Larkcall Lowlands Broken Sun

Near-ish Wild Rye Fields, for @Castel

He had been only joking when he said he'd be babysitting three youngsters. Not to say that @Sahalie or @Kino were young, by any means. The two were finally getting together and making their pack, albeit with a little bit of nudging, and making plans for their future. But the duo were young in the sort of way that when you had a child, you always saw them as young. Which was besides the point, but when the dark girl had told him that their fourth wheel was Cas, a girl that was around their age, he was just a little bit surprised. Not that he should have been, because doubted that the two would find another wolf his age. Regardless, Larkspur knew he probably should go and see exactly who the girl was. He knew little about her, besides her name and that she was friendly. These details were insufficient. So following the day of their small meeting, the white man left the Monadnock in search for the friendly, small girl that lived in the pack he was told he should stay away from.

Not that someone telling Lark to not do something would keep him from doing the thing. He had been growing anxious in the Monadnock, his distaste for the wolves there growing as he struggled to keep his mouth shut. It wasn't that the wolves there had done anything, but something about it was way too familiar. In Oak Tree Bend, he hadn't minded being on the bottom of the totem pole, but in Whitestone Monadnock... He felt ready to snap at any second.

Putting a little bit of distance between him and the territory already had him feeling better. The sun was out, which was a blessing in the cold that was the north. Snow crunched under his paws as he sniffed around without much intention, suddenly regretting this whole field trip. How the hell was he supposed to find a girl when he didn't even know what she smelled like?

(This post was last modified: Feb 03, 2017, 11:11 PM by Larkspur.)

Thanks for making this for us!!

Cas was... in an extremely good mood. After meeting @Niles a few days ago, she had felt lighter on her paws; happy, perhaps. It was pretty darn weird, but Cas chalked it up to having made a very good, very interesting friend. It couldn't have been that he was cute, and awkward, and sweet, and made her heart do weird, funny things.

Couldn't be any of those things. Cas didn't feel those things. She just didn't.

She made her way across the snow-covered fields, in the general direction of the Monadnock pack. She was half-hoping to meet her two good friends that she'd made before she even joined the Rye wolves; her friends that she had decided she'd go on an amazing adventure with. Start their own pack, and then help @Kino and @Sahalie to discover their true feelings for one another and make a wonderful life together.

She had been told explicitly not to go in this direction - she was allowed to go in any other direction but this one. But the wolf who could get Cas to obey rules was a special wolf indeed, and her alpha was not quite so special to her. So, she decided to head off on her own and do whatever-the-hell she darn well wanted to do. She missed freedom and adventure, and this was one way to get it.

An eagle suddenly flew overhead, and without thinking, Cas followed, chasing after its shadow. She was just in such a good mood, and she felt healthier today for some reason. Perhaps it was meeting the dark boy from the brambles. Perhaps it was just that she had plenty of food recently. But, whatever. She was going to accept the blessing for what it was - freely given, and amazing.

She didn't see the pale man until she plowed directly into his side, full speed.

(This post was last modified: Feb 04, 2017, 03:53 AM by Castel.)

Larkspur did not like being slammed into. Not that lark liked a lot of things, as it was a lot easier to find things that lark didn't like than what he did. So, naturally, the man did not react kindly, nor utter an apology, as a more well mannered wolf might have. Instead, and quite unsurprisingly, Larkspur acted as Larkspur was want to act: like Snarles McGee.

He hadn't expected the girl to slam into him, and although she was small, the girl still had managed to gain enough momentum to knock him over. The two barrelled to the ground, tossing around in the snow. Larkspur yelped once or twice. It didn't take the man very long to get into attack mode. The second he found sure footing, he was up. Suddenly his fur was standing on end, face scrunched up as he showed his teeth and snarled at the small girl. He snapped at the air in warning, tail lifted high.

He stood over @Castel with his fangs beared, a growl loudly rumbling in his throat. At this angle, he was allowed to get a good look at her. He couldn't tell much about her, except could probably guess that she was from that pack that he wasn't supposed to visit. Larkspur snapped the air in front of her face for good measure, if only as a reminder for her to stay put.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

The fall itself was quite surprising; Cas had truthfully mistaken the white-and-gray wolf for a snowdrift. So, when she and he went tumbling gracelessly, it had come as a small shock, but nothing she couldn't handle. The aggression afterward was also expected - who liked being bowled over for no good reason? - and she just lay on her back underneath him and allowed him his little snarls and fussiness.

"Sorry 'bout that!" she told him, after he'd clicked his teeth in front of her face. She didn't flinch - wasn't even scared, really. In her mind, she pretty much deserved it. "Didn't hurt you, did I?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. "I should probably watch where I'm going."

It was only after her final statement that she caught his scent, and her blue eyes went wide and slightly excited. "Wait, you smell like Alastor and Sahalie!" she chirped, remembering her two friends and their plans. "Are you in that pack with them? Like, the big one that I'm never supposed to talk to?" The question was slightly sarcastic, and followed up with a bright statement, "I'm Cas, by the way! I'm a friend of Al and Hal's."

A lynx has left behind the remains of a deer. +5 Health

Larkspur usually found wolves either reacted one way or another. Either they were submissive or returned his aggression with their own. The small girl landed somewhere in the middle, being apologetic, but mostly unfazed by getting snapped at. He didn't let his guard down, and instead lifted his tail higher as he tried to figure out what exactly to do in this situation. Which is about when the girl recognized him, and by some weird, magic luck, she was the very girl he'd set out to see that morning.

His tail lowered a bit, his face relaxed to its normal, unimpressed state. "That's a stupid rule, but yes," he replied to her question. "You're the one that's coming with us," he said out loud, and then finally stepped back so he could get a good look at the girl Sahalie felt threatened by. And also allow her to get up, he guessed.

@Castel was small, her peppiness rivaled Sahalie's, which only caused frustration to bubble in him. He had hoped that the dark girl had been wrong, but he had been silly to think otherwise. Sahalie was not one to spread lies. Their new pack would be three youngsters and one old guy, and possibly Spieden and her children.

He gave Cas a good sniff. "You smell weird."

I am so sorry! I thought I had replied to this x.x

Being allowed to get up was appreciated, and Cas shook out the snow from her pelt as she got to her paws, blue eyes rising to meet the pale wolf's orange ones. "That would be me, yeah," she responded with a smile, and took a step backward. More for his comfort than hers, because she didn't mind a close proximity, but she understood that there were others who just hated it. "I didn't know that there were more than just the three of us. They didn't mention you when we talked." She perked her ears, genuinely interested in why that could be.

"Yeah, that is a stupid rule... which is kind of why I elect to ignore it," she proclaimed, tossing her head with a smile. Well, she said that, but she would hate to get on Drestig's bad side. Which was why she only rarely ever went up north.

Oh, well. She could pretend she was a badass who ignored rules, anyway.

Affronted by his claim that she smelled weird, the little wolf snorted and set her jaw. "I do not smell weird!" she argued, though she really didn't have any idea. She lowered her head to her shoulder and took a few deep sniffs. Nothing too out of the ordinary. "Do I?" she voiced aloud, then shook her head and decide to ask a separate, more important question.

"What's your name?"

He was a little surprised when the girl said that Sahalie hadn't talked of him. Alastor was one thing, but somehow he'd always pictured the dark girl to never leave any detail out of anything. Larkspur shrugged it off; it wasn't that important who all was coming, what was important was that they had enough members to protect a little bit of land. How many others were joining that he wasn't aware of? He'd only heard of this one, but it was possible there were others.

It was his own fault. He had been the one that wanted to be kept out of the loop.

"I hope you don't elect to ignore rules as a habit," he warned the girl. He could have tossed in a threat or two for good measure, but chose to hold his tongue. He would need some sort of positive relationship with his new packmates. Even a neutral one would be fine, and starting on the right foot was his best option. It had taken months for him to finally get Alastor on his side. It had been a pretty good blow to his pride, but having his alpha's trust was important.

Well, it was important normally, but Larkspur had other reasons for it being important.

"Maybe it's just me," but she did smell... off. In a change of subject, @Castel asked for his name and his face scrunched up in disgust. After a moment, and maybe a smidge too long of a moment, he spoke, "Larkspur," he needed to play nice, but having to constantly hold back half of what he wanted to say was hard. 

Ready to get any sort of subject off of him, he gave her another look over. "Can you do anything? You know, useful?" she didn't look the type. Sahalie didn't either, and somehow the girl managed to surprise him.

"I only elect to ignore the stupid, unnecessary ones," she chirruped in return, tail still waving as she stood before the older man. She could hear the warning for what it was, and a smile broke out on her face. "Don't worry. I'm not some sort of vagabond or troublemaker... not too often, at least." The last part of the sentence was a genuine afterthought, as she actually had been known for causing a bit of trouble in the past... and likely in the future, would be known for the same.

On the subject of her scent, she simply shrugged her shoulders good-naturedly. "I'm bound to smell a bit off; we're in different packs. Maybe it's that," she offered. She'd never had someone comment on her scent before in regards to the illness in her veins, so it didn't cross her mind that that might have been what he was referring to. At the mention of his name, the small girl's face lit up again. "That's an awesome name!" she approved, scanning him over approvingly. "You look like a Larkspur. It's a really tough name, too." She didn't usually enthuse so much on something as simple as a name, but she wanted to be friends with this wolf - as a potential new packmate, she and the older man might be spending a lot of time together. It would be better to not be on bad terms with him.

'Can you do anything? You know, useful?' Huh. Her brows knitted together for a moment as she tried to collect her thoughts and share what might be considered her best talents. "Well, I'm very fast, under normal circumstances. I'm decent at hunting," she offered with a shrug of her shoulders. Then, a sly smirk pulled at the corners of her lips and she met his orange eyes with her blue. "Why? Can you do anything useful?" she asked, tail waving behind her.

Was this the sort of wolf that Sahalie had wanted in her pack? A tiny, talkative rule breaker? Her words did little to lessen his suspicions. He thought to press it more, but decided that a somewhat decent first impression was more important at the moment. He elected to ignore commenting more on her scent; he knew what other-pack smelled like, and this wasn't it. It was actually distinctly different, but so unfamiliar to him that he couldn't say what it was or wasn't. Or well, maybe it was the smell of her pack. If it was, he could understand her wanting to leave; it was downright awful.

Larkspur had never thought his name was good or bad, but the fact that it was tough hadn't been considered. "It's a flower," he wondered if the girl would decide that Larkspur was so tough of a name after that. It was a poisonous sort of flower, but a flower nonetheless. His whole family had been named after flowers or plants of some sort, he had even been happy to find out that the newer generations followed suit. Parsnip had shed a light on that.

Briefly he thought of his granddaughter, and wondered where she'd run to.

A lot of their group -- all of them, actually -- were young, and at the very least Cas seemed to have a self-proclaimed skill of something Lark thought was very useful. He'd never been interested in herbs or healing and often thought they were meaningless, but every pack needed a hunter. He could have told Cas that he had been an alpha, and as such he had done it all — hunted, fought, kept order in his pack. But the girl, talkative and cheery, even moreso than Sahalie, didn't deserve this. Larkspur shrugged.

"A hunter as well," he simply said, then decided to cut their meeting short. He didn't know if he could take much more idle conversation with the girl, at the very least not without getting extra growly at her. "You should head back, though. Don't want to get into too much trouble."