Oak Tree Bend Capital Punishment

paging @Serach or @Spieden either one. and @Kino too if you want. or any otb member really but def Serach or Spied. Let @Larkspur reply first.

The stranger wanted north and he got north, alright. She made sure to tell the man to watch his step and stick close to her as the dark trunks shifted closer together and the mists began to rise up seemingly from nowhere in her blue, homeland woods. Losing him wasn't such a great concern as him tripping over a root or putting a foot through some critters home and making a new skylight. Cuts were one thing, but a sprained or broken leg would be another story, one that Sahalie had no idea to fix. Occasionally she looked over at him, curious to his opinion on her home: did it surprise him that such a "sweet girl" like this lived in possibly the darkest place in Relic Lore?

"So this is Spectral Woods, the general area I mean. How it got it's name is pretty obvious. It carries out all the way to the mountains in the west, but we're located at the most eastern part by a river." Since before he had seemed interested in getting her bearings she figured the geography lessons, if not appreciated, would at least not be "annoying" to him. "North of here the forest turns totally red cause of all the ferns. It's pretty cool, you'll see. And I've never really been farther north than that. So it'll be pretty neat to see what's beyond the ferns." Just chatting away to pass the time, since otherwise there was not much to do and it made her feel more at ease.

"I'm not sure who will come when I call, either it'll be Serach or Spieden. Spieden's the chillest. She raised me from birth when my mother left," because what was a little geography lesson without a bit of history? The story was not told with any hint of sadness, and the girl continued to pluck through the forest with the casual, cheerful expression. As the oaken scent swelled to a crescendo the girl slowed to a stop, turning to look at the stranger for a moment before lifting her head to call out for her leaders.

It was then she realized she didn't know his name.

(This post was last modified: Jul 17, 2016, 09:07 PM by Sahalie.)

Larkspur was slinking next to her and unable to resist the urge to look over his shoulder every few minutes. He was careful, as she'd instructed, and stuck close to his little shield. She seemed to believe that the rest of her pack would be more accepting of him than Alastor had been, but he wasn't really certain. Either way, he'd managed to get a little bit more north. Even if he couldn't rest up in the protection of a pack, he'd won in some sort of way. And if not, he was certain he could convince the dark girl to escort him through. He should have done it this way before, but being more of a here and now type of man made thinking of the future a little bit harder for him.

She went on about their land, and wondered if there was any sort of deeper meaning to the name. Somehow he doubted it, but he couldn't deny that it was... spooky. Sahalie was a shadow in the darkness, and he more like some sort of half-dead ghost. Or... all-dead ghost. Either or, it was a weird place to raise a family. Unable to picture a red forest, Lark wondered how north it was, and if it stayed red year-round, or just in the fall, like most forests seemed to do.

They had finally stopped, and the scent that lingered on Sahalie was all around them. He was tense, his tail curled under his belly. Lark wasn't sure what to do with himself, so decided to keep himself low to the ground, but ready for action. It wasn't really easy to just take her word for it, especially when she might as well have lied to him when she tried to tell him about Oak Tree Bend before. When she howled out, causing the ragged man to flinch away from her. Huffing, slowly made his way back to Sahilie's side. Unsure of what to do with himself, he did the one thing Larkspur might have been best at.

Growling, of course.

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

The summoning finished and Sahalie's face tipped back down, turning towards her new friend who was—he was growling? "Woah there, buddy, chill out," she said, rolling her own shoulders. "Ain't no one going to treat you nicely if you want to act like that." Spieden might overlook it, but Serach would definitely find offense in it and just automatically send the wolf on his way. "I said we're friendly and laid back, but I didn't say lawless." Sahalie was definitely the only hippie-flower child among them willing to overlook some strange wolf on the borders of her home acting completely unfriendly. She didn't need him to smile, she just needed him to get to a neutral body posture and stop it with the noises.

"Uhm, so, you should probably tell me what your name is. It'll look a little weird if I'm like 'Yeah hey, he's this new wolf I totally want to vouch for. But yeah idunno his name,'" Under normal circumstances it probably would have hurt, but in this case she would probably need a lot of assistance to get this wolf through the door. If he was just any old injured wolf—which he actually was—they probably wouldn't want to let him in. What would he be helpful with, in the sorry state he was in? But he could be helpful, perhaps, once he healed. Either that or she'd just have to take him up with her to Hearthwood River anyway and off load him there.

"Say, while I'm still asking questions, did you have a particular duty in whatever pack you used to live in? Like hunter, guardian, scout, or whatever? That'd probably help your case."

Larkspur regained himself, watching her make herself comfortable. "You did," he pointed out, but he doubted that anyone else would be so forgiving. He sat down and slumped, ears down and still low. Nervously licking his nose, Lark groaned, which was about as close to an I'll be good as she was going to get. He needed to keep his own interests in the forefront of his mind, and being rude and growly wasn't going to get him there. If he was especially lucky, Alastor wouldn't show up and put a wrench in it all. Should everything work out nicely, Lark even considered going up to apologize to the damage he'd done to the yearling's ear.

Or gloat. It'd be according to the mood he was in, he supposed.

He could smell that lynx again, following him and leaving kills. He found himself resenting that lynx, and if he'd been feeling better, he would have gone after it. Yet here he was, being presented to join some pack. Sahalie asked his name a lot later than he'd anticipated, as usually wolves offered their name freely and expected you to do the same. He hesitated. Not because he didn't want to give her his name, but more because he was hoping to see that lynx. "It's Larkspur," he pulled himself away from the thought of the lynx in fear that he'd lose focus of what was sort of important at the moment.

"And no, I didn't have a particular duty," he looked away from her, ears perking forward to see if he could prepare himself for her alpha's appearance. "I did it all. I was the alpha."

(This post was last modified: Jul 17, 2016, 09:28 PM by Larkspur.)

e_e still trying to get back into posting

Spieden's uneven ears twitched as the last echoes of Sahalie's call faded away. The Coho woman carefully pulled herself from the creek, where she paused on the bank to shake herself free of the water that clung to her pelt. It had rained too much earlier in the week, and the waters ran too high for her to have much of a productive fishing session. It at least made a good enough excuse for her to go for a swim, escaping some of the daytime heat.

Spieden ambled towards the border, her wet leathery nose lowered to the ground to guide her towards Sahalie and the scent of an unknown male. She picked up the pace, her thick limbs moving double-time to sooner bring her before the pair. She came to a stop, shoulders squared with head and tail steady; she ran the show around here, but she wasn't the type to act all puffed up and full of herself.

Fiery amber eyes first met the pale coated male that sat at Sahalie's side, finding his body drawn down in submission, or anxiety, or both. She observed him for a few moments longer, noticing the thick patch of mud caked into his fur and streaks of raw pink flesh not quite hidden by fur or muck. At first she wondered if perhaps this was one of Drift's friends, since Spieden had never quite figured out where the boy had picked up his penchant for soil and filth. But if the man was looking for Drift, he was out of luck. The boy was long gone.

Spieden turned her attention towards Sahalie, her silvered brows raised in curiosity. It seemed nearly half the pack had been brought here through Sahalie's doing, and Spieden couldn't say she minded it. So far they had all been decent, hardworking wolves, and it saved her the hassle of going out and looking for members herself. "So who'd you bring this time?" Spieden asked, the slightest bit of amusement carried in her voice.

@Larkspur here ya go!

No she wanted to argue, she hadn't, she had said "not rule-driven" which to her was a very different thing. It didn't mean no rules at all. But it seemed like a silly thing to argue about when the wolf beside her was in such a panicked state. Didn't need to make it more stressful by turning it into an ideological debate. Besides, Sahalie wasn't one to change anyone's mind. Not quickly, anyway: patience was a pretty big part of it. At any rate, the man seemed to agree to being on his best behavior and that was about all she could ask for.

Larkspur. Like a bird? Sounded sort of like the bird, but she felt too silly to ask. Her own name didn't mean anything, and perhaps it was the same with him.

The Alpha? The girl's mouth opened in a neat little "o" of amazement and surprise. He hadn't struck her as a leader, but then again he had one foot in his grave and not even Spieden looked like a leader. She was about to ask where, for how long, and a bunch of other nosey questions when the bushes rattled and her caregiver's wide form appeared. "Hi!" she barked, remaining by Lark's side as if there was a chance it would make him feel better to have his tiny meat shield to protect him from one of the largest wolves on this side of the mountain range, "Sorry to take you away from the kids."

"This is Lark! As you can see he was a very good sport about me rubbing some tree bark on him..." Her head twisted around to get a better look at it. It had dried at least, gotten crusty. Was that what was supposed to happen? "I was uhm... hoping he could join us. I don't want to leave him out in the wild. You wouldn't believe it but there's been like, this lynx stalking us." Her head tipped up towards Lark, wondering if he wanted to say anything for himself. She kinda hoped not.

(This post was last modified: Jul 18, 2016, 08:34 PM by Sahalie.)

When what he could only assume was an Alpha showed up, Larkspur suddenly regretted telling Sahalie how he'd managed to get in such a pitiful state. He nervously glanced around again, half expecting her little boy toy to show up. He wasn't there, not yet anyways, and now was his chance to make a good impression. The stranger -- Spieden or Serach, he wasn't sure yet -- asked his friend (maybe it was too soon to call her friend just yet) who she'd brought, it only confirmed that she often brought wolves back to her pack. Sahalie apologized, and before the man had a chance to introduce himself, Sahalie did it for him.

It took every rotten bone in his body to not growl at her.

Sahalie went on about him being a good sport, which he didn't think was much of the case, and then cut right to the chase. He let her speak, keeping his teeth tightly clamped together while he watched the large (emphasis on large) woman before him. Sahalie finished, and Lark finally got up and took a step away from his - ahem - tiny meat shield. "Larkspur," he corrected.

"I was injured by another wolf," he considered coming up with a quick lie, because pitiful loner is hurt by mean pack wolf sounded better than trespassing loner has a big mouth and gets beat up for it. He wasn't sure if Sahalie would speak up on it, though, and decided to stay vague and hope that she wouldn't rat him out. It had been her idea, anyways. He desperately wanted to give her a good, hard glare, but was too busy behaving himself to do so. "Sahalie offered shelter here while I rest," this Larkspur was different. He was polite and submissive, he spoke calmly. Not even one growl, not even a tooth showing from the white man.

Lark felt sick with himself, this almost felt like he was begging. "I cannot offer much now," he was caked in dried bark goop and dirt and blood, so that was clear, "But I am an excellent hunter," if they had extra mouths to feed, then picking a role that Oak Tree Bend may actually need could only help his case. "Oak Tree Bend is beautiful, I would be honored to call this home, if you'd have me."

Spieden's tail swished as Sahalie quite eagerly introduced her newest companion, explaining the messy state of his hide in the process. Spieden wondered if she'd picked up the tree-bark trick from Quentin.

Spieden's nose twitched, catching a faint whiff of something feline as Sahalie mentioned their stalker. "I'd believe it. I can smell the damn thing," She grumbled, punctuated with a snort. She tucked the piece of information into the back of her mind. Someone would have to come out later and deal with the pest, she couldn't leave it to chance that anyone, especially the pups, might come across the lynx later.

Her attention shifted towards the pale wolf, who stated his full name and quickly explained how he'd ended up in such a state, short on details enough for her to notice, but not enough for her to pry. It wasn't anything surprising, the life of a loner wasn't an easy one as she'd come to find. She preferred the freedom of it, but it seemed she'd come to find a happy medium in the Bend. "Lark...spur, huh. Well, I'm Spieden Coho, leader here." She added with a tip of her snout by way of brusque introduction.

"There's a lot of little mouths to feed around here, we can't really afford to keeping wolves just to lay around with mud on their backsides." She informed him, shifting her ample weight from paw to paw. "But we could always do with a good hunter. As long as you plan on earning your keep once you've healed up, I don't see any problem with it," She said with a shrug of her broad shoulders.

Spieden was more like Sahalie had said, leaving him to believe that her friend Alastor had just been some sort of fluke. The larger woman was friendly, but certainly... the chillest, or so the yearling had said. She was casual, and hardly demanded any sort of respect. It was off-putting, and Larkin wasn't sure if he liked it or not. He tended to dislike things that were so unfamiliar to him, so felt like leaning in that direction. She didn't demand respect, and had he been passing through, he'd hardly realize the woman was the leader. Was Oak Tree Bend's other leader the opposite, or friendly and laid back, as Sahalie had described her pack?

He didn't know, or care, as Spieden agreed to allowing him to stay in their pack. Lark could feel the pressure lifting off of his shoulders. He'd have to face Alastor eventually, but the fact that Spieden didn't seem to be on alert at all meant that he could put that off for a while. "Thank you, Miss Coho," he gave her a sort-of bow, but wasn't too certain about it. The whole situation was... weird. He hoped the feeling would go away soon. "I won't keep you, if you've got little ones to take care of."