Bearclaw Valley is it okay to cry, sometimes?
i will pry his bony fingers free
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#1
All Welcome 
all wrrreeelcome

a fog had rolled into the valley, clouting all visibility with thick roils of smokeborn white. indra had given up on hunting -- the heavy mist forbade it, and while she did not entirely rely on sight, it seemed like nothing dared venture out in such unfavorable conditions.

the snow underfoot was damp and soft, no doubt the rapid snowmelt was half the reason the valley was choked by harbor-like mist. indra stepped gingerly as she went along, avoiding the puddles as she went. she supposed she could secure the one small perimeter that marked the borders, and made towards it in a casual dogtrot.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
tonight's the night i die for our name
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#2
In the day-dimming fog, a large wolf traipsed warily through the deepening slush. He had not been on his own for very long, and the aftershock of dispersing from the Pike seemed to hit young Phoenix in odd and crippling waves. He regretted his decision now almost as much as he rejoiced in it. Fighting with his father and abandoning his mother and sister seemed petty and dishonest at this distance, after he had put hundreds of miles behind him. He often found himself looking over his shoulder (despite his choice to continue on) and he seemed to be wondering, or maybe hoping, that any one of them had followed.

No one ever came, and his progress became less alluring the more lonely he became with each passing day. He supposed he would have had to leave them at some point anyway; sometimes, it just felt like it had been too soon. Pushing the latter grievance away, he decided instead to focus on putting something on his stomach. Following the makings of a traveling deer herd, he was interested to find that the broad trails led into a wide breach in the rock walls he had initially thought impassable.

He headed for the valley's door, yet unaware that he would be met at the gate by the blaring scent of place claimed.

HI *whispers siiiiisssster* He's approaching the border she intends to scout :)
i will pry his bony fingers free
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omg

indra's intentions to reinforce the borders were short lived; as she neared the scent of another being prevailed. her amber gaze swept through the smokeborn fog and she moved to close the gap with suspicion edged in each step.

ahead of her a figure loomed briefly into view - towering and unfamiliar. instantly the redleaf was on high alert, her hackles upright like dorsal quills and her muzzle held firmly aloft. 

she uttered no greeting; instead a low growl spilled out into the heavy mist.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
tonight's the night i die for our name
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#4
Phoenix was looking up at the high walls and the blatant part between them when a rumble of warning brought his attention leveling back to earth. The tall brute paused, his cardinal ears forward and senses scanning as he located the source: a small she-wolf, whose precise features were lost to the mist. He realized belatedly that he had been marching towards her pack, or else just a place she had  earmarked as something   to protect. The scent of others practically clawed at him now, making him feel foolish for concentrating only on his stomach.

Aware of his present disadvantage, Phoenix's ears swiveled backwards in polite deference and he made no motion to approach or take his eyes away from her silhouette. He did speak, however, looking to dissuade any violence between them. "Sorry for coming up like this, lady. I was just nosing around for a bite, not looking to trespass or anything," he said as evenly as he could, trying not to sound as defensive as he felt.
i will pry his bony fingers free
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the stranger was quick to notice her, though in part she had her growl to thank for that. she watched coldly as his ears folded to his large skull -- and when he spoke a mien of deference seemed to carry in his words.

it was not enough to soften the stoniness of her countenance but the observation of his obeisance was enough to halt the defensive rumblings im indra's throat. she set her amber gaze upon him, noting he sported eyes not unlike her own. "well, you're too close. you'll have to find food elsewhere." she informed him fridigly, unsympathetic that he might have lost a meal. with laurel pregnant indra was taking no chances, and it bled into the feral manner in which she held herself.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
tonight's the night i die for our name
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#6
Though not surprised by her lack of warmth towards him, he was particularly aware of her quiet standoffishness; aware of it in a way you're aware of a snake after you've already been bitten. She acted like a wolf with something to lose, rather than one with a clear dominance over the circumstance. His parents had made him polite, but instinct bade him to take advantage of the fact she hadn't simply chased him off yet. This, paired with his intense curiosity (read: nosiness), made him press his luck.

"Definitely," he agreed with her, taking a step back, before ever-so-carefully adding: "unless there's something I could do that'd convince you I'm worth sharing a meal with." His red tail swayed tentatively, trying to exude some sort of friendliness in an effort to gain some headway with her. "You help me live a little longer, I'll owe you my life."
i will pry his bony fingers free
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#7
she watched him mistrustfully as he took a step back; it was a motion in the right direction but it did little to qualm her guarded disposition. he was an outsider; by rights an enemy -- until he fled this place, or made his intentions clear, she would remain doubtful of his purpose.

she was no simpleton - the language he elected to employ held significance even if she was not innately aware of it. she considered his words with a long pause. "what are you hoping to gain from this?" she did not mean a simple meal - what were his true intentions?
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
tonight's the night i die for our name
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#8
Phoenix, who for all intents and purposes was still a boy in many ways, didn't have the control to save face as she knifed through his angled ploy. He looked embarrassed, to put it quite flatly, and involuntarily he took another step back. Though he had meant every word spoken, Phoenix had been hoping that his ulterior motive (and by extension: his stifling loneliness) would go unnoticed, or at the very least unasked for. Concluding that he was not made for subterfuge, he gave his answer like a begrudging confession. "A friend," he said as plainly as he could, trying not to sound horrified at how pathetic he sounded. Was this was it was to be a lone wolf?

"I'm alone. And it's shit. But if I can make friends, then maybe I'll make it through the shit." He tried to sound steady, like he knew what he was talking about, but clearing his throat at the end implied that he was maintaining a facade of confidence while running purely on untested faith. For all his pride and arrogance, he had been raised to never forget the importance of having someone at your back; even if he had, for a time, indeed forgotten this.

"I'm Phoenix," he tacked on in an effort to diffuse the still-lingering tension of quiet mistrust between them. He felt very much like he was a handler, reaching into the cage of some wild animal for the first time. "Named after some woods, somewhere around these lands, I think." He hadn't found  the Maplewood himself yet, but someone had been kind enough to tell him he was in Teekon. It was here he knew that he would find he and his sister's namesakes, and the settings to many of his childhood tales
suspended between survival and civility
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#9

she had been laying in wait, hidden in the fog.  nestled up against her boulder she had watched the interaction silently and without movement.

mostly, she had been watching.  she had almost come behind the redleaf girl and chased the boy from their land — they had no room for dispersal wolves who paid no heed to borders.

but the interaction had shifted, and it was possibly for the better.  in her gravid state, she imagined she was not in any shape to be killing intruders.

she stood, her tail carriage high and her ears pressed forward as she briskly closed the distance between them, placing herself between her packmate and the stranger.  she did not otherwise posture aggressively, and she paid little mind to indra and if her posturing changed.  to reigi, all her alpha status changed was how she could carry her own self and she did not give worry to what others did with their time.

hallo, she rumbled, casting a glance back at her packmate.  she wondered why indra had not called yet for leadership — had she known reigi lay in wait beside her boulder, or had she chosen to take matters into her own paws?

it scarcely mattered.  her presence demanded answers, and they had better come fast.  the world was not kind to dispersal wolves this time of year, especially when two of bearclaw's women were heavily pregnant.

3/3
i will pry his bony fingers free
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indra hardly missed the change that overcame the stranger; how his facade crumbled like a withered leaf, or how his eyes suddenly seemed flooded with some semblance of forlorn pain. she might have felt cruel then, were it not for her possessiveness of laurel's safety. however, she appreciated the newfound plaintive manner of his words -- she had never been a wolf that enjoyed guile or manipulation.

he exposed his name and indra could not hide the jolt that vexed her -- she had done much to repress her memory of her birthplace, and his name was a fresh blow to the wound she had spent a lifetime burying. her expression wrinkled into a frown, which turned into an ugly sneer as the nameless wolf suddenly appeared and placed herself directly in front of indra mid conversation.

from posture alone it was evident indra's opinion of the woman: she trailed her gaze along the wolf's obscene belly and stepped forward, refusing to let herself be cut off from the male she had heen conversing with. the woman's arrival prompted indra to consider simply reconvening outside of the borders.

suddenly, phoenix's company seemed that much more appealing -- likely because indra was exhausted of being hounded by Xan's mate, and wished to just extricate herself entirely from the situation.

"i'm indra redleaf." she started, already prowling past the childladen woman towards the borders. "i could show you where phoenix maplewood is, if you want."
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
tonight's the night i die for our name
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#11
Due largely in part to the fog, the expression of the small valley delegate was misinterpreted by Phoenix as he introduced himself. She seemed more confused to him than repelled, but when he opened his mouth to address her reaction, he quickly closed it again as another gamine figure emerged from the rolling mist. This she-wolf's bearing was significantly more dominant, but it wasn't her approach that had his ears peeling back respectfully: it was her taut, engorged belly that cowed him.

What kind of place was this that would let an expectant mother loom so dangerously on the outskirts? What kind of pack allowed such a heavily pregnant female to act as their sentry? Phoenix swallowed his misgivings, though dismantling his flummoxed expression was decidedly a harder task. His wagging tail had stilled— bewitched by the refined mother-to-be— and his eyes stole wary glances behind the two packmates as he prepared for an ambush of men coming to defend their unborn brood. It didn't come... at least not right away.

"Hello," he responded to the swollen guard, instinctively keeping his eyes away from the dark mask of her face. His short tail began to sway tentatively once more, though it slowed nearly to a stop as he noticed that his first greeter had adopted a thick veneer of agitation. She skirted forward, giving her name at the same time her exact features fully became known to him. Dashing chestnut-red fur. Summer-amber eyes. Indra Redleaf.

Phoenix stiffened, at first unable to reconcile his immediate attraction to her with the fact that this was his older sister. He looked like he had been slapped. She offered to take him to the Maplewood, a proposal he nearly missed because he was staring at her so intently and his tail had begun to wag a little furiously. He wanted desperately to shout; to exclaim and explain to her who he was; but the air around them had changed. A can of worms had been opened right under his nose, and he was not interested in partaking.

Indra's sudden and "friendly" invitation had clearly been more of a ploy to get away from the pregnant queen rather than an actual desire to show him some trees, but instead of calling her out on the transformation, he just went along with it. Phoenix would take what he could, especially if it meant getting to know Indra. Almost apologetically, he glanced at the alpha female— who would have been far more interesting to him if she wasn't already so clearly spoken for— but Indra had the majority of his focus. His hunger had been stolen, his thoughts occupied now by youthful anxiousness and a dry mouth. Still, he was eagerly on his toes, prepared for whatever pace and direction she chose to lead him.

"If it's not too much trouble," he grinned, posing to prance giddily after her.
suspended between survival and civility
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#12


sorry for the hold up!

a bitter seed was planted in her heart.  everyone was more interested in indra, they always were and always would be.  the only exception to that seemed to be her husband.  even blondine was caught up with her!  what did she have that annasiak did not?

her presence had demanded answers!  but she had gotten none.  did she then need to exert her dominance more often?  now was not the time or the place, but she would think on it later.  bai, she called after the pair sadly before returning to mark the borders.  anything to get her mind off of indra.

3/3