Sleeping Dragon bittersweet poetry

@Dio!

A strong wind buffeted the mountainside, making the conditions outside less than enjoyable. Despite this, Freyja was out and about with a relatively busy day marked down in the history books. The sun was falling fast and soon enough it would be dusk, bringing even more frigid conditions to the followers of Drageda.

Positioned before the main cache, just outside of the common den site area, Freyja took a step back and looked on proudly. Having dug through both the filth and flesh, Freyja had spent the day organizing. She had cleared out the rotting flesh, thankfully it had been a mere field mouse than had gone sour, organized, and caught a rabbit to add.

Giving the storage area one last look over, the child smiled a shook herself off and admired all that she had done. Though the collection was growing, it was still not enough to sustain the pack for a prolonged time-- if the need ever arose. Freyja knew there was much work to do, but, for now, she took the time to be proud of herself and the job well done.

He's plenty thankful for a dense, thick coat here in the face of this most recent cold snap. With each one biting harder than the last or lingering just a little longer, he knows what is to yet come.

While winter on this volcano will be new, tried and true instinct and experience instills a good guide. He's been hunting more, trying to double up his patrols to line up with good small game trails whenever he can. But in the light of Wildfire's attack, he's intent to range out further at times just to buffer their lines even better too -- and what it boils down to is he's covering more distance than before day after day.

Like now, by the times he finally comes roaming back in towards the Dragon's focal points, he's usually in subdued sorts of moods compared to what he is when he's on active duty, so to speak. It's while he's considering whether or not to go find Portia with or without food (he's not that hungry, but she'd probably appreciate the sentiment he supposes..) that he realizes Freyja's scent, so he trails it along to meet her near the stores with a quiet chuff. "Hey," he announces more formally, tail waving softly as he casually looks over what she's doing.

The sound of Dio’s voice broke her gaze from the cache and, quickly, she looked to him. Upon realizing who it was she smiled and wagged her tail in way of a greeting. “Dio,” she greeting kindly, repositioning herself so that she could face the leader. Out of all the leaders in Drageda, Freyja felt as though she had not gotten much facetime with the Wocha. She was glad that he had decided stop by.

“How have you been?” she asked promptly after her greeting, honestly curious on how he had been fearing.

Mirroring a bit of the greeting she met him with, his tail waves back at her and he's grateful for the warm reception. He notes that her demeanor is a lot lighter than the last time they'd shared company, but circumstance had been much different then versus there. Still, he was happy for the prodigal daughter of the viking queen to have not let that consume her.

"Good. Keeping busy," he replies with a thoughtful nod. Partially because he had what Wildfire had put on his table in mind, and also in part to distract himself from that a bit with winter settling in quickly, he'd stayed merrily devoted lately despite a lot weighing on his mind in the meantime. With half a gesture past her at the freshly worked-on cache, he speaks on. "Looks like you can say the same. 'Tis the season, after all," he chuffs softly, for even he'd been doing more towards stockpiling when he could make the excess kills. "What about you? What do you think of your first taste of winter so far?" he asks next.

She smiled at his response, glad to hear that he was good. Their previous interaction had been one under heavier circumstances and she was glad that they both could come together once more in higher spirits. Though Freyja still found herself struggling at times, she attempted to push aside such such thoughts. But, this wasn’t to say that she was always successful in such attempts.

Her attention shifted as Dio mentioned the newly organized cache, Freyja gaze shifted from the Wocha and to the work that she had done. Smiling once more at the sight, she glanced at the cave before shifting her attention back to the blonde-haired wolf. She paused at his question, contemplating it considerably, before speaking once more.

“It’s interesting, to say the least. I like the snow, but, I miss the warmth.” Though her Winter coat had come in nicely, the Flemia still could feel the bitter nip of the Winter winds. “But, It’s given me time to stay inside more and learn more about the history of Trigeda. Do you know anything about it?” She couldn’t quite recall if Dio was of Tridgeda descent or not, but she was sure he’d disclose this information at some point.

He could not recall with any amount of stunning detail his first dips into wintertime. But, he had grown in a different setup than Freyja had, with him far more concerned with jostling with others than really how the large pack fared. To him, young and naive surely at the same age she was now, he'd been a selfish creature that was not possessing half the thoughtfulness she graced him with. "It takes some getting used to," he replied, fluffing his furs accordingly at the mention of the cold; he'd been built to withstand well enough through the chills. He liked winter, but had weathered some bad times during them, leaving him stuck somewhere in-between preference.

"Ah, some." the Wocha nodded to her question paired with a subtle smirk "But probably not unlike yourself, what I know of Trigeda comes from the words of others -- Heda, mainly, plus what has come with her to here." And of course, this was only their first round of seasons so far. A fascinating trip, certainly. "I joined the commander in the the early days of Drageda only," he clarified, so that was more his area of expertise presently. Oftentimes it did not come up, but he knew it was obvious to those who knew Trigeda. He didn't speak their language so smoothly or freely and for much of their gatherings and ritual so far, he was still in a position to hang back and watch it unfold -- to observe and learn whatever he could because as his time here had proven, their lifestyle suited him.

His assurance made her feel a little better in regards to the season, but, despite this, she found herself momentarily wondering if she would ever grow to like Winter. After all, she was quickly finding that the worst of her luck was drawn to the colder times. After all, she had been attacked by Goliath and, in just a few weeks, she would also be attacked by a coyote. But, perhaps, she would still find the light during these darker times. Only time would tell.

The conversation soon shifted to the topic of Drageda and Freyja’s attention fell solely on the Wocha. “How did you find Heda?” she asked, sitting as she spoke. She invited Dio to say with a gentle thrust of her muzzle, a smile spreading as she awaited his answer.

Soon enough, the pair's conversation got going. They talked for quite some time until Freyja felt that she needed to attend to her cache again.