...All things must come to an end...

Don't mind the Warcrest thing! And also, the time of day is up to you!

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Ivory had been traveling since her departure from Warcrest. It had been a long time since she had left. Now, after turning northward in the plains region, then traveling west towards where she knew the tundra region was. 

Ivory paused, scenting some prey nearby. Crouching low, she began creeping toward the scent's origin. Nearing it, she saw two large arctic hares. She then launched into the air, coming on top of both hares and killing them. 

Perfect. Ivory was hungry, and these would do her well.

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With Rin's bear attack, Olive was on high-alert for any potential ill-intended visitors. There weren't many this far north, as luck would have it, but the gravid woman still spent many hours of her day patrolling the mile-high borders of her new homeland and the lands just beyond, eager and quite trigger-happy, ready to announce and establish her claim to whoever might challenge it.

Olive had never done this before. She had always thought of herself as a flighty, windy creature; too easily distracted by her wanton wants and needs to ever commit or work towards anything real. She had always enjoyed such a vagrant, unattached lifestyle — but motherhood had changed her already. Quite suddenly, she no longer wanted a land that she considered truly secure and enduring. It was a need.

Then, a scent. Like a silver bullet, Olive charged towards the scent, feeling all but entitled to this information of who was in her claim, and why they were there. It's not that they weren't welcome, but the fact that they did not announce their presence did not bode well with her; nor did they ask permission to feed upon whatever's blood-scent quickly followed. Unsurprisingly, Olive found a cat. "This is claimed land," she asserted, feeling almost too confident around the various types of felines she found in these parts. "and those are not your rabbits," Olive walked a step forward, eyeing the leopard with probe-like attention.

"This vale and all its prey is now under the dominion of Duskguard," she informed as clearly and as factually as possible — cats might not always abide by wolf law, but certainly when said so plainly, she would understand that her pack's own food was not up for grabs.

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We're on the border of Duskguard, btw. Ivory hunting led her into the lands.

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A little wolf found their way toward Ivory and then began being rude and shit when she hadn't even done anything. 

"Now now, little wolf," Ivory purred in a silky voice, "that is not some way to greet someone that you've just met. I was simply hunting, no harm done. And these are my rabbits." 

It seemed as though this little she-wolf was rather... confident around Ivory. Well, that might be the end of her. Time will tell though... 

"I simply did not know a pack claimed these lands. That does not, however, mean you get to fucking treat me like that. Especially when I am much bigger than you." Ivory growled, not giving a shit about what this little wolf thought.

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The cat retorted with no small amount of snark, and little heartache over the intrusion. Olive could almost roll her eyes (she managed to keep this particular urge internal) at the typical nature of felines, and how they all seemed to think themselves so special, so holier-than-thou — Olive would never even think to be so headstrong in the face of her own wrong-doing, but perhaps that was a behavior that more stemmed from her tiny frame and short stature more than anything else. Olive needed her pack, and a cat didn't. Head-to-head, she would almost always certainly fail

— but she would never be alone, facing anything head-to-head. Not with @Tiberius. Not with Duskguard.

Still, Olive decided to remain silent for some seconds, silently mulling over her words and choosing them carefully. "Allow me to clarify..." Olive began quietly, sternly, not easily backing down and feeling emboldened by the deeply held desire to secure this land for the safety of her pups. It was a drive the likes of which she had never felt before. "You are not unwelcome to these lands, or forbidden from this prey—" Her eyebrows pinched together in concern. This was not a cat-thing, seeing as both Kuhn and @benry were welcome here. "As wolf-kind alone does not dictate the laws for all." Olive stepped forward, steely-eyed, wholly unsure what laid behind her own fire.

"However, the very second anything enters this land — it becomes ours," she breathed. "Those who take are expected to contribute, and this rule is enforced by the pack Duskguard."

According to the leopard, it all had been an accident. It did seem likely that a trespass could be committed accidentally (hadn't she done the same thing, on several occasions?), and the logic of it enticed out Olive's better nature. Her stature softened, wondering if this might be reflected in her compeer."As an act of good faith, I can allow you to take one rabbit.... as I recognize your autonomous nature, as well as your strength," she spoke plainly; as this is what the leopard was hinting at, wasn't it? "but if you desire both, then you'll find that I am quite open-minded, and eager to find an accord." If there was anything Olive had learned recently, was that she must enforce all that she wanted. It look a lot of prayer to equate to a little action. When she was enslaved by the Walrus, prayer had amounted to nothing. Well, here it was: the action, a conversation, a hopeful new beginning emerging from the quagmire.

— but all that depended on the nameless, silvered cat. Olive walked a couple steps to the left, then a couple to the right; essentially pacing back and forth as she spoke. "This vale is a land of plenty, amongst a canvas of bleak emptiness." Olive glanced sidelong at the other, wondering how this was all landing with her. "There's more to be had."

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Wanting to see where his friends had settled, the cat pressed northward, into the mountain ranges where he had met Valmua. Everything here seems new somehow, in a familiar spot but different.

Approaching from the rear, the striped beast's ears caught the twang of bickering on the wind. Observing an argument would be a nice bit of entertainment. Moving low through the tall spring grass, he was looking for the best seat, when he heard a familiar twang of voice. Getting closer he could hear the snapping demands of Olive, and the hissing threats if some sort of feline.

Stalking closer, more of the picture began to unfold, seeing the corpses of the rabbits on the floor. Watching the tension his hackles began to puff, now that this show involved something he cared about.
 

Raising himself out of the grass now visible, he sauntered into the scene shoulders moving in rythm. Approaching from behind the other feline, he placed himself a body's length away, equally spaced between the two, he stood tense, tail lashing behind him. The large feline's gaze slowly drifting from one to the other, he remained silent, listening.
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Ivory stayed silent as this wolf paced, considering her words. "Yes, I understand that I have passed your borders. I did not know I had until you came, and I did not know these lands were claimed." So, there was a new pack. Duskguard was the name? Hmm. 

"Fighting will not be necessary, nor any other way should I want both." 

It seemed as though this wolf was hinting at Ivory about joining the pack. "If you are hinting to me that I should join your pack, I might take up on that offer." Ivory paused for a moment, thinking of her next words. "But for the time being, I need rest. I have been traveling for weeks from the desert where my former pack was located. I am tired and hungry."

"Before anything else though, we must introduce ourselves. I am Ivory."

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The snow leopard was a wordy soul, and seemed to accept that a trespass had been committed, but blamed most of the responsibility upon her ignorance. In wolf law, ignorance amounted to null, and most were held accountable for their actions anyways. Olive did little to loosen her stature, keeping her tail lifted in a cascading arch, not exactly feeling comforted at how the cat seemed to assert her own understanding as the only real truth, especially when it came to the Priestess's own thinly-veiled idea of an accord.

Olive glanced towards the skies, coming to stop in her pacing. "That would be an option, though I am not suggesting what you should or shouldn't do. I am shedding light on the transactional nature of your desires to fill your belly on our coffers," she explained. Duskguard was to be a realm of impregnability and inviolability, which both stemmed from trust, and the trust of pack-mates could only be earned. Not all were welcome, amongst these walls; but those who were willing to prove their loyalty were held close. "I too find fighting to be unnecessary, when better minds and cooler heads can easily prevail."

The white waif glanced towards the similarly pale spirit with a sidelong glance. She wasn't used to asserting herself in such a way. Any other moment before this one, she might have immediately deferred to another, worried for her own physical safety. It was at this moment that the massive form of Kuhn emerged from the shadowed tree line, a silent specter watching the scene unfold. She acknowledged the man with a glance and a dip of the nose, punctuating her silent greeting with a familiar sway of the tail. Sure, the tiny woman didn't need his muscle, but she was certainly glad he was there.

The woman tossed her head to gesture to the lands behind her. "I am Olive Shakti-Seabreeze-Singing-Sunlight, and as I mentioned before, this in Duskguard." She drifted closer to the serpentine tiger, removing herself as the barricade between Frostfang Vale and the rest of the world. Olive sidled closer to the man and inquired of him, her voice sonorous enough to be heard amongst the three of them, "What do you make of this Ivory?" Olive didn't take her ivy-green gaze from the third. "She says she is tired, as well as hungry."

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The first parts of the disagreement the tiger had seen from a distance, hearing only the general twang of an argument that could escalate into something more. Approaching, he did hear something about a fight, as if it had been mentioned before.  Noticing how revealing his presence changed the tone for both women, he scanned the floor staring for a moment at the slain rabbits.  

Unlike Olive, Kuhn understood the cat's ignorance.  How where they expected to know that this was some sort of claimed land. Or for that matter that the inhabitants would enforce their own customs onto someone of a different species. 

From the corner of his eye, he could see how the waif weaved her way to his side, and he was glad to provide that security, though he wouldn't blindly take her side now that she had a territory of her own.  "Well, I have never met them.", he replied softly, taking a step around Olive's back, putting himself behind her. 

Circling around to her other side, he glided around the woman almost possessively.   "I see two rabbits, if she is hungry let her eat."  If he was in her shoes, any attempt at taking any of her kill would feel like a shakedown.  Assuming that Olive told her of what was expected, next time they would know.
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I’ll close this up!

---

 
Olive couldn’t help but note the mild frustration the rose in her throat at both Ivory and Kuhn. It was mild, but it was certainly there, as she eerily suspected the reaction of someone like Tiberius would have been far different — but this was solely because Tiberius was a wolf, and these two were cats. Of course Kuhn would easily see things from Ivory’s perspective, and be unlikely to fault her for it. This was one innate reason why the Priestess so enjoyed his company; it was never boring, for it was often quite challenging to her most basic of natures.
 
“You felines are such an interesting sort.” she commented with a meek smile, attempting to imbue the interaction with some sort of conclusive resolution. She supposed if Kuhn was supposed to be a balancing factor in her life, then she must honor truth, and perhaps they all might even be able to laugh about it in the end. Still, if Olive wanted her intentions to be heeded, she must at first make them know.
 
With a coolness in her voice, she gave a perfunctory nod and said “Now you know where Duskguard is located. Do not forget again.” With an ivy-glance to Kuhn, Olive began to drive back towards back into Duskguard, leaving the woman to the harvest she had reaped. If the tiger wished to come with, he was more than welcome; even still, the sylph would remain close to the borderlands for some hours, to ensure the matter was closed.

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