Adventure Mishaps {Crow/Phineas/Anyone}

[nightblood]

There was little Ziro hadn't gotten into by now. He had been an Arnlanian for under a week and the pup had been all over the territory. He found it to be much like being alone, living in Arnlan. He did, however, have the reassurance that, if he got himself in any serious trouble, a member would come out of the shadows to defend him. With that in mind, he continued to investigate every inch of Arnlan that he could possibly get his nose into.

Today, the young wolf was digging through a pile of rocks in a part of the territory that seemed to be slightly unused. There was only a few wolves' scents around here. Perhaps this was where the less social members of Arnlan gathered. He could care less, however. No one could resist a curious puppy like him.

Just as he was about to leave the rocks and find something more interesting, he noticed a damp, musky scent coming from under the pebbles he had been smacking around. Sticking his nose back into the area, he picked up a tiny breeze. His interest heightened, Ziro dug his claws back into the ground and yanked out the largest of the rocks. It took a while, but he was able to create a small hole, just large enough for him to fit through.

Ziro had stumbled upon an underground cave. Wasting no time, he quickly slid inside and crawled his way through the tunnel. It wasn't long before the cave opened up. He was now able to stand up straight and walk along the wall of the cave, trying not to trip on anything. There were many scents in the cave. There were mice and other rodents living here. But none of them interested him as much as the one that stood out the most. There was a wolf in here.

The breeze mixed the wolf's scent with all the other smells of the cave, so he was unable to tell if it was male or female, but he knew it was big and about 3 years old with an injured leg. Ziro automatically guessed male and made his way cautiously to the front of the cave. He could hear a steady breathing as he walked. The last thing he wanted to do was wake up an old male from his nap. They had a tendency to get real annoyed real quick.

A few more steps and Ziro was able to determine that the wolf who called this cave a den was actually a female. He let his tail wag slightly. Females were easier to get along with, more agreeable. With this in mind, Ziro leapt forward and continued at a slow trot to the front of the dark cave. Being closer to the entrance didn't make it any brighter. He could barely see the nose at the end of his muzzle, let alone the boulder of a wolf that he ran into.

"OOF!!"

"GRRrRrRrRrrrrr..."

A growl erupted from the furry rock that Ziro had run into. It rumbled from within and rose up. Blood red eyes glared at him from on high. The light from outside glinted off the creature's fangs. With a strong swipe of it's huge paw, the orange pup was thrown into the air.

"YAAAAHH!!!!"

His voice rattled off the edges of the edges of the tunnel until it was muffled when he landed in a snow pile outside of the cave. Finding that he was uninjured by the impact, he quickly sat up and turned to shout into the mouth of the cave.

"HEY!"

[Bandersnatch]

Far from the monotonous trudging that her steps had come to hold in the past few lonely months, Crow’s gait was returning to the graceful rhythm it held in younger days. She had had contact with others now and was convinced there was at least some life in the pack – enough to keep her going. Each delicate, though confident, step was announced by the crunch of fresh snow. It was at its thickest yet and still the little white specks wafted down. It was lucky for her that she was born with a thick coat. It repelled it all and gave her the added insulation one much needed in an Arnlanian winter.
The sepia wolfess knew from her many years of experience in Arnlan that this all wouldn’t last long. Spring would be arriving soon enough and little by little the powder would disappear, the streams of the packlands swelling with the fresh snowmelt. That was how it was every year, and she had little doubt that this one would be an exception.

It was mid-morning and far from the sunny light that many outsiders would expect, the dark land held its gloom, granting only a few beams of light passage through the tree tops, only where they were sparse. It was Crow’s time to patrol, and she had doing so for hours now – enough time for Nightblood to find her shelter and drift into a deep enough slumber.
Crow gave a wide yawn as she trotted. The glinting teeth were quickly covered again by soft gums which curled naturally into a peaceful smile. She’d taken to not wandering too far from the scent of the newcomer pup… whom, she suddenly realized, she had never caught the name of! She chuckled silently. She had no need for names after all, but it was still a pleasantry to know them.
This stalking had somewhat altered her usual path, though she had still managed to balance her movement in a way that allowed her to go about her tasks successfully. It was somewhat how she imagined the Alphas doing their rounds, creeping through the shadows with eyes constantly watching, yet still fulfilling their duties. What duties they were, besides the watching, she had no idea, but she supposed there must have been something.

"YAAAAHH!!!!" His voice rattled. “HEY!"

The Sentry-On-Guard hesitated, a forepaw frozen in the air in mid-stride. She hastened toward the direction the yells had come from.
She was greeted by the aforementioned pup sitting indignantly in the snow looking none too happy. A quick glance over confirmed that he had no obvious injuries. Pacing forward she quirked a brow curiously. Just what was going on here?

[Donn]

Phineas had been virtually alone since his acceptance into Arnlan. The area of Arnlan's borders stretched quite far, at least by his reckoning, and so had done his best to become aquainted with it. In his mind, he was beginning to understand more and more of the land and it's features, forest density, streams and other variables. At the moment, he was coming up to a hill, with several boulders at it's top, and various amounts of rocks around it, as well as the snow. It was still snowing by this time, though lightly. The black wolf was just coming through the last of the trees to the hill, when a muffled yell startled him. He stopped, and walked backwards hastily behind one of the pine trees. Granted, in a pack territory, he was bound to come across pack wolves, but he hadn't envisioned meeting one that was yelling at something. Phineas' deep orange eyes carefully swept over the rocks.

There it was. An orange-brown creature that on further inspection was a pup. Phineas watched it. He didn't particularly want to meet it, having little experience with pups, so instead observed. Another wolf had appeared, female, and had also taken to observing the pup, it seemed, though at a shorter distance. There was a slight breeze coming from their direction, and Phineas caught and noted their scents. Pack members. Seeing still no need to introduce himself, he continued to watch, just for the sake of becoming familiar with the wolves, his ears forward and listening intently, eyes not moving off the two.

((Guessing that Arnlan has pine trees and boulders. ))

[nightblood]

The creature in the cave stood up, eyes narrowed at the pup that had disturbed her sleep. She was half tempted to scare him away, but also wanted to go right back to sleep. She chose the latter. With a low grumble, the big wolf sat back down and let herself drop to the ground. Somehow, she knew she wasn't going to be able to get anymore rest.

Ziro was about to run back into the cave to get revenge, but a scent stopped him. He turned to see the wolf who had accepted him. Not wanting to be thrown out of Arnlan for what he was about to do, he lifted a paw in the direction of the cave and explained the situation.

"SHE HIT ME!!"

With that, the pup leaped up and started to run to the cave. Once inside, he stopped and looked around for the beast that through him out. Once sighted, he lowered his head and aimed himself for hers. At full speed, he head-butted her in the back of her head. Promptly rolling away, he sat on his tail and picked up a paw to rub the spot on his head where they had connected, muttering his pain.

"Ow... Ow...!"

All that was emitted from the rock-head he had run into was a low grunt, nothing more. When the creature did not move, Ziro shook his mind clear and ran again toward her head. This time, he bit at the big wolf's ear, yanking and pulling on it as best he could. This seemed to get the creature's attention.

As Ziro let go of the ear, the beast sat up once more. Once again, she raised a paw and sent the pup flying out of the cave and into the snow.

"AHHHH-OOF!"

Sitting up once again, Ziro shook the snow from his face and turned to the sepia wolfess.

"SEE?!"

He turned once again to return to the cave, but this time a figure stood in the entrance. The dark silhouette of the wolfess he and glimpsed before stared down at him. Now he recognized her scent. It must have been thrown off by the damp smell of the cave.

"Taking in pups now, are we, Crow?"

Ziro turned to the sepia wolf again. Crow? Was that a nickname or her real name? He logged it into his memory anyway. It's good to know what your pack mates are called.

"So who are you?"

The pup looked back at the big wolf who had thrown him twice. She was now standing out in the open, just out of the mouth of the cave, but less than a foot from him. She was close enough that he could tilt his head fully up and see her face without turning around. Looking up at her, he pulled his ears back and put on the biggest, happiest grin he could possibly muster in her shadow.

"Name's Ziro."

With that, he jumped up and backed away. Once he judged that he was close enough to Crow to be safe, his expression returned to that of an angry pup who had just been thrown out of a cave twice in the same day.

"Who're you?"

The black and red-brown female smirked. At first, she had been worried that this pup would remind her too much of Ziko. Truth was, he was nothing like him. Ziko was quick to judge and unwilling to any help offered to him. This pup sought the help of those he knew wouldn't mind giving it. He didn't turn and run from those who caused him pain. He got even. He didn't seek out fights, but he was willing to defend himself when necessary.

Amazing what someone could decipher after spending two minutes with someone else.

"NightBlood."

[sarhea]

Orion paid no mind to the crisp winter air as he trudged through the snow. It had been a while now since he'd seen anyone. His training with his older sister to become Scout of Arnlan had been more than he bargained for. Now, with Pollux off to rest alone, he made his way back towards the heart of Arnlan, the bare trees swaying almost sliently above him as he loped along.

It was not long before voices in the distance grabbed his attention, and the dark pewter hued wolf , his curiosity raised, altered his coarse toward a less traveled area of the lands. As he drew closer, scents of Arnlan wolves came to him. Two he recognized; Crow and Nightblood. Two more scents, he didn't know, and the Arnlan scent was much newer on them....fresh meat....

As he came close enough to make out the forms of wolves, he paused. Yes, there was Crow, near the entrance of a cave. And Nightblood; her towering dark figure just inside the entrance; and a rather curious reddish youngster. He appeared to want to be brave, yet cowered back towards the more inviting figure of Crow. Orion couldn't suppress a grin. The young one claimed Night had hit him, then still faced her as they exchanged names. This youngster had nerve, especially in the face of a wolf like Nightblood, who looked less than thrilled.

There was still another scent, hidden away, but still it held the smells of Arnlan. Orion paid it no mind as he casually sauntered into the scene. He lowered his head slightly in a respectful greeting to Crow, then glanced to Nightblood and did the same.

"Morning everyone," he spouted, then plopped his rump onto the snow, leaving plenty of distance between him and the three wolves present. He couldn't suppress a wiry grin. There was plenty of smart remarks he could have spouted, but Night looked peeved-and he sure didn't want to be on the receiving end of her wrath. Instead he spoke to the young red male.

"Ya know, its better to have been around a little longer before doing whatever you did to make her have that look," he said jokingly to the youngster.

[bleh-short and maybe not so great-trying to get back in the flow]

[Electus]

Days seemed to past like a blur to Mortil, and yet Arnlan still was locked in a seemingly perpetual winter. The ash-grey wolf did not particularly mind, but it did make the quiet land seem lonelier than it actually was. He sighed, a small puff of breath in a muted land. His daily amount of training and all around personal betterment was done for the day, and he didn't really fancy doing anymore. As such, he decided to go for a walk to explore the land that he now lived in but still did not know.

Mortil stopped padding through the snow for a moment and sniffed experimentally in the air. There were scents carried by the wind that he knew: Nightblood, and the sepia wolfess he had met all those nights ago. Yet there were also those he did not know....probably three of them. He started to pad curiously towards the origin of those five scents. Gatherings, if you will, were not exactly common in Arnlan he knew, so something interesting must be happening. Or at least something slightly social.

As he moved closer to the origin of the scents, he recognized Nightblood's large form, and the sepia wolfess' as well. He snorted a bit at the reddish form of the pup. He did not particularly like pups, and he found most of them excitable or troublesome. Nonetheless, Mortil was a tolerating sort on the whole. He smelled two others nearby, but he paid them no heed. Wolves this close to the heart of Arnlanian territory would be natives.

Quiet as a ghost, Mortil materialized from the dark foreboding trees of Arnlan.

"Not much for pups, are you Nightblood?" He said archly without any preamble. He also nodded briefly to the sepia wolfess. "Hello wolfess."[/color] he said by way of greeting, "I trust you have been well.[/color]

"Hello Nightblood."[/color] Umbra said chillingly.

"I've started giving Umbra a little more freedom,"[/color] Mortil said in his quiet, dry voice, "Since he has promised to behave."[/color] He sat down on his haunches, tilting his head in his usual way. He then turned his single golden eye on the young pup, treating him to his dissecting stare.

[Bandersnatch]

((Sorry, got busy with RL things other than work, surprisingly enough D:))

The Sentry-on-duty inhaled as she slowly approached, trying her best to gather what was going on. In amongst the background scents of rock, moss, dirt and dust came a musky scent, softened to the sepia she-wolf’s senses – a scent that ran alongside her own in a ring around Arnlan’s borders.

"SHE HIT ME!!"

Crow offered the pup a small smile, not quite sure what to make of the situation. Before she could study any more clues, the pup was up again. Before she knew it, he had dived back into the dark cave. The smile quickly faded to a look of wide-eyed exasperation. She made a desperate lunge after him but her reflexes were too slow. The tip of his tail whipped out of sight as she reached the entrance. Instead of clumsily following, she paused there. Uncertainly she gazed after him, but time gave her eyes little chance to adjust to the dark before cries and scrapings and thuds convinced her to dive back out of the way.
Her instincts had done well, for as soon as she shifted a small, fluffy figure flew out.

"AHHHH-OOF!"
Crow gave a sympathetic wince at the pup’s rather uncomfortable sounding landing.
Sitting up once again, Ziro shook the snow from his face and turned to the sepia wolfess. "SEE?!"
But before she had a chance to reply, a darkened figure strode out of the equally dark of the cave. Night was clearly not pleased by the disruption. Understandably so.
"Taking in pups now, are we, Crow?"[/i]
Crow gave her fellow sentry a meek smile. She hadn’t intended any of this when she excepted, really. Lucky for her the black and tan hulk’s attention quickly turned to her tiny assaulter.
"So who are you?" [/i]
She watched the exchange silently – as if there were any other option – at the exchange of words. Somewhere in her stomach there was a small knot of worry that Nightblood would want to extract some sort of revenge but her mind doubted the near-masculine female would sink so low.
Ziro, huh? Well, at least she knew the pup’s name now, regardless of whether the information would be useful to her or not.
And after announcing his name, Ziro backed behind her, his own canid shield. Instinctively her body reacted. she stood taller, her posture protective. Despite it, she would never fight her packmate. Natural instinct, that was all.

Night’s smirk finally released the warning knot in her gut, allowing her attention to drift elsewhere. She remained unaware, however of their watcher. Instead it turned to a more familiar figure.
Silvery, young. Pollux’s brother. What was his name? Orion? That sounded right. It had been quite some time since she had last seen the lad. She almost didn’t recognize him now that he was full grown. Had it not been for his tell-tale scent that gave away his family ties she might not have at all.

"Morning everyone," Crow offered a smile in answer to his small bow, more sincere and less controlled than her earlier ones. It was coupled with a friendly tail wag, her own greeting to the friendly face.
It seemed like mere seconds later that Mortil made his appearance.
"Not much for pups, are you Nightblood?" She couldn’t help but brake in to a grin at the rather interesting greeting. Well, it was an astute observation. Quickly she swallowed back the giggles, forcing herself to return to a smile (straining in attempts to return to a grin) as he offered more usual greetings to her.
"Hello wolfess." he said by way of greeting, "I trust you have been well.
She nodded in return with a tail wag similar to the one given to Orion. Umbra generally made her uncomfortable, but she managed to ignore the chills as she half-listened to Mortil’s explanation. The other half of her attention was dedicated to gazing across the gathering that was quickly forming.

This was turning into quite the little meeting. Who knew Arnlan could be so active still?

[Donn]

((Skip me, I'll come in later))

[nightblood]

Blood watched as Crow stood up a little straighter. Her head tilted to the side a bit, trying to understand her fellow sentry's actions. She was being protective of the pup behind her, as if he were her own. Sighing, Blood's posture loosened up, showing that she had no intention of hurting the orange ball of fluff. Ziro saw this, stepped out of the sepia wolf's shadow, and started to approach the larger wolf.

"Morning everyone," a vaguely familiar voice interupted.

NightBlood turned to see the younger sibling of Pollux. She had met him some time ago and hadn't really gotten to know him. According to Pollux, he was now a Scout Apprentice. The Sentry let her tail wag a bit in greeting and turned her attention back to the pup.

"Ya know, its better to have been around a little longer before doing whatever you did to make her have that look," said the Apprentice.

"I didn't do anything to her... at first..." Ziro answered, attempting to sound overly-innocent. A big grin had been plastered on his face before being removed by a comment from anotehr voice.

"Not much for pups, are you Nightblood?"

"Not usually, Mortil, no," Blood answered keeping her cold eyes on the pup. Words were offerered to Crow, but they remained unanswered, as usually. It was only when a colder voice addressed her that NightBlood bothered to look at the gray wolf.

"Hello Nightblood." Umbra said chillingly.

"Umbra..."

"I've started giving Umbra a little more freedom," Mortil said in his quiet, dry voice, "Since he has promised to behave."

A chill went up Blood's spine as a tiny smile appeared on her face. The sentry had always found Mortil's other side to be quite intriguing, not to mention dangerous. He'd been yet to be addressed by the Alphas. Perhaps they already knew of him and saw that he could be tamed by his loyalty to Arnlan. Blood knew it would only be under extream sircumstances that Umbra would harm another Arnlanian.

"Good idea," she offered approvingly, "He'd be restless and harder to control otherwise, wouldn't he?"

Ziro had been caught in the gray male's gaze. He stood still, a hint of fear on his face. A moment or two passed before he forced himself to close his eyes and shake his head. He looked at NightBlood, then at the one she called Mortil and Umbra. He gave him a quizical looked and leaned forward, as if observing some strange experiment.

[nightblood]

{{V, Bander, Donn, Howler, Sarhea, V, ect... I think... :/ }}

[Electus]

(( You go it. ))

[sarhea]

"I didn't do anything to her... at first..."

The smile on the youngster's face, and the realization that the kid had actually provoked Night to her current outward mood, it was just too much. It brought too many memories back of his own testing of the adults' limits. The mischievous streak ran deep in his family, after all. The kid seemed at first impression a wolf after his own heart.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a 5th scent, this one different than the one still hidden. This wolf made his presence known, however, and as Mortil came on the scene, Orion found his gaze locked on this eerie form. This wolf obviously knew Nightblood and Crow, as his greeting suggested. But then Umbra's voice sent a chill down his spine...

Orion broke his gaze from the form of the large ash gray male. He'd heard rumors here and there of a recent member who may have had a deadly split personality...now it appeared, at least on one part, this wolf truly existed.

At a loss of how exactly to act or what to say, Orion nodded a greeting to the male, and watched as Mortil's gaze fell to the pup. Most of the time, Orion tried to act pretty tough or else play the cutup-but at this moment, he was feeling pretty bad for the youngster in the middle of the ring of wolves. The kid's confidence was suddenly gone, as a look of fear replaced it. But then came the curiosity. Once again, Orion was at ease, a slight smirk back on his maw.

Way to go, kid, he thought. The kid had some true potential in his books. For now, he had nothing to say to the gathering, waiting to see what would happen next. Everyone seemed more alert, even on edge at the approach of Mortil. He would just wait....

[Electus]

Mortil noticed the pup shrink back for a moment and then lean forward again, eyes full of curiosity. He smiled vamprically. The young one had an odd brand of courage indeed. The ash-grey wolf found himself a little interested in the young pup. But that would come later. He had another little test for the little red fur ball.

Or at least...Umbra did.

Suddenly Mortil's golden eye turned bloodshot and he slowly got to his feet. He stalked towards the pup, leaning down until their noses almost touched. Umbra suddenly grinned, his face full of crazed insanity. "Young one...what do you fear?"[/color] he asked, his voice as chilling as the arctic wind. He half-leered at the pup, baring his fangs and then drawing back. Mortil's eye turned golden again, and he padded quietly to sit next to Nightblood. "You have no idea how interesting my life is with Umbra around.[/color] he said quietly, grinning.

[Bandersnatch]

Crow smiled faintly as Nightblood untensed her muscles. She had only just caught on to the defensive way she herself had been standing. She dipped her head slightly in apology, keeping it lowered in aversion of Night’s eyes. How embarrassing. She hadn’t realized – she hadn’t intended to seem untrusting nor disrespectful to her rank equal. She hadn’t truly thought the hulking female would really try to majorly injure Ziro. There was just something that got to her when it came to pups… She was just too soft for her own good.
She raised her head again to find the youngster, now a little cockier, drawing closer to the wolf many times his size. Crow quickly took a sole step forward, jaw dropping as though she was about to call out after him. As if he hadn’t harassed Night enough today! With a little luck, It was now that Orion bumped in, interrupting just in time.

"I didn't do anything to her... at first..." Ziro answered, attempting to sound overly-innocent.
Crow shot Night another grimacing apology, tracing a nervous forepaw in the show. If only she had stepped in before he dashed back into that cave. She was quickly finding out that the pup was much too big for his own paws. This was proving a heck of a lot more hassle than the Ziko she knew had been.
And then Mortil arrived. The exchange of greetings, though for the most part not unfriendly as such, was certainly not usual. The brave stance Ziro had taken was knocked down a notch as Umbra spoke. Crow couldn’t blame him – the way Mortil’s darker half spoke sent a chill down her spine. She tensed again, glancing at the pup. She felt like ushering him back behind her protectively. But no, she realized, that was too blatant. She didn’t want to offend Umbra.
"Young one...what do you fear?" he asked, his voice as chilling as the arctic wind.
The sepia female forced herself to glance away, uncomfortably clenching her teeth.

"You have no idea how interesting my life is with Umbra around.” he said quietly, grinning.
Yes… interesting was certainly a word for it. Crow gave Mortil a weak smile, not entirely convinced that the Umbra thing was all for the best. It wasn't her choice, though, and she would have to put up with it...

[Donn]

What a gathering, Phineas thought. He wouldn't have marked Arnlan as an overly social pack, so guessed this was one of their rare moments. And if that was so, it would be best to meet a few more wolves now, before they disappeared again. Up to this point, Phineas had heard most of the conversation, dull as it was, and had pretty much picked up on most of the names, despite the slight discrepancy with the identity of Mortil, or Umbra. Well, why not introduce himself? Besides, now he had caught sight of NightBlood, whom had accepted him.

He started forward, at a quick pace, making a straight line towards the top of the hill, to the left of the little group, plainly visible. It didn't matter at the moment, considering Phineas' objective. He came up to the top, and slowed, arriving at the group near the tall Sentry wolf. He waited for a gap in conversation, then spoke out to NightBlood, in a cheery tone. "I say, there, NightBlood! We have happened upon each other once more. Why not introduce me to your fine friends?" He nodded in the direction of the other wolves.