The Devil's in the Details [ J O I N I N G ]

[[Copperyn]]

The sky above was a splendid blue, clear and cold, the sunlight dancing off of the ice crystals that covered the winter grasses. They were short, dead in the wintry weather, and crunched slightly as the male stepped across them. There was no snow here, only frost – apparently it had been dry enough that no clouds had formed to create snow recently, but it was bitterly cold nonetheless. Breath ringed the male’s muzzle, the warmth of it cooling rapidly in the brittle air.

Lexington pressed his ears back against his skull, moving across the oddly still plain. It was a beautiful day, all told. A day for upright deeds and pleasant conversations, of light moods and new friendships. Lex hunched his shoulders, his impassive face wearing a slight frown that tugged at one side of his mouth. None of those things were what Lexington sought today, and, based on an educated guess, he wouldn’t find any of them, either.

The three-legged male was a healer, but unlike most of his caste, he hadn’t learned the trade out of compassion or concern for the well-being of others. He’d taught himself the art of healing out of self-interest: born with a missing hind leg, phantom pains often troubled him, and he’d experimented with pain-killing herbs in order to ease them. Herbs with other effects had been discovered inadvertently – berries that would make you hungry, or make you empty your stomach whether you wanted to or not. Bark that induced fevers, grasses that relieved them. His repertoire had proved to have a second use – bartering. Lexington could not hunt large prey, and he’d made a habit of joining packs for the winter months in order to survive more easily.

He had little to offer a pack except his trademark sarcasm, being three-legged, but healing was a valuable skill. Word was that Valkyr’s alphess was a particularly vile lady, and had driven away many of her pack members. Apparently she kept a tight hold on her pack – a vicious leader often meant that other, more soft-hearted healers would steer clear of the pack. A knowledge of healing rarely went hand-in-hand with the type of personality that thrived in a pack like Valkyr was rumored to be.

Coming to the edge of the marked scent border, Lexington sat back on his hindlegs, or rather, his hips-and-one-hind-leg. He tucked his tail around his front paws and spent a moment, as he often did, checking his dark grey coat for debris or snarls. Then he tipped his head back and called – a sound somewhere between a bark and a howl – too short to be one, and too long to be the other – to announce himself.

Lex didn’t mind a dark-hearted leader, although he wasn’t exactly dark-hearted himself. He was intelligent, and snide, and motivated by self-interest. Valkyr seemed like the sort of pack that was likely to need a healer, and to not turn up their noses at his less-than smiling demeanor.

[yoko]

One would think that sleeping on the frosted grass would make him less comfortable, Luna thought with a small endearing smile. The ebony wolf glided swiftly to her sibling's side. His reddish-cream fur stood out starkly on the brittle white grass. His nose was snugly tucked beneath his tail. Luna almost felt bad about waking him up...Then she remembered. We were supposed to be hunting...and he ditched me! With that in mind she prodded him sharply in the side.

Azazel growled and lazily opened a golden eye. "That wasn't very polite, Sister. What happened, did Wrath chase off another of your potential suitors?"

"No!" Luna barked irritably. "Not recently..."

"I forgot you don't need help with that," Azazel replied with a cool smirk.

Luna growled lowly and followed her larger brother deeper into the plain. She assumed he would help her hunt now. She just had to keep a close eye on him. It wasn't exactly a paradise on the plain right now. The cold air filled her nose and all she could smell was bitter frost. Her eyes scanned the plains, but what prey she did spot was far in the distance and rather large.

The hunt was over before it began, interrupted by the call of another wolf. The voice was unfamiliar to her sensitive eats. She stopped dead in her tracks and turned to face the direction it had come from. An intruder? Was he dangerous? Was he a fool? She felt fear run cold along her spine. She wanted to flee, but she also wanted to warn the stranger that he was in danger here. Before she could decide which action to take, she saw her brother sailing along the plain towards the stranger.

"Azazel you can't!" Luna barked, chasing her rock-headed brother.

Azazel stood a few yards from the stranger, noting his tall but thin stature. "Well, well, what brings you to the frigid plains? Taking a stroll on Valkyr territory? Be careful, the last wolf that tried that lost his tail."

Luna's eyes flitted from nervously between Azazel and the stranger. She was poised to run in case he jumped her brother. But she sucked it up and stayed put.

"Cut it out, Azazel! And you! Who are you and what do you want?" she barked, surprised by the mean tone of her own bark.

Azazel looked smug, The pup got some bark now? It's about time.

[[Copperyn]]

He didn’t have to wait long before he was greeted – by not one, but two wolves. The larger of the pair, a russet-hued male, bounded up, trailed by a dark-pelted female. She eyed them both nervously as the first spoke, or rather, blustered.

She took her turn next, first scolding the male, then turning her attentions to Lex. He didn’t respond at first, instead pulling himself to his feet before speaking. He had no way to predict how they’d react to his handicap – at any rate, they hadn’t seemed to notice his missing leg yet. Whether they’d drive him off or not remained to be seen.

”I’m hardly here for a pleasure stroll. I’ve come for an audience with your alphess, to see if your pack could use my services.” His voice was flat and tenor, almost droll, but his eyes flicked from one wolf to the other with a keen interest that betrayed his dull façade. His gaze was a bright jade hue, like the underside of a spring leaf.

Lexington didn’t bother to say what his services were – let them wonder, or guess, if they could. It was obvious he was no fighter, nor hunter, but there were a number of things a wolf could do that had little dependence upon physical ability. Perhaps he were a shaman or seer, or a turncoat from one of the other packs… few ever guessed that he was a healer without being told. Maybe it was his lack of bedside manner.

Healers usually exhibited a caring nature, an outwardly compassionate air that marked them apart from their peers. Lexington lacked that kindness – his choice to help the injured or ill was not one that came from intrinsic generosity.

[azil]

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[atrb=background,http://oi56.tinypic.com/s4qv4n.jpg] Damn the sun. It made it hard to see outside, and considering the fact that she was a wolf, and therefore always outside, Pynthi was not in the best of moods. Her lids had come to squint over her violet eyes, and her nose had wrinkled ungracefully, a growl rumbling from her throat every now and then. "Damn you, light!" she exclaimed, snapping haphazardly at the air, as though it had the ability to put a damper on the crystalline skies, though she knew somewhere - perhaps - that this was impossible. With a grunt, the dame picked up a lazy trot, her cream and chocolate tail curling gracefully over her back, though the annoyed sneer did not drift from her lips, nor did the glare leave her glittering eyes. Today would not be the best day to meet Pynthi for the first time, but the unknowing Lexington did not know that. She had heard voices, a few of them recognizable as a pair that had been born into the Valkyr pack not long after her. The girl had decided to join them on whomever they might be interrogating; a trespasser, perhaps? Oh, the queen did like dealing with trespassers! A gleeful smirk fluttered across her lips, and the babe picked up her pace, her long legs bringing her across the plains. She made her way easily up an embankment, startling some ptarmigans in the process, who squawked and flapped wildly away. They were safe for the moment, for Pynthi had no such intentions of bothering them. She had other prey to find. When she had reached the top of the hillock, she was easily able to see the trio who were out in the open. Two were, as she had thought, the siblings Azazel and Luna. They were unimportant in comparison to the male she did not know. A huff rumbled from her lips, and the monarch moved swiftly towards them, her cold gaze falling only upon the intruder. She caught wind of his words, wishing to join and put his 'services' to use, but as she spied the fact that he missed a leg, a snicker bubbled in her throat. She circled the boy once or twice before coming to stand before him, a brow arching in her judgmental glare. "What could you possibly be helpful for, stumpy?"

[yoko]

Luna stood firm, despite her sibling's teasing expression. They were not pups. They were full-grown members of this Pack, and as such, it was their duty to interrogate the intruder on their lands. She felt sympathetic to him already, knowing that he had traveled through bitter winds only to be greeted with mockery and hostility. Her sympathies were raised immensely when the once possibly threatening stranger, proved only to be a poor cripple! Possibly searching for food and shelter from predators he could not escape. The mention of him providing "services" were flooded from her ears by instinctive motherly, tenderness.

"Sorry did I say stroll? I meant hob- "

"Oh you poor dear!" she exclaimed. "We'll take you to see, Pynthi immediately."

Azazel rolled his eyes openly at Luna's instant forgiveness of his trespassing. He was tempted to repeat her words with a scathing high-pitched, whine. So he had three legs? Big deal! Every wolf had their own troubles and his made it all the more likely that his request to join would be denied, not that the red-fur wasn't curious to know what talents this wolf was selling, but more because Pynthi was unpredictable and didn't always function in the ways of logic. If he was banking on some incredible skill to get him in, he was more than likely out of luck.

"No need to be an escort, Luna, our benevolent Alphess has arrived already," Azazel said with a smirk, lowering himself in a mock bow. Though his gestures were mocking, his eyes were quite hungry to see what the Alphess would do. He was not at all disappointed by her reaction to his three-legs.

Luna backed away immediately, obviously nervous of the she-wolf's presence. She looked between Pynthi and Azazel now. How could they be so cruel?!

[[Copperyn]]

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[atrb=background,http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/4835/middlepiece.png] The female of the pair became sympathetic to his cause, taking pity upon his poor soul as soon as she spotted his handicap. Her guard dropped and she spoke hurriedly, promising to take him to Pynthi with haste. The male looked sickened by her display, but Lexington spared no words for either of them - as the male pointed out, company had arrived. A second dame had appeared. She held herself in a manner of dominance, tail high and posture prim. She circled him once or twice, and he stood still, allowing her to do so. His guess was that this was the fabled Pynthi, the harsh but powerful leader of the pack. She snickered, and he inclined his head in a curt nod, as if he were quite pleased she'd noticed his rather hard-to-miss abnormality. Her words were laced with contempt for his state of being, but he only nodded, as if acknowledging that she raised a valid point. After all, she did. "I'm certain I don't look as if I could be of much use, but you'd be hard pressed to find a healer better than I at the trade anywhere. Certainly not in Fjordsong. They are overrun with medics, where you could do with just one, for I am confident in the conjecture that I alone am as skilled as they are, combined. I've had certain... motivations... to learn the art, you see." He cast a clear glance at his stunted hip as he spoke, before returning his jade orbs to Pynthi. "Why feed several who serve no purpose as warriors, when you can do with one, and be better for it?" His tones were a clear tenor, and the speech was gentlemanly - it could have easily been turned to patronization, and often was, but for Pynthi, it was polite and courtly. Some might have considered his claims of supeririority over the Fjordsong healers to be boasting - in his eyes, it wasn't. He'd yet to ever meet a healer who he couldn't match for knowledge and skill. His travels had taken him further than most would venture in their lives, and his thirst for knowledge and experimentations had rewarded him. Speech over, he dipped his head now, in formal recognition of Pynthi's rank. He felt no need to cast himself prone at her feet, or spill honey into her ear with his words. If she could command a pack like Valkyr, she had no need for excessive flattery and subjugation. Showing his respect for her was enough - besides, having three legs was a display of submission all on its own, there was no need to push the point further.

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