Artorias had spent many months and seasons dwelling on the prospect of expanding the Hallows' territories as the pack's population continued to grow with wolves seeking asylum or a chance to start a new life and make a difference in the world. The young Aegis was bold and ambitious; he didn't want to turn away anyone looking for a fresh start, and so the need to grow the pack had arisen amongst his focuses. He'd scouted the neighboring lands to the Hallows and after much deliberating and pensive discussions with Briar and Ezra, had settled on claiming the Wildberry Grove for the Hallows. Not only was the land a lush forest that provided ample amounts of fresh fruit for the wolves to enjoy and use in their wine manufacturing, but it was also the mouth of Auster, and having the Hallows be the pseudo gatekeepers to the continent would provide protection to the rest of the wolves in the southern lands by extension.

There was just one small problem. Bears. The massive omnivores enjoyed collecting and eating the fallen fruit from the trees and seeking out honey from the hives bees had build amongst the trees. The land was a veritable buffet for them, so of course driving them off was going to be a necessary step to staking their claim. Artorias led his party across the northern border of the Hallows and into the wild lands of the grove intent to do just that today. Under the scorching summer sun, the shade of the trees was a welcome reprieve. Already he could smell at least one of the massive balls of fur and fat, his nose crinkling up at the stench it left behind. He had opted not to bring his sword with him for this endeavor; they didn't need to kill the bear, just drive it off. "Remember, we don't need to kill any predators we find. We just need to stake our claim," he reminded the others before picking up the pace into a steady lope through the trees, fanning out and moving with tactical precision through the woods.

The Aegis followed the musky scent through the grove until he spotted the bear—a sizable grizzly—sitting amongst a bunch of elderberry bushes, happily munching away without a care in the world. It was almost enough to make the Carpathian feel bad, but sorry, Mister Bear, the Hallows needed this land more than you needed a snack. "All right, let's do this!" Fangs bared, Artorias charged forward to draw the bear's attention, kicking off the fight and allowing his team to move into position. If the bear didn't back down, then it would be a brutally unfair 4v1.

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Eira" | "Argent"

Rudy followed along with the little group, grinning chipperly at the day's task.  He had spent enough time with Fern on hunting and some fighting but when had he last fought anything with his brother?  Rudyard followed Art’s lead, scenting the air for both predators and taking note of what the normal prey of the region was up to.  The berry grove was a great place to find prey and predator alike.  

When they found the bear it was hardly a menacing sight.  Most of the time it was finding an angry ticked-off bear or one being overly nosy but this one was minding its own business.  Art’s direction to not kill reminded Rudyard all too well of a long time ago.  The first time he’d seen a bear had been with Resin and she had also wanted to chase it off with no need to kill it.  Well, Resin had been involved with most all of Art’s training after all and just raising them in general.

Shaking off the reverie he nodded to Art’s instruction and as his brother lead the charge Rudy made his own move.  He ran to get a wide circuit, to get on the opposite side of the bear, snapping at a hind leg and hopping away before the bear could get a strike in.  They wanted to chase it off meant it needed to be able to run well enough so, if at all possible he’d avoid harming it more than necessary as well.  It just needed to fear them or even find them too much of a nuisance for a placid meal.

"Rudyard Carpathius"

The prospect of expanding the Hallows territory is exciting and Fern has volunteered for anything and everything that she can do to help. Today she follows her Aegis toward the Wildberry Grove, sticking close to Rudy’s side as the group goes. Puff sits between the gray girl’s shoulder blades, tiny paws entwined in Fern’s fur, excited to be out in the grove with her friends. When Art’s nose crinkles up at the scent of a bear, Fern lifts her own nose to find what smelled… only to make a face, quietly muttering, “Geeze the bears keep getting smellier and smellier.” An excited smile tugs at her lips as her gray head nods to Artorias reminder.

The group moves stealthily through the woods, each wolf trusting in each of the others and their skills. Soon, their target appears, a large grizzly bear lazily eating some berries. Art kicks off the fight baring his teeth ad charging straight for it while the others spilt off to get into position. Rudy quickly darts for the back end and Fern circles to the bear’s left, bursting forward to snap and growl at it while the others attack as well. The poor beast looks confused for a moment as the four wolves charge at the snacking bear.


"Fern Lark"

Briar was certainly more than willing to do whatever she could to help with getting the grove ready to claim it as their own once it was decided upon that the berry laden spot would be the next place for The Hallows to expand outward into. With all the wolves that had come to live in The Hallows and the future ambitions and the potential of growing families having more land to pull resources from was certainly going to be a bonus. Of course they were going to have their work cut out for them scaring off the other predators and getting this place suited for them to take it over, but that was their task for today. Scare off the bears and start making their presence known so that they would know that they were not welcome here.

Walking with Artorias, Fern, and Rudyard out to their potential new territory, she nodded when her husband reminded them that there was no need to kill off the predators in question today. This was all about sending a message. As soon as they reached the grove of trees the smell of the bear was obvious and soon enough they found the grizzly that was happily munching on some of the berries. Unfortunately they were going to have to ruin its good day. Artorias kicked it off, rushing the bear with snarls and barks and she did the same, hedging to the right since Fern went to the left With all three of them rushing at it with teeth bared and Rudyard biting at its back leg she couldn't imagine it would want to stick around here for very long, but bears were known to do dumb things.

"Briar Carpathius"

As expected, the grizzly bear was less than happy to have its midday snack interrupted by a group of snarling wolves. The massive ursine gave a startled bellow, looking around at the wolves flanking it with bewilderment and confusion. Artorias held its attention while Fern and Briar began to tighten the circle around it and Rudyard went right in for a snap at its legs. The bear gave another bellow and reared up onto its hind legs, trying to make itself appear larger and intimidate the wolves to flee, but the Hallowed wolves were lupines of indomitable spirits. They would not back down, and this land would be theirs for generations to come. Artorias closed in closer to the bear, fiery eyes narrowed to ferocious points while deadly fangs were bared in his powerful jaws, snapping closer and closer to the bear's ankles.

But the grizzly would not back down so easily, it seemed. Instead of turning tail and running, the mountain of fur and fat gave another roar, its stubby snout revealing those dagger-like teeth within its crushing jaws. The bear took a swipe with its lethal claws for Artorias, the Aegis deftly dodging out of the way while the claws glanced harmlessly off the ground, kicking up dirt, grass, and debris in the process. The angry bear turned its attention on its next greatest threat then—the mottled gray wolf gnawing at its legs. Artorias saw the bear turn to glower furious beady black eyes on Rudy and leapt into action. He'd seen what a bear had done to his brother in the past and he would not allow it to happen a second time. Before the grizzly could even consider a blow against the other Carpathian male, Artorias was rushing in to snap his jaws at the same leg Rudy was targeting, aiming to keep the bear confused and off balance. Sharp teeth sunk into fat and flesh, thrashing and tugging the hefty bear with all his weight while trying to keep its attention away from Rudy.

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Eira" | "Argent"

Rudy had tried playing nice with the bear.  A bunch of wolves attacking it together and wrapping about it apparently wasn’t enough to intimidate it nor were bites that didn’t do overly serious harm.  Everything changed the moment the grizzly chose to swing a paw towards Art instead of admitting early defeat.  Rudy’s next chomp was far harder than the others with an angry warning snarl.  He’d been keeping a careful eye on the bear’s movements and had let go as it was turning towards him.  Rudy had been ready to dodge but then Art got between him and the bear to attack the same area.  Overprotective brother.  Rudy was going to have to prove he could take care of himself somehow.

Well, if Art was determined to fight alongside next to him then it would be stupid to not take advantage of the shield Art was making of him.  Rudy decided to finally use those antlers for something other than defense.  Tilting his head down he slammed one of his antlers into where he’d just bit, jerking his head up so that the bite became a somewhat longer slash.  Rudy now wanted to defend his brother who was the one at more risk but instead he chose to trust the others with them.  With the ladies here and Art’s own skills, Rudy trusted Art to stay safe.  Now, the idea wasn’t to kill this bear but it was going to have to come to the realization it should flee and not keep up a fight.  Not wanting to kill it didn’t mean they wouldn’t kill it should the bear choose to keep fighting.

Rudyard Carpathius

The group move as one, reading each other’s body language and shifting swiftly to get into position. They burst onto the scene, confusing the happily, munching bear. Fern charges from the left, her blue eyes snapping over to Rudy as he rushes in close to bite the bear’s back leg. The gray girl’s inner voice groans loudly at his unneeded risk as she lunges forward to snap at the bear’s side in a bid for the angry grizzly attention. Artorias dodges a swinging paw to rush over to where Rudyard is and lends his aid.

Fern snaps and snarls, hedging the bear in and preventing it from trying to charge at the Carpathuis’ men. Blue eyes look to Briar, reading her movements and working together to keep the bear from hurting the males. With a dip of her head toward the bear’s butt, Fern then begins to moving slowly toward Artorias and Rudyard, opening a path for the bear to retreat. Teeth flash and spittle flies as she moves, doing her best to encourage the ornery grizzly to run away.


"Fern Lark" | "Puff"

Briar worked together with her group of pack mates as they all drove in toward the bear with snarls and barks, her and Fern keeping more to being a distraction and intimidating while Rudyard and Artorias got closer and put in attacks of their own on the bear's back leg. She would occassionally lunge in as if she was going to attack just to keep the bear's attention from landing and settling too firmly on Rudy or Art so it couldn't get any ideas about trying to over power either of them. The bear's confusion seemed to continue giving way to anger at the sudden attack and it got more hostile, swiping at Art and kicking up dirt when it missed. So far they had all managed to avoid getting hurt and she planned for it to stay that way as they drove off the bear.

She noticed Fern inching her way around to be closer to Rudyard, leaving a side of the circle they had formed open to give the bear the option to run if it felt so inclined. She started to do the same as she shifted around toward Artorias, both to focus all of their efforts in directing the bear away from the territory and out into some other part of Auster. She didn't really care where it went, she just needed it to not be here or in Hallows territory. In her efforts to encourage it to get moving, Briar jumped in to bite at its side, but didn't linger long, making fast jabs with her attack to make it hard for it to hit her and to hopefully overwhelm it and make it clear they weren't backing down.

"Briar Carpathius"

Between the relentless assault the quartet of wolves was coordinating against it, the grizzly bear was gradually beginning to realize how futile it was to keep up the fight. Artorias bit and pulled at its leg, applying just enough force to be bothersome and keep the bear from steadying its balance. Rudyard switched up his battle plan, using his rack of antlers to start slashing and jabbing at any part of the bear he could reach. Just behind them, Briar and Fern closed ranks, giving a unified front against their opponent as well as two more jaws ready to rush into the fray if needed. It also provided an escape route for the bear to take—and take it the ursine did when it realized the wolves were not backing down. Losing its life over an afternoon snack of berries suddenly seemed very unappealing to the giant dense predator.

With another panicked bellow, the bear kicked the leg Artorias was clinging to out to send the wolf sprawling out over the ground. Once freed, the bear dropped back to all four paws and began to lumber off through the woods headed east, away from the prospective Hallows territory until it was no longer in sight or earshot. Artorias grunted when the bear's paw made contact with his chest, the kick knocking him across the ground, but did no real harm to him. The Aegis was back on his feet in an instant, fixing the fleeing predator with a fiery glare and a parting snarl before throwing his head back to release an authoritative howl, staking the pack's claim to the lands should any other predator be nearby. With the fight won, Artorias slowly caught his breath and relaxed, turning back to his family with a triumphant smile. "Good work, everyone! Let's make a quick sweep through the rest of the grove to make sure there's no other unwelcome guests here. Then start marking the land and we'll head back to the castle. We've got a lot of work to do!"

Dismissing the group to divide and conquer, Artorias headed through the trees, searching for any more dangers while occasionally stopping to life a leg and mark their new territory with their scents. This land would belong to the Hallows.

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Eira" | "Argent"

It was obvious the bear was starting to have second thoughts.  It was a ridiculously outweighed fight.  Two wolves could often manage a bear alone and with the four of them, they hadn’t taken any chances with this task.  When the bear started to run Rudy had stepped out as if to chase to keep encouraging it to move faster but halted.

Rudy spun around in a sharp pivot as Art was thrown back, quickly moving to him instead.  A quick observation seemed to show his brother to be alright, especially as he was getting back up.  No point apparently in asking if he was fine but instead Rudy joined in on the howl.  Let any predator out there know this wasn’t just one wolf making a claim.  

Rudy nodded at Art’s plan, choosing to head north, nose scenting the air as he walked.  Adding his own markings about the terrain as he went..  There would be no question from anyone passing through that this land was being claimed and thus no excuse for anyone to stay around thinking it safe.

"Rudyard"

Brair and Fern work to distract the bear, the gray girl feigning attacks but working to keep a safe distance the whole time. The boys, on the other hand, charge straight in. Art bites a back leg and Rudy uses his antlers, poking anything and everything that comes within reach. The girls read the grizzlies irritation and slowly open the path of retreat, increasing the pressure towards it rear end until the angry beast finally catches on to their plan. With a panicked bellow, the bear strikes its back leg out at Artorias, sending the young Aegis sprawling across the ground. Anger flares in the gray girl’s chest and she instinctively moves to take a defensive position in front of the downed Art in case the bear wanted to try and attack further.

Luckily, the grizzly has had enough of them and it lumbers away to find easy food elsewhere. With that, Fern turns to Artorias, quickly scanning to see if he is injured and feeling a wave of relief to find he is not in distress. The leader tilts his back, issuing a howl to stake claim to the land. When Rudy lifts his voice to join Art’s, Fern decides to raise her own voice and join in with them. Once the howl is done, Art suggests making a sweep and marking the territory before heading home. Gray head dips as she looks to each member of the group, offering them all a proud smile. Bidding them farewell, she heads off to begin marking and searching for any predators that might be lingering in the berry laden land.


"Fern Lark" | "Puff"

Standing next to Artorias while they fended off the large bear, as soon as the bear's paw struck out at her husband and knocked him over she shifted toward to protect him and give him a moment to get back to his paws. Luckily it seemed like they wouldn't need to defend against the bear any longer since it took off right after that and went off out of the grove they were trying to claim. Before she did any celebrating the turned to Art to make sure he was okay and glanced to the others to do the same. Once she saw that everyone had gotten through the fight without getting hurt she was able to give a grin and she lifted her head to join in with the others, howling out their warning to any other predators in the grove that if they stuck around then they would get a similar treatment. She turned her attention back to Art when he told them to do a sweep of the area and begin marking the territory before they went back to the castle, she nodded in agreement and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before going to do just that.

"Briar Carpathius"