I am a question to the world

[[Midnight]]

Not an answer to be heard.

Binah continued to grow as the rest of the adolescents did. Her pelt was beautiful and her face matching - she knew she rivaled Rose now and her 'legendary' beauty. But she was far younger, fresher; she had a feeling her fame would rise above her sister's at this point. She kept her head held high, especially now that she knew she was a pawstep away from being fully grown. She expected a Delta position, nothing less, considering she was as Moons as the Falling Moons come and go. There was no possible way, even as lethargic as her father was lately, that he could fail to notice how appropriately she took after him.

She was treacherous and vain, but her intelligence was what made her powerful. She could manipulate, as she recently discovered. All it took was a few lies to get a wolf to turn their nose in the opposite direction - whatever direction she chose. Why just the other day, Caden in all his ludicrous insanity had blabbed out his Beta wolf. Instantly she conjured up this long, drawn out story about how she'd seen that same big white female being taken out by a Falling Moon patrol. At first he clung to his instinct and suspected she was lying, but as her story progressed with all sort of detail about how she said she "fought for Caden and the pack" and "was never going to forgive Duke," it seemed she'd hit the nail on the head.

She enjoyed watching the Alpha crumble at her feet in such a hopeless way.

Autumn brought a twist to her world - she'd never seen such an array of dead colors and trees all around her. At times she enjoyed how well she blended in with the environment - other times she hated how ugly everything was. She usually came to the Sunlit Meadow to bask in the glow of the sun, sample the scents of the flowers that rose above her shoulders. Now that she stood in the center of the clearing, though, looking around at No Man's Land's absolute ugliness, she was frowning deeply, angrily almost. Her first winter would be here shortly; was the world going to turn even uglier?

[Ashara]

 A soft breeze ruffled Astra's fur as she walked through No Mans Land. She wasn't after prey nor was it adventure or boredom that had made her set out on this journey. Learning to fight was all very well in her opinion but she felt that she had to take action, maybe nothing had been done to Caden yet but it was too long they wouldn't just keep him and wait for them to do something now would they? She knew she couldn't single handedly sneak into the Falling Moons territory and then simply rescue Caden, no that was never her intention. What she was here for was information. It seemed that the  Loners she had come across knew nothing or simply didn't want to tell her. 

On her search it finally came that she wandered towards a spot that she remembered well, Sunlit Clearing. The meadow was one of the more pleasant places in No Mans Land she found. She walked quietly into the clearing at first not even seeing the wolf that stood there, so it was to her luck that the wolf hadn't seen her either.

When she saw the wolf she stopped, the scent told her straight away this wasn't a loner she had found but one of the enemy a Falling Moons wolf. She froze carefully studying the wolf, it was none that she recognized not from seeing nor from tales of other wolves. She could see it was a young she-wolf not yet fully grown. Even if the wolf wasn't fully grown she almost equalled the small Astra in size.

Maybe she could ambush the wolf, a surprise attack squeeze all the information she knew about Caden out of her or maybe she could try kidnap the wolf force her to come with her onto the territory, keep her as an exchange for Caden. Too bad she was on her own, it could go wrong she couldn't risk it. The anger of the Falling Moons would only be raised if the wolf got back and told and that wouldn't be helping Caden. No she couldn't it would be too unwise.

She sighed audibly and kept her eyes on the other wolfs still turned back. She could have just left, silently snuck away just as she had come but she was curious of what could happen, this wolf surly couldn't harm her anyway, if it tried then shed have a reason to attack.

[[Midnight]]

There was a gentle, cold breeze that made Binah's flur fluff up in its thicker parts. She stood, towering over the dead brush, looking as though she were lost in a strange land where she knew no one. She was still thinking of how much she dislike Fall, and could only imagine how worse Winter would be. But she was looking forward also to testing out her feminine powers, seeing how many males she could get under her toes. She heard the crackle of underbrush, and the sound of someone sighing, and her hackles immediately rose. She turned towards the sound, letting out a small bark of agression.

She hated to be snuck up on and the sight of Astra, all dark pelted and petit, made her want to snarl. She held back though. She knew not who this stranger was, how many others were around here that belonged to her. She could be a Dancing Star - in fact she almost hoped she was. She'd loved to hear from a Stars wolf about their anger, hatred, and fleeting attempts at rescuing their pathetic Alpha from the depths of hell. She padded forward, her tail up in an dominant stature, but her face feigning a small amount of detached politeness.

"Who are you?" she asked as sweetly as she could muster. Her lying had always been too good, even if her actual mannerisms were far from it.

[Ashara]

Even if it often didn't look like it Astra was actually an intelligent wolf. Plans made and not thought true got her in trouble sometimes but she had always managed to worm her way out and fix what had gone wrong. This wolf was a moon and no matter how nicely they acted she didn't trust Moons. The wolf attempt at showing dominance over her annoyed her so a frown briefly crossed her face. She raised her own tail taking up a stance like the other wolf.

"First tell me who you are?" Astra said still undecided on whether she should tell the wolf her name or pretend she was a loner. She had an old code name that she used sometimes when she didn't want her real name to be known. She could easily lye and say not say what her name really was instead Accalia could do the trick. The name was unusual so it couldn't even sound like a made up spur of the moment sort of name.

Her mind was now pretty much made up but she had already spoken so she waited for the wolf to reply.

[[Midnight]]

Binah instantly hated this creature: her size, her attitude, her backsass. Her frown was not becoming on her, and Binah thought to herself how much it added to this stranger's ugliness. She held back a snort at her feeble attempt to regain dominance over the conversation, both the way she held herself and the challenging way she darted around saying her name. Perhaps she needed to practice her "friendly face" more often, as it did not seem to fool this she-wolf into thinking they were on instantly friendly terms. Her head only rose higher, and she let her false kindness disappear; she'd just caught this wolf's scent in the breeze, and it was undoubtable that she came from north - the Starlands.

She looked Astra up and down scornfully, studying everything about her. She rolled her eyes and looked away, as though to dismiss her.

"Sorry, you don't deserve to know my name," she said smoothly, in an even tone, while her tail flicked once or twice. "Weak wolves should stay out of places like these. They'll only end up maggot food, like that brown wolf....what was his name? I can't bring myself to remember it."

Obviously she was speaking of Caden. Her eyes sparkled mischeviously, looking directly into the eyes of her elder, daring her to come closer. In her eagerness to taunt, Binah had already forgotten to be cautious that others may be around, too. Fortunately for her it didn't seem to be the case. Blood may be shed, though - Binah was ready to prove that her bloodline was far superior than any this weakling could have come from. Binah had inherited Duke, after all, and he remained undefeated for his entire life!

She braced herself for one of two reactions she was assuming this stranger would make - attack or flee. She strongly assumed the latter, and it would be more fun to chase the tail of a dog. But she was prepared for an outburst, too. Her demeanor remained cold and calculating.

[Fire]

Unfortunately for Binah, Astra was not the only Stars wolf about. Sayuri had crossed the borders yet again, in order to gather information. Except this time, she had a different approach. The she-wolf was close to the clearing anyway, but the scent she picked up was the reason she headed toward it. The loners in No Man's Land either didn't care or didn't have any information; and why would they? So, the only route left was to seek out the Falling Moons themselves. Of course she'd have to be careful, not just for her personal safety but for Caden's. Anything she did or said could affect their treatment of him.

As she got closer, she caught another scent on the wind. This one was familiar, and she huffed a sigh of relief. At least if a fight arose, they'd have the edge. By the time she reached to two wolves, she'd already recognised the scent to be Astra's. They'd only met a few times before, but Sayuri liked her. She seemed like she had a good heart, although the fact that she wanted Caden back was enough.

Her ears perked and she caught the end of Binah's taunting, but she ignored it and quickly swallowed the bile that threatened to rise. "Hello, Astra. Who's the pup?" she asked, addressing Astra directly. The way Binah held herself told Sayuri that she was ridiculously proud, and probably vain, so she hoped the 'pup' part would strike a chord.

[Ashara]

Astra eyed the wolf coldly as she spoke of Caden. Not for a second did she believe that this wolf didn't know his name. The Moons she knew would be proud of their capturing Caden and they knew how important Caden was to the Stars. No this wolf was pretending not to know his name to annoy her, to provoke her.

"If as you say weak wolves shouldn't come here then the safest thing for you to do now would be leave" she said forcing herself to remain calm. She wasn't in the least intimidated by this young Moons wolf so feeling never crossing her mind. To attack wasn't that what she wanted her to do? No she wouldn't do as expected of her.

Hearing another wolf arriving Astra turned to see Sayuri. She smiled at her pack mate warmly and nodded a greeting ignoring the Moons wolf until Sayuri spoke. "The pup thinks that we don't deserve to know who she is but shes one of those Moons" Astra told Sayuri. She was glad that her pack mate had come, even if she thought that she would have been able to handle this on her own it was always better to be in numbers. Even if she didn't know Sayuri all that well she respected her, she was a relation to Caden and like herself eager to get information to save him.

[[Midnight]]

Binah was delighted to at least see that her words had caught attention. From what she could tell, the dark-pelted she-wolf was trying to keep her cool. She did it rather successfully considering the circumstances. Binah thought for sure that these wolves would be in hysterics by now, clawing desperately at any path that would lead them back to their mentally insane Alpha. Had they heard anything about the state he was in back at home? Oh, if only they all knew. Caden was a sorry, defeated pup!

Sayuri's sudden appearance made Binah's skin crawl. She had let her guard down after all. This newcomer smelled blatantly of Dancing Stars, and almost seemed to carry an authoritive air. Her tone of voice and obvious stab at Binah's age made her curl her lip in a sneer, though she quickly turned it into that sweet smile she had used on the first Stars wolf.

"It's better for you only to know my age and nothing else," Binah spat back, her tail flicking from side to side in irritation. Leave it to the Stars to bring in backup the moment the conversation got fired up. "You wouldn't be able to handle the truth about my identity. Dancing Stars have a history of losing their minds at the slightest provocations. I've heard a lot about a Caerwyn turning on his own pack... And it seems history keeps repeating itself with each newAlpha."

Binah kept it vague, but if they had any intelligence to grasp the concept for themselves, they'd catch that she was voluntarily revealing a little info on Caden's condition. She'd seen a glimpse of Caden in one of his wide-eyed wild tantrums, and had heard he even tried to attack a guarding Delta. It had reminded her immediately of Caerwyn and his story, how he'd started going on a killing spree - he'd killed his own mother, at that. Binah had taunted Justyn about it once, knowing he was Caerwyn's son, though had not yet ever done it again. She almost had not survived another day and suspected it was only because she was Duke's daughter.

Binah considered turning around and making an escape, but pride kept her paws rooted in place. She'd see her taunting through to the end like she knew her father would have done. Well, her father was less of a talking brute and more of a "kill and get it over with" sort, but Binah did not yet have the strength or skill to kill someone bigger than her. Her powers lay more with deception and controlling others through their breakable emotions. She'd like to at least see these two Stars wolves lost their tempers before she made some sort of escape.

[Ashara]

Binah was waiting for a reaction from one of the stars wolves rather than escaping, she might have gotten a reaction out of Astra but for one thing. Astra wasn't exactly a total newcomer in the pack but she had been a loner before in lands far from here during the times of Caerwyn. When she had joined the pack Caden had been alpha for quite some time already. No one had spoken of Caerwyn to her. It wasn't like she had many friends yet in the pack to tell her his story, the only wolves she really knew where Bandit from the day she had saved her, Conan from his constant annoying her and many of the other adult wolves,Oberon from him teaching her and others new fighting skills and a handful of other wolves including Sayuri from events like pack meetings. None of these had spoken to her about Caerwyn. 

Astra glanced to Sayuri waiting for her to say something, maybe she knew of this wolf that the Moons wolf was talking of. Not wanting to leave the wolf out of her eyes too long might it try to escape she turned her eyes back to her now pretty much empty of any emotion. She thought a little about what the Moons wolf had said trying to figure it out. An old alpha it seemed to her he must have been. She didn't trust this wolf so she wasn't sure if she was making it up or if it was true. Was she hinting that Caden had turned on them or gone crazy? Knowing the story of Caerwyn would have helped her to figure it out. 

She decided not to jump to any hurried conclusions but the smile which looked so unreal to her was once again on the Moons lips. That smile sickened her, such a smile couldn't come from a Moons wolf, all it was was acting nothing real there. She almost growled at the wolf but caught herself just in time, the only sign of her annoyance was her fur bristling ever so slightly. She waited for Sayuri's reaction hoping that it would bring her clearness on weather this story the Moons wolf told was true or just a mere lye.

[Ashara]

[Should we finish this maybe or ask the person who RPs Sayuri now to reply?]