The night is my companion and solitude my guide [J]

@Majesty Set on the mainland.

The sky was laden with heavy grey clouds when Viatrix slowed to a stop on the shore with a slight adjustment of stance denoting her discomfort. After hours of constant travel, standing still was a relief, and allowed her to take stock of her surroundings. The scent trails of many wolves criss-crossed the sandy beach, suggesting it was a (painfully) high traffic route for her species. She supposed after dwelling on it for a short while that it was as likely to be a good thing as it was to be negative, and dismissed her apprehension.

There were two directions the lone female could go, and she chose left. Though she didn't consciously follow the scents, and instead wantonly traversed the uneven, cold Pacific sand, she nevertheless found herself eventually at a spot bordering the sea that was saturated with the scents of a handful of wolves.

Their presence indicated to the DeMonte female that it was some sort of gathering location, likely for wolves from the same pack, given there were no signs of aggressive struggle in the area. From the day she was old enough to experience the wanderlust inherent in her as a descendent of the mercenary Bronx, Viatrix had been a feckless female with flighty intentions. She would have passed by the scents without a second thought, if not for the reality hard-wired into her instincts.

The rigours of solitude took a greater toll on all wolves than the benefits of its faux glamour and appeal, and this was no different for Viatrix who, being a pragmatist, weighed the pros of seeking companionship in these few sea-faring individuals. Deciding it was better to take her chances, and with a combination of hesitation and nerves rocking her stomach, she tipped back her head to send up a lone howl, short and sweet and mournful as a wolf's could be.

Sorry for the late reply. I have been so busy, it's not even funny.

Majesty's ears pricked up at the sound of a howl calling for him from the mainland. Well... it wasn't actually calling his name, but the howl was asking for someone of higher rank within the Wheeling Gull Isle pack. Having nothing better to do, he made his way to the sandbar that led to the mainland and traversed it. Unfortunately, it was high tide, so the water went up to his shoulders. And, despite the heat of the day, the water was a bit too cold for his liking. With a grimace, he realized that during the winter, the ocean water would be freezing, and his wolves would be stuck on either end of the water until it was low tide.

He made his way up the beach toward a female wolf - the one who had called him. She was pretty - a slim figure of back fur, whose ends seemed to glow red. Her eyes were a deep orange that stared at him as he neared her. Her colors were interesting to look at. He stopped before her and did not speak for a moment, simply content to bow his head to her in greeting.

Then he cleared his throat, and said, "Greetings, Miss." He gave her his signature genuine smile. "You are seeking an audience, yes?" His ears flicked forward to show his interest as he sat down on the sand. "I am listening. Go ahead."

At length, she was approached by a tall, corded male with a bearing that suggested he was a hundred years old, though his scent betrayed him. He was nothing but a male in his prime, something Viatrix could appreciate, for although she had no plans of settling down any time soon and didn't view him as a potential in that regard, the DeMonte female came from a traditional family with traditional values. The male was the head of the family, should one be present. In his stead was his mate or sister, but that was often a short-lived situation.

She was put off a little by the way he assumed that she wanted to make a sales pitch to him about herself, but Viatrix didn't say anything right away. Instead, she observed for a long moment before finally saying, “It isn't prudent to undergo an interview for somewhere I'm not even certain I want to be,” with a coy little smile. “Maybe you should tell me why I should want to be here, and then I'll tell you what I can do.”

Of course, she was the standard package: a wolf who had wolf skills. She could track thanks to her wolf nose, she could hunt thanks to being a carnivore, and she could patrol and defend the borders in part because of instinct and in part because her family was well known for breeding able guardians. She needn't tell him that for Majesty to know that, because that was what all wolves should have been capable of doing. She didn't believe in supernatural things nor did she think weather-watching or playing with plants were particularly useful skills... Though luckily for Viatrix, she didn't mention it in front of the budding Naturalist.

Majesty chuckled. This female was smart, which he appreciated. She wanted to know what the pack could offer her. This was a valid question, one he fully intended to answer. He cleared this throat to give himself time to think. Then he began.

"Our little pack started up not too long ago. I am the Alpha. My name is Majesty. There were three other founding members: Silvermane, Beric, and Naya, who are still a part of the pack. Eddie joined later on. Silvermane and Beric wish to Warriors and Wardens. Naya wants to be an Outrider. Eddie isn't sure what she wants to be yet. She is hesitant about joining the pack, so I told her to give it a week to see how things went. I myself wish to be a Chronicler, Healer, and Naturalist. Though I am still a capable Warrior and Warden when I need to be. I simply don't enjoy fighting."

He paused, now that he had spoken of the members. "This is the pack's policy: There will be no in-fighting. No cheating, no lying. Problems will be solved first with words, not with action. Trespassers will not be attacked on sight unless they are giving you a good reason to attack them. You will ask them what they want. If they are not hostile they will be helped. If they are, then I give anyone within the pack full permission to attack them - but not to death. Chase them off. That is all.

"Now. We live on an island that is connected to the mainland by a sandbar. The island is small, and may not be a fully sustainable place to live, due to the shortage of large prey. I will arrange for a pack hunt soon somewhere on the mainland. We will not be able to drag the carcass back to the island, obviously, but we will fill our bellies with all we can. There is a migratory herd of deer who use the sandbar to go back and forth, however I am hesitant to kill them off too quickly. I want to give them a chance to repopulate whenever we hunt one of their numbers."

He took a breath. "I think that about sums it up. Now I will ask you - if you do plan on becoming a member of the pack, what skills will you bring to the table?"

She listened intently as the Alpha male began to explain his pack in much more detail than the DeMonte woman could have anticipated. Partway through his introduction to Wheeling Gull Isle, the female seated herself on the sand, getting comfortable just as he launched into an explanation of the pack's rules.

And it was here that the female found herself returning. From what she had gathered, the pack members had initiative and drive, even those who were uncertain of their place. The standard rules of a pack applied, which Viatrix had expected, but there was a very non-traditional twist to Majesty's rules that did not appeal to her traditional way of life, and that was that trespassers were not to be harmed.

She waited politely for the man to finish his explanation, collecting a few more questions in her head for later, then finally asked, “Is that wise?” Without pause, the female introduced herself as “Viatrix DeMonte, descendant of Bronx DeMonte, founder of Whisper Forest in the Salvaje Valleys, or so I'm told. I am a wolf, sir, and I excel at what we wolves excel at: tracking, hunting, and mind games.”

“Mind you, I am also a tactician,” she added, ”which is why I ask if your rules are wise. With all due respect, is someone trespassing not considered a good reason to deal with them hostilely? You would allow strangers to walk freely through your land and, in doing so, undermine your authority? They do not answer to you, so they may not respect you here.” Having been raised by wolves with utmost loyalty to their Alphas and impeccable guarding of their homes, spanning back generations to Bronx the stoic guardian himself, Viatrix simply couldn't imagine allowing a non-pack wolf to traipse through her pack's territory unharmed. Truth be told, if she ran with this Majesty, it would be the first rule she broke, being a prideful wolf herself and not willing to sacrifice the strength of the pack for illogical reasons.

“And is your home wise? You knowingly chose a location with scarce prey? Did you consider the fact that the sea would freeze your nads off in winter before you even made it to the coast to hunt when you chose somewhere that is scarcely populated?” Majesty's answers to these questions would make or break Viatrix's interest in his pack. Whether he liked it or not, the spunky logician had turned his interview into her interview.

"Is that wise?" the she-wolf asked.

Majesty was about to ask which part of what he had said she was referring to, but she skipped right past her question and introduced herself. He listened politely to what she had to say. When she mentioned mind games, he wasn't sure which sort of mind games she meant. Was she talking about manipulation of others? Or did she mean problem-solving. If it was the first, then he was not okay with that. If it was the second, then that was fine. He would need good problem-solvers in the pack, just in case.

However, as she continued her... interrogation, he began to think that he perhaps did not like her very much. She seemed brash and argumentative - simply for the sake of argument. He did not appreciate this, though he kept these thoughts to himself. When she was done speaking, he cleared his throat, trying to think of the best way to answer her question about trespassers. After a moment, he began.

"Concerning your last question, I will say this: I know my methods are odd, and that under any other Alpha's ruling, you would be ordered to immediately attack a trespassing wolf. However, I believe that this often creates more problems than it solves. And what if there really is a good reason for the wolf to be on our land? What if it needs help? What if it sick or injured and its pack is too far away to be of any service? Would you allow a member of your own species to die simply because they had walked over the line of urine on the ground?" He shook his head. "That doesn't make any kind of sense to me. It never has, and that is part of the reason I left my first pack in this place so quickly. They were too quick to anger - too quick to attack - for my liking."

He sighed. He really needed to stop thinking about Jinx and Silvertip Mountain. Dwelling on the past would do him no good. He brought himself back to the present moment and asked, "What say you now? You are under no obligation to join me. If your beliefs clash with mine, I would highly suggest you leave. I want harmony between pack members, not arguments. Make your decision."

She wasn't privy to his opinion of her but, had she known he considered her brash and argumentative, she would have laughed in his face and walked away. As it was, Viatrix didn't do that, but instead waited for him to answer her questions, which she considered valid, logical concerns for any pack wolf to have. After all, Majesty was advertising a way of life that went against all of their natural born instincts as wolves, so she thought it was more than understandable for others to have concerns.

It turned out that it wasn't understandable at all, at least not to Majesty, who made something of a half-threat at the end of his words. Viatrix's demeanour instantly changed from polite to stiff and offended, not because his reasoning didn't make sense (they did in some fashion) but because he would dare to make such a comment at the rear of them. Any chance he had of recruiting her to his ranks disappeared, for Viatrix wasn't stupid enough to miss the implication. He meant to imply, at least to her ears, that she was somehow argumentative and would cause problems with the pack, which couldn't have been further from the truth.

“I will do just that,” Viatrix said coldly, lifting her ears and body to stand equal with him, for there was no reason to respect such an insulting creature any longer. “A word of advice, however: if you want wolves to join you, I would suggest not insulting them as you just did myself.” With that said, the inky woman turned around and began to walk away, no more or less agitated than when she'd come (it didn't anger her to be treated this way), but she was definitely less respectful than her initial approach.

Majesty blinked in confusion as Viatrix spoke of being insulted. Insulted? How? He was still puzzled over this as she turned and began to leave. It was fine with Majesty if she did not want to join his pack, but he would never let something like this... insult stand without saying something about it. Although he wasn't quite sure what he had said to offend her, he was going to apologize for whatever it was. He was not the type to leave these things unsaid.

"Wait, Miss DeMonte," he called softly. "Please. Tell me what I have said to offend you. I'd like to apologize for whatever it might have been. And I'd like to assure you that I had absolutely no intention of doing so. If you do not want to join my pack, then that is alright with me. But at least accept my apology. Please." He bowed his head to her as he waited to see whether she would turn at all, or simply walk away and leave him behind without a word.

The svelte female trimmed back her ears when Majesty softly called to her. Though the woman had half a mind to just continue walking and allow him to figure it out for himself, she had been raised better than that. Her stride paused and with a soft sight, she glanced back over her shoulder at the clueless chocolate Alpha. She had disagreed with his philosophy, it was true, but she hadn't done so disrespectfully.

“You presumed that, because I disagree with your way of thinking, I would shake your pack's harmony.” Giving him a moment to respond if he would, the dark-furred DeMonte rolled her shoulders, easing some of the tension from her spine, and said, “it was nice speaking with you,” even though it wasn't really that nice at all, for the fiery DeMonte female still took his presumption as an insult to her character, “but I don't think it's a fit. Good day.”

Whatever else he said at this point was moot, for Viatrix was already walking away, having dismissed herself from their interaction.

I'll have this archived now. Thanks for the thread, even if you decided not to stay

Majesty sighed quietly as she walked away. He felt unsettled after their conversation, even though he had done his best to apologize to her. He had lost a member before he had really ever gained one, and this tested his faith in himself. Was he truly such a horrible leader that he lost pack-mates so quickly?

No, he told himself sternly. It is simply a matter of different opinions, and that is alright with me. Not everyone has to agree with me or want to be in my pack, and that is perfectly okay. I must not give in to despair. My pack is still young. We will gain more numbers in time.

With that, he called out a soft, "Goodbye," and turned to begin the swim back to the Isle.