><Lead Me Astray><

[Skoggi and Asha]

((So I reread the first thread and it turns out that A'sha was the only puppy to escape the pumas unharmed. This should, of course, be much fun ;D ))

A fine layer of snow dusted the forest floor, falling from the trees. She did not know if it was still snowing; could not tell this deeply into the forest. In truth, she didn't really care either. It was just something to think about; something other than the melancholy of the pack and her own mind.

Skoggi stiffly rose to her feet, front leg protesting any movement as always. The leg would never be right, she knew; the wound had been too severe, reducing her leg to a malformed scarred lump that could barely support her weight. She was learning slowly how to run and walk with it, but her hunting just wasn't the same, and it was hard to relearn how to walk quietly again. Animals startled so much more quickly than they had before the fight.

Her other scars at least were not so debilitating. Missing most of her right ear was hardly a concern for her, and the brutal scars on her face -- bad enough to leave it partially bald -- and the lighter ones on her neck did nothing but provide memories. Her leg, however, was a constant bother. It almost always ached, and on particularly bad days she was tempted to break it again, see if she could set it right that time.

The female limped away from her resting spot among the trees, approaching the den. She should not spend so much time away from the rest of the pack, but she could not face her own guilt. Or her own anger. At the same time she blamed herself for the tragedy, she blamed the pack more. They had left her alone. They hadn't told her. They had come too late. It was irrational anger, she knew, most of it unjustified. Yet she couldn't stop it. At the same time she wanted to let Endrina rip her to shreds, she wanted to snarl at the mother.

It was not a good relationship to have with one's pack. She had always been a bit quiet, but now she almost never said anything. She couldn't risk blowing up on them, blaming them for what had happened. It was no one's fault. So she told herself. In fact it was her fault for not rounding up the puppies sooner; the pack's fault for not leaving more wolves behind to watch them; the pumas' fault for showing up in the first place. The only wolf she did not feel anger at or guilt over was her own mate, whom she heard had dragged himself across the world to find her.

A mouse scurried frantically in front of her, pulling the female up short with surprise. More surprisingly was the creature that followed her. A'sha almost rushed right past Skoggi, but then stopped short when she saw the female out of the corner of her eye. The puppy whined, tail lowering.

"A'sha."

Her voice must have struck the right tone, for the growing puppy's posture improved, a weak smile on her face.

"Skoggi... I'm just practicing..."

They both knew better. A'sha spent almost as much time away from the pack as Skoggi did. They almost had an understanding. A'sha could not stand to look at her injured siblings and see the ghosts of the others. She was the only one who had not been harmed; she had cowardly fled and left her siblings to their fate. That fate, it seemed, was Starwing's death, Tannah's mauling, Shalimar's near-crippling. She could not look at her siblings without being reminded of how she had no scars, had not been brutalized.

And so she avoided looking at them. She had been shy. Now she was almost antisocial. She barely played, barely spoke, spent most of her time alone. She couldn't face her guilt, couldn't face the question of why she had been left untouched. And so she snuck away, using her growth as an excuse for being away for so long. She was occasionally caught; today, it was Skoggi.

The puppy avoided looking the female in the eyes. Even Skoggi had been mauled where A'sha was unharmed.

"Where are you going?"

She remembered that Skoggi could not in fact hear her and looked up to repeat the question. Skoggi, however, was already speaking, knowing the female had said something but sensing it was along the same vein.

"I'm returning to the den. Would you like to accompany me?"

That was one reason A'sha liked Skoggi, even through her guilt. She did not command her, did not try to change her. The two had an odd understanding, knew secretly why the other did not mingle with the pack. A'sha could not release her guilt over the female's condition, but she could communicate past it. Skoggi, not having to see any scars on A'sha, felt less guilt over her, even as she knew it was not logical.

"Yeah... Mom's probably worried about me."

A'sha offered a weak tail wag that Skoggi accepted with a smile, and the two set off together. That was another part of their understanding. A'sha felt that her mother had abandoned her when she needed her most; Skoggi felt that she had left her puppies behind. And so the two, despite their guilt over each other, also bonded more than they did with the rest of the pack, Hu-Rhiw excluded.

Which, at least Skoggi knew, may not be taken as a good sign. She tried not to think about it as they headed toward the den; she was tense enough around them without giving herself more to worry about.

((So yeah, Kangl's pack, go right ahead ;D ))

[Azhar]

((Just wondering, but how much time had passed since the puma thing? Trying to gauge how much of a wound he should have left. ))

// The thin layer of cold white crunches subtly beneath the slight paws of a fairly petite wolfdog. The light flurry of fresh white snow swirls about, giving his merle coat a slight dusting. If it wasn't for the frigid wind, he'd not have noticed.

Being something of a wanderer, Azhar trots -- still sporting a noticeable limp -- through the trees. The incident with the pumas had affected him. Not just in the healing gash at his hip, but in his demeanor as well. Sure, he'd always been quiet and a bit stand-off-ish, but it had only gotten worse. He tended to keep to himself even more. While he no longer had the tendency to wander outside the pack territory, he did still incline toward going off on his own. The playful side of him had retreated inward, hiding itself in shame. He felt like a very useless pack member.

Despite his wanderings, he did help the pack out where he could and he always responded promptly to any and all outranking pack mates. ((I forget what his rank is. Must be quite low though, am I right?)) His half flopped ears automatically prick up at the sound of someone approaching. Knowing it would only be a member of the pack, he begins to veer off in another direction to avoid the other canine. He doesn't get far before he hears a puppy scampering through the trees somewhere behind him. He pauses, assessing the area. He didn't think anyone else was around. Perhaps he should follow the wandering pup to keep an eye on her. He still felt rather responsible for at least part of the damage that had been inflicted by the pumas.

Decided, he turns with a sigh and a slight groan at the lingering pain in his hindquarters and quickly hobbles after the youngster. Having assumed that there were no others in the immediate area, he is surprised to hear someone speaking. It was Skoggi. She must have gotten to the pup first. Or, likely, the other way around. He remembers her mangled foreleg and cringes. A'sha, it would seem, had strayed from the den and her mother. Shrugging minutely, he continues toward them to find the pair heading off for the den. Having nothing better to do and figuring that his lonely jaunt had lasted long enough, he begins to pad after them calling out, "Mind if I follow?" Though it was more for A'sha's sake than for Skoggi's as he knew she was deaf. \\

[Kangls Pack]

((Dude I'm so excited. Me, Breeze, Stan, Nicole, and if she shows up, Redpyre all in the same thread. Its like ze good 'ol days! ;D))

___The sky above was a vast expanse of pale gray, a seemingly endless wall of clouds stretching out in all directions, beyond the horizon, as though the sun had been blotted from the sky. Kangl thought this was befitting; the lonely dreariness of the sky was an apt reflection of the bleak atitudes of his packmates recently. Just as the sky was everywhere, but alone, so too were his compatriots; the wandered the land like ghosts, quiet and pensive, silently screaming their agony in every still tail, drooping ear, and haunted eye. The incident with the mountain lions had indeed changed them all, be it the daily anxiety and terror of the attacked, or the guilt of the unscathed. He himself frequently pondered, in the quiet, lazy hours when the sun was high in the sky and the pack at rest, if his leadership was the crucial decision that lead to the massacre. Should he have invested so many of his packmates to run off the intruders? Should he have left the pups with a deaf female and a crippled male? Could he have sensed the lions before their arrival were he more astute that day? Kangl was drowning in an ocean of would haves, could haves, and should haves.
___Imrit, for her part, had at least not blamed him outright. He'd almost expected this of her, for she constantly called his judgement into question ever since his fling with Trista. In terms of mood at least, she seemed less effected by the whole ordeal, remaining stoic and pragmatic, going about her duties as though nothing had happened. But Kangl had been watching her and knew that she was not well: she seldom slept, furiously patrolling the pack's territorial boundaries until she had burned off virtually all of her reserves of body fat. Muscle and bone, she was starting to appear sculpted of stone, as hard and unyielding as her disposition. Bragi's presence helped at time, the pair's friendship one of few forces capable of pulling her away from her neurotic routine. Kangl could recall a time when he had that influence, admittedly with some envy.
___Kovou, now getting on in years, somehow managed to seem more bleak than ever before. He had always had a stormy disposition, perpetually somber and serious with a firm attention to business and little else. Now, however, his behavior trended towards curmudgeonly; he was easily agitated, and prone to losing himself deeply in thought only to react with aggression if drawn out of it. He watched the growing pups as carefully as ever - perhaps moreso - but now rarely spoke nor passed time with Imrit as he had in the past.
___Diht, as was his disposition, tried pitifully to feign happiness. He attempted to engage the traumatized younglings, though A'sha and Tannah alike typically eluded him. Shalimar had become very agoraphobic since the incident and tended to hang close to the den, so Diht became his constant shadow, determined to convince him to venture from the pack's rendezvous to explore, play a game of chase, or swim. Swimming was especially problematic for the young male, who had come close to drowning only to be rescued by his rapist father - his father whose screams he heard echoing through the trees as Astra carried him away. He started shaking and whining upon merely seeing the creek, and if drawn to its banks would urinate and howl as if being abused by a superior.
___Endrina and Astra's reactions were, like themselves, polar opposites. Endrina had become virtually emotionless. She did not show any signs of sorrow, guilt, or anger, but also no joy. It was as if she had been consumed by numbness, experiencing little but a dull state that could not quite be called placid, but might appear so to the untrained eye. She hunted without excitement, howled without enthusiasm, watched her pups without love, and slept without dreams. ___Astra, conversely, more than made up for her sister's dispassionate disposition by being consumed with a firey hatred. She despised her mother, Trista, for not raising them well, for not protecting Endrina for assault, for not being here to suffer as they'd suffered. She hated the rapist, Karou, not only for what he'd done to her sister, not only for leaving the pups fatherless, but also for creating them at all, for both their lives and their deaths had been and continued to be vastly destructive forces in the pack. She hated the wolves, Mesablanca and Iri'lo's pack, who had tresspassed on their territory for creating the diversion that catalyzed disaster, and her pack for being so easily distracted. She hated Skoggi and useless Hu-Rhiw for letting the pups get away, for being unable to defend them. And above all she hated herself, for not being able to protect Astra when she was raped, for not being able to detect the threat, for not being able to defend or save the puppies, for not standing up to Imrit and insisting upon Karou's death. The fae had become a personification of animosity.
___As Skoggi, A'sha, and Azhar approached the den, Hu-Rhiw caught their scents. He was resting under a tree not far from the den, if resting was the right word. His mind never stopped pacing, a frantic, caged thing driven by relentless guilt. His sense of personal failure was overwhelming, for being injured, for being unable to defend his mate and pups, and now for the burden - percieved or actual - he placed on the pack. His hind quarters had never been quite right ever since he'd injured his back. His left hind leg was still weak and atrophied, buckling randomly at times, and his paw was always scraped and bruised from times that it involuntarily folded under and took the brunt of his weight. His tail, too, hung slack between his hindquarters, capable of little more than a transient twitch, and frequently numb.
___Thus when he approached the trio, his gait slightly ataxic, his tail did not wag with pleasure. His ears were perked, a very slight smile at the corners of his maw when he eyed his mate Skoggi - though this was tinted by sadness, for he hated seeing how she struggled so, permenantly maimed due to his inability to protect her. The smile evaporated, but he advanced anyways, approaching Skoggi from the front so that she could see him plainly, for her deafness would silence his approach. The deafness did not matter as much these days, for as much as she could not hear, he could not talk, his voice stolen and locked away in the prison of a tormented mind. He merely padded over to her, nudging her gently in the cheek with his muzzle and doing his best to look happy, for it wasn't her fault that she made him feel such terrible guilt.
___Yes, these were indeed difficult times for the pack. If they had once been a sloppy conglomerate of ill-fitting parts, they were now just pulverized remains of that poorly designed structure. Something would need to bring them together, or it was inevitable that they would soon fall apart.

- Kangl + Imrit + Kovou + Diht + Hu-Rhiw + Astra + Endrina + Shalimar -

[Skoggi and Asha]

The scents of the pack flickered toward the two wolves. It seemed everyone was nearby ((I am assuming?)); Skoggi's heart sunk. She did not need to see Imrit's near-skeletal form, Diht's force cheerfulness, Kovou's brooding. Granted some of the scents were duller than others, some of the pack members perhaps not there, but it was enough to make Skoggi slow, single ear drooping, the other stiff with scar tissue. A'sha paused, whining lowly, forgetting that Skoggi would not hear.

Then, behind her, she heard something moving. Immediately A'sha's fur stood on end, ears going back, lip curling. Skoggi noticed the movement and turned to look at the puppy, frowning with concern. Like most of the other puppies, A'sha reacted strongly to any seeming "intruder", though she could not smell anything amiss. A'sha just growled and looked behind her, body trembling. She hated herself for reacting so easily, in truth, but her defenses were permanently on overdrive. Whenever she saw a stranger moving, she immediately thought to drive them off, hurt them, kill them, to save her siblings and pack, and herself. It was as if each intruder was a puma, and she wanted to teach them a lesson about how badly the wounds hurt.

Skoggi looked, scenting the air, but the wind was not in her favor. She spotted a form moving through the trees, recognizable by its mottled pelt. Azhar. She did not know the male very well beyond that he was part of the pack and had also been injured helping the puppies. It stung her heart; even this male, who was barely around, was able to help the puppies where she failed. However, this fact also reduced her anger; instead of not appearing like normal, he was by rumor one of the first. Skoggi could not be angry at a near-stranger who still came to the pack's aid.

A'sha, meanwhile, drooped with embarrassment upon seeing the male approach. She remembered him vaguely from the battle, and knew from his scent that he was pack. How dare she act so brusque to him? Tail drooping, she took in his words with a slight wince. She acted like he was a monster and yet he still wanted to be with them, though she could sense that all was not well with the male either. Was anything right with anyone these days? The world had fallen down.

Skoggi noticed A'sha's change in posture and looked down at the female. The puppy looked up, smiling meekly.

"Azhar wants to come."

Skoggi nodded and called out.

"Gladly."

A'sha winced again; Skoggi's word didn't quite make sense considering the question, but the female had already turned and resumed a slow walk. She barely got a few paces before she froze, tail lifting and ear perking upon a welcome scent. Hu-Rhiw soon appeared from the trees, a mix of sadness and pleasure. Skoggi's tail wagged weakly, but she knew that her mate was not well. She could relate to his guilt and silence, secretly fearing that her own guilt fed into her mate's, made them both worse off.

Skoggi returned her mate's greeting, licking at his muzzle.

"Is all of the pack there?"

She had learned to work through her mate's sudden muteness, requesting basic information that he could answer through body language. She knew as she spoke that the question was perhaps a tad rude, but she did not want to face anyone, most especially Astra's anger. The more the female blamed her, the more Skoggi felt herself losing control, slowing progressing toward the moment when she would give in and attack the female, a full-blown challenge to silence her, who made Skoggi feel her guilt more painfully than ever before.

A'sha just felt awkward. She never did well around Hu-Rhiw; even he was injured where she was unscathed. To see him and Skoggi going to each other for comfort simply made her feel left out and truly alone. She had no one to go to. All of her siblings were injured. All of the pack members were injured, somehow. There was no one to confide in, only Skoggi, and Skoggi didn't need her; only Hu-Rhiw.

With a soft whine the puppy turned and walked towards Azhar, leaving Skoggi and Hu-Rhiw behind. Skoggi turned to watch the puppy, frowning, but did not stop her. Perhaps Azhar could provide something that she could not, something to help bring A'sha out of her self-berating, bleak condition. Ears low, Skoggi turned back to her mate and stood close for comfort. The world, it seemed, was very bleak indeed.


((Except minus one ear and with a lot more scars.

Nicole, I think it has been enough time for Azhar to have a scar, some stiffness, maybe still a cut or something. I have Skoggi's wounds more or less healed, so it's been a while ))

[Bragi]

Bragi had found himself quite the pack, and another dog might have left them to their grief and rage; but he felt a sense of responsibility to stay, now that he had been accepted into their fragmented fold. Nor would he abandon his budding relationship with Imrit; although her mate might exert more effort should Bragi leave, who was to say Kangl wouldn’t let her waste away? The thought made him shudder, to think of the female’s already-slimmed frame turning skeletal. Rotting; and didn’t he know too well already the anguish of losing a loved one? If he left, he wouldn’t even know her fate. The wolfhound shook his head: it wouldn’t do to arrive at the den with such morbid thoughts in mind. The place was maudlin enough without the mite of his worry added to it.

Besides, he’d come with the intention of easing some tension among the wolves; he knew many of them felt guilty for the death of Endrina’s pups – and he understood why, even if he only knew the puppies as the ghosts that haunted his pack. He thought that perhaps a hunt would alleviate some of that guilt, the basic task of bringing fresh meat to the living pups a salve for the things no one could do for the dead. Technically, arranging such a hunt was Kangl’s job – but he didn’t seem inclined to do anything but wallow in his past failures. It wasn’t as if Bragi intended to howl up the pack and order them to hunt, anyway; he’d only see if anyone at the rendezvous was interested in accompanying him.

Pups and relieving stress aside, it hurt to see Imrit whittled down to muscle and bone so close to the cold months; although Bragi could help by tempting her away from her punishing patrols, only nutrition would rebuild her fat reserves. Bragi sighed and shook his head again; if he pandered to his worry any longer, he’d begin to act like Kangl. He followed the thought up with a grimace; he really shouldn’t entertain such thoughts about his alpha. But seeing the brute let his mate whither, and having seen how strained the alphas’ relationship was – well. It was hard to prevent his mind from venturing into dangerous, insubordinate territory.

Arrival at the den site came as a relief; having solid issues to think about would banish unhelpful thoughts. Perhaps he could use a hunt, as well; his anxieties didn’t bleed, no matter how much he worried them with mental fangs. A deer would not be so lucky. Bragi arrived in time to see Hu-Rhiw’s haunches disappear into the trees, made instantly recognizable by the male’s limp tail and draggled leg; a sniff at the air confirmed Skoggi’s presence. Not surprising, that: although it struck Bragi as strange to have more than one mated pair in the pack, he didn’t know how else to think of the duo. It seemed Azhar was also nearby, which suited Bragi’s purpose; although he liked Skoggi and Hu-Rhiw on a personal level, their handicaps could sometimes make hunting with them frustrating.

Further scenting proved that most of the pack was nearby; not a particularly cheerful prospect, but it at least made his task easier. However, in the medley of odors surrounding the rendezvous he couldn’t quite tell who was closest. He stepped closer to the den, ears perked, ready to greet his pack mates – and more than a little hopeful that Imrit would be resting nearby.

[RW]

Just to clarify - Kangl and Imrit aren't mates. I'm sure an outsider could perceive them as estranged mates since it would be weird for an alpha pair to not be mated, but to date Imrit has always been flying solo (though wanting a relationship with Kangl) and Kangl basically boinked Trista, has some feelings for Imrit, but isn't vet motivated about them (something Bragi's interest should eventually remedy). I'm not sure if you knew that and this was Bragi's perception, or if you thought they were mates. If it's the former, ignore my ramblings.

[Imrit]

((We're a little out of posting order so I will only be posting Imrit until Nicole posts. Oh, and this is a severely bad post, so apologies in advance; for some reason I can only write reasonably well during the day lately.))

___It so happened that as Bragi was approaching the rendezvous, the very Imrit he sought was as well. She had just completed one of her patrols, paws growing raw from the frozen earth insufficiently cushioned by snow this early in the season. The cold had numbed the minor wounds, much as she herself had number deeper, less physical ones. She wove through the trees with her head lowered, hardly the stance of an alphas, but eyes and ears as alert as ever. She would not admit to anyone that she'd been feeling weaker lately, doubtless the result of burning far more calories than she was consuming, her body struggling to build muscle while simultaneously consuming it. Any careless observer - and just about every self absorbed member of the pack was just that - would probably think her drooping posture was due to depression.
___Raising her head for a moment, the saarloos sniffed the breeze, dark brown nostrils flared as she assessed who was waiting by the den. Most of the pack, from the smell of it; she caught the scent of Diht, Shalimar, and some kind of wounded small mammal - doubtless the former trying to encourage the latter to practice the hunt like his sister A'sha. Kovou was somewhere close by, probably close in proximity to Kangl based on the direction of their scents. More distantly, all in a cluster, she detected Skoggi, Hu-Rhiw, and Azhar - distinct because they all smelled slightly of sickness and weakness still. The one hint healthy odor among them suggested A'sha, doubtless feeling absolutely horrible in the presence of everyone who was brutalized trying to save her. Endrina, Astra, and Epinicion seemed peculiarly absent, but she'd caught a hint of the male's scent by the borders of their territory earlier, so it was possible he'd wandered off and his siblings were retrieving him.
___Whoever happened to be about did not really matter to her at the moment; she'd felt very distant from her pack since the attack, frustrated by their emotional fragility while failing to recognize her own. She was, in her own mind, still behaving like an alphess: patrolling the territory, minding the pups, patrolling the territory, occasionally trying to rustle up a hunt where Kangl failed, patrolling the territory... But ah - there was a scent she could appreciate. Bragi. The male had joined there pack only shortly after the disaster with the mountain lions. She'd accepted him mostly because he had four functional legs, two sighted eyes, and no debilitating emotional scars, but he'd proven valuable beyond her expectations. And goodness - he was pretty well balanced to boot. Shocking with what she had come to expect of packmates.
___"Bragi?" she called out quietly, able to detect the male's scent nearby but uncertain of his exact location due to the directionality of the winds. It would be nice to have some sane, emotionally balanced companionship upon arrival at the rendezvous.

[Azhar]

// Azhar too could scent a majority of the pack, if not everyone -- he was too lazy to analyze, as they approach the den. His ears droop in a resigned fashion with a rough sigh. Being around the rest of his miserable packmates was terribly depressing. It made him weary. He needed someone with optimism and spunk. A humourless huff escapes his black lips; he hadn't the desire to hold it in. No one like that was to be found in this pack. Not anymore it seemed. He would have to wander away from this old pack territory to have the chance of finding such characteristics in a fellow canine but his will to do so had waned.

He watches Skoggi and Hu-Rhiw greet one another. Their devotion was both heartwarming and heartbreaking for him. He longed for this sort of connection. Nevertheless, he was pleased to see his packmates in such relationships. It was something he was unaccustomed to. He had seen it and he knew it existed but he had yet to experience it for himself. As of late, he had seriously been doubting that he'd ever be lucky enough to develop that sort of deep bond. Of course, there was the tie he felt to the pack. The same tie that had brought him to attempt attacking a puma without a second thought. He supposed that was the most he could hope for.

He sees A'sha turn to approach him with a whine. He could relate to her feeling out of place even if he couldn't imagine being the only unharmed individual in this lamentable mess. Azhar felt as though he didn't belong most of his life. Even after he had been taken into the pack. Even before the tragic puma attack. An empathetic whine resonates in response and he forces his stiff hindquarters to bend into a slightly slouching sit. \\

((Wow, that sucked. Sorry.))

[Tannah]

Trapped in this world of ugly gray--melancholy and sadness and disgusting creatures--Tannah drew into herself and stayed there, locked away from anything that might have helped her overcome the trainwreck of hormones and instinct she carried. The effects of the cougar-attack went well beyond her scars, and her now partially-defective right eye.

She hated everything, now.

The monsters and the madness that followed her into every shadow, and spat at her with rust-colored fangs when she was alone, had leaked into every thought, every facet of her life. All around her, there was crippling imperfection and weakness. It was everywhere, and she hated it. It smelt of blood and mushy rotting decay.

Oh, how she wanted it destroyed. This mewling weakness. She wanted to rip it out by the roots and shake it until every bone was turned into shards of leaky marrow. Chew and rend and replace it with something strong. She wanted to control it, dominate it, fix it. Uncreate it and make it something else.
Anything else.

She couldn't, of course. Being still trapped in this useless puppy's body. The same body that ran out after the pack and got lost, got her sister killed. The same horrendously small body that couldn't inflict pain on the feline abomination. It couldn't even take down a prey animal.

So, all she could do, was wait.
Wait, and train, and struggle to control the rampaging urges that tried to throw her at everything she encountered.

She had fantastic hunting skills for her age, and it really was the only time she seemed somewhat at peace. Any time that she was putting herself to work, challenging herself, battling or hunting or brawling, a little bit of the hell within her was able to leak out...and she always seemed a little better afterwards. It never lasted, however...too much time would go by, and she was back to bubbling over the edge.

She knew her mother didn't love her. The bitch didn't love anyone, didn't hate anything, enough to matter. Endrina was a useless creature, and Tannah spent many long moments each day watching her, and picking out every dissimilarity from herself that she could. She needed daily reminders that she was not her mother. And even so, she still needed to punish her...vicious whispered comments, even snapping in her mother's face, when she could get away with it.

In fact, she snapped at anyone she could get away with. Even when she was punished for it, even brutally, she would eventually come back and do it again. She pushed limits, daring the pack to step up and lay the law down upon her. Some sort of sick mix of challenging them, and abusing herself.

It was as if she was struggling to move up in rank, before even breaching adulthood. Such wolven laws against it didn't mean much to her.
Not in this broken excuse for a pack.

And any wolf that did allow her to dominate them, even for a moment? They would never leave her focus until she was sure that they were beneath her.

Even the alpha was kept in her hateful sights.
The juvenile watched Imrit a little too closely, held her gaze for a little too long.

The only member of her pack that wasn't treated with silent and violent disdain, was her aunt, Astra. The little wolf felt a furious kindred spirit with that female, and tended to linger near her silently, all her wordless admiration bottled up inside, like everything else, despite however the other female treated her. That she-wolf was able to avenge a wronged sibling, was able to use her strength against an enemy...and shared the same fury towards her own family.

And so, Tannah presently lingered somewhere near Astra as she often did, and busied herself by idly mauling a discarded branch, still partially covered with crunchy brown leaves. The adolescent worked to bite and pull and shake every bit of leaf from the stems, chomp bark from the wood, snap every twig. It was her way of playing.

- Meet Tannah -

((Tannah and her lovely new face-scars))

[RandomWiktor]

Post order is all jacked in this thread; Stan, if you'd like to post Bragi, it'll allow me to reply to everyone in one big uber-post.

[Bragi]

Bragi, after a pause to ascertain that none of the more able-bodied pack members were near – the pup’s mother and her siblings all had their mental instabilities, but they hunted well – moved to follow Hu-Rhiw into the trees. He would not distract Diht from Shalimar; the puppy needed attention more than the pack needed extra meat. Nor could he approach the alpha with the plan to hunt; it would seem insubordinate even if he did not intend the gesture to be read as such. Not to mention he doubted his own ability to rouse Kangl to action when Imrit couldn’t. The thought could almost make him laugh, if not for the discomfiture it brought with it.

He about-faced, all his plans as naught, when Imrit called his name; his alphess deserved such respect. Besides, he did not like the quiet tiredness of her voice. As expected, she looked no better than she sounded – worn thin and small with her obsessive labors. Her presence, though, and the fact that she summoned up his company rather than that of those she had known longer – even her own mate – made it easier for Bragi to greet her with a smile and a wag of his tail; and if her lowered head made it harder to properly submit, Bragi took no mind, and merely bent his own head further to nose the bottom of her muzzle in greeting.

“All’s well here,” he told her, which stretched the truth; but he trusted she would understand the conditional nature of the statement, and that he need not weigh it down with all the inherent depressing additions: all’s well here, except for Hu-Rhiw’s haunches and Tannah mauling another branch and Shalimar’s fear and Azhar’s growing despair. It would have been more truthful to say, No new drama here. He shook off the thought before it could poison their interaction, perked his ears and straightened out his smile. “So I was thinking a hunt, but...” He shook a dusting of snowflakes form his fur, gazed heavenward. “After the snow? Better opportunities.”

He kept himself, barely, from glancing at her while he said it; with her sense of duty, he could imagine her attending a hunt, however long a patrol she tread before, and in her exhaustion making one of the myriad little mistakes which could kill a wolf.