Dagger, Quarry, Tac, & Valeria

The three adolescents scrabbled across wet rock and chilly ground, having little care for anything other than having fun today. Sneaking away from the Temple without permission was a big no-no at their age, especially with the recent attack by the Nuova Alba, and they all knew that they were going to get it when they got back, but it was hard to stay confined in the stone-shamble fortress when all the adults got to go out and enjoy the warming spring days. Dagger, the tallest one in the bunch, had been the one to instigate the little trip and encourage a few other young ones to go with them, to hell with what the adults would say or do to them later.

The roar of the falls grew louder in their ears the deeper they went into the rocky ridge, until the rushing waters grew so loud that they had to raise their voices to be heard by one another, "I think we're getting close!" Dagger barked, daring to take his eyes off the rocks below his feet in order to turn his head back to speak to his siblings. Tac grinned, and his mustard-colored eyes glittered with excitement. He could just picture the massive wall of water streaming down from the beginning of the cliff! Quarry was a little more cautious about it, only because he wasn't entirely fond of padding along the narrow paths that dropped off so steeply, "I hope so..." Moving behind her brothers, Valeria couldn't help but share Quarry's feelings, but she didn't speak on them.

Snowdrift & Kankulak

Their brother had been one of those captured during the raid, and that alone should have convinced the two siblings not to stray away from the safety of the ruins. But they were young and inquisitive like the group of canines they'd saw sneak away for a bit of exploring and couldn't pass up an opportunity to get out of the hustle and bustle of the ruins for some fun themselves. Snowdrift scampered on ahead of her brother, using her wide, furry feline paws to get a better handle on the slick rocks, while her tail helped to keep her balance whenever she did slip or misplace her steps. "Wait up for us, guys!" Snow called out as she jumped from one rock to another, crossing a small gap in the trail.

Dagger, Quarry, Tac, & Valeria

They almost didn't hear the cub's voice amongst the echoing roar of the distant waterfall, and the rushing river far below them creating such a racket. Valeria stopped and turned her head back when she thought she heard a voice, and was happily surprised to see two of their playmates making their way along the treacherous path. "Snow, Kanku!"

Hearing their sister's voice, all three brothers stopped to look back, but not before Tac ran into the backside of Dagger and caused the taller brother to slip and fall forward. His paws scratched desperately at the ground as he picked himself up and hauled himself back away from the ledge he'd almost toppled over, "Watch it, Tac!" His heart thundered in his chest from the fright, and for the brief scare, he glared furiously at the other youngster before turning his gaze to the feline cubs moving in their direction. "How did you guys get out without anyone seeing you?" He questioned with a wagging tail, just as happy as Valeria was to have additional friends joining them.

Snowdrift & Kankulak

Kankulak was a bit more focused on the ground in front of him than with peeling his eyes away from it and greeting the others. He wasn't especially afraid of heights, but... he just felt better being on lower ground, and not so out in the open with little route to escape. His small claws grated against the stones as he gaged the jump his sister had just made with so little trouble. A light orange tail, fitted with ginger stripes, flicked anxiously behind him. Then he bunched his muscles and, with a bit of careful mental calculations, plunged into the air and cleared the small gap in the path. For the length of time it took him to get past that little obstacle, Snowdrift was yards ahead and meeting up with their canine comrades already. "Careful Dagger, these rocks are slick!" His little blunder had been seen by her, and she felt the need to give him a friendly warning, though they were all knowledgeable to that fact already. "Chark and Krone were suppose to be watching us, but..." Her little white ears went back, and her voice softened to convey a sense of upset, "Another one of the Water Dragons died, and two more are pretty sick. They went to go help with them. Then Wolf Eye fell asleep, so we just snuck past him."

Dagger, Quarry, Tac, & Valeria

Feeling a little jarred himself for almost knocking his brother off the ledge, Tac had his ears back and his tail low, looking as apologetic as could be. He shuffled aside when Dagger and the rest clustered forward to greet Snowdrfit with nose-sniffs and playful nudges. Dagger took the time to speak to Snow, with a furry brow lifted up, quirked partly in amusement at hearing their assigned guard was sleeping on the job. On the other hand, there was a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach to learn that another one of the reptiles had died. His expression fell a little to reflect this, "Which one was it, do you know...?" Next to him, Quarry was shaking his head dismally, "That's the third one this week. I wonder what's going on." A heavy sigh came from Valeria, who had her own two cents to add in, "It's not just them; have you seen Tiffen and Raggle? Even Dandelion is looking bad. And Diadem..."

Snowdrift & Kankulak

"Giomar." To Snowdrift, it was hard to tell some of the reptiles apart, mostly because she was still very young and hadn't really gotten the chance to get to know all of them well yet. But she was certain about the identification of this one, "You know what happened to Diadem, don't you...?" Her voice lowered again when she said that, not in a particularly somber way, but one that was secretive and hesitant. At this point, Kankulak had made it to the group, and after hearing his sister's trailing words, he jumped in with a grim follow up, "He got so sick that Tersek had him killed." This he wouldn't dare say to any of the adults. The deer that resided in and near the Haunters were protected and looked after, and selectively culled to provide meat when needed, but those few select stags that were chosen for guard and warrior duties like Diadem were given a permanent residence in the Temple. To suggest that Tersek had ordered the buck's assassination was heresy.

Dagger, Quarry, Tac, & Valeria

All four adolescents dropped their gaze, looking to their paws or the rock and stone they were standing on. An uneasiness settled over the group, with each of the knowing that something bad was going on, but none of them knowing how to make things better. Four pairs of eyes collectively flashed back up to look at the tiger cubs, half horrified and half intrigued at this new bit of news. As if there was a chance for them being overheard, Dagger lowered his voice as much as he could and still have it carry over the rumble of the water, "What?! Where did you hear that, how do you know?" Wide-eyed, Tac gasped and looked from one sibling to the other, and added a bit to the controversy with some of his own thoughts, "I wonder if that's what happened to Zanfire, too...? Ursa said he got hit by those car things, but do you remember how sick he was when we last saw him... sick like Diadem was before he disappeared?"

Snowdrift & Kankulak

"Well..." Kankulak turned his eyes left to right secretively, knowing as well as the others did that he shouldn't be saying these things, but a juicy conspiracy all but begged to be spread around. At least among the cubs, that is. "I overheard it from Ratenshi, when he thought I was sleeping. But!" The cub's eyes got big after that exclamation, "You can't tell anyone else, or he might get in trouble!" Snowdrift nodded beside her brother, not wanting to get their father in any hot water for spreading rumors around. "I think we should watch Tersek more closely. He's the only always picking fights with the others, and talking bad about everyone."

Dagger, Quarry, Tac, & Valeria

The siblings were all crowded together now, as much engaged and fascinated by this talk as they were about exploring the rocky gorge. "We won't tell anyone, don't worry." Valeria was the first to assure the two cubs, and as she turned her brown eyes to her brothers, she gave them a pointed look that said they ought to agree to it as well. A low, disgruntled growl rumbled through Dagger's chest and into his words, "Tersek's always being a butthead." The youngster got agreeing nods from his siblings on that, "Hey... I got an idea!" Seemingly out of the blue, his tenure changed and his yellow eyes lit up with great mischief, "Why don't we play a prank on him?"

Valaria and Tac glanced between each other and to the cubs, then back at Dagger. Playing pranks did sound exciting, but... "Did you not just hear what we've been talking about? Tersek has been murdering the deer! In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he's the one responsible for everyone getting sick." Quarry was strongly against the idea. Tac was a little torn between cautious and the prospect of fun, however, and voice his own reason, "I think that's stretching it a bit, Quar. Maybe he did kill Diadem and Zanfire, but... he'd never hurt one of us.."

Snowdrift & Kankulak

To Kankulak, the idea sounded as poor as one could get. Messing with Tersek was like ticking off a dragon; at least, to most of the youngsters, that's what the grizzled brute came across as. On the other hand... conjuring up some sort of hilarious gag to pull on the wolfdog just might be worth the risk of getting severely punished by him if caught. "Well, I mean... I guess we could... but what if he catches us?" As with Tac, his sense of self-preservation was coming into serious conflict with the desire to have a little fun. His sister was more openly enthusiastic about the idea, however, "He won't catch us, of course! I bet we can talk some of the other cubs into helping us. And besides, even if he does catch us, we'll just run back to the Mothers - they'll protect us."

Dagger, Quarry, Tac, & Valeria

"That's right! Monarda and Chahaya will save us for sure!" When the excitement of it all got to Dagger, he raised his voice out of the unnecessary semi-whisper that they'd all been talking in up until now, not that their words could be quiet anyway while trying to speak over the cacophony of echoing sounds in the area. "Does anyone have any ideas?" The leggy hybrid sat back on his haunches, no longer interested in reaching the cascades at the beginning of the massive gorge. Tormenting the bully of the Haunters pack was far more enthralling to him. Even Tac and Quarry, who were among the more cautious and resistant to the idea, couldn't help but get caught up in it. The nervous thoughts of what Tersek would do to them if caught were replaced by what they could do to him.

Snowdrift & Kankulak

"What if we... um.... hmmm..." Snowdrift sat back as well as she thought about a potential prank. The felines soft ears were cricked and her eyes scrunched up a bit in a look of pure concentration, rather similar to the look that Kankulak was giving right now. "...we could put something totally gross in his food?" When she came up with this, her brother burst out with a rare giggle, then shook his head, "That would be funny, but he's got a good nose. He'd smell anything funny, for sure." Snowdrift sighed when her first idea was defeated, and went on to think more about it. After a few seconds, her eyes lit up and she offered another proposal, "What about... Oh! I got it! We can trick him into leaving the Temple, then we can ambush him and scare him! I've never seen him scared before, wouldn't that be priceless to see?"

Dagger, Quarry, Tac, & Valeria

Both of the suggestions got a round of murmurs from the siblings, half in approvement, and half in disagreement. Valaria voiced her concerns over the latter plan, yet a mischievous glint in her eyes said that she liked where Snowdrift was going with it, "If we do that, we'll have to think of something really good that'll scare him. And we'll have to make sure that we're somewhere where we can get away from him quick, because he won't be happy." Directly after that, Tac came up with a rather good question to follow it up, "What would scare him? He's pretty tough." Quarry nodded to this, "Yeah, he even makes Thunder listen to him. And he's a grizzly bear!"

Snowdrift & Kankulak

They had a good point there. The grizzled brute was undeniably unshakable, so far as the youngsters had seen, and he could easily command the lumbering bear to do this and that at his command. Well, usually. So what did frighten the mighty Tersek? "What about the city humans?" Spoken a little reluctantly, Kankulak brought up the infamous two-leggers as a possibility, "Most of the adults are always telling us about staying away from them, right? And they get all nervous and stuff when there's humans near the mountains. Cavan is even afraid of them, he told me so! And you know the stories that Dima has about them... I bet if Tersek is afraid of anything, it'd be a human."

Dagger, Quarry, Tac, & Valeria

Once more, Valaria was the voice of cautious reasoning, "I bet he would be scared of them, but... how would we even get humans for him to run into? Plus, they could hurt him, and we don't want that. Scaring him is fun, but I'd feel bad if he got hurt." "I wouldn't." Dagger declared this with a snort and a nose wrinkled in disdain, "I doubt he'd get hurt, and even if he did, no wimpy city human can hurt him too bad. No, it's a good idea Kanku, we just need to figure out now how we'll get a city human or two up here, and how to lure Tersek out." Valaria pinned her ears back and rumbled in discontent, "I don't like where this is going, guys."

Snowdrift & Kankulak

Kankulak was starting to regret the suggestion now, a feeling which his sister gleefully didn't share. She was more on Dagger's side, and although she didn't necessarily want to see their prank victim get hurt, she also viewed him as too tough for any 'wimpy' humans to do too much damage too. "Oh, Tersek will be fine. I betcha anything that he'll turn tail and run as soon as he sees them! It'll be hilarious!" The young feline rose up off of her haunches, and mostly met Dagger's gaze, since he seemed to be one of the more enthusiastic ones about their ploy, "Now we should figure out where we want to lead Tersek and the humans to. Like Val said, it should be somewhere where we can get away from Tersek easily, or somewhere with hiding spots for us."

Dagger, Quarry, Tac, & Valeria

"What about here?" Despite himself, Quarry piped up with an answer, "A lot of these trails are narrow, and Tersek is so big that he won't be able to walk on most of them, much less run after us. Plus, look at all the little places we can hide." That got the rest of the youngsters to looking around them, and to the various crevices and niches in the walls of the gorge where their smaller bodies could easily squeeze into. For all of them except Snowdrift, their darker, earth-toned colors would provide almost perfect camoflage against the wet rocks. "Hey yeah, that's a good idea. What do you guys think?" Dagger's brindle tail was waving, and even Tac's was patting the ground where he sat. Only Valaria remained on the side of caution against the plot now, at least where humans were involved. "I still don't like this. The adults aren't afraid of humans for nothing."

Snowdrift & Kankulak

"Oh, don't be such a spoil-sport, Val! The talk of humans is mostly hype, anyway. Mahala has never hurt any of us, right? She has those bows and arrows, but without them, she's totally defenseless - flat muzzle, no claws, weird skin-fur, and she's slow." Most of the youngsters loved their resident 'wild human' of course, but right now she served the purpose of demonstrating why humans weren't all that frightening. "We'll just look for some humans that don't have any bows and arrows with them, and lead them up here. And while a group of us is doing that, another group can go get Tersek and lead him here." Again she looked around for support from the others, and was happy to note that the wolf brothers were warming up to it, even if their sister wasn't.

Dagger, Quarry, Tac, & Valeria

"It's settled then! Some of us will go out to get the humans, and the rest will go back to the Temple." It all sounded good and fun, as none of them stopped to think about what was likely to happen after they returned from their unauthorized adventure. Actually getting humans to follow them up the mountain, and to have Tersek arrive on schedule were two rather monumental hurdles to overcome all their own, but there was no unfettered enthusiasm like a youngster's, and until they were proven otherwise, this plan sounded perfect to them. "I'll go help with the humans. Tac, you wanna come with me?" Delighted to be singled out for it, the brown-hued youngster yipped immediately, "Yeah, sure!" "Good, so you and me will go. Snow, you wanna come with us, while the others go back to the Temple?" Left at the sidelines, Quarry was scowling a little, and Valaria was clearly not happy with the arrangements, but given that the majority vote was for the trip, she didn't speak out against it again.

Snowdrift & Kankulak

The softly colored sister started to turn herself around on the narrow ledge, and prompted her brother to do the same after giving him a good nudge, "If this is going to work, we'd better start moving. We just have to find the river, and follow it down to the city humans - it'll be a piece of cake!" When Kankulak didn't move fast enough, she shouldered past him in her eagerness to get out of the Ridges and find some humans, and that eagerness almost cost her. A clatter of rocks pinged and clanked as the crumbled away from the trail where one of her velvetine paws stepped on a lose spot, and like Dagger, she came dangerously close to pitching to the side and falling off the trail. Only the quick action of her brother saved her as Kanku nabbed her ruff and yanked back, pivoting her weight towards him and away from the ledge. "Woah..." Snow was trembling by the time she caught her breath and looked wide-eyed back at her friends, "Watch your step guys..." With far more caution to temper her enthusiasm, the young feline continued on at a slightly slower pace.

Dagger, Quarry, Tac, & Valeria

More or less the leader of the group of his siblings, Dagger crowded past them as well to start after the feline twins ahead of them. His own unbridled anticipation for their planned shenanigans showed in the way his brindle tail was held aloft and wagging faintly, and how his expression was bright and alert. That only changed when a clattering of falling stone and the sudden shift in Snowdrift's frame stole everyone's attention towards the cat, and a round of gasps went up. The drama was over as soon as it started, thankfully with Snow being yanked back before she had a chance to fall, but all of their hearts were racing now, and each and every one of them were sticking very close to the inner part of the trail now. "We should pick another place to lead Tersek... I don't like these trails..." Quarry grumbled quietly about his ongoing discontent for the area, not that Dagger or Tac took any regards to it; they were too worked up with thoughts of seeing Tersek being scared witless.