Redhawk Caldera soup

As it turned out, a Caldera was a mountain without a peak. Instead of a jagged top, Grimm found herself at a vast, glassy lake. The slopes of the stout rock were gloriously verdant, if a little tough to navigate, and the newcomer had already spotted several nooks that would make a good first home.

But right now, she wanted to explore - and meet her pack mates. Peregrine had disappeared to attend to his hopefully pregnant mate (boo), leaving the black wolf and her luminous sock to seek out company on her own.

It seemed to be time for Somnia attempt another solo-hunt for smaller prey such as rabbits and squirrels, as the last three had failed. The scent that hit her nose was not prey however, but a predator. Maybe not an enemy, but quite possibly so. Hunting could wait, there was a wolf to find.

Finding the wolf wasn't too hard for Somnia, as it turned out she was nearby. The dark figure quickly came into view. Somnia let out a bark before parading over with her head and tail held high. Was this one of the Caldera's newest members? The scent she bore had the smell of forest, covered by the scent of the Caldera, and lingering traces of Peregrine. "I'm assuming you're one of the newest recruits?" Somnia asked, keeping her tone neutral.

It didn't take long for a fellow Caldera-dweller to find her. A high-ranking wolf, if her posture was anything to go by, and Grimm lowered her own tail and ears in accordance with the rules of their kind. She shuffled forward, stretching out her neck to sniff at the aura of scent that surrounded Somnia and inviting the more established female to have a good snuffle around.

"Name's Grimm. Peregrine accepted me earlier today," she offered by way of introduction, eager to make friends.

Somnia took Grimm's word for it that Peregrine had let her join. Peregrine's scent did linger on her, so he had to have either chased her off or let her join. Seeing as Grimm wasn't wounded, Somnia had no reason to believe the former.

Somnia's dominant posture relaxed. She was highest ranked after the Alphas and Betas, but she also found no reason to assert that unless the wolf was a stranger near Caldera lands. Her tail now dropped and chin no longer pointing skywards, Somnia introduced herself. "Welcome to Redhawk Caldera. My name is Somnia. Anything you need help with?"

Somnia's relaxed her stance, but her tone remained official beyond the welcome. If Grimm had known what a hotel was, she would have likened her pack-mate to a starched concierge. But they were strangers, and perhaps Somnia had a stronger sense of social boundaries.

"Hey, thanks," the newbie replied, grinning widely at her new superior. "No no, I'm good... just having a look around, meeting peeps. What's the Alpha's wife like? Peregrine said there are puppies on the go. Is she massive yet?"

Grimm asked about Fox, and if she were pregnant yet and whatnot. "Well," Somnia started, "The process that will get her pregnant is going on, if you know what I mean." The pheromones in Fox's scent were enough to tell you she was in heat, but maybe Grimm hadn't ventured close enough to the two Alphas yet to catch the scent. "A little warning, don't seek them out until after it's over. Peregrine almost attempted to kill me before he realized it was me when I brought some food for their cache."

Continuing on to the other aspects of Fox, "Fox is small and orange. She's more along the lines of fierce, but not towards pack-mates.... It would be very amusing to see her get humungous." Just the thought of her waddling around with a gigantic stomach made Somnia chuckle.

"A little warning, don't seek them out until after it's over. Peregrine almost attempted to kill me before he realized it was me when I brought some food for their cache."

Grimm grimaced and nodded - that kind of mating behaviour wasn't unusual. It certainly explained the tense state of limbo that the pack seemed to be in, waiting for the Alpha pair's bits to come to some kind of agreement. Fox would balloon, want nothing more to do with her horny mate, and things would be relatively normal again until the whelps popped out. It was good news for the pack, but Grimm wasn't particularly thrilled; puppies were hard work, and demanded huge amounts of attention from every single member of the pack. For at least six months, their care would be top priority.

Grimm sat down, wrapping her tail around her white hind leg. "I'll steer clear of of Small 'n' Orange and her baby-daddy until she's definitely preggers, then.. is this her first lot? My brothers' mates went totally nuts for the first few weeks. One of them puked every time she smelled acorns, and the other one became totally obsessed with poop - she would squirrel it away and eat it when she thought I wasn't looking. It was so gross."

Somnia gave a nod when Grimm asked if this would be Fox's first lot... If she got pregnant after all. There was a chance that nothing could come of her heat. It seemed that Peregrine was doing his best to minimize those chances, but it still was a possibility.

Grimm also noted some of the weird side effects that her brothers' mates had with pregnancy. The puking Somnia could understand, but eating poop?! How could one come up with a logical explanation for that? "I guess I'm lucky then. My brothers left before they got any of their mates pregnant. I never even saw them once, now that I think about it. Father had vetoed the idea of them joining the pack. The only sign that they hung around was their scents -- near the borders and on my brothers."

"I d'no, it was pretty hilarious to watch," Grimm conceded, and listened with twitching ears when Somnia explained the setup of her own family. In her case, the men in the family departed to procreate - Grimm's had lingered.

"So why are you here? Seems like nobody in this pack is related.. is that normal?" She stood up, stepped towards the edge of the water and poked her tongue at it. It was so cold that she gagged.

"I'm not entirely sure if it's normal or not. I know that Peregrine and Fox started this pack not too long ago so that they start their own family. I guess a bunch of others, including me, came along and got accepted in." Whether it was normal or not was up to the traditions of the wolf, Somnia decided. If you were raised in a pack with just your family it didn't seem normal, but if you weren't then it could be seen as normal.

"I guess it depends on the wolf and their past experiences." That summed it up pretty good.

Somnia was very level. The newcomer watched her weigh up one tradition against the other and declare that both were acceptable, whilst Grimm herself found the concept of a rag-tag bunch of strangers shacking up together utterly bizarre. Not bad - just strange, and even a little unsafe. Peregrine hadn't even performed a background check.

"Sooo..how do they know they aren't letting in any psychos?" she pressed, pulling her head away from the water. Somnia had remained relatively still throughout their conversation, no doubt observing the new recruit carefully. "Peregrine said I was on probation - is there a test?" Said in a gently mocking, but not unkind tone.

"That's a good question." How did they know if any new recruits were psychos? "I guess most psychos wouldn't bother with joining. If they wanted to do harm to the pack, they just usually come across the borders looking for a fight. I guess new recruits don't get labeled 'possible psychos' unless they show signs of it. And no, you don't have any test. As long as you prove yourself to be an alright member you'll be perfectly fine." That was the gist of it. It would've been amusing had there actually been some sort of test though.

"Bizarre," Grimm declared. Even though it was not the reason for asking, Somnia saw fit to assure her that her place at the Caldera was safe as long as she behaved. Peregrine had said much the same thing. So far, it had been easy - but Grimm had yet to meet the hormone-riddled lady of the house. "Let's make a test - for fun. I'll use it next time there's a loner at the borders, just to see what they say to get in. Let's see..." Grimm sat back down and frowned at her dark forepaws. "Ah! You're a snail. What colour is your shell, and why? And then look really seriously at them like it's super important."

Somnia laughed at Grimm's test. Then, she decided to try her hand paw at it. "Brown, so that I would be less conspicuous on the ground towards birds trying to eat me... But what if the ground wasn't dirt? Then the color would have to be green, for grass." She got even more confused as the prospect of living on rocks came to mind. In that case, it would have to be grey. "What about you?"

Somnia's answer was predictably sensible. She was most assuredly not a psychopath - or perhaps she was a smart one, that knew what answers to give in order to fit in. Grimm narrowed her eyes playfully at the subject of her interrogation, ignoring the question being given back to her. "This is where I would say.. oh-em-gee, you would be a brown snail? That is so last year that I cannot even - move on, you are clearly not a good fit for this high-fash pack." She laughed a nerdy, guffawing laugh, nearly choking on her own tongue in the process. "Can you imagine their face? We have to do it. Unless they're handsome. Obvs." Yes, obvs.

That didn't sound too bad, as long as the wolf trying to join knew it was a joke. "Their face would be amusing! I don't see any harm in it as long as the victim knows it's a joke, but I can't speak for anyone else." Most of the pack seemed to have a good sense of humor. The only wolves who might disapprove that came to mind would be Elwood and Peregrine, possibly Fox, but they all had their funny moments too.

Then, an idea struck. "Who says you have to do it only to wolves trying to join? You might have to alter ending a bit as they're already in the pack, but you could do it to pack-mates as well! I don't know if you've met Ashton yet, but you should totally ask him that question whether you find him handsome or not!" It didn't matter if she found him handsome or not, even if Grimm found Ashton handsome Somnia would make sure nothing came of it.

Now she was getting it. Grimm's tail lashed across the ground like a convulsing snake as Somnia detailed her plans, and her new Caldera comrade nodded vigorously in response. "I will! I might come up with a whole slew of questions and pretend I'm running a survey..." Grimm's eyes became devious slits as she pondered the possibilities, but widened again when her brain bid her backtrack through the conversation. "Wait, is Ashton handsome? Who's Ashton?"

A smirk crept across Somnia's face as Grimm suggested she might end up coming with a bunch of questions to pretend she was running a survey. She had suggested that Grimm ask Ashton the snail question because Ash could be very interesting at times. How the equally spontaneous hippie would reply to Grimm's spontaneous questions was an unpredictable, yet amusing, thought to dwell on.

Then Grimm asked who Ashton was and if he was handsome. In Somnia's eyes, he was, but she didn't want to openly admit it if it would bring competition over the hippie. She hesitated, unsure of whether to say he was, say it was a matter of opinion, or to just say he wasn't. In the end, her answer was "Maybe." To follow up and hopefully bring attention off of it, Somnia explained who Ashton was. "He has sand-colored fur. He's also a Healer."

But Grimm wasn't stupid. Somnia's 'maybe' represented a subtle break from the wolf she had come to know over the past half hour - she had answered her questions about Fox and Peregrine openly and without restraint, but her assessment of Ashton's physical qualities were markedly restrained. Grimm seized on it like a dog with a bone.

"Ooooohh.." she cooed, smiling broadly at the woman across from her. "Does he know you like him? I know a thing or two about matchmaking, so.." Not true. Not even slightly true - Grimm was about as accomplished as a matchmaker as Fox was tactful, but if claiming to be skilled in the art of romance brought her closer to her pack-mates, then so be it.

Grimm picked up on Somnia's feelings for Ashton. A question of if he knew she liked him, as well as knowledge of Grimm being a good matchmaker was thrown her way. "Yeah, he does." That was all Somnia said on the matter. In truth, Ashton even liked her back. But on the other hand, she was as inexperienced as it got when it came to relationships, so nothing except a few sloppy kisses and a tickle-fight had happened between the two of them.

Somnia's admission fished an unusually girlish squeal from Grimm's lungs. She practically bounced where she sat, thrilled by the news - she was loathe to admit it, but Grimm loved gossip. In a small, family-run pack, news was thin on the ground - here, the possibilities were endless. There were over a dozen wolves here, and she knew nothing about them - there were veritable tomes of discovery to be made. "And?" she pressed, leaning forward.

Seeing as how the first one Somnia told had been into the gossip portion of it, *cough cough* Peregrine *cough* she wasn't too fazed by Grimm wanting to know more details. "We had a tickle fight?" One of the biggest accomplishments after learning that the romantic interest feeling was mutual, right? No, not really.

"We had a tickle fight?"

Grimm gave Somnia an suspicious look. "..so..a sexy tickle-fight?" In her mind, two consenting adults with known feelings for one-another could enter into no other brand of tickle-fight. It was a slippery slope - legs everywhere, heat, accidental touching of naughty bits.. Grimm had never known a tickle-fight to end with both parties simply standing up, thanking each other for a jolly good time, and parting ways.

Had the tickle-fight been sexy? Ashton had tickled her while she flailed around helplessly... That didn't sound too sexy. "Maybe...?" With a downcast sigh, Somnia laid down. "I fail at being romantic and all that stuff, if you haven't noticed." No use trying to hide it, as it was the, very evident in her mind, truth.

Somnia breathed a sigh and sank to the ground. Grimm's grin threatened to split her head in two. "I don't think that was a sexy tickle fight," she told her obviously inexperienced sister in a matter-of-fact tone, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. "You'd know when it's one of those." Go on, ask me about it!