Mountain of Dire `determination.

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No more trees. Finally.

The beat of her heart steadied as the trees dissipated into the distance, and the majority of what lay before her was mountainous terrain and grasses. The sight was calming; her neuroticism was nestled into ease. A light smile was finally able to twitch the corners of her lips as she continued toward the promising domain, her head still churning with various thoughts and calculations and obsessive necessities.

<i>Twenty-one. Twenty-two. Twenty-three. Twenty-four.</i>

She stopped on the twenty-fourth step, circling once and letting her eyes scan the terrain to ensure there were no threats. Content, she lowered her bottom to the earth and sat. Her ears flickered as a slight breeze blew through, and her eyes rested on the stunning mountains that lay before her. Llyra wondered about the mountain; how many had attempted to venture upwards to the top? Were any skilled enough to endure such uneven terrain?

She let her eyes graze across the sides of her body, the ribs bouncing through her skin on every inhale of breath. Such a pitiful sight.

Movement appeared in the corner of her eye. It was as if fate had intervened; a hare appeared in that moment. <i>Thank you Mother Nature.</i> It had been some time since she had enjoyed the meal, primarily due to the fact that the color of most hares was a horrid brown hue, and such a color was unacceptable to touch. She snapped her head in its direction and immense joy filled her heart. The fur of the animal; it was silver in color! Oh, how she loved silver. Such a pretty color. Highly acceptable. She licked her lips and remained still for a few moments, her eyes fixed on the grayish animal, watching the innocent thing wander through the grasses.

Finally, she made her move. She rose and lunged in its direction, though the hare was prepared for such an attack; it matched her swift maneuver with a dash towards the mountains. Her heart sank slightly as she noted the speed. It was quick. And Llyra was so weak and thin; but she <i>needed</i> this meal. So she pushed forward, chasing the animal further towards the base of the mountain; an area she was especially unfamiliar with.
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Her lithe white form snaked down the mountain with ease. Her recent patrol had gone uneventful, but the day was not over just yet. She was in a halfway decent mood. The sky was cloudy, but there had not been any rain droplets to befall on them all, yet. Hopefully by the time dusk comes the sky will clear, so Athena can watch the sunset. However, it seems her hopes may not be granted today.

The base of the mountain was in her sights, when the overwhelming scent of another whacked her square in the face. She immediately crouched down and scored the area for any signs of the wolf. Her fiery amber eyes laid upon a slightly larger female with a lanky frame similar to Rhysis's. Her mixture of red and brown fur, raced after a small silver hare. Deciding the female didn't seem to threatening in her malnourished state, she rose from her crouched position and descended the rest of the mountain towards the charging female.

As she reached the bottom well before the charging wolf was close, she leaped up upon a rock to watch and stay out of the way. She did not need to be getting run into and potentially getting hurt. That would not be good at all. Her tail and head rose proudly, but not aggressively. She watched to see if the female managed to catch herself a decent meal.

|| Ash is welcome to make an appearance in any thread. ||

<blockquote><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>She was in hot pursuit of the hare; her senses saw nothing other than the rocketing gray pelt, the scent of the animal flowing behind it and shooting up Llyra’s nostrils. It was almost too much to bear! The perfume was so enticing. And the color… the color…

Her heartbeat quickened; her pace followed the rise in pulses. <i>So close… so close!</i> She finally neared the animal, her willpower taking precedence over the weakness that wracked her body. Her chest rose and fell violently as she neared the hare, and she only hoped that it too was feeling some glimmer of weakness. She could hear her muscles screaming and her lungs collapsing, unable to be satisfied with sufficient oxygen. But this animal may have been her last hope. A hare like this was an uncommon sight for her eyes, and she couldn’t be sure she’d survive to see another.

But Llyra could take no more. She closed her eyes for a moment and in desperation, lunged for the animal. Llyra was no hunter; she had neither the strength nor the skill for it, and a risky maneuver such as this was something she was not qualified to carry out successfully. But natural law stepped aside and allowed her lunge to make contact with the animal. She felt her fangs hit the top of the hare’s head. <i>Oh no, no!</i>

Despite the success of her attack, Llyra had no choice but to withdraw from the animal; had she killed it from the head, she would be unable to eat it. She found only kills to the underside of the throat acceptable. Luckily the collision had left the animal staggered, and Llyra regained the opportunity to kill it in a way acceptable to her qualifications. Again she pounced in a manner exhibiting anything but grace, bounding closer and snapping twice before catching hold of the hare’s neck.

Finally. A meal.

She held on for several moments, her body shaky and weak. The weakness in her knees could no longer support her; the adrenaline had run dry, and Llyra collapsed on the earth. Her chest inhaled and exhaled rapidly as she attempted to steady herself, the animal still clutched in the trap of her jaws as if it were the most important treasure the world had ever known.

Several moments passed when she noticed the scent of another female. She was notoriously oblivious to most things, but this was nearly embarrassing. The female was so close by, and it wasn’t until now that she took notice. How foolish! Llyra shot her head in Athena’s direction, her heart falling to the pit of her gut. <i>The hare. She wants my silver hare!</i> In her mind, she knew that her strength had evaporated into nothingness and any chance of fighting off this healthier female was futile. Panic rose in her chest. She growled against the soft gray fur of the hare, attempting to look intimidating, although Llyra was anything of the sort. Her auburn eyes cemented to the other female’s as she lowered her muzzle, dropping the hare gingerly between her paws, attempting to glare at the girl through frightened eyes. <span style='color:#4A6995'>“You… you go find your own hare,”</span> she spoke in the deepest voice she could muster. <span style='color:#4A6995'>“I saw this one first.”</span> An audible shakiness palpitated through the air, but Llyra prayed she would attribute this to extreme aggression instead of absolute fear.
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It was a good morning to be high. Light breezes snapped against his fur as Vafri walked, ears twitching, down one of the mountain's many trailing paths. With time he grew to trust the earth beneath his feet; he listened to the rock breathe as he moved, and let his ears trust the wind song and the hiss of the sky's many voices. Maybe he belonged to others now, but Vafri's heart still keened for mountain peaks and for the bald flame of the sky; he picked up a jaunty gait as he turned south and skirted toward home, toward the pull of wolves that - maybe - he could call his family without any twist of irony. He was interrupted from his musings though by a quiet shift in the wind, a trick of the rock and a female voice rising like hot air on the breeze. Immediately the big male frowned. Head cocked, lips pulled just taut, he leaped down the path and trotted on, long strides devouring the distance. Vafri flitted out from behind a rocky outcrop in time to catch the last of the strange female's words - in time to let his dark eyes skim the ruddy fires of her coat and catch the blank silhouette of Athena just opposite. Head tilted in obvious question, the lanky male stepped forward with his ears cocked up, head low and tail drifting behind but lower than Athena's. He nodded to her briefly, remembering she seemed the most aloof of all his comrades, and then he blinked at the little wolf with the hare between them. Vafri could sympathize almost immediately; he'd been in that spot before, been the odd man out amongst pack wolves and certainly been the one left desperately defending hard-won food. That didn't stop him from the wry twist of a smile, though, or the amusement dancing in his tone. "That's not very nice," said Vafri quietly - not threatening, but certainly aware of the shift in numbers, aware that he made it two against one. He let his nose twitch as the warm smell of the rabbit reached his nostrils, and the fluffy male recalled that he was not above hypocrisy - never above, only recently mindful that it was a negative. "Seems someone should've taught you manners."

OOC: Mind if I join? Saw that Llyra was inactive and thought I might help move the thread along so it didn't die.

The she-wolf was little more than a shadow, sliding up the mountain with the same eerie grace as normal. She was exercising, training her body and retouching her endurance. Every morning it was the same tight schedule, no room for relaxation. She had to adjust to her new home and quickly if she wanted the respect of her pack-mates. She had not been born to be a laughing stalk. It was time to prepare for what was to come, if she wanted the reputation of a real wolf. There was no such thing as easy dominance, and she expected nothing of the sort. She merely wanted to drop her newbie title and become a true Poison Path wolf, more for her own ego than anything. This pack was a tight family, and with the new members she didn’t want to fall in the same group. She was unique and brought something new to the table, not a skittish mouse who submitted to the wind. There was no physical reward except better reflexives for such hard training, each step coming faster and longer. Her body knew no bounds. The impossible was just a slight road bump on the ride to success, ordering her muscles to ignore the pain and keep moving. She’d be hurt tomorrow.

Hell, she was hurt today.

That didn’t stop her from flying across the rocky terrain like it was a flat platform, scoring her ten points in beauty and skill. She had been born with the agility of a cat, her back arching like she had wings. She was focused, counting the steps of her desperate paws, the thudding of her solid pulse, the panting of her thirsting lungs and the feel of the morning chill grabbing hold of her fur like needy hands. She had climbed a water fall to get a rank, now she had to keep climbing to hold onto it. Her joints screamed in frustration, but the angelic wolf shrugged it off without hesitation. It would pay off next pack gathering, where she’d leap into the stars with a look of smug satisfaction wielded onto her polished figure. Though, even as confident as she was, Treena was fine if that moment came later than sooner. There was still work to be done.

Yet, that work would have to wait.

Her eyes drifted off her own throbbing paws and towards the figures in the distance. It was quite obvious who the two where, both snow-white wolves of totally different sizes. The smaller one could have past for Chantille, but Treena knew better by the coat colour. It was Athena and Vafri, circled around an unknown wolf. She was close enough that when the wind blew, she inhaled the Poison Path smell, but not close enough the features of the loner were obvious. Curiosity grabbed tightly on the wolf and dragged her cautiously closer, dropping her pace down ever so slightly. She caught the tail end of Vafri’s words, watching the sickly and starved loner tremble. How was she still alive? The female looked slightly more than skin and bones. Protectively holding onto her meal like it was her first in a long time. It was like a flash back of Marsh and herself, the game of survival. Eat, or be eaten. On top of that Athena was perched on the other side, just another figure of intimidation. The female should have fell along, or turned away and pretended not to have seen. Yet, it wasn’t in her mindset. Her tail lower than both of the pack-wolves, showing her throat for a moment or so to prove she wasn’t a threat. Her voice broke through her pursed lips after a moment of silently watching, barley blinking. <b>“Let the poor thing eat her food Vafri.”</b>