Lost Lake scratch and sniff

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/bluepups/RaisTable2.png); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; padding-top: 100px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align:justify;">It was an exceptionally dark night, the moon little more than a slivered white claw on the horizon. Even if the moon were at its apex, Rais knew it would cast no light. Light didn't matter, though. The wolf's crooked smile gleamed in the dull light from the stars, a crafty glint harbored in his eyes. The male that had come across him on Fireweed Rise, Ash, had told him something interesting, about a hidden lake in the mountains. And even more interesting, he had told Rais that he and his mate, Treena Rose, lived up there. Rais wasn't confident that he would actually run into the wolf who was his half sister up here, and not just someone who simply shared the same name. It couldn't hurt to look, and he wanted to see the lake anyways. Rais had caught Ash's scent during the encounter, and followed it up the mountains where it would hopefully lead to the lake.

He moved over the rugged mountain terrain with his nose to the ground and paws light but unsteady. There wasn't exactly a trail to follow, but here and there fragments of scent from the male could be found. Rais' keen nose had no trouble connecting the faint points of smell into some sort of makeshift route. He weaved through the scrubby plants and tenacious conifers that managed to make their home up here, occasionally loosing his footing on a ledge or protruding rock, but fortunately took no falls.

The terrain had begun to shift from an upward climb to a gentle downward slope. It was here that Rais noticed his encroach on what was doubtlessly a pack border. He paused, his tongue flopping out in an exhausted pant. He wasn't used to climbing and clambering up-hill, but he couldn't be stopped for long. After catching his breath, he disregarded the border and set off again. The lake should be easy enough to find, but Treena? Probably not as much. She could very well not even be in the area, but Rais wouldn't be troubled if he didn't see her.

Again, Rais was stopped by a strange scent. It was a little musty, stale, but unmistakably meat. His stomach rumbled at the thought of food, as he hadn't eaten recently. And what he had eaten had been no larger than a hare. Almost constantly hunger was gnawing at the loner. It would delay his adventure a little to find the cache, but it would certainly be worth the trouble if he got some easy food out of it. Wet leathery nose pressed to the earth, he sniffed around the gravely soil searching for the cache. His ears flicked to and fro to keep aware of his surroundings, as he knew that digging up another wolf's cache, especially within a pack's territory, was practically a sin.

He sniffed heavily at a patch of rocky dirt and was sure that the meat was hidden in that spot. Frantically he began to dig at the earth with his forepaws, flinging prodigious amounts of debris out behind him. The shale cut into his paws, but he ignored the pain for the sake of his aching stomach. He would rather get the prize out quickly than quietly, and hopefully he would have a mouthful of meat and be off running before anyone found him.

(This post was last modified: Jul 17, 2012, 03:14 AM by Rais.)

There was no sign of the guarding female. In the darkness of the night, it seemed Rais had hit the jackpot. It was only his figure which wove through the air, only his breath that tinted the strong pack scent. Poison Path was always well protected, like a military base, but now? There was only the glittering water and grey rocky terrain, no other form of life. It seemed abandoned, empty. Crickets chirped in the distance, the land spreading for miles. It held a mysterious aura, hauntingly beautiful, yet completely bare and forsaken. One could smell the pack scent, but could not see or hear any back up evidence. The warning odour should be enough for all loners. Most would be driven off by the sudden stench, look for water and food elsewhere. Things were not always as they seem, and that was the case here.

High above Lost Lake, standing still and tall stood a pair of alert golden eyes. There was no movement except the rise and fall of a scruffy gold chest, and a blink here and there. During the day Treena would stand in eye-view, right at the border. She’d wander around, search for new scents while keeping an eye on passing loners. It was a type of intimidation. At night it was different. Those with bad intentions traveled in the dark, intimidation would do nothing. Treena wasn’t at every single border watch, but tonight she was. She managed to stay silent, her paws shaking harder with each step down. Her lip trembled, but she kept herself from growling. She didn’t make a single noise. Instead she walked along the shadows, fur bristling and legs stiff. She wasn’t sure if anyone was on patrol as well, or if they would notice her trotting around towards him. Either way, she was there. Her fangs reflected the moon, tail rising above her head in dominance.

Only half-way did she realise what he was doing. While she had been walking before, she now began to run. Each muscle extended her further, heart pulsing robotically, a loud snarl acknowledging her presence. It was loud enough for the male to hear, but not late enough for him to get a good running head start. Once it left her jaws, the female came bounding into the light. Her features were horrifying, each fang jagging out, eyes narrowed and body tight and tense. While her leap was farther away, it seemed her forepaws were reaching for the boy threateningly. Like a lion tackling its prey she bounded more than ran, each jump throwing her closer until she was inches away. The territory was far from a ghost-town, hidden in the darkness were plenty of wolves. Treena wasn’t the fastest, or the strongest, but that second, beneath the stars, she was hands-down the scariest. Her claws dug deep in the ground, and like a tree she stood over the buried meal. She stood over it like a shield, head strained towards the boy and hackles raised. She would not let him eat.

While in the faded light, she realised how easy that mission would be. The man was like a calico cat, mostly skin and bones, long limbs but still short and scrawny. He wasn’t unattractive either, just strange. She admittedly would not be able to outrun him if he ran, but she didn’t need to. She just needed to protect the food. Her growls were deep and twisted, warning, from the throat. Each one cut through the silence violently, snapping her teeth together and letting out yips. A couple seconds she stood like that, panting and growling. Then she jumped. She jumped at the male, hoping to push him farther away from the border and away from the meal.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/bluepups/RaisTable2.png); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; padding-top: 100px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align:justify;">This was taking much longer than he had expected. Whoever had stashed this prize had either claws of steel or Rais was looking in the wrong place. The soft pads on his young paws were stinging, leaving pink streaks of blood across the rocks as he stubbornly tore at the hard ground. He had hardly made any headway, only a two inch dent into the hard-packed gravel, when he was interrupted from his work. He had allowed his outward senses to dull, the scent of food underfoot overpowering his nose and the sound of clattering pebbles having filled his ears.

The loud, angry snarl behind him tore him back to reality, and in the moment in which he turned around he mentally damned himself for the foolish mistake. Always pay attention. He spun around, body half turned but feet already skittering away like a terrified cat. Instinctively his hackles and tail rose, but the tiny illusion was not convincing at all in disguising his small stature. All flashing teeth and fiery yellow eyes, the woman stood over the cache as if she were the Colossus of Rhodes, if the Colossus were a flesh-and-blood wolf and Rhodes were a pit of meat. Rais was absolutely terrified, and this wolf had caught him red handed.

He couldn't look guilty. His mind spun, possibilities forming and collapsing in a second. He could run, but then he wouldn't get the food, or the lake, or see if that relative even existed. Intimidation certainly would not work, while this wolf wasn't the most massive or muscular thing he had come across, with his size there was no way that he would look any more threatening than he really was. Which was not much at all.

He did not have very long to think though, as the she-wolf had apparently had enough of standing at defense and took a sudden leap towards him. His muscles moved on their own, well trained from having to frequently launch the boy out of sticky situations such as the current one. As the growling fury soared towards him, he ducked and dashed to the side and forward, dodging her. His paws slid across the gravel and he winced at the pain it caused him as a yelp squeaked from this throat, but he could give the wounds no attention. He pivoted back towards the wolf.

Just who was this, anyways? It couldn't be that half-sister he had heard about, if he could expect her to be anything like his brother. Honestly, he couldn't see much of her body from the angle she faced him at, but her snarling face held much more tawny orange and cream than either he or his brother's pelts. In any case, he had to placate the beast somehow, and if he was lucky he could turn things around in his favor.

“Madam, please, be civil!” He pulled a tiny smile across his face, but his rattled nerves kept it from looking genuine. “Is that yours?” His head jerked in the direction of the scraped at earth her feet, marked with his own blood. How would he explain away the fact that he was digging at it? A mistake perhaps? Or he could see if he woman held any sympathy for a starving kid, even? He knew pack wolves took little pity on trespassing loners, but the worst that would happen was he would be chased off. If that happened, he would only return, to try from a different side of the border. No big deal.

Rais bowed his head, ears folded back in a false expression of humility, yet he never took his eyes off the wolf. “I’m starved, I’ve been walking for so long, with nary a bite to eat. Please, take my apology. The lack of food has made my senses nubilous, as soon as I smelled food it clouded my mind, and I did not notice that I had encroached on another’s territory.” Rais took note that Ash had lied, or at least told a half truth. The lake’s valley definitely held more than “other wolves here and there”, as from scent alone he could tell there was an outright pack up here.

(Holy crap sorry it's so big again! Don't feel obligated to make a giant post!)

OOC: It seems I have forgotten how to RP. I'm sorry it's so bad. I just wanted to get it up.

Treena was sickly scary. Her spine was visible, each fragile little bone in her legs jagging out. Her pelt looked wrong in the moonlight, not one that belonged to a wolf, but instead a creature from beneath the bed. Her eyes did not belong to a wolf either, or not any wolf in the right of mind. They belonged to her. She was not afraid, not of Rais. Though, admittedly, she was not comfortable either. Something about his words, his eyes that was strangely unnerving. He didn’t intimidate her. He confused her. Confusion was something Treena was not use to. Normally, she knew what she wanted, and what people wanted from her.

She had no idea now. She feared turning her back on the male. He seemed like the type to take advantage of fighting dirty. He had snuck onto pack territory for a meal. She had never done something so heartless, even in her time of need. Though her fangs were snapping angrily at the air, she hesitated attacking further. She was not going to risk her own health, and things were going easily in her favor. She did lower her twitching upper lip, but not enough to relax the atmosphere. She was still tense, and dangerously so. She was just deep in thought.

His voice was so familiar, and so were his large round eyes. Yet, she couldn't put her finger on it. She wasn't connected to this male at all, so she should feel not guilt. Something still held her back from snapping his head off, and the longer she waited the more she felt that pull. <b>"I'm not taking your apology."</b>

It was a blunt comment, no explanation or extra detail. It went straight to the point, yet she didn't make another move. Her bristling fur didn't fall flat, it still danced beneath the cold harsh wind. The mountains had made her paw pads rough, and strong. Everything about her was strong, and it was obvious with the starlight as a highlighter. Her smile was out of hatred, and frustration, not to be mistaken with happiness. Her ears were perked toward, as was her tail. She wanted to leave no room for the male to be confident. This was all her. A couple seconds of standing like this, she decided it was time. She slowly lowered her muzzle towards his throat, just to see his reaction. She wanted to make sure he understood she was serious, and that stealing was a crime punishable by death. Though, intimidation came in two forms, mental and physical. She hadn't said much, and that wasn't her style. <b>"You're young. I'm surprised you made it all this way, the mountains are rough, unforgiving. Why would you come here if you were starving? Are you stupid, or brave? I can't tell. " </b>

(This post was last modified: Oct 08, 2012, 03:00 PM by Treena.)