Out of the Fire (Closed)

[Red Charge]

"Nice, you killed and ate a pony raw? About time you started acting like a wolf. Did you eat the good parts? You know ponies and zebras all have the best parts in their lower half, well of course the heart and stuff are great too, but you can't beat all the tender parts." The wolf licked his lips hungrily. "Man now you're getting me hungry."

"What's an organ?" Ice Fang asked, "Hearing music? Maybe something in your brain fried, been near any lightning lately?" Ice Fang asked, "Can't say I've really heard of something like that before. What's the music playing? Is it a song you know, or just random notes?" Ice Fang asked, leaning over his hammock carefully to look at Baxter.

[Baxter]

"It's like a piano made of pipes. Sort of makes a low 'thumming' sound," Baxter said, finally opening his eyes and looking over at Ice Fang. "I don't know if I fried something or what, but that seems like too simple an answer. Unless all wolves have some thing in their head that does this and I broke whatever suppresses it."

"Not a song I've heard, but it's a song. Not random notes. And it just plays without end, never giving me one moment of silence." The archer looked down at the branch, shaving off a single slice of bark. "That's depressing, isn't it? I'm never going to be able to experience silence again. Instead it's going to be this stupid music for the rest of my life."

[Red Charge]

"Maybe it's a symptom of chronic homesickness? The music represents your longing to come back home or something like that." Ice Fang said, "Just try not to think about it, it'll go away eventually, once we get back we'll go see the elder about it, he'll probably know what to do." Ice Fang reassured.

"I've eaten ponies but that's not unusual is it? Ponies are food, griffons can be food too. I'd go for a griffon dinner right about now. Though griffons can make dinner out of you if you're not careful. A shame you didn't kill that bear, could've eaten it. I'd go for a bit of fat right now."

[Baxter]

"Maybe that's it," Baxter said, nodding at Ice Fang's possible explanation. Leaving he would have never thought he would actually miss the barrens, but after his experience in Equestria he was ready to be back home. Maybe it wasn't so much liking the barrens as much as it was hating the place he was in more, but... wasn't that what homesickness was anyway?

"That bear's lucky he ran off. Otherwise we would be eating it." Baxter stripped off a few more pieces of bark off the branch, watching as they fell to the ground. "Alright, you've got a fresh griffon in front of you. Which half do you eat first, the bird or the tiger thing?"

[Red Charge]

"Depends on the griffon." Ice Fang said, "I know some dogs eat the heart straight after the kill and then proceed to strip off the tenders and then the breasts. I guess I'd go with that. I do hear though that griffon breast is gamier than chicken. I guess I'd have to try, never eaten a griffon before. They're not exactly prey."

"What about you?"

[Baxter]

"Depends how hungry I was," Baxter answered. "If I was hungry enough, I'd probably go for the cat meat first. Save the bird portion for last."

They were really running this topic into the ground. Perhaps it was time to change the subject. But more idle conversation didn't seem like the most interesting thing right now. "What's gonna happen when we get back to the barrens?" he finally asked. At least this question had meat to it.

[Red Charge]

"Go back to living normally. Sharp wouldn't dare to attack us in the Barrens and without the elite forces, he's probably going to lose the invasion. Just a matter of staying in the barrens until then. Not like we get much work outside of the barrens anyway." Ice Fang replied, "Maybe you'll finally get some reputation so long as you stop being a little jerk to other wolves."

At that Ice Fang laid back down in his hammock, resting his eyes.

[Baxter]

Baxter looked at the resting Ice Fang dolefully, remaining silent. There was truth to what Ice Fang said. It wasn't a secret that the main reason he was so unpopular was his never-ending tirades. He'd go on and on about how stupid the wolves were for doing contract work, how they should be leading the dogs to victory on the mainland. Silverback had done it! All they needed was initiative, to stop obsessing over their stupid toys and do something meaningful.

No one ever wanted to hear it, yet he talked anyway. Even after they'd heard it a million times, like he was desperate to get through to them.

"Maybe I can learn to keep my mouth shut, he finally said, slouching between his knees. "I don't even know how much I care anymore, about the 'wolves leading the dogs' thing. Not that I've changed my mind, but, after being down here, actually seeing the idiots I was talking about. They don't want to be pulled out of the dirt, and they certainly don't deserve it."

The smaller wolf sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I thought that with a change in leadership they could be something again. I think I still do. But why bother? If they want to be like this, let 'em. Let the ponies drive them back to the tunnels. Let them go back to their stupid pack conflicts. They're violent and stupid, and they want to stay that way. Screw potential, screw being respected and feared. If they were ever gonna get their it'd be someone else doing all the work."

The archer looked down at the wood shavings in front of him, brushing them aside with his foot. "I don't know. It really wasn't what I thought it'd be when I got down here." He looked down at the empty space he had cleared, beginning to stare at it. "I'm already coming back humiliated. You know they're gonna ask. 'Well, Baxter? Was it everything you've been spouting to us? Did you lead the dogs to victory over the ponies? Tell us. Tell us everything. Tell us how great it was.'"

"I'm a terrible wolf. I know I am. I get my tail handed to me on a regular basis, I complain about everything we do, I'm the worst fighter in the pack. I'm a complete loser." The archer was silent for a few seconds, dragging his foot through the grass in front of him. "But at least I'm not a dog."

[Red Charge]

Sadly however, in the middle of his rant, Ice Fang had fallen asleep.

[Baxter]

After getting no response from Ice Fang, Baxter looked up at his hammock. Probably asleep. The wolf pulled his head up, watching the sun going down in the distance. He was obviously going to get the first shift on watch tonight. That had been practically agreed to as soon as Ice Fang set up his hammock.

The wolf kept his bow out, and on his lap where he could still grab it if he was yanked away. After what had happened with the dragons, he knew better then to let his weapon sit beside him. He didn't even bother continuing with the branch he was working on. No way he was going to not be alert because he was fletching.

[Red Charge]

Morning came rather swiftly, at some point in the night Ice Fang woke up, he got down from the tree and hung out with Baxter for a while, mostly just roughousing him because he could, despite Baxter's protests. When he was finally tired of it, he got back up on his hammock and fell asleep again.

---

Sharp was standing in the opening to his tunnel, looking out at the many eyes glinting at him from the darkness out of the reach of the fire he had set up's light.

"You're all here for a little game of sorts. Soon the real battles of the invasion will begin and naturally," He spread his arms and his grin around, "You are all invited on the fun, as promised. However, as some of you known the Winter's Breath has been stolen from us by one of our turncoat generals. So I propose a competition for you. Sources say he fled to the Griffon Kingdom, so each of you, take a small cadre of your finest and hunt him down. The winner, of course, gets the sword."

Murmurs erupted beyond the darkness, a single dog stepped forth. She was a canaan, but it was hardly visible, her entire body was covered in black and white tattoos giving her the appearance of a skeleton with glowing spots where her gems were sewn into her skin. On her head she wore a helmet made out of another, much larger dog's skull. Both eye sockets were slotted with gems, as well as the forehead. The forehead however was unique in the crystalized eye that was implanted there, and moved around independently of the dog's regular eyes. Her armor was obviously top crafted and dyed with the blood of many foes, also embedded with gems of all kinds.

"Then let it begin." She said with a grin.

[Baxter]

Baxter blinked wearily a few times as the sun began to come up. He had ended up spending the entire night on guard duty, nothing but the music in his head to keep him company. Ice Fang had, of course, gotten up in the middle of the night to bother him, treating poor Baxter to the usual roughhousing he had experienced over the last few days. The smaller wolf glared at his still sleeping friend, none to happy about the sudden and unexpected nature of the event.

"Going to get the food," he grumbled, walking away to where they had left their supplies. He came back about another twenty minutes later, again covered in dirt and debris.

"First a bear, now a mountain lion, everything in this stupid valley wants to attack me! You included," he added, dropping the supplies with a loud thud. "Well I hope your fun last night helped you get back to sleep."

[Red Charge]

Ice Fang was not yet even awake he only woke up moments later and climbed down to take Baxter's food. "But why didn't you bring some for yourself?" He asked, biting in savagely. "You know I know it's been rough, but you really need to start taking care of yourself. You're always dirty and you never clean your wounds, now you've stopped eating. I'm getting worried buddy."

He continued eating his food undisturbed, "Look maybe we could go to one of the bad parts in Trottingham, who knows, maybe there's criminal ponies you can eat and no one would mind. We're going to pretty much have to move through the sewers anyway because I'm sure neither the ponies nor griffons there will be happy to see us. But don't give up, you're getting better, you really are. I say you're a lot stronger now than you were when we left the barrens. Just cut yourself some slack will you?"

[Baxter]

Baxter had gotten himself a meal out of the pack, only to have it taken out of his hands by Ice Fang. The tired wolf looked down at where his meal was before glaring at Ice Fang. He may have been a good friend, but Ice Fang certainly knew how to be a jerk about things.

Well, if Ice Fang thought he could just eat what belonged to Baxter, Baxter would just have to show him he could eat what belonged to him. The smaller wolf walked over to Ice Fang, sitting close to him and grabbing a piece of meat. "It would help if you cut the act. Even if it's fun for you to take my food."

"I may be less worthless then when I left but I still feel more worthless," he spoke between mouthfuls. "Maybe I was deluded, thought that just being a wolf was enough to cut it. Obviously not."

[Red Charge]

"Of course not you daft canine. You can't just assume you're awesome because you're a wolf. You gotta work on it, like we work on your melee skills. You got better from those. You even learned something from that emissary guy you hate. Even though you still suck at archery. You should really get a real teacher to train with. I can teach you how to throw daggers if you want." He said, patting Baxter on the head, "But you're doing a good job now and that's what counts."

He continued eating with as many lewd moans as he could, to tease Baxter. "Yep that certainly does it." he said when he finished. "Gotta say you may not be the best fighter but you know how to eat well. We got anymore of that food?"