Willow Ridge Saw You Weeping

Back-dating to like the beginning of April b/c I'm slow || Early morning since that's when old folks wake up || 2°C & Cloudy // I'm assuming nobody knows she exists yet >:]

So it was that she wasn't nearly as done as she thought she had been. A chance and unexpected interaction with a wandering queen had led her here to a name not yet familiar to her tongue. Willow Ridge. While her arrival had unceremoniously started with a month of hiding - avoiding the open air in a season known to encourage activity in men she had no desire to partake in, she already felt as though she had some kind of a presence. Short of saying she walked around like she owned the place, when she did walk, she walked as always with her head raised and a purpose to her step.

Today she walked. The scents that triggered violence in her more than lust, were well and truly gone. Now she could emerge from the pit she'd been hidden and stretch out her body with a few loud clicks in her bones. Hardly the grace she was used to, but a few steps from the opening of her bed and she could turn her head vaguely east and see through cracks in the willows, that the sun was starting to rise.

No doubt, all the other little monsters were still tucked away in their beds.

Hope it's okay if he's just aware of her scent - if she's been lurking at all, that much makes sense :)

Some of the bigger monsters, though, were also prone to early rising.

With all that was going on, and that was to still happen, the presence of some stranger's scent in the pack's territory - only caught occasionally, like a whisper on the wind - was not one of his highest concerns. With the pack so effectively divided, perhaps it was just some new recruit on Nicolo's side, or it might have been one of Morganna's casual invites. Did it matter? Under different circumstances - ie, ones in which Craw was actually in control - then undoubtedly yes. In these ones, not so much. Craw liked the Willows to an extent, but it was crawling with wolves he didn't really know, and that was beginning to irk him greatly. But if things continued how it did... it wouldn't matter. So he was caught in between apathy and the need to stay firmly connected to what was going on.

As chance had it, today would result in the quashing of one more minor mystery, the owner of that elusive feminine musk. Had the wind not been so still that morning, it may have been that which told him that the woman was nearby, but as it happened, it was actually the faint sound of joints cracking. That had been enough to make him pay closer attention to the information available to his nose, which in turn had quickly confirmed that, yes, this was the stranger in the pack.

With the opportunity offered on a platter like that, how could he turn it down? Snaking through the drooping willows towards the origin of the sound, his nose affirming his direction all the while, finally she was in his sights; an aged thing, with hints of grey flecked through her otherwise deep brown coat. No doubt she had heard him approach, for Craw had made absolutely no attempt to hide it, either his pawsteps or the sound of his rattled breathing.

"So there she is, our resident ghost," he drawled, trying to remember if Morganna had mentioned this one or not. Maybe he'd recall it better when he got her name. "I had wondered if you weren't actually real."

That makes sense to me also

It would have just been too much to spend her morning alone. Peace and quiet were by far more favourable than any kind of engagement. Perhaps it was that which had kept her hiding in the shadows so long, or maybe it truly had been the season. In reality, it was a little bit of both. The monarch she had once been still lingered in the back of her mind, aware that each morning she woke, each minute she lingered within this territory, came the risk that she would have to engage.

Engaging, and being engaging, were entirely different matters. That whoever had come to her did so without any stealth had him already in her favour. She could smell him, hear him long before his voice struck her ears, but as his words rang out, she couldn't help but think it might have been better if he'd just kept his mouth shut.

"Ah..." She spun, slow movements that were sung of her age as she had to circle around, rather than just turning. "There he is." The direction of her comments was clear, and she paused only to examine him. She didn't recognise him, he didn't look like anyone she had met before. She had no knowledge of him. He was as unknown to her as she was to him.

"Our resident ghost... I had begun to wonder if you were actually real." She didn't copy him exactly, face blank as she watched his features, examining how he might react to what was essentially a deliberate tease. Some men - and boys, didn't take too well to being made fun of, much less by old women.

"Now that's out of the way... " what a waste of her precious, limited amount of breath and time that had turned out to be "...what do you want at this forsaken hour of the morning?" Straight to business, was it any surprise?

When the words of his well-intentioned greeting were parroted back to him, Craw paused, watching the old woman in a new, uncertain light. His first instinct was that the woman was slow-minded, for he had once met a wolf who babbled back words and phrases he had once heard due to a mind broken from birth. But, not a moment later, that hypothesis was cast out, for there was no dullness in her expression, and when she spoke again, this time managing to come up with a whole sentence all of her own, it was clear that her mind was plenty sharp.

Well, maybe not her mind, but certainly her tongue. Once he realised that she had been mocking him, Craw stiffened.

He let the silence linger after her pointed question for only a few seconds, standing there and eyeing the old creature, seeing the aches in her joints contrasted with the arrogant way she held herself. A has-been. His lip curled in a twisted smile, one which bore a little too much teeth. "You're right, how rude of me," he rasped, and placed one paw in front of the other very deliberately, and then another, and so on as he spoke. "I should have been more clear. I'm here because I distrust elusive wolves who exploit a pack's resources without contributing, because they're nothing better than scavengers. I want to make sure you know your place."

Now within reach of her, he lashed out, moving to grab her muzzle in his jaws - not from the front, or the top, but the side, so that, if successful, he could then slam the side of her head down into the dirt.

(This post was last modified: May 03, 2016, 02:08 PM by Craw.)