((Humm, I don't want to push this too far and do something no one was prepared for. Anyone want to take point on what happens next, or is there a scene that is planned out that we should finish?))
Wolf
Male | 20 | Straggler
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Wolf was a bit startled when Attican's head whipped around to look at him, and he blinked a couple of times in surprise. He had no reason to be frightened of the older wolf though, and he simply tipped his head a little as he spoke, carefully considering each of his words as had become his way since he started following the pack. Already they had climbed out of his known world, and he had no idea where they were or where they were going, so if he was asking him to guide them, he really had nothing to offer. However, so far as Wolf could tell anyway, all mountains were pretty much the same: the ground was soft and earthen where they grew together in the valleys, becoming rocky and pine-coverred as you went up, and then pointy and barren at the top. That pointy bit was the worst part, as it was hard to breath and even the trees didn't like it much, so the wind would tear at you as though it thought to throw you off. As it was, they seemed to be headed directly up the side of this one and towards the pointy, snow-covered top. Now, Wolf knew well enough simply from comparing himself to others like Xani and Resinalpha, and even the older wolf in front of him, that he wasn't the strongest or fastest one of the bunch, but he doubted that even they would last long when the air wouldn't stay in their lungs.
So, what to tell him then? It was quite obvious that he was expecting an answer, and Wolf struggled to find one for him. He was completely unprepared for this turn of events, as he seemed to be frequently when speaking with others. He never really knew just what they were going to say or how they would respond to what he himself had said. It was all kind of like a little adventure, and normally Wolf enjoyed it thoroughly, but the circumstances were different now. The situation seemed to have turned dire somehow, and he felt compelled to respond somehow.
Racking his brain as they continued to climb, Wolf soon came to the conclusion that it was probably best just to share what he knew and leave it at that. Just as he opened his mouth to say as much though, he feet became tangled up with those of a little black pup (Raka) he was walking beside. Stumbling, but luckily avoiding doing a face plant directly into the snow in front of him, Wolf quickly recovered and looked back to the youngster.
"Oh goodness! I'm so sorry... Please forgive my absentmindedness!" he said, looking at him with wide eyes. The last thing Wolf wanted to do was hurt someone, or worse yet, insult them, and this pup was no different. He worried over the pup for a moment, ducking his head in an expression of regret before suddenly realizing that they were once again being left behind and he still had yet to answer the elder's question. Now feeling doubly foolish, he murmured one last volley of apologies and hurried to catch up to Attican.
By the time Wolf managed to catch up to the Keeper, he was throughly flustered and padded up to him in a huff. Once he was walking next to him, he took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh to calm himself and started again.
"Sorry about that... I umm, can't say I've actually climbed these mountains, so I can't really speak for what's up there, but the ones I have tried to climb are very difficult," he began, pausing to look at the elder as he scraped together his next words.
"Besides being steep and rocky, there's a place where the trees stop and it is very cold and windy. Worse yet, it is hard to breath, like the air doesn't like being where the trees aren't, and it runs back out of your chest every time you try to breath it in," he stated, wondering if his words were even intelligible.
"Not that I really know anything, but if I had to make a suggestion, I would say we shouldn't climb too high. Mountains are like big pinecones stuck in the ground. We should be able to go around it without having to climb directly over top of it, and the higher up you are, the shorter around it is... If that makes sense," he said, trailing off and looking up the slope again. In all truth, he could very well be wrong, maybe it was just the mountains at the other end of the gorge that were like that? All he could do was assume, and he shook his head at his own internal dialog and looked back to Attican to hear what he would say.
Lani
Female | 57 | Hunter
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Lani forced her body to be still as she stood next to Raigho, her eyes narrowed as she listened to yet another howl sound in the not-too-far distance. Looking back to him as he spoke in a hushed tone, she shook her head,
"Xani, I think. Sounds like she's trying to get their attention," she replied in a whisper. His response then received a sharp nod in agreement. She too hoped the Beta could draw them away so that they could find a way to rescue Resin.
Looking back to where their Alpha was held, something across the clearing from them caught Lani's attention, a flicker of cream and red against the darker grey of the trees and she froze, staring at the spot. After a moment, she was just barely able to make out Ahote's form, his patchwork pelt blending in perfectly with the dappled shadows in which he hid. It seemed as though he had already spotted them as his eyes locked with hers and he nodded slowly, acknowledging her. Surprised, she nudged both Pilot and Raigho and pointed out his position to them.
Suddenly, Resin's voice rang out and Lani's eyes grew wide in shock. Was she mad? They would hear her! Immediately after the thought crossed her mind, Lani kicked herself inwardly for her silliness. There was no way those two-legged monsters could speak the same as they did, and there was no harm in calling out. So long as they didn't answer, the creatures would be none the wiser. Much to her surprise, Raigho did just that, and though his voice was quiet, it still made Lani wince. Frozen to the spot, she waited tensely for either Resin's reply or for something worse to happen. Her mind churned the information Resin offered, and though she had already realized that the two-leggers must be lying in wait somewhere nearby, there was no telling just how many of them there were. Xani had done her best to call them away, but would it be enough?
Off to their left, a rustling noise could be heard, and all the wolves' heads snapped towards it. Hidden carefully from view in what seemed to be a box of sorts, Lani could just make out what appeared to be a pile of sticks stand up and move slowly away from them. The strangeness of it was such that she could not help but stare, and it was only after it had gone that she realized that it must have been one of the two-legged monsters wearing the skin of the forest in the same way as they wore the skin of animals. A little disturbed by that thought, she looked back to where Ahote was, and found him staring off in the same direction.
Ahote's vantage point must have given him a better view of where they went, as he watched for a few moments longer before he looked back to where Lani and the others were. Seeming to want to convey something to them, he rolled his head in a wide circle before leveling his gaze at her once again. Confused, she just stared back at him, blinking. Seeming to grow impatient, or as if it were important, he repeated the gesture again, this time with emphasis as though he were trying to turn his head off. Looking back to her, he tipped his head down and then up again, like he was pushing snow out of his way.
Thoroughly puzzled and frustrated with herself for not understanding, Lani had to stifle a growl that rose up under her breath. What the heck was he getting at? All of a sudden, everything fall into place and the light of realization dawned on her. Excited, she looked back at her companions,
"I think he wants us to go around behind them... I bet he's going to try and draw them out," she said in an excited whisper. Looking back to Ahote, she nodded, then pointed with her nose in the direction the other had gone. Looking relieved, Ahote nodded back a vigorous affirmative before stilling himself, eyes locked on Resin.
"Come on, we have to move," Lani said, and carefully backed out from their position. Back in the deep shadow of the evergreens, she crept back along her path until she figured they were close to where the two-leggers lay in wait. Then, ever so carefully she slunk forward, her gait slow and each paw-step placed carefully one before the other with her stomach brushing the snow beneath her. Close now, she could clearly see the blind the creatures had made, the trees having been bent in strange right angles. Unfortunately, this also meant that she could no longer see Resin past it, and she hoped that whatever Ahote did, it would make enough noise that she would know when to attack.
Ahote
Male | 46 | Fighter
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Having made contact with Lani, Ahote was relieved to see her point him out to her two companions. Whatever was about to happen, he could only hope that the four of them would be able to overwhelm whatever it was the two-legged monsters had planned. Making himself ready, he hoped, to do whatever had to be done to save Resin, Ahote's muscles tensed up beneath him. He was focused purely on the task at hand and he had pushed aside all other emotion or fear, his eyes locked squarely on one particular patch of snow about a third of the way to the thing Resin was trapped in. There he would make his stand and face whatever it was they had waiting for him.
Just as he was about to make his move, Resin's voice rang out and he faltered, very nearly falling over in the process. Freezing dead to the spot, he back peddled until he was laying back on his stomach again and he looked out at her, wondering just what she was getting at. He had no idea how she had been captured or that she meant there may be things hidden in the snow to snare him, wolves didn't think that way. They tracked, they stalked, they ran and they killed. Never had a wolf set an object to entangle its prey. Thus he had no concept that the word trap could mean something hidden, and not merely an action. It seemed as though she were simply stating what he already knew. Confused and worried for her, his ears pinned back as he considered her words.
Before he could fully grasp the ramifications of Resin's warning, a strange movement off to the side caught Ahote's attention. It seemed as though a part of the tree had come alive and had risen up from amongst its fellows and was moving off. It had meant nothing to him at the time, but now remembering the mud spattered female he had killed, she too had bits of the forest tied to her, though nowhere in such a sophisticated fashion as this. So this one must be one of the hunters who lay in wait for them, but why then, risk giving up their position to move away?
Another flicker of movement beyond the quickly melting form of the two-legger drew Ahote's attention, and a familiar scent filtered to him from between the pines: Xani. She was injured, but that meant her plan had worked and she had drawn at least some of them away from Resin and the trap they had planned. He had fought alongside Xani for many years and he felt more than a little confidence in the ex-fighter's abilities. With her coming from behind, and him in front, they could sandwich and divide the monsters, and then the hunters could come in from the back and kill them. It was brilliant!
The sight caused an uprush of hope to flow over him, and Ahote excitedly looked back to Lani and the others. Luckily, she was already looking at him, and he didn't have to do anything to get her attention. Now all he had to do was convey somehow what the plan was. Making what seemed to be a perfectly logical series of gestures, at least to him anyway, Ahote looked back to her with anticipation, hoping to receive some sort of affirmation that they understood. Instead, he received nothing but a blank stare. Darn it, come on Lani! What was the problem? He growled softly under his breath, wanting to bark orders at the chubby white fea. Instead, he repeated the gesture: go around, and then I'll come out, he thought, repeating the meanings in his head as he moved. If this didn't work, he wasn't sure what to do, as they were quickly running out of time.
Thankfully, this time she seemed to catch his meaning and Ahote was relieved when she nodded in reply, indicating the direction they would go. Nodding back, he quickly gathered his feet beneath him and readied himself again. Without a noise, the hunters disappeared from view, and he couldn't help but take a bit of pride in ScarPaw's abilities. Counting breaths as they left his chest, Ahote waited for what seemed a painfully long time, trying to give them as much time as possible to get into position since he would no longer be able to see them. He could feel the world moving around him, the hunters' careful paw-steps, the pained journey Xani took towards them, and the oppressive tension that hung in the air over Resin's cage. The silence was deafening now, and Ahote knew it was time.
Without pausing to take a breath, Ahote leapt out from cover and charged into the clearing. Letting out a snarl, he called to the hunters and Xani,
"Now!" as he passed out from under the trees. Expecting the two-leggers who lay in wait to burst from cover and confront him, Ahote was puzzled when nothing seemed to happen. He had skidded to a stop where he had planned to make his stand, and staring off in the direction of the blind, his hackles fell as he stood, confused. Growling uncertainly, he kept his eyes locked on the spot and spoke softly to Resin.
"Resin... Are you alright?" he asked quietly, slowly pacing towards her.
Suddenly, something lifted up from the snow and Ahote left out a yelp as it latched on to his front paw. Pulling back he looked down at it to find a loop of the same thin cord as the female monster had been weaving clasp tightly around his front leg. Just as the realization of what it was came over him, the line yanked and he stumbled forward in surprise. The other end of the line was grasp firmly in the paws of two of the two-leged beasts, and they struggled to hold onto it and keep ahold of their long sticks at the same time. Had there been three or more there, Ahote would have been quickly drug to the ground, but at it was, he outweighed them both combined and he fought back, lunging forward to grab the cord with his teeth.
The two-legs let out a strange yell in their warbling language, pulling the line tight to pick up the slack, trying once again to pull Ahote off balance. It was as if they expected him to charge them, but he knew better than to run directly into those pointed sticks. Digging in his claws, Ahote pulled back, a threatening growl growing in his chest, turning the tables on the monsters and forcing them to stumble forward. In this way, he began to reel them in towards Resin, hoping to keep them occupied long enough that the hunters could pounce them from behind.
