Ravensblood Forest dauntless

Not long after stranding "W" in the hot springs, Dauntless found her way into a deep, dark, restful forest. She scratched out a bed between the roots of a towering tree and fell asleep. When she woke, she didn't know how long she'd slept (nearly forty-eight hours) but she felt well-rested. She blinked, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at her majestically wintry surroundings.

The young she-wolf stiffly rose onto all fours, stretched and responded to an urgent call of nature. She then began wandering through the woods in search of water. She found a stream and Dauntless drank. It was perhaps the best drink of her life, though she really couldn't recall much of what had come before. Strangely, she wasn't too bothered about it. She accepted it calmly, living in the present moment only.

Next, she bathed. She didn't know how she'd acquired all these wounds but she inspected and washed each of them meticulously. Some she couldn't see, only feel. For instance, her cheeks seemed to be covered in scabs. Some of her bones ached. Funnily, her head felt light and clear and it was easy for her to concentrate on the task of cleansing herself. The water was painfully cold but it didn't deter her. She caught sight of her reflection but didn't look at it long, as it alone made her slightly uneasy.

Finally, she sought food. She felt a bit like a rusty machine as she wove through the trees, yet luckily hunting was all about instinct and muscle memory. A whole lifetime of conscious memories was not required. Dauntless dropped her nose to the cold forest floor, beginning by searching for the scent of prey.

Kovacs had barely set foot inside the bay itself. He was unaccustomed to living in such close proximity to the ocean, and the idea of willingly settling down in a rocky bowl with high cliffs on two sides and water on the third was not one that appealed. It was a tactician's nightmare, but Thistle and her mate didn't seem to think so. So he slept in Ravensblood Forest.

When he woke up, he wasn't alone. Kovacs blinked the sleep out of his dull eyes and remained still, watching the dark figure moving from his position on the forest floor. The seaside gusts did not reach this place, blocked by evergreen growth - the same foliage that shrouded him from view. She was hunting. He watched her sniff the forest floor, stare, creep - if she was after rabbits, all she need do was scare them into a frenzy; for whatever reason, the inhabitants of Ravensblood Forest were not smart.

Something tickled his nostrils. She was close now, this stranger, and in a rare fit of cruel humour he decided to allow the sneeze to come. Kovacs was not a wolf of dainty sneezes, and stupid though they were, the forest's prey was not deaf.

While he did spend most of his time inside of Stavanger Bay's territories, Charon had recently started to explore the nearby areas. He loved exploring; there were often adventures to be had outside of his pack's territories, and besides, so far he had had interesting meet-ups with other wolves outside of the Bay's territories. The youth was nearly four months old and with his lanky, growing body, he trotted through the forest with his nose near the ground, trying to catch the scent of something to hunt.

It took a while before he found anything, and Charon instantly lowered himself to the ground at the sight of a squirrel on the forest floor. Charon's tongue poked out in concentration as he waited close to the ground, getting ready to pounce. As he took a step forward, a twig cracked. The squirrel lifted its head and then raced away. Charon heard a sneeze echo through the forest as he came into motion, and he followed the critter through the forest a while before the squirrel darted up into a tree. Charon could barely stop himself from crashing into the tree and huffed as he looked up at his vanished prey.

His gaze followed the direction the sneeze had come from, and he looked at the wolf that had sneezed, which was standing not too far away. Charon grouchily looked at the wolf in an accusatory manner. "You made me lose it, stupid!" Charon shouted at the other wolf, which he didn't know, his words echoing through the forest. He'd lost the squirrel all on his own, of course, by making noise and not being fast enough, but nobody else needed to know that.

She hadn't gotten far when a sudden noisy commotion caused Dauntless to pause, eyes narrowing and ears pricking as she stood still. She heard the thump of footfalls, a loud sneeze, more pounding feet and then, at length, an angry shout. Dismissing her own vague annoyance at the thwarted hunting opportunity, she tracked down the noises and eventually came across two wolves: a mottled gray male with dull, burnished eyes and a blue-eyed youth with a unique dappling pattern on his powder white coat.

Considering the adult's size, she really doubted the shout had come from him, so Dauntless's yellow eyes shifted to the pup. "You tell 'im," she encouraged with a faint smirk, admiring not only the youngster's spirit but that beautiful pelt. Dauntless wondered if he belonged to the large male (his son, perhaps, or maybe a nephew), though there was no family resemblance whatsoever.

Kovacs and the woman in black weren't alone. A bleached twig of a wolf emerged from the woods, flinging accusations at his elder. "You made me lose it, stupid!" he snapped, taking no blame for his failed hunt. Kovacs turned his head to stare at the sour-faced little imp. He couldn't have been more than six months - most likely a wolf from the Bay, perhaps even one of Thistle's. Dauntless, on the other hand.

Without responding to Charon's anger, the titan moved slowly to stand between the two wolves, dull eyes fastened on the stranger's face. She had sharp, shrewd eyes - like a bird of prey, and aside from recent injuries, looked healthy. Fed. "Are you alone?"

Charon's anger was not answered, and instead was met with encouragement from a stranger. Charon turned his head to look at the female, who looked funny because of her colouration. He had never seen anyone who looked like that, with the black and the white divided. For a moment, he forgot that he had lost the squirrel and was angry at the sneezer for it (and in his mind, he really believed that he'd lost the squirrel because of the sneeze), as he stood watching the badger-like colouration in awe. It was a shame that she was wounded, which was a weird sight to Charon: Ragnar was the only one that he ever saw wounded before.

The other adult proceeded to ignore him and instead turned to look at the badger-coloured wolf with the injuries to ask her if she was alone. Charon turned to her and said, "What happened to you?" Then he hastily added, "Did you, uhm, want to please Odinn and hurt yourself as a sacrifice?" Large ears perked forward inquisitively, and Charon looked at her with unbridled curiosity and enthusiasm. As an afterthought the freckled youth added, "You look funny." Because some details were just too important to leave out.

The large adult confirmed her suspicions by stepping between her and the youth. Dauntless's eyelids fluttered and her nostrils flared, yet she did not react, at least not until he spoke to her. In response to his three words, the yearling shot him a look of mistrustful reproof. Her hackles began to prickle.

Then the child spoke and her attention refocused on him. "I don't—" she began to answer readily but it seemed he wasn't finished, so her teeth came together with a quiet click. Dauntless entirely misunderstood his question and her yellow eyes narrowed, now mistrusting the youngster as well. Are you alone? Do you want to sacrifice yourself? What kinds of wolves were these?

Taking two steps backward, Dauntless snorted and shook her head. "No, I would not. You look funny," she added petulantly, glaring at the dappled wolf. At first, she had considered him uniquely beautiful. Now, she was beginning to think those were the marks of some sort of evil. Perhaps this was even a trap, with the beautiful child used as a bait to lure her so the adult could get her on her own and sacrifice her to... what was it? Odinn?

"Stay away from me!" she snapped suddenly. So much for being dauntless. "I don't want to be a part of your hoodoo... witchcraft... bullshit," not-so-Dauntless spat.

The situation was quickly spiralling out of control. Insults passed between Charon and the black loner, occupying the precariously narrow space between jest and threat. All of a sudden, the stranger lost it. Without hesitating, Kovacs rumbled at the younger wolf to "Leave, now," before advancing on Dauntless with the very clear intention of driving her away.

Charon had no idea that his words could be interpreted in any other way than how he meant them. He did not understand why the stranger was so upset, and, because he knew very little about how scary the world could be (well, at least the world between wolves), Charon did not realise there could be any sort of danger at all. "Hey!" he retorted when the stranger called him funny, even though he had said the same thing about her.

'Hoodoowitchcraftbullshit' was something Charon had never heard of before, and he looked at the other wolf briefly to see if he knew. If he did, then he was not showing it.

Instead, he told Charon to leave. Charon's ears flattened and he did not understand at first, but when he saw both wolves' agressive body language, he knew something might be amiss. Instinctively inclined to listen to the wolf who smelled like home, Charon dashed past the Bay wolf, making to get away. However, instead of leaving all the way, he hid himself under a bush not far away. Poking his nose from under the brush, Charon hoped to be able to observe what was about to happen, his heart thudding in his chest.

PPing a bit by assuming Kovacs wouldn't stop her. I hope that's okay. I'm just trying to finish off her threads! :)

The adult didn't seem to appreciate her jibes in the least. He advanced toward her after issuing a command to the pup, which he promptly obeyed. Dauntless observed these events with narrowed eyes and flared nostrils. She did not make a move as the other wolf came toward her, though her peppered ears fell backward.

She stood there, glaring at him, for a long moment before deciding none of this was worth her time. Grumbling under her breath, the she-wolf turned away and loped off into the woods. She walked right past where the pup hid, without ever realizing he was there. They wanted nothing to do with her and she sure as hell wanted nothing to do with them. So she put as much distance between them as she could, just like she had done with "W."

Final post from me!

The maimed wolf scarpered. Kovacs watched her go for a long while, straining his ears until the sound of departing footsteps could no longer be heard. He vaguely noticed the youngster make a bid for the bushes, but with the threat gone, made no move to coax the boy out. He was free to roam - and Kovacs wanted to be alone. He punctuated the encounter with a horse-like snort and a rough shake of his head, and lumbered slowly into the forest.

thanks for the thread :-)

Charon ducked away when the wounded stranger came running right past him. He held his breath, and didn't release until he was sure that the stranger was gone. The wolf that had told him to run away seemed not to notice him — or didn't care — and moved away, leaving Charon alone under the brush. He stayed there for a little while, still feeling scared, before finally plucking up the courage to move.

As fast as his little legs could carry him, Charon started to run on home, his heart thumping in his throat after the scary things that had just happened.