sometimes goodbye is a second chance

Rhaegara, your personal cache has been raided by a hungry coyote!

11/18/2021, Dusk, Open to any FGC member (please only 1-2)

Rhaegara had been avidly hunting for the pack. As the weather started to get colder, she had been particularly focused on making sure the caches were stocked. She made sure to keep caches near the main den, particularly for the pups as well as herself and Saga to have easy access to. The children were always her focus, both her own daughter, but also Saga’s children. They had spoken during their pregnancy, and it truly took a pack to raise a child, especially now that they were both doing so alone… she was heading to one of those personal caches to fetch something for the pups before they settled down for bed when the scent of coyote ripped through her nostrils, causing an instinctive snarl.

She headed over, and that snarl turned to a whine when she saw the carnage. Filthy savages, left such a mess. The cache was a mess. She lifted her muzzle to call for another adult in the pack, hoping that they could trace it back and ensure the beasts were off the territory completely. The last thing they needed were some coyotes on the loose ripping into their food, or worse, their young.

Enera had been surprised the first morning she'd woken up to find frost on the ground and had, of course, asked a thousand questions before loping off to find @Marrah and share her new knowledge. Now, however, the pale girl wasn't sure she liked the cold. It kept getting chillier and chillier, and even napping in the sun wasn't as fun anymore. She liked cuddling up with Marrah or her mama to stay cozy, but she always ended up having to much energy.

She was hungrier more now. She was getting big, and the food was getting scarce as the temperature continued to drop. She was just heading out to look for one of the caches when she heard her mama call. Breaking into a jog she answered, skidding to a halt when she saw the carnage. Her nose wrinkled and her hackles rose. "What happened?" she asked.

Rhae truly should not have been surprised when it was her daughter who answered the call, listening as the question inevitably fell from her lips. She moved over, nipping lightly at her daughter’s ear before answering. “A bad creature got into the food cache.” She explained, knowing this was a learning experience. “It’s called a coyote… it looks kind of like us, but it’s got a thinner face. It’s smaller too… but don’t let that fool you, it can be dangerous.” She hated the fact that one had ravaged through the territory and hoped all of the other caches were okay as well.

“Promise me that if you see it, Little Dove, you’ll stay away from it. You’re not yet big enough to fight it.” She wanted to keep her daughter and the other pups safe from this threat. They were all growing quite fast, but not fast enough to face down predators like these. “Come, let’s go check on the other pack caches…” She encouraged as she gave her daughter’s rump a soft bump with her head to start sending her along. She hoped to run into another adult along the way to come up with a strategy.

Leviticus was on his way to deliver food to the same cache, a small piece of what he considered rent. Hunting was about all he was good for, it felt like, since River was gone. No medical treatment had been needed, and he sure as heck wasn't anyone's guard. If he had been, his friend would still be here. That left killing animals smaller than him over and over and transporting their carcasses from there to here.

It was bleak, and it was definitely wearing on him already. He couldn't stop thinking of River dead too, someone's prey, but what could he do about it? Go chasing after him in another blind dash? Levi had tried desperately to find a trail and couldn't. At least staying here, he wasn't completely alone, starving and freezing in addition to being scared and heartbroken. At least staying here, he had some idea of what he would wake up to each morning.

He heard one of the women howl, and was thankfully pulled from his dour thoughts. Levi picked up his pace, jogging the remaining distance. When he saw the torn up earth and remnants of what had once been edible food, his mossy eyes widened with shock. He slowed to a stop and dropped the hare to the ground when he reached Rhaegara and - her daughter, right? The rust-tinged wolf was nudging the young girl along, saying something about caches.

Levi quietly followed.

Enera ducked away from her mama's nips, trying to see around her to the carnage left by the... the coyote. That was a weird name. She glanced up at Mama, brow furrowed. "They look like up? But don't we all come from the same place?" she asked, thinking about Ymir and his family. "Why would it steal from us? If they'd just asked, we could have shared." She didn't understand why anyone would need to steal.

"I don't wanna fight anyway," she protested as Mama started nudging her away from the destroyed cache. "We're supposed to get along."

Then she turned around and saw another member of the pack. Enera stopped. She wasn't sure she'd met him yet. "Hi!"

The questions came, as she expected, and she sughed softly. “Because, Love, coyotes are different from you and I. They look like us, but they are not nice. They are quite selfish and want everything for themselves. They do not like to share.” She explained though she understood how that concept might be difficult for her child to understand. The Chasm was a kind pack in general.

At first, being too focused on her daughter and her wellbeing and questions, Rhaegara did not notice the man. It wasn’t until Enera herself was greeting him that her eyes came up to meet him. “A coyote ravaged the cache nearby… will you help me check on the other ones so we can assess the damage?” She wondered if any of the other ones had been compromised. Her brain had shifted fully into business mode and she didn’t have time for the formalities of a conversation beforehand.

His ears pressed forward, eavesdropping on what the mother was telling her daughter. The girl was adorably concerned about their rival's wellbeing, and while Levi could certainly commiserate with such feelings, protecting the wolves in this pack far outweighed any qualms about not being fair.

It's because they aren't nice, Rhaegar answered. They're selfish. His gaze and attention began to drift, but snapped to once again when he was addressed.

Hi!

Levi put on a small smile, and answered back, "hi."

His fellow adult turned to him then, all business. Levi's head bobbed up and down emphatically. Yes, he would definitely help with that.

had a dream so big and loud

JUMPED SO HIGH I TOUCHED THE CLOUDS

Enera's nose scrunched further as Mama tried to explain. She knew that sometimes wolves could be selfish, but that's all coyotes were? "Well, we should teach them about sharing," she said stubbornly. Maybe the thieves just needed to learn that it was okay to share instead of keeping things all to themselves.

Enera's tail waved as the stranger drew her attention again by returning her greeting. He seemed nice, especially since he was clearly going to help them check on the other caches. "What do I do?" Enera asked, prancing around Mama and waiting for her assignment. She could help too! She was a big girl now!

Her daughter… her sweet sweet daughter had such a kind soul… it was a luxury that Rhaegara had not been afforded and one that the girl was lucky to have. It pained Rhae to know that she would have to educate her in other ways, about how not all animals were capable of things like sharing, and how wolves could not afford such luxuries in the winter when survival was a focus. Levi offered little to the conversation.

She trusted the man to head along the packs, and so she used it as a teaching moment for her daughter. “They are not like you and I in that sense. They act on instinct, and their instinct is to survive. Sharing acts against that instinct… many have tried, Little Dove, but coyotes refuse to share like we do… and in the winter, we must only share with ourselves, because sharing more means we will not survive.” She loved the pacifistic nature her daughter developed, and it would do her well in inter-pack relations but there was a part of her that worried perhaps it would extend too far.

The question fell and she nudged her daughter lightly. “You can follow me and help check on the caches. Stay right by me in case we run into a coyote. They will attack on sight if they are hungry enough so we have to be prepared to defend ourselves.” She warned cautiously as she gave a nod to Levi, motioning towards the direction she planned to head so he might choose the opposite and they could cover more ground. She hoped it was only the one that was affected.

The child insisted they simply needed to educate their rivals, and Levi's smile grew brighter. In a way, she kind of reminded him of River and himself when they were younger. Her mother's explanation was informative, and he thought it a good one. Endearing as the girl's goodness was, he didn't want it to cause her trouble either.

Rhaegara gave him a silent directive, and once again he nodded. His paws turned to take him in the proffered direction. He'd do as told and then circle back to meet with the woman and report on what he'd found.

/ Levi's exit

(This post was last modified: Jan 24, 2022, 02:36 AM by Scully.)