Quaking Vale The Story of Tonight

 @Sahalie @Larkspur @Castel @Draven last round!

If I ever leave I could learn to miss you

He was glad to see Cas join them, but her darker companion had still yet to show. He was also glad that she had arrived to hear him speak as he didn’t exactly feel like repeating himself. Kino, like the others, had noticed her deterioration. He’d tried to reason with himself that it was just the journey, but none of them had been impacted quite as much as she had been. His logical, realistic side told him that this was no normal hunger. He decided that, once everything was set up, he’d seek her out.

Various agreements were given throughout the group and finally it was Sahalie to speak, his topaz gaze sitting on her attentively. He gave a nod in agreement to her reasoning. While there were obvious ranks set up he knew that they were more or less all meant to be family. They were a place for healing. But, while Hal would be looking toward treatment Kino would be looking to the character of those within their ranks. If they didn’t pull their weight, if they didn’t remain loyal, he would find out and confront them. This sanctuary would not be taken advantage of.

“Indeed it’s settled. Now, let’s go get things done. Larkspur and Draven, I’d like you to help me set up borders. Hal you take Cas and start setting up those caches,” he said, rising to his paws and giving his large frame a firm shake before heading off. Larkspur and Draven were both in good shape and would be able to cover more ground than the smaller girls. With the three of them at it they might be able to get the territory covered before the sun rose the next morning. He knew he himself wouldn’t be able to sleep anyways and he looked forward to a long night ahead of him.

Exit

With sentimental boy as my nom de plume

Her mouth crinkled a little as she tried to restrain her teeth from worrying at her lips. She had wanted to go set up the borders. But suddenly it was like a guys versus girls thing—or was that how she was making it out to be? Speaking when she had no words or helping with decisions in tough times was one thing, but it felt odd to be given a command by Alastor, friend turned co-leader at the first opportunity. Two wolves in power would be harder than she had thought—because she had not thought at all—since so often Spieden and whoever her male counterpart happened to be at the time always seemed to get along fine. But Spieden was so laid back. She liked to let others decide for her. Even when Drestig had surprised everyone with his decision to leave and the subsequent attempt to take the pack with him she had remained relatively calm compared to many of the other wolves. Now Sahalie realized that things would not be so simple for her and Alastor. She was not Spieden, and this was going to take work. As a child she had been able to fight with Alastor until her face turned blue and the deer came home without any consequences outside of him, but what would it be like with the rest of the pack surrounding them? Would it weaken them? Would others step in? Would they understand?

"Awesome!" She chirped, with as much feeling as she could muster, turning to look at poor, weary Castel. Her heart gave a subtle throb. A cache might have seemed like a lame task to the dark girl, but it was probably all her friend could handle right now. Not that they had any food to fill any caches with. And hunting definitely wasn't on the docket. As the men trailed away she sighed. Castel seemed unhealthy, and not in the mild to medium way that Larkspur did at times. Abnormally unhealthy. But if the girl did not want to confide in her Sahalie would not press it. "C'mon, let's go see what's over here." She motioned with her head. And take it easy/

exit sahale

Cas had snorted in equal disapproval at Larkspur, but flashed the older man a bright smile afterward to show that she didn't actually mean anything by her actions. She pressed against Sahalie, giving the other girl's ear a quick lick, before turning to listen to Alastor's orders. Blue eyes narrowed just a bit when he flat-out told Hal what to do, and opted to take the boys out to mark borders and give the alpha female a simple, easy task. Of course, she understood that it was likely because of herself not feeling so well, but the fact that the larger boy hadn't even asked Sahalie's permission was really bothering the silver-dusted girl.

Castel was no mind reader, but she was observant enough to notice that little crinkle at Sahalie's lips. She probably didn't like being told what to do like that; in Cas' opinion, the two new alphas should probably get the whole co-leading thing worked out pretty damn quick if they wanted this to work smoothly.

The multicolored girl didn't take the orders as chipperly as her dark friend, and instead curled her lip in distaste. "Bossy bitch," she muttered under her breath as Al dished out orders, but she went along with Sahalie anyway. She was more than happy to spend time with her friend, but she wanted Hal to have a say in the way things were done, too. She wagged her tail at the new leader, a smile crossing her lips. "Lead the way, alpha!" she replied with a decent amount of reassuring excitement, following after the chocolate girl to go find the cache.

{ exit Cas }

His eyes narrowed on Alastor. Not because he was giving orders, but because it was awfully weird for him to decide he was going to help do caches, and then for the boy to ask him to do the opposite. His skin itched with frustration, but in a huff he let it go (and sort of felt proud of himself, he'd been letting plenty of things go lately). Sahalie also seemed irked about something, but the man had been so inside his head that he hadn't really had time to pay attention. There was little need to worry, the girl would come bothering him about it sooner rather than later.

Bossy bitch, he heard Castel hiss. Larkspur shot her a look and let her see a tooth or two, but then quickly got up and loudly cleared his throat. Both of the girls (and the only girls in the pack, he noted) were off, which meant it was time for them to get to work too. He glanced at Draven again, still not really certain what he thought of the boy, then started to take the lead. The man paused, but then finally waited for Alastor to take the lead. An annoyed sound rumbled in his throat as he finally felt things shift into perspective. Larkspur looked ahead, he took a breath, then made space for his alpha to take the lead. "After you, Alastor."


— Exit Larkspur! 

Sahalie stuttered through her final address towards them, including thanking them all for trusting her and for a moment he had a second of doubt. He had placed his trust in Alastor which by extension included the chocolate girl but he knew so very little of her other than his brother's love. However, after the briefest of seconds his doubts were squandered, that was enough for Draven. She could stutter and be as relaxed as she wanted but the Leigh had finally regained his brother and that was worth anything else. Even if it meant biting the bark and witnessing the Tainn woman find her leading legs. So when she smiled at him he made an effort to make a friendly face, even if it was only more of a twitching on half his maw.

Draven was much more comfortable when Alastor began speaking again, and this time he nodded in response to the words a full smile spreading across his maw. While he would have loved to have begun traipsing through the nearby territory in search of what plants he could find marking borders he could do. Maybe he would get lucky and stumble upon something useful within their new borders and he would have access to it without making any special trips out for herbs. Following after Larkspur and Alastor the monochrome trio made their way out and away from the meeting. Mentally they had already claimed this place to be theirs and now they would physically leave their marks as well.

FADE