A Paw Print On New Snow {Acceptance} {Crow/any}

[nightblood]

Deep snow blanketed the landscape as a layer of white clouds mimicked the ground below from the sky. The previous storm made the white crystals pack together in a way that allowed some animals to walk on top of it. Ziro was one of those animals. The wolf pup was not one to complain about the cold, or the hot for that matter. It didn't bother him that much. What did bother him was the fact that animals larger than himself were out there looking for an easy meal. He would have to find a pack of his on kind in order to survive any longer. Sure, he could hunt mice and the occasional rabbit without help, but wolves could not live on such things all the time. Besides that, he was still too young to defend himself from anything bigger than a bobcat.

With these things on his mind, Ziro almost missed a certain scent. The scent of a pack border. He lifted his head in surprise and looked around. There. The start of a forest. Ziro jumped up and ran for the scent barrier at full speed, nearly tripping over his big paws for fifteenth billionth time. Once there, the young wolf sniffed at the border, deciding wether or not to enter.

As an answer to the debate inside, there was a crashing through the trees. Not knowing what it was or wether or not it would eat him, Ziro ran for cover behind a rock not too far away. His scent would be diluted by the snow. Whatever it was, it would hopefully not pursue his paw prints.

As luck would have it, the thing that happened to be crashing through the bushes was the second Sentry of Arnlan. NightBlood had been making rounds all day, trying to keep herself occupied. This wasn't the first time she'd passed by here. She could see her old tracks from almost more than four hours ago. But there was something new. Another set of tracks. Lighter and slightly smaller. By the amount of snow that 'filled' the 'holes' that she saw, she guessed that they had been made a while ago. Perhaps even before she started her border patrol for the day. However, she did take the time to rub her jaw up against the nearest tree in order to strengthen the scent and ward off intruders. With that, she snorted at the paw prints and continued her patrol.

Once the Sentry was far enough away, Ziro crept out of his hiding spot. He was happy she didn't linger there long, or she might have caught his scent. Speaking of scents... The pup had to stand up on his hind legs and reach as far as he could in order to get a wif of the scent mark she had left. It reeked of the territory grounds and was heavily ladened with the distinct scents of other individuals. Mostly males. Only one other female. The Sentry's own scent mainly told him that she liked to hang out by some body of water, but spent just as much time at the border. Perhaps she had a den by a river? Oh well. If he was accepted, he'd find out later...

But not by that wolf. No, there was an air of danger about her. Perhaps he was being overly cautious, but it was better to be safe than sorry. So the pup sat there, waiting until he knew that Sentry was too far away to hear his voice. That's when he let out a small bark. He wouldn't howl. He didn't feel the need to. If someone was nearby, they would answer him. If not, he would try again. He needed to talk to somebody, even if it was that Sentry that came around again.

[Bandersnatch]

It was afternoon by the time the other sentry had awoken. The sky was still a brilliant blue, streaked only by clouds, but soon enough the shadows would deepen and night would fall.
Something stirred in the hollow that years of rot had formed in one of Arnlan’s most ancient trees.
Crow had drifted off quickly early that morning after her patrol was done. She had had a sound sleep, and the afternoon found her revitalized for the task ahead. With a yawn she rose for to her feet, pausing only to stretch her back in a graceful arch.
Mid-winter in the Dark Lands always came with near constant snow, and that season was no exception. A thick layer had formed over the course of the day, more than replacing what had shrunk back from the sun’s ray. For now the flakes had eased, but clouds somewhere out beyond the horizon threatened more later on. Crow’s steps were careful, her toes spread wide to help her keep atop the snow.

Crow’s stomach had been contently filled the previous evening by a decent sized Arnlanian rabbit. For now there was no point in wasting more time in seeking out more. The food stores had remained low for quite some time, devoid of the fresh large carcasses it once held. And so it was that her quarry had been caught by her own paws. Not that she minded – the thought of so many packmates buried deep in the packs’ heartland and giving nothing in return was far less unsettling in her mind than thoughts of dead packmates.
After a brisk drink, it was time to track down Nightblood and relive the larger wolfess of her duties. Crow had to admire the dedication of her compatriot. Sometimes she would be startled to find what seemed like dozens of sets of distinct tracks overlapping.
It didn’t take long to pick up fresh scents of the sentry-on-duty – it was the matter of catching up that posed the difficulty.

Eventually, however, she was certain she was making process. A fresh scent mark stood out above the rest of the smells that drifted on the breeze. Crow perked her ears, straining to hear Nightblood’s footfalls. It quickly became apparent that she would have no such luck.
But before she had a chance to relax her ears, a soft bark drifted out. Crow’s head whipped to the direction it had come from. Certainly a sound like that could’ve only been from a pup. Immediately an image of a little bundle of black and red fur sprang to mind. She had to trample that thought down quickly. No, Ziko was gone. That’s what Nightblood had said, wasn’t it? Where he was, no one knew. Besides, by now he’d be too old to sound like that… As much as she wished that this was his return, unarguable excuse for his disappearance in tow, this would not be it.
Her thoughts weighing her down, she reluctantly stalked forward to investigate the source of the noise. The fresh scents laid down by Night coupled with ideal wind conditions meant the pup may not have noticed her presence straight away. It was, however, mere seconds a figure became apparent beyond the black trunks and low-slung branches of the trees. A lone pup, sitting in the snow.
The less intimidating Sentry tossed her head, flipping back the long fur that draped her face, leaving both eyes free to study the newcomer. Why was a pup wandering around these parts, anyway?

[nightblood]

It didn't take long before Ziro's keen eyes managed too make out a dark figure coming toward him. This one was much smaller than the great beast who had just walked by. He took in a sigh of relief. He would finally be in the company of his own kind. And that other female probably scared away anything that might have been hunting him before. He let his tail wag once and waited for this new wolf to meet him at the border. He wasn't about to cross it, for fear that he might be attacked. Just because this female was smaller than the other one did not mean she would be less threatening.

Ziro had seen other wolves be accepted into his old pack before. By those examples, he hoped he would be able to gain entry here. Mimicking the others, Ziro lowered himself to the ground, but only slightly. His tail hung loose, not cowardly tucked up against his gut. His ears were held back and down, but not plastered to his scull. Anyone who showed true fear to a Sentry in his old pack was quickly turned away. They wanted strong individuals, so he thought every pack did.

When the female tossed her head, Ziro instantly thought it was a signal to leave or perhaps send a troop of warriors to attack mode and kill him. The latter was silly, and he quickly disregarded it. Who would attack a pup unless it was his brother? And he knew for a fact that Taron was back in Chardan. So could this sepia wolfess be ordering his retreat? He quickly found that he had been reading too much into it, for she kept advancing. Now he could see that a tuft of long fur had been moved out of the way of her eyes. He calmed down. For now.

When he wasn't addressed by voice, Ziro began to wander if he had been seen at all. He looked up at the wolfess and gave her a kind smile when she was close enough that there was no way she couldn't see him unless she was blind. "Hello," he said in his best 'cute' voice.

[Bandersnatch]

The figure became clearer with each step. Though larger and older than expected, she was certain that he still wasn’t of an age to be out on his own much longer.
After flicking the fur from her face, she gazed inquisitively at the scene. He hadn’t passed the scent marks as one would’ve expected a pup to do, staying instead just past the land’s fringes. Interesting – had he picked up some border manners somewhere along the line, or was it a lucky guess? As she approached, he lowered himself submissively, but not enough that he seemed to her to be timidly or fearful. Rather, he certainly seemed well-versed socially.

He greeted her with a warm smile, and it was returned in kind. She was used to having to appear as big as normal to those who happened across the shadowy land’s borders. Many of those individuals toppled over her, so this made for a refreshing change. Relaxing her body, she sat. With her body slightly slumped she hoped she would show she meant no harm.

"Hello," he said in his best 'cute' voice.
Bingo – little did he know that he’d managed to hit her Achilles heel. Maybe it was her biological clock ticking away or the recent loss of Ziko, but her motherly instinct had been working overtime. With no pup to be found in the territory, his arrival was just in time to benefit from her maternal urges. Whatever it was, her tail wriggled friendlily along the ground behind her rump, disrupting the surface of the fresh snow.

Cocking her head, she gave him another encouraging smile, as ever silently watching, hoping to urge him on. Did he want a pack? She couldn’t see a problem if he did. What harm was a pup? It was unlikely that he was some spy, or ill-intentioned. How likely was it that he would be some sort of degenerate? If he was, Arnlan itself would soon sort him out.
Alphess Sofika (though she doubted Karolek would care either way) would’ve perhaps posed the opposing question – what good was a pup? Crow almost laughed to herself. Sofika herself had baught her into these packlands, and at a much younger age than the puppy that now sat before her. It was true that times had changed, and with so few pulling their weight, useful additions would probably have been preferred – but why should there be an issue here?

[nightblood]

{{Oh, this is going to be tricky... XD }}

Ziro noted the relaxed state of the female. After his greeting, he saw the way her tail wagged just out of sight, kicking up the new snow. He managed to look up at her face in time to see her encouraging smile. Not unlike his mother's, except she had been of a more sunny color. He wagged his own tail in return, but had to shake his head to keep the memories at bay. When the sepia female made no move to speak, Ziro tried to interpret her. The smile, he had noticed, but why did she refuse to speak? Inwardly shrugging, the pup decided to carry on the conversation alone.

"Er... I- um..." Ziro had to take a breath to sort out exactly what he was going to say. He made a mental note to do this sooner next time. "Is there any room in this pack for- no, wait... What I mean is- Is there anything I can do to be a member of this pack?"

He had judged that his first rough draft had sounded a bit like begging, and there was no way in the world he was going to beg for anything. His second draft sounded more like he was wiling to work, and he was... so long as it didn't take him near humans or his old territory and didn't kill him. After thinking over the whole of his first 'complete' sentence, he decided that it was rubbish, but waited for the female's reply anyway. Perhaps she would speak this time.

{{After/If Ziro's accepted, would it be any trouble to start a new thread and add an interpreter? XD }}

[Bandersnatch]

[Gaaah, taking forever to reply *headdesk* Sorry again.]

"Er... I- um..."
Crow’s smile remained firm, and she added a gentle nod to emphasize. She realized her silent manner was off-putting at times, but there were few ways to get around it. She studied him with patience. It must have been odd, she thought to herself, to try to gain access into a territory via someone who gave no prompts – verbal at least. Still, in a way Crow had come to use each potential aceptee’s reaction as a basis for their character, and so their suitability.

"Is there any room in this pack for- no, wait... What I mean is- Is there anything I can do to be a member of this pack?"

The sepia wolfess rose to her feet, nodding slowly in reply to his question. Her mind had already been made up before that point, of course, but she still couldn’t help her smile widening at the thought the pup was obviously putting in to his self-correcting words.
If he did not belong here… well, Arnlan would see to it. She could help of course; attempt to guide where she could. She would try, but ultimately it was not her choice. She found a nurturing comfort here under the wickedly twisted trees. Understandably so for they were her homeland, and each tree, each little twist in its paths she greeted with contented familiarity. For those new to the land, who hadn’t come to understand the its ways, it was a gloomy, terrible place, trapping and at times desperately lonely, weighing heavily on the mind. But deep within, when enlightened, there was a sense of… life. Crow smiled to herself as she turned, rolling her eyes as her face became hidden under heavy fur again by a sudden gust of wind. She was probably over thinking these things again. These things were her understanding… no, they were her view, at least. It seemed true enough, though, that the packland was quite capable of disposing of those who didn’t belong. How else would the disappearance of so many newcomers be explained?
Crow glanced over her shoulder toward the young one. She thrusted her muzzle (fur tuft lifting and tumbling quickly back to her face) back foward, signaling him to follow.
Only time would tell if the dark lands would greet him with open arms, or chew him up and spit him back out.

[Sure – who/what did you have in mind?]

[nightblood]

{{That's quite alright, Bander. ;) }}

Ziro lowered his ears, body, and tail when the sepia wolfess got to her feet. Even with her affirmative nod, the pup still wasn't entirely sure what he was getting himself into. It was only when the female turned and gave him an obvious signal to follow that the pup wagged his tail a little, slightly reassured. He took a few cautious steps forward and stopped short.

He looked to the female, then turned to look at the land beyond the border, out passed the paw prints of the larger wolf that had passed before. He hadn't spent too much time out on his own. He was lucky to have made it all the way to another pack's border without being eaten. Grinning to himself, Ziro stuck out his tongue and whispered a silent "Nyeh!" to any carnivores that would have made a meal out of him out there.

Turning back to the sepia wolf, Ziro jumped and bounded toward her. Being the pup that he was, it was almost instinct to follow this mute female as she walked through the forest. It would take time for him to get his bearings and to meet and become accustomed to the members of this pack. He felt confident that the whole pack would accept him, even though it might become a chore. He didn't yet know the kinda of wolves who called this land home.

The orange pup quickly logged all this away when he noticed that his pace had slowed. He bounded forward again, slowing to an awkward trot as he caught up with the female. He would be able to meet everyone in due time. Right now, he wanted to know where the nearest and most comfortable den was where the inhabitants wouldn't mind his intrusion.

{{Maybe Pollux if Squeeji would like to join. NB too.}}