backdated the 7th :] wc: 207

Skye had been scenting a strange scent around lately - it was most prominent around Valinta and her house, and she couldn't pinpoint what it was. It scented of the same smell as Dawali - corn husks and wheat and horses. AniWaya. And it also smelled of foreign wolf.

There was a trespasser.

Skye had been preoccupied with the pack drama that had occured overnight...literally...and hadn't had time to deal with whoever was lurking around on their grounds unannounced and without permission from the leaders. It was an AniWayan, she knew that much, and that he was male. That was about it. She didn't know anything else about the mysterious lawbreaker, and she was determined to find out who was lolloping around their grounds. It had been neutral ground before, but now it was not - the scent markers and borders were enough to tell that someone that this was their ground. Not his.

She hadn't had a chance to ask Valinta yet, but she would. She followed the scent trail of the AniWayan stranger through the forest of the Cercatori d'Arte lands, determined to find out who it was. Her dagger was in her hand, long and sharp and ready to defend.

wc: 283

Suddenly, Skye heard a voice; it was calling out 'hello'? It wasn't familiar, and the scent that now overpowered her was of AniWaya. It was the trespasser - she had found him. Slowly, carefully, she crept up to where the scent lingered; there he was, leaning against a tree. She concealed herself behind a bush, dagger flashing. She didn't want to kill him, or even harm him, but the incident with the coyote from Inferni that had taunted her and then attacked her left her cautious of trespassers and newcomers.

The man was a dark orange, almost golden, with dark black hair and white eyes. He was very strange - she was immediately cautious. He also seemed to be talking to himself, but she didn't know to whom - and then she heard him snap something about a bird brain. Was this man insane? Or did he have another companion...what if he was ambushing the pack? Whatever the case, she'd teach this lolloping man a lesson.

Skye let a low snarl out of her throat and she stood from her hiding position as the man asked who was there again. She stood in front of him, holding out her wicked blade. "I've smelled you ever since a few days ago," she said in a low growl. "This is claimed land. Cercatori d'Arte land. What is your business here and why have you been lingering around?" Skye stood her pose as dominant over the other - her ears were pointed forward, her chin was high and poised, and her tail was also high. It was clear that she was one of the leaders - and this trespasser had her to answer to.

wc: 354

He was visiting Valinta? That would explain why she smelled his stink all around her house. She relaxed a bit, however, as he explained himself. There was the very likely possibility that he was lying, that much was sure, but Skye didn't want to think he was. He seemed honest. The way his falcon, his spirit guide, asked who she was made her hackles rise. She nodded curtly when he said that he wasn't in a position to ask; he most certainly wasn't, slinking around and trespassing without asking the leaders beforehand! Skye wasn't exactly sure what Shawchert would do in her place, but he had been here a while. If he had been just visiting...

"And what issues were these?" she asked, her form more relaxed and her tone less defensive, but still on the wary side. This man could easily be lying to her, and could be using Valinta as an excuse to hang around the pack borders. She could smell her scent on him, however, and was inclined to believe him. But if he thought that he could just say that there were issues, he could forget that. She had a right to know - she was a leader, and that was her job. If Valinta needed help, she would help her.

So the strange, orange man's name was J'adore Austral. She'd never heard a name like that; it was probably foreign. "I am Skye Collins," she said, "the co-leader of Cercatori d'Arte." She narrowed his eyes as he looked all around, and his eyes shifted to his bag - was he thinking of fighting her? "Don't even think about it," she said calmly. "Besides, if you're Valinta's friend, you have nothing to run from or hide from. Next time, however, before visiting a friend for so long, try to inform the leaders first. Other packs may not be so friendly about people on their lands." She tried to imagine what would have happened to J'adore if he had been lurking around on Inferni's lands - bad things, bad things.

wc: 346

Skye was bemused for a few moments - how had he known that she was thinking about Inferni? Was he a mind reader or something? She shook away the feeling; it had probably been obvious, but suspicion still lingered in her mind. She sat down next to J'adore on a large rock that was perched next to his tree stump. She vaguely wondered why that had happened - did lightning strike the tree to make it fall down? Or did some ancient human chop down that tree to make a house a long, long time ago? She supposed she'd never know unless she asked the tree herself, which was clearly absurd. She listened to what J'adore was saying.

She flattened one ear; big issues. Family issues. How informative. She could guess pretty well where that was going, however - after all, the scent of Valinta was strong on his fur, and she guessed that they were more than just friends. "Pups?" she asked, lifting her ears back up again. Valinta had been looking a bit more...plump, she realized. She hadn't thought it was pups, however, since the lump in the dancer's belly wasn't too prevalent yet and it was easy to overlook it. She wondered how long Valinta had known J'adore, and how long they'd been...together. Her mind wandered to Bangle for a moment - she'd known him for a while, but not that long. Had she?

She forced herself to tear out of those thoughts and just caught what J'adore was saying about not seeing her. "So am I," she said a bit dryly, but then decided that the past was the past. J'adore wasn't trying to take over anything as she could see, and he wasn't trying to start a war between AniWaya and Cercatori d'Arte. She had met Dawali - he had been very nice. He would have no reason to send J'adore here, anyway. "You're from AniWaya?" she asked, watching as his falcon of a spirit guide flew away.

wc: 231

Skye shrugged. "My mate is over twice my age, and we don't seem to find it a problem," she said. Then again, however, she wasn't having pups with him...yet. She shuddered, wondering what that experience might be like. She knew that it wasn't pleasant from the talks her mom had given her about them - still, she was curious, and puppies sure were cute. They couldn't help themselves - they were adorable. She gave J'adore a once-over and decided that his and Valinta's puppies would also be cute - she made sure she would help Valinta take care of them if J'adore wasn't able to leave his pack for hers or vice versa. That would be tough on her...a single mother. But she would have the entire pack to help her - Skye would make sure of that.

Skye smiled. This man, although he was grown, seemed like a puppy - experiencing life, glad that he made up with his new friend. Or rather, more than a friend. Were they mates? Could two people from different packs end up being mates? She supposed they could if they eventually came into the same pack. She wondered if J'adore would join her pack, or if Valinta would leave for J'adore. "I'm glad," she said in response to his talk of them getting back together.

wc: 870

Skye shrugged. It didn't seem like J'adore had raped Valinta or anything - it was clearly consensual. And that made Skye feel like it wasn't his fault at all, and he didn't take her freedom away - if Valinta hadn't wanted to do it, or foresaw the difficulties that were lying ahead now, she wouldn't or shouldn't have consented to that. Skye didn't really feel pity for the man, the same way she didn't feel pity for Shawchert - it had been their choice. They'd done it. Wallowing in misery and whining like a puppy wasn't going to solve anything, nor was it going to let them go back in time and take away what they'd done. They'd done it - maybe they should have, maybe they shouldn't have, but the fact was that what was done was done.

Skye listened to J'adore's next words - he may move, or she might. She was saddened by the thought that the dancer, Valinta, may move to AniWaya and never return except for visits, but she supposed that it was better than if they stayed where they were and didn't go anywhere at all. That'd leave the pups fatherless - and there was always the possibility of J'adore moving to Cercatori d'Arte as well. Skye nodded as he said that Valinta was confused - she could imagine that. She remembered how much of a mess Orin was in when she realized that she may be pregnant...and understood.

Skye pinned her ears back and narrowed her eyes at the last point J'adore made - get rid of it? How on earth was that even possible? There were two ways to get rid of a puppy - to kill it while it was inside you, which was extremely risky, considering the dead body would be inside you for a long time and it may kill you, and to wait until it was born and then get rid of it. What monster, what absolute monster, would try the second option? Or even the first? Get rid of it...Skye couldn't even believe he had brought that subject up.

She shrugged when he suggested somewhere warmer, and moved to a spot where the sun filtered through the trees. "There aren't a lot of warm places when it's the middle of winter," she pointed out, looking up at the cloudy sky. The sun filtering through the trees was a bit warm, but the sun was covered by the clouds and didn't give off as much heat as it would have. She looked back down to J'adore, deciding to voice her opinions on all the things he had told her - she wondered vaguely why he did. Perhaps he needed someone to talk to, that was all - everyone needed some of that.

"Sounds like you need to talk it out with Valinta - you made the decision, and you're stuck with it now. She's pregnant, and that can be hard on a woman." Skye remembered she read about pregnancy - they could even get postpartum depression, which wrecked them out of their minds and made them depressed even if the happiest things were happening to them. It was a chemical imbalance in the brain, and it made them sad for no reason - it was like a sickness or a disease. Skye didn't want Valinta to become depressed, but sometimes that happened when you had pups. You could also get mood swings and other horrible things from being pregnant, but she was confident that the healthy dancer wouldn't have too much trouble.

She looked at the golden man and sighed - she couldn't cast him out of the packlands, not now that she knew the full story. She would have to speak with Shawchert about it, but it seemed to her that she really had no choice but to let him visit Valinta for a few days - at least to decide what they were going to do in the meantime, and what they were going to do with the puppy once it was born. "You can visit Valinta, but don't linger for too long at a time - Shawchert may not like that. And for goodness sake, don't cause trouble - if you do, not only will Shawchert be angry, but so will the rest of the pack." Skye let that sink in for a moment - it was the hint that if J'adore was to cause any trouble or be the causer of some sort of drama, the entire pack would chase him out. She loved Valinta, but the pack came first, and she had the entire pack behind her, besides.

She wondered for a few moments if Valinta was going to go to his pack after she gave birth, or if he was going to go into theirs. If he caused trouble - she didn't think he would, but if he did - him joining their pack would become something of a problem. She hoped, for his sake and Valinta's, he would keep things quiet and only come visit for one or two days at a time, tops.

wc: 415

Skye nodded slowly as J'adore said that he would do anything for Valinta - she could believe it. She herself would do anything for Bangle, and she liked to imagine that he was the same way about her. There were certain people who just would always do things for each other, always be there for each other, and always love each other. That was the way some people were, and Skye liked that part of the world - it was warm and bright, like the beautiful sun rising on the horizon. Love was beautiful.

She then snapped back to attention as J'adore said that he would only be visiting for a little while at a time - two to three hours every couple of days. That was understandable; Valinta was pregnant with a child, and Skye knew that must be hard for her. She would need J'adore to be there, and a few hours every few days wouldn't be too bad, especially not if Skye and Shawchert allowed it. She made a mental note to bring it up to Shaw the next time she saw him, which would be soon.

So being on the packlands made him feel vulnerable. Well, that made two of them - Skye didn't like much being in other member's territories, especially if she wasn't invited or was trying to tell someone something that didn't know she was there. It made her feel intrusive, like a parasite or something equally unwelcome, at least until she met the leader and got the okay from them. And she nodded when he said that those scars weren't his fault; she believed that, too. J'adore seemed the kind to want to avoid the fight despite all the talk of starting one with Shawchert; she was sure he would keep out of trouble. If not out of respect for the pack and the leadership of Cercatori d'Arte, then for concern for Valinta and her child.

She then looked at him as his demeanor suddenly changed, and a smile lit his features - he looked better that way, rather than with his brows knitted together in a mixture of confusion, anger, and perhaps sadness. He then thanked her - she had, apparently, cleared his mind up. "Glad to have helped," she said cheerfully - even though she had only met the man today, she liked to help a fellow canine - even if it was just something simple as changing his or her mind.