Moonheart

Large prints were left in the ground of Moonheart's wake, a sure sign of just how large and powerful this young wolf set set to become. At a year and a half old, the buff-gray male was already over one-hundered pounds and decently muscled, and had room to add more bulk. And he intended to do just that. Life had been relatively peaceful for him and his small family, but Moon was aware of the feud between his dad and his sire's younger brother, and was eager for the day that they would reclaim their justice and pride from the thieves in the Aspen Grove.

To that end, Moonheart and his brothers had, to varying degrees, put effort into strengthening their bodies and honing their senses. Today, that training had Moonheart crossing the dune-rippled landscape of the Eskers, testing his endurance as he traveled mile after mile over the loamy, shifting soil.

Lepiota, Ataji, & Umbrik

"Hold up." Lepiota had been leading her nomadic pack through the lower dunes when a vaguely familiar scent halted her steps. Her half-pink nose twitched as she lowered her muzzle closer to the ground, where it hovered over a set of prints she'd just noticed. Her brown and white tail, which had been hanging loosely just moments earlier, now began to switch from side to side as she continued to analyze the owner of the prints, and finally pin why they were so familiar to her.

A dark, coal-black muzzle had hesitantly dropped beside her own as Ataji inched forward to examine the tracks beside his sister. His tail remained motionless behind him, even as he too recalled who the stranger in question was. Wordlessly, his bright yellow eyes shifted to meet Lepiota's, silently questioning what her next move was.

Lepiota stepped back and turned her attention to the directions of the other's tracks, putting a brief pause on answering her brother's querying expression. She didn't immediately see the lone male, but knew he couldn't be far off. For another moment or two, the alphess was silent as she worked on the thoughts that had built up in her mind, and once she had them properly organized, answered back with authority, "It's one of our cousins. One of Megs' boys."

"Should we.. greet him?" Umbrik piped up suggestively from the back of the group.

Lepiota's expression darkened, "The chance for a friendly greeting has already come and gone. They abandoned us just as our other uncle did." Ataji wasn't at all surprised by this, and neither was the briefly hopeful Umbrik. Lepiota's ire was frightfully ease to incur, and dreadfully hard to absolve. "Denver, I want you to bait him. We're going to go hunting."

Naiche & Denver

Once the dark fae heard who's tracks they had stumbled across, her tassel began to sway with excitement. She licked her lips, tongue flashing eagerly over black and white fur, "This is one of the runts of the two who spoiled our fun last year?" Naiche didn't have a concrete memory of Moonheart or his siblings, but she distinctly recalled the disappointment she'd felt at being denied a kill in this very area a year past. A hunt spoiled by the arrival of Megatron and Ta'kali.

A little less enthusiastic about the prospects, Denver nevertheless perked up and stepped forward at his alpha's request. The little Brittney spaniel knew his place in the pack, though more solid now than it had been in the past, rested on his ability to be useful to them somehow. And being bait was one of his better... 'skills'. "Where should I lead them?"

Moonheart

The patches of white above each eye shifted fainted as he narrowed his gaze and slowed his heavy steps. Something had caught his attention, something at the edge of his subconscious, and he couldn't quite figure out what it was. Had it been a distant sound brought to him by the winds? Or the way a flock of jays had suddenly pivoted in the sky above to investigate something of interest? Whatever it was, Moonheart listened to his gut and came to a stop to look around.

The adolescent raised his muzzle upward and tested the wind, and let his giant ears canvas the air for any new sounds. He didn't see or scent anything out of the ordinary, but he couldn't quite brush off the feeling that he was missing something.

Lepiota, Ataji, & Umbrik

Lepiota gave Naiche an affirming nod, "One and the same." A subtle darkness had taken her expression, one that her brothers knew well. They didn't need to ask their sister what her plans were next; this hunt would end in bloodshed, and one less child for Megatron and Ta'kali, unless their quarry was lucky enough to escape Lepi's wrath today.

Contrasting the murderous undertones of his sibling, Ataji's facade had hardened into something more serious and calculating. Not necessarily for the task at hand, but for the safety of the little dog at the hart of it. "We'll be right behind you, Denver." He said, stepping up beside the spaniel so that the dark fur of his foreleg mingled with the white and red-spotted shoulder of the other, "Remember to use the landscape to your advantage."

While Ataji offered words of support to his close companion, Lepiota was lifting her dial to scan the horizon. Moonheart still wasn't visible, but with his tracks so fresh, she knew which direction the wolf must be traveling in. Without a glance to the little dog, she spoke resolutely, "To the Canyon."

Behind them all, Umbrik withheld the whimper that wanted to escape. He despised the fighting and bloodshed, and was not particularly excited about the prospect of killing another wolf. And one of their own cousins, at that.

Naiche & Denver

Denver would be lying if he claimed not to be nervous, but meeting Lepiota's fangs was leagues more frightening to him than those of some random wolf. And as long as he preformed his best, he had the entire pack at his back. All he had to do was run, and not stop until his lupine family caught up with him and their chosen prey. His nerves were certainly soothed by the words and closeness of Ataji, whom he leaned his shoulder gratefully into and shared a quick, appreciative look with.

Then it was back to Lepiota, "The Canyon?" Denver took just a moment to gather his barrings before turning his sights to the distant maze of rock just west of their location. It wasn't terribly far from here, but it would certainly put his skills to the test. "Okay, I can do that." He let his shoulder linger a little longer against Ataji before breaking away and starting down the path towards Moonheart.

Naiche watched the little dog hike away along the visible trail that Moon had left behind, and eventually disappear over a tall esker. She looked between the three siblings, her muscles simply aching to spring into a run. But she held back, waiting first for Lepiota's signal before she'd jump into action.

In the distance, a few minutes after his departure, Denver's sharp barking could be heard as he crested the last hill between him and Moonheart, and alerted the stranger to his presence...

Moonheart

The young wolf stood and waited, ears cocked and nose working overtime as he tried to uncover the source of his unsettled nerves. "Nightbird, if that's you out there, knock it off! Cruiser, I swear, if it's you..." Mustard yellow eyes scanned his surroundings again, half-expecting to see one of his brothers pop out from a nearby shrub or ravine. When none of his siblings answered back though, Moon huffed and readied himself to move on.

He'd taken only a few steps before a faint patter of paws turned an ear back, and the rest of his body quickly followed suit. The thumping grew louder, and his eyes narrowed with annoyance, "If you're going to ambush me, you..." But it wasn't Nightbird or Cruiser, or either of his other two brothers that finally broke cover. It was a small, white and liver-spotted dog, and almost immediately, he recognized the little beast for who he was. "You!" Remember his father's disgust of the little runt, Moonheart wasted no time rushing for the spaniel, fully intent upon tearing him apart and bringing him back as a trophy to show his family.

Lepiota, Ataji, & Umbrik

Lepiota began to move quietly in the direction that Denver had taken, needing to offer little more than a flash of her eyes to the rest of the pack before they fell in line behind her. Brown and gray shoulders pumped above her back, and her tail flowed loose and silent her as she moved in a slow but deliberate pace. With so little cover in these sand-swept lands, Lepi couldn't afford to rush ahead and be spotted before Denver could get their prey's full attention.

Ataji appeared nearly as composed as his sister, anticipating and following her silent command almost before it had been given. He'd even glanced back at Umbrik, waiting until the shy wolf caught his own wordless message of 'Don't lag behind' before stepping briskly into pace behind his alphess. Where normally he'd linger back and travel with his pale-coated brother, Ataji's focus was on the little spaniel running straight for the jaws of their enemy, and he needed to be sure that the entire pack would be there to back him up when the time came.

As much as he didn't want to follow along on this particular hunt, Umbrik couldn't ignore the orders of his brother and sister. With a head dipped down and a tail held low and close to his hind legs, the omega picked up his paws and trotted behind the group, following in silence as they wove their way along the backsides of eskers and low ridges, stopping now and then under Lepi's command, always getting closer to Moonheart, but always staying just out of sight where the land would allow it.

Naiche & Denver

Amid all the fear that was coursing through him, there was also room for a spark of exhilaration. Not for the sport of baiting this wolf, or for testing the limits of his endurance and agility - two things that he'd honed since beginning his forced exile from the human world - but more for the memories it lifted from that earlier life. Bounding through the fields at the call of his master to flush out pheasants, or paddling through sloughs and swamps to retrieve the game his human had downed. He relished the whoops and cheers of his owner when he brought back a duck or quail, and the rough scrub of the man's fingers against his head that often followed.

It was different now. As his dirtied paws kissed the loamy soil and carried him onward, he knew there would be no deafening boom of his human's thunderstick when he finally met his quarry, nor any happy hoots of noise when the wolf went down. But, there would be a unified chorus of growls and barks once the pack made their move, and afterwards, as long as he preformed his task correctly, there would be nuzzles and tongue caresses - mostly from Ataji of course - for his brave efforts. A satisfied look of acknowledgement from Lepiota, and a word or two of praise from the timid Umbrik. He might even earn his right to feed along side the pack for the rest of the week. It was different, this new life of his, but it had grown on him. And that kept him rushing forward, holding onto that little spark of pride and excitement to rebuff the growing dread.

Denver hardly recognized the grown yearling, other than the puffs of white above each eye. Even then, he doubted he would have recalled Moonheart as the pup his pack had encountered last year. The big male recognized him though, and as soon as he lunged, Denver switched gears and let his trepidation be known in a sharp yelp. Sending loose dirt and sand flying, the little spaniel changed course and began to flee... straight for the ambush site...

Only two hills back from that scene, Naiche registered the yelp with giddy excitement. It wasn't a sound of pain, but of real fear. Denver knew his role well, and played it to perfection. The wolfess flexed her paws, digging dull claws into the earth as she tried to calm her urge to rush forward. Instead she remained quiet, following the lead of her alphess as they held a careful distance from Moonheart and Lepiota.