Heron Lake Plateau Maps

@Finley but anyone is welcome!

This was a new land and a new start, on her way here, thefemale only ran into a few wolves who mentioned a pack around the area. Therefore she decided to seek them out hopimg maybe to join their ranks if allowed of course.

The sounds of spring flooded her ears as she approached the border. Lynx stayed a safe distance away before letting out a howl. She wasn't sure of this packwas a friendly one so she would rather be safe now than sorry later.

Though she'd never exactly verbalized an interest in picking up a task as a member of the pack, Niamh found it natural to want to patrol the lands she and her friends had claimed before all the rest of Screech's clan and family came in and more or less usurped it. For the most part, she'd been simply patrolling the borders and minding her own business; she figured it would be best to allow Screech to justify their joining the pack, as he'd been a part of it once before, rather than her. She had, afterall, been one of the three wolves who'd once stood against the pack that had invaded the plateau. She moved along the borders with a sense of purpose and ownership when a howl caught her attention. 

The female remained a respectful distance from the borders but it didn't keep Niamh from becoming defensive, allowing the blonde fur along her nape and spine to stand up and ears prick forward. Though she was slim, Niamh was tall, and cut a serious figure when she regarded the stranger with a hard glare. She didn't know yet exactly how the alpha wanted strangers to be greeted; but Niamh was naturally extra defensive of the land she'd already had to surrender once, so she approached the stranger with the expectation that she would submit.

She was approached by a cream colored female who held a dominant stance right off the bat. Not wanting to start off on the wrong paw, Lynx lowered her body and flattened her grey ears before speaking. "I apologize, I don't mean to intrude. Would you by chance be the alpha of this pack?" Lynx asked her.

The grey-toned wolf lowered her body as soon as she caught sight of Niamh, and the blonde female was pleased, but didn't relax her stance any. This female was still close to their turf, and she was in charge of defending it. Whether she was aware of it or not, Niamh was actually doing the Caldera wolves a favour- but in her mind, she was simply defending the territory that had once belonged just to her, Screech and Redshank. She still didn't quite consider herself a Caldera wolf...She was a part of a smaller group within it, first. 

The female apologized, and her question made Niamh's ears flick back. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "No." She said. Something about being asked of she was the alpha- and that alpha was Towhee- left a sour taste in her mouth. "What are you looking for, if you don't even know who the alpha is?" She asked, then, assuming that there was a reason this female had come to the borders.

Without X's eyes, Towhee knew she needed to double down on patrolling, especially considering the freshness of the claim. She spent essentially all her time roaming along the base of the plateau, leaving as many markers as physically possible. Fortunately, a river snaked along the one edge of the plateau, so Towhee didn't have to fortify that area. But even with that taken into consideration, the plateau was a bigger territory than the caldera and manning its borders was no joke.

She took a break today and parked beside the tarn at the foot of the waterfall gracing the southern corner of the plateau. Plenty of thoughts swam around in her head as she took her breather, though she thought particularly of @Tegan for whatever reason. She knew he was mad at her—he wasn't exactly discreet about his sulking—and Towhee wanted to repair that relationship. It just hadn't been a priority over the last few days. And, honestly, she loved her younger brother but thought he was being unnecessarily salty.

Glancing up at the falls, she let the cool mist blanket her face when a thought struck her. Tegan's Tears, she thought with an ungainly snort. For the first time in days, Towhee smiled. She picked up her feet then, shook out her damp coat and began striding back along the borders. She would head up into the territory proper and find her brother, let him know she'd named the landmark in his honor.

En route, though, the yearling was distracted by two figures: silver and gold, respectively. Her ears immediately thrust forward as she cantered toward them. Towhee recognized the latter fairly quickly and gave her a slightly squinted look before turning her attention upon the total stranger and demanding, "State your name and business."

The she-wolf raised her head as another wolf approached though she still kept the neutral stance before she spoke. "My name is Órlaith Blackthorn but my family calls me Lynx. I wished to join your ranks if allowed." Lynx occasionally glanced over at the other female wondering if she'd chime in once more.

Before the female could answer, the sound of another wolf approaching caught her attention and caused her to flick an ear in that direction. She removed her gaze from the silvery female for just a monent- long enough to see that it was Towhee who approached. Licking her lips and turnig her ears back in deference, Niamh yielded to Towhee, whose presence took presidence over her own.

Towhee, in her low, guttural tone, addressed the female and Niamh stood by, knowing it was Towhee who would be the one who would make the final call.

Niamh stepped to the side with a deferential look, which caused Towhee to look at her and nod in appreciation. She wanted to get to know Screech's friend better, though right now there was the more pressing matter at hand. When the Alpha's orange eyes returned to catch the stranger's introduction, she met it with a loud growl upon noticing the utter lack of submission.

Despite herself, she went suddenly silent at the name. "Did you say Blackthorn?" she demanded, then tipped her ears forward in nonverbal but strong suggestion to, "Fix your posture."

Lynx lowered herself once more. "Yes that is my last name." Something struck her as odd but, she didn't want to upset her more so she kept quiet andkept her belly close to the floor as she flattened her ears.

The slight nod she received from Towhee was accepted, but she wasn’t about to get all silly in front of a stranger just to show she appreciated the recognition. She simply continued to hold her ground beside Towhee, mirroring her alpha’s actions, but to a slightly lesser degree. 

So when Towhee snarled, Niamh’s fur bristled, she bared her teeth and sharpened her gaze, reinforcing Towhee’s physical command for respect. The stranger- Lynx- reiterated her surname, confirming what Towhee had asked. For some reason, this had to be important, but for Niamh, the surname was still unknown.

The warning served its purpose and Lynx quickly corrected herself. Towhee sheathed her fangs, then studied the stranger. She certainly looked the part: silvery fur and a telltale stripe down her spine. Even with the evidence in front of her very eyes, the Alpha struggled to believe that a Blackthorn had magically wandered here so soon after the relocation.

"How the hell did you find us?" she demanded.

"I simply heard from another of a pack homing here." This was completely coincidental, the female had no idea of her sisters presence here, nor did she know what she looked like because they have never met. "If my last name is the issue, I could leave if you wish."Lynx wasn't looking to make enemies nor step on anyones toes. She wondered though why the alphawas shocked to hear the name Blackthorn.Was there bad blood between them? So many questions flooded her mind but she remained silent.

You two can feel free to skip Niamh if you wanted to spree this out- I’m on the road and Niamh won’t exactly be doing much :)

For some reason, Towhee seemed almost offended that Lynx was a Blackthorn. She cast a quick glance to her alpha, but maintained her stance and returned her gaze to Lynx, who tried to explain herself- and then offered to leave. Niamh looked to Towhee, then, to see what judgement would be passed.[/ooc]

What the actual fuck? Towhee thought, utterly discombobulated by this serendipitous situation. Although she couldn't believe her ears (eyes, rather), she decided it didn't really matter that much how Lynx had found them in the end. It was just so coincidental that it had thrown her for a loop.

"It's not an issue," she interjected, "it's just bat shit crazy that you'd show up at this doorstep. Do you know Finley?"

The name stood out like a wolf in sheeps clothing. That was a name that she heard her mother mention. "Personally no, I was born later after she left home, but my mother had spoke about her."

Toss one more crazy fact on the pile then: she was a Blackthorn and she'd magically found her way to the Blackthorns' home base, without ever knowing Finley. Towhee shook her head rapidly, deciding not to think too much about all these outrageous coincidences. What did it matter?

"Well, you're about to meet her," Towhee said, shortly before howling for @Finley, her voice resembling a bellowing hippopotamus with a bad case of bronchitis.

Not for the first time did Finley try very hard to figure out some way of teaching her goddaughter how to howl. The sound was like a train engine screaming through her ears and slamming into a wall of metal garbage cans. She cringed every time she heard it, but she answered all the same. As she walked, she considered then for the first time the irony that Towhee's deafness drove her to make a sound so ungodly awful that it made Finley wish for deafness. She'd have to share that one with her sometime.

Fin was too entertained by her thoughts to take much notice of anything until she stood before the trio at the borders. She glanced at Towhee and Butterscotch (as she had dubbed Niamh in her mind), then at the girl that crouched submissively before them. She did a double take at the telltale stripe that lined the female's spine before looking her over more intently. She didn't know this girl, but there was no denying... "You're kidding," she said, looking at Towhee, "Another Blackthorn found us?" Dear god, they were an epidemic.

It seemed as though everyone was shocked or at least surprised by her appearance and she couldn't figure out why. "Hello, my name is Lynx." She was polite and introduced herself to the stranger.

It wasn't long before the Beta female materialized. Although curious about the strange Blackthorn's appearance, Towhee decided her presence here was no longer needed. Finley could deal with her relation and Niamh could hang around as backup if she wanted. But the Alpha had business in mind: she still needed to find her younger brother and inform him of his landmark.

"You've got this, right?" Towhee said to her godmother before shooting Niamh a quick glance and nod and announcing, "I gotta go tell him about Tegan's Tears." And without any further explanation, Towhee strode away, trusting Finley's judgment absolutely on however she wanted to handle her cousin (or whatever).

When Finley showed up, her ears tilted back slightly, to show defference for the female. So this was her surname- Blackthorn- and there were seemingly a bunch of them out there. Obviously, there was some way to recognize one easily, because Finley seemed to know one of her own family members- who she'd obviously not yet met- simply by looking at one. She could see the resemblance, slightly, mostly due to the dark dorsal stripe and predominantly greyscale colouration. Towhee excused herself shortly after Lynx introduced herself, and Niamh felt that by then, she wasn't really needed either. 

"I'll let the two of you get to know each other," She said quietly. She gave a curt nod of her head to Lynx, along with a look that said 'I'm leaving but don't even think about trying something' before she nodded her head to Finley, and left the two to talk and make up for missed time.

Fin nodded to both of her packmates as they took their leave, pausing only to give Towhee a sidelong glance over "Tegan's Tears". With a shrug, she looked again at Lynx, some sort of relative, or so she assumed. "Finley Blackthorn," she said in response before asking, "So who do you belong to? You kinda look like my brother, Carp. Are you one of his?" The age seemed like it might fit. Carp had to be... good lord... seven or eight by now, and this one looked to be right in her prime.

Lynx shook her head slightly before she spoke. "He's an elder sibling of mine but no. My mother is Eithne." She spoke simply.

The girl denied that Carp was her father, naming him instead an elder brother. That clued Fin into who this actually was without her even needing to continue, though she was nice enough to wait to hear it before she replied. "Wouldn't ya know it, that's my ma too," Fin answered, smiling, "So how old are you then? And what's your story - why'd you leave, what you doing here? And how're Mom and Dad?"

Her now known sister began piling on questions that Lynx hoped to answer them all. She smiled slightly before addressing the first of her many inquiries. "I am three and I left because everything started getting too crowded and when mom had another litter that pretty much sealed the deal for me, I started getting restless so I set out on my own path and have been like that for about a year and a half." In her eyes, it felt so much longer. "Never did I think that I find more family." She had also asked how their parents were doing and so she smiled once more. "Mom and dad were still growing the family when I left. They had a whole other litter when I left. I guess you could say I wanted adventure. "

She was three?? Goodness gracious. Finley paused for a moment to try to do the math and figure out how old she was, but she gave up pretty quickly. Not because she couldn't figure it out, but that she didn't like the results. The girl's story wasn't too much of a surprise, but it was a bit of a blow to her ego. Back in the day, Fin had been proud as hell to be the first Blackthorn to strike out on her own like her older sisters had when things had gotten too crowded for her liking. She had grabbed Colt by the tail and dragged him away to join her on their wild adventure, throwing a big middle finger back at the traditions of her family who were so stuck in their ways and so annoyingly mundane. It seemed though that every Blackthorn these days had decided to do the same thing, though. They all told the same story. And in the weirdest turn of events, Finley now had made a life just like that of her parents - long-term resident of the same pack, churning out more and more Blackthorns year after year...

Ugh. That's enough introspection for one day.

"Yeah, weird that you wound up here of all places," Fin commented, "But then again, so did I. So it's not exactly uncommong I guess..." She gave a light shrug, then decided to cut to the chase, "Well, I can't promise adventure here. If anything, you'll just get drama, irritation over super rambunctious yearlings, and bitterness over a bird that seems like it has a higher rank than you... But if you're looking for a place to stay, I keep my door open to any and all fellow Blackthorns."