Whitestone Monadnock this time maybe i'll be bulletproof

@Craw

It was the morning after Craw had unexpectedly woken him up in the middle of the night, talking about Askan and how he wasn’t worth the trouble. That was something that the young agouti subordinate had thought all along, yet somehow, the swarthy brute always managed to still end up getting him in trouble one way or another. Lorcan sighed as his golden eyes flickered around the inky darkness of the den chamber, vision adjusting as he awoke.

Craw had instructed him to find him once the sun was up, and so, as just as the first rays of golden light managed to cascade down through the tunnelled entrance to the den Lorcan shifted himself up once again onto to all fours and clambered as quietly as he could out of the den. The sunrise greeting him as he climbed out of the den and after quickly bowing down into a stretch, the agouti male glanced around and sniffed the air, before making his way towards the familiar boulder that he knew his superior liked to haunt on occasions.

Catching sight of Craw, Lorcan lowered his head respectfully, salmon pink tongue sweeping across his lips anxiously as he approached the male, curious as to what all the fuss the previous night has been about. “Craw, sir, you asked for me to come and find you?”

# P O R C A N

sometimes, two people have to fall apart to realise

how much they need to fall back together

Per the pack thread, Morg came to sleep beside Craw, so unless becu wants to post I'll just assume she's still snoozing peacefully <3

Any desire to be alone had evaporated soon after her warm body had laid against his, along with his residual adrenaline from an eventful night. It was only a few short hours before the sun rose high enough to bask the plateau in its rays, but they were restful enough that he was already awake behind his eyelids by the time he heard soft pawsteps approaching. Smacking his lips at the taste of sleep in his mouth (still regretting that it was not the familiar metallic tang of blood), he opened his eyes and glanced fondly at the dark shape sleeping soundly beside him before turning his head to watch Lorcan approach. Obedient as ever, he had come upon the arrival of the sun - though Craw rather wished he had waited for it to crawl into the sky a little more. Nevermind. He could hardly berate the medic for obeying orders.

With great regret, Craw carefully extracted himself from @Morganna's side, and turned to regard Lorcan as he waited submissively. The spider grunted quietly in acknowledgement of Lorcan's statement, affirming it, but could still feel the sleep in his bones; with a high-pitched whine of a yawn, he pushed forelimbs forward and stretched out the drowsiness, finishing off with a shake of the thick pelt around his neck and shoulders. Already he was remembering the night before, the reason for this instruction, and his engines were warming up nicely. Stepping forward, he made to move past Lorcan, the implication clear that he wanted the man to follow - but offered explanation before doing so:

"You can nurture and mend, and you're good at it, but I want to see you fight. Come." He didn't want to disturb Morganna if she was to rest longer, and nor did he intend on wasting time.

@Craw

It was only as Lorcan approached closer to Craw that he realised Morganna was in fact curled up beside him. The subordinate was aware that she had left the main den soon after he had returned back to bed, but he had drifted, and whilst he naturally held no recollection of Morganna ever returning to the den, he had presumed that she would have done. Obviously his presumptions were wrong. Golden eyes widened slightly at the female’s dark form and he stopped in his tracks, suddenly overcome by the idea of rudely intruding upon the pair.

It had been too late take back his words however, and so he watched silently, tail flicking awkwardly behind him as he waited for Craw to leave his mate’s side (still oblivious to their untraditional partnership). His superior did not seem too phased by the early awakening, appearing invigorated after a stretch and a shake to get his heart pumping. Lorcan somewhat copied Craw’s actions by tensing and relaxing the lean muscles beneath his pelt, preparing them for movement of some kind.

The blunt explanation provided by Craw caused his russet ears to perk up in surprise, and he felt his movement instinctively halt for a heartbeat or two as he mentally digested it. Fight?! Golden eyes widened in horror as he tentatively placed his forepaw to obediently follow after his superior, fur bristling along the back of his neck at the idea of physical violence. He was no good at fighting! Tail twitched uneasily behind him as he continued onwards, forcing himself to follow his superior even though the voice in the back of his mind was screaming for him to tuck tail and run. He didn’t even have the words to ask Craw about the night before: Right now he was panicking

 

(This post was last modified: Nov 23, 2016, 08:36 PM by Lorcan.)

# P O R C A N

sometimes, two people have to fall apart to realise

how much they need to fall back together

There is a family of deer nearby. Hunt Opportunity

Anyone from the pack welcome to spectate; this will take place within sight of the common area.

Craw didn't look back as he moved, but he noticed Lorcan's moment of hesitation nonetheless, the brief gap between pawsteps. He was unsurprised, but reminded himself not to be disappointed until the medic did something worthy of it; trepidation of the uninitiated was not to be punished. Craw knew Lorcan's type. The smaller man was not the hard creature that many of the other Whitestone wolves were in one measure or another. Soft around the edges, it suited his role as healer well, but it could not be all he was capable of - if not today, then tomorrow, and if not then, the day after. Last night had shown that Craw could not be too careful. He knew he could look after himself, but could not hover nearby all of his packmates in case of trouble. Guardians were important, essential, but did not excuse anyone from knowing how to protect themselves.

With the medic in tow, Craw chose their stage, a wide clear patch of ground within sight of the boulders which were arrayed by the pack dens. With only a layer of snow to get in their way, Craw turned to face Lorcan, yellow eyes moving over the man's tense and uneasy form, regarding him slightly differently to before. "Were you ever trained in your birth pack?" he rasped, tone almost conversational if not for the serious expression on his face. He craned his neck from side to side, stretching the muscles there, shifting his balance slightly from paw to paw, testing his groundedness, revving up slowly.

The agouti male followed the larger monochrome figure of his superior towards a clearing out upon the monadnock, away from the more uneven rocky area around the pack den area. Although this location had the advantage of being more flat and easier to navigate, the snow which had collected on the ground would decrease their stability. Lorcan’s fur bristled again as his heart began to beat faster at the thought of going up against his more experienced leader. The young subordinate wasn’t exactly filled with confidence.

Pausing behind Craw as he stopped, russet ears perked up at the question which hung in the air between them. Lorcan nodded slowly, golden eyes flickering from Craw’s face down to the icy ground. “I was taught the basics of how to fight, but they never saw much potential in me, so..” The subordinate paused then, as if his throat were clinging to the next few words. “So I was encouraged to explore other pack duties.” His top lip twitched then, before he pressed his lips together and looked back up to Craw expectantly.

“I suppose you mean for me to fight you, sir?” He asked, his voice failing to hide his lack of self-confidence, as he shifted his limbs a little wider apart and tensed his lean muscles, readying himself for the inevitable onslaught.

(This post was last modified: Nov 24, 2016, 02:51 PM by Lorcan.)

# P O R C A N

sometimes, two people have to fall apart to realise

how much they need to fall back together

Never saw much potential... A sad situation. Craw stared hard at the soft-brown wolf in front of him despite the other's lowered gaze, understanding his previous superiors' conclusion but condemning it. The importance of knowing how to fight wasn't some optional lesson, some skill which some wolves could simply opt out of. It was one thing if a wolf decided they would never challenge up, would never put up much of a fight within rank conflicts. Try explaining that pacifism to a cougar, or a bear, or a moose. They wouldn't give a fuck. Either you could hold your own - or you died.

Craw had dealt with the weak before, had trained them. Some of them had died, some of them had given up, and some of them had flourished, even if they'd never become great warriors. It astounded Craw how often he had to remind these reluctant few - and even the cocky and brawny - what their strongest asset was: each other. Craw did not think himself so powerful that he could repel an invasion single-handedly. With all of Whitestone by his side, no matter the size or speed or skill, though, he felt something approaching untouchable.

It was time to tip the scales into full-blown invincible, starting here.

"Of course. Are you implying that you're less frightened of a grizzly than you are of me?" he wheezed, a rough chortle in his throat, obviously enjoying the idea. He saw Lorcan stiffen, set his legs apart, steady himself, and Craw slowly shook his head, mirroring the defensive postures, thick fur bristling as the promise of adrenaline tickled his spine. "No. Attack me."

Craw’s humour was somewhat misplaced by the young subordinate, as Lorcan eyed up his superior anxiously. “No—” But you are almost as intimidating as a bear. White brows furrowed awkwardly as he fell silent. Instead of continuing his sentence, he moved on to preparing for an attack by making sure his paws had a firm grip on the smooth surface of the monadnock.

Seconds ticked by and he had yet to feel the heavy impact of Craw’s body against his. Glancing up, golden eyes search for the grey fur of his superior and his russet ears fell back against his head when Craw instructed for him to make the first move. He blinked, charcoal lips parting slightly as he tried to mentally encourage himself to plough forwards with some kind of momentum, muscles twitching in his lean slender limbs.

Crouching low to the ground, dull claws gripped at the rough texture of the rock for stability, golden eyes narrowing in on the larger grey figure ahead of him before he finally leapt forwards. Paws jerked a little upon landing as he steadied himself upon the snow before he continued to charge a few paces forwards, curving in at an angle so that he was directed at Craw’s shoulder or ribs, depending on how high he lunged.

With but a metre to spare, Lorcan lunged, jaws parting a little and forelimbs held back so that the first contact he made would be with his fangs.

 

(This post was last modified: Nov 24, 2016, 03:55 PM by Lorcan.)

# P O R C A N

sometimes, two people have to fall apart to realise

how much they need to fall back together

Lorcan was hardly a picture of aggression, even after the instruction sunk in and he realised what he'd been told to do. Craw could almost see the man psyching himself up for it, and just watched, patient, waiting. He half-expected the seconds to stretch on and to have to repeat himself - a most undesirable outcome - but Lorcan worked up the nerve to dash forwards.

Despite being fully aware of his lack of danger, Craw's body reacted accordingly, heartrate raising as he saw the flash of teeth, the oncoming danger, the way his adversary curved his approach to try and outflank him - and Craw let him, yellow eyes fixed on the medic as he came, and saw what was about to happen.

Rather than recoil or dodge or try to avoid it, Craw leant heavily into the attack, shoving his shoulder forwards to meet Lorcan's open jaws and absorb the half-hearted attempt, the pain of impact and tooth hitting thick flesh barely enough to bother registering. A low rumbling snarl ripped from his own throat, in complete contrast to Lorcan's silence, and Craw snapped his own jaws towards Lorcan's face in an attempt to force him back, to distract from his attack and see if he could be so easily intimidated. He made sure to chomp down harmlessly on air - but Lorcan could not have known the retaliation was planned to be so benign.

Lorcan’s muzzle buried into the thick fur around Craw’s shoulder, something that the subordinate hadn’t expected to happen. It took him a few heartbeats to realise that he had in fact managed to grab onto him successfully, before Lorcan actually bit down – although somewhat hesitantly.

A growl erupted from Craw then and the subordinate’s ears pinned pack instinctively to his superiors reaction, a small whine escaping him, as he continued to cling onto Craw’s fur, paws working against the ground in an attempt to pull at the thick insulating fur that protected the larger male from more serious harm.

However it was at that moment that Craw craned his neck around and snapped towards his face. Unwilling to get bitten, Lorcan immediately released his hold with a slight growl and stepped sideways to move around to the back of Craw.

Once positions behind the larger grey male, he lunged again, this time leaping higher to try and mount the larger dominant male so that he could grab the fur just before the bridge of his tail. Once he’d grabbed a hold, he aimed to tighten his grip and clamber up even further and try force the larger male down closer to the floor. Although it would be hard, since Craw was much heavier than he was.

 

# P O R C A N

sometimes, two people have to fall apart to realise

how much they need to fall back together