Hideaway Strath Stay a thousand years.

*continues time traveling, takes groupies along* Set 6/11.

It had stormed yesterday, briefly, but today was a total washout. Towhee camped out in a thicket with @Phox, @Fig and @Fennec, peering out at the silent downpour. When it showed no signs of relenting anytime soon, she sighed, curled into a ball and stuck her nose beneath her tail to nap.

She dreamed she visited Raven, only her sister was living with the Firebirds. Quixote was nowhere to be found but the medic introduced Towhee to her five newborn pups, who were already walking and talking somehow. One of them excitedly told her that Uncle Elwood had usurped the pack.

When she woke, the woods were dripping wet but the skies were clear and Towhee had no recollection of the dream. Yawning and stretching, she shook the moisture from her coat and wondered, "Who wants to go for a walk?" She didn't wait for an answer, simply strode off through the strath.

As she puttered about their new home, something triggered a memory of the dream. She blinked at the absurdity, then wondered when and if she should pay a visit to either the Redhawks or the Firebirds. She knew she wouldn't go anytime soon. The dust still needed to settle on all sides. Besides, she shouldn't take for granted these intimate, insular days while the pack was still mostly just a small family unit, putting down roots in their own private oasis (Phox had chosen well).

She glanced behind her, to see if any members of said family were with her.

There was a fucking useless bird in one of the trees, harpin' on and on. It had started about twenty minutes ago and Dingo hadn't paid it any mind at first, but it was going on, and on, and fucking on, to the point that he became distracted from his duties (today that was the act of patrolling the rendezvous site) and began pacing around the base of the tree where the shitbird was calling from. Each. Call. Made him want to scream and snap his teeth; a low rumble emanated from his chest as he circled the trunk again, and a manic expression dominated his golden face.

He didn't know what the hell kind'a bird it was, but it was loud, and he hated it a lot. From somewhere behind him among the trees he could hear the kids playing - and Towhee speaking, then rustling as the trio began to march. They intercepted Dingo's path and the presence of so many wolves must've spooked the damn bird because something flickered and the repetitive sound was suddenly gone. Dingo exhaled a long, slow breath as he regained some composure and dodged around the tree to keep up with the fam.

Dingo easily fell in to step a few feet behind them; the kids had a scattered trajectory and irregular pace, and then there was Dingo, containing his murderous urges but looking rather distracted at the tree line overhead.

She was a little surprised when she saw both Fig and Fen trailing after her. And instead of Phox, her eyes clapped on Dingo. He was looking up at something. She followed his line of sight and saw nothing out of the ordinary. By the time her orange gaze dropped back to ground level, the kids had vanished into the trees. Towhee considered calling them back to her, yet let them go. Fig would look after Fen and neither one of them would stray far, she knew.

"What're you looking at?" she finally asked, shifting her focus to her pack mate. "Heard you brought home another stray," Towhee added conversationally. "Roo? Or something?"

The kids shuffled off, and soon enough Towhee was standing beside him and trying to determine what the heck was up. Her questions surprised him the most - couldn't she hear the stupid bird? Not now, since it was gone -- but -- okay whatever. He huffed and gave a shrug of his shoulders, preparing to answer, when the woman brought up the new recruit.

Ah, yeah, Roo. Sounded better than Ruenna-the-Stray and he smirked. I found her wanderin' around, and she seemed nice enough. Introduced her to Phox and he took a likin' to her. Maybe she was around here somewhere? Eventually the two girls would run-in to one another though, so Dingo didn't feel like hunting her down for an introduction.

Where'd the kids go? He segued, and feigned interest in the surroundings as if he was interested in hunting them down as a Proper Guardian, and smiled to Towhee after. Guess they're learning the lay of the land, eh?

It might've been funny to see how long she could get away with not telling Dingo about her hearing impairment, though as his attention drifted from the treetops to the suddenly vanished pups, Towhee had trouble keeping up with anything he was saying. She was quickly reminded of just how frustrating such things could be.

"Hey," Towhee said loudly, trying to get his attention so he'd look at her, "I forgot to tell you this the last time but I'm actually deaf. I didn't catch a single word of what you just said. Look at me directly and run it by me one more time."

He froze when she called out at him, and stared at her while she explained herself. It made sense that she'd not notice the irritating bird from hell if she was actually deaf; a part of him wanted to laugh and make a joke of it — but even Dingo knew that he couldn't burn through the budding connection he'd been fostering with Towhee. Alienating her now would sever one more connection to those kids and Dingo couldn't let that happen. Plus what if he said something and she got so pissed that she chased him off? He'd survive, find a new target — but ooof, he'd regret not seeing that little damsel grow up pretty.

I said -- I found Roo wandering around, introduced her to Phox, and she seems like a good addition to the group. And uh, I asked where the kids went. His smirking, charming, scheming self faltered a little after that; Towhee was being a little more forceful than he'd experienced before and he really liked it, deafness aside. So, uh -- deaf. Guess that means you can't hear my sexy, sexy voice. What a drag! On the plus side that meant — if he ever wanted to be alone with those kids, he'd have to focus on managing Towhee. Her broken ears would come in handy later.

He seemed a little caught off guard by her revelation, though he quickly did as she asked. Towhee opened her mouth to answer his question about the kids when he made a comment about his "sexy" voice. The mercenary squinted, then rolled her eyes.

"Your face probably gave them a frighten," she quipped in reply, the mischief in her eyes demonstrating the lighthearted nature of the jab. "I'll have to meet this Roo sometime. Meantime, since you scared away my groupies, would you care to walk with me? I'm still working on memorizing the layout."

Her jab was met with a scoff she couldn't hear. His tail whipped lightly at the greenery behind him - and with her prompting, he nodded and moved away from the tree so they could walk together. This place is -- he started to say something, but wasn't facing her and stopped, looked at her properly, and tried repeating: This place is such a maze. I dunno if we'll ever map the whole thing, but we can give it a shot. It would be good for Dingo to find every possible route in case he had to make a quick getaway. They'd have to stay within earshot of the kids though. The thought of how useless Towhee would be as a guardian to those two welps was thrilling and opened up a whole new line of thought for Dingo. Without missing a beat (despite his roaming thoughts) he added, After you...? and side-stepped out of her way as they both came upon a narrowing in the path.

Towhee shook out her coat as they began to walk, turning to face Dingo when he paused noticeably to say something to her. Her head cocked at his musing. "I plan to live here a very long time," she replied, "the rest of my life, if I can help it." Her lips pursed. Had she felt that way about the caldera? The plateau? She couldn't remember. But she'd relocated twice in her life now and was not interested in making it a hat trick. She hadn't lived here long yet but she planned to do just that, then die here one day far in the future (no dying young like so much of her family).

They'd begun moving again and Dingo stepped aside to let her pass in front. Towhee had been a leader most of her life and, despite her pride (and her elitism), she wasn't one for pulling rank. But there was something pleasing about the reminder that she was the ruler here. There was no Raven (not that she minded her sister's dominance) and definitely no Quixote. Was it terrible that she veritably relished that latter thought? There was only Phox and they were equal partners, which was exactly how it was supposed to be.

Shaking off these errant thoughts, Towhee said, "I don't think you ever told me where you came from."

He smiled as she stepped ahead of him, leading the way. No doubt the kids weren't far off so even if Dingo had wanted to pursue any sort of deviant behavior with Towhee, it wasn't the right time. Putting aside his urges was easy enough if he was satisfied in other ways and for now his imagination was enough - it was what he applied to Towhee as she stalked along, stashing glimpses of her rear in to his memory for later use.

I don't think you ever told me where you came from, she offered with an absent-minded air. Dingo wasn't sure what to say to it but he didn't let the question stagnate for long. He shrugged his shoulders as he came to walk alongside Towhee.

I don't really remember where I was born, but it was definitely a pack and I was definitely a problem child. Most of the kids dispersed pretty quick from home so when I was old enough that's exactly what I did. I've been around, another shrug, a smirk, some vague commentary to fill the void of her question. Lived on the coast for a while, roamed around, didn't stay anywhere for long. That begged the question, what was he doing here, but he segued away from all of that by asking: What about you and Phox?

There was nothing particularly mysterious about his history (unlike Leen's) and it wasn't even really that compelling. Towhee didn't bother making a comment. Dingo bounced the query back at her. A tooth pressed into her lip as she considered how to succinctly summarize her history, along with her brother's.

"We were born at a place called Redhawk Caldera, east of here, on the other side of the mountains. When we were yearlings, our pack went to war. Phox actually fled and I relocated the pack out this way, to the plateau. He found his way there eventually. I eventually forgave him and, well..."

She didn't elaborate any further and a beat of silence passed before she said, "I was a Redhawk my whole life until a week ago. I mean, I'm still one by name and we're sister packs now but..." The reality of that still hadn't quite sunk in yet, though it at least didn't send her spiraling into another panic attack at present.

As she launched in to an explanation of her own Dingo was left wondering why Redhawk sounded so damn familiar. The caldera too. He held back the look of surprise but his brow-dots nearly met as he frowned and pondered, walked in silence and tried to drum up some recollection -- and he didn't reach understanding until the tail-end of her explanation. Shedding the Redhawk name.

That sounds like a lot of work, he responds, not revealing anything about his previous history because Dingo wasn't certain, plus, what did it matter? She'd dropped the name and left the family behind as far as he could see, and Dingo had forgotten all about the spitfire that had driven him away from the Caldera so many years ago.

It sounds like you've had lots of time to learn and adapt to a leadership role though, considering she'd migrated her entire family from one place to another and fought in a war of some kind. It was impressive. So there's that. You've got more experience with all this family stuff than me, and I'm like -- probably twice your age, snrk. He snickered and then fell quiet, turning away from her to observe the forest because he thought he heard something - but if it was one of the kids, they were quiet soon after, so he relaxed.

He made a comment about their respective ages, after a few remarks about her leadership eligibility, and Towhee rolled a shoulder and admitted, "I've been a leader more than half my life, Alpha and Beta." And now she was a Kilonova but it was all semantics; it was the same as Alpha. That sent another little thrill through her. She had been ready to step up again the day she'd given her ultimatum to Raven and Quixote, yet her sister had done so instead. But Towhee felt more suited to and worthy of the rank than ever.

They'd found their way to the western edge of the sprawling strath. From here, they had a good view of the morass with its thick clumps of trees and brackish wetlands. It did not appeal to Towhee whatsoever, though she glanced off to the left and right of the tree line to gather her bearings. As her eyes roved, she realized that wherever she looked, there were jagged sawtooths on the horizon. It felt almost like they were in a giant stone pen.

She considered that a moment, recollecting the narrow passage she'd taken to get here when following her brother's and children's trails. "This place is a fortress," she realized out loud, eyes flicking to Dingo. She bet Phox knew that, perhaps it was one of the reasons he'd chosen it. "I bet if we started here and patrolled the perimeter, we'd discover that we're totally surrounded on all sides, except for the corridor to the north."

Her accomplishments aside, Dingo knew that he'd have to really work at proving himself if he was going to get anywhere with his future plans, and that thought made him question whether he really wanted to stick around or not. On one hand he'd have access to all the women of the pack - and eventually Fenec when she grew in to her body - and that appealed to him because the child was his ideal mark; but it would require dedication and perseverance on his part, and Dingo was much too lazy and half-assed with his efforts. So far he'd done well at faking it, but if he was going to succeed with his urges in secret he'd have to hone some of those skills for real. Ugh, work. Was it worth it to see Fennec grow up? Maybe, maybe not.

The pair emerged along the edge of the 'strath and Dingo observed the way Towhee's expression shifted while she looked around, and then turned his attention to the jagged stonework as she mentioned it. She was right - they were well fortified in this not-so-little cul-de-sac. Protected from danger save for the single corridor that they could easily police. That's good to know, he murmured as he looked at the distant shapes of rising mountains, like teeth.

And then if you really think about it, the only way in-and-out of the area leads to your sister packs, he mused aloud, remembering the many other scents he'd discovered while patrolling and wasting his time on other days, so we're very secure here. If anything bad does happen it'd be easy to call for backup. Dingo would have to keep that in mind if he ever fell victim to his own lust, or if he chose to act on his whims before his target was of-age. The man had been mapping the territory for a while though and he knew a few secret passages and hideaways which might come in handy.

"Secure" was one for it, "trapped" was another. Towhee's lips pursed as she pondered that. The gateway had been rather wide, so she couldn't imagine anything ever blocking it. But what kind of mercenary would she be if she didn't consider things like this?

Dingo reminded her of the two sister packs waiting in the wings on the outside of the citadel and Towhee nodded. "Geography aside, I don't think we'll ever have to worry about being attacked. I can't imagine there are any forces out there that could contend with the Redhawk collective," she surmised, a Cheshire grin curling her lip.

She was right in her assessment, and when she smiled Dingo couldn't help but smile back - because he knew it wasn't a threat from outside that would be the danger. He would never hurt the children; his fixation wasn't like that at all, he was much more invested in having good, clean fun with targets that were a little more developed, which meant the kids were safe. They were more like nuisances to Dingo at their current phase of life.

Well, even if there was a threat, I'm sure you'd handle it. He remarked with a little nod. A part of him wanted to remark that she'd be a pretty shitty babysitter with her broken ears, but he knew to keep that thought contained.

Dingo moved back towards the heart of the 'strath — and towards the sounds of voices, the scuffling of children pouncing and running in the underbrush nearby — and caught a glimpse of gold. The man licks his lips hungrily, but thankfully he isn't facing Towhee until after, at which point he's smirking to her again. There they are, the little rascals. Safe and sound... At least for now.

They headed back toward the heart of the territory. Towhee couldn't hear the sounds the kids made, though she read Dingo's reactions to them and intuited that Fig and Fen were up ahead. She hastened her step, bypassing the subordinate as she came upon the children and greeted them with licks to their noses.

"We should go find your dad and get something to eat," she proposed, then shot Dingo a glance. "You're welcome to join us." Towhee broke into a trot through the trees, speeding up to playfully outpace the youngsters and entice them to give chase.

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