Akembi, Tunga, & Storm Runner

"Brother, I think I'm actually melting." Akembi groaned miserably. The white coated brute, looking entirely like the arctic wolf of his mother's side, was laying on his back with his front paws folded haphazardly against his chest, and his hind legs sprawled out to the side. Even in the shade of an ancient oak tree on the border of the massive yard, Akembi was struggling with the intense heat of summer. "I don't think it's ever been this hot!"

Tunga was laid out on his side, suffering much more quietly than his brother, but suffering all the same. The heat did seem particularly brutal this summer, and was made worse by the weeks long duration it had lasted, with absolutely no rain to buffer the sweltering temperatures or offer respite to the parched plants and wildlife in the valley. Even the creek that wound through the property had gone dry, save for a few sparse puddles that were quickly drying up as it was. "Uggh, stop talking about the heat, you're making it worse."

Neither brother could hear the soft flap of wings high above them, not when cicadas were droning so loudly in the trees, and grasshoppers were buzzing in the grasses around them. Storm Runner was as silent as he was agile, a gift of his species. The peregrine falcon perched for several minutes atop a telephone pole as he scanned the dried, yellow grass around the ranch house. Sharp eyes were seeking out the familiar form of a particular silvery wolfess...

Ayxiel*Others

"I swear, the two of you are so pitiful." That light, only mildly-sarcastic tone belonged to a silvery femme that looked very much like the one that Storm Runner was looking for, complete with a plushy, shimmering silver coat and a small, slim body, but it wasn't Karai - this was the two males' sister, who was composed very primly on her stomach and looking annoyingly lady-like despite the heat. Oh, she felt it as much as they, and cursed it silently, but she wasn't going to sprawl out the way they had. "Awww, c'mon Ayxi - you're such a priss," Reiki said from his place, where he too had rolled on his back and was wriggling a little to tempt a small breeze that had started up a few inches away to blow upon him. "It's hot, no mistake... and you're hot too." She frowned, and turned up her nose a little. "That doesn't mean I have to splay all out like that and look ridiculous," she replied, and some of her thunder was stolen when Reiki started to laugh at her; she held onto an overly-dramatic expression of annoyance for a few moments before the amusement proved infectious, and she laughed herself, plopping out on her side, with one forepaw raised delicately so that her chest and abdomen could cool. On the porch, not bothering with ceremony the way that Ayxi had, Rihanne peeked one eye open lazily, and muttered, "The lot of you..." and then closed her eye again, apparently unworried, and truly more amused at their complaining than anything. None of them seemed aware of the unexpected visitor, not too prone to looking for birds when the greatest threat to the ranch had always been other wolves, but from her habitual perch on the roof, a familiar goshawk let out a piercing call - Ayxiel's ear perked, and Reiki sat up completely, but this wasn't a panicked call of danger incoming. The question was... what was it? Ever alert and clever like their mother, Ayxi looked up at Elderwild, and saw the direction she was looking, but could not see what she was looking at; apparently, like none of the others, she had spotted their winged guest.

Akembi, Tunga, & Storm Runner

Tunga only grunted back at his sister's chastisement and kept his brown eyes closed, as if it were simply too much energy to spare on this hot day to open them and give her a pointed look. Akembi's blue eyes were open however, with his brows pulled up to points and conveying an expression of distress, "Like you aren't sweltering too! Ugggh, we should go to the lake today. Or the river. Somewhere that's got plenty of water." With his eyes still closed and his sides rising and falling rapidly as he panted, Tunga put a sour note on his brother's plans, "If you want to walk all that distance, be my guest. I'm going to do as little moving as possible today." When he finally did peek one eye half open, turning it lazily to his sister, the gray-muzzled wolf grinned teasingly, "Nah Sis, you look ridiculous enough as it is." Above the banter, Storm Runner was turning his gaze away from Rihanne and switching it to Ayxiel. Giant eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the wolfess that had plopped down on her side, and wondered if perhaps this was Karai? Unlike his parents or those of his siblings who made frequent stops here at the ranch, Storm Runner wasn't as familiar with the once legendary wolfess, and thus was having a hard time deciding whether he'd found her or not.

Then a sharp cry shattered his attention. It didn't take but a quick look around before Storm spotted the goshawk and his heart got to racing. The female was larger than him, and thus a potential threat, even if he had agility on his side. That must be her. The raptor shifted on his perch, eying Elderwild suspiciously before he dropped down from the pole to coast onto a gnarled lower branch of the oak tree. He watched her for a few moments longer before looking at the wolves below him - but never did he leave the goshawk completely out of his peripheral vision. "Excuse me, are you the one called 'Karai'?"

Ayxiel*Others

As some of the chuckling died down, Ayxiel turned a mischievous look to her brother. "Watch it with the teases, Tunga - you're within tickling distance." So saying, she put forth the effort to stretch toward him and swipe a paw at his underside, though the motion was lazy and half-hearted due to the heat. Reiki laughed again with the anticipation of watching his larger brother squirm, and then pronounced, "I dunno, I'm with Kembi on this one; if we survive the trip to the lake, it'll be a wonderful day to go swimming." Of course, he could already hear the despairing voice of Martha when all of them came back soaked, but as hot as it was, impulsive Reiki didn't really care if she wanted to give him a bath afterward; after all, he'd still be wet and cooler than he was now. "You know if- hey." By now, the male had raised his fuzzy black frame, and his left ear flopped over in a comical way that it was prone to doing when he wasn't paying attention to it; his eyes had gone to Elderwild, who had shifted her stance and rustled her wings a little on the rooftop, indicating to Storm Runner that this was her area, but that she wasn't going to come after him, provided that he didn't try to invade any further. She was accustomed to strange birds and canines flitting in and out of the ranch, due to the constant reports to Aidan from the Lurkers... she was just going to make it clear who was master of the skies, here.

Watching her wary behavior, Ayxi finally relinquished her relaxed position on her side so that she could roll onto her paws, getting her slinky body only about halfway up before a flutter of wings caught her attention, and the falcon landed before her. She was startled, as the widening of her golden eyes showed, but she didn't skitter away or back off; instead, she eyed Storm in confusion for a moment, until his question made it home to her brain. When it had, her brows cinched down low on her face, and she asked, "What do you want with Ama?" That probably didn't clear things up too much for the poor bird, as not too many pups were known for calling their parents 'Ama' and 'Apa' as Ayxiel was accustomed to, but a moment later she seemed to understand that, and corrected her words. "Um, sorry... I'm not Karai, no; I'm her daughter, Ayxiel. These are my brothers - Akembi, Reiki, Tunga."

Akembi, Tunga, & Storm Runner

The side of his lip pulled back, not in a snarl, but a lazy expansion of a smile, "And so are you." He flopped a broad paw in her direction, without making the effort to actually swipe at her. He didn't even do more than flinch a little when she swiped at him, which was saying a lot, considering how ticklish the big male actually was. For all the complaining that Akembi had been doing, their blue-eyed brother sounded far less lathargic, and even had his tail thumping against the ground in excitement that at least one of his siblings agreed with his idea. He swiveled his snow-white head around, looking at Reiki from his upside down perspective, "If these guys want to be sticks in the mud, you and I can go. It'll just be more room for us to swim." Akembi attempted to swivel an ear towards his dark brother, but with them pressed against the ground underneath his head, they didn't do much more than twitch. Before Reiki could even explain what was on his mind, a flutter of wings and a voice from a branch above them made the wolf flail his legs and scramble over onto his paws. Tunga was a little more dignified in his reaction, turning quickly over but without the wild flailing. All eyes and ears went to the falcon.

Storm Runner had no problem flattening his feathers and making himself look as small as possible to signify he did not want trouble from the larger raptor. Between the hasty looks directed towards her and the glances thrown down at the four wolves below him, Storm responded, "Ama...? Ah, a daughter. Forgive me ignorance, it's usual my siblings that make the flights between here and the City. I was sent with an urgent message for your mother - do you know where she is?"

Ayxiel*Others

The female didn't even bother to try to dodge the paw of her much larger brother, instead enduring the way it flopped lazily against her side thanks to his long legs, and not seeming at all fearful that his paw was nearly the size of her head, so great was the size difference between them. "I'm not as ticklish as some of the overgrown pups around here," she taunted, and might have reached over to deliver the sort of nip that she knew would still make Tunga squeal, if they hadn't suddenly had a visitor. As it was, Ayxiel reacted quickly to the idea that there was an urgent message for their mother; she might be the smallest, but she was one who was prone to ordering her brothers about when there was something important to be done, and though Reiki occasionally tried to challenge the authority she wielded, she was close enough to him in size - and sufficiently inventive - to trump him in a wrestling match, and so the little female almost always won. "Reiki, you're the fastest - go get Ama." Ayxi herself was faster really, but she wasn't going to leave this messenger hanging, especially when she'd been asked a question, so instead her dark coated brother took off, not trying to debate this time as it sounded like there was a serious matter at hand, and the female took this opportunity to explain even as Reiki went to fetch Karai. "She's home at the den; she was up rather late last night with the guard duty, and Apa insisted she stay home today and get some sleep. I think Apa was going fishing with Tah today-" "What's going on?" That voice was Rihanne of course, who heaved herself up in an awkward way and limped stiffly down the steps, coming toward the group. Ayxi stopped speaking immediately, knowing better than to interrupt the grumpy old guardian, and answered promptly once she'd finished, "He's got a message for Ama." Rihanne's face clinched in thought, creasing down around the chocolately eyes that could go from warm and loving to vicious and protective in an instant. It was a guarded expression that she turned to Storm Runner. "From the wild lands? What do they want with Karai?"

Akembi, Tunga, & Storm Runner

The discomfort of the intense summer day was all but forgotten about now. All three remaining siblings were bright eyed and attentive to this strange falcon. Tunga was having a hard time trying to figure out if this was one of the 'regular' falcons that visited or not; to the plush coated wolf, they all looked far too similar to tell. Akembi had a better eye detail however, and knew from appearance as well as voice that this was a raptor that they had not encountered before. "At the den? Where's that?" Contrary to Tunga's problem, Storm Runner and his family had superb mental imaging, and had no trouble telling one wolf apart from another; Storm's problem was that he'd only caught glimpses of Karai from a long distance, and had never been in the area enough to study her features. He was mostly going on what he'd been told right now. 'Apa? Did Aidan have another litter I didn't hear about?' The falcon's attention snapped to Rihanne now. He couldn't help but notice the way Tunga sat up straighter in her presence, or how Akembi shuffled a few steps to the side to give her room. "From one of Ankh's daughters, yes." Ankh was not the most... welcome name around here, due to his penchant for antagonizing his brother in a less than friendly way, and helping to orchestrate a deadly assault on a number of ranch pets in the past. "Her mate has gone missing, and she personally requested Karai's aid in looking after her litter. I don't know the circumstances around it past that."

Ayxiel*Others

"Ankh?" Ayxiel repeated, sounding a little confused; she knew that Aidan had a brother with that name of course, but was too young to remember a lot of the torment he'd put his sibling through. Rihanne, however, recalled all too clearly, as her snarled, "Ankh," made clear. Immediately as that tone sounded, the young wolfess' ears flattened, hearing the danger in their old friend's voice; it was even more frightening than the one she'd used when she was sitting for them when they were young and one of them was about to get cuffed for something. This was the point where the copper-colored pix mix took control of the situation, and Ayxi backed off a step to give her some room; the brown eyes caught Storm Runner and held him tensely. "What business has a relative of Ankh in begging help from a ranch wolf? And why should she mind the litter of a strange wolf, anyway?" Clearly, Rihanne didn't know that the silver fae they were discussing had once been a rather prominent figure in the wild world, and she'd never really spoken about it to the pups either; she'd left the wild life behind when her best friend had disappeared, Ayxi knew, but her mother didn't like to talk about it, and after once seeing the sensitive Karai tear up over the matter, she'd never asked again. Before things could get more tense though, the sound of paws coming through the trees announced wolves approaching, and at last the one Storm Runner sought arrived. From a distance, it was easy to understand how Ayxiel had been mistaken for her; they favored one another quite a bit in both facial features and in size, but once Karai drew closer and those raptor eyes caught onto the scarred, useless eye on one side of her face and the furless scars along the same side of her body, he would never mistake them for one another again. However if her steps had slowed with age, her musical voice had not changed. "It's alright, Rihanne... not all of Ankh's relatives are as corrupted as he is; Aidan is prime example of that."

Akembi, Tunga, & Storm Runner

Akembi turned to exchange glances with his siblings, but found Tunga's hardened gaze flicking between the respected Rihanne and the falcon. They knew of Ankh as well, but had not personally met the thick-ruffed pitch black canine that was smaller than any of them, yet powerful enough in personality and determination that he led his own pack and commanded much respect amongst the Lurkers. Fortunately for the ranch pets, Argolis had followed in his father's footsteps, and made it clear to his two cousins that there would be no more fighting - and Ankh had not stepped foot on the property since then. Storm Runner, of course, was far more familiar with the hot tempered brute, and was a messenger of their now nomadic pack. What offense he took from Rihanne's tone was not displayed, "The young are ill, and Ankh is not so foolish as to underestimate the benefits of living close to humans and having a steady source of food and protection. And Ankh believes that Karai would help, because she and his son Desmon have a history together, and there is mutual respect between both parties." Or so he was told - there was also something about her being a foster mother, but Storm Runner was not as well aware of that as some others were. Soon after he'd responded to her, perhaps a bit curtly, Karai was arriving, and the falcon immediately realized his mistake. This one had to be the wolfess he sought. Storm bobbed his head at the silvery she-wolf, "Karai, I presume?"

Ayxiel*Others

Probably, Storm Runner's words were meant to help soothe any suspicions that they might have about Ankh's designs in seeing his grandchildren placed with one of the ranch guardians, but it didn't do that at all; indeed, when he suggested that Ankh acknowledged that the pups should be close to 'a steady source of food and protection', Rihanne bristled. "Are you suggesting that we ought to bring some of his daughter's pups here to be raised? Oh, that's just too perfect; right where they can learn their way around the place and lead attacks back here when they're older. You tell Ankh he can take his grandpups and-" "Rihanne, please." Again, Karai chose to broke in, aware that the copper mix had her reasons for being suspicious and antsy, but also aware that it was compromising her ability to reason logically, in this circumstance. "I think, by protection and food, he means me, not the ranch. Someone to nurse them and ensure they are kept defended so that their mother can go out and search for her mate, and so that they will not be threatened while she does so. I fit that bill fairly well... and it is true that Desmon and I share a history." An unhappy history it might be, but the silver mother easily remembered the quivering young pup with the speech impediment that had been penned next to her at the labs; she could never forget him. "I am Karai," she confirmed to Storm, just to be sure that he wasn't completely lost in this discussion, and she stepped forward then in such a way that forced Rihanne to draw back and stop intimidating the bird. "And for the sake of Desmon, if not the sake of Ankh, I will come and see what I can do for these pups." Having kept her silence up to now, Ayxi nevertheless had to speak up at that resolve from her mother. "But Ama... what about Apa? And Timber? What'll they say...?" But Karai shook her head. "There's no time to fetch your Apa, and Timber would not see this as clearly as I do. Pups are pups... what their parents have done makes no difference."

Akembi, Tunga, & Storm Runner

Storm Runner was very glad for the height difference he had on the canines right now. If he wasn't already perched in the lofty old branch of the bur oak, he'd have sought out its security right about now as Rihanne took offense to his words. The raptor might have also ruffled his feather like a canine bristling their fur, showing his disdain to her attitude, but the presence of a certain goshawk kept Storm on slightly better behavior. He could fly out of Rihanne's reach, if even she could jump high enough to reach him on his perch, but Elderwild was built for agility and could pursue him through the air if she wanted. "Well I never!" Storm Runner scoffed and gave his wings a bit of a flap for emphasis, "Go ahead and refuse to help, and-" The falcon was trying to talk over Rihanne's words, until both were stopped by Karai. Storm drew his wing up and glared banefully at the pit-mix who could chomp him up in a few bites, not yet having the diplomatic skills of Pirqua or his elder sister Mesa. "That's what I meant." These muttered words were directed at Rihanne mostly, after Karai had done her part to sort out the mess. Finally, he turned his attention to her fully, and gave her another animated bob of the head. "The matter is urgent, Karai. If you would follow me, I'll lead you to them; it's some distance from here, near Pike's Lake."

Akembi was mature enough at this stage that he didn't jump at the opportunity to go to the lake, or make any comments about it to his siblings. But he did lean closer to his Ayxiel and whisper, "Who's Desmon?" Standing at his opposite side, Tunga thwapped his tail against Akembi's flank as a warning to keep quiet, while he himself offered assistance to his mother, "If it's a litter of pups, you might need help transporting them, especially if it's all the way to the Lake. I can help." Rihanne's hostility aside, Tunga respected his mothers view on the unknown pups, whether or not the other members of the ranch would agree.

Ayxiel*Others

The falcon was wise to keep an eye upon the potential opponent he had in Elderwild, for as the dogs and wolves got more stirred and angry, the goshawk in turn got more antsy, shuffling her wings more often as if to remind Storm Runner that she was perfectly capable of chasing him across the sky, where the canines could not. Fortunately, Karai proved level-headed in this situation, as she always had before when tense negotiations had brought pups into her care; it might have been some time since she'd been the valley's most prolific foster mother, but she'd apparently lost no practice. And indeed, she took up command of this matter unassumingly, without wondering whether anyone would obey her. "Alright... Rihanne, if Timber or Elder Brother return before I do, you'll tell them that I've gone to get the pups." Apparently resolved on that front, Karai next turned her attention to her own children, who were old enough by now to look after themselves, and yet... to her, they were still so young. "I dunno," Ayxiel whispered back to her brother, also puzzling over who 'Desmon' could be, but by then, their mother's attention had shifted that way, in response to Tunga's offer. She considered him carefully, thinking about it with great concentration... well, after all, she wasn't that much older than him when she'd had her first foster, herself. Choosing not to acknowledge how that had turned out, she finally nodded. "Okay, Tunga... but you'll stay back behind me, and do what you're told. They aren't expecting you. You'll stay back until I tell you otherwise. Akembi, Axyiel... mind the ranch while we're gone, and rouse the rest. See that none of Ankh's other relatives take advantage of our absence to launch a subversive attack. Go." And with those orders given, she finally nodded. "Alright... let's go."

Akembi, Tunga, & Storm Runner

Storm was very aware of Elderwild's movements, and they did serve the purpose of keeping him flat-feathered and mostly civil, minus his little outburst against Rihanne. For as long as he'd lived with the Ankhian Lurkers and served as their messenger, he's view was a teensy bit biased, and he took greater offense to the pitmix's words than he should of. The raptor went quiet while Karai addressed her friend and children, and once she had squared things away with them and looked back up to him, Storm Runner shifted his taloned feet on the branch and directed his hooded head towards the distant lake. "Give me a howl if you need to stop and rest." The limb he was on didn't even tremble when he launched off of it, so light was his weight, and so sturdy was the oak branch. Tunga was already up on his paws as the Storm took to the sky, "I will, Ama." He was prepared to do just that too, being more prone to obedience and, well.. maturity than Akembi, though his lighter-coated brother was starting to catch up to him on the latter aspect, as well he should at his age. As he was ready to trail after his mother and help her, Akembi was rising up onto all four paws and completely doing away with his earlier appearance of exaggerated misery - when Ama was this serious about something, he was not going to play around.