“Do you think this is the first time I have ever been injured, little bird?”

Whispers' uninjured ear flattened against her skull in annoyance, but all the same if someone looked closely enough they could see the corners of her mouth turn up slightly in amusement.

“Oh, I would think not, the clearly grizzled veteran that you are. I would be surprised if this isn't the first time you've been hurt quite this severely, old mule.”

Her last two words had a facetious coating around them, in direct response to him referring to her as 'little bird'. And of course, by old mule, what she was really calling him was a stubborn ass. His demeaning nickname wouldn't be allowed to fly in the pack setting, and he would damn well know it, however as they walked the slow way towards home it seemed like the two had come to an odd, bitter understanding of sorts. She honestly was not preoccupied with making a good impression on the male. Yes, he was part of her pack now, but she didn't become alpha just so she could be buddies with everyone. Of course ultimately the comradeship of her pack was something she would wish for, she would always be willing to trade their adoration if it meant the pack was thriving otherwise. Her mind was already buzzing with all the things she had to prioritize; she had to assess the safety measures already in place and how they might be improved upon. She had to assess how the pack was doing with food, especially as summer was beginning to loosen it's warm embrace off of the land. She had to put the assigned responsibilities in place, which she could only imagine being challenged, at least with any of the pack members who were fiercely loyal to the last monarchs.

And speaking of the past alphas, she also had to discuss their options with them. Or was it just one now? She still hadn't heard what ever happened to the male that she was supposed to fight first.

If it wouldn't have been so painful on her muzzle she might have tried to physically shake away her thoughts. Since that wasn't an option she opted to bury them and shift her focus back onto the pain. It was excruciating, but it was still better than making herself dizzy with everything she still had to take care of. A couple of times she spared a glance with her brown eyes over at the male who was hobbling along at her right. Neither spoke the rest of the way, and that was probably for the best. She hated to imagine the headache she'd have if he ran his mouth the entire way home. They reached the detour that she recognized as the way to Leisure Lake and he halted his steps. She followed suit, curious what he was up to thought she wasn't looking up at him. Despite not having the extent of injuries that he had, she was still feeling very drained from the battle.

“I’m going to the lake, do what you wish.”

It was clear that he wasn't fond of her, and she finally looked up in time to see him catch his injured leg on a low hanging branch. At this point, if she weren't so hurt herself, she'd be finding it difficult not to laugh. Serves you right, ya bastard... She followed at a distance, deciding that he had the right idea. More than anything she wanted to clean herself up before presenting her new pack to their alpha. She approached the water a good fifteen yards away from the male, being sure that they both had the space they needed. She watched the gentle back and forth of the water against the sand. She took a couple steps forward, putting her front paws into the water and allowing the water to tickle her paw pads. It was cold, and made her feet feel prickly on contact, but what she noticed most was that her sore paws immediately felt a small amount of relief. She was about to continue wading in when a sudden thud! caught her attention. She looked over and saw the dark male lapping up water as he laid on the ground, and she shook her head in an almost amused gesture. She looked back out in front of her and entered the water, slowly, and let it soak through her pelt and the steady movement of the water began to massage her muscles. She walked in until the water came up to just below her shoulders. Whispers was parched, and it occurred to the femme that she would need to be creative in getting a drink, her muzzle being fractured as it was.

The young vixen first tried pushing her tongue out without parting her jaws too widely, but her tongue didn't get enough reach. She grunted quietly in frustration. She tried angling her face sideways towards the water, but even still she couldn't quite get a steady of flow of water into her mouth. The next thing she tried was dipping her entire muzzle about halfway down into the water, and then parting it enough so she could gulp it. Since she didn't have to extend her tongue to reach the water it seemed that this system would work the best. After drinking her fill, Whispers began to gently move her muzzle in a slow, circular motion in the water. The blood that had been caked into her severely wounded muzzle was starting to mix into the water. She spent a good fifteen minutes doing this until she was satisfied that, for now, it was as clean as it would get with no assistance. She lifted her head back up, took a deep breath, then turned it sideways so she could dip her left ear completely into the water, all the way down to the skull. Oddly enough this injury stung more when it met the water and resulted in a high pitched whine for a few seconds as she tried to adjust. The actual injury, the ripped ear, wasn't her main concern for cleaning. There was a lot of dried blood gathered in her ear, and after ten minutes of letting it soak in the lake she, as gently as she could, pawed at the ear to loosen up anything else let in there.

Without leaving her spot in the water, Whispers looked over at her once opponent. He still looked very rough but she could tell that the water break had helped, at least to some extent. She had a variety of thoughts passing through her mind during this time, most of which were either wondering where her twin brother was, or wondering how the previous alpha had run things.

“So, uh..”

She began speaking as she turned herself back towards the beach and walked up towards the sand.

“What rank did your last alpha have you at, anyways?”

Normally Whispers would have shaken her fur out right about now, but she didn't bother this time. She didn't want to risk irritating her injuries any more than they already were. She stood up on the beach facing back towards the male as she waited for his reply. It wasn't so important, ranks and all, honestly she was just curious. She assumed he must have been something high up, beta or maybe gamma. Why else would he be sent to fight his alpha's battle?


ooc; lmfao so im pretty sure whispers likes lycaon in a “youre an ass and ill never admit i like you but you're alright” sort of way. bahaha, it was amusing being in her mind while i writing this.