Ouroboros Spine I have not winced nor cried aloud

For all of the Spine, set during Cara's thread! All are called! Rallying howl! @Ivitaruk @Echelon @Kroc @Loreley @Sinaaq @Ivev @Wyvern @Alusia @Sitri (titled wolfies) (EDIT: one round only, one post required :))

 

In the distance, there was a howl. It summoned. Tonravik heard it near the reaches of the territory she had not yet gotten to know so well that she would make it in good time. Instead, Tonravik moved toward a higher point of the territory, her pace quick. The pack, as a whole, had recently taken down a great meal together; under her leadership the wolves of the Spine were well fed on the eve the wolf who once ruled this place came again. 

Tonravik knew the softer wolves would go to her. She accepted their leaving from the get go, but none had left. They had stayed and taken up residence and now, would not be welcome should they not come to her then. The leader threw her head up and howled for her wolves, wolves she would never abandon or leave alone to any danger on their own. Tonravik was a leader that would stay with them.

Now, it was their time to call back. She had hunted with them, patrolled with them, and would fight tooth and claw for them. They were pack, now. She called to them to rally with her: the Spine is strong. Again and again she howled, tail rigid behind her as Tonravik beckoned those that would stay to come to her, to sing. She had known this time would come. And here it was. 

An unfamiliar howl summoned the Spine wolves, stirring a frown upon the copper wolf’s features. His initial instinct was to seek out the caller – knowing it to be the wolf who had abandoned her stead, and yet Tonravik’s own howl echoed across the lands instead, halting his pace. A low growl seeped past his lips, but he knew better than to continue against her word. Pulling back, the large male loped quickly in the direction of the swarthy she-wolf, his brown eyes questioning as he came upon her.

But he did not openly voice anything. Instead, his form was rigid – displeased by this outcome, and yet thankful it had finally occurred. Now, they would know who would continue forward with the pack as it was, and those who would return back to the uncertainty that was their allegedly flighty leader. He had met none of them – and so he trailed to his Alpha’s side, brushing a shoulder against her.

So, the head count began.

The howl jerked her head up. It was a call to members of the Spine, and yet, it wasn't to all of them. It plucked certain wolves out from their pack and beckoned them; the certain wolves? The ones who had been left by the failed "queen" (coward more like it), and only they. That meant one thing. The coward had returned and was calling her former members. It was the very situation they'd been silently expecting and there was no way in hell that it was going to slide by the new Alpha and her loyal wolves.

Kroc was on her feet in seconds, ready and willing to go hunt her down. That the bitch even dared try and pull this kind of shit spoke volumes of her ignorance. Moving in the direction the call had come from, she only stopped when Tonravik's own call rose in the air. Torn, she stood there for a moment until finally changing her direction and heading to answer the call of the true leader of the Spine.

Arriving, she spotted the male from the borders, Ivitaruk, but moved past him to gently (as possible, for her) knock shoulders with Tonravik, her fierce eyes burning with a quiet rage. Any who did not show their face here simply showed their true colors, their true allegiance. Another, brief but companionable touch was given to the male, a show of solidarity now. They didn't have to know each other well to know that their loyalties lie in the same place. 

When that unfamiliar call raised up, Echelon could not ascertain from where it came.  From where she had stood, that very call echoed wildly from the walls of the basin bowl of the Spine.  Or at least that was how it seemed, for however minute it may have been.  It set her into motion but only for a short distance; her own attack, her march yet again into some unknown fray was forced to be held back by the summoning call of Tonravik.

Hotly, Echelon huffed to herself as she abruptly changed course.  She doubted the likelihood that she was the only one who found themselves being called off like some modern hellhound.  By the time she reached what was the beginnings of a head count, that emotion had been voided from her mind.  She moved sternly, perhaps evenly too proud past the gathered Kroc and Ivitaruk only to spare time with a faint wave of her tail.  Echelon had no qualms about saying her spot was closest to Tonravik and nothing short of a stringy snake, she delved into submission within a radius that brought her to rest near to her aokkatti.

Though her gaze swung out to face the other two, it went beyond them to the woodlands and ridges that she could not see.  Waiting for the others to come and amass, to swallow their disappointment with their leader and accept what the better odds were.  To see the benefits that would surely outweigh the misfortune that would lie elsewhere.  They were strong, this core here.  And even more curiously so, she stole away an interested look to Tonravik and wondered what their plan would be after this.

Some of the tags didn't work, so I'll pick them up here.  @Loreley @Sinaaq WORK TAGS WORK?

Loreley raised her head as she picked up a howl from the edge of the borders. 'Why had she returned?' Maybe to share her reasons why she'd abandoned her kingdom, well her former kingdom. Loreley took a few steps towards the call, when another tore through the sky. Her new leader.

Now lost with which path to choose, she sat and pondered. Her new leader was strong and her presence powerful. Loreley had yet to see a softer side to her, but if she left now she'd never know. With some sadness she took one last look in the direction her old leaders voice had came, before turning and sprinting off towards the new.

Approaching Tonravik, loreley lowered her head and wagged her tail softly. Luckily today she remembered that others like personal space (or maybe she was just a little intimidated.) So she lay quietly nearby.

Tonravik's call broke through the air fiercely, shortly after Cara's own had ended. Cara had returned but not to take back the Spine — not that Sinaaq had any illusions of the child queen's ability to do so. No, instead she called only those she wished to come with her. It did not fall upon deaf ears that she did not summon him to her. It came as no surprise to Sinaaq that he was unwanted given how he oft found himself toe to toe with Cara, ready to challenge her supposed authority. Still, it left a bitter taste in his mouth, not because he cared about her but because she had so passionately rallied him, and had been so ready to chase him out. Hypocrite. The bitch would get her end, and Sinaaq hoped dearly that it was painful and slow. She spoke of loyalties and yet betrayed them as the drop of a hat, so readily leaving them all without so much as a whisper. She had abandoned the ones she had called to her just as thoroughly as she'd abandoned the Spine and they were fools to think otherwise. She did not care about them, only about herself, and only called them away from the usurper because she had need of them. 

Sinaaq's footfalls took him to where Tonravik and a few others were already gathered. He did not want Cara as a leader as clearly as she did not want him as a subordinate. She should have stayed gone, and idly Sinaaq wondered how many times she would abandon them before they would come crawling back on their bellies to the Spine. Steps slowed as he closed the distance between himself and the others that had gathered to Tonravik, setting his fierce, fiery gaze to the bear-like Queen.