Heron Lake Plateau SICKO MODE

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Intrigued, Clover stalked the trail of decaying coyote-bits. "Oh, man, this is really fucking gnarly," she mused to herself, "Whoever did this is so fuckin' badass." The scent that radiated from the scattered limbs was curdled with decay; the perpetrator was nearly indistinguishable. 

Though, Clover did have an inkling. "It's gotta be @Towhee," she assumed as she paused alongside a tail. Suddenly driven by nosiness, Clover leaned over curiously and took a whiff. She teared up almost instantly. "SHIT that's bad!" and yet, there was a recognizable note in death's perfume—@Niamh. 

Stepping backward, Clover blinked rapidly and briefly mulled over her discovery. "Yeah, yeah," she decided with a grin. "I can see that."

Kiwi was following the trail too, but with a decidedly more sour face about it.  Eeew.  Who left all this out here?

She was careful where she placed her paws as she walked, and gave a majority of it a wide berth.  The smell was intense, but someone wanted to leave a message.  Why'd it have to be such a gross one though?  She'd liked walking here.

Did you do this? Kiwi asked the first person she'd met, who seemed to be inspecting the job too.  She looked older than her, and Kiwi hadn't met her yet, but it was at least a good conversation opener.

Clover turned and noticed that she was accompanied by a familiar face—another Drageda wolf, she quickly assumed. Like Sequoia, Clover figured that she and Kiwi had seen each other in passing. "I wish," Clover replied with a mischievous glint in her eyes, "Whoever did this is one hell of a hunter." Although the craftsmanship was shoddy, she was impressed with the kill. 

Clover turned back to the tail that she had been investigating, and after a pause declared, "I'm going to take that tail." It'd be a cool keepsake, and she'd probably be able to scare the shit out of Tegan with it. "Borrowing" it was a win-win in her mind's eye.

Oh, well.  She had a point there.  Kiwi had been too focused on the parts strewn about to realize in order to get there, someone had had to kill these in the first place.  Still gross, but also pretty darn cool.

Okay... She looked at Clover for a second, then wrinkled her nose.  Why?  What was she gonna do with a moldy tail?  That was weird.  Unless there was something you could do with one, of course, in which case maybe Kiwi would snag one also.

"Because my brother is a pussy," Clover replied. "I'm gonna sneak up on him, and when he least expects it I'll throw it on him and freak him out," she elaborated with a grin, "'Cause he's a fuckin turd and deserves it." 

"Do you know any turds?" Clover asked after a beat. "You could take one and do the same—I could even help you if you wanted!"

Oh my god that was tempting.  Kiwi almost joined in with a hearty target on Bat, but then reconsidered.  She didn't know this girl all that well, maybe she was friends with her sister, and Kiwi didn't need help dealing with that anyways. Plus mom would be ticked.  Big time.

I don't know any, but I can help.  Who's your brother?  She wanted to make friends here and this seemed like a top way to do it! She understood needing to show siblings who was boss for sure.

"Maybe I can share some of mine with you," Clover quipped; she was surprised that Kiwi didn't know any turds. "But, yeah! I'd appreciate your help. My brother is Tegan—the pack's Gamma, thinks he's the greatest piece of shit that's ever graced this family," she explained, rolling her eyes. 

"He's tall and has bright-ass eyes—like, they're just ... weird." Truthfully, she was envious of the color of his eyes—but she'd never admit that. "He hangs out with Bat a shitton, too, if that helps at all."

Ok so not anyone she knew.  But the second part - that put a nice tie on it. Hell yeah she'd help!  Good enough for me.  What's your plan? Sneak it and let him find it? Or maybe wait until he's asleep and then spring it on him. She liked that second option better, from the grin she gave Clover.

She'd had siblings, but never really had friends outside of Sequoia.  Unless you counted Ephraim, which she didn't because he had betrayed her big time.

Clover considered both of Kiwi's selections and found herself favoring the second option. "Sneaking up on him while he sleeps sounds like a plan to me," she mused, as mirth sparkled in her kerry-green eyes. "He's a pretty deep sleeper, too, so that should work in our favor," she added. 

"We can do it soon, too," her plan began to formulate, and she studied the littering of limbs carefully, "But not too soon. I want them to get stinkier."

Ohhhh good, she liked that one too.  Kiwi had known it was the best one, definitely.  This would be easy then, especially if he slept through like she said he did.

Let me know when you want to, she responded, still smiling also.  It had been so long since she'd pulled anything like this, and in Drageda, pranks like this didn't exactly go over the best.  A part of her knew this was childish, but she was still young enough to take it as a bonding experience with Clover, who she found herself liking quite a bit in their conspiring.  So she squashed the Artaax voice in the back of her mind and eagerly hoped Clover would pick a time not too far off.

Although the coyote bits had been exposed to the elements for some time, Clover figured that they'd need a few more days to ferment to her liking. "No more than three sunrises from now," she promised with a wave of her tail. "We could meet here then?" Little did she know, Tegan would be away from the plateau then—they'd discover this eventually.

Definitely. Kiwi confirmed, trying and not quite managing to hide her excitement.  Hell yeah, friends were few and far between it felt like, but here she was conspiring.

She would definitely show up only to learn that the target was mia, but that was alright.  In planning it Clover had made a friend, so the thing wasn't entirely a loss after all.