Quote from Adriana on April 16, 2020, 6:25 pm

Logan paused and looked over her shoulder at the Alpha, her own lips turning up. “Do you have something to say? We are spending good daylight.” she growled in response, fur bristling at her neck.

Quote from Mae on April 17, 2020, 1:53 pm

The Alpha's deep growl continued to rumble like thunder.

By now, Timothy was standing on the edge of his rock. His ears and eyes were on Logan.
The sudden tension in the air between the Alpha and Logan put an end to Ulric's inner turmoil. Natural to his instinct, his needs would come secondary to the needs of others. Presently, the need for a peace-keeper and mediator was clear.

"Kratos," Ulric said cautiously.  "Don't do it."

Somehow, the wind blowing through the autumn branches, and the birds carrying on in lower trees, didn't seem like a conducive background for a fight. -Nothing need be said about the precarious ledge they were all standing on.

Kratos' eyes held onto Logan like an owl's on a snake, but his growl steadily decreased. At length, he spoke.
"Ulric, I want you to go back to the dens." He said. "The only hope for that woman now is to be found by people who can take her back to town. Call the Middlecrest police station. And prepare for every inch of this mountain to be searched."
Kratos barely broke his gaze on Logan as he turned his head to the side and tilted one ear back. "You want to do well by me, Timothy? Go home."

Timothy jumped off the rock and whisked away in a moment, down the rugged path, between the dancing ghost-flowers, and out of sight.

"Go with him, Ulric."

Quote from Adriana on April 17, 2020, 4:12 pm

Logan watched Timothy and Ulric leave in turn, if only out of her peripheral. She had turned around completely to face Kratos. Everything in her posture lent to  her confidence, however misplaced it may have been. Her head was held high and her stump tail and ears were erect. Over the summer she had gained a tremendous foothold on her secondary.

Some of that not entirely of her own skill. Unbeknownst to her, her father was a werewolf before her coming to existence, so the gene existed within her. It may have lied dormant like her father's, had she not been bitten. Regardless, the form had come more naturally than one may expect of a first generation.

While there was more to learn yet, Logan gained strength with the control she had obtained. And with that, pride, which was reflected in her demeanor and actions. It had always been there; the woman was of proud nature and unafraid to admit it. Now however, it clouded her judgement. Any fear of Kratos once possessed from previous experiences had been long forgotten, their initial encounters never remembered in the first place, and instead there was a self assured sense that she could challenge him and, if not win, come close.

Still, she had said her piece and stood by her last statement, waiting to see what the Alpha had to say. Her unnatural mauve gaze never faltered.

Quote from Mae on April 17, 2020, 7:15 pm

Ulric was hesitant to leave. As he looked between Logan and Kratos, he read the impending conflict in their eyes. Kratos waited for him to decide. If Ulric stayed, it would be in violation of the Alpha's command. If he left, it would be in violation of his nature.  And still, he thought of Mercy and her child. He did not plan to come this far only to come this far. But as Timothy vanished down the forest path and out of sight, Ulric was left without a guide, and the farther ahead Timothy ran the more likely Ulric would get lost heading home.

Ulric shook his head with a sigh. He was defeated. His words a moment ago had fallen short of what he intended. Ulric could not command the alpha. Rather, he pleaded with him, "Kratos, don't do it - she doesn't know what she's doing." But Kratos turned to face Logan and ordered Ulric away. There was nothing he could do.

"Fine," Ulric said at length. "Just remember everything we've been through, together."
With those parting words, Ulric turned and began the slow trek home. As he rounded the corner of the jutting rock ledge, and the waxy pointed leaves of the flowering plant came between him and the other two, he swiped his nose on his sleeve and buried his hands in his pockets. He left Logan and Kratos standing on the ledge above him and descended into the forest.

Good, faithful Ulric. He wished could always be the passive mediator, but he felt himself breaking. His arm, twice compromised still ached, though it had been many months since Harvey's dog had twisted it. His eyes were still cloudy with blood, albeit less than before. The journey up the mountain had caused his head to hurt and his stomach to turn. And overall his body felt deprived of its prior strength and purpose. He couldn't change his form at will, he couldn't even try. He felt as if his whole soul, spirit and body, were like a empty glass jar ready to fall from the shelf and break into a thousand pieces on the floor.

It couldn't be helped. Ulric felt stepped on and abused. Somehow he'd find it in his heart to forgive them - of course he would. But how would he find it in him to forgive himself? As he walked, his mined turned to Mercy again. Was she really in such dire circumstances as Kratos said? When last Ulric saw her, she was able despite her injury. He fought a strong hunter, a determined hunter. Though, he could not remember what state she was in when he left. Had he hurt her badly? Would last night find her whole life changed forever? Would she be a werewolf now? Ulric pressed and rubbed his forehead. He stumbled over the stones on his downward trek. His toes strained against the steep descent. Soon, he found he had to walk downhill sideways, lest gravity take hold at the most inopportune moment.

Thinking about Mercy and her boy - her very little boy - in that ominous hole, having spent the night in the cold and the dark... Ulric tried not to think of it, but couldn't keep it out of his mind. When he was just a little younger than that boy - Charlie was his name - Ulric had been an orphan. He remembered what it was like to be alone and afraid. He also remembered being hugged by Resme for the very first time. She, like Mercy, would do anything for that little child. Resme was neither a hunter, nor a werewolf. But she would lay down her life in an instant to save him, this Ulric knew.

Ulric sighed heavily, feeling his heart weigh down in his chest like large brick that was somehow hollow like a void, threatening to pull him down and then into it, never to escape.

Quote from Mae on April 17, 2020, 7:17 pm

Kratos waited with his eyes on Logan until Ulric was well out of earshot even for a werewolf's ears. Then he lowered his head just so and stood up.

"You want to fight me - to confront me openly? You want to be the one to say when go and when we must stay?" Kratos narrowed his eyes sharply. "Do you want to be alpha, Logan?"

Quote from Adriana on April 17, 2020, 7:44 pm

"YOU challenged me."  Logan responded quickly, mimicking Kratos' stance and standing to her full height. "I am going," she repeated her earlier words, "did I say, we must go? Agh, no, that was not my command. You thought it only. STILL.."  she paused, then drew a blank; it was as if you could see her trail of thought drifting away..

"Čo som chcel povedať .. ehh.." she mulled under her breath briefly.

"Any-way, do not think I will not return a challenge." she finished, quieter now but still firmly. She was still chasing that train long gone.

Quote from Mae on April 21, 2020, 3:55 am

"That is not how this works." Kratos snapped. "You are looking for a fight, not a challenge, Logan. You don't know the meaning of the word challenge.  You are not my mother. You are not my father. You are not my alpha. Until you push me off this mountain and become the Alpha of the Calagathorm pack I have nothing I need to challenge you to obtain. If I send you to be a scout, you can walk away in whichever direction you please. If not, then you are to stay by my side or wherever I tell you to stay. You will not leave my sight to get yourself or someone else killed. You will not wander again!"

"Do you have anything to say?" Kratos' eyes glowed with the repetition of Logan's own words as the white of his eyes showed briefly. His teeth glinted white with a flash.

Quote from Adriana on April 21, 2020, 5:27 am

Logan grew quiet, less from fear of Kratos’ great voice, more in trying to understand the meaning behind the words.

“You are right.” She said, finally breaking her gaze. At the same time, her secondary form was relinquished. “I am trying to speak two languages I do not understand.” She took the staff from her back and planted it in the ground, resting some of her weight on it.

Ink black hair whipped her face and was caught between her lips. She relented the form in principle, but now found herself exhausted, her chest steadily rising and falling as she took in long deep breathes to try and recover. The large form took a great deal of energy to sustain; more so in broad daylight. After a while she exhaled and spoke again.

“I understand with what you have been told now, you would wonder if I am loyal to you.” She said carefully, considering the order of the events leading up to now, and her words going forward. “If you do not trust me-I will not hold it against you.” She added, gripping her hand tighter on the staff, still keeping her head turned away. Her features were almost more pronounced from this angle; her jawline strong and square, her nose long and even. The symmetry was only interrupted by the scars that marred her neck, and jawline vertically, the pale tissue never comparing to the warm complexion of her skin.

Of all her strong angles, there was some softness still. Her brows were thin and her upper lip was more pronounced than her lower lip. Her eyes likewise rarely conveyed malice or anger. What they had possessed moments ago had faded, and she was squinting in the direction of the sunlight.

”I am thick minded, I know this of myself, still.. if you had only spoke the word ‘stay’, I would have done so. I will bleed and die for you, yet I am not above small commands.. I am not above fear also..” her jaw was clenched and taught, but the last sentence came out a little quieter. Finally she turned to meet Kratos' eyes, something was withheld in her own, only to be betrayed in her voice as she went on to speak. "I am sorry. It will not, happen again." her shoulders lowered, but she attempted to steel her composure in spite of the wet line running vertically down a cheek.

Quote from Mae on April 24, 2020, 2:32 am

Kratos was pacified by Logan's submission. His own aggression had faded long ago. When her eyes turned toward to meet him again, he breathed a low sigh. Then he stepped forward, his greater form relinquished, and wiped the tear from Logan's cheek.

"Logan," he said. "I value your strength, and your pride."
Upon finding Logan's face wind-lashed and cold, the Alpha's large hand lingered by her cheek to warm it and protect it from the wind.
"I have sworn in wrath to avenge your blood drop for drop against all your enemies. Do not be afraid of them."

The wind picked up and twirled Logan's hair around the Alpha's fingers and wrist, so that when he went to set himself free the long black threads followed him. He led them gently on over her shoulder, giving each lock back to the wind when he withdrew.

Kratos stepped back and stared out over Reknab Bend through the single gap in the great trees, through which the ledge projected like an arrowhead pointing south.
"If your assailant should return, I have promised him that he will drink out of my cup the dregs I have saved for him." Kratos spoke in such a low voice that it was indiscernible from a growl even in his primal form. "Pray that he does not return so that I will not need to deliver on that promise."

Kratos turned away from the ledge and lowered his chin. His light hair waved in the wind. His light-colored brows bent low over his eyes.
"As for the alpha of the Fangs Beneath Earth's accursed Moon," he said, "He bequeathed no heir in his stead because the alpha was dead long before he had a son. His abdication stands. And will so-stand in behalf of his bloodline hereafter and forevermore. But of his name and from his hand, I both wear his title and his mantle."
The crimson-red cloak he wore on his shoulders danced in the wind. The emblems adorning its hem - each a token of the great and passionate past from which was born that ancient family - lay over his shoulders and across his heart. His arms and legs also were adorned in like manner; a legacy lost but not forgotten.

*****

Ulric descended the mountain solemnly, and lest his thoughts become over much the weight of his mind, he turned to humming a hymn from his youth until the trees seemed chipper and green with it. When he at last entered the little clearing in the foothills, and the dreadful ditch greeted him, stretching out across the ground like a sunken mouth waiting to swallow his guilt-ridden soul, Ulric gave pause.

Timothy was nowhere in sight. Hadn't he been so eager to please the alpha? Only now he appeared to have turned aside to his own agenda once more, and Ulric hoped the better that he would not see Timothy again that day. It was an awful wish. But after seeing how he had attempted to raise the alpha's anger against Logan and convinced her to admit her faults, Ulric could not be happy with Timothy. He wanted with good faith to believe Timothy's life had been spared so many times for a reason, and this belief led him time and again into letting Timothy take an inch which became a yard and then a mile of trust. Ulric regretted it, and he made note never to do it again, but he would. Timothy had made many wrong choices, but if never given the chance, how would he ever prove worthy of trust?

Ulric walked into the clearing with his hands in his pockets, only to stop and examine what remained of the elk where it was cleaned. At first, Ulric winced, but then the thought took immediate prominence in his mind and his eyes unknowingly trailed the scent toward the cabin. If he felt sorry for the animal, which was sure to be the case, hunger displaced it in a way he found difficult to suppress. He went to the cabin, and finding it tightly shut but not locked, he entered.

It was a instant relief to be out of the wind. Ulric hadn't noticed until now what a convenience it was to grow an undercoat on a whim. His ears felt frozen, and his nose, too. And what warmer place in a cabin than the kitchen on a good day? Ulric thus went and found the elk in the fridge. His heart sank as he realized he would not be opposed to eating raw meat just now. It felt like stooping a little, but the meat was sure to be sweet even without spices. Ulric's stomach growled with the thought.

It might've been wise of Ulric to consider, with the smell of a fresh kill lingering in the clearing, why Timothy's thoughts had not followed the same pattern...

(Edited July 22 2020: Possible time of day at this point = A little after noon.)