Redtail Rise Peanut butter on Triscuits and I'm not even stoned

Quirky was just one of many, many words that could be used to describe Smash. She couldn't sleep unless she was covered in leaves, for instance, and she had some peculiar tastes when it came to actual food as well. This morning's breakfast was a perfect example. She had discovered a dead newborn fawn just beyond Redtail Rise and dragged the tiny corpse back into the territory. She had butchered it, stashing most of the meat but claiming its little head all for herself. This she had carried to a stream to soak.

That's where she sat now. After giving the head about an hour to marinate in the cold water, Smash towed it back into the shore and then dove into her meal. There was just something about soaking wet, cold meat that made her tongue tingle. She bolted down every last scrap, including the brain, which had the consistency of cold, clotted jelly. Once all the flesh was gone, Smash then set about licking and gnawing on the miniature skull, which she intended to keep as a combination decoration and chew toy.

Luke was on a high after recruiting Valtyr. There was a sense of pride and accomplishment that came with doing work for a pack, for others, that could not be had as a lone wolf. It was a part of social instincts, he supposed, to want to work for a group and to find comfort and contentment in it. Even if that pack had not been formed, the foundation was being laid, and that excited him.

He was on his way to tell Harlyn she could count on another follower, taking a roundabout route to skim the land north of the mountains which he had not yet explored, when a familiar scent all but tripped him up. He was on the cusp of a pack's territory, but it was not the amalgamated scent of a pack's border that stopped him. It was one individual scent... Saena.

Luke's tail started beating back and forth. She had done it! Or it seemed like she had. Perhaps he could ask the brown girl over there, the one who, in his excitement, he almost hadn't noticed. "Hey!" he called to her, grinning like a fool.

The sight of an outsider so near the borders probably should have concerned Smash, especially what with the Rise declaring enemies so recently. She should have barked at him or else chased him away. But when the stranger called out to her, her eyes flicked up to him and froze on his distant face. She didn't react defensively. In fact, she didn't say or do anything for a moment.

Then, Smash slowly parted her jaws and dropped the skull, which very nearly rolled into the stream. Her bright gaze never wavered from the stranger's face as she caught it with one dark paw, then planted it firmly there on the bank. Still making no sound, the she-wolf rose and stepped through the shallows, making her way toward the stranger.

"You..." she began to say, orange eyes narrowing. She froze perhaps ten feet from him. "Oh my gee." Pause. "I hate to be the one to tell you this but I think you might be dying." She canted her head, squinting at his blue nose. "Or you're possibly already dead. Either way, the prognosis... it isn't good." She shook her head, lips pressing into a grim line.

His tail was a pendulum, waving back and forth as he watched her approach. She hadn't called back his greeting, but her posture did not appear defensive either. She stopped a safe distance from him, and had the darndest thing to say. He knew immediately she was commenting on the odd color of his nose and other pieces, for many suspected he had some ailment to go along with it, but he was happy to play along (momentarily forgetting he had a question to ask).

"Are you suuurrre?" he said, canting his own head and peering at her with a mischievous twinkle in his silver eyes. "About the 'isn't good' part I mean," he paused. "Because I am rather excited to become a ghost. Or be a ghost. You know, float around and boo! at folks." Grinning even more, he lowered himself into a slink, took two paces toward her, and leaped up with an exuberant "boo!"

Like the other wolves she had met in this place, this one possessed an unbeatable sense of humor (she really had struck gold!). He ran with her joke, teasing a grin from her, though she quickly rearranged her expression back into one of sincerest concern. Her orange eyes fixed not on his face as a whole now but just his nose instead. She went a little cross-eyed in the process but that was just as well; it was a good look for ole Smash.

"Am I sure? No. I dropped out of medical school," she rejoined in a deadpan tone. "But one thing I definitely learned is that if you're already dead but you're walking around, you're a zombie, not a ghost." Her expression now seemed to say, Like, duh! "You don't appear to be float—" Smash continued, only for him to crouch and then leap at her with a loud, "Boo!"

"Well, shoot, that boo! is undeniable. I stand corrected," she drawled simply, following a slow blink. She held out a darkened leg to him. "Name's Smash. Who are you? Or were you, should I say...?"

"Yeah, I need to work on my floating," he winked. Or he could try the zombie thing out. Either way he was delighted to have someone to joke around with (it never got old), and happily bumped a paw to the one she extended. She introduced herself, and he could not help but wonder at her name. His immediate thought was that she had one heck of a birth, and there was no way he could let that introduction go without a follow up question. There just had to be a good story in the name.

"I am, or I was, I'm at least sure I still might be..." he paused, having almost tongue tied himself. "Luke. Luke Bluenose. It's not at all obvious where I got my name," he chuckled. "But hey. That name of yours, there's a story behind it, right?" he peered at her expectantly, and seated himself.

Their paws bumped together and Smash set hers back on the ground as Luke proceeded to tongue tie himself. She snickered at him, then rolled her bright orange eyes at his surname. "Parents weren't the creative sorts, huh?" she teased good-naturedly. "Mine weren't either, really. They called me Smash because I was born last and I came out flat as a Frisbee. It took, like, three weeks before I reinflated. My mom said most pups look like potatoes with legs but that I looked like a potato pancake with legs."

Whether or not any of that was true, Luke was unlikely to ever know. Smash made a clicking sound with her tongue, looked around absently, then turned her bright orange gaze back to him. "But seriously," she continued in her earlier deadpan tone, "what is life like, with a blueberry for a face?"

Indeed, there was a story, one that caused his mouth to hang open (since it was not possible to grin any more than he had been) with total amusement. "I knew it!" he laughed, the image of a squashed pup as clear in his mind as if he had witnessed it himself. It might not be true, but he was entertained by the thought nonetheless. "I knew there had to be story to that name. Oh well, can't blame parents for calling it like they see it," he rolled his shoulders in a good-natured fashion while is tail cleaned the ground with its incessant sweeping.

"It's really not so bad," he replied, making a loud sniff as he drew a breath through his nose. "Every breath I take smells so sweet," he chuckled, then shook his head. "Honestly though, it's a great icebreaker. I don't mind it a bit." It suddenly dawned on him, the question he had wanted to ask when he first noticed her. "I almost forgot!" he blurted. "Saena. Is this her pack?" He rose to his feet with his excitement.

I bet, Smash wanted to say to that, though Luke unexpectedly changed the subject on her. He mentioned her new Alpha by name, which took her a bit by surprise. She wondered how they knew one another. In the moment between his question and her answer, Smash made up an elaborate back-story about how the two were acquainted, though she made no mention of it aloud.

"Yeah, buddy," she replied casually. "This is Redtail Rise. I'd welcome you in but this is Redtail Rise and your nose is all blue and stuff. You understand..." She couldn't keep a straight face after dropping such a lame joke, so Smash cracked a smile... only for it to vanish just as instantly as her orange eyes suddenly narrowed. "You're not, like, her dad or anything, are you?" There was still a playfulness to her demeanor, though for the first time since walking up to Luke, there was also the slightest of serious edges to Smash's question.

It was her pack! For someone he had only met once, Luke felt a lot of excitement and pride for Saena, that she had accomplished becoming an Alpha of her own pack, named for herself and all. But such was his way, she had become his friend mere minutes after he first met her, and he did not distinguish much between friends he had no for a while and friends he had just made. Friends were friends, and he was happy for their success.

He laughed at Smash's jest, but was quick to shake his head in a firm 'no' when she asked, rather seriously, if he was Saena's father. Saena had opened up to him, had shared the bitterness she held for her father, which the white wolf could only guess may have been shared among her packmates (little did he know). Luke was fond of Peregrine, but he did not need to be mistaken for him and receive any of the ire that such a mistake might come with.

"No no," he said. "I met her a while ago, when she was still a member of the Plateau pack," he shared. "She told me she aspired to lead her own pack. Heck we even joked that she should find herself a Redtail Plateau," he paused, warmth evident on his smile as he reflected. "I see she made out just fine. Have you known her long?"

Aside from the white fur, there wasn't much resemblance, so Smash wasn't surprised when Luke assured her that he was not the father. He seemed rather fond of the young Alpha and she gave him a playful look, then shook her head at his question. Hell, she barely knew Saena at all and the Alpha hadn't even been the one to accept her into the pack. But Smash was already on that like white on rice, determined to make sure she fit in with Saena and the yearling's vision for Redtail Rise.

"I actually barely know her yet, though if I can judge someone by the company she keeps, she's pretty flippin' rad," Smash reported. She was thinking of Reek and Arion, of course, though she gave him yet another look that indicated she was grouping him in there too. Yes, Smash already though highly of this Luke Bluenose. "Although, if we're going by that measure, you could argue she's a total freak too. Good thing I'm a weirdo myself. I mean, I did just eat a baby deer's carefully waterlogged brains. Speaking of zombies..."

Luke caught the compliment, and grinned at it. He had to agree that Saena kept good company, because he too had found instant rapport with Smash, who was carefree in much the same way as he. Many wolves had a good sense of humor and could joke around but not all had the sort of outgoing nature that the pair of them possessed. They were a good match, indeed.

The thought of eating the waterlogged brains of a fawn might be off putting to some, but Luke was struck not by disgust or any thought of her being weird, but by curiosity. He had not seen her prepare her snack, but gathered that she had intentionally soaked the brains because of the purpose he heard in the words 'carefully waterlogged'. So of course, he had to ask about it. "I've never tried waterlogged brains," he said. "Does it taste better that way?"

Some met her peculiar tastes with disgust, others intrigue. Luke clearly fell into the latter camp. She flashed him a smile, then thought on how best to explain this particular quirk. It was a bit harder to explain than, say, her preference to sleep beneath a blanket of toasty warm leaves. But there was a back-story, of course, so she would start from the beginning.

"We all start on mother's milk, which is warm, then move on up to regurgitated meat—also warm." Her dark nose wrinkled. "Then, of course, we graduate to fresh meat, which we sometimes eat before the prey's even dead. I know I'm strange in a lot of ways but I promise I was absolutely normal in these departments once, eating the same meat along with everyone else...

But then one day my brothers and I found a deer carcass in a stream. It had clearly died there. It was all bloated and smelly—not at all appetizing. But then Sobe dared me to eat one of its eyeballs," Smash continued. "You have to understand, I was the youngest and only girl in a litter of five, so I was always doing crazy stuff to prove I wasn't a wimpy wimpy wing wong. So I went for it, of course.

And to make a long story very short, it was the most divine thing I'd ever eaten. From that point onward, I slowly began losing my taste for warm meat. I started sneaking my shares away from the kill and soaking them until they were cold. It's not just a temperature thing, it's a texture thing too. It all gets sort of... firm. I know it sounds gross and weird but whatevs!" Smash finished with a shrug.

"What about you, Mr. Bluenose? Do you have any eccentricities—I mean, aside from the obvious?" she queried, chocolate head canting and ripe orange eyes pinning curiously to his unique face.

He listened with genuine interest, his attention solely on her as she explained this food choice. What she was saying made sense, and he found himself bobbing his head in agreement. He had eaten cool meat from a cache, carrion, and had eaten meat that had been slicked with rain. Each had its own tastes and textures none of it was the same as what she described: allowing the meat to truly become chilled by soaking it in cold water. But there was one thing that might be similar: fish, Luke's most preferred food of all. Fish were typically firm and he caught them straight from the cold streams, and so right away he could relate to her preference.

"It doesn't sound gross or weird," he chuckled. "My favorite food is fish, and I am rather skilled at catching them," he grinned as he tooted his own horn. "I realize game and fish don't taste the same - and I want to try this meat soaking trick of yours - but if you've never had fish, you'd probably like it. Cold firm flesh and all. As for my eccentricities, well," He paused, briefly considering any of his strange habits. "I like to dry hides and line my den floors with them. I also dry my fish before I cache them, if I can. They become kind of tough but I like to chew on them."

The instant Luke mentioned fish, Smash stuck out her tongue. She had thought she would like it, for the reasons he mentioned now. At the time, she had enjoyed the cold, slimy texture and the briny, exotic flavor. But then she had gotten very sick and now the mere thought of fish turned her stomach. She was pretty sure she would never be able to bring herself to try it again.

"I tried fish for the first time the other day, actually. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how that went," Smash joked, referring to the various faces she had pulled in the last minute or two. "I puked out my guts," she informed him anyway. "It was lovely."

He shared one of his own peculiarities with her and Smash grinned. "My brother, Midas, did something similar to that. He actually made me a deer hide blanket when we were young and I used it until it was nothing but tatters and shreds. He never was able to make me another, so I had to switch to sleeping in a bed of leaves... that's another quirk of mine," the she-wolf shared.

She didn't delve into it, though, instead choosing to focus on Luke's idiosyncrasies. "Maybe we could get together for lunch one day. I'll bring some cold, soaked meat and you could bring some dried goods. We'll barter."

"Oh no!" he exclaimed, his ears splaying to the sides of his head somewhat, he was still smiling but there was a legitimate look of slight disappointment on his face. It always delighted him when others enjoyed fish and always saddened him a bit when they didn't - worse if it made them sick, which apparently her fish had. "That stinks," he said.

His ears perked up though when she went on to say that she had a brother who once made her a deer hide blanket, which was later replaced by a bed of leaves when the hide had worn to nothing. Like her method of soaking meat, he was intrigued by the idea of sleeping in leaves. He had rolled in them, frolicked in them, but had never thought to sleep in them. It was something else he could try sometime.

Luke's interest meeting for a lunch and barter was immediately evident in the way his tail swished happily. "It's a date," he grinned.

Luke seemed to like the idea, even mentioning that it would be a date. Smash feigned bashful surprise at the notion. "A date? Oh my." She blinked her wide orange eyes, then fluttered her eyelashes a moment. "And here I was convinced you were only interested in men," she quipped. It was meant as a joke. Many males seemed affronted when she accused them of being gay; it had always gotten a rise from her brothers. But perhaps she wasn't off base. Luke did seem something of a dandy.

"Just tell me a time and place, Mr. Bluenose, so I know when and where to show up for some hot and heavy bartering." She punctuated this statement with a genuine grin and a swish of her dark tail. She already looked forward to exchanging oddities with the unique, charming and easy-to-like Luke.

He grinned even wider at her expressions (it was a wonder the poor lad's jaws didn't fall off, for he grinned so often he hardly stopped). He had not literally meant a date, but then, he had also not not meant it as a date. Either way, he was going to roll with it, and his tail thumped the ground like a happy drum beat.

"Yeah I get that a lot," he said with a chuckle, raising a hind foot to briefly scratch behind his ears. "It's all good," he assured, neither confirming or denying his interest in men, though he was not the least bit ashamed of his 'love everyone' sort of ways. "How about..." he paused, shifting his mouth. "Er, two weeks?" That was the normal time for rendezvousing wasn't it? "In the forest south of here? Shade if it's hot, shelter if it's raining." He laughed. "I'll bring my finest dried fish."

Luke took the joke better than most, which meant he was gay, easygoing or... Both, Smash guessed in her head, making a show of smiling, winking, batting her eyelashes and blowing kisses at the blue-nosed wolf as he set a date for their upcoming rendezvous. She actually completely missed the details, so here's to hoping she could rewind them back in her head later.

"And I'll bring my finest booty," she assured him curtly with a final, overdone wink, then sprang onto her dark chocolate paws. "I've got a baby skull to get back to. T-T-F-N, Mr. Bluenose!" Smash waved her tail, offered her right forepaw for a quick fist-bump, then frolicked back toward the stream. She crossed it, snatched up the small skull and ran off toward the Rise proper like a bat out of hell.

Her antics were comical and endearing. She even knew how to fist bump (a gesture that he often used himself, though few knew how to return it), and he met her paw without hesitation. Then he chuffed and shook his head as she bid him a farewell, frolicking back to the stream and her carefully soaked delicacy before taking off. Luke had not finished his business here though. He could not come to the border of Saena's new pack without saying hello, and so he skirted along the borders, hoping to catch her on patrol. If not, he would howl.