Wild Rye Fields Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Dated for the 23rd of Febury, later in the day after the rank challenge, for @Drestig

The white wolf had traveled south, deep into the pack’s territory to find peace, the rank challenge hadn't gone well at all. He knew he could have handled it, it had been his chance to, but no, Askan had to get involved and stop it. Oh it would be so easy to just blame it on the Beta, or even on Reyes, but no, Icicle’s obvervant nature started prodding him to look the facts over now that he was alone, away from the anger and heat of the moment. Where had the blood come from? Id din’t bite that hard...did I? The thought was a scary one, being a wolf that had always prided himself on using words over violence solve a situation, and yet it had devolved so quickly.

What good was it though? Percy was still out there somewhere, missing and now members of the pack were squabbling over positions, it wasn’t wasn’t something that they should be doing. Icicle paused beside a frozen puddle, staring at himself as he realized, that to him, it did matter, he had finally had something that belonged to him, a pack, a family, maybe even eventually friends, but what had caused it? What had caused that moment of aggression so deeply that he hadn't stopped when he smelled the blood?

Snow crunched as the delta curled up next to the puddle, licking the blood from his lips and closing his eyes to think about it all.

As soon as he was finished with Reyes, the alpha sought out Icicle, going back to the pond and tracing his scent, tinged with the stench of blood. His anger had dwindled some, though he was still furious at having to waste so much energy on this spat; Hopefully this will be the only time! He'd make sure every wolf in the pack heard of this, to serve as a warning of exactly how not to go about things. The pale lad had sought the cover of the trees, whether to hide from himself or others, it didn't stop Drestig from tracking him down, finding the bony figure bundled up in the shade of the pines. The leader paused for a moment, looking down at the awkward form with a softness in his ember gaze. Then he steeled himself, raising his tail and barking: "Get up!" Icicle might have been on the righteous side of this altercation, but he wasn't without fault, and he certainly could have handled the whole thing a lot better. Once he had the boy's attention, the leader would meet his eyes, staring him down for a few moments before shaking his head, sitting back against the snowy ground with a low growl. He turned his gaze to the surrounding forest, scowling at the trees as he spoke: "So, explain to me how you ended up with a pack mates blood on your teeth when you both should have been out on patrol?" There was no kindness in his voice, every word crisp and icy. He'd heard one side of the story, it was only fair he got the other; Tell me you have a reason! Word Count: 279 Thoughts. ”Speech”

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