Redhawk Caldera Within the national park

@Reyes 

Once he had the creature cornered, away from the lake, he was reminded of a time in his childhood when he had been taught by Wraen how to hunt muskrat. Now, he was hunting beaver- but he figured they were practically the same thing, aside from the slight difference in size and the shape of their tail. The beavers had left their lodge and had walked up a well-worn trail leading away from the lake, toward a grove of trees that they'd been working on for some time, felling them and hauling them back down the slope to the lake. He'd noticed the path days ago, but only now did he see that the path was still wet from their webbed paws, and that more than one beaver had left the lake. With such short legs, he figured they might be easy to hunt down, so long as he kept himself between them and the water. 

One of the parents had been followed by its two young, and as he watched, the adult began working through a tree that Bronco thought was far too thick for it to possibly fell. The tree was at least as big around the base as his mid-section was, but still the adult worked away at it, chomping out chunks of bark and greenwood as the two young dithered about, one of them trying to help its parent with the big tree and the other setting its sights on a much more slender alder. 

He remained in wait for a few moments, trying to suss out his game plan. Did he want to go straight for the adult, and then pick off the kids? Or should he go for one of the small ones first, as they might make for a quicker kill, allowing him to go for another target?

Sorry for the delay!

At first glance he'd thought Niamh had come home on her own. The golden shape looked too large to be her, but she had been pregnant last anyone had seen, and this wolf was broaching the edge of the lake when Reyes had taken notice. The sun was slanting directly in to the tradesman's eyes as he came out from the cover of trees, so that's partly why he misidentified the wolf in question. He was eager to avoid Niamh at any rate, so he moved to continue his patrol of the arboreal route he had found, and stopped short when a nagging voice in the back of his mind said, maybe man up instead of tucking tail, yeah?

Reyes wasn't the type to apologize when he was in the wrong unless absolutely necessary; such events were rare enough in his life, so he wasn't very keen on it. However that voice continued to remind him that he'd turned over a new leaf, so to speak. He was a father now, he had responsibilities. If he wanted his children to grow up and be better than him in every possible manner, he'd have to set a damn good example for them. So, with a reluctant sigh Reyes turned around and headed back towards the lake's edge.

By the time he got to the embankment the shape had moved on. He traced a few possible routes with his eyes and caught a golden sheen of something, then headed towards it. Rather than finding Niamh at the end of that winding road he found Bronco, crouched and staring at one of the woodpiles that the local beaver population had mashed together in the mud.

He'd just about made up his mind to go for the adult when he heard the soft footfalls of someone else approaching him. He sniffed the air- but the wind wasn't in his favour, so he turned his head instead, carefully, to see who it was that was heading toward him. At first glance, he didn't recognize the male. A moment or two later, and he found himself struggling a bit with the potential realization that this was Reyes. If it was- he wasn't sure how to react. 

...Except for the fact that the potential of catching himself a lunch was on the line. And normally, he would have chosen peace simply so that he could catch himself something to eat- but less than a moment later, he heard the smack of a beaver's tail against the water- and by the time he looked back to where the beavers had been scavenging, they'd slipped back into the water, having been warned by one of the other parents. 

Well, that left him with not a whole lot to do but to figure out if this guy was who he thought he was. The loss of a meal was unimportant; he'd at least found out that a family of beavers was living here, and that he could probably hunt them again another day. He wasn't exactly starving, after all. 

So he sat up, licking his lips to get rid of some of the excess saliva that had started to well along his gums, and turned to nod at the dark male. "You, uh...Are you Reyes, by any chance?" He asked, pricking his ears. His tone of voice was even enough, though it was obvious that he felt a bit nervous to be meeting the male who had broken his mother's leg, and caused her to run off.

I'm so sorry I let this sit for so long! I haven't known what to write.

If the guy was hunting before, he wasn't now. His attention drifted to Reyes but it wasn't until he asked his question that Reyes took a pause, wondering who the hell this guy was. He looked enough like Niamh to be a relative. Young too, so, maybe a little brother - and another uncle to Reyes - or better yet, Niamh's son.

That would put him on thin ice. If this wolf knew who he was, Niamh must have been blabbing about their issues; she no doubt told everyone that Reyes was the reason for her injury and whatnot. Great.

Yeah, that's me. He could've denied it. That wouldn't look too good now, would it. Only feed in to whatever machinations Niamh had in play. Surprised to be recognized. He comments dryly, and looks out at the piles of woodwork, feigning interest in the surroundings.

The process of elimination paid off- and he wasn't sure how to feel upon finding out that this was Reyes. To be honest, Bronco didn't think that he looked like a hostile kind of guy. A bit of a cold exterior, but perhaps more cool than cold. He hadn't bristled upon being recognized, and that could have meant a plethora of things. Maybe he didn't give a shit what kind of a reputation he had. Maybe he was oblivious- and maybe he simply had no idea who Bronco was, or that he was related to Niamh. Some of those possibilities were narrowed down when he admitted his surprise. Perhaps he really didn't think that his reputation preceded him so much. 

Which then put Bronco on the spot- and put some pressure on him to handle the delicate situation as well as he could. After all- if this guy had basically driven his mother to the brink of insanity, what might he do when he discovered that her son had some looking for him? Was he as hostile as he was made up to be- or was that just another fantastic exaggeration created by his mother? Either seemed entirely possible. 

He uttered a dry, hollow laugh that trailed off into silence. He almost felt obliged to apologize, simply for being who he was, knowing that Reyes too had suffered because of Niamh's idiocy. While Bronco was occasionally quite insightful, this situation was something he was quite unprepared for. "I, uh," He said, and cleared his throat. "My name's Bronco. I, uh- I'm Niamh's son. But I'm not-" He added, hurriedly, before he realized he didn't really know how to follow that up. "I'm not like...Looking for revenge, or whatever. My Mom was...Look, I have no idea what really happened, but I know what my Mom could be like, so...Yeah." He said, with an ambiguous, apologetic shrug of one shoulder.

Yeah, he could've had him pegged as Niamh but with real balls, but Reyes was still pretty segregated from the rest of the pack at this point. Having his suspicions confirmed made him a little leery of the other man, at least until Bronco explained himself. Sounded like he had a pretty weak relationship with his mother.

Do you want to know? He doubted the golden boy would want both sides of the story, especially with that cringe-like look upon his face; but Reyes offered, figuring it was fair for someone to heed his story for once. He felt justified in his own defense and didn't see the issue with explaining himself. Even to the woman's kin.