Larkcall Lowlands On the Breeze

For @Craw and @Wraith , finally got it out >.>

The vast and exposed tundra simply demanded to be explored. There wasn’t any way around it, eventually Sylva knew that she would have come out this way again, to see the wide, open plains yet again as she stood on a small sun warmed rock jutting out over a small rise. Brown eyes slowly moving as she looked out, rocky outcrops and scraggly bushes dotting the landscape in every direction as far as she could see.

“It’s so….big…” she mused to herself as she tensed up her muscles, springing off the rock and landing on the stiff and coarse grass with a gentle thud as she sniffed the air, a soft and dry breeze blowing from the north caused her to stiffen slightly as a new scent crossed her sensitive muzzle.

A wolf pack? Way out here?

She paused for a moment, weighing her options, the lowlands were a reasonable distance from the springs and White Fir Notch’s territory, so the chances of them being rivals was fairly low, but if she could figure out a little more about this pack then she’d have some valuable information to tell @Gent and Raela about when she returned, information that was much more detailed than ‘a pack to the north’. Her tail swished behind her as she kept her muzzle toward the north and headed into the breeze.

Eventually, Sylva found herself sitting on yet another large rock, the scent of the unknown pack was stronger, but weak enough for her to feel comfortably far outside of their boundaries, she paused here trying to sort something out, there was something vaguely familiar about the packs’ scent, something Sylva couldn’t quite place her paw on it.

ThoughtDialogue

(This post was last modified: Jul 04, 2016, 03:10 PM by Sylva.)

He needed the time away. While Wraith prided himself on caring for @Odin and @Kara whenever @Morganna wanted a break, he had felt chained to the monadnock since their birth. And the one time he had deigned to travel farther, a furious spiraling storm had threatened the stability of their newly formed pack. The Second hadn't quite recovered from the scare and had been hesitant to get out. But "Craw" had insisted. He must look worse than he felt! Of course, Craw could always tell whenever he was vexed. His inactivity lately had taken its toll. It felt amazing to be out on patrol again as he had done back in Willow Ridge. While he cared little for any memories dredged up in the place now that they had found a home within the towering stone in the tundra lands, he did appreciate the time spent and skill learned patrolling. The time off hadn't dulled his senses any though. In fact, spending so much time around the pups perhaps made him more vigilant than ever. As such, Wraith did not miss the dark speck sitting on a pale rock in the distance that did not belong. It was out of their territory, of course, but the dark male did not care for the way it lingered. A spy? Interloper? Or perhaps someone less threatening like a hopeful wolf. Nudging Craw, he nodded towards the shape and angled their walk in that direction. When they drew closer, Wraith had a sinking feeling. No way. There was just no way this could be so. She was a neighbor?! Miserably, the black man groaned under his breath. He leaned over and whispered to his friend, "It's the village idiot."

Burtn @DA & Dawnthieves.de

@Sylva <3 it's in my threadlog I won't forget it now phew

It was that effortless sort of camaraderie that they enjoyed, an understanding and acceptance of how the other worked. Craw was not the sort of wolf who really knew what it felt like to be on the uncomfortable end of an 'awkward silence', or experience social anxiety, mostly because whenever he was involved it was because he was creating it. Testing boundaries was one of his favourite ways to figure out how those around him worked. He didn't need to do any of it with Wraith.

The man was almost as much a mother to those two children as @Morganna herself, the weight of which wasn't lost on Craw - but what could have been a sticky subject of fatherhood had just never been a problem. Both wolves knew exactly where the other stood, what their involvement had been (or hadn't, in Craw's case), and it bothered neither. Effortless. Who would have thought that being barrelled into last year (and somewhere not too far from here!) would have been one of the most important things to happen after his fall? Craw had only ever been as strong as his cohort.

He had been enjoying the mindless sensation of putting one paw in front of the other when Wraith nudged him, pulling him out of that comfortable trance. He followed his friend's gesture attentively, spotting the same dark shape, and they moved as one to approach it. There was something a little strange in Wraith's manner as they came close, for while Craw saw only a small black-pelted girl, clearly his Second saw something else - and as his friend's lips moved to his ear and explained why, the spider grinned.

He knew instantly who Wraith was talking about. The story of that bizarre young woman had been highly entertaining to listen to, mostly because of how uncomfortable it made the burly man at his side, the thought of a ridiculous wolf getting under his skin that much just hilarious. Craw knew full well that Wraith would have preferred to avoid a repeat encounter, but the dark smirk that the leader shot his Second promised otherwise.

His tail rose, but only to wag with overt friendliness, ears pricking up as he pushed forward to meet this strange creature he had so loved hearing about. "Good day!" he called, far more cheery than normal, but she wouldn't know that - and besides, he really was quite excited to see this play out. Look at her, she was tiny, nothing to be afraid of, no matter how many screws she had loose.

@Wraith and @Craw im not sorry!))

The yearling’s eyes were closed as she was lost in thought, trying to figure out why part of the unknown pack’s scent was familiar, She had a very good memory and something she was proud of, it was quite irritating when she couldn’t recall something. Soon she was torn out of her thoughts by a happy greeting and she lept off the rock with a startled yelp before glancing at it quickly.

“H-hey?” She titled her head as she took a step closer, her back toward the two wolves as she sniffed carefully “Sorry about sitting on you...if I had kn-” She paused as her nose twitched slightly and she glanced around. “There's that scent again…” she mumbled, her brown gaze falling on the large behemoths behind her and she gulped, pausing when it clicked.

“It was YOUR scent!” She almost shouted when she caught sight of Wraith, her tail wagging happily, satisfied now that she could put a name to the smell. Though her happy demeanor soon shifted to a more neutral as she recalled her last encounter with the obsidian wolf.

Her head angled a little to the side as her attention turned onto the other wolf, large, silvery and..large. Brown eyes glanced over him intently as she spoke ‘Must have been you..Wraith doesn't sound like that and I’m fairly sure the boulder wouldn’t either...name’s Sylva.”

ThoughtDialogue

Sitting on...? For Fenrir's sake! She was apologizing to a rock!! Wraith had never met anyone more doctrinaire about her own fantasy world. While he could appreciate fantasy when it came from playing pups, he would never understand how an adult could be so fully immersed in make-believe. She was just the kind of irresponsible that would get herself or other members of her pack (how could anyone stand having her as a packmate??) killed! For the first time since he'd met him, Wraith shot @Craw a genuinely dirty look for his peppy greeting. Don't encourage her! he wanted to shout. But of course, Craw knew exactly what he was doing and the brute knew he was playing a game to see just how @Sylva would react. "Nothing escapes your keen powers of observation," Wraith grumbled, far less than pleased with his friend for dragging him into this. They could have simply walked on by and she would have explained their presence away as ghosts or something like that. Fenrir almighty, she was reasoning that Craw must have spoken because Rocks. Didn't. Sound. Like. That. Wraith shot Craw yet another long-suffering glance as if to say See? See?! She's insane! But his Alpha was having none of it and the black man resigned himself to his fate.

Burtn @DA & Dawnthieves.de

Craw was not disappointed.

It took a great deal of restraint not to burst into full-blown belly laughs as it became obvious that the strange, tiny creature mistook his own greeting for the rock. If he hadn't already known of her extreme eccentricity, the behaviour would have bewildered him entirely - but while @Wraith wore a withering, bitter expression, Craw's grin threatened to split his face in two. As the girl realised that it wasn't dead stone which was talking to her - oh the very idea - but, funnily enough, another wolf, Craw took a step towards her, ears pushed forward and eyes gleaming, resisting the urge to guffaw at Wraith's thickly muttered sarcasm.

"Why wouldn't the boulder greet you? Strikes me as rather rude. Which reminds me of our mutual friend, actually," he rasped, shooting a wicked look back at Wraith, glee writ all over his face. He moved forward towards this @Sylva, utterly disregarding her personal space (if indeed she had any concept of it), stepping up and around her as if she was something incredibly curious that he just had to inspect, moving so close that their pelts brushed up against each other - or what they could reach, anyway. She was so tiny. "I take it Wraith wasn't very nice to you last time you met, is that right?" he crooned, making a sympathetic face towards her, only to then look back at Wraith with all his honest hilarity shining from his eyes. Craw utterly approved of Wraith's confessed hostility towards the strange woman, of course, because nobody should be permitted to behave in such a careless, rude manner, no matter how mentally impaired. He had made that viewpoint perfectly clear on hearing how his Second had handled her. How had she not been killed by something bigger and more intelligent, yet? He could smell wolves on her (it was hard not to at this proximity), which, he supposed, answered that question, though he was still too preoccupied with this game to notice that her musk was actually somehow familiar.

Sylva tensed instinctively as she felt the larger wolf brush up against her fur, usually the ebony girl didn’t mind such close contact from others, sometimes she even sought it out with her packmates. This though, this didn’t feel right, the way he smiled, it wasn’t genuine, that she could easily tell. Exactly  what it was, though took a few moments for her to gather, it was feeling very similar to her last encounter with Wraith, Craw’s words seemingly to confirm it.

He’s amused…. Is that all he saw her as? Some funny oddity that he could just gaze at and get amusement out of whenever he wanted? She wasn’t as oblivious as some wolves had thought, over the course of the past couple of months Sylva had learned how her...unique behavior could come off to some wolves, while it didn’t really bother her how solves wolves thought of her, actlvlty trying to insult her intelligence did,a game she wasn’t ready to fall prey to.

“Actually, No, he wasn’t being rude after our last encounter.” She paused, stepping away from Craw, making sure to keep the large boulder to her side as she went on. “ How I had acted was dumb, though he might have been able to tell me in a different way, he at least saw me as something worth teaching a harsh lesson to, instead of just disregarding me as some oddity.” her brown gaze narrowed briefly on Craw before she turned directly told Wraith, choosing to ignore the pale and silver alpha for the moment Want to treat me like nothing more than a plaything, fine {b}“I had actually..been hoping to bump into you..I want to tell you thanks...It has helped me.”[/b]

ThoughtDialogue

[/b]

(This post was last modified: Jul 22, 2016, 01:38 PM by Sylva.)

Despite how frustrating the situation was, a small smile was beginning to work its way to Wraith's maw. He'd never seen Craw more giddy or devilish than in this moment. Rather than focusing on his annoyance, the male instead turned his attention to how much his friend was enjoying himself. The silver wolf had a way of tackling any situation with gusto and still coming out on top. Was it any wonder the northerner had so much respect for him? Of course, not everyone was intelligent enough to have respect. Wraith's dark ears flicked forward as Sylva began to speak, though the tone of her voice left much to be desired. In warning, the black man lifted his lips in a silent snarl to let her know she was overstepping her bounds. But as usual, she ignored any social cues and carried on, further disrespecting Craw. As the female fully turned her back on the spider-faced man to devote her attention to Wraith, he shook his head. "Clearly it didn't help you enough," he mumbled. "Because you still don't know who to pick your fights with." And Craw was definitely not one to take lightly.

Burtn @DA & Dawnthieves.de

So Sylva was a loony beast, but not a simple loony beast, and that was unfortunate. Where he had been hoping to just toy with an oddity, instead the girl appeared to realise his mockery and refuse to engage with it, pushing a haughtiness into her tone as she removed herself from his immediate presence, and from the look on @Wraith's face it was clear that she was making a terrible mistake. If she had just been good and stayed insane, then he would have gotten bored and discarded her before long, but alas, she had attitude to go along with her talking-boulder delusions.

While his manner had never been good-natured, exactly, his previously mirthful smile twisted into something darker, ears pulling back as he watched her addressing Wraith and trying to insult Craw so casually. Her brown eyes turned to meet his yellow with distaste, and it sent a cold shiver down his spine, her open disrespect tingling in his limbs, and then Wraith spoke to confirm it all and Craw made his move.

Slithering forwards again, he pressed his head down right beside hers, cheek to cheek, muzzle alongside hers (as much as they could, as his was far longer). "You'd like a harsh lesson?" he hissed, and, taking advantage of the fact that she'd placed herself against the boulder, moved a forearm to try and reach around her torso and pull her in to his chest as he would sit down beside her, intending to hold her in place against him. "I think you should run your mouth some more, go on."

As per PP rules, his crush-hug is just an attempt <3

Gent plans to join after Craw’s next post

Of course any subtle or minor cues went over the ebony wolf’s head as she glanced toward Wraith, the message in his silent snarl forever lost as she blinked in confusion at him, his statement suddenly hitting home with the girl as her brown gaze widened, she had made a grave mistake in ignoring Craw, a wolf she had misjudged for simply making fun of her, Something that would no longer be her reaction to such situations.

That is..if she was able to survive this, suddenly finding the large brute next to her, pushing his muzzle against her, she tried to wriggle away, but found it hard with the male’s forepaw forcing her against him. Fear started to bubble up at his threat and she paused, her maw opening before replying as she sucked in a breath and let out a frantic and high pitched howl for help. Her breathing becoming more rapid as the base instincts of flight or fight crept into her conscious, there wasn’t much she could do from this position, and if none of her packmates had heard her cry, then she was on her own, probably to die here, because of her own stupidity.

ThoughtDialogue