OOC: Gaargh, no, I haven't done anything with TAB in ages. x_o The club's fallen stagnant yet again and I just haven't had the grit to kick it back into gear again. We did try to move it to an EZboard or Invision-eqsue forum at one point, but there were split opinions about it from the start and in the end it fell through anyway. Sheer fact of the matter is, members have to post, and currently there are so many members who've left that their characters are entangling those of the members who've stayed. We need an almighty great time advance, only by a week or two, so that every single character here has a nice, fresh starting point to play from, without being stuck in limbo in a scene that's left unfinished. Who else is in favour of that? Ember's return can mark the beginning of the new timeframe, set a week or a few weeks on from the previous set of posts.

Do drop me an E-mail though, Ember, definitely! Stay in touch, you slippery muppet. X-D And yep, I'm still in touch with the others. I haven't chatted to Sparf in a while now, but I catch his posts on Livejournal and I do know he still believes in TAB. <=) Tracker's in university now but I'm still in touch with her, too, though I don't catch her online much nowadays. And oi, do I keep in touch with White? *Pulls a Lion King on Ember and noogies her* We're married, ya plum. She's living here with me now. :-D You'd have been invited to the wedding if I had any means to contact you, but you'd dropped off the planet. :-P

BIC: The wolf was backing away, slinking into an alley, though it seemed it was out of wariness rather than following Cobalt's advice. Well whatever got the animal out of sight was a good thing, in this present climate. Clearly the guy had no clue about the deaths in town that had caused such a fearful timbre to decent on Nome. Every dog knew, when a human gets scared, they're prone to act unpredictably, often rashly. Since the sled dog practically owed his life to the more benevolent wolves outside of town, the last thing his sense of duty would allow was a member of that pack to get his brains blown out in the town that had hosted him these past months.

To help, or perhaps hamper, matters, the female wolf whom he'd seen at the vet's had come running up to investigate the howl as well. She'd never looked in a very strong state, and though Cobalt had never taken the opportunity to talk to her, he had assumed she was from Omara's pack. Clearly though, either he was wrong about that, or wrong about this male wolf here, since the two of them obviously didn't know each other. And, more to the point, she was now exposing herself to the attitude of the town as well. Jerry most certainly would have his hands full explaining this to the two-man police force if the wolves were traced back to the surgery. She needed to duck out of sight too, quickly.

The malamute listened to what White Ember had to say, anxiously shifting his weight from paw to achy paw. He knew about the bitch's cubs? Their scent must have been heavy on her after just having come from the vet's. "I see," he responded swiftly, glancing up and down the street, which luckily were still empty thus far, "I'm Cobalt, technically just passing through, but we've been held up." He snapped his attention to the female, "Listen marm, please get out of sight, you're in as much danger as this guy."

Cobalt had been lead dog of his team, he was used to giving orders, fair ones, and having them obeyed. Not out of sheer authority, but because his teammates saw the sense in them, and trusted his judgement. In this precarious situation, his sled dog instincts were kicking in again, and without properly intending it, he was giving out orders to the pair of wolves. As the only domestic dog between the three of them, wearing his broad mushing collar, he was the only one not at risk of being shot if he was seen.

Apologetically he turned his muzzle back to the male. "There's plenty you should know, pal, but you sure picked a risky place to find it out. Humans have been killed by wolves here. I was almost killed by a wolf. I don't know where my musher is, but his teammate was killed by a wolf and he himself is probably still in danger." It was a lot to get his head around, even now. Pete's slaughter at the hands of that huge black bitch in the alley, not far from here, right before the attack by Aranok, another huge black wolf. Something was going on. "Something about those pelts..." he muttered, punctuating himself with a frustrated swat of his tail.

-John