Arbol Rosado only thing worse than beating a dead horse is riding in on one

Open to all. C: Someone come be mean to her, put her in her place. <3

For once, her place within the pack was not at odds. She wasn't in trouble, she'd been promised future leadership and named heir alongside her siblings who were now gone. Basically, she was a shoe-in for future leader! Then, no one could question her! She could kick Pip out and no one could question her. Well, if they tried, she could just kick them out, too. The omega deserved to be gone this time. She had—what was it Daddy had said?—bred without permission. Ophie wasn't really sure what that meant, but she was gleeful Pip had done it only because it meant she was no longer the favorite.

The pale princess had come out this way looking for entertainment, if she was honest. Everyone back home had fallen into discomforted quiet. She was leaving with Daddy soon to go exploring and visiting other packs and was getting anxious to get going. But he seemed to not be ready just yet, so Ophelia had it in mind to start her own exploring. When she was younger, the girl was famous for leaving pack territory, but this was the first time she was exploring so far from home on her own. It was exciting.

Except not really. The trees here were stripped bare of fruit and mostly encased in ice. It was beautiful, but there was nothing adventurous about it. She'd pictured maybe running in to a bear. A grizzly! And then she could take it on and go home victorious and everyone would be impressed! But there were no bears. Not even a wolverine or coyote or something cool. Plenty of birds though. They flitted from branch to branch above her and the girl was certain they were making fun of her. Hmph!

Ophie tossed her nose up and pretending to ignore them, but her light green gaze went back to the birds again and again. They were the only thing of note in this wasteland anyway. She missed green. She missed days without snow. It seemed to stick around forever! It was Spring, wasn't it? The Spring of her childhood hadn't been so cold or snowy! Where was the grass? The bright leaves? This season was stupid and lasting too long.

It occurred to Ophelia that without @Felix and @Joan, she really didn't know how to have fun. Without them around to poke at or play with, she really didn't have anyone else around her own age. @Nineva would play sometimes, but it wasn't the same. She thought of the red-furred girl she'd met before. The one who had made fun of Joannie with her. Maybe she should try to find her. What was her name again? @Flair? But she lived farther East, Ophie thought. She should have gone that way.

The pup gave a long-suffering sigh. Woe was her, the pup without a game.

It had seemed that Balthazar's luck had run aground. Oula was gone, Eskil had vanished without a trace, Deacon had abandoned him, and he'd picked a fight with a wolf he probably shouldn't have, earning him a few scrapes and scabs that stood out from his thick auburn coat that had yet to shed with the lingering winter. The cold was enduring, the snow becoming more or less a permanent fixture, though the small silver lining there was that even the herbivores were having difficulty coping. There was ample opportunity for scavenging those unlucky ungulates who couldn't pull themselves through the harsh season. 

For better or worse, Balthazar was a creature of habit. The orchard was a comfortably familiar place, and he almost wished that those cedar wolves would put two and two together to try to track him down. He was still itching for confrontation, to put them in their place. He was sure if he ever came across that Whitebark woman again, he'd do a lot worse than trapping her for all the trouble she'd given him. Those nasty valley wolves were slippery like eels, and it would have been admirable if they didn't infest the land like maggots on a corpse. 

Balthazar loped through the deep snow, nose twitching as he scented the air for anything to make a breakfast of. It was then he caught a familiar scent, the pungent perfume of cedarwood. His tongue hung out in a satisfied pant as he picked up his pace, orienting himself towards the scent on the breeze. So they had found him after all. He approached slowly, dark head ducking downwards as he wove around the cherry trees. When he caught sight of the girl he nearly laughed. Just one of them? And a child, no less? One of Oula's other whelps, most likely, though the girl was a surprisingly waifish little thing for her species.

It seemed his luck was turning around. Balthazar stepped out from behind the trunk of the cherry tree he'd concealed himself behind, his tail swaying in mock cordiality. "My my, found me at last, little Whitebark?" He asked in a singsong voice, taking a wild stab at her identity.

(This post was last modified: Apr 06, 2017, 05:03 AM by Balthazar.)

The pup's head whipped up from the patch of snow she'd paused to sniff. Her tail had started to wag in invitation, pleased to have found some sort of adventure after all before she processed what was said. Ophelia's pleased smile turned quickly into a narrow-eyed frown. "My name is Macieo, not Whitebark," she said with a lifted, prideful chin. But how was it that he knew Mama's name? Why did it sound like he'd been waiting to be found? Just who was this man?

Suspicious, Ophelia turned fully to square her legs to face him rather than allow him to have her back. Tan tipped ears pinned forward and she sniffed at the air for his scent, but found it unfamiliar. By his tone, he was no friend to the pack. "You're the one who trapped Mama," she accused with sudden clarity. Who else would be so close to their territory and recognize her scent and call her by her Mama's last name rather than Daddy's? Only the male who had caught her and left her to die in a trap! The one who had scared Daddy so much that he'd called on the rest of the pack to make sure they were okay. The one they'd gone looking for while trying to find Mama.

The girl's lips lifted in an ugly snarl that didn't suit her pretty face while her tail lifted aggressively. "What do you want?"

Had she just wished for a grizzly to fight off? Facing off what was sure an equivalent had Ophelia questioning her earlier judgement. This was perhaps too much adventure.