Ankyra Sound [VS] into the primitive

Dice told me to do it. Firefly vs. Vaati! Challenging for rank. If you wanna dice-roll in tabletop feel free to set it up & tag me.

Having heard news that the rank of gamma had passed from Svalinn to a newcomer, Firefly set out that day to find out all he could in regards to this stranger. He'd been preoccupied with Erzulie's request and with his duties lately, and had let himself slip away from the public eye. There were wolves upon the beach he did not know and that did not sit well with Firefly, who felt out-of-sorts with the realization that a stranger now had more esteem among his family than himself.

Firefly found the scent of Svalinn trailing through the sound, and layered upon this scent was the fresh trail of @Vaati; no doubt hard at work putting his mark where it mattered. The battleworn man inspected each mark as he found it — searching for information. He gleaned the general age and health of the wolf in question but he wouldn't know more without hunting him down in earnest and facing him. So that's what his goal was for that afternoon. He followed that path until he was certain that the pale shape by the oceanside was the stranger in question, and then called out - baying with a deep an authoritative call that did not fit his own middling status, and arched his tail defiantly across his back.

He was here with one goal in mind — a fight.

Perhaps he had not expected to be the one challenged so soon after the victory, but he should have. There was bound to be those ruffled by the fact that Vaati had been mere fresh meat, before forcefully taking a rank higher than he likely deserved. Had someone pulled a move like that in the dark woods, he would not have allowed it. That mere fact alone is why he does not meet the call with explicit rage, but an expectant callousness; prowling his immense frame forth in the direction of the stranger. Vaati sizes the other up, his chest seeming to swell with pride, flaunting his newfound rank before the challenger’s eyes. He his fully aware he has what the other desires and he finds it amusing, a flicker of wicked hostility in the depths of his optics. With this display, the scarred man dangles the taunting smirk of arrogance before the other, as if to say 'come and get it', without actually saying anything at all. It had not been personal when he took the gamma rank from its former owner, but this… it was defiance. And there was nothing Vaati despised more.

Hackles raised and fully tensed, he snaps at the air with an ugly snarl, baring his incisors for the other to see. Behind him his tail swishes readily, awaiting first blood to be drawn.

Upon sighting the wolf, his first mental comparison was to a scarred young bear. He trudged along through the snow, bristling and watching him, and Firefly did not like the look in his eye. They shared a defiance and that alone could've been a cause to unite them, but in this case Firefly wasn't eager to make friends. He wanted to put this man in his proper place — maybe not give Svalinn his rank back exactly, but to prove that the wolves of the sound would not take a silent conquest lightly.

The stranger's surly rumbling sounded louder than usual because of the disquiet of the snow flurries around them; they advanced, and Firefly positioned himself carefully as he allowed them to get closer and closer, watching every movement. There was a flash of teeth, and that was the only cue the man needed — he swept in close (quickly, despite the affectation of his usual limp) and made to snap at the bristling fur of the stranger's nape so as to grab and pull, eager to have this over and done with.

The hit did not land, though. Whether it was intended to be a warning snap or not, Firefly's teeth snapped at the air and caught some of the pale fur between, and the sound of those jaws snapping like a bear-trap echod against the earth instead.