((Sorry sorry sorry... Won't someone please save me from myself? >.<))
Oh, and happy birthday ScarPaw!

I have something I've been working on as a present for you guys, but darn it, just have not gotten it done. Soon I hope.
Wolf
Male | 20 | Straggler
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Looking over Attican while he thought, Wolf shifted his weight from one paw to another, uncertain if his answer made any sense at all. From his previous conversations with Pilot, he knew that sometimes the things he said were odd at best, and sometimes completely unintelligible from another's perspective. Normally he didn't mind, finding their confusion about his words just as interesting as if they had agreed with him, perhaps even more so sometimes. However, this was different. This was important. Luckily though, it seemed as what he was trying to communicate came through as the elder nodded and set off again.
Wolf followed dutifully, staying just a few paces behind Attican as they continued to climb crosswise up the mountain, pretty much more or less unaware of the dangers they faced or the pangs of worry that plagued his newfound family. The stress and seriousness with which they carried themselves hung thickly in the air though, and he tread lightly around them, not wanting to bother anyone or do something wrong. All in all, Wolf was set firmly in what seemed to be his natural state of confusion, and though he longed to question someone about what exactly it was they were running from or towards, gut instinct told him that was a bad idea and he kept his maw shut.
After a few moments, their pace slowed once more, and they were informed to take up the youngsters and make silent haste, and Wolf looked on curiously when Attican scooped up the little black pup he had tripped over earlier and many others did the same. He had seen them pick up pups before, but never to carry them for any sort of distance, and he wondered just how well it would work. Were the scruffs of their necks really so tough that they could take being carried for miles? However, once again the need for stealth had been made painfully obvious and he simply nodded and continued to follow.
From there, the pace picked up considerably and Wolf was a little happy about that. He might not be particularly skilled in many areas, but still, he was young and relatively healthy and the pace felt good in his legs. Before long, and perhaps a little guiltily, Wolf was actually enjoying their panicked flight through the woods, and he smiled a bit to himself. Up ahead loomed a fallen tree, and while Attican scooted around it, Wolf picked up his pace a little and leapt over it, feeling a little thrill as he sailed over. That joy quickly instantly evaporated into a wince as his nails scraped the top of a hidden splinter, sending it snapping off with a little crack. Landing squarely on all four paws, he looked to Attican, ducking his head in apology. However, the elder seemed distracted by something else and Wolf too turned to look.
What he saw surprised him, but at the same time brought a grin to his face: Xani. Wolf watched her pained approach, his tail swinging wildly behind him as she made her way though the pack up to where he stood with Attican. Though he longed to call out to her, he kept his mouth stubbornly shut, letting his tail do the talking as it swung his rear end side to side in its excitement. Though he had gotten to know many more of the pack members in his time here, Wolf still had a special spot in his heart for the first creature in existence ever to talk to him, and was more than a little happy to see her. She brought with her the scent of blood, both her own and that of something else, something strange and his happiness faded a little as it was clouded with concern. She was injured, and that brought a pang of regret for his carefree actions. He had once again failed to assess the seriousness of the situation.
As seemed to be her way, Xani didn't even acknowledge Wolf and his exuberance and immediately plunged into serious sounding conversation with the elder. For his part though, Wolf really didn't mind and simply sat back on his hunches, head swiveling back and forth between the two as they spoke. As they began to speak of her wound though, his eyes were inevitably drawn to it and he winced. Wolf was already squeamish of the sight of blood, and the blood of someone he cared about made it doubly worse. He quickly looked away when Attican moved to remove the weapon that still protruded from her leg.
The whole thing was over in an instant, and seemingly not more than a second later Attican was speaking and they were moving again. Wolf shook himself, and continued to follow, once again taking up the role of Xani's shadow. In truth, he was at her side so often that she probably didn't even notice him anymore, and really, Wolf was perfectly okay with that. Letting out a steadying breath, he resigned himself to simply putting one foot in front of the other and keeping pace with the rest of the pack.
Still skirting the tree line, they had actually managed to turn the bend in the mountain and were starting to loose a little altitude as the southern face grew rockier and with more uncertain footing. The trees had thinned a bit, and large rock outcroppings appeared, many with promising looking shadows and overhangs that might mean shelter for the pack, at least by way of protecting their backs while they rested. There was an oddity though, and while the other wolves just kept walking, their ears pinned back as they fled an uncertain enemy, Wolf began to take notice. Every now and then, and with what seemed to be more frequency, they would pass a tall thin span of wood, stuck up out of the snow, looking rather like a branchless tree. Curiosity perked by the novelty of these things, Wolf decided to make a little detour as they walked to investigate.
Walking up to the thing he nosed it, and was a bit disappointed when he found it didn't have any real scent besides old, dry wood. However, not all was as it seemed, and when he tried to walk past it to move on, something rolled beneath his feet and he was thrown head first into the snow. Now, Wolf was by no means the most graceful creature, and such an occurrence was not uncommon for him, so he simply picked himself up and shook the snow out of his fur. However, the moment he got back up to his feet, the thin tree fell over and tapped him on the back, making him turn to look behind him. The sight that met his eyes made him quail back like he had seen a ghost: there, half submerged in the snow was the body of a two-legger, its strange flat face frozen and staring up at him in a death mask of pain. The thin stick was lodged firmly in its partially decomposed ribcage and he stared at it, wide eyed with his heart pounding in his chest. It seemed as even their own kind was not exempt from their penchant for violence, and the sensitive Wolf was thoroughly horrified.
"A-Attican!" Wolf squeaked out, backing away so quickly that he wound up stumbling over his back paws and falling hard on his haunches.
Lani
Female | 57 | Hunter
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Ahote's call rang out and Pilot immediately sprung into action beside her, but uncharacteristically, Lani hesitated. Something about this just didn't feel right, and as the two monsters in front of her took up a long lead and foolishly attempted to pull Ahote to the ground, she dropped low and crept forward, her white pelt nearly invisible against the dappled shadows that fell across the snow. Just as she reached the edge of the clearing where Resin was held, the forest around them came alive and her fears were vindicated as six more of the two-leggeds appears and burst into the clearing.
For some reason, they all seemed completely unaware of her presence, and Lani lay in wait as they all foolishly turned their backs on the forest to concentrate on the wolves in the clearing. Still as a stone, she didn't have to wait long before the opportunity she waited for appeared, and one of the unsteady creatures stumbled back towards her hiding place. Without uttering a sound, Lani dashed out in a flash of white and latched on to the ankle of one of the monsters, causing it to cry out. An instant later she had jerked it off of its feet and without stopping drug it into the shrub in which she had been hiding.
Lani might not have been the largest wolf, but she was strong and her stout stature gave her an advantage of leverage. That, coupled with having surprise and the disorientation on her side, she managed to fall on the creature and latch her jaws around its throat. She was no fighter, and there was no way she would ever be able to go toe to tow with an armed demon, but pinned beneath her paws, he was nothing but easy prey.
By the time she had managed to throttle the thing and it lay still beneath her, Hrafn had appeared and cornered another one of the monsters, pushing it back with flashing teeth. He ordered Pilot to free Resin, and Lani readied herself to attack again. Biding her time with remarkable patience, she waited until the larger black wolf managed to push one back to the edge of the underbrush again. She sprung again, this time aiming high, he hit the two-legger square in the back and latched on to the only part of it that seemed to have any fur: the back of its head, just barely missing her mark for the back of its neck. Her weight knocked the breath out of it, but still it fought beneath her and she dug her claws into the foliage that covered it and snapped at the twigs, throwing them off like the feathers of a ptarmigan as she looked for the soft spots beneath.
Ahote
Male | 46 | Fighter
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Infuriated, Ahote found himself at a strange disadvantage. He was more than strong enough to drag around the two monsters that attempted to hold him, but as soon as he tried to lunge forward to attack, they would pull the binding tight and he would nearly fall on his face. It was maddeningly frustrating, but eventually he was able to pull one of them close enough to the cage that Resin was able to reach through and latch onto its crooked forelimb. This left only one creature holding the other end of the vine, and Ahote outweighed him threefold. Pilot had appeared, and her sudden leap from cover had distracted the others enough so as that none thought to pick up the slackened line.
Growling savagely around the cord he held in his mouth, Ahote gave a massive yank nearly ripping the cord from the monster's paws and causing him to stumble. The next instant, Hrafn appeared as if out of nowhere and fell on his final captive. Not even taking time to think, Ahote dropped what he held in his mouth and was able to easily shake off the slackened knot from his leg. Now freed to move as he would, Ahote lowered his head and bared his teeth, eyes locked on the remaining humans. Already he had pushed all thoughts of the cage from his mind, Resin was at his back and would be safe until the imminent danger in front of them had been taken care of, and thus Hrafn's words were unnecessary, and only barely registered somewhere in the back of his mind.
Pilot leapt past him and Ahote moved forward, threatening the monsters as they tried to defend their construct. The one he faced was wary of him, and continued to move away from him, keeping him at the far end of his long pointed stick. There were two more off to the side though, and glancing at them, he spotted an opportunity as they raised their strange forelimbs to throw their sticks at Pilot where she was engaged in an embittered fight with the cage. In an instant he had spun away from the one he was facing and sprung at one of the two just as he let go of his spear, causing it to miss its mark in a widely mis-aimed arc.
The creature never even had a chance to cry out before Ahote had him on the ground, his crushing weight instantly pinning him as his teeth sought his throat. Just as he was about to bite down though, a sharp pain ran up he rear and he let out a yip, leaving his adversary mortally wounded with his long-toes paws clasped to its neck, but unfortunately, still alive.
Ahote spun around again, and found the one he had left to attack this one had come up on him from behind and had the audacity to poke him in the rear with its stick. Snarling again, he lunged at it, causing it to stumble back before it attempted to do the same to him, thrusting the wooden spear at him. Thus the two of them danced, one circling the other in a deadly waiting game, each one waiting for the other to make a mistake. Unfortunately for the two-legger, Ahote was no stranger to fighting, and where Pilot or Lani might have struggled to keep up, he matched the hunter step for step, having the slight advantage of facing one in much a similar situation with Attican and Resin at his back.
Remembering last time, Ahote's mind spun as he fought, and the next time the monster lunged at him with the stick, he leapt forward and grabbed onto it with his jaws. The thing splintered beneath his grip, but unlike the first one he had faced, this one was not smart enough to drop his weapon and run. Ahote literally pulled him off of his feet and into the now firmly compacted snow, and he fell on him angrily. The creature fell victim to his teeth in the next moment, and it never even had a chance to struggle.
A snap followed by a strange squeal drew Ahote's attention away from his kill and he spun around just in time to see the cage teeter on edge and fall back with a pained groan. In an instant all rage drained from him and the worry he felt for Resin surged up in him and he leapt away, running to her. Eyes wide and pleading, he greeted her as she left the cage, reassuring himself by burying his nose in her ruff and taking in her scent. Not saying a word or bothering to wait for her, he turned back again, putting his back to her and keeping himself between her and the two-leggers. Every inch of him was ready to defend her, his mate, with his life should any monster be foolish enough to threaten them. Those who knew him would hardly have recognized the vicious creature before them as the normally humble and kind wolf that could only in the barest sense call himself a fighter. Only when his pack was threatened did Ahote show that part of himself, and with the threat facing him square in the face, all semblance of that gentle wolf was gone.