Blacktail Deer Plateau Not your son, Not your friend

Anyone Val hasnt met!

Despite his malnourished figure, Val's body kept growing -- a normal phase for his age. At five months old the soft down of puppy fur had been shed to reveal slick and banded guard hairs. His ears and paws were obscenely large compared to his gaunt skeleton, and made him look unbalanced and awkward. Short legs began to grow tall, though his body had yet to lengthen to compensate -- stumbling over his own feet was a common occurrence.

However this growth spurt left him infinitely exhausted and sore, joints and limbs aching from their expansion. Val became lethargic, preferring to spend his days curled among the roots of an old tree, snoozing in rays of sun. After all, he had little guidance in life and merely wandered aimlessly through the last months of boyhood.

I am behind but I wanna snag one with him!!!

Dante was actually actively seeking the tiny shadow that had been trailing about the plateau of late, a middle-size pheasant clasped in his jaws. The boy needed to eat and Dante wasn't sure who was feeding him. He had been so busy he hadn't had the chance to meet him yet but had been intending to since seeing him at the pack meeting.

Following the scent, he came to where it was strongest, then lay the bird down at his feet. With a low bark he announced his presence, wondering if the child would come out.

Oops >__<

The child had no burrow, no home to call his own. Instead, the roots had been sufficient in providing the boy with the feeling of a security. However, when the bay of another echoed in the air the child's fur stood on end. One bronze eye suspiciously peeked out from his retreat to spy the bear-like alpha male approaching.

On one hand Val craved attention, but these desires were overwhelmed by a passive depression. Slowly he emerged with his head slung low, scrawny neck visible under long and sparse fur. Knobby legs uncoiled from the ensnared roots and lifted his meek figure from its sanctuary. He approached Dante with a careful stride, tongue flicking over his nose submissively with ears at half mast.

Pack rules were simple: when the alpha called, you obeyed.

Valtýr was silent and unassuming; wary of the large man and his imposing figure even if he had no reason to be unsure of the Plateau's leader. After all, at the meeting he seemed level headed enough... However, the Sveijarn was in a sour niche, childhood spoiled by erratic aging, and he couldn't make sense of his emotions. " 'Lo," he greeted sullenly.

Dante's pleasure in the pup's responding to his call was tempered by the manner of his approach. It was apparent he was neither content nor particularly thrilled by the Alpha's presence. Dante did not take it personally, but he did wonder what had happened to make the small one so jaded. Perhaps it was just a bad day, but he sensed more to it than that. After all, he hadn't been found in the best of conditions.

"Hey. Figured you might want something to eat." Dante pushed his catch forward, clear indication that it was for the boy and not something he was keeping for himself. Then he remained quiet for a moment, simply appraising. He wasn't sure what to ask and what not to, so he went with a statement instead. "You are young, to be wandering alone." It wasn't an attempt to pry, but rather an invitation for him to perhaps share something of his family. Were they searching for him? Or was he, like so many, alone in the world?

Val's sooty ears swiveled uncertainly when Dante so easily offered his kill. Though intimidating, their Alpha was a kind man... as Lucius had been. Had Valtýr even known the opposite? Fate had been unkind, as had the lynx and the cold wood; yet it had been enough to do irreparable damage to the Sveijarn's psyche.

He eyed the bird hungrily and then bent to eat, if not hesitantly, when the alpha paused. A hungry boy was easily swayed when it came to food.

Val dug into the fowl's innards, smacking his lips eagerly. The leader became to talk, and Valtýr obliged in conversation now satiated by the presence of a good meal. "Lucius brought me here. I thought this was my home..." his voice trailed for a moment. "Pura says I need a guardian," he informed the silver man.

Grateful that he took the meal without resistance (in his shape, Dante hadn't expected much), the Alpha waited patiently as he began to scarf it down. Listening attentatively as Valtyr paused to speak, Dante mulled the statements over. Lucius wasn't a name he knew, and he found it odd that a stranger would just dump the pup to another pack's mercy. If Dante were less kind, he might have counted the boy weight they could not afford, turning him away to likely die in the winter's cold. He would not do such a thing, but this Lucius had no way of knowing that.

Pura's statement was the one he latched onto, though. "He isn't wrong." He mused, then looked questioningly. "What do you think? Would you like one?" He wasn't going to thrust the pup on an unwelcome guardian, but he did agree that guidance would not be a bad thing in the young one's life. He was at the age where he would be beginning to find his own footing, but with tutoring the path would be much easier.

Without a mother, father, or any blood relatives on the Plateau, Valtýr was little more than a waif amidst a crowd. The child could not recognize his own odd behavior, his penchant for lingering where others did not. It was smart of Dante to draw the youth in, to provide a much needed compass to the forlorn wanderer. "A guardian? For me?" A few feathers dropped from the boy's mouth as his brows cinched together pensively. "I suppose... so," the youth told Date as he recalled Pura's words, now numb to the idea that his brother was truly gone forever. There was guilt in his expression. Had the wrong child died?

His eating slowed, flat golden eyes skittering around the great alpha's paws. "Who?"

this might screw a bit with his timeline but oh well! :D yolo

The large, grey leader nodded when Valtýr confirmed what he had said, and gladly he displayed that he was open to the idea. "Good." But the who was a good question.

Blue and Lasher could, but they would soon be busy with their own brood. He could latch on with them, but he would need to make sure they would not be overtaxed. Any of the others he was sure would step up if he asked, but none had really shown a predilection for pups. Amelie had been the only one, and she was sadly gone. Heck, he wouldn't be opposed to watching over him either. The kid was cute.

"Who would you like?" He merely asked, allowing him to choose his own fate. Perhaps there was someone here he'd grown close to.

The alpha would let him pick? Valtýr's brows furrowed while he ruminated over the few Blacktail faces and names he knew. So many wolves eluded the boy - unknown beyond the pack meeting. There was the dark man, Taltos, and the green-eyed Blue Willow. Both were kind and gentle. Lasher had even found him a treat! Val remembered how Blue had mended Junior's wounds with great prowess.

And then there was Pura. The flat-eyed leviathan who had, upon Valtýr's temper tantrum, had helped search for Larus. The Sveijarn remembered how the mottled wolf and his sibling sat near one another at the gathering... and the impressionable Val desperately craved to be apart of that clique. "What about Pura?" he ask the alpha, gaze rolling up to judge his superior's reaction.

Of all the wolves of the Plateau, Pura was probably the last he would have expected to come out of Valtyr's mouth. He hadn't even thought of him in his own internal listing, not because he didn't think he could handle it, but because he wondered if Pura would have any interest in Valtýr. He wasn't particularly social, but neither it seemed was Valtýr. Perhaps it would work. It seemed they had met and made some sort of friendship perhaps.

"We can ask him. Would you like to, or do you want me to?" He would again give the option, still wondering a bit at the choice he'd made. Full of surprises, wasn't he?

Valtýr smiled when Dante didn't shoot down his suggestion, and it made the child realize that, on the Plateau, he was very much in control of his own destiny. It was both frightening and thrilling... so much that the boy dismissed the notion, so overwhelmed by the sudden rush of independence.

Dante questioned about who to approach Pura about the responsibility and, truly, Val didn't know which would be better. On one hand, Dante's words were absolute but on the other, Valtýr was afraid Pura wouldn't want to play nanny. The Sveijarn rolled his shoulders indifferently but in the end he answered, "could... you?"

"I can. I will ask if he is willing." If he was not, he hoped Valtyr would not be too upset by it. Because it would not surprise Dante much if he wasn't. But Dante would not force him.

"As soon as I am able to track him down I will let you know what he says." He'd try soon but the boy was notoriously hard to cach at times. He wasn't exactly the most prevalent presence in the pack. Still, he was sure Valtyr would be fine in the meantime. He had been so far. Dante would do his best to ask as soon as possible though. He wanted Valtyr to feel at home and welcome in BDP and finding him a guardian was a big step in that direction.

Valtýr's chin lifted a little when Dante assured the child he would conference with Pura. Though there were many adults to fill the pack, it was the youth group that the ember so desperately wanted to be apart of. Acceptance and acknowledgement from others his age would mean the world.

A small wag and feeble smile gave thanks to the sterling alpha, along with a nod of acknowledgement. "Okay," said Valtýr, in a better mood than before. He then paused... "what now?" What did Dante and the Plateau expect of the boy? Afterall, he was now certainly indebted to the older man.

Dante thought on it a moment before answering. Delegating fell under the realm of his responsibilities, but was one of the areas he had very little experience in. he wanted Valtyr to feel welcome and useful, and he knew that having something to focus on would definitely help him to do that. The question was, what?

"I think the best would be to hone your skills. Seek out some of our pack and have them show you what they know. Or, if you wish, you can come to me. Learning to hunt together and to defend the pack, that is where your best tasks lie." Until he knew how much Valtyr knew, he couldn't really place him. But with some help from the pack Dante was sure he would become a very valuable addition.

Last post for me! :)

"...Where my best tasks lie," Valtýr echoed quietly with a pensive look. Currently, he was about as useful as a rock. He could recall a time Tuwawi had brought an injured bird to the den so that her children may practice hunting and Valtýr, so moved by its blighted condition, cried on its behalf. Any prowess eluded him, from hunting to healing, and even he did not know where his talents lied. Dante had a point. Finding a life course would give the youth some purpose... but the task was daunting for the little Sveijarn,

"Okay," he told his new alpha, a tentative conviction in his voice. Defending the pack... hunting for his peers. Would he be capable of such great deeds someday? The waif gave a small nod to Dante, wanting so badly to say 'I won't let you down,' but lacking the confidence to do so. "I will learn," he said, settling upon an optimistic promise in lieu of a stronger dogma.

they should have another sometime :)

He was nervous, but willing. Dante on the other hand had few worries. In time he would find where he shone, even if that lay in neither hunting not fighting. There were plenty of useful skills and pretty much all were well represented in the plateau. Even if not officially in the form of trades.

"I'm sure you will. And I'm here if you have questions or advice. I may be alpha, but I'm also a counselor, so I can always find time." He considered being there for his packmates the most important part of his job. Should Valtyr come, he would assist as best he could.