He walked…Well no- he wandered- away from the Maw, his expression despondent. He hadn’t said a word since he heard the news that Chaos had disbanded Crew and that the pack he had hoped he could safely raise his children in was no more. He didn’t know if the girl- whatever the fuck her name was- was still following him or not and some small part of him knew that if she wasn’t he would need to find her again, but for now the only thing he felt was crushing depression. His hips dropped to the black beach first before his chest followed, the tide however had yet to come in and the frigid sea water simply lapped at the tip of his paws before receding.

It was all supposed to be so perfect, he was finally going to have children, and they were never going to go hungry a day in their lives, or be afraid that some predator might gobble them up and now….Now that wasn’t going to happen. He was a loner again, a vagabond whose next meal might come by sunrise or in two weeks. He had shit stirred all the packs in the East, so there was no chance of finding refuge there, and the rest…well…They just didn’t suit him, and they never would, not in the same way Crew had. If anything they all rang too closely of Orsus’s pack and the ones that didn’t reminded him of Isis’s pack, and he had just recently concluded that both of them could get fucked. Joining one of those packs would mean changing, and he was quite frankly done with that. He took a deep breath and sighed, closing his eyes. What if something happened hile she was giving birth? What if he couldn’t find enough food to keep her and the pups fed? He could feel a stress headache forming over his temples. Why did nothing ever work out the way he planned?

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Trailing after the defeated looking brute seemed like the only thing she really could do right now. He'd dragged her to his pack only to find it had come apart. Having no knowledge of this place Mara could only assume it must not have been that good to suddenly just come apart, but in a rare moment of tactfulness she managed to keep that thought to herself. He seemed pretty busy with... whatever this was. Moping? Ugh, that kind of thing was totally beyond anything she was familiar with or intended to ever acquaint herself with. Sometimes she might sulk, if she lost a fight to a really horrid opponent for dumb reasons. Moping and mourning and all that stuff was foreign, it made her uncomfortable to sit and watch it. Even without his pack she knew he'd still come after her if she went running off alone, so no point in bothering with that.

For a while she'd held herself back, trailing at a distance to where she could just barely see him and mostly followed her nose to be sure she didn't accidentally lose him. At the beach she huffed, standing at the edge of the sand for a while hoping he'd come back her way instead of keep going. After a few minutes she became impatient and trotted across the loose sand to go recover this recent unwanted addition to her life. Finding him flopped down by the water staring out all sullen like, Mara wasted no time marching on over and flopping down not next to, but on the man, entirely serious like. He'd just have to accept that by making himself a part of her life he was coming way too far into her preferred bubble. That meant his must be fair game. Yawning, she'd sit atop this furry mountain for a bit if allowed before leaning over to look at his face. Upon seeing all of that tension and worry crap that he seemed to be positively awash in at the moment, she mumbled, "What are you so worried looking for?" No one ever said Mara was anything other than straightforward. Maybe that wasn't the right thing to say... she could hazard a guess at the whys, but what was the point?

He looked up at her, completely unbothered- or rather uncaring- that she was sitting on top of him. He sighed deeply and covered his nose with his large paws. “Ah tho’ eet wus gonney be perfect.” He said solemnly. “me ‘n th’ cubs was gonna live safely wit th’ pack.” He raised his head to look up at her, twisting his head uncomfortably to see her with his good eye. “Ah dunno whut tae do. Ahm no strong, ahm a shite hunter, mah only use is following stars and interpreting crickets.” He said. He shut his eyes tightly and let his head drop on top of his arm with another defeated sigh. There was a long pause of absolute silence from the man before he spoke again. “Ahm no leaving.” He said determinedly. “Thar mah pups, ahm no leaving them, ah jus’ wish ah wasn’t so damn useless.” He clenched his jaw as his thoughts became a storm self-degradation, the bridge of his muzzle wrinkling as if he had eaten something horribly bitter. For all his criticism Ruthgar did try to improve his skills, but as they were he knew the odds of him raising a healthy litter of cubs were greatly stacked against him. "Talk" "You" Think

Absently the woman reflected on how she enjoyed the heat from the sad lump's coat. That was about the only positive thing she had on her mind; the rest was all downhill from there as the lump she sat on began sinking into this well of emotion. Her cheeks grew warm as Mara grew flustered by the sudden display of emotion she was witnessing. Why was he doing this? What was the point? Getting upset over stuff you couldn't control, that was a waste of time, and such crazy things to be worrying about. It just didn't make sense, and Mara didn't know why he felt the need to say these things and it was just making her so confused she ended up feeling embarrassed.

At the end of his little... Whatever that was, she stood up and marched away a few steps before turning to him with a serious, mildly perturbed expression, "How about this; you stop moping about things you can't fix, and I won't say a word about you leaving." So far she hadn't anyways, so hopefully that would be an easy deal to make. Pacing a bit, her tail lashed as she contemplated things, finding herself irritated by her inability to simply make this aptly named 'useless' lump into a wolf who was better... equipped to deal with the unexpected. "If you can keep it together long enough for these pups to be born I'll gladly do the hunting. But you can't do this," she huffed, gesturing towards him in all his depressed glory, "Anytime things in life go to shit. Cause guess what? It happens a lot, and you can't make things better by shutting down."

He looked at her defiantly and offended at first, his muzzle wrinkled in a snarl then looked to the ground for a moment and rose to his feet. “Yer th’ second cunt tae evar tell me that.“ He grumbled and shook out the sand from his fur. “ Chaos the er- boss frem tha pack, telld me wance.” He muttered,“Bu’ye? Ave lost a good deal ‘o shite en ma years, ‘n naewan’s evar told me tae joost sook it up roit after ah los something. Months, maybe years after, bu’ nevar within the same damn day.” He said and sighed. He sat, thinking for a moment and then spoke again, his eyes drifting to her slowly “Yer willin’ tae keep awn huntin’ even with pups awn th’ way. Ave never seen a lass dae that” He said, unable to keep himself from sounding impressed, but then she had at least earned that as far as he was concerned. “We may need tha’ friend a yers tae help, bu’ eef ye’ll keep strong Ah’ll keep strong tae fer ye ‘n th pups.” He said firmly, looking her dead in the eye as he spoke. “’N Ah keen tell yer one tough cunt mees…uh…” He had just fixed a wide grin on his features before it fell away at the realization that he really had no clue what her name was even after everything they had been through. He folded his ears awkwardly and cleared his throat, waiting for an answer before he realized he hadn’t introduced himself either. “Ahm Ruthgar by th’ way. Ruthgar Allantide.” "Talk" "You" Think

His defiance was met with a calm, cold gaze. Could have been the laziness in her being restored, leaving her with little energy to become too confrontational. Having small creatures growing in her belly may also have been a contributing factor. A hot breath hissed through her lungs, "Picking yourself up out of a bad situation quickly is a valuable skill to have, it isn't easy but it's worth cultivating..." her words came in a soft mumble as she turned slightly away, spark-colored eyes dim with a thousand-yard stare.

Shaking out her thin coat in an effort to dislodge the sudden discomfort that was welling up within her along with the chill that was determined to settle in her very bones during this cold winter. Her head ducked down a bit at the way he spoke, like she was doing something worthy of attention or something. "Well there's not much else to do and I like not starving, so..." She scuffed one slate grey paw in the surf-covered black sand. This was too much peaceful interaction. She felt like weird bugs were moving around in her stomach. Ick.

She let her ears flick side to side as she considered the idea a moment before agreeing, "He'd do it, and I'd like having Feli around. He's a respectable wolf." Her sorry excuse for a tail flicked behind her, the lest irritable move it had made in a while. The idea of finally being sure that Feli could be nearby was oddly comforting in a way, it made the whole mess that her life had turned into feel just a little less overwhelming. She looked at him sidelong and was close to responding when the issue of names suddenly appeared. The normally cold and irritable expression she'd spent years crafting shifted to accommodate a wry grin. "Well, Ruthgar, I wish I could say it was a pleasure to meet you..." she trailed off, letting the words hang a moment before adding, "But you'd have to spar me first."

Gaze flicking out towards the waves lapping at the shore inches so close to her she'd hardly have to walk far to go stand in the likely ice cold waves. Sometimes she wished she could be like the ocean; free from responsibility, able to go from broiling and tumultuous to simply moving along gently with the tides, all without answering to anyone. What a life that might be.

"I'm Mara Berodach."