Hush Meadow [BWP] All I Do is Wave Goodbye

July 5, overcast morning, all welcome

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The coyote gurgled and gasped for air as it died and Laurel stood over it, waiting until the thing stopped breathing and twitching. He had been getting good at killing coyotes. It was hard at first, but it wasn't unlike killing a deer. Except the deer had fangs and claws and bit back, and sometimes other deer would run to its aid. But if he caught it by surprise and when it was alone, the coyote was as good as dead. He couldn't recall how many he'd been able to kill at this point, but it didn't really matter. Each time it was one less, each time just a little easier to kill. He nudged the coyote and when he was certain it wasn't dead, he moved away from it.

Lauraceae found satisfaction in making a kill. It was much more satisfying than catching a rabbit (he had yet to catch anything larger) and, better than anything else, it gave him a purpose. Eventually he might be able to take one down without getting himself injured, and maybe eventually he'd rid Relic Lore of them completely. Laurel panted, eventually finding a decent hill to get a better view of the meadow. He lifted his head and a cool breeze swept through the grasses. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath of the cool morning air

(This post was last modified: Jul 04, 2018, 07:46 PM by Lauraceae.)

@Lauraceae

Having been officially promoted to scout, Adeltra was doing her best to make herself worthy of her new job title. For the past few months she’d been sticking close to home, what with the death of her father, the birth of her siblings, and the return of her mother. But, now that things were more stable and the cubs were bigger and didn’t need to be watched 24/7 she felt she could stray away from within the borders to check things out more.

She needed to track the coyotes movements, find out where their scents were strongest and report back to Sven and Ravenna. Her biggest priority with her scouting missions was to be able to report back then, eventually, lead a gang from the Ridge to take out some of the larger gatherings of the mongrels. They more they took out from the surrounding area, the safer things would be on the homefront. Still, she made sure to stick close to home so that she could get back quickly if things got too hairy. She wouldn’t be any good to anyone if she got mauled to death.

Following the scent of a coyote she’d snatched up on the breeze, she soon found the strong scent of blood attached to it. Intertwined with both was also the scent of wolf. Her auds swiveled forward attentively, her pace picking up into a lope. Boy, she hoped she didn’t have to come across the corpse of some poor sap done away by some flea-bitten lesser canine. That would be quite the sad way to go.

Luckily, as she approached, she found not the body of a wolf on the ground but that of a coyote. A coyote who’d been done in good, too. The scent of the other wolf was quite fresh, likely only minutes old, so she quickly latched onto it and followed. She needed to see if they would need any medical help. The girl didn’t know any herself, but they were close enough to the Ridge that she could likely run and get Ravenna and be back in a decent amount of time. She followed the scent trail up a hill, where she was met by the form of an emaciated boy about the same age as herself. He was in about the same shape as she had been upon her return, but his body was riddled in so many scars she wondered how he was still alive. And, upon closer inspection, she could see that he was likely about to get some new ones.

“I would say what happened to the other guy, but I saw the other guy. He’s a lot worse,” she said, keeping a respectable distance away. Her honeyed-amber gaze were sharp and attentive, with auds cocked forward, but overall her posture was neutral and non-threatening. She was fairly confident that she could take the skinny beanstalk if she needed to.

There is a deer carcass being picked over by three coyotes. They spot you and become territorial of their kill.

Ahead was the remains of a deer and Laurel lowered himself to sit. Sometimes the coyotes took their time to show up, and other times they jumped into the scene in a blink of an eye. He could only hope that they went for the carcass and not him this time around, at the very least to give him some time to figure out a plan. If there were more than three, he'd try and get one's attention and split it from the group. If there were two... well, he could take two if he snuck up on them. One was easy, especially if it was old. Laurel hoped it was one, and that it was old.

He heard quick pawsteps and tensed. Lauraceae's jaw clenched as he lowered himself, trembling, but ready to fight. He made a move to jump at her, but saw it wasn't a coyote so planted his paws firmly in the ground to stop himself. His tattered ears perked forward at her words and felt a firm blow to his pride. He rarely saw himself and rarely thought about how ugly and marred he looked. He'd seen himself in reflections, tired and beaten. The boy's ears flattened and his face scrunched up to let the girl know his displeasure, "That wasn't a very good joke." God forbid Lauraceae Ritter attempt to make nice.

But he was too tired to think about being nice, always on the edge of a fight. He turned from her to pretend to look at the carcass. Instead he was looking at his snout, bloodied and scarred. He would not have been bloodied or scarred if Sahalie had not driven him away. He would have been a happier version of himself, smiling instead of snarling. His heart ached at the thought of that version of him, dead and gone.

@Adeltra was still there, staring at him and probably thinking of some other jab to make at him. He could almost hear it, if only because Laurel had been in contact with so few wolves that had even tried to offer him any compassion. He was tired of trying to relax and be friendly; if no one was going to give him the courtesy of kindness, then he wouldn't either.

Still, two sets of teeth were better than one. A companion meant that he'd definitely be able to kill three of them, possibly four if the girl was any good. As the thought hit him, right on time, the coyotes showed up. "Get down," he loudly whispered, instantly lowering himself to watch the coyotes go for the carcass. Laurel glanced at the girl, "Any good at coyote hunting?"

That wasn’t a very good joke, he said with a scrunched up face. Her auds flickered back for a moment, head dipping ever so slightly in a physical display of apology. “Sorry, didn’t mean to sound rude. Guess I have poor taste in humor,” she said sheepishly. Truly she didn’t mean to sound like she was making fun of his appearance. Hell, Sven was pretty cut up himself. She didn’t feel pity for the boy, only perhaps...curiosity. Why was he alone? How did he come to be like he was?

All were questions she didn’t get to ask, however, as a gust of wind brought the foul stench of a trio of coyotes to her attention. She was already starting to crouch down when he voiced her to, creeping forward to peer over the crest of the hill at the band below. They were picking over a deer carcass in true coyote fashion. Stupid scavengers couldn’t work for their own meals. Her gaze flickered sideways as the male spoke, asking if she was any good at coyote hunting. She grinned, a typical mischievous look in her gaze. “Let’s just say I’ve gotten real familiar with them lately,” she replied with a sweep of her tail. “Got a plan?” Addy asked in hushed tones. Were they going to strategize, or hurl straight in?

The girl was grinning, but he wasn't sure why. Laurel snorted at her coyote comment, "Me too," a joke? Possibly. If it was, he probably should work extra hard on his delivery, because it was awful. His firey eyes fixed on the coyotes as he tried to get a headcount. Three. Doable. The girl asked if he had a plan and he wanted to tell her the truth: he did not have a plan, not anything close to a plan. He had been too tired to come up with much of a plan beyond kill the coyotes, go for the throat. It worked well enough for him, but each day that passed was getting harder. Plus, to top it all off, working with a wolf with unknown skills wasn't exactly going to be easy.

Still, only three. Doable. Laurel liked the odds. They made him feel confident. Plus, after they had thee coyotes, they could eat. It wasn't every day that he stumbled over a deer carcass.

His mind whirled as he tried to think of the best plan, something that wouldn't make him look stupid. He couldn't just say go for the throat and hope for the best, could he? "Theyre preoccupied, so we can relax," he was talking to himself, "We can each go for one, catch 'em off guard. Can you take one out by yourself? You just," -- and he wanted to laugh at himself for saying it -- "go for the throat. Don't let go until it stops moving. Then we'll both go for the third. It'll be quick and easy," he sounded confident but he wasn't. It was never easy, killing one of those things, and rarely was it fast enough. "Sound good?" Laurel looked to the girl and prayed for her approval.

She listened to his plan, feeling hesitant. Before the coyotes had suddenly grown a brain, they’d have had a chance at the plan working. But, now that they seemed to have a pack mentality she wasn’t so sure. At the very least she wanted to have even numbers, and at the moment they were outnumbered two to three. Still...he seemed so confident. And he had all those scars, which meant he had plenty of experience right? Yeah, yeah they could do it. “Alright, let’s go for it,” she said with a firm nod.

Separating from her new companion, she slinked along the hilltop until she was almost catty corner to their previous placement. Then, she waited for his signal. They had to be in sync for this to work. Nothing could go wrong, or they’d be in for it.

It was usually easy to assume that more scars meant you were a good fighter. Clearly, any wolf who was scarred had been in many battles, and to be in many battles meant you were skilled... right? Definitely not right. Laurel was lucky more than he was good, and if he had anything going for him, it was that he was determined. Not even out of a want to be determined, but just because it was how he'd survived thus far. His fighting style was sloppy at best, and successful only because he knew how to grab a coyote neck before it got down to killing him.

Adeltra, at the very least, seemed to approve of his plan. She wasn't poking fun at it, nor had she said anything along the lines of 'Wow! That sure is the best coyote-huntin' plan I ever done heard of!' (Really, though, was he hoping for that type of response? Was something wrong with him?) Which meant it was good enough to continue, and good enough for two yearlings to blindly attempt to kill coyotes and hope they didn't get too mangled up in the process.

The two parted ways and Laurel knew he had to be on his top game today. The coyotes seemed distracted enough by their carcass (why was it always a deer? How were they finding all of the good scraps before he was?) to at least not hear him at first. He caught the girl's gaze for a moment and then nodded. He took a big breath and rushed forward, ready to be a Big Hero and take on the Big Bad Coyotes.

Laurel tripped and instantly, two coyotes were on him.

Addy's sent up a howl for the pack

Once she got into position, she didn’t have to wait long for the signal to be given. He jumped the gun before she was able to move, as he was the one to fire it. She raced down the hill, teeth bared and hackles raised to make herself look more intimidating. She was heading toward the nearest coyote when she heard a harsh thump and the yipping of coyotes. Her head turned briefly, glancing out of the corner of her eyes and she was stunned to be the boy already on the ground being covered in two coyotes.

She cursed, turning sharply on her heels and heading to throw herself into the fray that was piled on top of her new companion. She collided with one, tossing it to the side and leaving it dazed before turning on the other who was quick to start snapping at her. “Up! Get up!” she hollered, her voice gruff as she snarled and clawed at the nearest mutt. The one she had been heading for previously could be seen making it’s way over and the one she had tossed was slowly getting to it’s paws.

They were so screwed.

She placed a heavy pawed swat to the coyote’s face to keep it away from her throat as she lifted her head and let out a distress call for the nearest Willow wolf. Screw what it might make her seem like to the boy, they couldn’t do this on their own.

and with a spark its going to be

Ravenna was on the screen faster then she could even fully comprehend. Her body and mind was moving instinctively to the call of her pack mate. More specifically, the youngest member of her pack savor the four children that had been born and one wolf she found herself quick close to in the manner which she was Leotie, Sven or Blitz... It was her family which was calling for help and she could only assume it was due to the populous of coyote in the area. Likely she had been out scouting for food, some small prey while it was typically up to Lilith, Enia or Emmaline even to check up on the larger game. Adeltra should not have been out on her own, though neither should have Ravenna. Luckily however, she had and it was the north-eastern part of the Hush Meadows not far from Drooping Willow territory which made getting their faster, easier.

Coming into the scene she slowed long enough to access the situation. There was a thin, pale tawny boy on the ground being attacked by coyotes and Adeltra was doing her best to fend them off as she could. Ravenna charged, slamming into the ribs with her shoulder of the coyote nearest her pack-mate. All her upper weight went into the slam in order to knock the smaller canine to the ground and then she lashed out, jaws reaching for the neck, grabbing it at the side of its neck. The large silver woman wildly shook the creature, so hard and so fast her whole body shook with it, the creature yowling out in pain and kicking out with all four limbs to get her off. But she was furious with vengeance and would not, could not, be stopped.

the biggest fire they've ever seen