd begun to strike.

"Let's go that way," she said with a nod of her nose and a slow wag of her tail, "Maybe it'll go up slower, or maybe somewhere even better." What else could you find in a mountain? Clary didn't know, but a look to her sister said she wanted to find out.

Her sister met her, showering her in licks which Steph returned. Clary was always so affectionate, and Steph loved her all the more for it. She always knew that if she needed comfort, her dear sister would provide it. Steph took a steadying breath as she looked back at the spot she slid. She realized how much worse that could have been if she hadn't caught herself. 

Her sister's voice brought her back to the present, and Steph turned her head to see the path she was talking about. Steph nodded, Okay, let's try that way. It made sense that going at an angle would be a lot easier than straight up. At least it looked a lot safer, anyways. Her first few steps were carefully placed until they reached the path. She eased up a little then, but was still careful as they trekked up the mountain. 

Clary was right, this was going up slower, but it was also a lot easier. Steph even stopped to look down. Wow, we are so high! she said with a laugh. She had never been in a position to be able to look down at the ground, since being on top of a log sure didn't count when compared to this. They were above the treeline and Steph could see for miles, including Stone Circle. Wow, everything looks so far away, she said in awe. It was like the land just went on and on.

Whispers I hope I’m not screwing up Xan’s timeline by joining this—tbh, totally worth it if I do, though. Also, I dunno what this post rlly is waaah

It wasn’t often that he moved along the edges of the valley, knowing already that the only way to actually get in was by going down the boulder-filled pathway. Still, every now and again, he found himself outside of the valley and walking parallel to the outer walls. It was fairly boring but, having nothing much to do at the moment anyways, he kept his silent complaints to a minimum. The farther along he went, however, the less boring things got. Somewhere in the distance he heard voices—young, high in pitch—and took off towards them, ready to warn them off; until he actually saw them, that is.

Moving up the wall of his valley, he spotted two grey blobs; they’d made it a decent ways up, he realised. Towards the base of the incline, he picked up on a familiar scent that prompted him to act. “Hey!” he shouted, tilting his head back with his muzzle pointed in their direction. “I wouldn’t go any higher if I were you.” Normally, he wouldn’t have bothered with getting involved. The lingering scent of his sister’s pack had him unable to just walk away, however, especially with the sudden drop that they’d likely encounter, should they reach the top. Whilst he doubted the children to belong to his sister—she wouldn’t have let her kids leave the territory, would she?—they were probably important to her in some way, so why not help out?

XAAANN <3

They climbed higher and higher up their new trail. Clary fell into position just behind her sister, sticking close the mountainside, and pausing often to gather in the sights to her left. But she didn't actually realize how high they'd climbed until Steph's remark made her stop and think about what she was seeing - the treetops, not just the trunks - and well beyond that. Her eyes grew wide, and her laughter joined with Steph's.

"Look!" She exclaimed, squinting with a slightly precarious lean of her nose toward the meadow belong Stone Circle. A dark mass moved about the grass, indistinguishable if the two of them hadn't known what graze down there. "Those must be the bison, but they don't look so big anymore!"

She drew her gaze up to the horizon, in awe at the sheer majesty of the land. What more would they see if they kept going? Clary opened her mouth to whisper an excited urge for them to move even higher when a new voice met them, and her ears inclined to the base of their ascent.

Clary had never seen a wolf like him before - stark white, without a mark or smudge to dirty his fur. The pale girl glanced at Steph with a question in her eyes - did she know this man? - before calling in return, "How come?" her voice rang with curiosity, "What else is up here?"

Upon Clary's exclamation, Steph followed her gaze, looking towards Stone Circle and the bison in the valley. Her sister was right. They look like specs now, she commented. It was weird, knowing that they were so big up close, but from here, they weren't intimidating at all. 

Steph was just about turn to continue heading up the mountain when a male's voice reached them. She turned, taking a few steps to come alongside her sister. Her fur bristled and she let loose a warning growl. A four months old, she really had no chance of taking this male on, but she would defend her sister if it came to it. Clary was more friendly, but to Steph, this was a stranger. Being outside the pack lands, she knew, made them vulnerable and Steph didn't want to befriend someone she didn't know of. Her untrusting eyes did not leave him, watching his every move.

It wasn’t difficult to get their attention, eyes soon being turned to gaze down at him. Something pulled him forward—the desire to rid his valley’s walls of the children, perhaps—but he remained still, suspecting that a sudden approach might only force them in the opposite direction. He felt all the more confident in his suspicions once the darker girl’s response was noted, her behaviour bringing a smirk to his face. How ferocious, he thought, then shook his had and cleared the smirk on his lips. If anything, he should have taken the gesture as an insult to his status but, given how small the whelp was, not even Xan was able to perceive her as a legitimate threat.

Glancing back towards the more vocal one of the pair, he answered bluntly with, “Nothing.” There wasn’t anything at the top of the walls, for their secret resided within, not atop, them. “There’s nothing at the top aside from a sudden drop down into the valley,” he clarified. “If you continue going upwards, you’ll end up falling to your deaths before you even realise what’s going on.” Surprisingly, that hadn’t happened before—not that he could recall, anyways. He knew it was a possibility, though, and didn’t want to have to carry the corpses of his sister’s packmates back to her. That would be too much work, pups or not, especially if they both were to fall. Not to mention how Desna would react to that; he couldn’t keep the thought that she might blame him for it from crossing his mind, despite their recent attempts at reconnecting.

Though Clary remained quite open toward the man, her sister's bristling response made her a little more cautious in her approach. She didn't step any closer to the stranger - more for Steph's sake - but continued to appraise him from where she and her sister perched together on the cliffside. He didn't draw any nearer himself, which did set her at ease, despite the funny smile he seemed to pass at Steph when she growled at him.

Clary's ears pitched tall, and she expected something exciting from the stranger's mouth. Instead she found her tail falling limp. Well, nothing wasn't any fun, and she turned a glance to Steph, her excitement sapped. Perhaps they should just climb down - but at his catch, and her ears sprung forward again. So there was something - because a drop sure wasn't nothing! "But if you know what's at the top, that must mean you've been there before, right?" She gave the man a once over and a smile turned her mouth. "And you seem okay."

If they had met inside Easthollow, Steph most likely would have trusted the male without question. But out here, and not under her mother's protection, Steph only trusted those she already knew. She was glad Clary didn't go forward any more, worried the male might go after them. She hadn't scented any other wolves in the area, so the chances of them being in someone else's pack were null.

The male claimed that there was a drop off on the other side, and that the girls would surely fall to their deaths. But, Clary made an excellent point. The male knew what was there, so he must have been there, and he was fine. It isn't like we were running towards the edge. I know how to look in front of me, she claimed. They hadn't been going fast, and Steph had every confidence that they would have seen a drop off before actually dropping off.

An argument wasn’t expected from the children, much less one that was backed by actual points. It took him a moment of watching them and seeing that they weren’t moving for the words to fully register in his head, bringing a frown to his lips. “I haven’t been to the top,” he stated, looking between them before his gaze settled on the lighter girl. “But I’ve been inside. I was born in this valley and live here currently, I see the drop from inside the walls every day.” The perspective given from within the valley made him lose interest in ever climbing the outer walls; any sort of incline made up of rocks and rubble wasn’t to be trusted, especially when the top presented such a danger even without the loose footholds.

Turning his gaze towards the other child—her demeanour and tone towards him making her weariness clear, which he viewed as a reasonable approach to have towards strangers, even if it annoyed him at times—he couldn’t keep his frown from deepening. “Have you ever climbed a mountain, or anything like it, before?” he questioned. “One wrong step and you’re falling. It doesn’t matter if you can see in front of you or not, the ground can give out at any moment and there’s nothing you can do to save yourself.” He almost wished that they weren’t in Desna’s pack, just so he could leave them to climb and, eventually, fall to their deaths without it coming back on him.

“Look,” he started, taking a slow step forward. “I know you two are in my sister’s pack—that’s the only reason I’m trying to help you two. I don’t want her getting upset over the deaths of some kids, so why don’t you just listen to me?” When seeing his sister’s stomach swollen with unborn whelps, he’d felt almost jealous. But now, whilst dealing with two kids, he couldn’t understand why anyone would ever want them.

His mention of an inside pressed Clary's eyes to widen. She turned her head to look upon the rocky wall. The barrier looked ordinary, nothing more than what she'd seen this morning and the many mornings before, set with stone and smeared with vegetation. Yet this new information made them take a different life, mysterious and full of intrigue. The effort to imagine what secrets they held came easy, and her heartbeat quickened at the vivid thoughts which filled her. There were wolves living right next to them, and she hadn't even known!

His statement only itched her to climb further, despite the warnings he tried to give them. A sense of reason told her the man was right - her thoughts skipped back to the scare her sister had already had, and she pursed her lips in contemplation. They could be more careful, now that they knew the dangers. And though they hadn't ever climbed a mountain before, surely there was a first for everything - so why couldn't this be theirs?

But any thought of doing anything other than climbing up the mountain fizzled with a start. He knew their pack? Though she was young and knew nothing beyond Easthollow, she knew they carried a scent unique to them. It was what made them Easthollow, and what helped them recognize others who weren't.

The shock settled into the girl and she snapped her head to lock attention with Steph. She completely missed the realization this could be their uncle, and instead loomed on the most pressing reality first -

"What if he tells on us!" she hissed for Steph's ears to hear, and not the man's. "If we get down, I bet we can outrun him back to the territory. He can't follow us there, and then he can't tattle. [b]Mother can't find out we were up here." [/b]And she was sure they both knew why.

The stranger did a lot of talking, and Steph wanted nothing more than to just turn and be on their ways. This male meant nothing to Steph, and she wasn't about to trust him just because he thought she should. Blah blah blah, was what went through her head as he talked, going on about how they could get hurt and whatnot. If you're so worried, then you should stay off the mountain, she retorted. 

Then, he claimed he was brother to their mother. Steph's eyes narrowed, unconvinced at anything this male said. Valette had never mentioned a brother, and as far as Steph knew, Nanook was her only sibling. Clary seemed worried now that he was going to tell, but Steph stuck to her stubbornness. Don't believe him, she said, loud enough for him to hear. Mom has never mentioned a brother, she pointed out to Clary. Steph was also careful not to give out their names, either. 

She didn't like the idea of running. We'd have to go right past him, she pointed out in a whisper. And, despite her unwillingness to give in to the male, she knew it was a bad idea to try and run down the mountain. Her eyes looked around for a spot to go, but it was either higher up, or past him. Her eyes turned to him once more. Just go away, she told him, irritated that he had ruined their fun. It was likely that if he left, they would simply return home.

So much for being the cool uncle

When the lighter girl turned to her sister, Xan’s ears strained to listen but couldn’t pick out any of the words. Of course, he frowned, wondering what she was saying and if it was something that he’d want to hear—too bad he’d never find out. The other wasn’t as cautious with her speech, however, and in an instant, his eyes had snapped over to focus on her; she’d given him ample reasons thus far to dislike her, and her words only added another. And though he opened his mouth to shout something back, nothing back out, the words trapped in his throat by the realisation that these were his nieces. He closed his mouth, pondering what he should say—do—now that he knew. He definitely had to get them down and send them back home now, but how? It didn’t seem like they’d be ready to trust him anytime soon.

“I’m not surprised she hasn’t mentioned me,” he muttered, more so for his own ears than theirs. Shaking his head, he pointed his muzzle towards them again and said, “Whether you believe I’m her brother or not doesn’t matter to me—I really couldn’t care less—but what does matter is getting you two down from there and back home.” If they really were his nieces, Desna’s daughters, then he couldn’t let anything bad happen to them. She’d seemed so happy with the idea of starting her own family, he wasn’t about to let the kids’ recklessness ruin it for her.

“I’ll give you guys two options,” he stated, her order to go away ignored. “Either you two climb down now and go home, or I go to Easthollow and get your mother—you choose.” He didn’t think to just leave and hope they’d climb down on their own. No, that was out of the question entirely.

Clary was utterly torn. She trusted her sister with all her heart - Steph was the oldest, after all, even if only by a few minutes, and always seemed to have a clear head on her shoulders, something Clary couldn't boast too well herself. But at the same time, she didn't think herself so bad at reading character that she had misjudged the pale man below. He seemed genuinely concerned - moreover, he seemed genuinely able to get them both into trouble if they didn't listen to him now. Regardless of whether or not this was really mama's brother, she took his warnings to heart, and Clary swallowed, throat thick with the decision of what listening to either of them meant.

In the end, her decision came from fear. Not of the man himself, nor of what he might do if they came to run past him, but of what he would do if the two of them stayed stubbornly on the mountain instead of coming down. They would leave anyway, once the man left - but by then it would be too late. He'd already be off to tell mama about them, and she was sure he would reach her first. Clary couldn't let that happen.

She glanced at Steph with a soft whine and a look of I'm sorry in her eyes. Then, the grey girl began her descent. Every step felt wrong - like she was somehow betraying the trust she placed in Steph for this strange unknown maybe-relative she'd never seen nor heard of til now. The choice was obvious to her, and if the man proved a danger, well... at least she'd be the one, and not Steph, taking the shot.

The more adamant the male came about them going with him, the more stubborn Steph was being about not going with him. It does matter, because you are nothing but a stranger to us! she retorted. Steph was fully prepared to tell him what he could do with his options, feeling highly that Clary would stand with her.

But, then, she locked eyes with her sister. Steph couldn't believe she was going to go with him. How could she trust him? Steph felt his threats were nothing but lies. Even though her sister was walking towards him, Steph planted her butt firmly on the ground where she was. She met his gaze, her own full of defiance. Her mother had never told her about having a brother, and Steph would believe her mother's lack of information over his confession that they were related. 

She was not going anywhere with him.

Two-toned gaze followed the lighter girl as she descended the wall, flicking back towards the more stubborn of the two only a handful of times. By the time she’d reached the ground he had already taken a few slow steps in her direction, bringing them closer together quicker than either of them might have anticipated; he let a few steps worth of space remain between them, trying his best not to spook her right back up with her sister. Yet, looking at her, he couldn’t help but take away from that distance, too.

“You look like Nanook,” he noted, only to silently question whether or not she’d know who that is. In a poor attempt at not confusing her, he added, “Your aunt.” Had Desna told them about her? About Sesi? He wouldn’t be surprised if his existence was the only one not mentioned, the history between him and his sisters a long one; although he was in the process of further mending things, that didn’t matter, it seemed. “But you have your mother’s eyes,” he pointed out, only just now noticing the shared trait. Absorbed in his observations of her, he’d nearly forgotten about her sister—but when he remembered she was there, he gave a slow shake of his head before pointing his nose in her direction and asking, “Is she always this stubborn?” It was another trait shared with Desna—himself, too, though he would never admit that aloud—he realised, but refrained from pointing out. They both likely already knew how much they resembled their mother, they didn’t need him commenting on every little similarity.

“Would you just come down here already?” he tried again, not yet ready to give up; Alexander had never been too keen on giving up, the act itself something that he could almost never commit. “What will convince you to come down? Do you want to hear stories about your mother? Your grandparents? I can tell you anything.” Bribery? Worth a shot.

Her ears flattened as he whispered to Clary. She didn't like that her sister was so far out of range and next to a stranger. And she was confused as to why Clary would trust him at all. Her eyes narrowed when he, once again, tried to get her to follow. He apparently didn't know that she knew nothing of her grandparents, but she did try to think of something he could answer for her to prove he at least knew their mother. 

Her eyes narrowed at him. Name one of her sons, she challenged. He hadn't bothered to use either her name or Clary's, and Steph really didn't believe he knew them at all. If he failed, there was no way she would be going with him.