Redhawk Caldera Five people were killed, thirteen others greatly injured

Once the shock of being throttled by Towhee for the device around her neck wore off, Fiadh decided to brave the climb to the Caldera's lake to have a look at it. It took a good deal of slamming her paws into the brittle ice at the edge, and an even longer wait for the water to settle, before she could make out her fuzzy reflection. When she did, Fiadh's tail thumped against the ground and a thin smile found its way to her lips.

The collar was a thick leather band, dark brown in colour, with a heavy black box nestled against her collarbone. There were pinpricks in the leather where Towhee's teeth had gripped it. A pretty green light on the top of the box took the place of a gemstone on a typical lady's necklace, and Fiadh was instantly enchanted. Towhee's reaction to the collar had been frightening and concerning, but as she peered at her reflection in the water, she could only see it as a beautiful accessory, and was glad she had been gifted with it.

@Colt

woo!!

Colt was passing by on his way from taking a leak on the border when he spotted his niece staring into the lake.  Fully intending to do her a nice scare, he attempted to sneak up behind her, hoping to perhaps even get her to go in, finding the thought hilarious.

But when he spotted the collar, he stopped, staring at it.  "What the fuck is that?" He asked, incredulous, before realizing what he'd said to his somewhat younger niece.  "Ah.. shit.  Sorry."

Not knowing the nitty-gritty negative details of what had transpired since Fiadh got her collar, Clover could only 'ooh' at it from afar; she wasn't old enough to know that this was abnormal by any means, and instead wondered when she would get one, if ever. Upon smelling her around, Clover prioritized her to-do list and decided that first on it was finding Fiadh. 

That took no time at all. Clover found her right as her uncle did, and her tail waved at the both of them. Hearing his reaction did not shock her, if only because she was not at all sensitive to profanity and in fact an avid user of it, though perhaps the tone was a bit confusing—after all, to Clover, nothing was amiss. That none of the adults had one did not really click yet with Clover, who, despite her cleverness, could sometimes be two-steps behind when it came to picking up things in serious matters as these. 

She also missed entirely that his asking meant he had no idea what it was, either. 

It's cool, isn't it? When will mine grow in? Obviously the stinky boys would not be included in this, but for petite Clover to be excluded? Unthinkable!

Fiadh craned her head back to search for the source of the voice that dared to question her beauteous necklace, but Clover saved her the trouble of responding when she arrived just in time to interrupt Colt. She hoisted herself up from the lake's edge and spun around to grin at her sister and uncle. While Colt voiced the very real concern over what her weird new toy represented, Clover validated her, and she beamed with a rapidly waving tail.

"Soon, I bet!" she said, flaunting her necklace for Clover as she padded toward her sister. She turned a somewhat mischievous look at Colt before boldly declaring, "you're just jealous you don't get a pretty necklace like we will, uncle Colt!" Nevermind that Finley, Towhee, nor any other woman Fiadh could think of had a necklace. She had one, and she was certain Clover would soon have one, too. That made them special.

"Mhmm," he said in response, though he eyed the thing carefully.  It didn't look or seem like it was hurting her; quite the contrary actually.  But where the hell had it come from, and what was it for?  He'd never seen anything like it.  Some kind of parasite maybe?

"Does it feel like anything? Hurt?" He asked her, moving in to sniff it a bit.  If it didn't hurt then he was content to let it be for now, mostly because she was Finley's kid and she could deal with the non-fun aspects of that show.  But if it was a problem he didn't mind trying now.

Her sisters words comforted and excited her. She had no reason not to believe or trust Fiadh's words; she would just have to be patient. Clover stuck her tongue out playfully toward her uncle as Fiadh teased him, and he seemed ready to acknowledge and accept his defeat. Her tail waved and her eyes flashed, though his question was a good one.

She doubted it hurt, and so looked to Fiadh and echoed only the most important bit of what he had asked (in her opinion): yeah, what does it feel like? She asked, her voice quite interested. She wanted to know what she had to look forward to, after all. Fiadh's experience would be to her benefit, though Clover would not have minded sharing her own experience had she of been the first to acquire the Cool Thing. Really, Clover loved her family—it was a genuinely selfless sort of love.

"Feels like royalty," said Fiadh with a wide grin crammed full of metaphorical shit. She had to be some sort of special, right? Of all the Caldera wolves Fiadh could think of, she was the only one with such a unique accessory. Well, she supposed X was a unique accessory, too, but he was liable to flying off at any moment. He was a bird with a brain of his own, after all. Fiadh's accessory, she assumed, was wholly and completely under her control and permanent.

"It doesn't hurt," she responded with a sly eye at Colt. "Why, you looking to find one, too? I can tell you where I got it from but I think it's only for special wolves, like Clo and me!" But she'd be willing to tell him if he wanted to know. Well, sort of. Fiadh's memory of the event was foggy and inaccurate. She could recall the sound of a whirly bird and then she vaguely remembered a bear in the meadow, but much of what happened in between was lost to her.

Did he want one? No way.  But he didn't want to give that reaction, figuring it would likely insult her appreciation of the accessory.  "Nah, I'm too rough for royalty," he said with a wink.  Then, a bit more seriously - "I would like to see where you got it though.  Outta curiosity, if you can tell me."  He might nose over and check it out, depending on where it was.  He didn't want to end up with one by accident, but if Clover was going to go back there, he wanted to see if it was dangerous.

Clover was interested in where her sister had received it, as well. She hoped to get one herself someday. Honestly, she hadn't even considered she could do it sooner rather than later... but her uncle, though rough, was brighter than she was it seemed. Her head turned toward Fiadh and she tilted her head. Can we go there? She asked, her green eyes falling to her uncle.

They really wanted to see the place? Well, shit. It wasn't that Fiadh was really intentionally lying to uncle Colt and Clover, and she would happily take them down to the meadow, but the precise location was sort of up in the air. She could hardly remember anything from the trip home. She remembered the bear, of course, but couldn't recall any of the ridiculous things she'd said... and there were many ridiculous things said that day. She remembered the berry bushes or wildflowers or whatever was in that meadow (Chels is honestly too lazy to look), but not the exact place.
Had she been able to see the caldera from the meadow? Probably, but she couldn't seem to remember that, either.
"Uh, sure," she said, hesitant as she looked out from their spot on the caldera. "It's down in the meadow to the north, but... I don't remember the exact place. Everything's really messed up in my brain from when I got it." That didn't bode well for the collar's innocence, buuut it's not like anyone could take it away from her. Haters gonna hate, and Fiadh gonna Fiadh, pretty accessory and all.

"Ummm," he gave a brief hum, mind blanking on a reason why all of them shouldn't go.  He'd much rather get the location now and go later himself, but if that were the case the two of them might decide to go off together, and wasn't that way worse? Well, aside from the fact that, if they were caught, he wouldn't be there and implicated in it.  Decisions decisions.

"Aye, why not? We'll check it out quick."  He agreed, "though not sure how your mom and dad would take it, so maybe we make this a secret mission?"  He didn't know if he had the repertoire with them to be on secret mission standing but hey, if he was gonna be running around with the kids, it'd be a good thing to know.  For future completely harmless reference of course.

Well, this was it. She couldn't back down now, she'd look like a weenie. She was confident enough that they would find the place, even if she couldn't remember the exact location, and so she was chipper as she said, "follow me!" She knew at least how to get to the meadow and over the next couple of hours, led her sister and her uncle on a wild goose chase that ended sadly with no new collars and an irate Colt.