Great Bear Wilderness This is the web, web that you weave

@Finley They totes should chase it though.

She didn't know the name of this region, but if she could give it one, she would call it Holy Shit, Bears.

Ptarmigan had departed the Spine early in the morning, seeking relief from the unspoken animosity of almost every wolf in the pack, but since leaving the ring of mountains, she had seen half a dozen black bears. It was no secret that the ursine population was out fattening itself up for winter, although the Endore certainly didn't understand the phenomenon, but she was surprised nonetheless at the sheer number of them.

She had just broken through the forest part of the Wilderness when she caught sight of her seventh bear. This one was thinner than the last and fatter than the first, probably a female, with its muzzle awash in tan. This one was out in the open, lumbering along the way that bears did, with its lips parted. Ptarmigan paused, standing stiffly at a less-than-safe distance and watching it meander as though it was some kind of freak act in a circus with no purpose but to look stupid.

Iggy Azalea — Black Widow

Whee!

Holy Shit, Bears was one of Finley Blackthorn's favorite places.

The girl was a ball of wildfire wrapped in endless energy, but even she every once in a while liked to just watch the bears as they gorged themselves on food, part of her envying how they soon would hibernate for the winter. To curl up in a ball in the earth and sleep for weeks and weeks sometimes sounded like a pretty sweet deal to her. But then she would imagine herself lying there, staring outside, wondering what was out there, and she'd realize that there was no way in hell she could stay cooped up inside for that long without forfeiting her sanity to boredom.

Ah well, it was a nice daydream even if it wasn't actually feasible for the feisty Blackthorn. She pondered this as she paced through the woods, aimlessly exploring the scents and sights it had to offer. Part of her was thinking that she ought to do some outrider-ing (she really needed to learn what that actually was), but doing other stuff sounded like it would be more fun. Even if she didn't knowing what "other stuff" really translated to yet, she was certain it would be more entertaining than work.

The silver mockingbird paused in her steps as a scent of wolf tickled her senses. She peered through the trees curiously and seeing nothing decided to follow the trail. It was only a few minutes before it brought her to the presence of another female, this one dark as night but for the threads of silver spun upon her back. Shortly after spotting the woman, her gaze shifted again to land on the black bear that the wolf seemed to be watching. Curiosity claimed her again and in a moment she was stepping up to the side of the stranger, eyes trained upon the bear.

"You gonna eat that?" Fin asked, doing her best to keep the humor from her features.

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Tall ears flitted to the sides of her head as suddenly, the bear lurched forward. Ptarmigan wasn't in its direct line of sight, yet nevertheless the female flinched and took a step back, in the event the bear decided to target her next. It seemed interested in a late-blooming autumn flower, and wasted no time in plucking it up with clumsy jaws and presumably swallowing it. The Endore took mental note of that: Bears eat flowers.

Before she could begin an inner dialogue about the habits of bears, the sensation of another's eyes made her turn away from the blackbear. The female who approached resembled an inverted skunk, which Ptarmigan acknowledged with a bluntly put, “was your mother a skunk?” It was half-jest and half serious. She had never met a wolf who looked like that before, after all.

When asked about the bear, Ptarmigan snorted. “In one gulp,” she returned, then smiled despite herself. “No sharesies. Why, gonna try to take it from me?”

Finley's liking of the stranger was instant, from the moment she posed the blunt, could-be-taken-as-rude question. The replied with a scoff, fixing the woman with a haughty look. "Psh, hell no, my mother was a fox," she said with a little shift of her head. She broke out in a grin a moment later, signifying that she was aiming for a joke.

"Nah, you can have that one," Fin replied, turning an assessing eye over to the bear as it lumbered lazily along, "Too old, too slow. Too easy." She finished with a pointed look back to the night-furred female. "I like my bears big and full of rage. Meat's more tender that way," she added with a devious little grin.

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There was a moment where Ptarmigan took Finley seriously, and fixed her with a queer, questioning expression. Foxes were about the same shape as wolves, but much smaller, and it was feasible that a wolf could tuck his hind end far enough to impregnate a fox...

But then the Plateau female grinned, and Ptarmigan felt the hot flush of humiliation replace her former uncertainty. “You almost had me,” she admitted as she fought to compose a sheepish smile, but already Finley had moved back to the bear, challenging her with words and implications. The Endore liked a challenge, as evidenced by her recent life choices.

“We'll see how easy it is,” she said, her smile breaking out all over again. “First one to make it fall over wins.” If this bear was so slow and easy, then Finley should have no problem making it topple over. Ptarmigan didn't intend to even try, but would go through the motions just to prove a point... A rather dangerous point, but a point nonetheless.

*plays with a ghost* o:

If the dark female was expecting Fin to shy away from the challenge, she was going to be sorely disappointed. A fire sparked and blazed behind sweet, chocolate eyes as excitement sped up her heart and a grin claimed her face. "You're on," she barked back eagerly. She waited barely a moment before turning and stalking off towards the bear, already plotting how exactly she was going to go about this game of bear-tipping in a way that would ensure her a victory.

The bear had found something fascinating on the ground, apparently, and it was determinedly poking at it with its massive, clawed paws. It didn't see Finley coming as she crept around its side in a wide arc and paused to wait for the opportune moment. The moment came after only a few minutes had passed, and Fin darted forward with a burst of speed, barking and snapping as she dove towards its face. The bear, startled, stumbled backwards as Fin came up only a foot away from it and stopped, thinking to herself how easy that had been to knock it over! The beast disappointed her however as it caught itself before falling, and with an enraged roar stood up onto its hind legs and took a swipe at her.

3+ the bear misses her...! 7

Luckily, Finley was quite the quick little critter. She leaped backwards as the bear charged forwards, dodging the heavy paw that came swinging towards her muzzle almost effortlessly. As all four paws landed upon the ground, she darted off a few yards, turning to see the bear snarling and glaring steadily at her. It didn't seem to want to move any closer--perhaps it didn't particularly feel in the mood to battle. Well, that was just too bad. She turned to look over at Ptarmigan, giving her a look that invited her to come and take a turn. Let's see if she could do any better.

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She watched with an amuse twinkle in her eye as Finley dared to go for the bear. She'd been expecting the grey female to chicken out but it appeared she was much braver than Ptarmigan had expected. The bear lunged for Finley with a heavy swing that would have sent the wolf flying, but fortunately the female darted out of the way last second. Ptarmigan loosed a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Nerves fluttered in her stomach when her partner pranced back to her and bounced the challenge right back. The Alpha female glanced at the bear, who already seemed disinterested despite the disturbance, and back at Finley. "Weak!" she joked with a teasing grin. "Watch this."

Ptarmigan approached more slowly on account of the bear being aware of their presence already. It didn't look around to spot her, though, and like Finley she waited for an opening. It came when the bear took a lumbering step forward. She shot toward it as quickly as her legs could carry her, peeling back her lips in what should have been a menacing snarl.

The bear, who now turned to see her barreling toward it, blinked beady eyes at her before launching onto its hind legs once more. Ptarmigan was tempting fate, however, and though her heart had leapt into her throat and her breathing was hard and heavy, she somehow didn't veer away. She collided squarely with one of the bear's thick legs, was smacked hard enough by it to collapse onto her side and skid some distance, and then scrambled back to her feet. Her ribs hurt like a mofo, though.

She didn't see whether the bear had fallen over or not (it hadn't), for when she looked back at it, it was lumbering toward her in the clumsy-but-terrifyingly-fast manner that bears lumbered. Apparently it had grown tired of the wolves' games and Ptarmigan's hit had been the last straw. Pinning back her ears, the small Endore whirled and ran back toward Finley, shouting, "quick; run!" as she did.

"Wha--!" was about all Finley was able to get out before the silver peppered female darted foward to take her own shot at the bear. Fin spun to watch eagerly, unable to help the slight superior sneer that flickered onto her face as the game began. She had little doubt that this girl couldn't possibly be as good at this as Fin had been. After all, the Blackthorn actually had practice at this, which was not something a lot of wolves could (or would) boast of.

A sharp inhale was taken as the black wolf fell to the ground, nearly knocking the bear down with her. Only seconds later did Fin erupt into laughter as Ptarmigan was scrambling to her paws and darting back towards her to safety. The woman called to her as she ran, and Fin obeyed swiftly, picking her paws up to speed off right alongside of the black wolf. The bear was charging for them right at their heels, spitting with rage, and yet there remained a fire in the silver girl's eyes and a determined smirk upon her face.

The pair ran for a while before Fin slowed slightly to be able to shoot a glance over her shoulder. The came galloping to a stop once she realized they appeared to be in the clear--though how long they had been so, she was unaware. With laughter in her eyes, she looked to Ptarmigan, fully expecting to see the same amount of enjoyment there. "I probably can't talk you into round two, can I?" she asked with a grin. The Blackthorn was all for it, but she'd done this plenty of times to know that her companions were satisfied with risking their skins only once a day/week/sometimes month and/or lifetime.

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I would totally continue this but I want to finally put Ptarmigan down now. :) Thank you for the thread! One more post from you will bring it to ten!

Even though the two females were risking their lives, Ptarmigan found their activity enjoyable. When Finley called for them to slow, she found the same mirth dancing in the other wolf's eyes. Momentarily she wondered if, perhaps, she'd done the wrong thing in life. To have joined the pack that Finley was part of might have been a better outcome for Ptarmigan. Presently, though, she regretted nothing.

A low howl in the distance signaled her time to go home. Her ears twitched toward the sound and identified the messenger as Viggo. With a sheepish grin, she said, "round two would be awesome but I guess it's home time." Before completely departing, though, she moved to bump Finley's chin with her snout amiably. "It's been grand. We'll have to continue another time. Maybe in winter we can wake one up and piss it off." With a broad grin and a shake of her tail, Ptarmigan was off for home.

Fin couldn't blame the woman for wanting to call it a day, even though it hadn't occurred to her that she was the alpha of a pack nearby. Nothing had struck the girl as alpha-ish about her, but that wasn't surprising as their entire encounter had been anything but formal. Fin returned the nudge with a smile and a wag of her tail, admitting that she was probably right that it was indeed time to head home.

"I will definitely take you up on that!" Fin replied eagerly. She'd never harassed one while it was hibernating inside of its den before, which struck her as completely insane (the fact that she'd never thought of it before, not the actual game itself).

Fin waited a moment after Ptarmigan left, noting the direction the woman took in her mind before she too headed back to her home. It was only after a few minutes that it occurred to her that they'd never exchanged names. She frowned for a second, but then decided it would actually just make it that much more fun to try and track her down again later that year.