Willow Ridge waves after waves

@Mordacai (first please, if anyone else is thinking of joining)!
Evening; New moon; Partly Cloudy — 18° F/-8° C

The sun had barely risen, instead skimming the southern horizon as it peeked behind scattered clouds, before dipping back out of view in the west. Only a scant amount of twilight remained, the thief's eyes adjusted and his ears finely tuned to guide him. Rais knew it would be a dark night, with the moon gnawed away to nothing. It would be a dreadful night for anyone up to honest business. Fortunately for Rais, he wasn't up to anything honest.

Rais' toes fanned wide as he stepped lightly over the snow's frozen crust. Each cautious step brought him deeper into the forest of willows. Unlike most loners, rather than shying away from the drifting scent of a border, the rogue veered straight towards it. He kept his head low, vibrant orange eyes skimming the surrounding woods for any shifts in the shadows that could be someone watching him. His mission for the evening was to fill his empty belly.

Winter wasn't too harsh so far, and if he cared to he might have gone rabbit hunting. But that was utterly tedious compared to the thrill of infiltrating a pack's land and stealing their stored food right from under their noses. Of course it was risky, and he still hadn't forgotten how the River wolf had pulled off the tip of his tail. But when everything went well it was so easy, and Rais had to admit the burst of endorphins he got from a successful raid made it a little addicting.

Rais paused as he neared the border and lifted his black-topped snout upwards to scent the air. It seemed this pack was better than most about patrolling the area. He could smell the stale, frostbitten scent of buried meat drifting out from the territory. If the wind didn't lead him astray, he could probably be in and out with his prize before anyone had even noticed his presence...

Rais sniffed a few more times, then set his bearings in what he hoped would be the right direction. He'd have to make this fast. The little rogue broke into a fast trot, snow crackling underfoot despite his best efforts to move quietly. He didn't dare run, lest he make even more noise.

(This post was last modified: Dec 23, 2014, 06:23 AM by Rais.)

Mordacai had filled his stomach well for dinner and was more than ready to go to work, practicing the role he hoped to earn one day. He had already successfully chased off foxes that were raiding their caches. As far as defending the border from other wolves...well he had thought his sister was an intruder a few nights ago and defended it against her if that counted for anything. Besides that he hadn't really had much opportunity to prove himself as a pack Guardian. The swarthy male found this a little disappointing, but in the bigger picture it meant that Willow Ridge was safe so he couldn't be too upset about it.

Mordacai had finished only a third of his round about the borders when an unfamiliar scent drifted past his nose. His posture went rigid as all of his attention shifted to focus on his sense of smell and hearing. The scent was faint, not close to where he was, but definitely within the border. In fact, whoever the scent belonged to was well within the border. This was no mistake, no accidentally crossing. Whoever this was had intentionally crossed into their territory. Lips pulling back in an instinctive snarl, it only took Cai a moment to pinpoint the direction from which the scent was drifting and that was all the information he needed.

Cai had a bottomless pit for a stomach and did as much as he could to build his muscles and the combination of meat and constant exercise kept Cai's muscles large. But beneath these muscles was a lean frame, meant for hunting. So when the urge to run struck, as it did now, Cai was faster than one might expect a Guardian to be. His long black legs propelled him through the snow, barely breaking the crunchy surface of the white powder before lifting in the air again to begin another stride. Cai just hoped that he reached the intruder before the intruder reached the caches, or worse the pups.

Gauging by how far he'd gone unchallenged, Rais was feeling pretty optimistic he would be able to make it to the cache and back out before anyone was the wiser. He could smell it now, the only thing standing between him and his stolen meal now was a layer of snow and dirt.

Luckily the willow bough's had kept out the larger drifts that blanketed the fields and meadows. It didn't make much difference to Rais, who scooped the snow by the pawful out from under him, revealing a patch of frozen ground. He stared for a moment, narrowed tangerine eyes barely able to make out the flat dark patch of uncovered earth surrounded by a boundary of white fluff. The silver male snorted, black snout wrinking as he sniffed at the ground. Shit, he'd been slightly off! He turned around, digging again and sure this had to be it.

His white tufted ears flicked behind him as he heard a sound, faint but growing closer. Unmistakably, someone moving over the snow, and fast. As he sifted through the snow a second time, he held back a growl as he found the ground beneath as solid and undisturbed as the first, the scent of meat again missing.

Damn! He'd have to make this quick! Third time's a charm, he thought to himself as he turned slightly to a new patch to kick up more snow in a wide fan. The scent confirmed it, and though dark and frozen it was clear that the soil had been disturbed here in the past. His moment of discovery was dampened by the ever closer sound of a wolf's paws rustling over the snow. With renewed haste, Rais' claws scraped at the frozen soil as he tried to free the meaty prize beneath.

Look out! A blizzard is coming your way!

The sky has been cloudy all day, the temperature has been dropping quickly, and now the winds are beginning to pick up. What began as just a few harmless snow flurries is quickly turning into an all-out blizzard. Quick! Seek out a safe shelter to ride out the storm. Be careful, though! Visibility is very low and it will be easy to get lost.

As Mordacai finally came upon the intruder he was initially relieved that the small wolf seemed interested only in the caches and not in stirring up any other kind of trouble. That relief was only a brief flicker of emotion and it was immediately followed up by a wave of anger that had Cai releasing a vicious snarl from his black lips. No one would steal prey from his pack on his watch. The tiny mottled wolf could just go straight to hell! From a distance Cai could see that a chunk of the wolf's tail was missing and assumed that the loner probably made a habit of stealing from pack caches. Well he obviously didn't learn his lesson, the dark Guardian criticized. This time, he is going to lose something much more valuable than a tail, the inner-thought was more of an inner-growl.

As Cai's long stride and quick turn over finally brought him within attack range of his target he was loathe to see that the small grey man had already dismantled a piece of meat. Intent to make sure he did not get away with his prize Mordacai did not hesitate to through himself, full force into the smaller form of the mangy grey wolf. As they toppled over, Cai opened his jaws, prepared to sink sharp ivories into whatever skin he could find. His instinct to defend his pack was certainly a motivating factor, but Mordacai couldn't deny that something else was at work, driving him to tear this stranger to pieces. There was something dark, hidden behind all of his good intentions. There was a satisfaction looming in the back of his mind. It felt good to be so angry, so aggressive. It would probably feel good to kill this stranger, and him being a mangy thief seemed like as good an excuse as any.

These thoughts were not so coherent as they passed through Cai's mind in the instant of the fight; they were more like unrefined, raw emotions. Thoughts. Emotions. Either way, they were powerful enough to keep Cai from noticing the storm that was brewing.

(This post was last modified: Jan 03, 2015, 05:31 AM by Mordacai.)

Rais' fine tuned ears could hear the pack wolf growing closer by the moment, but the thief remained focused on the ground at his feet. He winced through the pain of his calloused paw pads cracking against the frozen earth, but kept going. Food meant survival, and he couldn't just give up what he'd found and run. Who knew when he would find something to eat next? Huffing as he shoved snow and crumbled earth out from under him, he soon noticed a different texture, something rubbery and impossible to see in the darkness but immediately identifiable by scent as the meat he was looking for.

He could hear the crunching of paws running over snow nearly upon him, and feel the wind beginning to whip up at his back. Not waiting a moment longer, nor bothering to unearth the entirety of the cache, he grasped what he could in his crooked fangs and pulled roughly. With a snap he freed a small morsel, gulping the icey shard of sustenance right down his gullet without chewing. He simply didn't have the time for it.

The piece of frozen meat was still making it's jagged way down his throat when the rogue felt something barrel into his side. With a loud "HORK" the meat shot right back out. For a fleeting moment Rais was flying, before landing on his side into a drift of snow that barely cushioned his fall. Rais felt sharp teeth snag into the skin of his shoulder. Rais twisted on the ground, orange eyes burning angrily as he sought out the cursed wolf who not only interrupted him, but managed to knock his stolen prize right out of him! The wolf was larger than him, which wasn't much of a surprise, with an inky black coat fitting the night if not for the white flakes whirling about.

Rais hadn't made an attempt to rise yet, letting the black wolf hang onto him a moment longer. It hurt like hell and would surely leave a mark, but Rais had him right where he wanted him for now. Rais bared his fangs and struck like a viper, aiming to clasp onto the Willow wolf's foreleg.

There is a moose carcass that has been scavenged by coyotes nearby. +15 Health