Kintla Flatlands the body

From a distance, it looked like like one of those black phase foxes. Pura watched it move helplessly in the snow for nearly an hour, waiting for the fight to survive to drain its energy for an easy kill. When he could barely detect movement, Pura picked his way down the steep edge of the plateau and made his way slowly towards the unfortunate creature.

But it wasn't a fox. Lying in the snow, feeble and bleeding profusely from a savagely amputated leg - was a wolf. One of his own, still alive. She was smaller than he was, with dark, mottled fur and a vacant look in her half-open eyes. They were orange, he saw. Bright as a sunset, but obviously fading. Every attempt she made to right herself forced blood out of the stump and the dying girl would fall back again, gasping for air.

Slowly, cruelly, she died. Pura watched. For a long time after the final hiss of air passed through her throat, he watched.

When he eventually wended his way back to the Plateau, it was with the unknown wolf's entire face in his belly.

Feel free to find the body. :D

Rather than making a new thread for @Twister @Szechuan and @Sweet Tooth I thought this event thread of Karm's would be an excellent place for Saena to encounter them. Karm, if you intended Pura to be in this one, feel free to keep on posting!

The flatlands were quiet as Saena trooped through the thick snow. She held her tail straight behind her and moved at a quick clip with erect ears, each held opposite the other so she had approximate 360 degree coverage. Reporting the disfigured cannibal wolf to Dante wasn't enough to keep her or her pack safe in open ground. She was uncomfortable out here like she'd never been before, and would be all too happy to cross the threshold of home.

Her trot carried her up a squat hill, and that was when she saw a dark figure collapsed on the ground. Concern caused her heart to skip a beat as Saena hastened her steps. She reached the dark wolf from behind, expecting to find a loner merely resting there with her head turned away. "Hey, it's not safe here," she said softly, "there are cannibals..."

But the dark wolf didn't respond. She didn't even stir in acknowledgement. Saena frowned and padded around the dark body, ready to ask more loudly if she'd been heard, but she stumbled back in soundless horror when she realized this wolf was dead. Not only that, but it was completely faceless and, like with Honey Badger, it was the work of a wolf.

When she regained her clarity, Saena's scream pierced the quiet air, shrill and terrified.

Being vague because I don't want to reference the STM thread. I keep a very loose timeline so if the others need to figure out when its set, that's fine. :)

The scream gathered his attention immediately.

For a moment, the malinois was removed from where he was, suddenly dumped back on scorching sands beneath a relentless sun. He bolted without thought towards the source of the sound, running to the aid of what he thought was a wounded individual. He crested the hills easily because of the adrenaline, but the pangs of an empty stomach drug him back into the reality that was all around him.

By then, it was far too late to consider evading the scene that lied ahead of him. Another wolf, two in fact, but one had certainly been through its extent of pain and suffering. It was faceless, and fresh. His head held low for a moment as he kept to the fringes of the scene, leery that this time he was alone. Calling up for others would do him no good, as the last two attempts against or towards any sort of wolf or wolves had only drawn more of them.

But Twister knew he had been seen and heard.

Also somewhat vague. Apparently Szech considers Twister an ally? OK!

The bitch bludgeoned her way across the terrain, doing her best to keep up with the more streamlined shepherd. Some level of trust had been extended towards the mottled creature, mostly because of its skill with tracking - as this was something Szechuan lacked, it was profitable to her to linger nearby at all times. Thus when the shepherd began to roam farther and farther from the little horde, Szech did her best to keep up.

When the scream pierced the air, she paused and stood alert for a moment; then, as soon as Twister was moving, she moved as well. They moved quickly, while Szechuan was sluggish and heavy in her steps. But she did make it to the point of origin, eventually. When she reached it - or quite nearly reached it - she spied the dark dog inspecting some kind of lump. The scent of wildness was everywhere, along with the stench of blood (although Szechuan was used to that by now).

Poised outside of Twister's periphery, Szechuan did not know what to make of the scene. She waited, alert and cautious, for any sign of other life.

Woop sorry for the wait, thought Sweet Tooth would be joining!

When Saena's scream died on the wind, she was still frozen in place, staring at the maimed face of the wolf. Only when the sound of snow crunching underfoot reached her cupped ears did the female stumble back, frightened that it was the one who committed this heinous crime in the first place. She hurried backward, stumbling awkwardly, and froze when the malinois crested a rise and moved to investigate the body.

For the time being, Saena must've been unseen, but moving would give her away. Her fear nearly tripled when another mutant wolf arrived, similar to the first and yet different, with a brindled coat rather than the simple beige-and-black of the first wolf. Saena wanted to turn and run back to the safety of her pack—these two were not as mutated as the first she'd come across, but they were distinctly not normal.

Knowing that moving would give her away anyway, the female peeled back her lips and loosed a snarl, followed by what came across impressively as a command even though she was practically shitting her pants: "get away from there, you cannibals!"

Just as quickly, he became aware that someone else had joined him. A cursory glance revealed Szechuan; the malinois did nothing to acknowledge that he had seen her other than a slight turn of his dark ear. If he had been anywhere near surprised by this, his interest in the wolf betrayed any sign of it. In truth, he was a little bit surprised any one had followed him, but in the days following their great van escape, the small roving herd of canines had begun to break up. In their desperation, Twister suspected some of them had continued to die.

Unsurprisingly, the wolf screamed and garbled at them. It was a command in poor form and left the former military dog chuckling at her fleeting attempt. Get them to move? Unlikely. Negatory. "What are you doing to do about it, wolf?" he taunted, realizing that with Szechuan there, they at least had a chance to give her a little shit back. "What do you care if we eat your leftovers or not?" To him, she seemed plump enough. She'd survive without the remains of her friend there. Of course, he was presuming that she was willing to eat it herself — her behavior now made him feel as though she had made an even poorer attempt to summon the others of her pack.

While the wild-dog creature demanded that they leave, and Twister responded with her own sharp tongue, Szechuan was silent. She was very interested in the lump now, and with the two other canines busy with one another, she was eager to approach for some investigation. It didn't bother her so much when she discovered the dead creature was also a canine - it had no face, was clearly dead and somewhat desiccated despite being fresh. It was meat, though. Dead and available. She couldn't get as close as she'd like because of the pale wild-dog guarding the kill, and this bothered her; her stomach growled, and that became a full-throated warning to the wolf. Both she and Twister were hungry — and Szechuan was not interested in asking for anything.

"My leftovers?" she disbelieving exclaimed while wrinkling her nose. What sort of sick game was this? Any wolf worth their hide knew that eating their own kind was a taboo. Maybe these mutant wolves didn't have a lick of sense, either. It seemed pretty likely that they were equally as insane as the stockier bitch that attacked her. No doubt if Saena thought about it too long, she would find herself going in circles trying to figure out if Twister's words were meant to deceive or if it really had been another of their ilk who had done this.

The brindled one growled at her and Saena slicked back her ears and snarled right back. "You sick fucks. Maybe you should go find your friend who killed this wolf, maybe she'll feed your sorry, cannibalistic asses, but you can fuck right off of this one." When it came down to it, she knew she would run—did she really have any other choice?—but there was a small, fiery streak in her that thought she might be able to bluff her way out of this situation, and prevent this wolf's body from being desecrated any further than it already was.

She reminded him of a cornered animal, or at the very least reminiscent of some of the cowering dogs he had seen within the confines of the cages and rooms of the laboratory. Cornered, but not without a feisty temper that left an ember they had all used to fight with. For some of them, those embers were snuffed out easily. For others, it had never truly went out but remained smoldering. He laughed at her attempt to tell them to step off. Twister had no plans to, not while she wanted to play the cornered animal card.

"Our friends share their kills, and no wolf is a friend of ours," he answered crisply and cold with a flash of his jagged teeth. He anticipated her fighting them for it, as though there were some meaty morsel in there that would give them the gift of titans and renew them. "So how about you take your pretty little self and fuck off, lest you want to join the pile in front of you." If these wolves wanted to label them cannibalistic, then so be it. He could do it, seeing how they were greedy enough. A few less of them would make it easier on them.

The two bantered, and with each syllable expressed Szechuan became more impatient. She didn't care what it was that they fought over - she just wanted to consume. To eat, heal, and survive. If that meant tearing apart a canine, then so be it; had it been Twister's dead body, Szechuan would have consume it as well. It didn't matter one bit to the weary girl.

The wolf continued to put up a fight - at least verbally - and as Twister gave in to her bickering with further bickering of their own, Szech snapped. She barked a deep sound from her chest and advanced upon the dead animal, casting a glower at the pale wolf with the strange dog-like markings; and with each step, a heavy growl rose in strength within her. Move, now. She was saying. Move now or you'll be dinner too.

"That's because you're no wolf," Saena snarled at the speaking mutant, before redirecting her gaze to Szechuan. She wasn't compelled to leave just yet; part of her wanted to believe these mutant creatures were unable to best the strength of a wild wolf, and yet she subconsciously knew it wasn't true. A single step from either of them would be enough to send her running back to the Plateau, but she held onto the hope that they might not call her bluff.

She lifted her crown a little higher and returned her own deep growl, complete with an agonistic pucker to warn them from getting any closer. Of course, all three of them knew already that her display wasn't going to win out. A wolf's warning only worked against one other wolf; even the strongest of her species wasn't capable of taking on two larger canids. Nevertheless she held on, hoping for them to falter just a little, if nothing else.

Falter they would not — at her mocking little display towards them again, Twister decided he had enough. He sprung forward towards the corpse between them, pulling his dark lips back in the form of a snarl. She was nothing more than a young wolf against two dogs; dogs that had seen the inwards of a hell she would never grace. A hell than for most would have turned their meager little lives into heaven in an instant. And if nothing else, he was confident that Szechuan would back him up just as much as she had already.

Skipping Schezuan just to wrap this up. Sorry, Java!

Her bluff was called.

The brindled male with the tall ears lurched forward, and Saena scuttled back, her heart racing as adrenaline shot through her system. Without a second glance at the dog or the bitch, the young wolf threw herself to the side, then whirled and began to run. She ran until she was within Blacktail's borders, and when she had a higher vantage point, she sat on the edge to watch the cannibals rip the poor corpse apart.

After a short while of watching this, the girl turned away, retched, and then padded weakly into the woods in hopes of forgetting all about it.

fading this out. :)

She took off, disappearing into the undergrowth in a flash of light. Twister thought he spied her once more through a flash of woodland on the distant horizon, but it was all for naught. He found he didn't care and once she was gone, he turned back to the corpse that lied with interest. Hunger gnawed at him and thoughtlessly, he felt it was necessary that they take advantage of whatever they could find and hunt. With only a look to Schezuan, he set to tearing into what remained of the creature, of this wolf that had met some unfortunate end. But it wasn't unfortunate for them, not in the slightest, because everything in that wilderness was about survival of the fittest. It was a home geared for the wolves, not for the mutts that had come about and ended up in what Twister surmised as a godforsaken place.

Once their feasting had commenced and ended, he made haste to disappear into the flatlands with Schezuan in tow.