Black Creek Pack History

[Year 1 | M2-M3] Year of Torrential Rain
Alphas: Muddaub (2-3), Keeper (3-4)
Pups: Kingfisher, Yellowjacket, Bundle, Blacktail, Tine, Homeward, Kestrel (d) | Cichlid
Pack: 3 - Spruce, Keeper, Mudduab
Injury tally: 1 near death, 2 major, 2 minor

🌷 Mud starts her journey for a new pack at two years of age
🌷 Miscalculating the challenge they'd be to take down, she goes after a bull elk. She makes the kill, but not without landing a bruised rib and a fractured jaw
🌷 Mud finds a pair of wandering males - a brown with a radio collar and a black with a mange tail. She lingers near them until she manages to impress the black, named Keeper
🌷 In order to see if they're suitable mates for each other, Mud and Keeper go on a hunt. Regretfully, there is nothing near by except... bull elk. Mud thinks that the two of them will have a better chance downing the thing, but it's still a massive challenge that earns her a sprained leg for some days
🌷 Despite her miscalculations, Keeper decides to stay. The pair make their first nest at an abandoned den, dubbed Dirthill. They have 7 pups. Heaviest to lightest, these are Homeward (m, 5.6) Kestrel (m, 5.4) Bundle (f, 5.2), Yellowjacket (f, 5.2), Kingfisher (f, 5.1), Tine (f, 4.6), and Blacktail (m, 4.5). Mud is now 3 and Keeper is now 4
🌷 Raising the pups goes well for some time until a cougar stalks and kills Kestrel. As Mud pursues the animal, trying to regain her puppy before he's killed, the other puppies totally neglect going into the den for safety. When Mud returns empty-pawed, she finds that three of her pups have wandered off and into the woods. She spends a nerve-wracking afternoon hunting them all down, but manages to do so before they're eaten
🌷 After a heavy rain, Dirthill is flooded. Mud and Keeper have to move their young pups to a new den: a toppled tree named Spidertree. This not only is vulnerable to eagles, but is slightly closer to enemy territory
🌷 Bundle falls severely ill
🌷 Not long after the move, the den floods again. The family treks to Thirdhome, another abandoned den. It's even closer to enemy territory than Spidertree
🌷 Homeward falls ill. A few days after, though, Bundle manages to recover from his brush with death. A few days more and Homeward pulls through as well
🌷 The pups are all 15 pounds or more! The den is abandoned for a site, Centerstone
🌷 The new home is very peaceful for several days before a boar grizzly bear attacks. Muddaub is almost killed keeping him away from the pups, ending up with a fractured jaw again. In the same day, Blacktail falls ill
🌷 Mud struggles immensely with feeding her family, as her jaw makes it so that she can't carry things for very long at all. Much of her time is spent hauling food back and forth. To make matters worse, summer has advanced to the point that calves and fawns are almost all big enough to stop hiding in the grass, which made them easy prey. Many of them are also too big to carry back in one go, making Mud have to bite chunks off and do more trips
🌷 Tine falls ill. However, this illness doesn't seem to be as serious as the one that was caught during the flooding. Blacktail recovers and Tine follows after
🌷 The pups reach 20 pounds before Mud's jaw heals

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[Year 2 | M3-M4] Year of Expansion
Alphas: Muddaub (3-4), Keeper (4-5)
Pups: Heartbeat, Bat, Toes, Riverscar, Vitality, Might, Whisper
Pack: [Undeveloped]
Injury tally: 1 near death, 2 major, 4 minor

🥝 Once the first litter has become yearlings, Mud and Kestrel return to Dirthill to have their second litter. Again, they have 7 pups. Heaviest to lightest, these are Heartbeat (m, 6.0), Toes (f, 5.4), Vitality (m, 5.4), Riverscar (m, 5.3), Might (f, 5.2), Whisper (m, 5.0), and Bat (f, 4.7). Mud is now 4 and Keeper is now 5
🥝 In the Spring, one of the three opposing wolf packs ("Blue") suffers a massive territory reduction. They're simply not able to keep it up. Muddaub capitalizes on this and claims huge swaths of their abandoned territory. This takes much of her time, with multiple days dedicated to reinforcing fresh scent markers. Due to the long run, Keeper has to do much of the food upkeep while Mud is out
🥝 During one of her far-off hunts, Mud suffers a bruised jaw. This isn't a major injury, but slows her down in some areas
🥝 After an exhausting period of claiming Blue's territory, Mud attempts to hunt within closer range for her family. However, she gets unlucky. A deer she downs is overtaken by a mother grizzly with three cubs. Mud's able to grab one chunk and run, but it's not very much... So, she tries to scare the momma off, but she's not budging. In an attempt to coax her further, Mud nibbles on some of the cubs. This earns her nothing other than a severe leg injury. Desperate, Mud attempts to grab one more chunk from the carcass to take back. Not only is she unsuccessful, but a coyote nibbles on her original bite that she set aside during her attempt. Before she can lose it all, she takes her reduced meal and leaves...
🥝 Blue doesn't fight much to regain its territory, but their neighbors, Purple, are much more aggressive. They attempt to take sections for their own. After fighting back and forth with them for several days, Mud relents and lets them keep three segments for their own. The run is just too far and the pack too intent for her to defend the place on her own. Her own pack truly doesn't yet need that much territory anyway
🥝 Despite her wounded leg, Mud downs a cow elk who happened to have an overly loyal friend. The two cows feed the family for several days
🥝 Whisper falls ill
🥝 A cougar visits the den while the parents are out eating, but thankfully decides not to dig up the pups. It unwisely returns later when the adults are back, earning it a swift removal from the area
🥝 An elk herd camps very near the den, giving the wolves another bonus carcass. However, while Mud is hauling bits back and forth to the den, the mother grizzly makes a return and she is not spooked. Mud manages to get more meat out from under her, but takes a couple swats in the process. She actually tries to kill one of the cubs this time, but they're pretty beefy... Eventually, the bears do flee (hovering nearby to take nibbles whenever Mud turns her back). However, during her stockpiling, Mud discovers that Dirthill has been flooded... It's likely been this way for some days and just happened not to be brought up
🥝 Mud finally finishes with the carcass, leaving the scant remains to the bears. But, when she returns to the den the final time, fully exhausted, she finds four of the pups have abruptly wandered away! And made some pretty impressive ground...! Because of her wounded leg, she can't carry the pups for very long at all and her exhaustion leaves her very little stamina to work with...
🥝 After recovering two of the pups, it becomes clear that Riverscar have run off together and then diverged. She finds River first, sends him home, then goes after Heart. However!! River does not go home and instead runs (runs!!) deeper into the woods!
🥝 Keeper is panicked and trying to help, but in doing so, he's not keeping a good eye on the pups that Mud is returning. This causes a few of the pups that had not yet gotten lost to... get lost. There's the scent of cougar in the air and with so many puppy scent trails all over the woods, it's getting difficult to track them... Additionally, the pups are exhausted from their time outside the flooded den, so when Mud locates them and tells them to return home, many of them simply roll over and fall asleep where they lay
🥝 The process takes to long to remedy that Mud's leg actually heals enough to be used. This is good because in returning the two pups that keeper lost, Toes and Vitality, the original four wander off again!! Mud decides that apparently these pups aren't going to stick around and she needs to look at the flooded den to make sure it isn't recoverable so they can find a new one, thusly causing the puppies to hover around her while they travel. In this short moment, though, one more puppy makes a break for it
🥝 Everyone is absolutely dead on their paws, but Mud gets the family back together. She makes the move to locate a new den to stop the rampant wandering, but the pups are too tired to be moved... The pack thusly takes a homeless nap outside their old home. Whisper recovers from his mild illness as he sleeps and a group of elk arrive in the night to trample the remains of Dirthill...
🥝 In the morning, Mud takes her hoard of unruly, only semi-rested puppies past Spidertree (they're still small enough to be in danger of eagles) to Thirdhome. On the way, they're attacked by a pair of coyotes
🥝 The pups are ill-prepared for the journey. By the time they've barely reached Spidertree, they're nearly exhausted. Mud tries to push on, but it's no use. The pups sleep in the grass while she tries to gather some of the meat stash at Dirthill. Much of the meat has been scavenged, so Mud goes to hunt one of the nearby elk while the pups rest. While she makes the kill, her jaw also bruises again... The pups are fed and then the pack sleeps
🥝 They wake to two stranger wolves who, despite one of them being a yearling, are quite intent on an attack. Even with Mud on one and Keeper on another, they still make attempts at the pups. Keeper's leg is wounded in the fight, but the pair manages to drive off the attackers. Again, the pups have not slept well, so the pack spends another night in the tall grass. Mud's jaw heals after the rest
🥝 After getting a little turned around, the pack arrives at Thirdhome. All the meat Mud attempted to bring is gone, but the pups are safe
🥝 Just as Mud is telling the pups to go inside so that she and Keeper can eat, a cougar attacks. It very nearly grabs a pup, but ultimately fails
🥝 Purple is getting much too bold with Mud's northern territory. She finds them there, attempting to take over, chases them out, and thoroughly remarks the place. Then, in the morning, she finds they've totally claimed the whole area while she slept!! So, she decides to put them in their place. She not only takes back her territory, but ventures deeper into Purple's land to claim more than she needs. On her way, she encounters a ruthless pair. They ganged up on her and wounded her leg. Unable to bite one without being wrenched off by the other, she retreated back to her territory. Once there, the opposing wolves fled. She chased them and did some damage, but by this point, she was too exhausted to catch up to them and they were too swift
🥝 Mud waited until the patrolling pair left, then crept back into Purple territory and claimed some. While exploring for more to take, the pair located her again, even angrier than before. They severely wounded her leg and nearly killed her. In an attempt to get rid of them, Mud ran directly into a nearby herd of bison. It worked, scaring off the attackers, and she managed not to get gored. Once again, in their wake, she crept in and claimed territory
🥝 While venturing deeper, Mud found a bison carcass that she helped herself to. She claimed one more swath of territory and then took her battered and bruised self back home
🥝 A cougar attacks and very nearly grabs Vitality
🥝 Bat falls ill. Mud and Keeper both hurt their legs fending off a carcass from a cougar
🥝 A grizzly attacks, coming right into camp, and Mud bruises her jaw keeping it away
🥝 The pups are 15 pounds! Bat is still very ill, but the pups are too big to fit into the den. Thusly, the family ventures to a site: Flatplane. Mud carries Bat the whole way
🥝 When the pack has very nearly reached Flatplane, it becomes clear that a mother moose and her calf are going to cross paths with them. Mud increases her pace to avoid them, but Keeper tells some of the pups to hide in the grass instead... With her mouth full of puppy, Mud can't squeak to call the hiding pups out. Worse, the patch of grass Keeper directed them too is in front of the moose. She has now reached them and is pissed off, stomping at any canine close enough (the puppies in the grass!!). Mud sets down Bat a safe distance away and circles back to help. She's too wounded at the moment to take on a fully grown, healthy moose, but she tries anyway, hoping her mate will make up the difference. Keeper, however, attacks the calf instead. This enrages the moose and, after some more attempted puppy stomping, she wheels around to defend her baby. Keeper takes a beating himself, but, after almost killing the calf, he lets go and the pair gallop off. Dazed and winded, the pack regroups and then continues on to their summer site...
🥝 Bat recovers, but Might falls ill in the same breath
🥝 Might recovers
🥝 Mud wounds her leg, but kills a cow elk right in camp. This actually turns out to be quite annoying, as it leads ravens to her stash of fawn carcasses. This issue persists for several days despite Mud's many attempts to remedy it
🥝 In the morning, a boar grizzly tries to claim the carcass. Mud and Keeper sustain a fair amount of wounds chasing him off
🥝 Keeper and Mud hunted in Red's territory the day prior. In revenge, the leader of the Red pack makes an attempt on the pups. However, he comes alone and is chased off
🥝 The pack is attacked by coyotes for an incredibly brief moment
🥝 The pups are 20 pounds!

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[Year 3 | M4-M5] Year of Death Ridge
Alphas: Muddaub (4-5), Keeper (5-6)
Pups: Pawprint, Cricket, Song, Mistwoods, Carry, Barley, Delight
Pack: [Undeveloped]
Injury tally: 0 near death, 1 major, 3 minor

🌊 The next year, Mud finds that the nearby packs are totally replaced with three new ones: Green, Indigo, and Teal. The other packs are still around, just... shrunk and scattered. Also worth noting is that Green has only... four areas of territory, which is basically nothing
🌊 Due to it flooding two years in a row, Mud seeks a new initial den that isn't Dirthill. She and Keeper roam far and wide across their territory, bullying the elk herds as they go. However, most of the new spots they locate are vulnerable to eagles, which Mud isn't satisfied with. After much exploration (and disappointment), the pair return to Dirthill to have their next litter
🌊 Mud once again has a litter of 7. Heaviest to lightest, these are Barley (f, 5.5), Carry (m, 5.3), Song (f, 5.3), Delight (f, 5.1), Pawprint (m, 5.1), Cricket (m, 4.9), and Mistwoods (m, 4.8). Mud is now 5 and Keeper is now 6
🌊 Pawprint falls ill (he's been alive for one day...). Cricket falls ill the next day
🌊 Pawprint recovers. Cricket recovers two days later
🌊 Despite the snow outside, the fleas in the den are progressing abnormally quickly. They're at 21% while the pups are only 8 pounds. An early move is likely in the pack's future
🌊 Mud has a wonderful day hunting, catching several ungulates on rocky terrain that they struggle to navigate. She downs two mule deer does and then a coyote trying to eat her kill. After making some trips to bring meat back to her pups (as well as a bison skull for play), she spies three elk on a lower ledge. They appear to be quite stuck, so she helps herself, downing them one by one. The other two beat on her, earning her a minor leg injury, but she eventually has her reward of two elk cows and one spike elk. There are more mule deer lingering nearby, but she elects to leave them be, if only because her hunting wounds are starting to add up
🌊 After sleeping, Mud notices a herd of pronghorn up by the ridge of death. She tries to use it to corner one, but ends up slipping off herself, oops...
🌊 While returning chunks of meat to the den, Keeper wants to come out to the ridge with Mud. She lets him and they bully one of two cougars feeding on the corpses half to death. After the chase, they find the small herd of mule deer are unwisely lingering around. The wolf pair down all three of them in their cornered state
🌊 The unwounded ridge-cougar makes an attempt on the pups, but swiftly changes its mind
🌊 The scent of cougars, grizzlies, and coyotes is strong as every predator on the range is attracted to Mud and Keeper's bounty of kills. The awkward placement of many of them fends off some attackers, but the couple must be wary to keep their pups safe
🌊 A mother grizzly with a single cub gets caught on the tricky terrain. Mud kills the cub
🌊 A yearling wolf makes an attempt on the pups, but is easily persuaded otherwise. Meanwhile, the mother grizzly and a cougar have essentially gotten stuck on the ridge, so some of the carcass bounty is lost to them taking up residency
🌊 Mud is unamused with the route the yearling has taken, meandering near the den. She hunts her down and snuffs her out
🌊 By this point, all of the doe carcasses have been consumed, but the larger elk still remain. The cougar and the grizzly have disappeared (though the whole area is still crawling)
🌊 Mud kills a coyote to defend the dwindling elk meat, but it's basically all gone anyway. The pair has been able to feed their pups to 13 pounds on the feast
🌊 A grizzly boar attacks and Mud is badly beaten down, but the pups are kept safe
🌊 Two wolves from Teal attack, the alpha male and a companion female. Keeper chases off the alpha and Mud downs the female. The alpha circles back towards the den, so Mud kills him as well
🌊 After the attack, Mud downs a mule doe. She brings one chunk back to the den for Keeper, but finds hungry pups eat it instead. The pair go out to the carcass, but find it's been taken by a mother grizzly with a cub. Mud tries to chase her off, but the bear goes all in. Mud gets a minor jaw injury and then backs off a bit. Keeper does not back off, earning him a minor injury and then a major injury to his leg. Mud grabs a chunk of the carcass and calls for the retreat, as this is one of the worst beatings she's seen Keeper receive... She sends him limping home after feeding him the meat. Then, she returns to the carcass to attempt to grab some more. Momma bear lands a bad hit, gravely wounding Mud's leg as well. She grabs her costly meat and hightails it home. Upsettingly, she finds a mule doe guarding a fawn on the way, who would have been easy, less risky prey
🌊 Their parents still wounded, the pups reach 15 pounds. Thankfully, Centerstone is just up the hill. Carrying a moose calf, Mud leads her family to the site (The fleas got up to 65%, but never became overpowering. And the den never flooded, wow!!)
🌊 Mistwoods falls ill the next morning
🌊 Mud's leg heals before Keeper's does
🌊 A boar grizzly attacks the site. It's fended off with relative ease (for a bear), but Mud gets a minor injury
🌊 Keeper recovers
🌊 Song makes an absolute break for it, but is recovered. Mistwoods recovers from his brush with death
🌊 Delight falls ill
🌊 Delight recovers, but not easily
🌊 The pups are 20 pounds the next day!

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[Year 4 | M5-M6] Year of Territory Disputes
Alphas: Muddaub (5-6), Keeper (6-7)
Pups: Mint, Killdeer (d), Pebble, Sunflower, Bearberry, Sniffles, Scratch
Pack: [Undeveloped]
Injury tally: 1 near death, 1 major, 5 minor

🍰 Keeper and Mud make their annual migration to Dirthill to have their next litter. It is a litter of 7 again. Heaviest to lightest, they are Killdeer (m, 6.0), Mint (m, 5.6), Scratch (f, 5.1), Sunflower (f, 5.0), Bearberry (f, 4.7), Sniffles (m, 4.7), and Pebble (m, 3.6, runt). Mud is now 6 and Keeper is now 7
🍰 The packs did terribly last year. Green and Teal developed fairly decent territories, but couldn't upkeep them. As such, they appear to have dissolved come the new year. Indigo remains, accompanied by a Crimson and a Violet. Violet is the weakest among them. Also worth noting is that Mud knows no wolves this year. Last year, there were some dispersals and an alpha male that were still in the range. It seems they've moved on
🍰 Mud receives a leg wound for taking on two weak elk cows in a row (highly uncalled for, unlucky)
🍰 Keeper and Mud go to get breakfast from the cows and Keeper looks at Mud almost the entire run, which is just pretty cute :)
🍰 There's a sow grizzly with two cubs, a cougar, and a red fox at the carcasses. Strangely, the only one who puts up a fight is the cougar
⭕ [I change the gamemode from "easy" to "challenging" to test it out]
🍰 A cougar tries to attack, but Keeper spots it fast
🍰 A wolf from Crimson eyes the den. The parents give her a run for her money (she's a little too swift to hunt down)
🍰 Mud bruises her jaw while hunting a mule deer in Violet's territory (again, unlucky...)
🍰 Mud ventures deep into Violet territory, taking some of their weak territory. She's looking for trouble, but finds only a single male wolf, whom she leaves alone. While there, she sees her first beaver! She also finds a fish dropped by a bald eagle
🍰 Mud finds a herd of five elk that have gotten stuck on Death Ridge. She downs a cow, though the fight has her fairly wounded. She then calls Keeper so that he can eat and help her down a spike elk. Afterwards, Mud takes on another spike, but is too injured to finish it off. Thankfully, Keeper does after some prompting. The remaining two cows supposedly figure out an escape. During the fight, a boar grizzly is already helping himself to the cow. As the pair leave the ridge, they spot four coyotes. Many predators are on the prowl...
🍰 After the hunt, Mud badly needs rest. But someone is claiming a segment of her territory... She embarks to find the intruder. Thankfully, the trip is not dramatic. She remarks the territory and then takes her exhausted self back home
🍰 Come morning, Mud has only half recovered, but there is an abundance of territory to remark. Violet, it seems, is not quick to give up their borders
🍰 Despite a day of running all over the range, Mud loses a swath of territory to Indigo because she can't be everywhere at once. She reclaims it the next day while remarking the western edge of her territory. She claims some of their weaker areas while there for the sake of being spiteful (as they're already trying to reclaim what she just marked)
🍰 Just to be antagonistic, Mud visits the Indigo den site since it's on her way. She finds no one, so she just pees everywhere. She'd hunt further for their den, but her pack is missing her
🍰 By the end of the day, Indigo has reclaimed that dang patch of territory again. And they're treading deeper
🍰 A cougar attacks the den. When charged, it runs right towards the feeding pups. The scared babies scatter, but no one is grabbed
🍰 While reclaiming the territory she and Indigo are fighting over, Mud finds the tracks of a strange wolf chasing an elk herd. She follows them to find that the stranger killed an elk in her territory, but the carcass has been taken by a bear. Not put out, the wolf is hunting another elk. Mud chases her, but she's a dispersal, not an Indigo member as she'd hoped. Mud chases her far, but ultimately breaks off, as she has more territory to cover in the opposite direction
🍰 Mud backtracks and tries to get a nibble off the dead spike elk, but the bear (momma, 1 cub) is still there. All Mud gets is a couple of slaps and a minor injury
🍰 The next morning, the alpha female of Crimson takes a peek at the den. Keeper and Mud do their best to chase her down, but she's quite fast
🍰 Upon returning home after doing a bit of marking, Mud finds the scent of stranger wolves is still strong. In returning to her pack, the alpha female just skirted the den. Mud tracks her down and shows her the door (but is sadly too tired to land a bite)
🍰 Indigo has changed its plan of attack. They're now trying to take territory to the south. Crimson has also begun to encroach from the north
🍰 A grizzly boar attacks. It minorly wounds Keeper's leg. Overexcited from the attack, Scratch and Pebble wander off after the bear is gone
🍰 Mud takes down a mule deer buck, but it lands her a minor injury
🍰 Mint tries to get lost
🍰 Mud goes to reclaim a slice of territory that Violet stole in the night. While there, she finds the Violet alpha male renewing the scent markers. He flees and she's too tired to chase him down
🍰 Scratch falls ill. There's lots of territory that needs remarked, but Mud can't afford to leave her pup now...
🍰 A cougar tries its luck, but Mud sees it coming
🍰 Bearberry wanders off despite Mud being right there, babysitting Scratch......
🍰 Mud pops out to hunt something. A Crimson wolf does a near swoop of the den and is assumedly spooked by Keeper
🍰 Scratch's illness is severe, but she recovers
🍰 The alpha male of Violet attacks. Keeper gets a minor leg injury while fending him off
🍰 The pups are 15 pounds! And not a moment too soon, as the fleas were around 82%. Mud moves the pack up to Centerstone for the summer
🍰 Killdeer falls ill. Sniffles falls ill the next day D: Also, the alpha male from Crimson makes an attack. Mud doesn't dare leave her babies to try and hunt him down
🍰 A coyote makes a lame attempt at the site. The next night, a bear stares them down. Mud howls to try and scare him off, but this just makes him charge. He nearly grabs Mint, but ultimately fails. Keeper gets a major and a minor injury while defending the pups. Killdeer does lots of very confident tail emotes despite being sick and it's pretty cute
🍰 In a strange play, Keeper goes off to mark territory...? Helpful, but he's very slow since he's wounded. While Mud nurses the fading Killdeer, Pebble and Scratch both try to escape
🍰 Killdeer dies in his sleep :(( He was 20.7 pounds. Keeper returns and Mud has to go out to hunt. She takes a pronghorn fawn, but the momma does a lot of stompin' damage and the fawn doesn't feed the pups much despite being one of the bigger ones
🍰 Thankfully, Sniffles recovers the next morning. His illness wasn't as bad as Killdeer's
🍰 Everyone is very hungry. Mud gets lucky and finds a mule deer with twins, but takes a severe stomping getting them... including a minor leg injury. She has to eat one and bring the other back to her pack. There's also a female dispersal out there, but Mud can do very little about it
🍰 Keeper goes off and feeds himself. Mud has to sleep to recover, but thankfully, Keeper brings back snacks for the pups
🍰 Pebble needs 0.2 pounds and Mud desperately scours the mountains for anything edible. She finds two buck pronghorn trapped on Death Ridge, but her health is too low to take them on. She's outpaced by a doe and a buck mule deer. Finally, she finds a moose calf, but her luck is poor. It's guarded by a male and a female... Mud takes a nibble and the mother moose fractures her jaw for it
🍰 Mud does her dead-level best to take the calf, but it gets to a point where the baby itself is literally going to kill her. She has to return home empty-pawed. She's too wounded to even catch a hare :(
🍰 Come morning, Mud is still critically wounded. Thankfully, it seems Pebble gained his pounds in his sleep. The pups are all 20 pounds!

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[Year 5 | M6-M7] Year of Severe Illness
Alphas: Muddaub (6-7), Keeper (7-8)
Pups: Mat, Wing, Bridge, Berrynose, Hackle, Dusk (d), Dawn
Pack: [Undeveloped]
Injury tally: 0 near death, 0 major, 4 minor

🎀 Come next spring, Violet has nearly been wiped out. Indigo and Crimson, however, are doing fairly well for themselves
🎀 There's bison on top of Dirthill, but Mud and Keeper manage to sneak past and have their traditional 7 pups. Heaviest to lightest, these are Hackle (m, 5.9), Bridge (f, 5.7), Dawn (m, 5.5), Mat (f, 5.5), Wing (f, 4.9), Berrynose (f, 4.6), and Dusk (f, 4.6). Mud is now 7 and Keeper is now 8
🎀 The day the pups are born, the couple hears a howl of a dispersal wolf nearby. Mud would rather feed the pups than chase it down, though. Concerningly, there's the scent of a wolf carcass in the couple's territory...
🎀 Mud bruises her jaw on the first hunt of the year >:v She calls Keeper to come eat, but as she does, a red fox and a momma grizzly with two cubs appear on the horizon. Before the bears can steal the carcass, Mud bites off a couple of chunks and stashes them nearby. She tries to growl at the bears, but they are not afraid at all. Relenting, she goes back to the tiny stash to find the red fox chewing on it!! Thankfully, it didn't eat much
🎀 Mud gets a bruised rib from a cow elk kick
🎀 Dusk falls ill. The timing on this is quite poor because like all of the western territory needs remarked...
🎀 Keeper heads out to hunt for himself. A cougar attacks while he's gone and isn't easily daunted... It nearly grabs Dusk and then Mat. In the excitement, Bridge wanders off. Keeper returns shortly after the shenanigans are over
🎀 The alpha male of Crimson makes an attack, but doesn't get anywhere with it
🎀 Dusk doesn't make it :(
🎀 Mud gets a minor leg wound while hunting a cow elk
🎀 Mat falls ill
🎀 The alpha male and a male yearling of Crimson attack. The alpha chews on Keeper a bit, but the pair are chased away
🎀 A boar grizzly attacks, but doesn't stay for long, as he's actually pretty wounded
🎀 Interestingly, both Crimson alphas die at the same time. Shortly after, the yearling dies as well
🎀 Dawn wanders off while Mat's on her absolute deathbed
🎀 Mat recovers at 1% health!!!
🎀 A pair of coyotes consider attacking, but then totally chicken out
🎀 A pair of female wolves from Indigo attack
🎀 Wing falls ill. The pups are also 15 pounds. Mud carries the sick pup up to Centerstone where the family will spend the summer
🎀 Dawn falls ill during the night
🎀 A couple of male dispersals linger near the site
🎀 A coyote does some laps nearby the site
🎀 Dawn recovers! Wing recovers, too, but is a much closer scrape (7% health)
🎀 Mud gets a bruised jaw hunting an elk calf (thanks to mom). Two seconds later, Hackle falls ill
🎀 A pair of coyotes attack. Mud chases them off, but one circles back! Thankfully, it's outmatched
🎀 Two Indigo males attack
🎀 The pups are 20 pounds!

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[Year 6 | M7-M8] Year of Three Pups
Alphas: Muddaub (7-8), Keeper (8-9), Horizon (4)
Pups: Slate (d), Marble, Sediment
Pack: [Undeveloped]
Injury tally: 0 near death, 0 major, 5 minor

🌿 Crimson did very poorly, slowly disappearing towards the end of the year. By spring, they're gone and replaced with Forest
🌿 Returning to Dirthill, Mud has her smallest litter ever: 3. Heaviest to lightest, they are Slate (m, 5.9), Marble (m, 5.6), and Sediment (m, 5.3). Mud is now 8 and Keeper is now 9
🌿 Mud encounters a group of three male dispersals and is quite lucky they're scared of her...!
🌿 Because of the way they're crammed into the corner, Forest doesn't have much room to expand. Thusly, they start taking over Mud's eastern territory. In reclaiming, she finds the alpha male of Forest along with another male. She lets them chase her off, then rounds back to take her claim once they're gone
🌿 By the next time Mud wakes, Forest has taken two swaths of her territory again... And they're working on more!
🌿 A cougar gets frighteningly deep into camp, but thankfully, the pups were being fed on the opposite side
🌿 A coyote actually has the guts to bite Mud at her own elk carcass
🌿 When Mud next wakes, she's lost two patches of territory to Forest and three more are on their way (ugh). She's also losing a bit to Indigo. In howling at her den, she can hear Forest nearby reply
🌿 Mud finds a yearling in an area she's reclaiming. After a mere single bite, she gets a minor leg injury, which is super rude. A few nibbles back and forth and the yearling decides she's had enough
🌿 Lucky! Mud finds an elk downed by another animal that's less than half eaten. Close to home, too
🌿 Keeper dies in his sleep! D: The largest pup is nearly 10 pounds, for reference. Oh, and of course Mud's lost two patches of territory to Forest and is losing one to Indigo
🌿 Mud must find a new mate quickly or the fleas will overwhelm the den. She travels far west and into no dog's land to find the three dispersals that she chased off right after her pups were born. They're interested and she charms the best of them, Horizon. He's the only black as well as three-star diversity. He's four years old. Exhausted from her journey, Mud takes her new husband home to meet the pups (and have a snack - he's quite hungry). Mud is losing much more territory to Forest and the pups are nearly annoyed enough to leave the den!
🌿 The pups meet their new dad! Horizon is very sweet to them. Slate growls a little, but Horizon is ultimately accepted into the pack
🌿 The pair have scarcely been home for an hour when they're attacked by a Forest yearling. Both parents are wounded from fending a cougar off their "snack" and Mud is too tired to do much fighting. The enemy wolf gets right on top of the den and very near the pups, but Horizon bravely fights him off
🌿 Not an hour after the wolf attack, a cougar sneaks up on the den. It grabs Slate and Mud doesn't have enough energy to catch it
🌿 The pack is losing territory that's right next to the den. They're kind of in trouble...
🌿 The eastmost border is restored, though there's still other territory work to do
🌿 Mud kills an elk right next door, but the elk's friend gives her a bruised jaw
🌿 Territory is majorly reestablished excepting the south border with Forest. Howls can still be heard from the den, which is annoying
🌿 By the time Mud returns to the carcass to stash some pieces (under an hour), a mama grizzly has taken up residence with three cubs....
🌿 Male dispersals kill a bison while the pack sleeps. Interesting, but there isn't enough left to be of much use
🌿A cougar does a drive-by, but gets nothing
🌿 Mud bruises her jaw while downing a cow elk
🌿 Forest seems more interested in bullying Violet now, which gives the pack a break
🌿 Mud bruises her jaw while hunting a-gain
🌿 The alpha female of Violet attacks, but does no damage
🌿 The pups are 15 pounds! Up to Centerstone they go (which is kind of uncomfortably near a herd of bison, but whatever)
🌿 Competition is aggressive between the packs. For the moment, Black Creek feels like an island in the middle of the chaos
🌿 Feeling a bit more adventurous about territory than she has for some time, Mud claims some from Indigo, which has taken the most territory on the range. Violet was the smallest, weakest pack, but upon Forest pushing hard into their territory, they've been forced to back into Indigo. Strangely, they've done well there and their territory is now larger than ever (though still the smallest of the three enemy packs)
🌿 An elk loses her nerve while Mud hunts for her calf and runs right up to the baby where it hides, making Mud's job super easy!
🌿 An elk herd settles at the bottom of the mountain and Mud decides to take on a cow even though she's quite healthy. This ends up being a mistake that lands her with a minor leg injury and no kill
🌿 A single coyote takes a pass at the site
🌿 Mud decides to give Forest a little trouble for what they put her through. She divides their territory in half with claims
🌿 The pups are 20 pounds!

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[Year 7 | M8-M9] Year of Husband Troubles
Alphas: Muddaub (8-9), Horizon (4-5)
Pups: Summer, Apple, Crisp (d), Honey (d), Breeze (d), Jaunt, Energy
Pack: [Undeveloped]
Injury tally: 0 near death, 1 major, 1 minor

🥩 Forest has been fragmented from Mud's spiteful marking last year. They're now the smallest enemy pack
🥩 Mud and Horizon migrate to Dirthill for their first litter together. Amazingly, Mud has 7 pups...!! Heaviest to lightest, these are Honey (f, 5.9), Energy (m, 5.6), Jaunt (m, 5.0), Summer (m, 5.0), Breeze (f, 4.9), Crisp (m, 4.5), and Apple (m, 3.6, runt). Mud is now 9 and Horizon is now 5
🥩 Horizon runs off and does... some stuff? After a while, all the pups go into the den of their own volition so Mud jaunts off to find some snacks. She finds a hare and then gets distracted by bringing a skull back to the den, as she has tendency to do. This one is a bull elk skull and much more impressive than her twin mule deer buck skulls of last year (though the 3 spike elk antlers helped)
🥩 Horizon has returned, but it seems he focused more on territory than feeding himself. Mud goes out looking for food and finds... nothing, really. There's a nibble of a spike elk carcass to be had and an abundance of antlers and skulls to take, but no substantial, catchable food. Mud brings home a moose skull. The pups are hungrier than they usually ever get
🥩 Jaunt falls ill - terrible timing. Horizon also disembarks...? There are some nearby elk Mud was sniffing at, but, uh... Okay
🥩 Horizon seems to be doing mostly territory, but also some feeding himself on his journey. Mud elects to send the pups to the den (because we're getting to 20% hunger here) and go after the elk. Unfortunately, she's overtired. So, she finds them and thankfully finds a bad-off cow, but it still takes her some time to down the thing. She then spam-feeds the pups to try and level them out again. On his way back home, Horizon invites himself to the carcass, which is a bit rude :v Mud doesn't have time to worry about it. She has to sleep so she can get some healy-points in for Jaunt
🥩 Jaunt luckily gets better really fast! He was like only sick for a day
🥩 Mud's losing some territory to Forest, but it's not really of concern at the moment... She really has to take a nap
🥩 When Mud next wakes, the territory thing is getting pretty dicey. In trying to reclaim what Forest has taken, she runs into the alpha male and a male yearling. She's got food in her mouth, so it's a bit tricky... She'd marked their scent post before they ran her off, but then they started howling once she was across the border, strengthening their claim. She does eventually get it back, though
🥩 A cougar tries to attack, but Mud spooks it off
🥩 Mud kills an elk nearby. Annoyingly, a bear is already loping in as she finishes her meal. Mud then takes a bit of accidental trample damage by colliding with a fleeing pronghorn... APPARENTLY, this knocked the food out of her mouth that she was carrying back home to Horizon. She can't find the thing on the ground, but thankfully the grizzly wasn't very hungry. She's able to reclaim the carcass with ease
🥩 Mud was about to take a nap, but smelled stranger wolves. In following the scent, she annoyingly finds two Forest males just... chilling in her territory. She is staggeringly low on energy, but chews on the older wolf and then shows both of them the door
🥩 The fleas have gotten to "mild" level while the pups are 7-9 pounds, so that's not ideal
🥩 Mud embarks to strengthen her eastern territory, but encounters an elk herd along the way. She finds a suitably wounded cow and then downs it. However, the herd is sort of confused by the terrain and are super trying to trample her. Another cow comes to beat on her. She's as bad-off as the first, so Mud downs her as well. This lands her a bruised rib... and another cow that has come to stick up for the second one. She is equally damaged, so Mud takes her on too! This is not the best idea, as she's quite wounded by this point. The third cow actually fractures Mud's leg, making the fight go on for much longer than it needed to. She wins in the end, but without much health left. AND, super annoyingly, there just so happens to be a grizzly bear right nearby who introduces himself to the bounty
🥩 A Violet yearling passes by the den and does no damage
🥩 Forest is eating up the southern part of Mud's territory, but she's so wounded that she thinks it best to stick close to her family, feeding them with her plentiful elk kills
🥩 Mud takes a nap and Horizon plays with the pups the whole time, which is just kind of funny, teehee
🥩 Apple falls ill D: And Breeze wanders away, but is found. Shortly after, both parents are looking in the wrong direction and a cougar sneaks up on the den! It grabs Energy, but both adults are very nearby and teach it a lesson. It almost grab  Honey on its way out, but doesn't
🥩 After the attack, Horizon sees that Mud is picking up all the sleeping pups and lumping them together and helps :) It's cute
🥩 Mud needs to stay with Apple and so, on cue, territory starts falling apart. Both Violet and Forest seem to be coming in for a piece
🥩 Mud's leg heals
🥩 Summer falls ill. Horizon takes off and decides this is Mud's problem today. Also worth noting is that all of the elk carcasses have now been consumed, leaving the pair down on food
🥩 Coyotes attack after Horizon leaves. There are a pair of them and Mud charges them, but they scatter and swerve around. One grabs Breeze and kills the pup :( They almost get more, but Mud is able to wrangle the elusive pair away
🥩 For some ungodly reason, Horizon comes right back. So he basically jaunted off long enough to do nothing and get a pup killed
🥩 Apple recovers. She did pretty good, only getting about down to half health
🥩 A Violet yearling attacks and Mud sends all the pups into the den because she's getting pretty spooked by these bad predator encounters (coyotes have never actually been a threat...), but it's unnecessary. He flees
🥩 Mud goes out to hunt after the attack and finds two male Forest wolves, again, just chilling in her territory. They're too fast to bite, but she chases them off
🥩 While hunting a mule deer (very difficult to do at her age), Mud is distracted by three dispersal males in her territory. She chases them off, but loses dinner...
🥩 A cougar gets close to the den, but Mud notices it before it can pounce
🥩 Summer recovers after getting pretty low health
🥩 Mud passes away. The pups were at 12-14.5 pounds. Four of them survive to be raised by Horizon. Honey and Crisp don't make it :(