Kintla Flatlands that's what you get when you let your heart win

for @Fox

Things in the Plateu always seemed to be chaotic. There was always something that caused heads to turn and whispers to run along the members, whether it was about a presumed death, a disapperenace, an infidelity, a new couple arising or just pretty much any detail of another's life --the plateu wolves always found something to talk about.

And with Junior's departure into another world --this time not one underneath the ground-- still burning on the plateu wolves' hearts, Amelie decided to take once again to the shadows, following the advice Sun Spark had once given her. As she trotted into the eerie looking cluster of trees at the edge of the flatlands, she tried to release some of the tension that had built up on her shoulders.

Her improvised meeting with Kisu had left emotional wounds that only added pain to the girl's bruised heart.He had left a small fracture in her heart and cars crashing in her brain.

She was a wreck.
A beautifully broken bird that refused to give up flying despite having shattered wings. And speaking of birds, a black bundle of feathers laid in the distance, she approached slowly to the crow's rotting corpse. "I know that feeling" she whispered to herself as she prodded the bird's cold body with her paw.

Fox wasn't quite sure what drove her away from the plateau today. She had no real reason to leave, and she had every reason to stay. Scimitar's visit had brought back memories of Swiftcurrent Creek and her time there, as much as she would have liked to forget about it. Sure, she had not made all the "right" choices there (or so she was told), but Fox had always thought that she had done the best that she could. Apparently, that had never been enough for the creek wolves. At least here, at the plateau, Peregrine and Blue could shoulder the weight with her. Bazi nor Njal had ever seemed to do as much when she had been at the creek, leading beside them.

As these thoughts filtered through her mind, Fox continued southward. She was pointed in no real direction, and she meandered this way and that until she finally found herself in a moody-looking forest with black birds all around her. The squeaked and squawked, but they did little beyond that. Another little black bird caught Fox's eye, though, and she sauntered over to the girl with ears pointing up. “Amelie, right?” she asked. She couldn't remember where she had obtained the girl's name, but she was fairly certain this was the one Kisu had spoken of.

No blood surrounded the crow's rotting carcass, like Amelie's eyes, the bird had already been drained from all liquids. The dark coated yearling had already spilled her fais share of tears after the impromtu meeting between her and the older male, and even if no other soul knew about it yet she had been struggling immensely not to tell her mother. She didn't want her to stress her with her petty troubles and besides she wasn't sure how Blue might react to the notable age difference between Kisu and her.

She sighed again as the revolting odour of death reached her nostrils, she stepped some meters away from the bird when a voice called out to her. The girl spun to meet the other wolf, her pointy black ears tipping towards the fire-kissed Alphess. She was surprised she had greeted her directly by calling her name, she didn't remeber ever mentioning it to her, though it made sense for an Alpha to know her subordinates.

"Yes, that's me -- and you're Fox" she barked with an uncontrollable hollow sound laced in her voice. She lowered her head and flicked the tip of her tail slowly.

Another wolf might have evaded the topic of Kisu's relationship with Amelie, but Fox was not another wolf. Instead, she dove straight into the meat of what she knew about Kisu. “Did you talk to Kisu?” she asked nonchalantly. If not, Fox would simply shrug her shoulders if asked why. If so, Fox would have a gay old time picking apart somebody else's relationship. Gods knew everybody had picked apart her mateship with Peregrine. Fox felt entitled to do the same to everybody in the plateau that she could.

Perhaps such a thought process was cruel, but Fox had never claimed to be kind. She thought for herself, for her advantage, and knew that if she had helped Kisu along in his endeavor, it meant that he would think more highly of her. If she had only corroded it, perhaps she could mend it by speaking with Amelie. In either case, she would come across as being helpful and empathetic, two things she was most certainly not. But it behooved her for others to think she had those qualities.

As Fox's words left her mouth Amelie flinched visibly, had she asked on purpose --to press salt on her wound-- or had she made a careless question? Either way, the sound of his name made her feel like a dagger had suddenly been shoved into her throat. The girl felt the need to jerk her face away and run off but she knew that Fox would not accept that. Had it been any other packmate she might've excused herself, but Fox was the Alpha and therefore she had to stay; as painful as it were.

"I-I... Yes" she answered with a chocked exhale as her vocal cords slowly twisted into a knot. She would've wanted to counter attack with a question of her own, but she couldn't bring herself to spit out the words. Why was she asking this? How did she even know there was --or had been-- something between them? Had Kisu gushed their inexistent relationship to every Plateu wolf?
No. Kisu was not the kind of man to gossip. He didn't even speak much.

The girl's gaze lowered to the ground, suddenly interloping with the hollow eye socket on the crow's fractured body. Her tail slowly began to crawl away, laying flat against her thighs -- what was this about; she wondered as she dared to lift her gaze onto the female's face only to dart her eyes away when she saw her still there.

Wow. This one clearly had some confidence issues. It was a good thing Amelie couldn't read minds, or she'd likely hate the red-furred Alpha right about now. Or, at the very least, the young girl would be outraged at the kind of thoughts flowing through her leader's head. Still, it wasn't like Fox was just going to give up on the conversation right now. Kisu had talked to her, and whether that was the source of Amelie's shyness was to be seen. Fox definitely intended to get to the bottom of it.

“And?” Fox asked expectantly. “How did it go?” She was eager to hear the outcome, to make plans based on the answer, and generally to know what was going on between the two of them. If they intended to make things official, Fox wanted to know. The act of such a thing meant competition for herself and Peregrine, and Fox was keen to nip that in the bud. She would encourage them to branch out and strike out on their own if it was their plan to have children once Amelie was of age.

Maybe it should be Amelie the one to be thankful the other didn't possess the ability to read over the sad tragedy written on her forehead. She couldn't argue, however, if she thought the Plateu was some kind of ward for the psychotic wolves. Pretty much all of the members were fucked up one way or another --though so were the ones from distant packs. The only difference was that in the Plateu it was more noticeable.

Amelie pressed her lips together as if to contain a whimper just as Fox kept prodding her with her questions. She gulped down a mournful cry and did her best to keep her face pointed towards her leader. "It went down the drain" she barked, her voice breaking off at the ending.

"Were you on board with his little confession?", she asked somberly, as it seemed to be the only reason why the fiery redhead would be so eager to know the outcome of their chat. "Did he already tell you he loved me? Or shall I just skip to the part he left me standing there like a fool" she barked while flicking her ears back as a wave of pain struck her core.

Fox had never been, and likely never would be, an emotional or empathetic wolf. So when Amelie spoke of love and acted like she was about to spill saltwater rain on the ground, it was all Fox could do not to roll her eyes. What was the big deal? Granted, when Fox's own lover and betrothed had up and died on her, all she could do was walk around like a numb idiot. At the worst possible time, too. Not that she would ever admit to being severely wounded by the whole thing. No, Fox would rarely, if ever, talk about such a thing. And yet, she had spoken to Kisu about it, ever so briefly.

“Love?” Fox asked, “He didn’t tell me that much. Just that he had a bit of a thing for you.” The spitfire hadn't realized how ~serious~ it was between the two of them. “He left you hanging, did he?” Fox asked rhetorically. “Probably not worth your time and effort, if you ask me. I thought he was serious when he said he wanted to get with you, but you know how boys are…” Maybe getting Kisu and Amelie together wasn't meant to be.

It was not as if Amelie was expecting for Fox to give her a comforting pat in the shoulder or even a compassionate look, she simply thought the fiery Alpha would at least drop the subject once she realized it was painful for her to speak of. But of course she didn't. Instead she began to wash her hands with the pretext of not knowing anything about Kisu's love for her.

'Just that he had a bit of a thing for you', she barked non-chalantly, Amelie's eyes narrowed at that moment. Kisu had asked to court her, was that what she called a little thing? Was that how she viewed mateship? Nevermind; to the yearling it had felt as more than just a minor detail.

Then as the girl fought to hold back a tear from spilling onto her cheek, Fox words began to slur in her mind. "He wanted to court me. And a second later he was excusing himself --his face looked as if he were to throw up in the spot" she barked dully. In fact he had spilled the contents of his stomach after leaving her there.

"Why did you ask anyway?", she questioned, her eyes blinking rapidly to keep the tears away, "I mean.. why did you want to know? she explained moments later, not wanting to come off as rude. She was simply wondering the reason she seemed interested in a yearling's petty love life.

Kisu had wanted to court her? Fox thought such things were foolish. You either took what you wanted or you didn't. She had never understood the concept of courting, perhaps because she was a wolf who saw only black and white. That fuzzy grey area was simply not her thing, and she would not have stood for a male courting her just to test the waters. With Peregrine, Fox had never felt like she was being courted (even if she had been). Instead, there had been a time when they were not together, and a time when they were. There was no "in between" for the spitfire. When Amelie further explained what had happened, Fox could do no more than cock her head in confusion. Why would he say he wanted to court her, then run away like a yellow-bellied fool?

“I wanted to know how his confession had gone,” Fox answered. “Do you not want him?” she asked. Fox couldn't tell one way or the other. “Does he not want you?” she said, pondering the question and knowing Amelie would not be able to answer that one.

A heavy sigh slipped from her lips as she finished to summarize the catastrophic reunion between Kisu and her. She didn't mention the night it had all begun; the night(or early morning) that he had pressed his nose into her fur. No one but the stars and rising sunrays that had been there knew about it, and truthfully she wished it would remain that way. It was the last magical memory she had of the man before he shattered her heart.

The ebony yearling looked at her Alpha, giving a little sniffle before straightening her back and fixing her posture, she no longer looked like a wounded animal on the brink of death -- she looked more like wilted flower that was beginning to gain back the strenght on its stem.

She allowed her shoulders to slunk once she had mentioned she had been driven to ask by simple curiosity without an ulterior motive. She was in her full right to do so right? As an Alpha.
Her next question,however, made her second guess the actual rights that the fire femme possesed over her privacy. "I-I am too young to know", she mutttered with embarrasment. While Fox prided herself with having a mate that loved her dearly, Amelie had never had a boyfriend, or even a friend who happened to be a boy.

"Apparently not. He said I'm too young as well; that he didn't want to ruin my youth" she confessed with a light shrug of her shoulders at the end of the sentence.

Squinting, Fox tried to make sense of what Amelie said. Even after their talk, it seemed Kisu was still hung up on Amelie's age. Fox tried to recall how old Kisu had said he was, but she couldn't remember the exact number. In any case, it hadn't been that old, and age meant little in the wolf world. “Listen, Amelie,” Fox said with a sigh, “I’m no wise woman, but I really think the both of you are getting hung up on the details. If you two like each other, why not just get with each other and get over it?” Unsolicited advice, of course, but Fox thought the two of them were being downright stupid. “Or stop blubbering about one another.”

If she'd been a different sort of wolf, Fox would have given a longer speech, full of flowery words and guidance. As it were, she was Fox. Curt, to the point, and short-tempered. Even though she wasn't technically involved in the situation, she couldn't stop herself from butting in. Next time, Fox decided, she would steer clear of such topics. Figuring all was said that could be said, Fox stood by and waited for any last words from Amelie.

After being the one that stirred the pot, Fox seemed to be annoyed with the girl's resigned words and sad eyes. While the fiery Alpha lectured Amelie to just get over it or get on with him (as if it were so easy) the dark colored girl sighed as she wondered why she had asked if she didn't want to hear her 'blubbering'. To Amelie her complain was like asking the water not to soak your feet as you stepped on a river. Irracional.

She watched the 'not wise' woman barked her final words with utter confidence, though she was not yet sure if she'd take her advice she gave the Alpha a nod and a feeble smile that slipped of her face as fast as it was placed there. There were no words on the yearling's part, she didn't think a thank-you was fitting so she decided to keep her mouth shut. Now if Fox decided to go, she could continue with her trek along the shady forest.

Kat, tagging you here for a behind the scenes convo. ;)

Amelie said nothing in response, and Fox felt their (painfully awkward) conversation putter out. Giving the (not much) younger girl an even look, Fox's expression softened for a moment. “Whatever you do, I’m sure you’ll be fine. Both of you.” And she meant it. Fox would, of course, inform @Peregrine of these developments. Not in detail. Instead, she would simply tell him that there was definitely friction between Kisu and Amelie and that it should be monitored. The last thing they needed was a burbling of bad feelings from within.

As long as the relationship between Kisu and Amelie didn't fracture the pack in two, the plateau would survive. Fox did not think that it would, but she had let far smaller things fester in the creek, and she did not want that again. She'd much rather keep a close eye on things rather than ignore them this time around.

With her last words said, Fox gracefully bowed out of the situation, leaving Amelie to think on her (b)advice. It would be up to the younger girl to take it or leave it.