Oak Tree Bend wouldn't you think i'm the girl who has everything?

All welcome to OTB wolves, but with a particular poke for @Serach and/or @Spieden. Set right up on the borders.

Tock, tock, tock. Again and again she pulled the twig back, let it hold for a moment and then let it free, watching as it sprang up to thwack harmless against the more robust branch above it with the gentle sound of wood on wood. Most often, there it stayed, pressed up against the branch and unable to move, but she had been toying with it for so long that its once-straight shape was starting to deform. She put her paw on it again to push it down, let out an empty breath, and released it. The twig bounced up and hit the branch, but this time came to a stop with barely a hair's breadth between it and the sturdier wood. She squinted at it, trying to determine if there really was a gap, and decided that the only way to be sure was to carry on. Maybe she could make it bend even further, conform to this new existence, force it to no longer rest up against its neighbour for all eternity, but rather be stuck just below, already reaching, deformed and misshapen compared to its once-proud rigidity.

Fvvrrrrr. It sprang back up and failed to meet the branch at all, and instead just vibrated angrily in place as all the tension was released. She watched it hum softly from her front-row seat, head placed flat against the ground right next to the twig and branch she had been toying with dumbly all morning, having barely moved but to lift and withdraw the paw which tormented the twig so.

Something about the different outcome made her pause, gave rise to a rogue thought that maybe she should stop and find something more productive to do with her time... but for the life of her, she couldn't think of a single thing. Up the paw went, down the twig went, up the twig went, fvvrrr.

(This post was last modified: Jan 11, 2017, 12:32 AM by Sahalie. Edit Reason: removing pack tag )

Winter was well and truly here, much to Serach's great distress. He had not expected to still be at the helm of the Bend by this point, but @Triell had remained content to step back and focus his attention on his youngest litter, leaving the concerns of winter on the shoulders of Serach and Spieden. Those were unsturdy shoulders, though, and not for the first time in the recent weeks Serach shook his head to rid himself of the thought. He needed to confront Spieden about it, but the arrival of his father had thrown a wrench into those plans - he had simply been too distracted trying to relive and recapture a life he had once thought completely lost to him. So it was not with great ease that the young Bend leader walked along his borders that day; there was simply too much on his mind for that.

Nose to the ground, the man was investigating the fading scent of an animal who had crossed his territory marker when he discovered the scent of something far more interesting. Ruenna, he thought as he lifted his head and looked in the direction the scent trail led. Leaving the stranger scent behind with a spot of warm warning urine, he decided to follow and see how she was doing. It had been a while since they had been able to chat.

To his surprise, the scent trail did not lead back into the Bend territory, but kept close to the pack's borders. Strange, but not especially unusual. There were many members who took pride - or solace - in helping Serach maintain and upkeep that especially important invisible line. What was unusual was what he saw when he finally found her. Laying against the ground, her body moved only in the form of her paw which repeatedly reached for a branch that lay beside her. Pausing to take in the spectacle, he could only announce himself with a mirth-filled, "Are you really that bored?"

There is a family of deer nearby. Hunt Opportunity

The sound of somebody approaching barely registered. Where she might have leapt up in eager greeting, her mind-numbing pastime had - well, it had numbed her mind. She felt like a well-whittled log after a beaver had chewed it right down to the core. She didn't even stop her gormless venture even when aware that she was being watched (by who? did it matter?) and only paused when @Serach spoke.

Her gut tightened then, in some faint recognition of the fact that she was being utterly useless. There was something in his voice, though, the teasing, which cast a hook into the freezing cold lake of her being and hung there, twitching, waiting for a bite. Rue bit, and out of the cold emptiness was she dragged, bit by bit.

Raising her head, she turned to look blankly at him - the guy who had been nice to her from the start, despite all her little misjudgements and lack of experience and even this, now, when it was winter and the pack had five members who had never seen snow before and what was she doing? Her lips curled in the beginning of a smile as she acknowledged the ridiculousness of it, of herself, at how he must have seen her in that moment. And still he was being nice.

Though freshly reeled in, she was still swimming, and her newly-awake brain ran off on its own track, unbidden, and she hardly had the wherewithal to stop it. "The biggest cliff I ever saw was last winter," she said, hearing her own voice as if underwater, her library a mess and she was huddled over this book, this particular memory, the page grubby and well-handled, the edges frayed and soft through being turned so often, and she was irresistibly compelled to share it. "Not long after dad died. So I was on my own, you know, I didn't have to take the easy ways any more, stay in the bits he was able to go. This cliff - you could see it on the horizon, and when I got to it, it was like, it was like - you couldn't even see the top! It was like it went straight into the clouds and up forever! It took me three days to find a way to the top, three days, and I've never climbed such steep paths since. I have no idea how those goats do it their whole lives. And then I got to the top and looked over the edge, and... I couldn't see the bottom, either. It was just mist and fog and snow. It, it felt, it felt like... like if you jumped off, you would just fall forever."

I'm sorry, things have just been really hectic for me recently. :(

She was slow to react, and Serach furrowed his brow. That wasn't like her at all, and for a split second, he wondered if maybe she was feeling ill. Perhaps a cache had spoiled? But then her head lifted from the ground and his concerned face transitioned back into a smile. But she didn't offer him a response to teasing question, or even really offer him a greeting. Pale yellow eyes growing wide, he stared at her as a waterfall of words emerged. That by itself was not so uncommon for Ruenna, but it did seem unlike her to launch into story without so much as an introduction. Despite his discomfort, however, the Bend leader remained quiet as she talked, his wolf-brain trying to figure out what in the world she was talking about.

When she finished, he stood there quietly while he tried to find the words to respond. It had connected for him, at least in part. The cliff of her's was a metaphor, although he wasn't entirely sure what about. What he was sure of though, was that he didn't want Ruenna to jump, so that's what he told her. "Rue...are you okay? I mean truly, okay?" He asked, his voice quiet but clearly concerned. "I don't know what cliff you're on right now, but I do know I don't want you to jump." This was entirely new territory for him, and he was scared to say the wrong thing and drive away the happy and inquisitive cousin he had come to care for.