The Northern Den & The Territory

[AmyMarie]

RP in the dens and the territory surrounding them ~

[ZoeVictoria]

A large white wolf, almost growled as he was awoken from his slumber by the bright sun glistening off the snow that covered the ground. The den was almost warm, until he grunted and got up from the large ground of Wolf, feeling the cold run through his fur. He shivered, then howled to wake the rest of the pack. Hungry and grumpy, he trudged through the pile of wolves and sat at the edge of the large cave in the mountains. "Wake up, you brutes." Growling, once again at his skinny pack. He was the only one who was warm this time of year, because he ate almost all of the food.
"I'm hungry, wake up!" He screamed, then clawed at the high walls, leaving claw marks.

[AmyMarie]

Zara, who had just been sleeping soundly, was awoken by the loud shouts of her mate, accomanided of the sound of claws on walls. She opened her dark green eyes, and they adjusted to the light. She got up and stretched. Nudging a couple of others knowing they better get up for there own sake.

She walked over to her mate,
"Arrow, please calm down dear. I'll assemble a good hunting party and they'll get out straight away". She nuzzled him slightly. Most of the pack wondered how she coped with him, but Zara loved the other side of him. She signalled to the best hunters in the pack to get going, and they did.

Most of the members hadn't eaten a good bit in a while, not since that young female wolf was kicked out. Zara had a job to make sure Arrow didn't kill her. He was furious. She thought he was too harsh, but she didn't want to speak up. She regretted it now however, Mionie was a good member, and the Western Pack had her now.

[ZoeVictoria]

Arrow Hunter almost sighed happily when he heard her soft voice. His face smoothed and he smiled. "My dear, I'm just trying to get some food. I am very hungry, and you must be too, after sleeping all night!" Licking her soft, furry cheek and smiling. "I do not mean any harm, to you." Stuttering, on his first words, then looking into her deep green eyes, which almsot lit up like fireworks when she smiled.

"Your eyes are so beautiful." Caressing her cheek, and leaning his head down to bop hers. "We must have a pup soon, with your beautiful eyes." Looking to the remaining wolves who stared at him, his eyes immediately turned to fire as he lashed at them. "What are you looking at?" He yelled, as most of them scampered into the deep caves.

[AmyMarie]

Zara giggled, somewhat like a teenage, at his comments. This is the way she liked Arrow. He hardly ever got mad at her, and when he did he almost always apologized afterwards.

"Awwh, um...thanks Arrow. I'd love to have a pup soon", she replied, almost embarresed. She licked his cheek affectionatley and then smiled happily at him. She jumped ever so slightly when he turned round and yelled at the other wolves, but kept her cool. She was scared of his shouting voice.

[Ramoth]

~Elsewhere~

Quite a ways from the cave, a particularly large and stocky wolf raised his head and ears, looking back at the entrance. "The fat one is awake." He said to the other protectors, who (like him) were coming back from their patrols. Several of them flashed looks of annoyance, resent, and discontent; Ramoth had found that they were much more vocal about their "leader" behind his back. It made no sense to him; back on the tundra, a leader unfit for duty was quickly and summarily challenged for dominance of the rest without question, sometimes by more than one wolf if he was particularly out-of-line. If they disliked him so much, why not challenge him and be done with it?

It was no secret Ramoth was unimpressed with Hunter, and the other protectors knew it; it was perhaps why they preferred to be in his company and away from the caves when possible despite Ramoth's preference to brood alone. He paused, weighing his options. They were not expected back for a while yet still, and he had no desire to go back to that one, so without a word to the others waiting for him to continue, he decided the lake-side needed more "patrolling" and set off away from the caves. One by one they hesitantly followed him, sniffing the ground for signs of other wolves.

[AmyMarie]

Zara meanwhile was watching the hunting party wait for her impenitently outside. She looked back at Arrow,
"Uh...I've gotta go with them Arrow. I can't exactly let them go without they're Head Huntress". Zara nuzzled his cheek before turning around to leave. When she got to the exit she sighed, looking at her hunting party.

"Let's go then". The hunting party had some respect for her. They had no idea how she put up with Arrow Hunter. Most of the wolves in the Northern pack had a certain level of fear about Arrow Hunter. Ever since he almost murderded one of his own. Wolves closer to Arrow would argue that Mionie, the wolf in question, was disobeying him. However, even Zara thought he over-reacted.

In the Forgotten Valley, you cannot simply take over. The Wolves of the Forgotten Valley were much more civilized. If you had a problem, all the packs knew of it. There would be a planned fight. Zara herself had witnessed these before, and Arrow came out on top most of the time. He knew how to throw his wait around. He was surprisingly a good fighter.

Zara stopped her thoughts, she had to focus on getting food now. So, her and her party of about 4 wolves and herself headed down to the Foothills of the Moutains.

(Next post will be in the Hunting Section ~)

[Ramoth]

Ramoth arrived at the lake-side not long after deciding to forego the cave. The other wolves readily followed, despite the fact that Ramoth was the most junior protector, as an outsider and foreigner.

He never grew tired of seeing the lake; it was a thing of beauty to an Arctic Grey, especially when no body of water any larger than perhaps a small hot spring, was thawed-out year around on the tundra where he was from. The other wolves withdrew to talk more freely with each other, while Ramoth scanned the skies for his friend Owl. She didn't appear to be out flying, but then again it was approaching the sun's Zenith; he wouldn't expect a nocturnal creature to be out in the sun.

Unfortunately, the Sun was a reminder that their brief period of freedom was (for now) over. It was reaching its Zenith, which meant they would be missed soon and Ramoth was somewhat ready for a nap after having been out sneaking around since early morning searching for threats that obviously didn't exist. In a way, the valley had its own charm, even if it was somewhat boring even to one as quiet as he was; where they were headed however, things never seemed to be quiet. One by one, the group turned back for home, to await the return of the hunters and huntresses.

[ZoeVictoria]

As soon as Zara was out of sight, Arrow Hunter growled. Howling loudly, louder than most. As his feet started moving quicker, his strides got larger. Picking up the pace, he stopped just outside of the deep den. He was angry, but usually for no reason. Starving and grumpy from earlier made it much worse. Today would indeed be a bad day for his pack, anger emitting from everywhere on him.

"Ramoth, what are the reports?" Growling when he smelt the wolfs scent. Padding towards it, slamming his paws against the snow, leaving large paw prints. "Hunting party will be back soon, and guess what." Pausing and giggling slighty. "I'm starving." Giving the evil eye to the wolves in his pack before turning around. Usually when he was hungry, it meant no one else but Hunter and his mate, will eat.

[Ramoth]

Ramoth however, stood tall, taller than Hunter himself, and thoroughly un-amused or intimidated by the display. Several of the other Protector wolves unconsciously sank behind the unwavering Arctic Gray; he sat down as if bored with the threat, and opened his mouth to speak. "The reports are the same as usual: Nothing has ventured this far North. No one has tried even probing our lines, and we retain our hold on the territory. Nothing actually happens in this Valley." Ramoth said. He had been especially thorough; he was used to the incredibly sneaky scouting methods of a large cat, let alone a Valley full of normal wolves, and he'd seen non signs of anyone here.

[AmyMarie]

It wasn't long until Zara and the hunting party returned from their successful hunt. She glanced into the den and saw Arrow wasn't there. Sighing, she raised her head up and let out a long howl, to say they had returned. Some other wolves were already there, but they refused to touch the elk carcass. Knowing Hunter will want first pick of different body parts and such.

[Ramoth]

Ramoth was asleep in an out-of-the-way corner of the den. Arrow Hunter (as usual) wasn't interested in the scouting reports other than to make sure no other wolf had tried sneaking into their territory, and with that, Ramoth took the mid-day nap he'd planned on. Again, nothing so interesting as an invader or a scout had entered the territory; Ramoth wondered though, what the tyrant's plans to take over as leader of the entire valley would amount to in the future, and what his own place would be in said invasions. Hunter was not (from what Ramoth had seen) a skilled tactician by any means, or even a sensible one. He was easy to anger, did not inspire faith from the others his his leadership, and was gluttonously out of shape. He wondered how many of the wolves would actually obey an order to attack their so far harmless and friendly neighbors to the south... Especially when they would fight back. The thought of Hunter being chased from the valley to fend for (and most importantly) feed himself on the scrawny rabbits and deer outside the valley Ramoth had grown up on, was an amusing one.

The howl of the hunting party made him crack an eye; he looked around once at the other wolves, hungrily eyeing the carcass. Hunter was not present, but the others had not touched it, and he had to wonder why. The Elk was pretty fairly sized, easily enough for the rest of the pack to feed on for once. He remembered hearing a she-wolf getting in trouble over something related to the food supply, but it was before he'd arrived in the valley. Sleepily, Ramoth put his head back on his paws and was dozing again; if he got hungry later, he would likely go hunting on his own.... And to the devil with their "leader" and his "share" of the kill.

[ZoeVictoria]

Hunter sped towards the Elk and instantly started growling and protecting it. "Zara. Darling. Come eat." Smiling at his mate, but giving the 'evil eye' to the rest of the pack. The elk blood stained his muzzle, as his stomach still growled of hunger. "This is dealisious!" Mumbling through the bites he took.

[AmyMarie]

Zara was glad Arrow liked the elk, for she had picked it out for it's well built figure. But felt bad for the rest of the pack. And almost embarressed as the watched her approach the carcass and begin to eat. Recently, she had not been eating as much as she would of liked to, for the chance there could be some of it left for others. She highly doubted Arrow would be able to eat all of it anyway.

[Ramoth]

As she'd predicted, even with Arrow taking the choicest parts of the animal, he had barely eaten a quarter of it. Satiated, the gluttonous wolf padded off likely to go sleep off his bellyful of ill-gotten food.

The others, hiding their resentment well, approached the carcass while giving Zara a wide berth for fear of angering Hunter. Even so, it was not long before the whole pack set upon the Elk carcass, picking it clean like so many ants on a dead lizard right before her very eyes. In minutes, the feeding frenzy was over, the stripped bones being gnawed on by a few of the younger pack members. Several of them still gazed longingly at the skeleton, as if their hopes would somehow will more meat to materialize out of thin air. In acute contrast however, was the Arctic Grey over in the far corner, who was still dozing undisturbed. If he had been worried about muscling through and claiming his portion of the carcass, it sure didn't seem like it; he had never roused to join the others, even when Arrow had finished. Come to think of it, not many of the other patrol and protector wolves ate much either, unlike the older and sicker pack members that had... What were they up to?