Blacktail Deer Plateau Spooky scary skeletons

This is not mandatory but do feel free to jump in! In honor of Halloween there will be a spooky scavenger hunt. :) @Kavik (@Grezig I assume she's still out looking for Illidan's family) @Ruenna @Elixir @Issun @Minori @Siqsa @Krarius @Illidan

An eerie cry in the night woke her suddenly, causing the leader's head to jerk aprubtly upwards from where it rested on her paws. Her ears pricked alertly, waiting in the silence to see if the sound would come again. A guttural noise, similar to the cry before but drawn out, lower, caused her to growl softly in both fear and anger. 

The healer turned to her mate, nudging him. Should he wake, she would ask him if he had heard the noise before cautiously creeping from her den. What she saw there caused her to release a startled gasp. 

Some of the foliage that blocked the atrium's entrance had been ripped aside, the tangled liannas and vines scattered across the stone floor of the Door. The smaller moss-covered rocks had been knocked aside, and a trail of half eaten game and medicinal herbs littered the floor in a trail leading from one of the caverns. Even the foliage she'd stored for the wolves to line their dens had been tossed around as they slept, leaving their home in shambles. 

Fresh anger flowed through her as another cry rent the air, leading the Alpha to stalk from the atrium with purposeful strides. 

She would find whatever did this and make sure they never did it again.

Minori had been awoken by the sound of chaos around the dens but due to her having made her own a distance from others she arrived on the scene too late. The foilage and bedding were shredded and something had gotten into their kills. She growled menacingly about to go on the hunt when a eerie cry rose up from the night. Not one to be frightened with ease Minori stood still, looking around with a sharp gaze though she couldn't supresss the shiver running down her spine that raised her hackles. She crept even closer to the dens, ears shooting up at Liri's growl. She turned her head to spot the female creeping from her den to survey the damage done to their home. "I have never heard anything like that. How did nobody wake up during this?" it wasn't an accusation but simply a question voicing her shock. Perhaps whatever made those cries was the one who made such a mess here.

He was awake.
He was always awake at night.
But unlucky for the young brute, he had just missed all the action. Rabbit still in maw and heavy paws caked in wet mud, the Nightmare spawn swiveled a left ear cooly to find that which had confused him. Something eerie, or meant to be eerie had spooked a silence through the trees, and the youth felt somehow relaxed in it's ring. Almost homely as it reminded him of the various screams of watching birds in the Nightmare Elms. Without really telling himself to, he turned ancd faced the place where the cries came from, only to find himself in the midst of Liri and another he hadn't come to meet, yet.

Trying not to give into the urge to turn away and seek elsewhere, the giant awkwardly tried speaking through his maw to the Alphess. Like the socially inept one that he was, he tried to say "I got a rabbit," whereas it came out in an unintelligible "rai rahf ra raffif." More than likely his attempt to speak through the meal might have splashed blood from the shredded hare across the moonlight plumage of the fae. He didn't put it down for fear the unknown one in their presence would snatch it up and run away with it, as he was still completely unaware of how proper pack life worked. Mountainous, the brute kept his swaying walk in tandem with the Alphess, his head ducked from injured neck muscles, not humility.

The dark navy blue wolfdog turned to the ebonian that he didn't trust, and bluntly asked as though he hadn't just ignored them for the initial half of his appearance. "[font]Rah rar re rerrin rer[/font]? he asked, possibly splattering blood over their front, too.

The cry woke him from his sleep and so when his mate nudged him, he whispered, I heard it, too. He got up with her to move from their den, but decided to check on the other dens first before joining Liri in the atrium. But upon further investigation, he saw nothing out of place. 

He trotted to the atrium and immediately noticed the huge mess. He looked around as concern and irritation swelled in his chest. What on earth had happened here?

The alpha heard speaking outside and padded quickly in that direction to see what was going on. He found his mate standing with Siqsa who was holding a rabbit in his jaws. He noticed Minori there as well, and he gave them both a nod in greeting before moving to stand next to Liri. What's going on? he asked, wanting to get to the bottom of who would dare invade their territory.

gonna go ahead and start the next round on this. If you haven't joined in yet, feel free to do so. :)

Her progress was halted by the sight of Siqsa and Minori. Her gaze flickered briefly to the rabbit Siqsa carried in his maw, confusion crumbling her brow at his muffled words. She ignored the blood he spattered across her, for it was not the first time the leader had worn crimson on her coat. 

"You can leave it here if you wish. No one will take it." Liri assured the dark male, who seemed more accustomed to the life of a rogue. It was clear he wasn't quite used to being surrounded by the familial group he'd been accepted into. 

"I don't know," she sighed, dark eyes flickering between Minori and Kavik.  "The caverns are deep and the stone walls thick. Whatever it was must have been sneaking about while we slept." 

"It sounds like it's in pain now," Liri murmured, head turning as another eerie cry rent the night air. It had gotten into her stores. Perhaps it had eaten some herb it shouldn't have and was now paying the price for its gluttony. 

"I'm going to find it and make sure it doesn't happen again," the healer stated with determination, dark eyes flickering between the three wolves. "You're welcome to join me if you wish." 

An unknown dark furred male showed up with a rabbit and immediately tried to speak to Liri, his voice muffled and gore splattering the alpha female. Minori stared at him with an expression somewhere between scorn, shock, and disgust. Making her like the alpha even more, Liri totally ignored the rabbit blood on her pelt and just carried on bringing Minori's attention away from the awkward young boy. That was until he also said something incoherent to Minori and splattered blood on her too.

Maybe it was being woken up by a horrible noise and finding their home vandalized or maybe she was just crankier than usual but she felt her eye twitch and when Liri finished speaking she looked at the boy "Drop the damn rabbit next time you want to talk. Acting I'm going to steal it, makes me want to do just that." she gave an annoyed sigh and began to lick the blood spatters off her fur. "I'll come along for sure. Whatever did this is going to get my teeth right in its ass" she said in return to Liri, tone still aggravated but not directed toward her.

He had no qualms with the Alphess instructing him to lay low the catch, and hanging head was low enough to do it. Just as he released the catch to stain the fall floor with even more scarlet, the ebony female he had asked a completely unintelligible question to decided to try her hand at trying him. 

Incredulous would have been the face of a weak wolf, but he was always brimming for a fight. First Grezig and  now-
“I don’t gotta do a damn thing that comes out of your mouth, sweetie“ the words flew from him with acidic ire. Molten snark bled from his gaze to hers. As the Alphaic pair began to concoct their plans, the Devil moved his massive frame to place himself at an angle from the path that Liri And Kavik chose, giving the ebony female both a cold shoulder and a simmering glance. But he spoke in relation to Liri and Kavik. 

“Don’t know if what you guys are chasing hurt itself or was hurt by something, but I’ll see if the latter can be drawn out with a free meal. I’ll hit y’all up if I get something. Or if I die. One or the other.“ Picking up the near smashed meatball of a meal, Siqsa took his leave to try drawing out the boogymonster, splattering torn flesh and pieces of fur across tree bark and grove hems. Should it work, he would try to backtrack, circling where he estimated the search party were headed, and possibly the three if not four of them would take it down. 

He gave Siqsa a concerned look as Liri informed the dark male that no one would steal his rabbit. The alpha wondered what kind of life he had before the plateau that would lead him to be so possessive of his food around packmates. The terse words between Minori and Siqsa warranted only a raised eyebrow from Kavik. He certainly wasn't going to get in the middle of pack members' disagreements unless absolutely necessary. He was not one to micromanage, and they were both more than capable of standing up for themselves. 

Moving his attention from the tension between the pair, he looked to his mate. I'll go with you to check things out, he stated with a quick nod. The alpha was eager to find whomever had disturbed them and force them to pay for their trespassing. He nodded at the hunched male when he stated that he was going to go check things out on his own. Alright, but be careful he replied. Capable or not, Kavik still worried for the male being out there in his own against whatever creature had made that noise. The alpha turned once more to Liri. Lead the way, love.

Liri turned, giving her pelt a slight shake to rid herself of most of the blood, yet her head turned to observe the quarreling pair with dark eyes. 

Minori, who she had known since before the pack's formation, seemed to be joking. At least to the healer, who knew the girl to be a bit standoffish and abrasive to outsiders. But Siqsa, she was not so familiar with. Genuine disrespect laced his tones and something clicked into place for the healer - the way he reacted to Ruenna on the borders, Krarius's hesitant remarks about not being welcomed...and who had joined shortly before the timid male? Siqsa. 

The fae returned to her mate's side, more important matters awaited in the night. Minori was a grown woman. She could handle her own battles as Liri well knew. As Siqsa departed, Liri's eyes followed him, wondering what would become of the man. 

His aura was violent, unlike so many of her family members. Liri had lived through enough turmoil and she desperately hoped that Siqsa would adjust to peaceful pack life, for she didn't want anymore. 

She smiled at Kavik, pulled from her worries by his words. Silently, she lowered her muzzle to the ground. Her lips parted, the aromas along the ground strengthened as they flooded against her palette, as she worked to detect an identifying scent. 

There was something familiar about the scent but it was so perfumed by the scent of dead game and plant life that she could not be sure what it was. 

"Looks like it went this way," she finally offered after trying to untangle the web of scent that seemed hectic - had it already been injured, stumbling about drunkenly? 

As the fae was embraced by the darkness, moonlight filtering through the canopy to shed illumination on their path, the scent grew weaker. It led them to the stream where it seemed that the beast had crossed over.

The trail went dead on the banks though if one cared to check the other bank they would find a trail of blurry prints leading into the forest - pointed towards the edge of the plateau - and a mangled rabbit corpse.

There was stunned silence from Minori at the boy's rude response, filled with such vehemence that she began to bristle. It was good that he walked away because Minori's first response was to whoop his ass then and there. Yet she bit her tongue and watched him walk away, saying nothing to Liri and Kavik though she followed behind them in case whatever they found was violent. She sniffed the trail and couldn't determine the scent or the prints left behind and when they reached the stream and paused "It's fading quickly. Should we even bother to hunt it down? Whatever it is is pretty out of control and we did just get over the bear fight" she tried to point out the safe option though she wanted so badly to keep tracking down whatever had done this. If Liri and Kavik went so would she, but she did offer something to think about.

Heavy sway smoothly rocked him side to side as he trekked through the thick and dense heart of the Plateau’s forest. Musing to himself, he idly wondered if it were possible this ‘monster’ was nothing more than some hungry predator or even a paranoid wounded deer. It could have been anything, but he was determined to find it, and see if it was edible. He was a bit hungry, after all.

just to get it out the way there something small up!

He followed Liri as she tracked the odd scent, periodically scanning their surroundings for any sign of danger. With Minori behind them offering her protection as well, he was sure they could deal with whatever might be ahead. Still, he kept a watchful eye out as his mate kept her muzzle to the ground. 

They came to a stop at the river, the scent dying off at the water's edge. The alpha looked around before resting his emerald gaze on the line of trees on the other side of the stream. Maybe we could search just a little farther to make sure? he suggested looking between the Minori and his mate to see what they thought.

Her ears tipped back to catch Minori's words. She thought on it for a moment before turning to answer. "That would be wise but whatever it is, it's injured and already destroyed some of our caches. If we leave it there's a chance it will linger and wreck more of our territory, possibly injure someone." 

"Let's," she agreed to Kavik's suggestion, wading through the stream. Her paws fumbled over mossy stones along the bed in the dark and she arrived on the other bank dripping wet. 

The prints were blurred, unreadable. She could not tell what creature had made them but along with a mangled rabbit from their caches, it's scent pointed towards the thinning forest. 

Liri had a point and so when the two leaders said they would move onward, she shrugged and treaded slowly after them her nose sniffing at the breeze. She nimbly managed the mossy rocks, her paws the only thing soaked and leaped to the other side of the bank her ears pricked forward on high alert. She wondered what did it, the mangled carcass and the prints gave nothing away. Surely something huge wouldn't just go for a small rabbit?

There was tension in the air tonight. Or.. maybe it was all in Rue's head. Even so, the Plateau wolf hurried from the borderlands in towards her pack's territory. She had been out scouting earlier in the evening when night had fallen-- the dark came so quickly these days-- and she had attempted to spend the night outside the territory. However, after tossing and turning for hours, she had given up; clearly she would not rest easy tonight anywhere but the Door. 

As Rue crossed back into Plateau territory she stopped in her tracks, movement in the trees catching her attention. Her eyes darted, trying to focus on the source of the motion, but it was like the thing was moving all at once, in different directions along the ground, and so fast. The motion drew closer, converging... on her. Rue ducked down in terror, and she felt needles piercing her skin, all over her body. A strangled, high-pitched yelp tore from her throat as she cowered against the assailant. She twisted and snapped wildly several times, but her jaws only closed around dark, dark nothingness. Each time her skin was pierced she yelped, peppering the night air with her terrified cries. 

I got Gen's permission to draw everyone in for a fun lil finale to this thread. Rue's being a scream queen at the border, come save her. @Siqsa @Kavik @Liri @Minori Leaving the identity of the "monster" ambiguous for rn, don't want to give away Gen's surprise!

Not long after they had began searching again, Ruenna's terrified yelps rang across the plateau. Kavik froze, head whipping in the direction of of sound as fear pooled in his chest. His heart began to race, and with a quick, worried glance to Minori and Liri, he took off in the direction of the sound. 

The alpha sprinted through the trees, urging his legs to move faster. Finally, he reached the silver female and skidded to a halt at the threshold of the action. A split-second pause was all he gave before jumping into the fight to protect his packmate.

Frightened eyes lifted to Kavik's, a shared look of horrible panic passing between them. Stumbling slightly on account of her bum leg, Liri took off after her husband.

Trees whipped by, black and ghostly white in the moonlight. Her heartbeat raced in her ears, anger building with every cry of pain that fell from Ruenna's lips. 

The leader nearly crashed into her mate as he slid to a halt, peering over his broad shoulders to catch chaotic glimpses of the fight. It took a second for Liri to make out what exactly she was seeing. 

Ruenna, surrounded by a group of foxes, attacked from all sides. Only one was seemingly slain, limp where it lay nearby, coated with the perfume of toxic plants it had eaten from the healer's cache. The others appeared to be the dead vixen's nearly grown kits - having surrounded Ruenna when she came to investigate and attacking in unison. 

Liri reached for the one nearest to her, grabbing it by it's long plush tail. It whipped around in retaliation, teeth sinking into the bridge of her muzzle. The leader grimaced in pain, a low growl escaping her throat. 

With a snarl and a sweep of her paw, the Alpha twisted away to tear into the kit's russet side - powerful jaws ripping through flesh and crunching bone. With a gaping hole left in the kit's side, Liri abandoned it to bleed out in favor of helping the rest of her pack mates. 

She froze in shock when she heard Ruenna's screams, the sound of pain and anger making her fur shoot right up along her spine. As soon as she saw Kavik and Liri leap forward she was close behind, paws pushing against the cold wet ground until she ran side by side with them breath making small puffs of icy clouds in the air in front of her nostrils. When they arrived on the scene it took only a moment for her skilled mercenary eyes to take in what was happening without slowing down and she raced toward the fox kits, grabbing a particularly fat one and tossing him off Ruenna, turning to face it down. The fierce creature snarled and leaped, tearing open her shoulder before she managed to grab it by the skull her fangs crushing the bone. She dropped the beast and it writhed and spazzed on the ground, brain damaged and causing it to be crippled. Quickly she ended the gruesome sight by breaking it's neck flanks heaving with the quickness of her startled and angry breaths as she turned to see if she needed to grab another of the thieving vicious beasts.

It’s group decimated by the voracious and vengeful pack, Hern watched with terrible remorse. He knew this was an awful idea! He’d only gone with Dex and Binks because food had been promised, and his mate was on the verge giving him grief for there being no food for them all. He was only trying to help! And now two - no, three! Were gone just that fast! Thievery was in their nature, in their culture. But with everything else in life, there was a price to pay.
And unfortunately, they had gotten caught, thanks to Binks being the idiot who alerted the wolves to their idiocy. 

Cowering, Hern made a split decision. Their family was located just on the edge of the wolve’s border - if he could make it back to them and inform them of what happened, maybe that will spur the rest of them into leaving! They couldn’t stay here. 

Scampering away way from the scene, Hern tried using the shadows to ease his plight, but his muddy slivering coat hadn’t helped him too much. He could only hope he had made it out quick enough to tell his family, and their families, what they needed to know. 

However as he passed a particularly close pair of trees, the scent of rabbit and wolf scoured his keen nose, both enticing his hunger and heightening his fear. Maybe a leftover kill the wolves had left unchecked as they ran the other foxes down? 

Skipping away way from the noise, Hern’s hunger pulled his mind away from the dangers behind him and prompted him to find this remaining rabbit carcass, and laying just at the end of a bush there it was! It had been left out and left behind. Perfect! He could share this with Bafa, and she would feel better. She had to eat; his mate was losing weight too fast with their hunts dwindling while everything burrowed away. Tip toeing over to the cooled meal, the Fox had just bent his neck to grab it’ll, lips peeling back to gingerly pick up the meal he wish he could save for himself. It was fresh, and he was grateful for that. 

Dusty white canines hadn’t been able to pick the meal up though. In fact, he was mildly puzzled as to why the meal seemed to be getting further away from him...

he was was being dragged! Snatched up by the back of his own neck, confusion turned into fear as he recalled that thick musk of wolf that surrounded the rabbit. It was a trap! And he, as the rest of his murdered brothers, had fallen for it.  Pleas left his panicked lips as the pressure increased on the sides of his neck. He could smell the rabbit through his fur, bloody breath inking his dusty grey pelt with that foodie smell. “Please!” He begged the Wolf who more than likely couldn’t understand him. “Please just let me go! I have a family! I have a wife! Please!” Hern begged, and cried as the pressure only tightened with every word he screeched out. They were supposed to have kits this spring! They had made plans! He was gonna be a dad and all of it was over from a failed robber! From his own greed as well as theirs! 

His last thoughts were of those futuristic fantasies as his trachea was snapped and shards of bone and cartilage choked and spiked his throat. His body limp, Hern lay a new corpse a few feet from Siqsa’s rabbit. 

Looking down at the now silent brownish silver body, Siqsa couldn’t help but wonder what the thing had said before he murdered it. 
Not that it mattered, now.

Let's make this the final round to wrap up here. This is the last post from Rue, & how about we agree to archive this on December 21, since that's when our next seasonal event will begin (yule ceremony w/ Elysium and co. GET HYPE!!)

Ruenna's packmates arrived and seemingly all at once, her attacker-- or attackers, as she could see now-- were removed. It was not long before the remains of the fox family were scattered around the wolves, and the night was quiet once more. Rue shook her pelt out, trying to control her own breathing and compose herself. A few spots along her spine and scruff twinged with pain; it seemed several of the foxes had gotten in some good bites here and there. "Thanks, everyone.." Rue said quietly, voice hoarse and trembling slightly. 

Rue stepped towards the dead vixen and sniffed curiously. Wrinkling her nose against the powerful scent of the toxins, she backed away from the corpse in disgust. These foxes must have been desperate to risk breaking into a healer's stores for sustenance. Rue took a deep breath of clean air before addressing the others once more. "Anyone want to walk with me to the Door?" Rue was more than ready to call it a night, but after such a chilling encounter she was reluctant to face the shadows alone.

Morning would melt away the terrors of the night, and it couldn't come fast enough for Rue.