Silence is a killer

[Carter]

Carter didn't mind Greyback so much, he was, apparently a wolf of simple, violent pleasures, but, he wasn't too bad of a wolf when you got past the whole blood thirsty murderer thing. And that was pretty easy for Carter to understand or over look, after all, he had been in the upper rung of the most cut throat pack in history. Violence didn't faze him as much as it should have.

"We should probably stay together if there's any chance of ambush, most wolves are smart enough to stay away from the borders, but there's always a chance that some dangerous psychopath is dumb enough to wander through with friends..." Carter rolled his green eyes with a bored sound. It was always crazies that wanted into Sallin, which sometimes worked, but a strong pack needed strong members, and that meant those mentally strong as well.

"Anyways, psychopaths or not, we'd be better off working together. Just so we don't loose site of the last two wolves in Sallin." He teased of course, and he laughed, but he wasn't sure if Greyback would get the joke or find it funny.

[greyback]

Back in the days when Greyback was a pup, you'd be beaten about by your father, nipped at by your mother, taunted at by the rivalling pups of your age. Life was difficult and only the strong came out of it alive. He had a pretty roughed up childhood which would explain his bitterness today. He could reflect on his own past and looked to the present way of bringing up your kid. Love was something never shown back in the day, but now... affection ony softens the mind.

" That's a plan. " To be honest the thought of crazy wolves coming into sight had never dawned on him. Greyback looked about with his cold, weary dark eyes. What if it had been a crazy gang of bandits that had popped out of those bushes instead of Carter? He counted his lucky stars and a smile twitched on his lips but he turned away before the other wolf could notice. " I suppose though... if someone like that appeared, at least there would be some excitement... and fighting and what not... " He was still hoping to find a straggler he could kick about the dirt.

Greyback didn't get the joke and looked blankly at Carter. Well, as blank a a wolf who had a permant scowl pasted on his features. Flicking his ears, he haunched his powerful shoulders and began to slowly walk along the border. Beneath him he felt the dust of the ground billowing up under his powerful steps. The land reflected the pack; bare and without life. There was no grass on this trail... just dirt and paw prints of past border guards, imprinted forever. There was great sorrow in the warriors heart for Sallin at the moment.

" Let us proceed... Carter... " he breathed quietly. His heart yearned for what Sallin used to be.

[Carter]

Carter stretched before moving about again, digging his toes into the earth. His ears attentively perked. "I suppose, I almost wish someone would be dumb enough to break the border." He had to agree with Greyback. He didn't savor fighting, but by now, it was so boring he'd relish the chance to do -something- "It would be something."

He stood up from his stretch, taking a moment to crack his neck. "Let's go. We aren't too far from the more populous border, which is probably the best direction to go if we're looking for recruits." The young prince had an authoritative tone to his adolescent voice, "or at least...trouble."

Carter smirked, and began loping off towards the border, enthusiastically.

[greyback]

Greyback nodded, " Yes... something... " and he almost cursed as well, the sorrow being replaced for anger now. His heavy shoulders rocked as he moved and he slung his head back as Carter loped of all happy looking. Greyback revolted in the enthusuastic way in which the young warrior moved. Does he have no pride? though the bitter old warrior.

Torn ears flicked to as Carter emphasised the area of border where most newcomers seemed to make a daring attempt to join. But it wasn't this decision that snapped his attention back to now. It was Carter's tone. Greyback definently had never seen Carter take control of anything. Maybe some people are right, you just need to spend some time with another and you'll see that your far away impressions are all wrong. He cursed, silently, the wolf (whos name he forgot because they were not important) who told him this. Greyback didn't like his thoughts telling him " I told you so ".

[Carter]

It wasn't so much that Carter bounded or ran, it was that he strutted. IT made it terribly obvious that, in the folly being young, the Prince did think very highly of himself. Though he wasn't going to just rub it in the face of Greyback...after all, Carter was just born of the two most powerful wolves in Kloteck...he wasn't a bad guy.

He lead, only due to his enthusiasm to get to the border, head and tail high, a sly smirk on his face, he turned a moment to see if the old Warrior was behind him. "So...what's the chance you think we'll see anyone?" It occurred to him that maybe there weren't new wolves because all the brave ones were gone...no coward would dare try to breach the borders of the all powerful Sallin.

[Bandersnatch]

An ancient, rusty bucket swayed from open maw just high enough as to prevent hitting dark, roving legs. It was quite some prize that the owner of said legs had captured from the edges of the man-pack. It would prove to have some use, she was sure. A storage vessel, to carry water to paitents...

Scents were shifting, giving way to something much darker. It was this darkness that reminded the traveller of times past, of an old pack somewhere far, far from here. It wasn't that she missed her old clan, no - just as it was with many others, this familiarity drew her in, a tug at her soul.
Yes. Somewhere in her travels she had heard of this dark, deadly place. Sallin. Agressive, battle ready, power hungry Sallin. It was nightly, so still, as if everything was frozen in terror. This terror had no sway over her, so used to such a feeling. So seemingly unfeeling.
It was that influential tug at her very self and not some fit of madness that pushed her across well-defined boundries into the eternal darkness of the place. Either way, across them she was.
Dark, slunk back ears sifted foward into a slightly more perked position. Ah, someone near by. She would not be difficult to detect, no, not with the scents of a thousand lands, distant and near, clinging to her coat. She would be a strange sight, no doubt, with matted unkempt fur and clusters of half-dead plant samples ringing her neck. There had been many things she had picked up on her travels. They would all be for good use. The seedheads of all sorts of wild herbs would produce quite the productive healer's garden.

Nettle stood stock still, gently narrowed eyes studying the direction that rustling leaves fleeted, screaming, from the feet of some restless other.

[Carter]

((I know Greyback is gone, but I'll see if I can get this going again))

Carter leapt ahead of Greyback, his enthusiasm over coming him, he covered ground quickly and stopped nearly half as quick when he saw the strange female a the border, looking behind him, Carter frowned, it appeared he had lost the old warrior.

That was an inconvenience, but, it was no bother, he could take care of this issue himself, that is, if it actually became an issue. The young Prince's ears pressed against the back of his skull and he frowned before stepping towards Nettle from the foliage.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in the Lands of Sallin?" His tone, while youthful, had a sharpness to it, he meant what he said. Looking the female over, he noted the wild and unkempt look of her. "What do you want? Tell me, or you shall be disposed of for trespassing." Slowly the warrior began pacing Nettle in circles, he was aggressive and threatening, but on high alert, he was told never to trust an outsider and he certainly wouldn't begin to now.

[Bandersnatch]

The travel-worn (or perhaps she was worn prior to that...) female added her own noises to the din, dropping the old bucket to the ground with a gentle clatter. With the approaching noise... it seemed she had been detected.

Feisty, proud, cocky... It all screamed of the tan wolf's youth, both physically and mentally. Nettle cocked her head, her maw parting into a harsh and toothy grin. More than that, the way he carried his body in such a lifted manner and the air of self-importance that surrounded him could leave little question to his rank.

She showed no sign of intimidation as the juvenile circled her. She gave him an ear as he questioned, but otherwise stood her ground.

"I listened to my feet, Prince ." She answered in a cryptic hiss. It was difficult to tell if the emphasis on the young one's title held sarcasm, or any purpose at all. It probably didn't, though the heir's ego coupled with teenage insecurities might just have doomed it to being considered mockery.
"Perhaps they are under the impression that you are in need of a healer?"

[Carter]

The Prince bristled, while he certainly didn't like the female in the slightest, he found himself curious about her. He allowed his gums to fall over his beared fangs and sniffed. Head held high, tail perked. Though a bit missing of the insult intended (or not intended) Carter seemed pleased that this stranger acknowledged his rank and breeding- which gave the youth a smug smile.

"I am under no such impression that we need one...the weak get destroyed, and the pack is stronger for it." Like a young propaganda machine, he parroted his mother's words as pretty as he pleased. "But..."

Carter glanced around with a guarded look, as though wondering if there was something listening in on their conversation. "...thats not to say we couldn't have one." The Prince was testing his boundries and over stepping his learning, his mother, she would not have such a thing, and he did not know what his father would say. But Carter, his mind went racing with the potental qualities that having healer in their ranks may give.

"Tell me...more." His ears perked up some, who was he kidding? There was no one around that would detect his rebellious tendancies...there had been no one around in weeks. A Prince like himself, he thought, should be able to make decisions independantly of his parents, his Alphas, if they were not here to make them. Besides, he had sound judgement.

Right?

[Bandersnatch]

"The weak get destroyed, and the pack is stronger for it."

It sounded like a pack mantra, repeated so often that it had created a permanent scar on the youth’s mind. The teen seemed hardly the type to follow every law, every little lore, to the tee - though history of mutiny and one-up-manship had proved appearances were oft important. It was thusly, then, that it was hardly surprising when Sallin’s heir indulged himself in a little scheming.

"...thats not to say we couldn't have one."

Chuckled lightly, dark grin still firmly in place. “The daft and the sickly come swiftly to death, make no mistake about it.” Nettle’s knotted tail swung in slow rhythm behind her. Her voice was low, holding little emotion or care, the words almost melting into each other to create a soft hiss. “The Great Mother takes their wasted bodies and turns them into something more… productive.” No, that was not something she would prevent – if indeed it was preventable. It was not her place to interrupt the flow of nature. She did not cheat death.

“Tell me… more.”

“What of your warriors, young one? Who should reign victorious in battle – those whose health does not fail them, or those still weak from prior bickers?”
Though she spoke the words, such matters did not interest her - but she did what she did, though none knew if it was out of habit or a sense of purpose. It certainly was not loyalty.
“Death has no plug, but to make the strong stronger…”

[Carter]

Carter cocked his head pondering all of this soundly, trying to judge things like he had seen his mother do a hundred times over, but it made his head hurt, and he didn't like always being like his mother so much. The prince grumbled, and shook his head, trying to make sense of Nettle's confounding 'Great Mother'...he understood the dead decayed, but he couldn't wrap his mind about the earth around him being a person. So it was quickly forgotten.

"Well I don't know about...great mothers, and rotten wolves or anything like that...." he hummmed, a dug his claws into the earth, "But, I do understand what you're saying...you could keep the pack healthy enough, strong enough to take care of itself when other packs couldn't." Carter beamed, he wasn't a dumb wolf, just young and sheltered, still learning, still new to scheming. But he didn't think he was doing so bad at his first try, after all even his mother had to start -somewhere-.

And this opened up a new possibility to him, how often he was afraid when he would split his hide that he wouldn't be able to fight again, to take over the legacy that was his to domineer after his parents death, a cheeky proud smile passed over his muzzle. This healer could be his key to being a greater Alpha than either of his parents...wiser, and more powerful.

[Bandersnatch]

((I’m so sorry Squeeji D: laziness and business have prevailed. Hope you’re having a Merry Christmas))

Nettle’s face had retuned again to blankness. It proved difficult for many to pinpoint such moments of change for despite how different her wicked grin was physically, either expression held the same feel of something not quite right to them. Neither expression, when it came to it, was faithful to her own thoughts. Her expression and unusual air appeared to go little noticed by the young male, however, who seemed to be much lost in his own little world of thought.

"Well I don't know about...great mothers, and rotten wolves or anything like that...." He spoke. She gave a short burst of sblack personing which mingled with a snort. Earth Mother… she had come to give this personification of the world such a name many moons ago. Everything was connected, living - but it was uncertain if she ever believed that nature was truly a being. With the slow degradation of her mind that built up with the plant toxins in her system it was entirely possible.
“...you could keep the pack healthy enough, strong enough to take care of itself when other packs couldn't."
Nettle rewarded the young wolf’s understanding with a single nod. It was a certain edge that she offered in exchange for her board. “Indeed.” She hissed with enticing mystery. By the scheming grin on his face, it seemed the outcome would be positive for the both of them, but the next step was entirely up to the young prince.