Howling for the Alpha [Open]

Kenna gently padded through the eastern terrain. The soft sound of the crunching was the only thing that could be heard. The world around her was as quiet as a mouse. The she-wolf sighed and kept walking through the dense forest that had been covered in snow. She enjoyed winter and loved the snow but now was not the time to think about playing in the snow. No, she was looking for a pack to join and a few miles back she had caught the faint scent of a pack to the east. Kenna had let her nose lead her and had made her way here, to the dense forest. The smell of a pack had grown stronger as she made her way towards the border of the pack.

The she-wolf stood tall and proud, her head held high but once she caught the alpha's attention, her body language would be more submissive. She sat down by the border of the pack's territory and lifted her head to let out a confident howl, alerting the alpha(s) of the pack. Kenna was hoping that she would be accepted. She looked around her as she waited for the alpha of the pack.

Word Count:: 200 Words

Calypso was lounging by a near by pond which thankfully did not become frozen. Her greens flicked around as snow gently fall onto her fluffy fur. The Alphess was lonely as she couldn't wait till a new member arrive as she solely began to like her fur, but a howl disrupted her quiet matter." Now who is the one disturbing my peace." getting up gently and slowly Calypso padded away to figure who called.

The snowy surfaced drenched the she-wolf's paws as they sink deeper and deeper. She going to think that it was here imagination until another fae came into view. The cinnamon colored female traveled over calmly and stood tall, but calm as she looked the other female right in the eyes." Hello my name is Calypso the alpha of th eastern pack and may I ask who are you?" Her voice was tight and a small puff of a white cloud from the cold, as she waits for the female to reply.

Kenna's eyes widened slightly as she saw the alpha come into view. Instantly, her body language changed. Her body language became more submissive, with her tail slightly tucked in between her legs and her body not being so erect and tall. She wanted to show the Alphess that she already knew that Calypso was the boss. Kenna dipped her head as far as she could to show respect. She lifted her head, her ears perked as the she-wolf introduced herself to Kenna. Kenna let a small but friendly smile play onto her muzzle. "It is nice to meet you Alphess Calypso." She paused a little before speaking once more. "My name is Kenna and I was hoping that you would allow me to join your pack." She stated, her tone confident yet respectful too. The pure white she-wolf looked back at Alphess Calypso for a moment making eye contact for a second before looking straight forward once more. Her pure white coat made it easy for Kenna to blend in with the snow as she stood in it, feeling its coolness. Kenna patiently waited for the Alphess to reply to her.

It was a good thing that the passage through his father's territory into the ones beyond was a dangerous one. Typically, one would be considered unwise to think this: after all, who would want more complication in the journey, more danger and more hazards? It would be madness to invite these things into one's excursion when travelling alone without any prior experience. It could end in the maiming of one's limbs or even death, and there was no way that anyone was going to risk anything with that sort of risk hanging over their shoulder. What sort of lunatic would do that? For the unwise, the uneducated and, dare I say it, the idiotic, the land outside one's territory was a dangerous one, and one that would only be experienced accompanied with an adult or one with more knowledge in the field. Who knew lay outside of the boundaries? Some wolves never knew properly in their lives, and were content to spend their lifetimes inside their own packs. Others were more curious, and went past the boundary line every so often to take a look. But rarely did any wolf spend more than a few minutes out there in the wilderness, a land unclaimed by wolves because it was too wild even for them. The wilderness was a wasteland, and it would not do good for a wolf to spend a long time within it. Some had died; others had gone mad for their trouble, which is a fate arguably worse than dying. All in all, it was a bad business, travelling alone for a long period of time.

Unfortunately, Admiral knew exactly what lay beyond the pack's boundary line. He also knew that the trip was dangerous: he had experienced this first hand with a scuffle with a bear, and had managed to acquire a lame front paw for his trouble - a lame paw which hovered above the ground as he walked, too weak to support his weight. But this danger, as said previously, was, in his mind - despite his injury - a good thing. Indeed, it was better than walking without any sense of direction, and with nothing filling his head: for what would he think of then, apart from the things of which had gone before, and would continue to haunt his thoughts for months and possibly years to come? Without constant thoughts of survival and where his food was coming from to keep him mentally sharp, it was likely that he, too, would have gone mad, isolated as he was without any other form of company to speak of. Every day, the memory lurked at the back of his mind: the sight of Admiral's mother's body on the ground, blood quietly seeping into the snow: of her murderer, sneaking into the night as though he had never been there in the first place. It was only the constant thoughts of trying to keep the male alive which drove them away, kept his mind busy and sharp. Of course, at night, they would return, in numbers, in fact, but he was too tired then to think of anything, let alone his own mother, and he would escape from them through sleep. But that, he knew, only spawned more dark nightmares.

However, Admiral knew that he could not continue thinking about this. It had been two years or so since the incident, and he knew that he had to find a pack soon to take him in, before he did actually go mad or end up dead somewhere, alone and forgotten. Admiral knew that his father, and indeed his mother, would have wanted him to do so. At this thought, he spat into the ground, his saliva dripping down onto the ground. "Perhaps not Father," he growled under his breath, his tail lashing angrily - allowing himself to vent for a moment before once more retreating and letting his solid, hard-as-stone manner overtake his features and body. Yes, perhaps not Father. But he knew his mother would want him to, and this was enough to propel him forward and to keep him going, day by day, as the weeks stretched ahead of him. He would find a pack. He would survive. This much Admiral was sure, and this much he was certain of.

Speaking of which, where was he now? The male stopped and looked around, his eyes narrowing as he took in the environment around him. Not much, to be completely honest with himself. A few scraggly trees which, together, made a forest, and the snow. That was it, and, compared to other places he had seen and been to so far, admittedly it wasn't all that impressive. Admiral breathed out, watching as a cloud of condensation emerged in the air from his dark maw. It would do. He would set up camp here for the night, and then continue in the morning, where he hoped to find a pack, somehow. Yes, that was how he would do it. But for the moment......Admiral stalked around the area, checking it was safe before going to sleep for the night. He didn't want to find that he, inadvertently, managed to sleep right next to a badger sett, or something that would equally put up a fight if he was found here, quietly kipping. He had already made that mistake already, and his eyes glanced towards his paw as he thought of this. He already had a reminder of that particular encounter, and he didn't plan to line up any more encounters of that nature before the night was out.

And so, the male lifted his nose to the air, nostrils flaring as he tried to catch any scent which would prove to be of a hostile animal. As he did so, he continued looking around, continuing gathering knowledge about the area. What if he had to move out of this area quickly? Admiral was already thinking about these scenarios, his imagination and memory working together to put together a map of how he had gotten here, in the forest, and how he could get out if there was a possible problem - after all, he was in an area he had never been before, so he always had to keep his guard. However, this was skewed by his lack of both sleep and food: he couldn't concentrate properly, and it took more energy than usual to commit the area to memory and to be certain that he knew the way back. Another reason why I should find a pack, and quickly, he thought to himself, feeling a pain in his stomach - a gnawing hunger. There was a timer on his life, and he had to find someplace to live before that timer ran out. Otherwise it was the end for him.

Anyway, what surprised Admiral was that there was a scent nearby, one that distinctly smelt of wolf. He narrowed his eyes, his golden eyes glinting with intelligence and a searching, yearning curiosity - and a more primal wariness. Was there a pack here? He wouldn't be surprised, but even so it felt weird how he had just managed to come across one just like that. He had previously thought that it would take a few days to find a pack, but here was one straight on his doorstep, just like that. I think I'm entitled to a bit of luck, he thought, perhaps a tad dryly. I'm certainly overdue for a visit from Lady Luck herself. However, he did not let himself get carried away: the male was not like that to begin with, but he was not going to forget his usual careful attitude. No. He planned on taking this nice and easy, and making sure he knew exactly what he was stepping into first. Admiral trailed his nose against the ground, finding more scents - the border line of a territory. It was a pretty small pack, from what he could see, but he wasn't going to let that deter him, and he continued sniffing, finding out as much as he could about the pack before he stepped into the territory himself. Mentally, the rogue logged down every single thing he discovered - anything that could give him an advantage, anything that would be able to make sure he didn't walk into something which, quite frankly, shouldn't be walked into. This only took a few minutes, in itself: after all, from what he could tell, the pack was small and there wasn't much really going on. However, what intrigued him was the scent of newcomer, the scent of a fellow rogue which had passed into the territory only a few minutes before. Admiral blinked. What were the chances of that? Practically none whatsoever, and so it intrigued him. Should he follow these mysterious paw prints into the territory?

Well, there was nothing else he could do. Admiral walked through, hobbling due to his paw, following the scent of the rogue. Where had this rogue come from, he wondered? He could pick up that she was female, but not much else - after all, the snow didn't record very many details like normal ground did. Still, he treasured this tiny bit of information: forewarned was forearmed, in his opinion, and he wasn't going to ignore any information which could possibly give him an advantage and could lend itself to his cause and his intention - getting into the pack. This was the first pack he had seen in ages, and he certainly wasn't going to ignore this dynamic change in his environment. Maybe this pack would accept him, and from there he could start a new life. No, not now, he thought with a touch of irritance as he apprehensively moved through the trees. No need to start thinking of the far off now. Best to think about the immediate future. Indeed: he had not left his wits behind him when he had walked through the border.

Then, suddenly, the male arrived at a small gathering place - only a few paces into the territory, to be honest, so not too far from the border itself. There stood two females: one in a submissive pose, and one in a more dominant one. He guessed, quickly looking at the situation and his imagination joining the dots, that the snow-white female was 'his' rogue, the one he had been tracking: after all, she was of the most submissive posture, thus indicating she was newer to the area. Looking through the bushes, trying to keep still in an effort to stop his paws crunching in the snow - and thus alerting the two to his presence - he stayed quiet, his ears straining so hard to hear what was being said that his ears buzzed.

"Hello my name is Calypso the alpha of the eastern pack and may I ask who are you?"
"It is nice to meet you Alphess Calypso."
"My name is Kenna and I was hoping that you would allow me to join your pack."

Just as he had expected - this "Kenna" was the rogue, the one which was new to the area, and the one who he had been tracking. The female was the dominant. Admiral quickly ran the names through his brain, committing them to memory, along with the escape route behind him in case things got out of hand. Kenna and Calypso. They were not common names, and should be easy to remember. If this rogue also wanted to join, maybe he could, also: if this "Calypso" accepted "Kenna", it wasn't likely that she would turn away another wolf. After all, the pack was low on numbers, as he had noted earlier when he had sniffed out the border. I better introduce myself before they go further in. However, Admiral felt a slight reluctance. After so long alone, it felt odd, suddenly, to be in another's company, and he wondered how to behave. Then he pulled himself together, and, before he could go against his own wishes, he stepped out, revealing himself as he stepped out of the surrounding vegetation, skimpy as it was, for it was winter, after all. He coughed, clearing his throat, before speaking.

"I, also, need to claim sanctuary here, ma'am." He turned towards the dominant - Calypso. "My lady, I couldn't help hearing your conversation." As a matter of course, he turned towards the fellow rogue, too, and nodded a greeting. Both were interesting to him - as they always were before he learned how they were like, of which case they faded from both his thoughts and sight - but he took more interest in the alphess, for she made the decisions and he did not want to seem imprudent about addressing and showing more interest in the lowly rogue before himself. His eyes were still narrowed in intellectual knowledge and curiosity, and despite his position as a rogue, his chest was puffed out - not in a dominant way, but one which would suggest that he would certainly not grovel for a position in the pack, unlike how the other female was doing right now. It was simply not like him - he would have respect for his leaders (as long as they were intelligent) but would not grovel for a rank, despite his position right now. Indeed, in his eyes there was a hint of irritance towards the white female, subtle enough so she might possibly not notice. Arrogant as he was, he found behaviour like that irritating.

" nice to meet Kenna, I am glad you found your way here." As Calypso smiled, as a new scent filled into air. The she-wolf tensed a little and looked into the forestry to search for the figure. Her ear twitched forward as a brute(Admiral)appeared his hiding place, Calypso tilted her head and observed the male's condition. Relaxing a little as she listened to the male's response."Well you two are in lucky as I was looking for members, and as I stand before you both right now, I think I've just found them." Her voice was calm and sweet, as she looked at both of them in the eye and smiled.

Calypso stood there for a moment and was in deep thought.I think they are up to it... she nodded slightly and looked at them." I'm sorry if I didn't say nothing about ranks yet, but I was in deep thought about each one of yours." she said," I think you both will be fine betas , I know it may be so sudden, but even small amounts of words can reveal a wolf's true self." turning around she started to walk off to the camp that she found a few days ago." Follow me and I'll show where camp is." then she began to walk on thrilled to have new pack mates.

Kenna smiled back at Calypso and turned her head to see another wolf coming closer. She scrunched her nose as the scent became stronger. She turned back to the Alphess as the male came closer towards them. "It's nice to meet you as well." She said with a pleasant smile on her muzzle. Kenna turned to see the male had come closer so she nodded slightly to let him know that she had acknowledged him. She watched as this male presented himself with such arrogance and cockiness towards her and the alphess. She was sure that this male had respect for the alphess but he had a funny way of showing it. Kenna did not believe that she was 'groveling' but was keen on showing the alphess that she knew that Calypso was the boss around here. Either way, this male was not making the greatest impression but she was sure that this male didn't care about Kenna's opinions. She hoped that him and her could at least be courteous towards one another. Kenna looked back at the male wolf who looked a little irritated by her, Kenna shrugged it off not really knowing why this male looked slightly irritated. Either way, Kenna didn't care too much about anyone's opinions unless a certain someone's opinion mattered, like her higher ranking wolves. Let it be known that Kenna would not kiss anyone's rump to get what she wanted and knew that things were earned, like respect for example and that she wasn't the 'groveling' type that this male had perceived her to be. No, she was quite the opposite and liked it when she earned trust and respect from those around her. She would not say pretty words to bribe her alpha's decision on making her beta but it would be her actions and how she helped the pack that would show the alpha that she was right for a high ranking position. Kenna had never liked the trait arrogance, this trait was exactly desirable and at times did not help the person show respect when respect was needed. Kenna turned back to the alphess when she started to talk to the two of them once more.

Kenna let a small smirk play onto her muzzle when the Alphess told the two of them that they would both do well as betas. At least herself and this brute would be of equal rank. She nodded when Calypso told them to follow her and obeyed, curious as to what more the territory looked like.

OOC: Nice post Admiral! (: Super long, I can never get my posts that long!

Admiral noticed that the alphess tensed slightly as he approached, which puzzled him slightly. Why would she be worried about another loner, even if he was a male? Surely, she would be the fittest of all three of them, having slept easily the night before and probably full from a meal from yesterday. What would she have to be scared of? The only possible thing he could glean from that was the idea that the pack was even more small than he had thought previously, which made him wonder what had happened to the pack's population. Had there been some sort of epidemic, or some sort of fight which had ended with many dead? He narrowed his eyes, his golden eyes as hard as flint as he tried to figure it out, like a child with a new toy - pulling the idea from left to right, turning it over and trying to prise it apart. He was always like this with ideas, but he took it especially seriously now, considering he was in a vulnerable position and he needed every advantage he had to succeed in becoming a member. It would certainly be foolhardy to forget a detail like this when it could come in useful later on.

And then the alphess spoke, noting her interest in the two of them - himself included - becoming members. This, considering what he had just noticed, didn't seem surprising to the male: after all, she seemed in a pretty vulnerable position herself, with barely half a pack to her name. However, her lack of interest in their personal details bothered him. Why had she not asked for his name? She didn't seem interested in anything to do with where they had come from - for all she knew, Admiral could be an exiled murderer.....well, that was what he was in the eyes of his ex-fellow pack mates, but one can get the picture. They could have posed a danger to herself, and yet here she was, accepting them into the pack straight away! It seemed odd, and Admiral himself let his usual stone-hard features elapse into a more relaxed raised eyebrows. What was going on here? Was it just pure idiocy, or something else? It seemed odd, and he wasn't going to relax straight away in these two wolves' presences. Not until everything had been sorted out and he knew his position and where he was to be based. Calypso's lack of interest and easy-come-easy-go approach bothered him, that was clear.

And of course, the other female bothered him as well. What was she doing, grovelling on the ground like that? Unless she was in real dire trouble - which, Admiral thought, it didn't look like it - she was really asking for a low rank, being all submissive like that. If Admiral was the leader, he'd be sending her to the Omega rank, for certain. No self-respect, he thought to himself, trying to keep his loathing of that sort of behaviour off his face. It was harder than he thought. Well, at least it appeared that she hadn't noticed, greeting him that silly smile on her features as though they were about to go off for an evening's hunt. I hadn't expected her to. Those types aren't very observant. As said already, Admiral was arrogant, and had already dismissed that particular female of being any particular interest or use to him. For that was how he thought - he organised other wolves in his mind, figuring out which would be useful and could be considered 'interesting' to him, and those who didn't fit that ideal were dismissed and considered unimportant. Already, the male was not really interested in her: it didn't take much to make him dislike someone, and dislike Kenna he did, despite the fact that without her scent, he wouldn't here. He had conveniently scrubbed that fact out of his mind, and had no intention of telling that to anyone, least of all Kenna herself.

But none of what he had seen could prepare Admiral for what the Alphess Calypso was going to say next, and it surprised him so much he, very nearly, managed to break the straight features she usually wore upon his face. Beta? Now that was even more surprising than everything else so far, and he hadn't been expecting that sort of promotion so quickly. Well, he thought, recovering, It's what I expect. High standards. Already, he felt quite pleased with himself - after all, it was the best rank he could have, apart from having the rank of Alpha himself. That could come later. For the moment, he was satisfied with his rank, and happy to see that he could boss that Kenna about and get her doing all the tasks he himself didn't want in the meanwhile. Seems like getting into this pack was even easier than I had thought. A thing to note at this moment in time was that Admiral was, and never is going to be, power-hungry. True, he was arrogant, and dismissed people of importance as easily - and as quickly, truth be told - as looking at them, but he was not power-hungry. He liked the idea of power, of course, for it often opened doors which would have remained locked if he had stayed at his current position, but one has to remember that he was raised in such a position, and had been used to that position for a long time. He had never been of the Omega rank, and was used to certain standards, standards that were not going to be reduced simply because of his new niche as a rogue. Admiral simply expected this, but had no lust for power obsolete.....although, he had to admit, it did have it's advantages. Advantages that, perhaps, he would like to have......there was certainly a power-loving streak to Admiral, the same one which was arrogant and overly critical.

Anyhow, suddenly, a thought occurred to Admiral. What had the alphess said? Something about both of them being Beta? What? The male looked incredulously towards Kenna, trying to imagine that they were of an equal rank. Even his imagination couldn't conceive it. He'd have to share duties with her - the very one he had seen grovelling only moments before? That's just illogical, he thought to himself. There must be some sort of mistake - I'm not going to be working with her, surely? Perhaps there's another back in the den with a similar name, and I just misheard it. Yes, that would be it. A mistake on his part. No way would any alphess in their right mind put the two of them together......However, when Admiral glanced towards the other female, she had a smirk on her face, and he knew, suddenly, that he couldn't have misheard. No: instead, he was saddled with that grovelling rogue, the one that had little to no self-respect for herself, and probably had none for others - for that, in Admiral's mind, was the way the world worked. If one did not have respect for oneself, they would not have respect for others. How was he going to work with her, her of all wolves to meet while trying to get accepted? Suddenly, Admiral cursed his bad luck in his mind, silently, in the privacy of his own thoughts. I'm going to have to show I'm better than her, he thought, and then, eyeing up the female, he added, Not like that's going to be hard. If the alphess' words were true about only a handful of words showing one's true self, he didn't have much hope in Kenna's, quite frankly. It did not occur to him that Kenna might be pleased with the fact that they were of an equal rank: as per usual, his thoughts were, and always would be, about and revolving around himself.

When Calypso talked about moving to the den, he snapped to attention, deciding to act upon his thoughts as quickly as he could. He would show this Kenna up, whoever she was and wherever she came from. That was clear. To Calypso, he was all smiles as per usual. "Of course, my lady. Thank you for your hospitality. I will not disappoint you," he said, before following at the rear of the small party. However, he quietly added, I cannot say that for Kenna too.

OOC: Thanks, Kenna. :] Sometimes shorter posts are better, though - mine are somewhat rambly, as you've probably gathered. Also, would you like a plot whereupon Kenna proves Admiral wrong?

OOC:: I think this thread is done, so I hope it's okay that I don't post an IC post.
I feel like longer posts are better even if it is just rambling!:P Sure, how about they don't like each other (which is happening already) but she proves him wrong and then they become at least courteous towards each other. They don't have to be friends unless you want that.