OOC: may give out orders to certain wolves after this so please post at least once to be here

IC:

Narime starts to her paws as a howl of challenge rings out across her territory. Her hackles raise and her teeth glisten in the eerie light while the woman listens to the call. It was distinctly a male's howl, but not one she was familiar with. Shoving herself against the ground with her tail waving over her back like a banner, Nari sprints towards the sound hoping to catch the male red pawed. Her head lifts as she utters a breathless howl for her pack mates to come and back her. Better safe than sorry, especially when an ambush could be waiting for her should she show up alone.

"@Ash , Yuka, @Deacon , @Nios come at once!" Nari's angry howl filled the air calling for back up.

She hadn't made a move towards Maksim or Minka's packs because Nari knew that her own numbers weren't high. She wouldn't run blindly into war with so few wolves at her back. The hunter was smarter than that. It took numbers to take out a dangerous prey item, or foe in this case. As much as she hated avoiding the forest that Maksim had claimed, Nari was content to avoid it since the winter had not been as bad as the last.

The wolf calling to them now was a surprise. She would have expected a whole pack to be calling a challenge at her borders to chase them out of their own territory, not a single wolf. She might have considered ditching her home to keep her family and friends safe if a whole pack had come upon them. However one wolf could easily be taken care of. If she caught this man she was going to tear him to pieces herself.

Her breathing quickened as Narime puts on a burst of speed. Her teeth snapping against the wind sent shivers down her own spine. The choking mists that swirled about their territory whipped past her ghostly form as the gray wolf comes upon the scene. Slowing to a stop, but still on high alert, Nari scents the air and looks around the sickly earth. The air itself stunk helping to clog up her senses, but Nari could make out the scents of Elettra and Angier. Her snarl disappears for a moment as she walks towards the first bunch of sticks and sniffs about them. Normally she would not have been worried if willow wolf scent was on her territory. So long as they didn't obviously kill something or eat from one of their caches on their land. As it were, there was no food around for them to have taken and no prey to be caught.

Confusion spread across her features. The howl had clearly been male, but both El and Angier's smells were here.

Narime knew Elettra enough to know that the dark woman would come to Nari herself to talk at the border. Angier on the other paw wouldn't have needed to even be here. Anger still stirred in her heart over the challenge that was made, but Nari knew that it wasn't Angier's voice who'd done it. Angier had a different tone or so she thought she remembered.

What in the hell was going on?

Quickly Nari looks around for other wolf scents, other signs or trails that would show who had been around. Eventually she found one set of wolf tracks, but not two. Again this was confusing to the hunter. She'd followed enough trails, and had enough experience in her job to know that only one wolf had really been here. However, why were there two wolf scents? She trots back to the wood and finally recognizes it as the bark from the willow trees. The wood smelled strongest of the willow alphas. Something was very wrong here.

Narime was lost in deep thoughts that grew fuzzy due to the anger that still fussed with her heart. She only barely noticed when one wolf came to answer her call. His approach was quick as she sniffed around the earth for any other scent that she might have missed. It wasn't until her eyes left the mist, frost, and earth that Nari spots Deacon bending over to scent the bark from the trees. He seemed equally confused, and for a moment Nari felt badly for him. The child who was on the cusp of becoming a yearling had only just recently joined them, and for him to see this made her insides squirm. She hoped what they saw was wrong. She hoped that there was trickery at work here, because if this was the truth then Nari would have to ask Deacon to choose between family or pack. For once she wouldn't be angry at the wolf in question if he chose family over Whisper Caverns.

She forced a sigh from her blackened lips then moved towards Deacon to press into his side gently. This action was more for her own comfort and to keep herself calm rather than to help the boy out.

"It seems that way but... something is off here." Nari pauses to look towards the earth only ten feet away where she had found one set of tracks that seemingly disappear. They were near where another few pieces of bark were placed. "Look here... one set of paw prints obviously big, and most likely from an adult male." She points her nose to the track she had found before to show Deacon. Big enough to be Sloane's size... and the indents of the pads may mean he was heavy in weight too... She thinks slowly while trying to imagine a wolf that large passing through her territory.

"Two scents are clearly here, Elettra and Angier... but only one set of prints. That voice, the howl from before had been distinctly male, but It did not sound like Angier to me... Did it sound like him to you?"

Then another question came to settle upon her lips.

"Hey... How heavy do you think your father is? My weight? or Ash's?" Nari asks tentatively hoping that Deacon would be willing to answer. The bits of information she was trying to drag out of him could be crucial to finding out who had done this. If Deacon says that Angier was around her weight then Nari knew that the print made here couldn't be from Angier. It would have been from a heavier wolf. If he said Angier was Ash's weight then it was still possible that Angier had come calling. However Deacon knew his fathers voice better than Nari. That too could help separate the truth from the lies.

...and who better to whisper both rumor and truth than those of whisper caverns?