Cedarwood Forest Leading Me Astray

To anyone looking, it would appear Falcon had the patience of a saint when it came to Jackdaw. She shook her head with an amused smile and tugged her tail free from his mouth. Wolves didn't go around tearing each others' throats out simply for meeting! His paranoia was something they'd have to work on.

"If you spoke more politely, maybe she wouldn't ignore you," Falcon told her brother with a bright grin. Despite her mistreatment in their previous pack, she'd missed them sorely since they'd left. The tawny wold was the kind who thrived around others, and while she loved Jackdaw dearly, she wasn't meant for such loneliness. She needed constant interaction

Returning her gaze to the creme-colored female, Falcon was quick to reassure her. "His words are harsh, but he usually means well." Sometimes, she had to rush to be translator when Jackdaw really got going. There were occasions when he'd actually been giving a compliment, but had slathered it in so much rough-speak that the female had to rush in to dispel an oncoming fight. It really was a pity how misunderstood her Jackdaw was.

With the rising tension, the she-wolf knew she had to do something quickly lest there actually begin a fight where none was needed. Hoping to pull attention away from Jackdaw, Falcon pranced forward playfully. "What's your name?" she asked sweetly, wiggling in place as she resisted pouncing on the female for fun. The pale female smelled of pack, though she'd told them that none lived here. So this wasn't part of their territory, but bordering it perhaps. Certainly it wouldn't be far off.

Hope blossomed in her chest. It would be nice to be surrounded by other wolves again. To sleep in a big cuddle pile and groom a stranger-friend with affection, to play with pups and yearlings and maybe even an Alpha if she could manage it! Playing with Alpha was always her favorite game. The only bad part about it was ending the game, for it sometimes got a little too serious, too rough as hierarchy was reestablished.

"Do you come to hunt here?" Falcon wondered aloud. "We could hunt together!" she suggested, much pleased with the idea.

The breeze shifted, carrying with it the scent of carrion. Falcon turned towards it before looking at her new friend (she'd just decided that they were friends) and Jackdaw. "Or we may not have to. Smell that?" she asked them, already taking a few bouncy steps towards where she smelled the carcass.

It was difficult to ignore the man when he was so bent on being rude, but Aphrodite pushed herself to continue doing so. Perhaps it was a less than queenly thing to do, but she might be more willing to hear the words of the rabble if they expressed them more decently. Besides, it wasn't like she had an army and this was only one wolf. Unless such distaste spread to his companion, she was content using her as a go-between. Aphrodite's shoulders rolled in something of a half-hearted shrug. She found that hard to believe, but decided she wouldn't make anymore snide comments about the girl's brother. As the girl jumped forward, Aphrodite looked a little startled, but then smiled, her high-lifted tail giving a slight wag. Falcon's happiness was contagious, it seemed. "O-oh! I'm sorry," Aphie struggled with her words, surprised that she'd neglected to give her own name in return. "I'm Aphrodite Moon, of Black Thorn Downs." She gave a slight bow of hello to Falcon, and even gave a slighter one to Jackdaw, some small olive branch if he'd take it, though her attentions on him didn't last long.

"I didn't, actually, but I guess if I come across anything I'll--" As Falcon spoke again, Aphrodite canted her head back, testing the air. Oh, there was the scent of flesh...But also of lynx, a scent that all children ought to have know. She had never seen one, but it was one of many dangerous smells that had filed away into her mind. The scent was faint, however, so her worries faded somewhat. Aphie gave a few slight nods and began to follow the woman towards the carcass, her stride widening a bit to reach it before them. She wasn't exactly hungry, but more than eager to investigate the food left behind and there was quite a bit of it. The Downs were a bit too far for her to bring back anything more than an unchewed leg, and she could leave the rest to these two.

Lurking until the end of July - Please PM/tag me to get my attention

At the chastising of his sister Jackdaw drew himself up and treated her to a scornful glare. It wasn't like he actually gave a flying fuck-squirrel if some random bitch ignored him. It was just pretty fucking rude and ignorant and she should fucking learn her manners before someone actually got offended by it. Not that it was his fucking problem, mind you. He scowled in an unimpressed fashion at Falcons' grin.

"Yeah, I have everyones' best fucking interest at heart. If you're going to be a petty bitch then of course I'm going to point it out. How else will you correct yourself and grow as an emotionally sound individual."

He sneers, amber gaze staring into the other faes averted gaze. Oh well, fuck her. He turns back to keeping his eyes firmly trained on Falcon, sometimes suspiciously eyeing the stranger.

He feels a shiver trail down his spine, a suggestion of violence that tingles in his fangs. His jaw muscles clench and a growl trembles within his chest. He doesn't do well with strangers, the unknown. It floods him with nerves and adrenalin all at once in a strange sensation that leaves his emotions with whiplash. He wants to lunge. He wants to bite down and not let go, shake and wrench until blood fills his maw. That's familiar, that will diffuse the situation.

It's what that pack would do. The one that hurt his sister. It's what they did do.

He sometimes feels blood still encrusted deep within the fibres of his pelt.

He snarls at Falcons' suggestion to hunt together, making it well known that he does not approve of this in the slightest. He wouldn't trust this bitch with his name if Falcon hadn't already given it. He knows, he fucking knows, that Falcon is a social creature, a creature of affection both physical and mental. She needs to be surrounded with family and friends. She craves it.

Jackdaw feels his lips raise at the young strangers voice. He snorts at the name, scorns the strangeness of it and the length of it. He turns his head away slightly, female still in his peripheral, to roll it from his maw, feel it on his tongue. His fur rattles as he draws in a tasting breath, catching the faes scent.

He snaps his head up to follow Falcons movement.

"Thought you already ate, turdface."

He grumbles, shadowing her movements. He wrinkles his nose at the scent of meowbeast, glaring around as though it may still be hiding. Following the rich scent of blood to the source is simple enough. They weave through the thick trees, Jackdaw watching Aphrodite very closely as he trails behind his bouncing sister, and are before the sheared body of a very dead hornbeast in no time at all.

As he sees the bitch, 'Aphrodite', padding towards the slaughtered hornbeast he cuts delicately in front of her and packs his jaws with meat. His long tail curls upwards into an offensive 'S' posture without looking back at the fae. He storms over to his sister and parks himself next to her, placing himself between the females as he begins to draw his tongue over the sweet meat of the scavenged kill.

He may or may not have a sweet tooth. He wistfully thinks of stolen honey pooling in the hollow of his tongue before it slides down his throat. Fucking bullshit that it's so hard to find something that's sweet enough to make his teeth ache in any terrain.



Notes: Okay so, I'm kind of drunk/hungover at the time of writing this. I got Vet/Falcon to look over it but I don't think it can be helped. Sorry for shitty punctuation and lack of sense, I might retype this if I get a chance to read it sober before anyone replies. I also tried not to get to rambly.

Falcon gave another long-suffering sigh. Jackdaw never could help himself when he felt offended, but there was little she could do to ease his anxiety about the newcomer. Oh, and wouldn't he be furious with her if she explained to Aphrodite that was exactly why he was acting like such a rear?

The tawny female brushes past her brother, flicking her tail against his hind quarters in a plea for him to calm. Aphrodite was the first wolf they'd met in forever that had any mind not to chase them immediately away from pack territory. Falcon didn't want Jackdaw chasing her off before she could respond in kind. She liked the younger female and appreciated her attempts at peace, even if her brother purposely snubbed them with bull-headed determination.

But Falcon eyed Jackdaw trying to pronounce the stranger's name silently out of the corner of her eye and smiled. He tried so hard to seem cruel, though Falcon for the life of her couldn't figure out why. She felt it had something to do with her, but could never be quite certain.

The she-wolf willingly lets Aphrodite take point as they approach the carcass, but pins her ears back and sidles away in a hunched posture when Jackdaw cut ahead and stake a possessive claim. As her brother sat beside her in another sign of possession that was more protective than anything, Falcon hunched down even lower as if trying to disappear from the rising tension.

It would happen, she knew. Fights and arguments were out of her control when every tactic she tried failed. If Aphrodite chose to make an issue of Jackdaw's behavior, there was little Falcon could do to stop it save for whimper in the background and nip at the losing side to rush the fight along. The faster it was over, the sooner they could have peace with something of an established hierarchy.

Falcon made no move at all toward the kill. Per hard-learned behaviors, she knew she was due to eat last. Even when it was just herself and Jackdaw, some habits were hard to break. The she-wolf saw no need to change that now. She lay nearby, looking at the carcass while holding herself still so as not to inadvertently start a fight between the two wolves if one could be avoided.