Shallows Edge the parasite's host never even knows

all welcome!
Random Event: Migrating geese are making quite the racket.

After he'd been shown around a bit by @Askan, he sought out the pack's den and promptly flopped onto his side, passing the fuck out in seconds. His young body was more weathered than any yearling's should be, and the exhaustion became evident as his hunger-thinned sides heaved up and down with each breath. Recuperation took him nearly a day. He woke up about the same time the next, throat dry and stomach folding in on itself with hunger. It had really been difficult to hunt those birds and not take some for himself. They better be damned appreciative, or, maybe he could find them and still partake. They had said it was for the caches, after all.

So he gave his spine and gangly limbs a good stretch and then set out, back into the dismal snow on a mission for food. The exploration took him around the shallows and through the woods, nose twitching all the way. He found one deposit of frozen meat, but dismissed it and reburied it when he saw it was not his birds. As if to mock him, it was around this time that a gaggle of geese started up with their noises. They must've been resting upon the lake, but shouldn't they be south by now? Their honking was incessant, and Cancer was soon grinding his teeth in agitation. Maybe he ought to suck it up and take out one of those fuckers.

No, he had done his work. He wanted his damn ptarmigans.

Geese? Again? What was wrong with the animals this year? They seemed to be hanging around when they shouldn't be, the bears were supposed to be hibernating and migrating birds should've been long done. And yet, here they were honking and hollering as loud as their lungs would allow. 

The Edge Lord supposed geese weren't too bad, especially if he could catch one or two for their caches but...ugh, his ears flicked back against his skull. Noisy bastards. It was then he noticed the dark shape of their newest member weaving through the trees, his pace quick as though he had an agenda, or a mission in mind. The Selwyn watched him a moment, not overly suspicious of his motives. It was good to see him out and about, rather than slinking in the shadows as many of the new members of the Rye Field had. He hadn't even met some of them before they vanished, like ghosts, or figments of his imagination.

Never again.

Breaking out into a trot, Askan shoved away his mounting irritation and adopted a more neutral expression. There was still no mistaking he was a grumpy sod, but at least now it was clear it wasn't aimed at Cancer.

"Morning."He rumbled, once he'd come to a stop."They pissing you off too?"He asked, flicking his tail towards said geese.

There is a moose carcass that has been scavenged by coyotes nearby. +15 Health

A now familiar voice caught up to him, slowing his tracks and causing the teenager to look over his shoulder. The leader who had taken and hid his birds looked a touch more amiable than he had the day prior, but Cancer's own gaze didn't change. To be looked at by the boy with nothing less than ire would mean the wolf was something special, and by now the jaded kid was certain that special didn't exist in this world.

"Yeah," he answered about the geese, ears flicking in agreement. Putting nose back to the snow, he continued seeking. If Askan wanted to follow him around, that was up to him.

"You didn't eat those birds already, did you?"

Honkhonkhonk, gods, maybe he would just tear off after those loud ass fuckers. As it was, he felt he needed to raise his voice to be heard over them.

(This post was last modified: Dec 18, 2017, 07:46 PM by Cancer.)

Small talk was clearly neither of their forte. That suited Askan just fine.

"No, but I can't guarantee one of the kids didn't." He knew they weren't the sorts to dive into the caches and eat till they exploded, but he wouldn't put it past them to grab a late night snack. "Is it those birds you want in particular, or just food in general?"

The tour had included the locations of the caches, as well as a firm reminder not to pig out, unless he wanted to undertake the mammoth task of filling them all back up on his own. The teen seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, so he knew better. Still, Askan wouldn't deny him a meal. When they'd asked him to hunt there had been no mention of whether he was or wasn't allowed to have some for himself. The way Askan saw it, the kid had proved himself, a meal wouldn't go amiss.

"We put them in a cache in the ferns. This way."He motioned, once again leading the youngster through the woods surrounding the Shallows, and away from those awful, honking beasts."You can have your fill then do whatever you wanted to do, whatever it is."

Askan wasn't going to ask, nor did he expect a lengthy explanation. They'd made it clear at he border that this wasn't a place for idle wolves, so he had no intentions of beating Cancer over the head with it.

Cancer wouldn't have been surprised if the alpha had balked at his question. Instead, he was casual in his answer, offering them right up to his new subordinate. He didn't much care for unpredictability, and thought he'd gotten pretty good at pegging leadership styles the moment he stepped into a pack. Guess he was rusty, or maybe he'd actually have to take his time to learn about these wolves. Ugh.

The ferns. He remembered that place, and contentedly trotted after Askan to get there. That the pain in his stomach would soon be abated put him in a better mood, which for Cancer was still pretty sour. The racket the geese were making faded with each step too, helping all the more.

Still, it would be a bit of a walk. While the teen would have been happy to spend it in silence, Askan had dropped in one last sentence that, well, unnerved him. He hated not knowing his situation to a T.

"So how's this work then, you guys act all big and tough at the borders then once you're in everything's relaxed? Or is it, you just won't care if you have to kick me out or not?"

Hell, maybe Askan was just a lot more casual in nature than his brother, or whatever Reyes was.

It seemed as though they felt the same way about one another. Cancer was a hard one to read, aside from a familiar sense of callousness his blue eyes revealed little. Askan came to a stop as he squinted at the yearling, taking in his posture and mulling over the weight of his words. It was true that Askan tended to be a little more relaxed around his subordinates, but the way he treated Cancer was nothing at all like how he was with Percy, or even Hawth and Sachiel.

This wasn't an act, at most it was his attempt at offering an olive branch. One that Askan was tempted to rescind.

"Would you prefer I make you starve?"Askan asked, a sharp edge to his tone. He wasn't completely soft after all, plenty of wolves would atest to that."The point is that you earn your keep, pull your weight, which you have so far, so I don't have an issue with you. This place isn't a damn prison and you, nor anyone else is my slave, or Reyes' for that matter. You can do whatever you want with your time as long as we can count on you when it matters the most. Does that sound unreasonable to you?

Askan didn't know what Cancer had been expecting, but at least now he hoped the air between them was a little clearer.

"Hurry up, I don't have all day."He flicked his tail again, motioning for the yearling to shadow him once more.

There was that attitude he'd been expecting. Perhaps it was a moment where Cancer should be properly cowed or even raise the stakes of agitation, but instead he was mildly pleased that at least he hadn't gotten one thing wrong. He stood passively as Askan put more detail into the ground rules here at the Edge. Then, without awaiting any kind of response, the man insisted that they continue onward.

Cancer heeded, stepping back into the path he would leave behind in the snow.

"So the latter, then," he calmly confirmed, a final subtle push just to see how volatile the guy could be. There was no hint in his voice that he wasn't okay with that situation. In fact, it was rather ideal, as it seemed that when the time did come for him to move on, they wouldn't take such a grievous offense to it. They would likely just write him off, he predicted, rather than curse his name and wish hellfire upon him as those 'we're a family, you will DIE FOR US' packs often did.

(This post was last modified: Dec 20, 2017, 08:34 PM by Cancer.)

Askan rolled his eyes so hard they hurt a little.

"Don't get me wrong, I'll be pissed,"the twitching of his tail said as much."But joining the Edge isn't a death sentence. Unless you're stupid."

There were probably a lot of ways to die around these parts. He could drown in one of the many rivers, slip on a mossy rock and crack his head open, or hell, he could even piss Reyes off so bad that he squished him like a bug. Askan was sure that Savion wasn't the first wolf he'd killed, and probably wouldn't be the last either but...that was neither here nor there. The point was Cancer was here because he wanted to be, and the day he changed his mind would be the day he left.

Or so Askan assumed.

"So don't be stupid and we'll all get along fine."

Not in the same way it had been in the Fields, the sense of everything is hunky dory-even when it wasn't- seemed anything but homely to the Edge Lord these days. The clearer things were the better.

So he dropped that word stupid in twice, and Cancer found himself speeding him up strides to take him to Askan's side, rather than trailing behind him. He could jive with this overall theme, the attitude this pack seemed to have. It actually appeared that it might be one of the easier times he'd had in his life during his many temporary stays. Like he could last the whole Winter like he wanted to here and maybe not even be sick of their faces by the time he crossed out of the territory for the last time.

"I'm not stupid," he insisted, but his tone wasn't indignant. It was as though he were clarifying, like Askan had gotten his favorite color wrong. He just wanted him to know; he wasn't stupid. His blue eyes even met the man's face, before he took even quicker steps to get ahead of him.

"I remember where yer talkin' about. I'm sure you got better things to do than walk me out there."

He could recall things, navigate places, go it alone. He wasn't stupid.