Willow Ridge Line of Succession

3rd Feb, night before the full moon. 
Midnight - Freezing fog

i'm workin' double time

Morganna Archer

on the seduction line

Snow had a way of making life more difficult for a wolf of Morganna’s hue. Although the night was dark and freezing, the daylight hours short, she found she enjoyed the peace that could be found by keeping herself active through the deep hours of the night. Her breath billowed from her chest, the icy air cutting its way down into her lungs and yet she remained outside of the den where the rest of her packmates slept, the almost full moon illuminating the ground around her.

For a moment she pondered that she could indeed sneak into the den with little hassle, she very much doubted @Skoll or @Mordacai would mind her slinking in beside them, the thought of the latter happening drawing a smirk to her swarthy features. Sinking her metaphorical claws into @Enoki’s brother could prove useful to her in the long run… Certainly he was significantly older than her but if she were to rise through the ranks she would need her supporters on both sides of the totem pole, a thought that once again led her thoughts back to @Renier with a pensive frown.

Biding her time was beginning to chafe the young princess.

The snow bought with it another promise. Her second birthday was fast approaching, her half siblings would be yearlings, but would her mother whelp another litter? Morganna was not clueless to the workings of heat, nor how puppies came to be (or so she liked to think) but the thought of anything growing inside her made her squirm. Perhaps there was one aspect of leadership she was not yet ready for.

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(This post was last modified: Feb 04, 2015, 02:21 PM by Serach. Edit Reason: tags )

The sun had set long ago as Enoki found herself whisking through the willow boughs that made up her home for the better portion of five months now - darting around the thick trunks with the assistance of her brightly lit amber eyes as the small beams from the nearly full moon above illuminated the patches of ivory that adorned her body in a piebald fashion. Hours ago she had slipped undetected from the rest of the pack to sneak away to the Rise, a place she found herself returning to more often despite the snow blanketing the ground which attempted to hinder her efforts of solitude. Well partial solitude, but the details of those excursions remained known to her alone. Not even her brother, Mordacai, who was the closet wolf aside from the young prince Deacon among the pack knew of her sunset rendezvous.  

Now the Ashrelle woman was crossing back over the border with the pink of her tongue lolling between the points of her canines, allowing the crisp night air to fill her lungs before exiting to transform into a cloud of thin vapor. She was doing well at avoiding her pack mates and steadily grew closer to the central section where the pack den lied when a scent fluttered beneath her nostrils strong enough to bring her brisk run to a slower stroll, her lungs inhaling deeply to assess the perfume. It appeared that one of the yearlings and equally scarce around the willows had made her presence, @Morganna to be exact. What managed to bring her crawling back home at such a late hour? Usually she would be gone for days at a time and even then Enoki had yet to ever cross paths with the pack princess. Not that she cared much. That little girl seemed just as off as her litter-mate who much like herself, Enoki had yet to officially meet other than a brief sniff of his fading scent. Again, another she didn't care much on meeting.

wanted no applause

Morganna Archer

it's just another course

The thick fog dampened her sense of smell, the fog muffled any sound that may have given @Enoki away, and so the princess sat oblivious to the other woman’s approach. Her mind ran over what little she knew of the other women of the pack and she grudgingly resolved that she would need to make an effort to get to know them better over the winter (all the better to exploit their weaknesses come Spring of course). The thought of failure hadn’t even crossed her mind and knowing her own brother was on a similar wavelength in regards to the future of the pack made her stupidly secure in her assumption that she could not fail.

Although her trust in her brother was complete, it may have been completely unfounded as well. She wasn’t one to consider that her own blood might betray her, after all they had been raised with the words pounded into their ears, heads and hearts. Family was everything. She might have had a fairly limited perception of just how far removed one would still be considered ‘family’, her own mind limiting that sphere to include only @Elettra and @Skoll, and only branching out to embrace her half siblings when they caused her mother pain with their absence.

She was so lost in her own thoughts that the piebald woman’s approach was unnoticed. Unless Enoki chose to interrupt the princesses (extremely rare bout of) deep thought, or tried to steamroll right over her (as she often chose to do to Renier, intentionally or not), she would probably remain undetected.

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Despite not particularly wanting to get to know the older litter born to Elettra, Enoki knew with the winter months there wouldn't be much choice in the matter once the heavier snow began to fall and the pack resorted to huddling together for extra warmth in the pack den. Now was a better time than any to get it out of the way. She didn't have to have a heart to heart with the yearling anyways. A suitable 'Hey, you aren't causing any trouble are you? No, okay. I'm Enoki, your @Morganna . Got it, bye.' That was the basic outline of how the two toned woman hoped the conversation would go. The quicker it was over the quicker she could slink into her den for the night and catch a few winks of sleep before rising to repeat the days 'chores' if you will then slip off to bask in the company of her current infatuation.

With a reluctant sigh meant for herself followed by a low chuff meant for the peachy girl to warn of the subordinates impending presence -and the chance to stop any funny business she may have been doing in the shelter of the fog- her paws carried her slender frame onward, her path deviating slightly to accommodate the pit stop on her route home. Minutes passed and snow crunched beneath the ebony furred paws as her sleek form pushed past the freezing fog until in the distance a small silhouette could be seen like a shadow of the night near the pack den where the rest of the wolves slept soundly. Her brother included who much to her demise was starting to have a thing for the yearling, or so it had seemed from the way she watched some of his behavior. It was finally time to meet the proclaimed princess of the willows. Stepping forward she closed the distance from the young woman until her paws fells just outside of striking range for safety's sake. Who knew what the yearling was capable of.  

"An odd hour for a youngin' such as yourself to be awake, isn't it?" Enoki broke the silence first, the faint country accent that came across when she spoke certain words coating her speech while the crease of her brows rose in a inquisitive manor, amber gaze scanning over the smaller form of her counterpart. She was definitely an Archer by pelt. Now did she have a persona to match?

 

@Enoki

don't need reason

Morganna Archer

don't need rhyme

She was ripped from her musing by a gentle chuff, it was so unexpected that she initially flinched before her ears pivoted to pin-point the approaching wolf and her eyes squinted to try and see through the backlit fog. It could have been anyone coming towards her but she trusted in the fact they were so close to the den and the fact the other had bothered to alert her to their presence. The distance between them could have been measured in miles or millimetres , the princess wasn’t foolish enough to lash out at the woman. Not here, not yet.

The piebald woman’s question was met with a rather unladylike snort and a smirk. “Yer could say so…” she mused aloud allowing her posture to relax somewhat with the distance at which the other stopped. While she desired nothing more than for the snows to melt already, to allow her to assert her dominance over all of them (well with the exception of her dear mother, @Elettra of course), she knew better than to try and move prematurely, something she wasn’t convinced her brother (of course being a mere boy) could manage.

She forced her smirk to morph into a more amicable grin. One thing she had learned from observing her mother was the relationship she maintained with the other members of the pack. Things ran smoother it would seem, when people liked you, and so she would spend these winter months going out of her way to be liked where her brother was probably feared, or worse yet, only tolerated simply for the fact that he was their mothers son.

“Yer’ve done a great job with the caches.” she mentioned casually, “Perhaps one day I could join ya? There aren’t so many plants to gather under all o’this…” she gestured with a flick of her paw, gouging a small depression in the snow in front of her. Hunting wasn’t her forte, but the girl knew she needed to keep herself busy. With something to do, time would fly.

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

A snort and a musing reply came from the yearling to her question, the shadows casts by the wispy branches concealing the smirk that adorned the princess's facial features. It wasn't until a shift in the canopy that Enoki caught a glimpse of the grin that now lay across the inky coloration of her lips. Well so far she seemed to be tolerable and far more easier to possibly like than her ghost tinted litter-mate. Even in passing that boy had an aura around him that screamed trouble and down right dangerous. Then another string of words fell from Morganna's lips causing her ears to shift forward and face the swarthy princess. “Yer’ve done a great job with the caches. Perhaps one day I could join ya? There aren’t so many plants to gather under all o’this…” Flattery would get her nowhere with the Ashrelle woman even if the praise to her hunting had stroked her ego a bit. Hunting was everything to her.

"Thank you kindly and I reckon you can tag along one day." She replied at first, allowing her muscles to tense for a second before relaxing though not entirely. "But come spring it will be more entertaining to join. Winter is mostly for scavenging." It was pretty boring trailing over old scent trails in the meadow over snow that seemed to never go away. Spring held all the fun and bounty with the newly born fawns and other babies that had to struggle to keep up with mother. The snow couldn't melt soon enough for anyone these days. "And I reckon it must get boring sometimes gathering plants. Then a mixture of scents suddenly wafted beneath her muzzle, causing her head to turn towards the pack borders west from their current position. Lifting her head a fraction she sampled the air to reassure herself that her senses hadn't dulled from the lack of proper use this winter. One scent belonged to a feline(most likely lynx or bobcat by the perfume) and the other smelt richly of deer. The pink of her tongue couldn't help but lick over her chops at the smell of food. To insure the caches would last the winter Enoki had passed up more than a handful of meals so the pups and ruling pair had enough. Now her actions were catching up and the gnaw of hunger pains began to surface.

Glancing back to the peachy princess she shifted her weight briefly in eagerness to investigate the chance to fill her own stomach for a change before dragging whatever remained to a near by cache. "Are you hungry?" Of course she didn't quite want to share a meal, but her regal upbringing refused her to allow such rudeness to arise. "I can smell fresh food to the west."

don't need reason

Morganna Archer

don't need rhyme

This was… new for the young Archer. Preferring much to keep her own company or that of her mother and full-blooded brother, one could suppose the long list of deserters and dead had left the girl with a bit of a complex about getting close to anyone. In the back of her mind she was still convinced that anyone else harboured plans to grow close to her mother and then rip her apart with their abandonment, or would do something foolish like take on a damn cougar alone and get their throat ripped out. It would seem Angier was intent on hanging around and perhaps this woman, who had been with them for some time now harboured a similar intent… for now at least.

As she listened her head nodded in acknowledgement, she had seen plenty of carcasses about, most already picked to the bone and the snow helped to prevent the meat from going foul too quickly. She supposed gathering herbs would seem boring to others, but it took a fine eye to differentiate plants that could be helpful from those that would cause harm, and it gave her an excuse to stretch her legs. An indifferent shrug was offered with another grin, “It gets me away from this mad’ouse,” she offered in response before the scent on the wind cut her off.

Predator mixed with prey set her hairs on end and she was on her feet before her companion finished her invitation. She had been picking at what she could on her own scouting missions, leaving the cached food for those that spent their time confined to the pack lands, but it was the scent of a cat that had her most interested. She wanted to make sure it had been turned away by the scent of their well marked borders and wasn’t still skulking about the willows that made up their home. “Sure.” she voiced, mind already honing in on the task at hand before setting off in the direction of the mingled scent at a trot. She wasn’t the biggest wolf but she was sure that between them they could dispatch of any threat, if one remained at all.

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Enoki couldn't even get her entire sentence out before the young Archer girl was up and off to investigate the scent for herself, offering a simple 'sure' while the piebald woman followed suit. Snow flung beneath her lithe figure as paws rose and fell over its soft surface to create small piles in her wake and a trail of prints that lay parallel to Morganna's own set. Gradually the aroma of fresh blood and feline grew stronger the closer they grew to the scene until eventually the duo came upon it. Before them lay a slain deer with its limbs sprawled in different directions and hunched over the shoulder of the deceased beast was a large form holding various shades of silver and beige. Lynx. Instantly the skin of her muzzle wrinkled in a look of disgust at the audacity of the cat to make a kill on their side of the border and the nerve to even set a snow furred paw over it. And those regretful actions bore consequences.  

Luckily the wind was on their side that night and had not exposed their presence to the feasting feline just yet, giving them the element of surprise still. Shooting her amber gaze to the peachy princess she silently gave her head a nod, hoping the yearling could read the signals she was giving. They would circle on either side of the cat and charge, leaving it with no choice but to abandoned the deer and flee back over the border and hopefully learn its lesson about hunting on pack lands. Now her silhouette slunk deeper into the shadows, hoping the extra coverage would dull the white hairs of her pelt that normally gave herself away in hunts on the days she didn't roll in mud to conceal them. With the snow everywhere there was no mud or at least dirt to camouflage them. The shadows would have to do for now.  

don't need reason

Morganna Archer

don't need rhyme

Wrangling cats was not something she had experienced as yet, although the memory of her first hunt and the injury sustained as the woodchuck clamped down on her dainty paw wormed its way to the forefront of her mind. A grimace found its way on to her face as it became evident the unwelcome visitor was still here, and for a moment she almost regretted her brash charge into the unknown.

Peachy eyes flicked to the piebald woman in time to see her signal. Deferring to the other woman’s experience was clearly the wisest option in this scenario and so she swallowed her pride, doing as she was bade and moving to flank their opponent. The cat was clearly lighter than either of the wolves but that didn’t make it any less intimidating. She had no doubt the creature would make up for its lack of bulk with speed. It was merely good fortune that kept them concealed in the moonlight and shadows.

It was her own mis-step that gave her away. A branch concealed by the loose powder and fog snapped under her weight. The sound was dampened by the snow that covered it but it was clear from the way the tawny and silver cat pinned its ears to it head and hissed in her direction that her cover was blown. She growled her own challenge back, dancing a few steps forward with her tail held high and her chest puffed out in an attempt to keep the felines focus on her. Perhaps all was not lost if Enoki was overlooked due to her attempt at a distraction.

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