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 Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 10:17 pm
 They haven't even made it quite to the Northern borders yet. Perhaps it was Bitterleaf's certainty that this crop of newcomers--two bucks and a doe--were unable to make the cut that had compelled her to select Stolen Skin to lead the patrol. Then again, perhaps she'd felt the focus would do the flighty doe some good: Skin was notorious for coming under the wrath of the Matriarch for occasionally forgetting her duties in favor of long swims or meandering walks, and certainly a patrol would instill a measure of discipline. Especially now. The first buck had dropped off three days ago, too footsore to continue even at Skin's moderate pace; the doe, yesterday, so hungry that Skin had taken pity on her and caught her a rabbit as a going-away gift, although Bitterleaf would have given her hell if she'd known. And now the last buck, a Kiokote she'd thought certain would make it at least to the halfway mark, is behind her, and she knows instinctively that he will not catch up: that he will lie down defeated and sleep it off for a day and vow never again to try and compete with those maniacs on the beach. The doe--compact and round and pleasing to the eye, with a spotted pelt flung over her shoulder--turns on a rocky outcropping and shouts into the tangle of brush where she'd lost her last companion. "Good riddance!" she yells. "Now I have to do this by myself with no one to even talk to. Goddammit! And double time too, since I'm coming back alone. I hope you're satisfied! And I'm not helping you, so catch your own damn rabbit!"
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Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 11:36 am
 The shouting of a doe startles him from his half-slumber. He had been dreaming again, though not the familiar wolf dream of his naming, all swift-running feet and the sharp taste of blood in his mouth as he brought down his prey. No, this dream was new, different -- just the kind he had come to the sea in search of; the rush of the tide around him, buoying him to the surface where his noseflaps puffed open with a spray of moisture, his flippers spinning his sleek body in a playful roll atop the waves... He stood, a shiver running in a ripple down his body as the dream left him. The voice that had woken him was still shouting, so he headed toward the sound. The ragged scrap of a tree he had been sleeping under disappeared as he climbed over a ridge of dune to the rocky shore and stood, blinking, at the doe. He looked around, searching for whoever she was shouting at to no avail. Shaking his mane, he spoke: "Who are you talking to?" His voice was rather high-pitched for a full grown buck, airy and innocent sounding. A slight grin twitched at the corner of his mouth, a hint of playfulness. "I can catch my own rabbits."
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Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 12:13 pm
She jumps--she must have thought she was alone--and wheels like a creature that's ready to fight, but almost instantly relaxes. She peers at him for a long moment before answering, and when she finally speaks it's with a sort of ominous satisfaction. "I've lost my traveling companions," she says. "So now I've got a long hard walk in front of me by myself. Because they couldn't keep up!" she adds, this in another frustrated shout into the wilderness.
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Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 2:10 pm
If he is surprised at her fight response, he doesn't show it, his only movement a slow, languid twitch of his thick tail. "Maybe you shouldn't travel so quickly, then, if you don't want to lose your companions," he replies in the same child-like tone, his ears twitching backwards slightly as she shouts. He tilts his head. "Or pick better companions."
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Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 6:30 pm
"I can't travel slowly, Bitterleaf will have my head. And I can't pick--" she draws up short. Firstly, he has no idea who Bitterleaf is, probably (and only probably--some news does travel far); secondly, she realizes she's about to tell a good-looking and at least somewhat-friendly buck that she has no say in who she takes a walk with. Near miss! "I have to touch the North border and run back," she says, after a pause. "Can you hike as well as you can catch a rabbit?"
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Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 11:07 am
He tilts his head, a few locks of his hair falling in front of his eyes. "Bitterleaf?" he murmurs, but doesn't ask further, flicking his head to clear the hair from his face. At her question, the buck straightens, taking a stance that he clearly hopes to show his strength, such as it is. He isn't robust, by any means, but there is a wiry sort of muscle that can be seen under his skin when he moves. It is not the kind of brute strength that could win a fight, perhaps, but there is a certain stamina there, a lean, wandering type of endurance. "I can," he states simply. "Are you looking for replacement company?" There is a slight wryness in his voice at the last, a gleam of amusement in his eye.
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Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 6:03 pm
"You'll do in a pinch," she says airily. "If you can keep up, that is." And she's already setting off again, and she's got the same faint whiff of hardiness to her, a certain pendulum swing of her hooves that comes from habitual long walking. "What's your name, then? So I can yell at you properly if you're as laggy as the last batch, I mean."
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 8:34 pm
Rejam Not sure if you're around again RN, but I had totally forgotten about this too. You still wanna do the breeding? "I can keep up," he replies, sounding almost like a child determined to prove himself. "Wolf Dream," he adds, in answer to her question as he trots after her, his long tail extended and helping him keep his balance on the crumbling shale at the ocean's edge. How she manages with no tail at all is beyond him. "What's yours? So I know who to avoid if I embarrass myself," he quips, teasing.
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