freedom, order, and safety for all of us

500th post! Open for any one! Totally cool if your character wishes to use this towards a trade too.

He hadn't been to the isle since his return. The realization dawned upon him as he lazed beneath a tree and stared out towards the lake. He'd finished his second patrol of the day and with the sun blazing at a true high noon, the fog across the lake had cleared to reveal the spires of the trees that guarded its shores. He looked across the waters and wondered if the herd he'd chased a number of times before still lingered there or if he'd taunted them enough that they'd moved on. Mule deer were expert swimmers. As their young were growing and now old enough to brave the lake waters, he wouldn't put it past them to move on.

Iqniq considered the effort it would take to get there. To swim or to wait until the sun began it's slow decline across the sky. He breathed heavily, the air escaping his nostrils in a puff as he resigned himself to this adventure. He picked his frame up off the earth and lumbered over to the rocky shore. With a few quick paces, he was in the water and swimming the distance to the island at the lake's center.

He drew out of the lake onto the shore and crossed to stand beneath the shade of a tree. He shook himself, ridding his pelt of the additional water weight as he prompted it to dry more completely. He took a few steps back into the sun and lifted his muzzle as the sun's rays swept over his fur. He lingered there for a while longer, basking in the glow, before he remembered his purpose and turned inwards.

Moving between the shade of the trees, he turned towards the places he remembered these deer occupying. First? The place on the southern end of the island where they often rested beneath the shade of the trees. He lifted his nose to the air, testing it, before he turned it back towards the ground and searched for scents and signs of their continued residence.

She had been on the small island perhaps a handful of times. One of those had been just after Tonravik and SFB's mating. It had been a time where his personality had shifted a bit and while she saw remnants of that wolf in him still, she also saw remnants of Shit For Brains. He had become something new, someone better. He had become Shit For Brains 2.0. He was officially Shit For Brains of Tartok, and she was the Resident Asshole of Tartok. It worked for them.

Stalking forward, the Beta tracked her friend's scent. She was content to leave Arverk at the borders to patrol, trusting that he would do as good of a job as he always did. Today, she split from the borders with a purpose. He was Tartok now and she would help teach him their ways. Following the scent now, she eventually came upon the fire-pelted Alpha, chuffing at him to catch his attention. "Hey asshole. Hunting?"

Their common resting place was vacant. He noticed scat marks here and there that suggested they might have been here earlier in the day and had changed locations as the hours wore on. Hmm... curious, he began to trace the edges of their covey for any clue as to what direction they might have headed in when a familiar chuff and a voice sounded behind him. He lifted his head with a grin and turned to find the white wolfess herself. "Hey, bitch. Stalking me?" he asked, his voice teasing.

He abandoned his pursuit of the herd. They were in the area. That was all he really needed to know about the deer. Here and now? He was more curious as to why Kroc, or Nanuk, whatever they were going by now, was stalking him on an island he was starting to think of as his own private escape. "You swim here for funsies or just couldn't get enough of my face?"

She grinned, a rare expression compared to the gruesome snarls she displayed so often. "Might be." In truth, she was. He knew it, she knew it. What he didn't know was why and she sought to enlighten him, her demeanor settling into a serious one. "You are Tartok now." Her normal vulgarity was missing, her tone serious. Nanuk did not take such things lightly and there was a fierce pride that glinted in her eyes as she spoke of it. Iqniq was a worthy comrade who had earned the name and all that came with it. 

"All of our leaders speak a form of Inuit, though Inuktitut is most common. Our branches spread far, so there are variations here and there." When she had first met up with Tonravik, her own tongue had been slow, and rusty. The cobwebs had since fallen away, leaving the Beta to speak it affluently. "Our names are Inuktitut but do you know anything else of the language?" While they would not get everything down today, they could get the basics out of the way, at least. 

He grinned, but the expression was soon wiped from his face as Kroc put on her serious face. His words clued her in as to the why. Ahh. Tartok. His ears swiveled in her direction. His tracking of this herd could wait. Whatever the white bear said next demanded his full attention. He'd been brought into the Tartok name, but there was still so much to learn. He listened as she went on. "Mm." It was definitely time for a lesson.

A lesson in languages. His ears dropped. He was terrible with them. His tongue was not so quick to shift and conform to foreign syllables and his mind, while quick at many things, was not so affluent in the realm of other tongues. This would take a while, but with some patience and a good teacher, he could learn. He had no idea what kind of teacher Nanuk would end up being, but he'd try all the same.

"Teach me," he replied, settling on the ground where he stood. He sat, curling his tail about his paws as he made himself comfortable. "I know a few words here and there, but not much else." He'd need the basics. And after that? Everything else too.

Pretend that the italics are actually the Inuktitut words, and that she's telling him their meaning afterwards.

He gave her his full attention now, something the Beta appreciated of her leader. Where Tonravik was instinctually sound, Nanuk had noticed the way Iqniq complemented her personality with his own. They were a strong team that did well by the Spine and she would support them until the end. A nod, taking in the fact that he knew a little. She would expand his horizons in this. 

The basics. Immediately, her mind began to churn, pulling words and phrases that he should know. There was no preamble as she spoke these to him, and gave him their meaning. "Family. Mate. Child or Children. Brother. Sister." These were all important words, ones that the wolves of Tartok would constantly use as they were all truly family, blood related or not. They'd start with those at least and move on from there. She didn't want to overwhelm him.

Can do!

He'd agreed to learn and immediately he watched thoughts flood through her mind. Where to start? What basic vocabulary would he need to know? He, himself, wasn't even sure as to where to begin. An entire language? They were so much easier to learn when a wolf was younger. It would be harder now, but he was determined and so, he would listen and learn appropriately.

"Family." He repeated the word and each one in turn, working with her to get the pronunciations correct. The vowels and consonant placement was vastly different. There was significantly more clicking to it than he was used to, but she worked with him all the same as he tried, failed, tried again and eventually was speaking his own crude versions of the words.

As he spoke each word he associated it to an image in his mind. Family. Many loving wolves. Mate. He envisioned Tonravik. Child and children. One and all the pups he would soon have. Brother and sister. The rest of the pack.

When he felt comfortable enough there, he switched back to the other tongue and prompted her for more words. "What about trades? Warrior. Warden. Hunter. And related things?" Tartok, though peaceful as of current, had a feeling as though it were always prepped and ready for battle these words, he would need to know too.

They repeated the words back and forth, until he got them down and could pronounce them correctly. Mostly. He was still a little off but the language was a difficult one and he would learn, in time, the different nuances. Eventually he would be able to understand fluent Inuit, if not speak it just as easily. She would work with him until then because For him, she could summon the patience for such a lesson. 

He got those down, and asked about more, which she went through the same thing. The word was said in the Inuit tongue and then the common, correcting his pronunciation and such until he got it. Then they moved on to the next one. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. 

"Hunt. Prey. Kill. Track. Defend. Traitor. Outsider. Attack. Death." Certainly a more morbid set of words, but ones that he would doubtlessly need to know.

More words. He took each one in with as much stride as the last. It was... a lot to learn and he'd need consistent practice if he were to commit them to memory and make them feel as automatic as the tongue he'd grown up learning and speaking. Still, with this new set of words he repeated each in turn and repeated them to her, allowing Nanuk to correct his pronunciation as needed. He would learn this. He needed to. Wanted to.

When he was familiar with those words, he went back and tried the first set of vocabulary again. It wasn't perfect. He failed a number of times before he got them right once more. Then he switched back to the second set, worked on those for a while longer, and continued to go back and forth between the two until he felt more confident with those words. Nanuk was patient. He was thankful for it.

"Common phrases?" he asked, ready to broaden his range of the language one more time. A few more things and he'd be capped out for this session. He didn't want to fill his head too fast, but he did need to learn a lot and quickly. The more exposure the better.

Their back and forth was something Nanuk didn't have a terribly great amount of patience for. She was a creature that did not tolerate things like this, not normally, but to help him integrate, she knew she needed to. Tonravik wasn't a creature of many words and Echelon had on and off days with that so the task was left to her. It wasn't that she minded but it was actually much harder for her to not thwap him with her paw a time or two when he completely butchered a word. 

Miraculously, they moved on as her Alpha showed steady improvement, and as he asked for another set of words, the white beast finally rose to move. She needed to walk and so put her nose to the ground to track what she'd made him lose sight of before. "The strong survive. We can, we will. I am of Tartok. Patrol the borders. Wait for my signal. This wolf is a fucking retard." A grin cracked her muzzle then, shooting a sideways glance at him. There had been more than one that such a phrase had pertained to, so surely he would get to use it eventually.

Female needed to get her nails trimmed. Those suckers were sharp. He scowled at her, both thankful and somewhat irritated by her discipline, but it was working. He tried his best to pronounce each word more correctly than before and after a while he felt as though he had the words he'd been given. Slowly, but surely he would learn this.

He smirked, snorting as she gave him that last phrase. That one, he would most definitely be sure to remember. The rest of them? He practiced them just as he had before and worked with her to figure out which word was what in each sentence. Multi-tasking.

They continued with his vocabulary until his brain could hold no more and her patience with him was worn out. Nevertheless, he was thankful for her time and pleased with himself for going through the necessary steps towards learning the Tartok languages.

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