Nova Peak And she's suddenly cruel
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All Welcome 
Going to set this for Jan 28.

She spent a night in the forest at the base of Nova Peak, where she was sheltered. At dawn, she moved away from the Grotto, and moved out into the light beyond the reach of trees, travelling along the mountain's snowy incline. She had no desire to go up to the very peak- but if she went up a bit higher, she would get a pretty good view of the area, and could inform her choices for where she might rove next. 

The snow deepened, and the layers of snow were thick and heavy. Each step became laboured, as her feet pushed through the surface of the snow just a moment after she put pressure on them. After a while, she moved toward the lee of the mountain, where the snow drifted a bit less- and was firmer. From here, she could scale a bit more, and gain a bit of altitude. 

She reached a ledge, and prowled out onto it, not daring to go to the very edge for fear it was snow, not rock. From there, she could see clearly, her view to the West, East and South. Temporarily sheltered from the winds, she sat on her plinth, noting the forests she had visited, and looking ahead to where she might travel next.
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Lycabas hunted at the request of the red queen of the rise, but so far he had not been successful in capturing anything substantial in the few days since being given his task. He had been able to shelter and scavenge upon this very mountain, but the biggest thing he had caught fresh was a winter stoat, which seemed hardly adequate enough in feeding himself, let alone providing for those he wished to call his packmates.

It was with this logic that he continued to devour all the small prey he happened upon, rather than returning with a meager meal to the wolves he sought to impress.

He was plowing through the snow, following the scent of mountain goat, when he passed beneath the view of Lilia’s perch. He did not see her, as his concentration was centered at his own feet, but he was large enough that she may have been able to spot him: a wolfish shape of cream amongst a sea of white and dotting evergreens.
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She wished she could just go back to her homelands. Exploring was good for her, and good for her soul- she'd learned to temper her ire, and found herself improving her temperament with the time she spend on her own. But she longed for her pack, for hunts and shared patrols. 

The mountain was bleak and cold. The snow as dense and unforgiving, and she suspected that in the summer too it would be rough terrain. Still, it did give her a good view. If there was a fire in the area, this ledge she'd found would make for an excellent lookout. The wind was hard on her hearing but she could tolerate that. The view was enough for her. 

A shift in the snow caught her eye- and she gazed down from her ledge to see a familiar figure roaming below. She crept forward, peering over the ledge. Lycabas. He'd said that he would go and hunt for them- though it didn't appear as though he'd had much success. 

She spotted a pebble by her foot- and with a deft flick, sent it flying off her ledge, where it would bounce down the slope. 

She watched for his reaction.
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Lycabas looked up at the sound of something bouncing down the snowy mountain face. He saw the fat pebble, which may have passed him by harmlessly on its way down, but he made the decision to move out of its direct path, backing up a few feet. The pebble then hit the edge of a jutting rock and ricocheted… arcing right into Lycabas’ face.

The boy yelped, more out of surprise than injury, and he crouched down as his face began to smart and a long welt started to form just below his left eye.

Fucking ow!
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She ducked back as soon as she saw what was about to happen. He'd moved- but the rock bounced, and with a soft cry, she heard the inevitable smack. She hunkered down on the ledge, and listened. She didn't hear his body fall, so it must not have knocked him over completely. At this point, she was probably past the ability to apologize. 

She moved her foot, with the intention of sending another pebble hurtling off over the ledge- and the repercussion was swift. 

The edge of the ledge had been held together mostly by ice; her bodyweight was too much for it, light as she was. It cracked, and slipped away from beneath her- and while she tried to scrabble for hold and to get back up onto the rest of the ledge, her claws could not find a grip. And so, with the ledge splitting into smaller and smaller rocks each time it bounced down the cliffside, she too rolled and rolled- over and over, straight toward the pale man.
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Lycabas blinked upward, squinting his left eye as the cheek below it throbbed.

Did a bird drop that rock on me?

He looked around in the sky, seeing nothing at first, before there was a loud crrrrrrack! He looked swiftly to the crumbling ledge, watching wide-eyed as a wolf struggled to stay aloft. Things happened too fast after that: shards of gravel and ice hurtled towards him as snow exploded from the ground where each solid object hit, including the body of the other wolf.

He was not a fast wolf and there was no time to dodge, so the boy simply braced himself, as he did for most things, taking the brunt of the hit as the rolling wolf collided into his side, bowling him over.

They skidded to a halt as the fall of rubble and snow petered out over them, the fallen wolf firmly pressed into his massive frame. His eyes, which had been shut tight on impact, now peeked open to look over the creature embedded against him. He recognized her, the girl from the rise, before he started to feel a bone-deep ache through the shock of this event.

Are you hurt? he managed to croak out.
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She bounced when she hit the ground, before spinning over and over again until at last her momentum stopped- abruptly, having hit something that wasn't arguably much softer than the hillside. She slid, and remained on her side for a moment, eyes wide and flicking from side to side as she struggled to catch up with her dizziness. 

His voice sounded distant at first, and she remained prone for a moment or two after he spoke, until she realized she'd not been breathing. She hacked and wheezed- but found it nearly impossible to inhale. She lurched, struggling to bring her forepaws beneath her so she could prop herself up a bit, but hung her head and tried to drag in breaths. It felt like something was lodged in her throat- allowing only a small amount of oxygen to pass. On the exhale, however, what little air she sucked in exited easily. She coughed and hacked, her tongue hanging out as she attempted to recapture the wind that had been knocked out of her-

fully believing that this was going to be the end of her.
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Lycabas watched helplessly as the girl struggled to stand and took sharp, ragged breaths that hitched in her chest and didn’t seem to give her much oxygen at all. She coughed and hacked, choking if not suffocating right in front of him; the boy hardly knew what to do. He was so alarmed that he didn’t notice the trickle of blood coming down his right shoulder, where a rock hidden beneath the white had split his skin.

Slap her hard on the back! Just like I had to when you had that bird bone caught in your throat.

What if I hurt her?

Just do it!

Lycabas lifted a massive forepaw and gave her a few hesitant whacks just behind her shoulders, only increasing in volume and intensity if it seemed to be helping. Blood from his wound cast off into the snow.
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The world stopped spinning, but threatened to go dark any minute. She hauled breaths in with all her might, coughing and hacking on the exhale. She was certain she wasn't choking- but she couldn't understand why the air would only go out. 

Lycabas patted her between her shoulders, causing her to flick an ear back toward him. It'd been a rougher pat than she'd expected, and he continued to do so, smacking her there a bit harder every time she coughed out. Once she dragged in a sip of air, she growled. "NOT CHOKING" She barked, before she dragged in another strained breath. Her diaphragm slowly began to relax and help her breathe again, and she drew in even, but ragged breaths to try and get more oxygen into her lungs. "Fucking," She said, "Mountain."
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Lycabas snatched his arm back at her snarl, stepping away from her. Sorry, he blurted an apology, blank-faced and now standing back in anxious awkwardness as she continued to gasp.

Can’t get it right every time, pal…

Just be quiet.

Finally, the rhythm of her breathing started to regulate, and she became well enough to curse the mountain for its unpredictability. The boy didn’t know how to react. Yeah, he agreed lamely, sighing heavily as the tension started to leave his body. I thought that was it for both of us.

His bleeding shoulder twitched, and he glanced at it but found that his adrenaline made it so that it did not hurt just then. He looked up at what was left of the broken ledge, eyeballing the distance she had fallen. Definitely would’ve killed someone weaker.
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The raking of her inhales finally seemed to get easier as her diaphragm relaxed, allowing the air to pass. Her cheeks burned with shame; it was an offense to her nature to have to be saved by someone. Especially after she'd been flicking rocks at him like a nuisance. 

She eyed the crumbled ledge from which she'd fallen, and licked a bit of blood off her lips. She must've bitten her tongue on the way down. She accepted the comment with a slight snort and a nod. "Ugh. Thith ith gonna thuck tomorrow." She said. It hurt enough already- but from her limited experience, bruising often felt worse with time. 

She took a moment to size him up. It seemed he'd managed alright, all things considered. She didn't like the idea that she might owe him her life, so she didn't think to mention it. "It'th been a little while. What've you been up to?" She asked. She needed a few moments to ground herself, following all the spinning; polite chit chat couldn't hurt.
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You’re right about that fall. She’s real tough. You should be impressed.

Is that how I should feel?

Lycabas looked on blankly as the girl noted the aches that would come the following day. He didn’t want to think about that; he was still trying to figure out how he should be acting in this very moment. Then she looked at him, her gaze investigative.

What’s she looking for?

She’s probably about to thank you.

Instead, she asked him what he had been up to.

Or not.

Still trying to hunt something big for your pack. Haven’t had much luck, he admitted. What’re you doing out here… uh, what’s your name?
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She hadn’t wanted for Lycabas to fail in his quest to impress the leaders. He was a decent hang- and he’d just saved her life. Of course, she could have brushed him off as simply being incompetent, but she chose instead to be a bit more on the benevolent side, all things considered. 

”Well. We been havin’ thome shortage of prey around too.” She gave him a bit of reassurance. ”F’ypu want, I could help you look, for a bit. Call it payback for thtoppin’ me from falling to my death.”
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Wow, she’s not even going to tell me her name.

You know not everyone has one, boy.

Lycabas blinked, a little perplexed at his own realization that she might not have a name, but the inkling quickly fled. It was replaced instead by the feeling that he wasn’t a complete failure -- not if the red queen’s pack wasn’t having much luck either. Deal, he answered, remembering to wag his tail a little. As much as he didn’t understand others, he certainly preferred having company more than being alone.

Come across any trails on your way up here? he asked, just as a second question occurred to him. What’re you doing out here anyway? Were you hunting too?
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She didn’t want to give him too much help- Avicus had given him the task of finding food and bringing it back- but a little nudge in the right direction had been earned. The Rise might’ve been short one wolf had he not blocked her path. 

”Bit here an’ there,” She said. ”Jackrabbit, thquiwwel, thought I thmelled thome sheep, or goat-th, thomewhere on the thlope but nothin’ too fresh juth-t now,” She admitted. She gestured that they continue moving, choosing to hat she figured might be an easier path down the slope so as to go east on her bruised muscles. She felt her ribs flinch, and grimaced lightly. 

”I’m workin’ on becomin’ a thcout,” She answered. ”Wanna know all the platheth within a few dayth travel around our claim.” She said. "Gueth we can do a bit of that while we look for thome food," She said, trying to make the best out of the situation.

Slowly and surely, they would scope out a bit more of the area, being wary of other precarious ledges. She'd learned a lesson from the entire thing- that Nova Mountain was not a place to be trifled with, and that karma was a bitch.