Whitefish River Honeycomb

For @runt !

Despite the season being in the dead of winter, the afternoon was quite balmy. The rich lapis sky and warm sun helped lighten Valtýr's mood who, in light of a successful hint and the birth of Taltos and Blue Willow's pups, was in quite a good mood. Slowly the youth ventured out of his shell, feeling a bit more at home every day. Yet he was still a passive soul and tended to linger absently throughout the Blacktail territory. However, today the boy found himself following the river.

Whitefish River snaked around the rim of their home before heading south. The water was rife with ice drifts, though some waterfowl still made their home here. Valtýr watched with interest as he loped down the banks out of the pack territory and into Great Bear Wilderness.

After meeting Kesuk, Runt had gone and slept in a grassy clearing somewhere in the gorge. This morning she'd left in hope of more exploration near the gorge. She wandered alongside Whitefish River, watching a few white fish swim by in the calm clear water under a thin bit of ice. When she heard a faint sound, like a pawstep, her green eyes turned up to further down the river. Walking alongside it was a young multicolor boy. "Hello there, Dude." Runt said, trying her best to be respectful to the kid. Sometimes she could be rude and having someone be smaller than her for once, even if just by a bit, could make her prone to picking on the kid. But she controlled herself.

I fail at spreeing XD idk why I even try any more

Valtýr became entranced by the soft babbling of water under ice, sniffing the shore gingerly with a hungry curiosity. He enjoyed the solemn winter days. Their peace and quietude eased his anxiety. Alone, Val could truly be himself.

Suddenly, a voice pulled the adolescence out of his reverie. 'Hello there, dude,' a girl called with a self-assured swagger. Valtýr looked around sheepishly, as if he expected her to be talking to another wolf. Only then did he realize how far he had meandered from Blacktail Deer Plateau, and become terribly worried because of it. "H-hi," he mumbled back, tone lacking the confidence of another wolf his age.

i'm okay with not spreeing lol

The kid seemed to glance around in confusion before he realized she was talking to him. Then he replied with a timid stuttered hi. Runt felt a little bad for him and his lack of confidence, but she didn't mention it. "Where's your parent or guardian or somethin'? Shouldn't a kid your age have someone followin' them around and protectin' them? Ya look too young to be out for a stroll on your own." Runt told him with a questioning raise of her eyebrow. You didn't have to be a babysitter to see that this kid needed some older protecter. And she certainly didn't see or smell anyone nearby besides him.

Perhaps Valtýr should have felt a small fire if indigence burn in his gut - the want to retort and state that he was a teenager now and hardly in need of a babysitter. However, the Sveijarn was but a lamb and lacked the daring self-assurance most adolescents found innate. He ducked his head and smiled meekly towards the tawny she-wolf, bronze eyes flicking over the many marks on her pelt. "O-oh, I do?" he bumbled nervously, narrow body crumpled over in a stance of deference, "I was just following the river. My home isn't far. It's just there... you see?" Valtýr motioned over his shoulder towards the Plateau in the distance, its rise ascending the horizon.

His gaze turned back to the vagrant. "Are you alone, too?" the firstborn asked tentatively.

She smiled, her tan ears perked forward. "Yeah, ya do. Ya gotta watch out fo big bad wolves like me." She told the kid, rather enjoying this. That nervous little lone child amused the runt. She self-centeredly thought about how cool she'd been at his age, not all weird and nervous. "Right now I am. But I gotta pack in the makin', so I got wolves on my side. Not entirely alone in general. Plus I'm old enough to be out on my own."

"Like you?" Val parroted the waif, suddenly aware that the marked female could possibly be a threat. His amber ears slicked back as his gaze bumbled around before settling on a distant clump of snow. It was good for him that she chose to steer the conversation in a different direction.

A pack in the making? Valtýr hardly knew the politics of Teekon or the other packs which resides in the range. Only three came to his mind: Swiftcurrent, Duskfire, and Blacktailed Deer Pleateau... but the others eluded his knowledge. Curiosity suddenly tugged at him, and he indulged the stranger with questions, disregarding Runt's snide remark about her own independence. "A new pack? There are more of you? What's it like?" he asked cautiously with a stutter in his tone.

All she did was grin in response to his first question, which was just repeating what she said. Of course, she would never hurt some kid- she was not the slavemasters, and had no intention of following in their steps. She was just having fun. Runt didn't hesitate to answer his bombarding questions. "We're gonna be called Whitewater Gorge. And it's me, my friend Mara, and like... Four or five others. It's so pretty in the gorge!" She told the kid, needing to tell someone about the beauty of the Hidden Paradise, and shocked with it.

His tawny ears orbited towards her, newly engaged in their conversation as Runt described the purchase she planned to help stake out. Osprey had describe her home before, as well -- meadows by the sea -- and it sounded like elysium. Was Whitewater Gorge anything like that? The name implied what the terrain was, but Val pined for details. "Will you be the leader? What's your name?" He asked, head cocked to the side.

Well, not the leader... The co. Leader. That was okay with Runt, as long as she got the proper respect. "I'm Runt, Runt Northwind. Nah, Mara's the Alpha. But I'm the Beta, so you betta watch out!" She said to him with a wink and a grin. No longer making jokes about the danger of her, she just enjoyed corny and poorly made puns. "What's yours?" She asked the boy with a tilt of her head.