Nova Peak Buddy, I went down to Scarlet Town - aint never been there before;

It seemed not so long ago, Drageda had come down from the cliffs and marked the Tangle with their presence. When Raleska came across @Wylla's scent in the thicket, she was transported to a memory that felt a thousand years old -- of jaws and thorns closing in around her screaming throat.

A tension appeared in her jaw that did not release; somewhere, a heartbeat she was only barely aware of drumming away in her ears.

She followed the scent -- up through thicket, past fen, to a long and generously sloping mountain she could only assume were the borders of her newest enemy -- her newest Drageda.

For a long while, Raleska stood at the borders and peered in. Strange how different things were while feeling the same. Famliar.

A pulse thrummed between her cheek and molars. She was far enough away that if wolves came out of the thicket, she had enough time to run.. Still, Raleska lingered -- absorbed in troubled thoughts and memories that carried her far away from Sagtannet's roughly hewn shoulders.  If they were Rusalka's new Drageda, it was high time for some reconnaissance.

I can't take this very far yet just in case Sagtannet's meeting goes super sideways in the second round, but I wanted to get a post in.

It was bold—arrogant, even—of Wylla to have drawn a stark line parallel to Rusalka's borders in urine, but she had issued a warning in person, and they had failed to heed it. While Rusalka looked upon Sagtannet and Wylla's persistence in wanting to eradicate any presence that touched those hells damned cliffs as a repetition of their rocky past with Drageda, Wylla saw them in the exact same light. When Grimnismal existed, Drageda had not directly moved against them, but nor had they allowed them a peaceful existence. Wylla's brothers had been attacked just for being nearby. They had always been there, watching, ready to harm any unsuspecting wolf who went beyond the sound.

She assumed that Rusalka would be the same, lurking on the cliffs, waiting for an opportunity to harm one of her wandering children. Rosalyn certainly looked like a wolf who picked a lot of fights. No one who just wanted to live in peace would look that torn up. She couldn't trust them. Already, she'd imagined that the bitch who injured Mahler and stole her eye was one of their order. It only made sense. Umbra must've been a scout sent ahead, and when she was sent away not once but twice, then the whole pack followed.

Imagine her surprise when a stranger's scent touched her nose as she patrolled the borders. Imagine her fury when the scent came entwined with the brinewater of Rosalyn's own. Imagine the feeling of vindication that followed when she discovered they were, in fact, a problem for her and her family. Not only had they failed to heed Wylla's warning that the cliffs would remain unclaimed, but they were already sending wolves to harass Sagtannet in return. She'd known it was only a matter of time before they showed their true colours as a second Drageda to torment Wylla and her family with their mere presence. She knew they were a threat from the very start, and now they were going to prove it.

Wylla flew through the trees with a thunderous snarl. Raleska was some short distance away and could still turn and run, but a second's hesitation would see Sagtannet's Eisen on her heels. Her threat that they were not safe had not been an empty one, but the promise of injury was all she'd really given. If they were going to come lurking on her doorstep after being told they were too close for comfort, however, she would not hesitate to separate their sorry hides from their bodies.

I can hold off on my next reply! I'm also ok with damages/whatever

While Raleska studied the slopes, she wondered of Sagtannet's history here. She had grown up all over the map, but even what little snatches she remembered of her childhood, she never recalled a pack past the cliffs.

Maybe because, in a way, she had never made it past the cliffs.

There were scents woven cleanly into the landscape, suggesting the borders were frequently patrolled. While Raleska couldn't get a good estimate of how many wolves it was, it was enough to form the opinion Sagtannet was of a healthy number.

Her ears snapped forward as the sound of galloping strides reached her. Raleska's eyes were well trained to movement, easily honing in on a streaking, badger-faced she-wolf coming towards her at full speed.

Raleska's tail and posture were limp; in several lanky strides she pushed off into a lope, quickly placing a respectable distance between herself and the nearest scent marker. She did not outright run -- she was partially testing this wolf's tenacity, and partially testing her willingness to bite first, ask questions later. If given the opportunity, Raleska might have tried to talk before fangs were drawn -- as a result, her posture was largely submissive and her tail kept low to her flanks. All the while she kept her ears trained behind her, listening for the tell-tale sign of an easing of stride ... or the quickening of them.

And Star came up behind Wylla, scaling her way down the slopes and across landscape till she came to the borders, and hung just behind her Eisen. Her dark gaze locked onto Raleska- too close, even as she put the distance between them. The matron had heard, by now, of their neighbors. Frustrating, after they had come so far to escape the last neighbors, who had threatened the safety of them and their children, and so the old woman would not take kindly to silly young women getting too close and testing the boundaries for some sort of thrill. Star stood stiff- not one to make the first move on her own- but if Wylla pursued, she would too, a loyal puppet.

Everyone else was the sort to stand and talk about their feelings and their issues and hash out a solution, but not Wylla. She was not a logical creature. She was a reactive animal that swung first and asked questions later, and too long had she been idle on Sagtannet soil and not adhered to that part of herself. There hadn't been any reason to at Sawtooth Spire until the Saints arrived, and then she was too afraid for the wellbeing of her pups and Star's pups to want to fight.

Now the pups were older and could fend for themselves. Wylla was also equipped with a blade of injustice that yearned to find a target, and Raleska presented herself as the perfect bullseye when she chose to lurk so close to their territory. If Rusalka supposedly had no interest in them—phrasing that was curiously quite different than any claim of peace—why was their scout here?

Raleska's submission did nothing to cow Wylla's advance. That would've worked if not for the place they'd chosen to call home, and if not for the proximity to Wylla's domain. She closed the distance at a breakneck pace and snapped open her jaws, reaching to grab something and goad Raleska into running off back to where she'd come from, hopefully with blood in her fur. She was clearly not welcome here, and loitering wouldn't be tolerated.

Realistically Raleska would leave this post, but I want one more reply in for trade purposes, if that is okay?

Oof, Homie don't play. As soon as Raleska slowed, Wylla sped up -- putting her legs into overdrive did little to prevent the Eisen's teeth from grazing her hip and pulling a handsome amount of fur and scraped skin from the Eyjolfur's hind.

Raleska winced as she dropped her chest and leaned into a full gallop, long limbs striding over tussocks and thin reeds with practiced precision. She didn't know the terrain well, but her miles of ranging kept her lean and fit, and she was able to put enough distance between them that she no longer felt Wylla's breath hot on her heels.

That did not mean she was safe; Raleska was aware another wolf pulled up the rear, one older and a little more reserved. Raleska kept Star in her periphery as she continued her retreat. While she hadn't escaped pain-free, she had learned enough to consider that Sagtannet's borders were heavily patrolled to the point that future reconnaissance would likely be dangerous.

Swift as she was, she was pitted against a wolf whose entire life was shaped by being on the run in one way or another. Raleska outpaced her, which caused Wylla to put on the brakes. Her breath huffed out of her lungs in severe bursts of cold-smoke, inspired as much by her rage as the exertion of a flat-out run. Her tail lashed angrily, the tip slapping against her hindquarters like a whip, but she eventually came to a stop to watch the windswept Rusalkan flee.

She'd been right to suspect that they would be a problem. Only when she was satisfied that Raleska was not going to turn around and come back did she swing toward the mountain and Star. She gave a tight-lipped smile to the matron, acknowledgement of her support in chasing Raleska off, but filled with grim and dire suspicion that their peaceful existence here was at an end. If her threat to Rosalyn had been a bluff before, it was no longer. Something needed to be done about it before the Rusalkans decided to send more than just a scout their way.