Dangerous Explorations {Private-Akree}

[nightblood]

The trees in this part of Arnlan cried out in silent agony. Their attacker, a yearling wolf with blood burning in her eyes. This was Zuka's own personal training ground. These trees were the recipients of a thousand attacks at a thousand different angles in a thousand different styles, each one cutting deeper into their bark.

Within this hollow, the brown female had tired herself to a stand still. She stood on trembling legs, surrounded by the dark, wounded trees of Arnlan. She hadn't trained this hard in a long time. Her muscles were sore and worn, but she knew they were growing. Only a few more months and she would be an adult. Killing real enemies would be a lot easier.

As much as it hurt her, she looked over her shoulder at her own pelt. It was fairly dirty, but otherwise it gleamed from being well fed. In addition to being a perfectly built fighter, she was also a good hunter. With the diminished army of Sallin, more prey escaping into Arnlan territory. Mortil had done well during his little escapade.

Under the fur and skin were her thickening muscles. Every day, they were being broken down by her training and being built back up when she slept. Bit by bit, they were growing. She knew she was training as hard as her mother had at her age. She would be as toned as she had been one day. This thought brought a smile to her face.

Finally, she let her legs fold under her. This was as good of place as any to take a nap. She was no longer small enough for a hawk or eagle to carry off. Indeed, she was going through a bit of a growth spurt. Soon nothing would be a match for her save the biggest of beasts.

[Akree]

I sighed glumly, deep blue eyes over looking a small empty clearing. I watched the grass poke through the grounds and the trees sway in the gentle breeze. How easy would it be if things could simply stay like that forevermore, nothing to do but watch the territory, hunting rabbits and moose, deer and squirrels all day long? My paws dangled over the edge of the fallen tree I had chosen as my thinking place for the time. It had been a thick tree with branches scratching the sky, bright green leaves gleaming in the sunlight. But it had gotten sick and one by one its leaves were stripped from its thick branches, then those thick branches had fallen to the ground as the tree could not support their dead weight and soon the illness had overtook all the tree and it had completely fallen down, taking a few sprouts, saplings and young adult trees with it, its death had caused the destruction of other trees. But now sunlight filtered through the younger trees and grass was now beginning to poke through the otherwise dry ground and other trees were bathing in the new light.

I still had no idea what happened that day, except what I already suspected, Mortil had marched into Sallin and slaughtered quite the number of their wolves, in the end he got wounded, but how much time did he have is what I wanted to know. But of course that didn’t matter now, what mattered was the fact that Sallin had lost some quantity of fighters, how many wolves would be left? Is what I wondered and the thought kept nagging at me like some ticks on a mutt. I shoved it back, clawed and snapped for the thought to hide, but when I turned around it popped back up like a game of whack-a-mole. I detested it and I would just sigh glumly. I needed to know Sallin’s numbers to be able to think correctly, I would feel more comfortable if I could plan out some kind of strategy, even though it was clearly unneeded, there were plenty of wolves capable of working themselves, that’s for sure. I was simply trying to make myself a bit more useful, but that encounter with Delerath in the clearing left me thinking. Maybe I did do better to shut up and listen to what I told. No one asked for my opinion, maybe all my thoughts were completely useless and just caused trouble for the others. My input in such things was completely unnecessary, I wasn’t the best of fighters so I should keep out of the way, it was that simple. I should just nod and wag my tail when told to. That way I didn’t get anyone upset.

I sighed and rolled on my back, my eyes now looking at the gray sky. One claw reached for a cloud, hoping in some way I could maybe move it from place, let me see the whole blue bowl of a sky instead of standing there, unneeded. So utterly and completely unneeded, it just stood there doing nothing to help the scene and just being a huge ugly disruption.

A disruption…

Was that what I was? A simply disruption and stone in the middle of everyone’s path? No one needed me, did they? I could talk, bark, snarl, howl and run all I wanted, but maybe I really wasn’t needed in this pack. When Mortil died Zuka, Sure’thim or Delerath would take his position lickity split and I saw no reason why they shouldn’t, they were of use to the pack and completely capable of dealing with their work. I on the other paw was doing absolutely nothing but causing bad feelings to rumble through my brother’s bellies. Delerath’s expression flashed before my eyes, his glare, the way his mouth was set. I closed my eyes and sighed, completely useless.

But maybe I could do something about it…

No, to dangerous. You weren’t an idiot Khenti you would have to take someone with you, you already agreed you weren’t the best fighter, take someone with you. Like who? Obviously it had to be a fighter, someone willing, but someone who would think logically. Someone who could force themselves to have patience and listen when completely needed, but wouldn’t doubt to bare their teeth and slash with claws when faced with an enemy. Someone like…

Zuka.

Then I found myself in all four paws and running full speed through the shadows of Arnlan towards the only place I knew my older sister could be. The training hollow, she would be there slashing at trees and practicing everything she had, I pictured of a twisted tree with red sap oozing from its wound flashed before my eyes and I think I savage grin crossed my thin black lips. Zuka was as best as it could get, she reminded me so much of mother, she could be patient –or pretend to be- when horribly needed, she could listen and she would know a good move when she saw or heard one. Most of all she would be willing. My paws scrambled for a stop as I reached the edge of the clearing that was were surely I saw my sister gnashing as trees. It was rather noisy and I was out of breath, tongue lolling out, trying to get enough oxygen to my lungs in how I entered the clearing.

“Zuka” I said “I’ve got an idea.” I could hear the excitement in my own voice as I uttered breathlessly those words, but of course running at full speed when you were quite far from your destination wasn’t an option, but you could say I was afraid that Zuka would leave and it would be such a drag to find her later. I ceased my light panting and shook my pelt, closing my mouth and meeting Zuka’s blood red gaze with my own deep blue eyes.

[nightblood]

“Zuka.”

In an instant, she was back on her feet. Her muscles growled in protest, but she simply growled back in response.

“I’ve got an idea.”

Now she recognized the voice. She turned to meet the blue eyes of her younger brother, Khenti. Zuka couldn't exactly be surprised. She expected all of Arnlan could hear her training in the hollow. The sound of snapping branches and falling bark wasn't something any decent hunter missed.

"What's up?" she asked, letting herself sit down to give her back muscles a break.

She managed to wag her tail in the presence of her sibling, but she still ached from beating up the random trees in the area. Whatever idea Khenti had, she hoped there was time to grab a drink of water from the stream.

{{*kicks muse* >.<}}

[Akree]

I could see the dirt that clung stubbornly to Zuka’s pelt; she looked tired, the way her stomach inflated as if to get enough air on her lungs. Looking around the trees in her training hollow, all were scarred with slashes of claws, red tree sap poured from one of them, bark and branches laid strewn on the ground, some bitten to shreds, other merely resting were they were. It was something that clearly indicated that Zuka was not only training herself, but she was obviously trying to harden her muscles. I found myself amazed at my sister’s dedication to such a cause, she really did want to be as strong as her attitude, of course to do that was almost impossible. Good thing she had a body big enough to fit in all that enthusiasm, not sure how anyone could handle that much nowadays. But I did notice something, her growl as I had mentioned her name, jeez, apparently my very noisy entrance hadn’t been warning enough, either way that mattered little.

She stood up, recognized me and sat down again; well that was Zuka for you. She looked exhausted and only managed to wag her tail in answer, I smiled as best I could and gave her a brotherly lick in her check before sitting down some two feet before her. Of course Zuka being Zuka, I should have known she wasn’t tired enough to not listen to her younger brother when she said: "What's up?" came the sound of her exhausted voice.

I turned to look down at my paws, thinking carefully how I would word my thoughts. It was going to be dangerous either way, we were much too soon to Mortil’s little invasion trick, if Nightshade was smart she would have send double the patrols their border to Arnlan, were my plan to work we had to be well within the territory, better yet it would be if we could somehow hide our scent. Mud would work best, but once it dried we would be stiff, if only we could cover ourselves with mud and find a stream within Sallin to wash it off, that would be better, we wouldn’t smell of Arnlan, although eventually the stench of Sallin would rub off on us, but it was nothing compared to the other dangers that may inhabit Sallin. Also, little lighting would work best, but during the night it would be to dark to distinguish the pelts of the wolves, a new moon was to dark, while therefore a full moon was much to light, we would have to make our move at just the break of dawn, just a few hours before it started to get to well lit for our little plan to work, better yet would be if we could come just before dawn because of the mist, we could make it inside Sallin during night and when we came back to Arnlan we would be under the cover of mist, that’s what I thought would be best, but even so we would need a better put up group. Zuka and I were not enough to stand a chance against the enemy inside his own turf, it would be best that if it came to an attack we just hit and run. But what would truly be best is if we circled and didn’t enter directly through the Sallin/Arnlan border, but that would take more than a measly hour or so, we would have to scale some territory. This was going to be difficult; if one of use messed up we would get caught in the very heart of Sallin, made war slaves. That wouldn’t do at all.

I bit my lip, thinking hard before deciding I could just have Zuka’s input into it, she would try to clear out all blanks before we moved. At least, I hope she did.

“I was thinking that since Mortil’s little… plan Sallin’s number would have decreased, but we still have no idea how much more would their army have…” I sneaked a peek at Zuka to see if she was following along “Before we can properly make any plan of invasion, or defense for that matter, we have to find out their numbers, it would bode well if they were few, but what if they were more than we expected?”

[/b]I paused to look around the training hollow before continuing “What I want is to stop any unwanted surprises at the last minute, I was thinking that we could sneak inside their border and hopefully find anything useful to aid us, of course we would have limited time… if we didn’t find anything we would have to get back to Arnlan with our paws empty.” The very though seemed depressing, to waste such effort for nothing, but what I hoped was that Nightshade was getting confident, so far no one had been able to dethrone her, so she would be confident and wouldn’t set the necessary cautions, of course since Mortil’s useless little trip she would have send more patrols, she would be more catious, my teeth ground themselves together at the thought, Mortil was an idiot for trying such a useless move in the first place. Of course there was fewer of their army, but what if there were dozens more? We lost one of our very best warrior because of his stupidity, I hoped he rot in hell, he might have just caused Arnlan its last chance to dethrone that hag witch and rid itself of a horrible back ache. He acted like a rabid dog, idiot. “But what I hope is to find how many of their numbers are there, I am obviously not…” I wanted to say as stupid as Mortil but I bit my tongue, “rash, I am definitely not the best warrior here and a solo mission would be my ruin, what I was hoping that you might be able to help me, Zuka.”[/blockquote]