Redhawk Caldera say good-bye to those who knew me.

"Okay, now THIS one, this is seriously the one this time, for real, I swear," Fin barked merrily over her shoulder to her companion. It had taken a while, but after a few (numerous/many) completely wrong guesses, she finally found the exact crevice in the mountainside that would lead her and the loyal gamma to the super awesome place Finley had discovered within the mountains just a few days before.

The beta crept swiftly through the tunnel, hardly hesitating as the terrain rose and fell on its journey down into the deep until finally, space opened into the beautiful, glittering underground ice rink. Her tail wagging furiously, Finley bounded towards the smooth, slippery ground with a happy yip, "Yes! This is it! I told you!" And, as probably everyone reading this expected, but Fin certainly hadn't, the moment her forepaw hit the icy ground was the moment she fell and smashed into the ground, landing with a yelp and sliding across the ice.

Finally, Fin slid to a stop and was able to open her eyes. Her head was spinning, but she nevertheless looked back at @Somnia with a wide grin. "Cool, right?" she barked, her tail wagging as she laid there with her belly upon the frigid surface.

Finley had found something interesting after their last failed exploration. After misguiding them for a bit, Fin finally found what she had discovered a few days ago. Somnia had followed her around like a dog, silently waiting and giving encouraging smiles while Fin struggled to refind her discovery. But at last, here it was.

This tunnel led to something really interesting. There was a large open area with a floor made of ice. Somnia watched as Finley slipped and slid across the ice. "You alright?" She questioned. The Beta seemed alright, as she was grinning at her, tail wagging, and asking if it was cool. "Yeah! It's amazing!"

Somnia was still reluctant to go on ice with her fall through the lake earlier in the winter, but this ice seemed more stable. She reluctantly took a step out, making Finley not the only fool. Once all four paws were on the ice, her legs started sliding outwards, leaving her to try and bring them closer. Eventually, her legs got spread out too far and she landed on her stomach on the ice.

Somnia's claws got a little traction, and she used the claws on her front paws to pull herself forward until she was next to the Beta. "I wonder where all the water came from before it froze to ice." She mused.

Fin shook her head to brush off Somnia's concern. "Oh yeah, I'm fine," she assured the girl as she pulled herself back up onto wobbly legs. "When Elwood and I were here, we must've fallen at least a hundred times each," she said with a chuckle as she remembered. She peered down at the ice below her feet as she attempted to steady herself and then to take a few sliding steps forward. She had seemed to get the hang of it by the time they'd left the first time, but this was a skill one had to re-learn each time apparently.

Her ears twitched as she heard Somnia fall and she shot the girl a sympathetic grimace. She'd been there for sure, but the gamma would too get the hang of it with some practice. With some unsteady faltering, Somnia managed to get her footing enough to slide up beside her.

The question she posed was one that Fin hadn't given much thought to before, again a testament to the two very different ways their minds worked. Fin gave a little shrug, "I dunno. Maybe rain water collected down here over the warmer seasons from that big hole in the ceiling." She gestured skyward with her muzzle at the long split in the ceiling. Likely if they were to explore the ground above, they would find the tracks of a stream that lead right into the crevice, but Fin hadn't had any interest in exploring the world above any further since she'd found that there were such treasures underground.

So Finley had been down here before with Elwood. The thought of her two friends down here were pretty amusing. Then, thoughts of what it would be like to have all of the wolves in Redhawk Caldera down here at the same time came to Somnia. Fifteen wolves slipping and sliding... It would be complete chaos!

When Finley answered her question, Somnia looked up at the ceiling for the first time. Finley's theory made perfect sense, and was probably correct. "Yeah," Somnia agreed before continuing on, "But then in the warmer seasons, wouldn't this become an indoor swimming pool? I guess it would depend on how thick the ice was."

Getting a little more adventurous, the Gamma pushed off gently with one of her back legs, moving a few feet before slowing to a stop. With a bit more experimenting, Somnia figured out that she could push off with her hind legs, and steer with the front, as long as her legs didn't decide to slip out from underneath her.

Fin's ears shifted backwards as she put on a thoughtful expression. "That would be pretty neat!" she exclaimed with a wag of her tail. She could just imagine the whole pack down here together, lounging by the water, sipping on cocktails. The beta sighed gently and frowned at her paws. Snow was pretty and fun and all, but ohhh to be warm again, sprawled out under the sun... That was the time of year Fin by far preferred. Although she did enjoy cold weather snuggles.

As Somnia began to scoot around the ice using her back legs as propellers, Fin decided to sniff around at the dark edges of the ice rink which she hadn't paid much attention to when shed been there with Elwood. She shuffled carefully towards the inky blackness, her nose stretched out towards it while slowly her body faded into out and out of the crack of sunlight that lit up the rest of the room.

"Hey, you dare me to awaken the monster that dwells in the deep?" she called out to Somnia, smirking. She didn't really believe in such things herself, but that didn't stop her from seeking them out whenever she got the chance.

It would be epic if the ice rink turned into a swimming pool. They could host an exclusive pool party for the Redhawk Caldera members. The chaos that they would cause would be awesome! Somnia wouldn't have been surprised if they somehow figured out a way to have a chicken fight, even though it seemed close to impossible with them being wolves and all.

Somnia watched Finley skate away. The light from the crack only extended to a certain point, and the Beta was beyond that point. The sounds of her skating, as well as her voice, were the only clues that Finley was still there. "Go ahead, but I'm ditching you the second I can if it decides to eat you."

If there was a monster that wanted to eat Finley, Somnia wouldn't actually ditch the Beta. It was just some playful teasing, but it didn't matter anyway. It wasn't like there was an actual monster, right?

A grin at Somnia's response slipped across Fin's muzzle as she nosed about in the black. "You just better hope you can run faster than me on this ice," she quipped back good-naturedly. If they did get attacked, Fin of course would barrel straight into their attacker without a moment's thought. After all, that's how she handled things that weren't attacking her, so she wouldn't dare turn and run when there was the potential of actually getting a good fight out of it.

Which reminded her, it was probably high time for another little excursion...

Fin paused as her path became obstructed by a wide cluster of stalagmites and tites and stacs and whatever, big crystal bobbers shooting up from the ground. She squinted into the darkness, but saw nothing but solid wall just beyond the pillars of ice. With a disappointed frown, she angled herself to stride along parallel to the wall, hoping to find some other path further into the black.

Somnia running on the ice, whether it was faster than Fin or not, was just about impossible. If she were lucky, she might be able skate away, but definitely not run. "I guess I should practice my skating then. I don't know about you, but I'm not going anywhere but down if I try to run." Somnia replied with a grin.

Somnia did start skating around after that. At first it was a small circle near the middle of the icy floor. The circles slowly got bigger as her confidence grew. Slipping and falling a couple times was inevitable, but the frequency of it decreased. You should also tell me if you find anything, so I can be ready to skate away if you wake the monster."

Next in Somnia's skating routine was to skate in a gigantic circle around the edge of the entire rink. She kept track of how many times she passed Finley before the Beta found something, and offered weird faces to her every time she passed, should Finley be turn to look.

Fin smiled at Somnia's response, but didn't say anything further. She quickly became to distracted with exploring the dark outer edges of the room. Even though there wasn't much to find, she skated eagerly along, sticking her muzzle into every nook and cranny while nostrils twitched madly.

It took her a couple of circuits before she realized that Somnia was making faces at her with every pass, but once she did, she began to return the favor on kind. It turned into a sort of game where Fin would keep herself turned away as though she wasn't going to turn this time around, then at he last possible second, she'd shoot her friend a crazy cross-eyed stared with her lips peeled back over just her top front teeth.

The mental images I get! xD

Finley didn't notice her doing it for her first few rounds, or if she did, she did a very good job hiding it. On one of Somnia's rounds, Finley suddenly shot her a funny face. She continued on with that lap, although she did a weird combo of chuckling, laughing, and snorting. It quickly became a game. Finley wouldn't look at her until the last second, and Somnia tried to make a new face every time.

But one could only make so many different faces before not knowing what ones you've used and what ones you hadn't used. And so, on her umpteenth lap around, - she had stopped counting at this point, - Somnia skated to a stop right behind Finley. She lowered herself about an inch, so that she was now Finley's height. She stayed there, Finley's own crazy expression plastered on her face. Now, Fin just had to turn around.

Finley waited for Somnia to come around, her mind reeling to try to come up with what to do next with her face. Deciding a nice buck-tooth, drooly face might do the trick, she tensed her muscles in preparation for a quick turn. After a moment, she sensed that Somnia was near. Even though something seemed off about this turn, Fin was too excited to even notice as she twisted her head to where she thought Somnia was about to appear. The girl wasn't there, however... She paused for a moment, confused. Once she tilted her head a few more inches, her gaze finally fell upon her friend, who was crouched right behind her.

Fin jumped backwards in surprise, her eyes opening wide and her lips parting. "Oh Shi---!" she barked as she leaped backwards. Almost immediately, she yelped out in pain as her tailbone connected hard with one of the pointy, rocky, shiny things that jutted out of the ground towards the ceiling. A loud crack sounded and for a moment, Finley wasn't certain if it was her butt or the stalagmactitamabobble, so intense was the pain. She nearly tripped as she stumbled backwards, but when she regained her balance and looked down, it was the long crystal she found between her front paws, thus solving the mystery for her as to what exactly she had broken.

In that instant, her pain was forgotten as she cried out "Oh my gosh, look at it!" to her companion. She lowered her nose to sniff at the cold formation, stepping back as it began to roll towards Somnia after an accidental nudge from the beta's muzzle.

Finley's reaction had been better than what Somnia had suspected. The Beta swore and jumped backwards. The expression on her face though! Somnia burst out laughing for a second. Then, Finley's painful bark ended it. A loud crack also sounded, and her features went from jovial to worrisome.

Before she could ask if Finley was alright, she was rolling something to her. Somnia looked down at the broken stalagmite. "It's pretty..." She said before directing her attention back at Finley. "But are you alright?"

Somnia apparently didn't share Fin's all-consuming interest in the broken crystal for she quickly brought the conversation back to what had just happened rather than comment further on their new treasure. "Huh? Oh!" Fin replied, forgetting completely for just a moment what the gamma was even referencing, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little bum bruise, it's all good." She wagged her tail as if to prove her ass still worked just fine, then refocused her attention on the broken stalagmite (I give up on knowing which one is which).

"So you're saying that I'll have to scare you enough to hurt yourself worse next time?" Somnia teased. All was alright with Finley, so some light could be shed on the topic before she put it in storage. Her attention now shifted to the stalagmite. "It's pretty, but I wonder if it can be used for anything else... Besides helping my in my plans to kill my Beta." Okay, the topic in the storage unit of Somnia's mind had come back out, but so had a more conspicuous idea. Pretending that she was out to kill Finley for her position couldn't go wrong in any ways. Well, it could, but not as long as both wolves understood that this wasn't real.

She gave her friend a smirk, but as Somnia's attention shifted to their new treasure, so did Fin's. She listened quietly as her friend commented, quirking a brow as she mentioned a diabolical scheme that intrigued her (as did all diabolical schemes).

"You mad at Elwood too?" she asked, canting her head. She was mistaken in her belief that Somnia was talking about the beta male when she mentioned planning to kill a beta. After all, why would she want to kill Fin? The idea of Somnia wanting to usurp her was too ridiculous to enter her brain, even if it was all a joke. Killing Elwood, though? Given her opinion on that jerkface right now, she wouldn't have been surprised at all that someone wanted to murder him.

Somnia looked up in surprise at Finley as she mentioned Elwood. "No. What does being mad with him have to do-" Elwood was the other Beta; that was what being mad had to do with her playfully threatening to kill the Beta. "Wrong Beta, I meant you..... You're mad at him?" She quickly clarified before switching back to the Elwood topic.

How could anyone be mad at Elwood? Sure, a loner too close to the border may not think of the Warden as friendly, but a pack-mate thinking of him badly? As far as Somnia knew, he did all his duties, was loyal, and didn't do things that put him on pack-mates bad sides. Elwood had even managed to get the Beta position after being in the pack for only two months! Maybe that was why Finley was mad at him? Because she didn't want to share her position with him?

Somnia responded with surprise and confusion, causing Fin to cant her head lightly. When she corrected the beta's impression, a look of dawning realization spread across her face, quickly replaced as her friend questioned how she felt about Elwood at that moment. She gave a little shrug in response. It was a conversation she'd have with Fox in a heartbeat, but she and Somnia had never really spoken on that sort of level before. Was it prudent of a beta to bitch about her co-workers to a subordinate? Probably not, but was it something a friend would do with a friend? Absolutely.

"When Elwood and I were here the other day, I.. said some things and he got his panties in a bunch over it," she replied, rolling her eyes, "At least I think it was over what I said... Either way, he got all pissy and douchey and immature about it and totally up and ditched me without even saying good bye." Fin frowned and began to nibble gently on her bottom lip. She cast her gaze upon the silver gamma's face then, searching for either sympathy or shared indignance at what a jerkface Elwood was.

Fin's explanation sounded like something Elwood wouldn't do. But, Somnia also trusted Finley, and doubted that she would lie to her. Somnia also didn't want to take sides, especially since it was over something she didn't have all the details on. Had it been something silly and of no significance that they had disputed about with no ill feelings, chances were she would've sided with Elwood, had he been present. But, if Elwood was present and it had been an argument where feelings were hurt, such as this one, she would have to hear each side of the story before choosing a side. Elwood wasn't here to present his side, so Somnia couldn't choose a side. But at the same time, she wanted to show her friend sympathy.

"I'm sorry." Somnia started, taking a step closer to push her nose into Finley's shoulder fur as a sympathetic gesture for a quick moment before stepping back. "That just seems so unlike Elwood! I can't believe he would've acted that way. Maybe he just had a bad day? Or, he could be sensitive to some topics if he had bad experiences with them in the past. He still could've handled it better either way." While Finley was Somnia's friend, Elwood was also her friend. She couldn't just push one under a bus for the other, so giving Finley sympathy as well as a possible explanation to think over that wouldn't have been entirely Elwood's fault seemed the best way to not pick sides.

There it was! Sympathy. Good deal. Fin stifled the vindicated smile that teased her lips, figuring it probably wasn't a good hand to show. Instead, she continued to look indignant over Elwood's misdeeds, which Somnia was expressing surprise over. Fin nibbled softly on her lip, guilt creeping gently across her toes. Though she wasn't about to admit it, it wouldn't have been completely outlandish to think that what she'd said to him might've had something to do with his "bad day". But that didn't make any sense. Why would he get so worked up about being told not to fall in love with her?

Before her mind could wander too far down that path, Finley was shrugging and looking at Somnia again. "True that," she agreed with a nod of her head, "He is a boy though, so I guess I shouldn't expect too much of him." All boys sucked, that was one thing that couldn't be denied.

Somnia gave a smile at Finley's logic. It truly amused her, even if it just insulted all the males in the pack at once. "Yeah. The only reason why they exist is to help us keep the world populated!" She jested with a grin. It was unbeknownst to her that she could have just made the situation a bit awkward for Finley, as the squabble had been about Finley telling Elwood not to fall in love with her.

Fin gave a nod in response to Somnia's words, her expression suddenly going a little dreamy as she added a thoughtful "Mmm... populating..." She shook it off quickly enough by turning her gaze back down to the broken stalactite and poking at it with an alabaster paw. It seemed like forever since she'd had any... population attempts.... She missed it, having a night of fun, no strings attached... it seemed like ever since coming to the Wilds, there were strings all over the damn place.

The thought was fleeting, for soon Fin's focus had returned completely to their treasure. "You think it'll melt if we take it out of here?" she asked suddenly, "I kinda want to take it home." Actually, she wanted to keep it so she could show it to Elwood. Maybe chase him around with it like she was trying to harpoon him.

The wonders of 'populating' were still unknown to Somnia. She knew that someday she would like to be a mother, and she knew of the processes that had to happened in order to get pregnant. Even if she hadn't learned that before joining the Caldera (but she had), Fox and Peregrine had given a clear enough demonstration at the one packtivity to teach anyone the process. That process just didn't interest Somnia at the moment, and probably wouldn't until she got her first taste of lust when she went into heat for the first time.

Somnia studied the stalagmite for a few moments before answering. "It shouldn't, for I'm pretty certain that it's not made of ice. The pretty frost on it may melt and disappear, but the stalagmite should stay." A few moments' pause as she studied it for another moment. "What do you plan on using it for?"

Wanna fade this one out so I can guilt you into hopping into one of my newer open ones? :D

Fin peeked innocently at Somnia when the girl asked what her intentions were for the pointy hard thing. "Ohhh... I dunno..." she replied as a tiny grin curled around her lips, "Maybe we could break another one and give jousting a try." The thought made her giggle, but it was quickly replaced with the mental image of her dropping it on Elwood's head when he least expected... There were so many Wily Coyote type antics she could get up to with this thing. The possibilities were just mind boggling.

Okay! Whether you want to make another post or just end it with mine is up to you. ^.^

"Sounds fun, but I think we should save that for another day. I want to ice-skate some more before I get impaled by a stalagmite." And ice-skate Somnia would. She would continue to have fun here with Finley until the Beta left. That, or until night fell. Maybe someday she would like to slide around in the darkness, but for now she preferred being able to see into the darker edges of the rink.