Redhawk Caldera i'm not the one who stabbed the captain with a pickle

Set on RHC. *tries to capture a wild @Fox* :o

When Junior saw the lake from a distant hillock a few miles south of the spine, her mismatched eyes squinted momentarily, then widened. It was enormous, far larger than any other lake she'd ever seen. It reminded her of the sea. For that reason, her sprightly black paws began to carry her downhill and into the wilds, aiming for that vast body of water.

It took half a day. When she reached the shore, she immediately loped to the water's edge and drank ravenously. With a bellyful of cold water, she turned and began to roam the shore when a familiar scent wafted into her nose. It was so unexpected that she froze in her tracks and blinked for several long beats. Then, barely trusting her own sense of smell, she began to track it in the direction of a nearby and — at least in her personal opinion — rather ugly mountain.

Night fell by the time she traced the scent to its far side and partway up the slope. When two other familiar scents joined the first, Junior finally believed in her own senses. But what on earth would bring her father and his partners here? The young Warrior and Outrider absolutely couldn't fathom it.

"Dad? Fox? Lasher?" she called into the still night air, which was cool bordering on cold. She could see her own breath, a furling wisp curling from the end of her blunt black muzzle. "Hello?"

Making some assumptions about Perry/Lasher's whereabouts.

Fox had made herself a little camp near the shore of the lake. It had been a bitch and a half to navigate her way down the slopes toward the caldera, but she had made it with Perry and Lasher's help and lots of stops along the way. Peregrine had departed for the plateau, to let them know of the news, and Lasher had agreed to stay behind and keep an eye on his lover's lover. Considering Fox couldn't run or hunt, she was mostly glued to the small, level spot of land by the top o' the mountain lake.

A voice drifted toward her, and Fox put on a puzzled expression. The voice was oddly familiar, and yet she could not place it. Who would call out for her and Lasher? And Dad? Blinking, she realized it must be one of Perry's children. Lasher had run off to do some nighttime hunting, leaving Fox by herself. “Over here!” she said, alerting the young DiSarinno to her location.

No one replied, so Junior put her nose to the ground and continued tracking, following the scents upward toward the mountain's squat peak. When she reached that upper ledge, she gasped at the sight down below. A lake, black as an oil slick, reflected the moon and its starry backdrop. She squinted and made out various crags upthrusting from the black water.

Guessing that the acoustics here might be vastly improved, Junior sucked in a deep breath and shouted again. "Dad! Fox! Lasher!" As expected, her voice boomed into the darkness. Not three seconds later, a familiar voice called out, "Over here!" Junior swallowed, then began trotting down the steep decline toward the slim lakeshore.

"Fox?" she asked incredulously, stopping several yards away from her father's fiery mate. She thought back on their last encounter and swallowed again, even more thickly this time. "What are you doing here? Where's my dad? And Lasher? And what is this place?" she added, two-toned eyes lifting and flicking around her dark but nonetheless majestic surroundings.

I should be going to bed...

“Good gods, slow down,” Fox said as Junior shot question after question at her, although her tone was far from condescending. “Peregrine, Lasher, and I were out scouting for a place to call home. Then I fell and fucked up my rib and my leg. Lasher’s out hunting, and your dad is on his way back to the plateau to let everybody know.”

Had she covered everything? “And this,” Fox said, sweeping her muzzle across the starlit landscape, “is Redhawk Caldera.” Fox and Perry had picked the name together. It represented the both of them, and although she found it a little bit self-centered to name such a vast, beautiful place after themselves, she couldn't help but feel proud of it. Fox paused, suddenly curious to know why Junior was this far south. “Did the sea wenches not work out for ya?”

Me too. Well, I am in bed. I need to work on the sleep part...

Junior shot Fox an impatient look, though she said nothing, letting the red she-wolf explain. The words "a place to call home" caused her lower jaw to unhinge and drop slightly. They were leaving the plateau? For some reason, this thought cut her to the quick. Peregrine and Blacktail Deer Plateau were synonymous in her mind. Why on earth should he ever move somewhere else? Was it all because of Fox?

Ignoring Fox's question, Junior demanded, "Why is he leaving the plateau?" Then another thought occurred to her and she queried, "Is the whole pack relocating? Did something happen there? Are Ty and Saēna and Pura okay?"

Well, now I'm actually in my bed... so that's a start.

Fox wondered if her own children would be so talkative and nosy. Junior seemed to have six questions for every one that Fox managed to give her an answer for. An exaggeration, but that was how it felt. Fox furrowed her brow at Junior, who demanded answers of various members of the pack that she had left. Why had Junior left the plateau, Fox wanted to ask. And although it was within Fox's normal repertoire to cause trouble and start shit with anybody within earshot, she didn't have the strength or the pain tolerance for it right now.

“The plateau is fine. So is everybody else, as far as I know. Tytonidae is the only one of your age I see around anymore. It seems Saena and Pura followed in your footsteps, so to speak.” Unfortunately, they hadn't had the foresight to talk it through with anybody before darting off into the wilderness. Fox had heard nothing of why or where they had gone to, she only noticed their absence. “Now are you going to tell me what happened with the sea wolves?” she asked. If not, that was Junior's business, and Fox wouldn't press further. But she was curious, especially since the girl had seemed so devoted to the strange band of women.

Junior let out a quiet breath of relief, though she inhaled sharply when Fox informed her that her younger brother and sister had left the plateau. "In your footsteps," Fox said. The youth's jaw muscles twitched. She didn't know what to think or say to that. She just hoped they were all right, wherever they were.

Fox still hadn't answered the most pertinent question, perhaps because Junior hadn't answered hers either. "I decided I couldn't be a part of their pack when I realized how badly they treat males," Junior said forthrightly. "They treat them like scum," she added, then left it at that. She hated to admit she'd made a mistake and she didn't particularly want to discuss the details with Fox of all people.

"So why are you guys moving here?" she demanded again. "And when will my dad be back?" She pictured him making his way to the plateau to break the news. Perhaps she could trail him. Junior both dreaded the idea of reuniting with her father and secretly yearned for it. Time — and perhaps a touch of maturity and experience — had definitely tempered her bitterness toward him and even his mate.

An odd thought struck her on the coattails of that one: she could theoretically rejoin the plateau now, since her father was evidently no longer in charge. Who was, then? And would she want to go back there at this point? Or would she take a chance at joining her father's ranks here, supposing he would have her? How strange that a jaunt to the big lake would bring her here, to yet another crossroads in her young life.

Fox found Junior's explanation odd. Not because she thought that the girl would like treating boys like scum, but because the male that she'd met from there seemed pleased as punch to help her with seashore hunting. Fox wondered how such a pack could exist without somehow failing due to no new blood, but perhaps all of their members were recruits. A strange concept indeed. Now, though, the Redleaf-DiSarinno girls present were both far away from that place.

“The plateau never felt like home to me,” Fox admitted, “I gave it a fair shot, but after two months of living there, I had a feeling it wasn’t just going to grow on me. So Peregrine, Lasher, and I decided to find something that felt like home to all of us.” Although the phrase "your father" almost made it to the tip of her tongue a few times, Fox refrained from saying it. She thought it would make her seem and feel decidedly old. “Peregrine should be back in a few days, maybe a little more. He wanted to inform the plateau himself about our departure.”

Let me know if you mind the assumptions I made here. :D

After Fox explained, a moment of tense silence passed between them before Junior said coldly, "You mean, you decided. My dad would never leave the plateau on his own." She shot Fox a sharp look. "You know, everything was fine and dandy until you showed up and basically took over his life. Now everything's about you and what you want. He had four kids he loved and he ruled a great pack. But now you want puppies and you want to live somewhere else. Why did you have to come along and ruin everything?"

Before even letting Fox get a word in edgewise, Junior intuited something was wrong, else Fox surely would've slapped her across the face by now. Yet she just laid there, taking the youth's heat. "What's wrong with you?" Junior asked baldly. "Are you hurt or something?"

Fox scowled as Junior went on and on about what a terrible influence she had been in Peregrine's life. And her thoughts were correct. If Fox hadn't had a fractured rib and a sprained wrist, she would have put Junior in her place right then and there. As it were, she couldn't do much of anything aside from hobble to the lake for water and hobble back to rest. The last thing she needed was some punk telling her that she and Peregrine were unfit for one another. Of course, Fox didn't believe that for a second.

“Yes,” Fox replied. “If I wasn't here recovering, I’d be heading back to the plateau with Peregrine.” She chose to ignore the rest of the teen's insults entirely. If Junior wanted to believe that everything was Fox's fault, so be it.

Junior felt better for having gotten all of that off her chest. She had become rather sullen and surly over the past few weeks, yet spitting out that vitriol somehow felt cleansing. She sighed and shook her head. Could she really blame Fox and her father for all her problems? She was old enough now to take responsibility for herself and her own decisions.

That darker part of her was tempted to toy with Fox, who was clearly weakened. Hell, Junior could have injured or even killed her. Yet she brushed these terrible thoughts aside and said, "Well... what is it called?" She jerked her head to indicate their surroundings and tried to sound like she was actually terribly uninterested.

"Redhawk Caldera," Fox repeated. It seemed Junior had been so wrapped up in insulting her that she hadn't bothered to listen the first time. Oddly unmotivated to cause more conflict (mostly for fear that she wouldn't be able to come out on top), Fox didn't make a point of the younger Redleaf failing to hear her the first time. Besides, it was like Fox had the best memory in the world, so she couldn't fault the girl.

"So what are your plans now?" she asked. Perhaps Junior would come to join them here. That seemed unlikely, considering she had some kind of hatred for her father's mate. Not only that, but Fox wasn't sure Peregrine would be terribly happy with that idea. He'd been none too pleased when Junior had run off to be with the sea wenches.

When Fox said the name, Junior realized she'd already mentioned it. Oh, she thought, though she didn't outwardly acknowledge the faux pas. She waited to see if her wicked stepmother Fox would mention it, though she didn't either. Well, moving on then...

"I don't have any," she replied. "I just found out about this." She lifted a foreleg off the ground and gestured at their surroundings again. Junior paused, then admitted, "I kinda like traveling. I can go wherever I please, whenever I please. I do what I want. The only downside is the lack of eats."

I think making Fox an invalid for a while might teach her to be a little more tolerant. :P

The only downside is the lack of eats. Which would eventually lead to starvation and death, if Junior continued on that path. Fox made no mention of this, for she assumed the girl was smart enough to figure that out on her own. Fox had always been, and always would be, strictly a pack wolf. The only time she'd been a loner was the short couple of weeks from her birth pack to the creek. From there, she had quickly risen to an Alpha, and she had not strayed far from that path.

"You're more than welcome to stick around and explore, but unless you plan on really staying with us, Peregrine may want you gone once he gets back." Junior wouldn't be allowed to remain a freeloader, although Fox thought an outrider would make a good addition to their new pack. There was plenty around them to discover, even right here on the mountain.

*tests this theory...*

Maybe it was a teenage thing or maybe Junior's mood was as mercurial as her mind. Whatever the case, Fox's words rubbed her the wrong way. The youth's ears pinned backward and she frowned, her tail lashing and curling behind her as she took a displeased step backward.

Bitch, she thought, though she at least omitted that from the words that actually left her mouth. "Don't you dare speak for my father." To say this was a sensitive spot for her would have been the understatement of the year.

Rubbing her tongue irately against her teeth, the juvenile announced, "But I will go ahead and explore." Her nostrils flared, wondering if the invitation had expired a few words ago. But what was Fox going to do about it? It wasn't like she could chase Junior out of here.

"I'll leave by morning. He'll never even know I was here... unless you tell him," she reassured Fox with a bit of bitter sarcasm in her tone. Without another word, she turned and loped along the lake shore, heading up the incline to run along the ridge line before eventually dropping back down the caldera's steep, tree-lined flank.

Fox rolled her eyes. She had even been careful to only say that Peregrine may want her gone. She couldn't help it if the little wench wanted to twist her words and use them against her. Fox only wished Peregrine had been her to put the smack down on his daughter. As it were, Junior defiantly fled off to explore Fox and Peregrine's new home. Fox desperately wanted to do the same, but she knew that her injuries would keep her here for at least a week, if not more.

When Lasher returned, she said nothing of Junior, although it was probably obvious if Taltos recognized the scent of his lover's daughter. Fox scarfed down the rabbit he had retrieved, then drifted off to sleep. Once she was on her feet again, there was no doubt in her mind that she and Junior were going to have words if the girl stuck around.