Panther Park Watch me burn

  Tagging @Xicor. Set for today, 9/2/2021, other tags for reference unless Alduin and/or Kynareth, even Asperas, wants to join!

 


The Warmaiden was giving up hope. @Alduin was nowhere to be found, at least as far as she'd traveled. 
Her journey had taken her to finding young @Jasmine, whom she dropped off with the Redhawks after dropping by Moonglow, to getting whatever intel on Ursus that one male had provided after she had left the mountains that Moonglow claimed. 

All the while, Nyra searched, called for the dark-striped boy, and searched and called some more as she made her way homeward for the canyon.

Company wasn't to be expected, and at this point the disheveled-looking shieldmaiden was snippy out of worry and severe stress. 

@Kynareth Deagon was bound to be distraught as all hell, and @Simmik too.
It's been a month, she had been so close only once. 

Dropping to her haunches in a hunched over, tired sit, Nyra gazed absently into the ripples of a stream that ran through the terrain. 

What would she do now? Aside from return home, that is. The Saints were in good hands with Simmik, but Nyra, forever the loyal warrior, felt a strong pull to return to the canyon and her wolves.

  Tagging @Xicor. Set for today, 9/2/2021, other tags for reference unless Alduin and/or Kynareth, even Asperas, wants to join!

 


The Warmaiden was giving up hope. @Alduin was nowhere to be found, at least as far as she'd traveled. 
Her journey had taken her to finding young @Jasmine, whom she dropped off with the Redhawks after dropping by Moonglow, to getting whatever intel on Ursus that one male had provided after she had left the mountains that Moonglow claimed. 

All the while, Nyra searched, called for the dark-striped boy, and searched and called some more as she made her way homeward for the canyon.

Company wasn't to be expected, and at this point the disheveled-looking shieldmaiden was snippy out of worry and severe stress. 

@Kynareth Deagon was bound to be distraught as all hell, and @Simmik too.
It's been a month, she had been so close only once. 

Dropping to her haunches in a hunched over, tired sit, Nyra gazed absently into the ripples of a stream that ran through the terrain. 

What would she do now? Aside from return home, that is. The Saints were in good hands with Simmik, but Nyra, forever the loyal warrior, felt a strong pull to return to the canyon and her wolves.

Xicor knew he was far further south than he had ever been, but it was necessary as the hunting where he's from was all but nonexistent.

After wandering for days, he had come upon a stream and decided to take a break, rest his old, tired legs, and drink some water, when he smelled another wolf in the distance.

"I hope, for my sake, that's actually a wolf, and that I've not lost my mind," the enormous wolf grumbled to himself, a distinct tinge of sadness in their voice.

Then he saw her, an immense white wolf sitting a considerable distance downstream from him. "Please don't notice me, for both our sakes," Xicor whimpered, not wanting to get close to another wolf.

Despite his wants, Nyra did indeed notice him. 
Not immediately, no. It took a considerable handful of minutes for her to come out of her reverie to notice his scent wafting towards her from upstream.

With a low rumble that might've been a hmm type noise, Nyra looked at him with vivid hellfire hues, meeting his own gaze of almost-glowing green - a shade of which she'd never seen before in other wolves. Especially in the Teekons. 

With hope for Alduin lost, Nyra opened her mouth to ask about the lost boy, but nothing came out.
Instead, a tired attempt at conversation. 

"Never seen you in these lands before..." Nyra called softly to him, an obvious exhaustion to her normally regal voice.

"Name's Nyra." She offered after a small pause, hoping to extend the olive branch. He didn't look too keen on much, but seeing a new face was more or less...refreshing. 

Perhaps she could recruit him for the Saints, if she was lucky.

"Fuck," Xicor grumbled under his breath before standing up and slowly made his way to the white wolf.

"Pleased to meet you Nyra, I'm Xicor, and I'd be amazed if you've ever seen me as I've never been this far south," he said, his demeanor completely changed.

"I came down here hoping to find some prey, but I'll gladly settle for some pleasant conversation," he explained before sitting near to the new wolf.

She watched his demeanor change, and in acknowledgement to this, her golden gaze narrowed slightly with intelligence and amore or less a silent I see what you're doing
In her mind, he was probably putting on a front, but for the sake of gaining friends, not enemies, she let it go for now. 

"A pleasure." She smiled, adjusting to face him in her sit. 
Almost mirroring his own assumed front of confidence, she straightened her posture to appear more alpha-like. She was, and is, an alpha, after all. 

"Lucky for you, two is better than one in a hunt." She chuckled; "How about a deer? There should be some in the area. Help me take one down, I'll share the benefits?" The invitation was lightly teasing, as if she would keep all of the venison for herself. 
She wouldn't. but a light jest never meant any harm. 

Nyra would test him, see if he was worth bringing into the Saints. 
Was he a capable hunter? That, at the very least, mattered. 

For a pack ripe with fighters, she wanted to test these new waters with Xicor gently, at least at first, before the question would fall from her lips. 

Getting straight to the point with recruiting strangers never proved fruitful in the past. So, some tact, and patience, was needed.

Xicor saw it in Nyra's eyes that she could tell that he was faking his confidence, but continued to do so anyway.

He pondered on the question for a minute, wondering why this wolf he'd only just met would want to help him, but his hunger far out weighed his caution.

"Alright, you seem to know this area, so I'll let you take the lead to where the deer most likely are, lest you'd rather me try to give it a shot," he said before standing to his full height and stretching his back.

All to happy was she, to take the reigns and feel in control. It contrasted greatly to the feeling of powerlessness she got with being unable to find Alduin.

So, she too rose to her full height - as tall as himself, it seems, she noted, shaking out her thick fur and turning her muzzle to the ground, sniffing away at the soil until a trail was found. 

It took several minutes, but eventually she was able to find a fresh set of tracks about half a mile out from the stream, and with an excited wag of her tail, the Empress pulled her head from the scent trail on the ground and looked further out, where she saw a small herd of deer. 

There were two decent-sized bucks a bit closer than any of the ones without antlers, so with a thoughtful hum, Nyra leveled her head with her spine and started quietly stalking around, inching herself and her new companion closer to get a better look. 
Indeed, the two bucks were closest. Behind them and off to the side a bit, was an injured female favoring her right fore-leg. Maybe the poor deer had twisted her hoof in a hole in the ground or something?

Not that it mattered much. The tang of blood mixed into the female deer's scent, and the Overseer's stomach rumbled.

Glancing to Xicor, Nyra whispered to him "We're going for the female with the favored leg. How do you suggest we get around the males?" 

She'd take over again if needed, but she wanted to hear him out. This was only part one of his test with her.

Xicor stopped for a second, weighing his options, before he had an idea. He was confident in his size and prowess, and these bucks weren't to big, barely older than a year by his guess.

"I know what to do," he whispered to Nyra, "Go around the tree line until you're past the bucks, then on my signal go after the doe." 

Xicor slowly started inching closer to the pack of deer, until he was about as close as he dared to get without scaring them off, then took a deep breath and began preparing himself for the fight he was about to put himself into.

Nyra smiled at his plan.
It was a good one, and silently she approved. 

Prowling, she made her way through the trees, around the bucks as Xicor suggested. 
Await his signal, she did, keeping herself poised and ready to move. 
Meanwhile, the two bucks looked straight in Xicor's direction, as if watching him. 
Whether or not they knew he was there, yet, Nyra was unsure. Yet her gaze remained on his position, occasionally flicking to the doe they were targeting.

Xicor took one final deep breath, before breaking into a full sprint at the bucks, hoping to kill one before it can respond to the wolf charging at it. 

Xicor reached the bucks before they new what was going on, but didn't succeed in killing one, just dragging it to the ground by its antlers, in the process turning and seeing where Nyra was standing, but was unable to see her.

Xicor started thrashing his head, hoping to break the buck's neck before its friend could interfere.

One of the bucks saw Xicor coming, maybe a tad too late. 
Still, it lowered its antlers only for the male to grab them and somehow attempt to tackle it to the ground. 

Idiot! Nyra hissed inwardly, sprinting to Xicor's aid as the rest of the deer bailed from the scene. 
The second buck too, sprinted away as Nyra slammed teeth first into the other side of the new target buck's exposed neck with a loud snarl. 

Together, they'd be able to wrestle the antlered deer to the ground. 
Bloodthirst leaked into Nyra's eyes as their quarry struggled and thrashed, and she just kept going at it despite getting a few slashes here and there from the antlers. 

Finish it! She thought savagely, teeth unforgiving in the flesh of their to-do meal.

Xicor looked at Nyra with confusion and a hint of anger. I can take these alone, what are you doing, he thought. His eyes glanced in the direction of the other deer, only to see them running into the woods.

Using this newfound anger, he wrenched his, and the buck's, head to the side, finishing his prey with a satisfying snap. He dropped the corpse before looking at Nyra and growling.

"Why didn't you get the doe!" He yelled, his once calm demeanor falling to unbridled rage, "I can take a pair of fucking yearlings, it's not like I was trying to fight a bear!" He spit the last word with deep-rooted bitterness, but upon saying it, a flash of sadness replaced the anger in his eyes.

On the drop of a dime, he was yelling at her.
Nyra bared her teeth and held her tail high, authority radiating as she full-sent his rage back ten-fold with acid in her tone "Taking on any deer alone can get you killed, asshole. Especially deer with ANTLERS. We got food regardless, so you're fucking welcome."
She hissed, standing nose to nose with him while partially standing over the fresh carcass. Her tall, dominant posture gave waves of murderous potential. But she had yet to moves like she would worth any other stranger, yet to lunge and either kill or chase him away. 

Perhaps she was just exhausted from trying to find young Alduin

Xicor dropped his anger before making a noise similar to a sigh. 

"Listen, I know fighting a buck is a bad idea, but where I'm from there's not much prey, so when you see it you attack, I've just been alone for so long that I've grown confident in what I can and cannot take down by my self," he explained, a twinge of sadness still hanging in his voice.

"I probably should've told you before we went after them, but that's passed now, we got more meat from this then we would've from that doe anyway," he said in an effort to defuse the situation.

His anger dissipated quickly, and to his softer tone, Nyra's fur smoothed and she relaxed slightly. 
His efforts to defuse the crackle of violence in the air was noted, just as much as the sorrow in his vivid green hues was.

With a sigh, Nyra stepped back, a nonverbal agreement to calm down before she began ripping into the carcass between them.
Eat your fill.
"By the way, are you looking to join a pack?" 
Finally, she popped the question. One that would tell if this jet-black man would be a consistent part of her life from now on.

Despite her bloodied muzzle, she was very obviously interested in his answer.

Xicor recoiled at the question, he didn't expect to be asked anything like that. The sadness in his eyes deepened as he opened his mouth to reply.

"I'm not so sure you'd want me around, but I appreciate the offer nonetheless," Xicor whimpered, obviously choking back tears, "I don't know about joining up, but I'd be happy to meet the rest of your pack."
 
He took a bite out of the buck, before looking in the direction the rest of the deer ran in and making a groan of anger and disappointment directed at himself.

"So, should we get going to where your pack is?", Xicor suggested.

"Nonsense." Nyra assured quickly at his whimper, the consideration of not wanting him around indeed, was nonsense. 
The Saints had been dwindling a little bit lately, and they needed to swell and become powerful as they once were. 

"A soldier is always welcome in the ranks of the Saints, and if you can't fight, I will teach you." She stated, picking up the deer by the throat and starting to drag it with a determined gleam in her intense hellfire hues. 

"Follow me." She orders gently through the venison carcass. 

Into the lions den, he will go.