Sullen Reszet lay on his side and dozed. Last night's hunt went mediocre at best, so he was peckish. Peckish and grumpy. Chen said the area was drained and if they didn't find new prey soon, they would have to move on. Not even one wolf alone could survive the winter with nothing but small game to feed on!
"What do you want?" Res asked mildly annoyed when a particularly big wolf blocked the sun that warmed his pelt. At least he didn't bring his lapdog! "Is the fox not putting out today? I could help!" With a nasty grin he wagged his tail against the grass.
"He feels left out," Toshiba said stiffly. This sort of conversation really wasn't his forte, but for Turnipper he at least wanted to try.
"Oh?" the gray wolf mocked, the playfulness dripping from his nasty grin until his face was dour. "HE fells left out?!"
With a soft growl Toshi meant to emphasize his seriousness on the matter, without escalating the conversation immediately. "Stop your pissy venom. Turnipper will stay with me! And that means he'll stay with you brain farts. All he wants is a fair chance to fit in and wi--"
"Oh, a fair chance, huh?!" Now Reszet got up to face the bigger wolf. "Where was my fair chance? Neither of you were ever concerned for me when I joined the pack!"
"You can do on your own."
"So can him!"
A more threatening growl escaped Toshiba's throat. "Listen, you little shit, you will treat him right, or--"
"Or what?!" Res spat. "Will you punch me? Outcast me? Take my quarry? Or is leaving the fox alone not enough anymore and you'll promise to kill me if I don't play nice with it?!"
"I JUST MIGHT!" he barked wrathy.
Reszet countered with a dismissive, "Tsk!" then began to circle the larger wolf. Toshi followed him with only his eyes. "What do you want me to do? Say 'hello, Tornister' and 'nice to see you'? Find a dry patch for him to sleep? Brush his tail like a low rank bitch?"
"That might be a start," Toshi grumbled. To be honest? Whatever makes this stupid mess less nasty to deal with!
"What's in it for me?" Res asked blatantly, completing his little trip around the red mountain. "Heh, I've got it! If I have to be nice to him, then how about you be nice to me?" Suggestively he raised his tail and wagged it basically right under Toshiba's nose. "I'm sure your fox will understand and doesn't mind to shar-GJAURRGH!"
Definitely done with Reszet's stupid, little game, the massive wolf grabbed his tiny skull and slammed it to the ground. Uncaring for the pain the yowling squirt obviously was in, Toshi leaned down on him and pinned his face to the dirt until it stopped struggling. "You will do as I fucking say! And the moon help me if I have to repeat that again!"
Completely unable to fend the far, far larger wolf off, Reszet whimpered while Toshi's huge hand crushed his skull. Why... why was always he the one to get a proper ticking-off? The joke was always on him. He was the dense lowlife to cop the lot. The lowest of the lowest. Overlooked and disregarded.
When the pressure finally lifted from his head and left him with blurry eyes, Reszet hoped that was it, but he once again didn't get what he wanted. Furiously, Toshiba delivered a kick to his stomach that knocked the wind out of him and hurled his body a few paces over the ground. Coughing and gasping, Res tried to compose himself, swallow the pain down. But that kick did a number on him and he had trouble to stand, feeling as if he had to throw up.
"Now you know what I'll do, bumsucker!"
Barely hearing the words, Res dragged himself over the grass to get away. That fox. That bloody, damn fox! If only he'd never shown up. "Wh-what the fuck, man...?" he sniveled on his retreat and luckily wasn't pursued again. In fact, Toshi had turned and left, abandoning the gray wolf to his pain. The indignity almost hurt as much as his assaulted midsection. 'Hey, Reszet, my fox toy feels lonely, be his friend, or I'll beat you to pulp'.
It took a few moments before he could breath right again and got his tears under control. Slowly and arduously he limped through the forest, away from this violent brute. Away from the pain and the degradation. Maybe his senses unconsciously led him there, or maybe it was just coincidence, but after a rather exhausting walk, he found a white spot of comfort.
"B-Baobei..." he whimpered, drawn towards the calm predator, resting so majestically in the green. If only he had been there. Chen could stand up to Toshi. He would have stopped him. Or would he...? "Toshiba attacked me," he reported, hoping just for the slightest bit of compassion. Now that he tried to focus on the other wolf, Res noticed that his blurry vision weren't just tears, or a headache. Half his face felt hot and throbbing. He sniffed. "It hurts..."
"Then you should have hurt him back," Chen said, as though it was obvious.
"I can't! You know I can't!" Defeated he crawled up to Chen, sought his warmth, longed for his strength and eventually nestled up against his side. And for a few seconds he felt happiness, was released of all worldly sorrows. "Baobei, please..."
Though a menacing growl from the white wolf put a sudden end to Reszet's relief. He didn't have words, just a rough hostile growl to keep him at bay. It worked. Fear drove the smaller wolf away until their bodies parted, leaving a cold barrier of air between them. Fear of being hurt again. Fear of being humiliated again. Fear of losing what little worth he still held in Chen's eyes. His stomach hurt again. And this time its meager contents might actually spill.
Meekly he sheered off from Chen, condemned to suffer alone. Again...
It was always like that. It had always been like that. No one cared about him. No one gave a fuck about whether he was there, or not. Whether he was hungry, or cold. Whether he was hurt. "Gmfff..." he sniffed, trying to toughen up. Swallow the bitter bits and march on, as he always did, as he always had. But his throat was tight and his paws tired. So tired of it all... "Hmp-hff-ff-wfff..." Crying he bumped into a tree, clinging to its rough bark.
"Reszet...?"
He wasn't able to see him clearly, but he knew that voice. Soft and mellow and adorable. Of course he had to show up. Make this humiliating day even worse. Bask in his shame and misery.
"Toshi told me what happened and I'm so--"
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" the humbled wolf exploded, pushing himself off the tree and into the fox, shoving him roughly to the ground. Panting, crying, hurt and hurting he towered above him now, fists clenched. Seeing the fox cower before him like Toshiba had seen him. Weak, small, pathetic... How easy it would be to strike out. End this unworthy existence, wipe it from this earth so the moon never had to lay its eyes on it again. Res didn't feel pity, didn't feel mercy. And yet the fox was still here. Breathing. Trembling. Living, while Reszet's fury crumbled and the pain returned. Pain and fear...
"R-Reszet, we can--"
"Turnipper!" a loud, angry voice suddenly shouted. And before either of the two realized what was going on, the giant, red mountain crashed into the gray wolf at full tilt.
Growling, barking. Snapping teeth and colliding bodies. Then a shriek, grating, pained and loud enough to startle the entire forest, while Toshiba flung the smaller canine around, his teeth sunken into Reszet's shoulder. Distraught Turnipper tried to intervene, but there really wasn't much he could do when two wolves were clashing. Before long, the gruesome attack ended when Toshi dropped the frantically yowling wolf.
Pain and fear were now replaced by outright panic in Reszet's teary, blue eyes. Trembling and scared he groveled on the ground. "You bit me..." he realized, the shock more grave than the actual wound. "YOU BIT ME!" Sobbing he backed away, nothing but hurt in his features. His tail was tucked and his ears folded so far, that he looked like a frightened puppy.
The clamor, meanwhile, had also attracted the final pack member's attention. Noninvolved the white wolf sat slightly away from the goings-on and serenely watched the scene with his calm, calculating, condemning eyes. Like the moon, always there, far above you, but uncaring.
Imploringly Res looked up to him. "Chen..." But the prideful wolf made no move. He was alone again. Alone and hated... "Grrrmph!" With the last bit of strength he still had, Reszet ran off.
"Reszet, wait!" Turnipper called after him, but the swift wolf didn't bother to stop and was soon out of sight.
"Don't mind him."
"Well, sorry, but I do!" the small fox barked, now angrily turned towards Toshi, who didn't seem very contrite. "And maybe you should too! Why did you do this?!"
"He was attacking you!" Toshiba countered defensively.
But Turnipper knew better. "No he wasn't. He was angry and hurt. Because of YOU!" Angrily he stared the much bigger wolf down. Toshi didn't budge, but the fox believed to see at least a slight glimmer of regret in his dull, yellow eyes. "What kind of alpha threatens and hurts his own pack?! Are you out of your mind?"
Stoically, Toshiba remained silent, though someone else raised his voice in his stead. "What lies did you tell this gullible fox?" Chen growled as he slowly approached. "I am the alpha of this pack!"
Returning the challenging growl, Toshi focused on the white wolf, rather than his fox. "You sniffed too many flowers if you think you've got what it takes!"
"You're too stupid to walk a straight line, let alone lead a pack to hunt!"
"SERIOUSLY?!" Turnipper yelled, stepping between the two fighting canines. They didn't break their stance, but were at least stumped enough to pay him some attention this time. "Your friend needs help and you hold a pissing contest. You are both terrible alphas!"
"He had it coming t-- What are you doing?!" Toshi growled when Turnipper left him standing to follow Reszet's trace. "Come back here, you... Grrrrr, FINE! Go and dry this giant baby's tears!"
Cautiously, but in haste Turnipper sampled the air, his nose close to the ground, and ignored Toshi's calls. Reszet's scent was easy enough to trace and didn't seem to follow a particular course. He went east until he hit the river, then headed upstream.
Honestly, it was a bit dangerous to follow a roiling wolf, who held a grudge for you, into the boondocks all alone. But Turnipper felt responsible. He expressly told Toshi not to force his wishes upon the rest of the pack, but the pig-head did it anyway. It was even kind of cute, in a way, to think that he actually cared this much. But however good Toshi's intentions had been, they backfired dramatically! He only hoped the big wolf didn't tend to solve all his problems with his claws and teeth.
"R-Reszet...?" the fox asked, taken aback when he finally found the runaway. They were at the top of the waterfall, pretty much the spot where he met Toshiba for the first time. The gray wolf was standing on a large boulder, right in the current at the very edge of the waterfall, his shoddy fur wet from the splashing water. "What are you doing?"
With a tired, resigned face Reszet looked at the fox on the shore. "Came to mock me one last time?" he asked cynically, peering down over the edge of the waterfall his paws stood on. It was a pretty sizeable cliff, the falling water loud as thunder.
Nervous, Turnipper came as close to the edge of the river as he dared. "I-I'm not mocking you! I want to talk to you. Please... come here. Come over to me."
The wolf took a few steps back, his body was tense and determined, but his face was conflicted.
"We... Let's go back. We can find a solution. I'm sure Toshiba feels sorry. He worried about me and overreacted. It was a mistake."
The warm blood dripping from his shoulder, and the much deeper scars his teeth had ripped open, felt like a damn big mistake, though! Resolved, the gray wolf tensed his legs and leaned forth.
"Reszet, wait, you don't-- RESZET!!!"
He jumped.
