WELCOME TO SM

The wolf hummed a rhythmical tune he had once heard a bird sing. Of course, it sounded much lovelier in the soft musical sounds from its beak rather than the coarse male voice. Regardless today was a day to be enjoyed. And he hummed on.

His coat left thick patches of fur everywhere, his fine slick summer coat was shining through nicely. During the winter months he had always puffed up with extra fur - perhaps being raised in such a cold climate all his life. Or the genes in which ran in his bloodlines. Every year it was to be expected, and you could always find him easily during the last winter months and during the spring, by following clumps of fur around the woods. Although it was irritating to him to be so easily scouted out, he had learned very quickly to rub against the rough surfaces of anything he could find. He would shed that much quicker and the problem would soon be over.

Shaking his last bit of shagged fur from his pelt, Torrent cleaned up nicely grooming his chest and shoulders. Carefully laying back any misplaced hair and spitting out what leftover winter coat clung to his tongue.

An hour longer and the wolf had managed to travel quite a few miles to distance himself from the northern unclaimed lands to a little wedged area that to be the Crimson Valley - his pack. Or soon to be. There was no way this place could afford to turn down such a prize as himself. Or so he would like to think. Without a moments hesitation he threw his head back howling with confidence.

As he waited he pondered many things about Crimson Valley. What of its alphas? How many where there here. Who was placed in what rank. Where there pups to prove next year a stable generation? He had no idea that he would be disappointed to the fact that it was much smaller than what he had initially thought.

The lazy spring day plodded on, Felthenine was resting, after restless days and sleepless nights she had finally caught her sleep, her chest rose and fell rhythmically as the aging female slept. Ear flicking lazily at a fly a single eye was pulled open, ear turning, listening, something had woken her. A lone, distant howl, she huffed, tired eyes squeezing shut for a moment before she hauled her aching body up from the rock. Cursing her restless mind and the very bad timing of this newcomer, but her duty was to the pack and it’s well fair.
After a long stretch she set off toward the sound of the new howler, it wasn’t long before she caught the scent, it was a male, no doubt arrogant judging by the confidence of his howl. She approached with no attempt to conceal herself, openly looking him up and down with a scrutinising air. Silently she walked round him once not a bad specimen, fairly big and fierce looking, breath not so great making her wrinkle her nose, but she had no idea about her breath as she had spent her entire life smelling it anyway it had faded into the background.
“Well, loner, you have called and I have come, I am Felthenine, alpha female of this place, what makes you so confident that you will be welcome at my boarders with out good demonstration of your right to confidence?” She smirked “arrogance in moderation is acceptable, providing there is evidence to justify, what are your claims to experiance?”

OOC: going to take a while to get back into this!

How dee-lic-ous. Her crisp words of cut throat to the point. He could get used to this place. However he almost cringed at her rather loose term of loner. It warped him right back to reality and the reason why he was here in the first place. This was going to take some getting used to - on second thought. "My name is Torrent." He forced it out roughly, withholding any grudging feelings that he normally would have liked to spit out. Being referred to as 'loner' felt demeaning to him. "Confidence is only worn through experience, I think I may have necessary skills to provide the pack." Dipping his head, his green eyes vanished beneath black lids before lifting again he quickly resumed, "I have only come to serve and give full loyalty to Crimson Valley." Not that he was worried, but it didn't take much skill to be loyal did it?

Torrent didn't bother going on and on about himself or his past experiences as a leader - anyone could do that. Instead, he would wait for this female to deem him worthy enough to fit in the ranks and only then would he give good evidence of his skills and commitment to the pack. He was also very confident that he had chosen the right pack for himself. Small, but small was good. That would be less work on his behalf - and he could easily fit right in.

This post has been edited by Torrent on Feb 28 2010, 08:23 PM

Felthenine’s fiery eyes observed everything the male did, she felt there was a lot more to this male than he was letting on, but then loners were always so very vague about themselves. Rolling her shoulders back with a click she growled softly as they settled rather painfully back into a comfortable position, she was far too pent up, she needed a vacation, but that wouldn’t come any time soon if she was going to for fill her obligation to the pack and return it to former glories long passed.
“I can assume that is exactly what you have as soon as you arrive at my boarder, Torrent, it is rare that I find anyone of notable merit on first meeting.” She cocked her head slightly, as if observing him from a new angle would give her deeper insight into the mind of the new comer. “As you are to be as vague as the rest, I will have no choice but to watch you and observe you as a member of the pack, I am not fussy, to say the least. But as you say would be loyal to the pack, that is enough, I hold you on your honour.” There were slight concerns for her, she was aging quite a bit, no doubt any loner could easily see she was not as she use to be in her youth, Felth however was still never to be trifled with, her years of experience and although her body was indeed waning from it’s former power, it was still formidable and there was still plenty of life in it yet. “Be loyal to me and the pack and you will get far, Torrent, but for now you will be but a simple member of the pack. I will watch you for a while and perhaps I will see fit to grant you a higher rank if you should seek it.”

Felthenine then paused, about to give him right of passage into the land, but, she was lacking in conversation as of late, her mind was too full of difficult choices and mundane requirements, she needed some social time and it would let her into the newcomers mind a little more. “Tell me, Torrent, where did you come from, it has been long since I travelled to these lands or even explored the land beyond my own door step, what have you encountered on your journeys from your home?”

A higher rank was exactly what he would be aiming for and it was comforting to know that it would be easier to acquire giving the circumstances of such a small numbered pack. By the scent he guessed no more that four. However, even he was not to proud to admit the count was off - it was a simple guess.

Keen eyes caught her brief pause - as if remembering something or perhaps forgetting something. She stopped staying a little longer, wondering what the lands where like beyond her own territory. An unusual question maybe the pack was less numbered than he had originally assumed. That was the scouts job, reporting all business to higher ranked. There was one small fact that really irked him about this place. That small little fact was that the pack was ran by a female. Either her mate was lazy and stupid - or she was it. The alpha. Torrent was not one to automatically judge by a simple gaze. He did wait for some reference to come from this female mouth and his judging started by her words. She seemed decent. And that was all he would allow himself to think about her. Not air headed or self centered it was a surprise - for once.

"Certainly nothing of interest to you, Felthenine. The word is a bleak and predictable place." The question was an interesting one to him - the least he would have expected her to ask. "..Or so it would seem." He quickly picked up. "Perhaps it was just my homeland that was bleak and predictable. Here there seems to be much trouble in the southern lands. All these wolves running around in the unclaimed with no home." - how sad. He could have yawned. He could have cared less. "I am not accustomed to so many packs in one area. In my homelands they where few and far between."

A laugh threatened to burst forth as her feeble idea that conversation would let her more into this loners mind was, almost as expectedly, dashed against the rocks. She smiled instead, holding back the exasperated mirth. New pack members were always so difficult to judge, they never made it any easier either.
“I see, well, here, there is rarely a year that goes by where something life changing for all of the packs occurs… clearly you have not heard the rumours of what has taken place recently. There is a war on the horizon… again, this is the second time. The first time was when a rank of warriors existed, I was the lead warrior back then, we lost, that time, but this time things will be different, have no pups to be blackmailed with, for a start.” With a snorted in dark mirth, no young and she doubted she would have any soon, she was getting older, nobody would look at her now her muzzle had silver hairs amongst the cream of her lower jaw and if nobody had wanted her before now, excluding one of course, but that had gone nowhere in the end and she doubted she would snag anyone’s interest these days.
She smiled a weary smile, her life had been bloody from beginning to now, no doubt her last moments would be in fierce battle and someone would eventually tear her throat from her… the idea was not so abhorrent as it once use to be. Better to die in battle, than die of old age, at least then she would have died doing something that could be thought of proudly and that there would still be those that would remember her name.

“All those loners you’ve seen are probably a pack that was forced from their home, we only go to this war to ensure that this pack and the other, silver mountain, do not succumb to a similar fate.” She scowled a little, ever since the humans had come around, things had become very lean in the way of numbers in each pack, this was slightly concerning as she had a feeling that this new pack was huge, she had scouted out around the once outland pack boarders and smelled many wolves, some with young… perhaps a tactic similar to that of the first war could be used. Her bright eyes lead a slightly cruel smile as her plotting mind went off on its own tangent.

Snapping back to reality she cleared the malevolent look off her face and smiled normally.
“Ahh, this old she wolf has kept you too long.” She laughed slightly, old, but could still tear the back leg off a healthy deer if it gave her the chance with out kicking her teeth out first… and she if worked at it a lot.
“Welcome, Torrent, enjoy the prey in this area, it’s plentiful, our numbers are thin so the numbers of that which we eat have truly bloomed.” She first along his left, then up his right as she accepted him into the pack and covered him with her scent so he was no longer a loner, but a member of her pack, not to be attacked for trespassing.