Arrow Lake hounds of the wild hunt

@Thorn @Kazimir @Ketzia @Blodreina @Vercingetorix @Tashkent @Isleñaa @Vonnaruil 

It's a pack hunt, everybody! Further information's in the TM guide, but you have until the end of the month to get your posts in. I will be posting at least once a week for any active participants, and will close this thread early if everyone gets a post in (and there are no non-"cameos") before the deadline. There is no post-order, so post as much or as little as you like - everyone attending is a willing participant - and besides all of our natural exemptions, @Aurëwenn may also be excused from this hunt at the player's discretion.

on the glorious eve following the birth of four healthy sandraudigas, stigmata stole away from takiyok's den in triumphant strides, and set out to find a suitable feast to celebrate this momentous occasion. he had not thought to do the same for the birth of aurëwen's cherubs, but he would amend his folly by offering vercingetorix first choice in his family's share of the meal they would soon fell.

he felt nothing but success in his veins that navy-orange sunset, and as his silver eyes targeted the lame-hoofed elk cow within the throng of grazers milling about sedately, he recognized the providence of it all as it was presented to him.

he left the herd to silently gather the bulk of diaspora's teeth, and he returned with them to his vantage point, from where they would eventually descend like shadows onto the unwitting cervidae. he pointed out their meal, and then spoke quietly over any raring bloodlust. "easy, comrades. she is as good as ours," the basilisk said languidly, beaming over them with a rare and infectiously good mood, before reclining briefly to his haunches.

"before we run headlong into the fray i must ask your opinion of another pack joining these mountains and settling in the vale. i am told they will be peaceable, and one of their own is formerly one of ours, but i understand i have promised all of you these peaks, for generations to come, and under no condition will i offer them to another if diaspora still desires reign over it." he looked at them each, observant and steady. "so i ask each of you your thoughts on the matter. you may consider this for a later date, but i am keen to hear any impulse responses, if any of you will give them."

roused from his den by the sandraudiga's prowling, thorn was among the first to fall in step behind the iron liege. he too felt pride for diaspora's newest - four raring, vigorous cubs in which he was eager to provide for.

ready as the eyjolfur was to secure elk-flesh for diaspora's finest, his somber gaze stilled as stigmata's query fell through the crowd. thorn, heartbroken still to learn of ruenna's departure, felt his sunburned gaze dull. "two is stronger than one." thorn imparted, a cryptic sentence -- but none the less genuine, for he had seen nothing but good things in ruenna and dearly missed her company.

blodreina follows after the others cutting through the shadows that the sunset played upon the mountains. there is something about the cut of them that reminds her of sleeping dragon and it's almost enough for her to draw comfort, though she is understandably a bit weary of hunting. she has only just began to show — not yet too big to be considered incapable of helping with what she can but understandably there is a certain level of concern she feels for the life in her womb and the thought of hooves or horns getting anywhere near her. which was new. under any other circumstance there'd have never been hesitation, there's never been a fear. still, she can give chase, she thinks.

she is quiet, staring at their target, ears cupping forth to listen to sigmata's words as he speaks about something unrelated to their task: a pack joining and settling in the vale. he speaks as if he is addressing all of them but as a geist does she have an opinion? this pack is so different from drageda and her role at the bottom is one she struggles to adjust to. it's understandable, of course. everyone must start at the bottom but she enjoyed certain privileges and the ability to be opinionated as wanlida and she is left with uncertainty despite that they, as a group, have been asked to weigh in.

she assumes, geist or not, that she is included in his address and so she contemplates. stigmata offers background: that he promised his wolves these peaks for generations and that one of the vale wolves used to be one of theirs and that they will be peaceable. a dark male, one that had shown up to see greet the kru party speaks first. it seems unfair to offer her own biased opinion being so new and so yet uncultured to their ways. she wonders if she appears as foreign to them as they do to her. and though there'd been sometimes her counsel had been sought by heda the decision had ultimately been made by her and not the general opinions of her wolves.

maybe i'm too new to be offering my opinion, the ex-wanlida speaks up; but she is a tactician and she tries to view this situation as any third-party and unbiased tactician would. but northstar vale is plenty far away from here and if they are peaceful than there shouldn't be any issues with territory or hunting ground disputes, but each territory appears to be pretty self-sustaining — there's a brief moment where blodreina considers she's officially lived in enough different territories to be able to know that — and there are plenty of territories south of us for diaspora to claim so you would not have to give up the nomadic nature of the pack. sure, it cut the sunspire mountains in half but there was still plenty of sunspire mountains left to them.

would the vale have bordered diaspora she'd have had a very different opinion on it entirely. however, she, personally — so long as these vale hopefuls stay true to their words of 'peace' — feels that there's no reason to chase them off and force them to chose somewhere else.

There were four more pups in Diaspora, which normally was cause for celebration, in his eyes--except he knew the resources that had been going to his pups and his pups alone would now be divvied (and perhaps unequally, at that) among all six. He couldn't be truly happy. But then, that was all the more reason to hunt, right?

Verx drew alongside those gathered, one ear turned sideways to catch Stigmata's inquiry. He didn't know much of the history of this place, whether there was good or bad blood between whatever groups that lived here. He'd been so versed in the politics of the gedas; here, in comparison, he was swimming blind and deaf through shark-infested waters.

On this, he agreed with kru. Yes, he said, giving Blodreina a nod. I agree. But the minute they turn aggressive or violent, we stamp them out right away, he added, thinking of what Ephraim had said. He still was a little bitter about the coywolf being right. Bad neighbors shouldn't be tolerated for long.

After being seen off by his resting twin, the male counterpart of them had shadowed Blodreina’s arrival to the hunting party. There seemed to be presidence over a particular elk for the evening; it was only noted when tidbits of some sort of neighboring pack reach his ears. Hm.

Thorn, easily enough, held Vonnaruil’s own agreement. Though it was, to him, commendable to assume reign over an entire range of spires... two was better than one. And for such an idyllic vision, there was no telling what would come in the years which Stigmata’s brood grew.

So the crow remained quiet within his own say, and instead drew towards the two cliff-kru for some sense of familiarity. Funnily enough, though, he hadn’t stayed in either Drageda or Diaspora for long to truly bond. Vonn would rectify this fault of his own... on his own time.

For now, there was the hunt to look forward to; but his ever-brazen eyes strayed for the General, all the same.

She had arrived in time to hear everyone's opinions though she had kept quiet and studied their prey while considering everyone's opinions. She took a spot a few feet away from Vonn trying not to toss glances his way. He was awfully attractive but she didn't like how her eyes kept trying to stare at him and make her look like a weirdo. There seemed to be a general consensus of agreement to let them stay and she found herself agreeing as well, she had gotten to know Ruenna a bit and found the woman to be respectable, She wished the other no harm. "I agree with everyone though I do believe it should be made clear that it is your permission that is allowing them to stay without problems. Once they are settled they will be harder to get rid of if they decide to be ungrateful" she said this while looking at their prey still. She wondered if she would be looked down at for considering the possibility that allowing yet another pack to settle would be a bad thing. "If we allow another to settle it may be assumed by other hopefuls that we no longer want our claim on the mountains. Then we'll have more than Elysium and the Vale pack to worry about. This doesn't mean I disagree, I'm just thinking ahead and considering possibilities" it was a fault of hers, she always tried to think of all possible outcomes.

Concluding! Sorry we didn't get to do rounds this time, guys <3

he listened carefully to each of his subordinates, flicking his ears and turning his eyes on each as they spoke in turn. when he had gleaned most of their mindsets, apart from vonnaruil - who was uncharacteristically silent - stigmata bobbed his head. "the opinion of every wolf is important here. if i do not consider the feelings of all who follow me, then i cannot be an effective leader. if i ever expect any of you to see diaspora as your home, then i must try to value and respect each wolf, new or not." he looked to the former dragedans specifically, but wagged his tail with slow pride to them all before continuing to rally them for the kill. "thank you, all. now let us hunt!"

and the hunt was grand. haunches for everyone!