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 Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 2:49 pm
|| Changed it. n_n ||
HailWing stopped instinctively when Stardust spoke, interpreting what she'd said as a hint to stop and introduce herself to WoodWhisp. She disliked him already. He never bothered with learning about the other wolves in the pack? In that case, he was a slacker. He'd probably advance anyway, due plainly to his size. HailWing didn't have that luxury and as such, would probably be stuck as a Gamma for the rest of her life. She got used to this fact a long time ago, though. Some wolves just had to stay submissive. If they didn't, who else would the Alphas and Betas boss around? "Salutations, Alpha."
HailWing's posture was still low. It was easy to do everything this way. 'Lower your posture, speak with respect, do as you're told. No ambition and no trouble.' "And to you, WoodWhisp." Her tone was flat, almost bored. 'Go through the motions, even if you don't like it. No confrontations.' She faked a smile. "It is a pleasure."
Abigail smiled proudly at both of the girls, acknowledging Calla's greeting and staying to chat for a bit. "Thank you kindly, Lieutenant. Spectacular advice. Ah'll try it as soon as ah can!" Her posture was a shadow of the prim and proper way most would stand at attention, but Riya didn't say anything, so she just assumed it was correct. "You can call me Abby, bah th'way," She added off-handedly to Calla.
Abigail looked around curiously, eyeing the cart with particular interest. "Didn't do that by yerself, didja?" She asked Calla worriedly. "Ah thought the Preggers* weren't s'posed to do heavy lifting..?" 'Wait, I wasn't s'posed to know that, was I?' Abigail quickly amended. "That is, ah can help ya if ya want. Ah'm pret-ty strong if ah do say so mahself." She lifted one arm up to eye level, held at a perfect 90 degree angle, and flexed to illustrate. A thought came to her again about keeping up formalities and she stood horribly at attention again.
|| *Pregnant women in Abigail-talk. xP ||
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Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 3:08 pm
Calla relaxed at the change of conversation. With any luck she’d be able to repair her relationship with her Lieutenant quickly before it could settle.
“Shooting rats eh?” Calla thought about it. She’d been hunting on WoodWhisp, practice for both of them, but she had never thought to go after something so small, “I’ll have to try that next time I can’t find Alister.” She chuckled, even before the transfer Calla had taken money out of her paycheck to help pay for various damages around the fort. So what if she’d left most of it to Alister, usually it was his fault anyway. And it was his fort, why should she have to pay for it?
Calla froze mid-thoughts as Abigail continued to speak. Great, so it had already gotten out to the general public. Well wonderful, that would ease up on the lies and awkward explanations.
“You needn’t be so bitter about it.”
'Shove it you, don’t you have an Alpha to be submissive to?' Calla snapped back, shooting him a glare. It then dawned on her that Abigail was still speaking and common courtesy demanded she pay attention. Calla turned back towards the girl as she made a sloppy attempt to stand at attention. Calla chuckled under her breath. It almost reminded her of when she was an apprentice, after she escaped Adrian all the proper mannerisms had escaped her, which quickly got her in trouble with her Patron. Maybe it was true, maybe White Shadow was indeed easier than New Eve. Which led to the question, why did New Eve outnumber White Shadow so much?
“Thanks Abby.” Calla said, nodding to the girl, “I called on a few favors to get it all in there. But don’t count me out just yet.” Calla snorted, she wasn’t going out without a fight that was for sure. She was still rather in denial of just how tedious these nine months were going to be.
WoodWhisp nodded to HailWing, even though he knew he should probably wait for Stardust to acknowledge her first. Ah well, a wolf was a wolf, no matter how you looked at it. He could say hello to who he pleased, they were the same rank after all. Then again he didn’t know all of Stardust’s buttons yet, he had already nearly angered her once today.
“A pleasure as well HailWing,” He returned, smiling, he’d made one bad impression already, he really didn’t need to go and make another one, “Glad to meet another Packmate.” His tone was light, with luck he could at least be on friendly terms with the other wolves, more than he had ever been able to say about New Eve.
“Hmmmm, rats?” WoodWhisp thought about it, “I showed Lunar how to catch a mouse the other day.” WoodWhisp nodded, figuring that was close enough.
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SilverStarrSapphire Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 6:36 pm
Riya had to tilt her head in Abigail's direction only because she had always had a hard time understanding the woman's accent. From her history lessons, she knew it was some type of 'southern' accent of those that had lived in the southern parts of some country or other. But beyond that, she really had no interest in history or even geography. All they needed to know was in which direction the centipedes came from, and the general geography of their territory to formulate better plans. History was for the City scholars - and Shizuka's hobby.
"I've heard that pregnant women can be scary strong," and scary, period, Riya thought as she cast a wary glance at Calla. She'd see the effects of hormones on women, though she'd heard that in the past, women went through cycles every month that turned them into she-demons. Riya was glad that they didn't have to go through any of that in this day and age. But the few pregnant women she did encounter, she was very careful to avoid them or at least run away when they looked as if they were going to explode. And then some men claimed that women were scary at all times - well, she wouldn't argue against that one.
"Poor Alister," she added off-handedly, completely imagining a scene of the man running away as a bellied Calla waddled after him as she waved a gun about. Riya chuckled softly. "Even more unfortunate for him that your barracks are right next to each other."
Starudst flickered her ears at HailWing briefly, before settling her attention back on the path and listening to the wolves converse.
And humans say that only cats can catch mice, she responded with a playful snap of the air. Stardust had never actually tried to catch a mice because they were too small and a waste of her time - and they had little to no meat on them to satisfy her hunger. Rats were better, but bunnies were best. So soft and cuddly, they made the best prey, and she loved to watch the apprentices squirm as she chomped on rabbit legs in front of them.
Maybe we should allow them to bring some cats in here so we can practice hunting a different type of prey... Stardust contemplated, eyes sparkling evilly. What did a cat taste like?
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Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:45 pm
"More power to ya, Calla. If I was preggo, I'd prob'ly jus' beat the manure outta whoever did it ta me." As rare as pregnancy was, it seemed like it should be a great honor for it to happen. Abigail assumed most wouldn't like it, though. They became wolf riders to kick the centipedes around. Wouldn't it be a bummer if they had to avoid it for several months? "And then ah'd be a-okay."
Abigail covered her mouth and let out a gigantic yawn. It had been said that yawning wasn't a result of being tired, but rather an inadequate amount of oxygen getting to one's brain. Given that fact, it wasn't surprising that Abigail should yawn a lot. "Looks like you already do that, though." she said, recalling Calla's comment about Alister. After moving her hand down, she continued. "Whadda 'bout you, Lieutenant? "
HailWing smiled. 'I hate you, just so you know.' "The feeling is mutual. Although I imagine Twilight will tell you everything you need to know, I will always be here if the new fort ever seems daunting." Her voice was calm and friendly. 'I hope all you overly priveleged, lazy wolves rot!' Her expression was pleasant still, even after Abigail's beautifully rendered display of stupidity. 'If I spoke to StarDust like that, I would be lucky to still be breathing.' She exhaled deeply through her nose. It wouldn't do any good to get worked up in front of an Alpha.
HailWing winced at the idea of eating cats. Needless to say, the idea of actually consuming a cat was disgusting to her. Sure, she could kill them, but eating them? On the off chance that HailWing ever caught one, she'd probably bury it somewhere rather than eat it. She wasn't about to tell StarDust, though. "Appetizing idea, Alpha. I hope you go through with it."
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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 4:37 pm
“Trust me,” Calla smiled but her tone bordered on dangerous, “We’ve already had a little chat. Which reminds me Lieutenant, what do I owe for damages to that man’s* barracks?” Calla asked, voice returning to normal as she searched through her pockets for her wallet. She had her last paycheck from New Eve on her, she just hoped that would be enough cover the expenses. She supposed she could cover this one, it had mostly been her fault, she had fired first. So long as she fired first she would pay for the damages. And anyway, all the better to make a good first impression on her new Superior’s. Responsible and prepared for consequences, over all a good addition to White Shadow if one got past her current condition.
“Ahh, thank you.” She nodded cheerfully to Riya at the news that their Barracks were so very close together, “That will make tracking him down infinitely easier.” Again her tone was light and playful, but her hands trailed down to pat Simile and Metaphor hanging from her legs. She had always preferred the leg holsters to regular belt holsters for her little babies, easier to get to in a tight spot, hung just at hands reach. Ah yes, Alister had been on the wrong end of the engraved guns on multiple occasions, and doubtless many more to come.
“Cats eh?” WoodWhisp contemplated the idea of chasing down the terrified felines, “I just might have to take you up on that offer Stardust.” He nodded, he would have to try one at least if they actually brought cats here. That is if the cat’s didn’t scatter at first site of the wolves. Felines were always big and pompous until you showed them something bigger than them. That reduced them to nothing but a whimpering mass of fur.
WoodWhisp gazed at HailWing. There was something about this wolf nagging at the back of his head.
‘Are you getting anything from her?’ WoodWhisp glanced over at his Rider briefly before turning back to his path.
‘Sort of. You know wolves are harder to read than humans.’ Calla retorted without even looking in his direction. WoodWhisp snorted at her before properly returning his attention to his Alpha and HailWing.
||*Man = Generic Third Party Private||
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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:49 pm
Riya raised an eyebrow at Abigail, wondering if the woman was asking what she thought about pregnancy or whether or not she was pregnant. Surely there weren't rumors of that floating around? Or maybe her messing with Delamere the other day had people in the fort wondering if she had taken up a 'lover'. No doubt her personal affairs were of hot topic given her new rank in life - then again, this was such a small fort that everybody's affairs were of interest to everyone else.
"I hate kids," she repeated her previous statement calmly, without the tone of disgust that one would've accompanied with the words. Riya didn't have anything against kids in general since she realized they were for the good of humanity, but on a personal level, they were so annoying. But she also knew that some people loved the little monsters - which she couldn't understand for the life of her - and also tried to respect their decisions. As long as they never came near her, she had problems with them.
Turning to look at Calla, the Lieutenant had no idea what the other woman was talking about, though she suspected it had something to do with a fight or another. "Actually, we take any repair costs out of everyone's pay here. Even if you aren't responsible, a percentage of your salary goes to fixing any damages." A smirk accompanied Riya's warning look to the transfer. "I've discovered that people are less likely to do something when the threat of having everyone in the Fort hate you for the month is looming over your head. Even a high rank won't help you then." Unless you were Shizuka, but the woman was like God around here.
"By the way, if you plan on keeping your... child here," Riya began as she looked down at Calla's stomach, "it had better not interfere with daily affairs. Otherwise you will be forced to send it away to the City."
Or maybe babies, Stardust continued to contemplate as she loosely kept track of the humans' conversation. Like her human, the Alpha absolutely despised babies and children - anyone who was stupid enough to bring a crying, screaming, giggling, laughing, or annoying kid within her earshot would be running for their lives. Stardust didn't care how important the human young were, because this was her for and she was going to like it here. If that meant putting down a few pests, then so be it.
Stardust either did not notice or pretended not to care about HailWing's behavior - she knew the wolf was antisocial and it really didn't matter to her whether or not the wolves in her pack got along. So long as none of them crossed her openly and worked well enough during hunts, then she had no arguments. Their opinions were their own, and Stardust would only deal punishment when it affected the capabilities in battle.
Don't start any fights that will seriously injure another being, wolf or human, she suddenly warned WoodWhisp, the thoughtful mood turning serious as Stardust decided she should lay out the rules for their new member. The Alpha issued a low growl as she glanced over at the male, We do not tolerate any ill effects on our ability to battle.
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SilverStarrSapphire Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 1:14 pm
'Hail, you need ta lighten up. Ya look tenser'n a long-tailed cat in a room full o' rockin' chairs.' Abigail knew her wolf well, well enough in fact that the facade hadn't fooled her. It must not have fooled the wolves either. Abigail generally had a high opinion of any given wolf's perception, HailWing's in particular. She'd saved her booty a number of times after she had made silly mistakes in battle. Sometimes she wondered, with HailWing's opinion of humans being so low, why on Earth they even paired up with humans in the first place.
Abigail smiled nervously. She loved kids. She didn't ever want to be pregnant, but she just couldn't see a chubby little ankle-biter without wanting to run over and pinch their cheeks. They were adorable. It was a curious thing for someone so perverted to like kids so much. Funny and borderline creepy. She voiced as much to the others. "Ah'd kill whatever guy made me preggo, but ah actcu'ly like kiddies." She continued. "If ya ever need a baby-sitter in the winter, Calla, just talk ta me."
HailWing didn't show that she heard Abigail's thoughts. It was enough that she had to listen to the woman's babbling when they were alone. She didn't want to have to listen to it while speaking with other wolves, other wolves that had plainly seen through the act she was putting on. Seeing as how they knew, she didn't see why there was any reason to keep up the pretenses. It was actually quite liberating. That didn't mean she was suddenly going to disrespect Stardust, just that she wasn't going to try to be so 'pleasant' with WoodWhisp anymore.
"Forgive me, Alpha." She lowered her eyes. The snow was beginning to get less thick, she noted. Next month, it might be all gone. HailWing wouldn't even look at WoodWhisp anymore. He'd just completely ignored what she said, so she wouldn't pay any attention to him either. If he had wanted to make friends, he would have at least taken her up on her offer. That was fine with HailWing. Less work for her.
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Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:06 pm
Calla gave a have salute to Riya, nodding. “While I have every intention of keeping the child, I will not let it interfere with my duties.” Calla indeed have every intention of keeping this child. You would have to kill her before taking her child away. While she had never planned on this, never expected it to happen, she had already grown attached to the kid. She didn’t even know anything about it but already she was terrified about losing it. Shaking her head she smiled again, “Thank you very much for the offer Abigail. I just might take you up on that some time in the future.” Calla stretched out her arms to pop her shoulder blades and elbows with a loud crack. Shaking her head a bit she yawned, she still hadn’t been getting much sleep lately, despite WoodWhisp insisting that she needed to. Ah well, with any luck she’d be tired enough by tonight she’d be able to sleep. And Alister was within walking distance now, that would make things so much easier on her. Speaking of which, Calla turned around for a moment, to make sure her stuff was still there. The man had been quiet, too quiet, and she didn’t trust him. Come to think of it he hadn’t spoken much on the way here either. Most of her conversation had been with WoodWhisp giving her a run down on names and faces and wolves of White Shadow that Twilight had given him.
WoodWhisp grimaced. Cats he could do, and mice weren’t really that bad if you caught enough of them. But live children he couldn’t do. That was simply out of the question, Alpha or not. Granted it could be the horrified reaction he got from Calla running through his mind. Or that fact that in a way he was looking forward to this almost as much as Calla was. Maybe it would be something to get the two humans to stop fighting so he and Twilight could get some rest. Whatever it was he was glad for the change of subject.
He nodded as she went over the rules, the same basics as New Eve. At ten years he had already memorized the general rules, but he listened quietly out of respect for the Alpha. “You should be more worried about Calla with that.” He chuckled, “She rather has it out for Alister it seems.” He shook his head with a mild sigh. Just what was he going to do with that woman? He was sure he’d spend just as much time as Omega here has he had at New Eve. Ah well, he was resigned to such a fate.
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SilverStarrSapphire Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:30 pm
Riya raised an eyebrow as she glanced over at Calla at her response, noting how admant the woman was to keeping the child, as if giving it away was not an option at all. The Lieutenant had no problems with that as long as she did not have to see or hear about the baby on a daily basis. And as much as she appreciated Calla's promise that her duties would be followed through - even though the fact was not possible since she would be out of commission for a few months due to the pregnancy itself - that was not exactly what Riya had meant.
"I don't mean your duties," she corrected slowly, eyes narrowing as she studied Calla from the corner of her eyes. Riya then glanced at the Alpha wolf walking beside them. "If your kid happens to get in the way of a merciless wolf, its safety can't be guaranteed." Blue eyes turned on Calla as the Lieutenant continued in a grave tone, wanting to ensure that the woman understood all the consequences of allowing a child to run rampant in this fort. "Alphas aren't tolerant to misbehavior from the pups in their own pack, so don't think they'll be any kinder to a human child."
And Riya would also have the temptation to shoot any kids that came to bug her as well, but she decided to leave that out. For some odd reason, most people to not receive her avid dislike of kids very well, which she couldn't understand. Honestly, what was so appealing about the annoying things? All babies did were cry, throw up, cry some more, poop, cry and wake everyone up in the middle of the night, throw food all over the place... and kids were almost the same since all they did was eat too much, yell all the time, poop, complain all the time, throw things at people's head, run around and mess with everything... they were worse than the centipedes.
Stardust had no idea why HailWing was apologizing as her statements had been directed at the newcomer, so she simply shrugged it off without a thought. Instead, the Alpha glanced at WoodWhisp boredly as she responded haughtily, I do not concern myself with insignifcant human affairs.
The Alpha had a firm belief that humans were near useless if not for their ability to formulate fairly effective battle strategies and produce firearms. Aside from that, they held no interest for her and she didn't see the point of acknowledging them either. The few that deserved any recognition were the ones bonded to her fellow Alphas, but that was because a strong wolf would choose a strong human - so their humans were automatically worthy of her attention. Most of the time, anyways.
So tell me, WoodWhisp, she began, flicking her tail playfully as she dropped her tone to one more teasing but laced with just a hint of a threat that promised pain if he did not answer correctly, do you think the White Shadow wolves are better looking than the ones at New Eve?
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 5:52 pm
Abigail was enjoying the conversation, but glanced at the cart now and then with slight wonder. She was sure the Lieutenant had better things to do than stand talking to two privates about a subject that she plainly didn't much care for. Abigail assumed that they would try to get Calla to her new home as soon as possible. If she would have known Riya was so interested in small talk, she would have tried to make conversation with her more often. "Not to say Ah'm impatient er nuthin', but that thar cart's been sittin' there a maighty long time," She mentioned nonchalantly. "An' that driver don't look too keen on it neither. Hows about we get this show on the road?"
Abby paid close attention to what Riya and Calla were saying, taking special care to note what Riya said about the wolves. If she was ever going to babysit, that might be a problem. HailWing was unpleasant enough without children around. There was nothing to prevent her from taking a snap at one if it was bothering her. It didn't seem like Riya cared much about it, but there would be hell to pay with Calla. 'Oh, gee, Calla. Ya see... I got yer baby... He's jus' missin' a limb or two.' Chances were that wouldn't go over too well.
HailWing laughed mentally. This wolf had to be joking talking about his human with StarDust. Maybe he wasn't familiar with her, but come on! He didn't actually think other wolves would care about that, did he? The only others he knew were apparently Twilight and his pups, so that was somewhat understandable. Still, HailWing found it very funny. It was one of the few times she honestly felt like laughing. She would have to keep him around. Maybe he'd say something else stupid. That being said, her attention to WoodWhisp was renewed.
The reason she had apologized to StarDust earlier was that whatever aggression she had sensed from him was her fault in the first place. As friendly as it seemed he was trying to be, maybe he had a bad opinion of HailWing already. He certainly wouldn't think to spar with an Alpha. It hadn't occurred to her that it might be because of the act she was putting on. Whatever the case, HailWing wanted to get to the bottom of it. If he was already thinking about fighting, she wanted to know what she had done to deserve such foul treatment. So far as she knew, she had been nothing but nice to him. That was a bit hypocritical, wasn't it?
HailWing reprimanded herself. Maybe that WoodWhisp hadn't bothered to know the wolves in his pack was due to an anti-social personality rather than laziness. Or perhaps, it was just an oversight. After all, knowing all the wolves in both forts wouldn't help anyone's rank. Maybe it was that he didn't want to waste his time on useless things. Even HailWing could understand that much. For now, she reserved judgement. If he proved himself to be what her better judgement told her he wasn't, then WoodWhisp would be one of the few wolves in her good graces.
It was because of this decision that her pleasantry was more natural this time around. She paid attention to any amount of information she could get her paws on. That included things as irrelovent as fort gossip. HailWing knew a lot more than she let on about the pair that was arriving today, not to mention the conversation between the riders that she had been trying to prevent herself from listening to. If the two have been together long enough to conceive without Calla commiting murder, I find it hard to believe that her moving to the fort will have any impact at all on our ability to battle. HailWing didn't bother smiling again and instead kept a straight face. When dealing with HailWing, that was the best sincere look any wolf had gotten as of yet. At least it wasn't a scowl.
HailWing was surprised at the Alpha's question to say the least. It was out of the blue, so of course it would be surprising. Nothing StarDust had been saying was leading up to it. It was interesting how random thoughts like that popped up. She wouldn't be offended if WoodWhisp answered with a 'no', but she hoped for his sake that he didn't. HailWing never expected to mate. The opinion of a wolf that was already mated anyway was of no concequence to her. If he thought that she was unattractive, that didn't mean that every other prospective mate was of the same opinion. That, and whatever his answer would be would be an overall opinion of the females in White Shadow and not herself exclusively. His mate was in White Shadow, so his answer was guaranteed to be a 'yes'. Surely, if there were better looking females in New Eve, he would have mated with one of them rather than Twilight.
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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 3:20 pm
Calla nodded to Riya, “I understand Lieutenant, I had assumed that was a given.” She knew that while WoodWhisp and Twilight would most likely not harm the child, the same couldn’t be said for all wolves. She would have to be very careful about preparing her child for Fort life that she had already decided. And at the same time Calla couldn’t help but be slightly offended by Riya’s words, she realized this was probably not the best start to building a friendship of some sort with her superior, but she could at least have a bit more faith that Calla wouldn’t disturb Fort life more than she already did. And what disturbances she did cause were Alister’s fault anyway, he started it.
As Abigail spoke Calla glanced back towards the cart. “Nah, he always looks like that.” Calla whispered, loud enough for the two to hear but hopefully not loud enough for the man to hear it. If he did hear he gave no sign of such and Calla didn’t particularly care if he did hear or not. He hadn’t exactly been friendly or even minorly conversational on the way here. Had she trusted him with her stuff she would have simply rode here with WoodWhisp and waited for him to arrive, it certainly would have taken much less time.
WoodWhisp was slightly puzzled by Stardust’s position on the topic. Calla was like a sibling or a close friend to him, he didn’t know what he would do without her. He knew everything there was to know about her, and she knew everything about him. With a bond as strong as that tying two people together, how could you not be concerned about them? Or maybe it was just Calla Stardust didn’t care about, that would make sense to him. Maybe she did care for Riya, her own rider. But the way she said it, the way she phrased it, made it sound like she hated all of human kind, a concept WoodWhisp simply couldn’t understand.
“There have certainly been some very close calls.” WoodWhisp responded with a chuckle as HailWing’s statement pulled him out of his analysis of the Alpha. Indeed, she had come very close to killing him on more than one occasion, WoodWhisp has a bet running with himself on how long it would take for Alister to actually die. “And easier access makes it all that easier for her to kill him.” WoodWhisp pointed out a little too cheerfully. But what could he say, he wasn’t particularly fond of them anyway.
He had been about to say something else, of that he was sure, but when Stardust spoke up it completely through him off his stride. Any previous thoughts had been completely lost as she threw the unusual question at him. WoodWhisp thought about it briefly, he had never really paid attention to the females, or males for that matter, of New Eve.
“Well, I must say the Alpha’s are infinitely better looking,” WoodWhisp nodded, flicking his tail towards Stardust. And this was true, that he was sure of, Nightmare had always been overly ominous to him. “And the other females I’ve seen are certainly better looking as well.” With this he flicked his tail towards HailWing with a smile.
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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 5:37 pm
"Only stopped because you stopped," Riya responded to Abigail with a casual shrug, before continuing to walk through the first row of barracks. She had actually wanted to continue on their way even when Abigail joined them, but the other two women had paused to talk.
The Alpha here is the best looking, Stardust corrected haughtily as she rumbled pleasantly at WoodWhisp's clever answer - in face of such a narcissistic Alpha as her, he would've been stupid to have said anything else.
And what of the humans? Stardust inquired as she paced after Riya. The Alpha had a feeling that WoodWhisp was rather attached to his human as most wolves seemed to be, and suspected that he was quite friendly to all humans in general. She wasn't motherly or even affectionate by nature and never could see humans the way other wolves did. With Riya, their double bond made it seem as if they were two halves of a whole - the woman had always been a part of her mind for as long as she could remember. Stardust had long ago decided that Riya was not human, at least not completely, but that she possessed a wolf's heart and soul.
The Lieutenant glanced at Calla briefly, suspecting that the woman was probably not the happiest with all the talk about what to do and not to do regarding her baby. Not that Riya was blaming the older woman for becoming pregnant since the event itself was rare to begin with, but she was simply not ecstatic about having yet another child running around the fort. Babies weren't annoying as long as they were nowhere near the barracks, but with Alister possibly up for the promotion, the possibility that she would hear a wailing baby in the middle of the night had become impossibly high. Maybe if she accidentally slipped some rat poison in the baby's milk one day...
That is inappropriate behavior from a Lieutenant.
Riya snorted quietly, knowing the wolf would've done the same thing - or maybe come up with some excuse to step on the child. There were a few children in this fort that had a few scars from stepping too closely to Stardust, and the more mischievous (aka stupid) ones had permanent injuires that would impede them for the rest of their life. But that was their own fault for thinking they could get away from a wolf. Survival of the fittest.
"What are you planning to do in terms of childcare?" she asked curiously, though she assumed Calla would hire a caretaker like most wolfrider parents did. Finding good help was not difficult since there were a good number of people from the City who were simply waiting to land a job here in the forts.
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SilverStarrSapphire Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 11:17 pm
Abigail rubbed the back of her neck, laughing nervously. 'Whoops...' As was custom for Abigail, she quickly supplied an inadequate excuse. "Aw shucks, Lieutenant. Ah just wanted ta say Howdy." She hadn't intended to stay at first. In fact, she was just going to pass by. Then, in both an attempt to make friends with the newcomer and make an impression on the lieutenant, she roped herself into helping Calla unpack. Abigail didn't have any trouble with that. She didn't have anything else to do anyway. She'd already wasted half her day away in the training area beating a dead horse, so to speak. That activity would be a welcome change.
Abby followed Riya's path down the first row of barracks, attempting to make polite conversation with Calla along the way. Since she was moving here from New Eve, she must have left all her gal friends behind. If she had any at all, that was. "Ah'll be int'rested ta hear what New Eve is lahk. And f'ya ever have too much free tahm, just gi'me a holler n' we'll cause a ruckus in the trainin' area." She walked with her hands transitioning from being on her hips to behind her head and then crossed under her chest. It wasn't particularly difficult for her to walk with perfect posture and in step with her superior. She just wasn't very fond of it.
HailWing took the information and stored it for later use within the confines of Abigail's brain that even the woman didn't know about. Somewhere in there was a vast storage area of gossip, training procedures, pack formations, and many other tidbits of information ranging from completely useless to of the utmost importance. Abigail's head was mostly empty anyway, so it was a very convenient arrangement. Even if only little by little, HailWing was making the Private less stupid every day.
It is unlikely that anyone, a human especially, would kill the person they mated with, she insisted, The action brings no advantage to someone who will no doubt need extra attention in the coming months. Who did the human think would help her if she killed off her mate? Certainly not the other riders. Abigail seemed more than open to the idea, but she was one of few exceptions. The woman didn't have half a brain cell bumping around in her skull. She didn't know what a nuisance babies were, much less how to take care of them.
HailWing inched away from WoodWhisp indignantly. It was just like a male wolf who had already mated to dangle himself in front of a female who hadn't. It was as if he was trying to provoke some interest from her knowing that it would never be consumated. It had worked. She didn't know why he insisted on adding a comment about herself after his compliment to Stardust. He probably thought she'd like it. HailWing didn't blame him. If one based their idea of how to please a wolf on her apparently very vain sister, then the misconception was understandable.
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