Wolf RPG

The moon overhead could not be seen through the trees, the dark of the forest complete in the middle of this night. Having slept through most of the day (in her own den, not the communal one), Nanuk found it time to explore the lands around them. That it was nearly the witching hour did not phase her in the least. The Beta paid no attention to time, recognizing day and night and the changing of each. Everything in between was of little consequence.

Now was as good a time as any for an outsider to slip past their defenses and in turn, it was as good a time for her to patrol. It was in the depths of the forested Hollow next door that the female made sure any scents that did not belong to the Sawtooth wolves were stale. The bearish female was like her Alpha in that she would allow none this near, especially in the dead of night.

Squatting, the female took a moment to mark a spot here before she moved onward to walk amongst the trees as quietly as she could. It would not do to alert an intruder to her presence now, would it?

Some time had passed before the spider came to nest amidst the Spire. Several nights had been spent in the wilds, tracing the trail of the wounded pup back to the very Woods that haunted the Delta for their proximity to the mountain. Diligent time had been spent within the neighboring lake of the Steppes, removing blood, scent, and any semblance of origin, just as the pup had been so broken lucked to happen upon the spider after a bath just before the attack. It was impeccable stroke of coincidence that the Sawtooth would be nearly impossible to trace. After fringing the meadows betwixt the Blackfeathers, the spider had headed North, tackling the Sunspire range from a different direction. Let them try to find his trail amidst the inhospitable peaks...

Still slaking the Greatwater from coat, the spider loped haggardly through the Hollow like a phantom, weaving through the darkness on autopilot. Breaths unfurled from spliced jaws in great billows of heated precipitation, lanky appendages demanding the spider give up. Heart within chest would not have that surrender and so the Delta ran harder, drowning out the sound of the night with the thrumming of blood within ears. 

Perhaps it was a glint of light that prompted the lanky wolf to slow strides, attention shifting just quick enough to catch the figure of something familiar. Wide paws gripped terrain and steadied gait into a halt, whirling around to face none other than Nanuk. His beta. His secret. Ears pricked forward, sides heaving with the effort to breathe from heady pace.

The snap of a twig, the sound of a body brushing past foliage, the quiet of the nocturnal insects and creatures who, otherwise, wouldn't shut up. All things that she noticed quickly, freezing where she was now, a paw hovering over her intended path. Hackles bristled, head lowering to protect her throat as she prepared to engage in battle. Any wolf slinking around in the dead of night this close to a pack had better have a damn good reason and even then, they chanced their life doing so at the Spire.

For several long moments, she did not separate his form from the darkness and that there was no more movement to be heard made the female suspicious. A low, threatening growl rattled out from behind her bared teeth, only to die in her throat when the wind shifted. The scent, though there was no trace of Sawtooth twined into it, was familiar and welcome.

Lips covered fangs and the bristled quills of fur along her spine lay back into place. "Paglan aimagvik, Aasivak." The tongue was second nature to her and it took a heartbeat for her to realize he probably didn't know that tongue. "Welcome back." There, that would suffice. She had essentially said the same thing, anyway.

The somber growl was met with silence, observing the way a scar played along strong, feminine face. Not much had changed, it seemed, since the spider's brief departure. Every silver-tinged guard hair along hackles was bristled and neatly aligned, a plush warmth to coat that prepped for the coming months. Winter was coming, and while the stringy spider still grappled with gaining advances, the beta remained solidly well put, healthy, and vibrant. 

There was a pang of loss at the dissipation of her scent. Once heavily entwined within the coat of the spider, it had all been washed away. No comfort of her aroma lulled the creature to sleep, nor did the sound of breathing during quiet traipses through the middle of the mountain. Though she chose not to sleep amidst the rest, as the spider did not dare as well, the lanky wolf still tended to her trails. It was obnoxious. There was little care there for that obnoxiousness. The wolf was a presence now, only removed if the bear-wolf punted his bony hide off the side of the mountain. 

The voice, once lost for several nights, coerced the neighboring insects back into silence. It rang out in a soothing tone. Warming. It sizzled inside ears and steadied the rapid breathing as though the little sojourn had brought the inky wolf feral. "Hello," he piped up bemusedly. An involuntary shiver ran down the length of spine, lack of movement causing the leaded weight of water in coat to suck out any warmth or insulation downy fur provided. There was a sudden desire to say more, heart thrumming in rib cage as thoughts — once devoid of thinking — overpowered any semblance of sense left over. It took graveled willpower to keep mouth shut, a click of teeth prompting heavy breath through clenched fangs.

Movement finally rippled through her body, her lifted paw the first step she took towards him. Though he had been gone for a few days, his return was a welcome thing, and it went without question. Instead, she approached the male and greeted him with an easy wave of her tail. Teeth clipped at his nose, the lack of outright posturing eliminating the possibility of it being a show of dominance.

"Your travels went well?" She queried, shoving her nose into the crook of his neck to draw in what scents she could. He was completely devoid of their home's scent, which was a good thing as they wanted none to know who they were, but it still brought a frown to her muzzle. Now that he was home, she could fix that, and did by moving against him, drawing her fur against his own. Her tail flickered past his nose for a moment before she decided that was enough for now.

Turning, the Beta faced him again, ears perked to catch what he said and the sounds of the night around them that returned rather quickly once the woods had been deemed safe again.

For a ragged moment neither wolf moved. It was a flicker of supple muscles beneath coat that gave way the beta to her charge. Instinctively the spider wished to coil back, shift away and stifle the contact the bear-wolf sought. Why she desired it, after the incident in the cavernous labyrinth was beyond the inky Delta. Confusion rooted the animal in place, flesh rippling beneath the whimsical touch, uncertain of its context and unwilling to break its tenure along skin. Voice, once again bade the inky wolf to speak, a long silence catching rhythm of breaths as wicked touch burrowed into neck. 

Every inch of the spider prickled, senses heightened and heaving pants ripping to a close. Nostrils dared not inhale, unwilling to sink further into the aroma of the bear-wolf and the woeful path the spider was striding. The actions were not wholly unwelcome, but dangerous. Toxic. Beguiling. A hard swallow forced a halt of racing thoughts, suddenly aware that a question had transpired without any response. A flick of tail against nose finally coerced the inky wolf to inhale, shamefully so. Muscles along jawline clenched so tightly that corded sinew could be seen rippling beneath pristine fur.

What was there to say? What could possible satiate the conversation? 

"I struck an enemy," he admitted, features growing cold with an effort to block out the ragged thump of heart within throat. Not that the pup was much of an enemy. "Teach me your words." The request was rather blatantly blurted out, obscure efforts to evade the topic of enemies and war. There would be consequences, he imagined, at the instigation of maiming a neighboring wolf's young.

He seemed... out of breath. It was a small thing, she noticed, but considered it all the same. He gave her time to with his silence, after all. In the dark, she saw nothing but the outline of his form and the burn of his gaze, thus she could not gauge his expression when he spoke. Enemy? Her fur bristled again at the thought of the fool, Lusa, and wondering if he had had another run in with her kind. Her teeth bared at the thought but she controlled that anger for the moment, focusing on him with his question.

"I will," Her words affirmed, stepping closer once more to sniff at the air between them. There was no hint of iron in the air, no scent of a wound, festering or otherwise. Had he come out unscathed? "What happened?" Her volley back was brusque but it was something he had revealed. She needed to know the outcome of his attack against this unknown enemy. Once he gave her this information, she would teach him just as she had taught her own aokkatti.

Now that can of worms had been divulged the bear-wolf was relentless with her inquiry. There was no recognition to the other request the inky wolf desired. Dutifully, the beta stepped forward for inspection, little wounds gathered from the squirming brat just a bite upon one paw. The teeth had hardly punctured sensitive object and, since then, the minuscule wounds had calloused over. 

"Lusa's get," he murmured quietly, an inky ear diverting back in border-line paranoia. If any intruders dared overhear the conversation, it would be the last spying ears ever heard. "It's sufficiently broken but living. His damaged life means more than his death. He's Northwest. Into the Woods," he spit with a sullen vehemence. They were nothing, as instructed by Iqniq, and untouchable to the Sawtooth. Scent of the youth tracked back out of the Blackfeather territory but, sadly, the lead had gone sour by a passing herd of some massive ruminants. 

There was no explanation of how the spider knew of the little wolf's existence in the first place. It was paltry when compared to the larger picture.

His answer came promptly and it was in more tense quiet that she weighed things in her mind. Lusa. The name was familiar to her and her memory gathered images of the blue eyed bitch. A rumble burbled in her throat at the thought of the Woods to the West of here, where she had first come to her the Spider's aid. The Sawtooth Beta did not forgive the foolishness of the prospective Alpha but nor did she want him risking his life so far removed from any help should he find himself ambushed.

She trusted that Aasivak had shed the scent of the Spire before this event to make sure the rest of the pack would not be endangered by his actions and did not belittle his intelligence by asking for confirmation. Rather, she only reiterated safety measures that she would require of any and all of their wolves. "Stay close the next few days. On the off chance that the little parasite finds his way here." Her ears flickered, looking past him and into the dark of the forest.

With a small gesture, she beckoned him to join her as she continued her path through the Hollow. "Inuluk. Enemy." It was the first word she would teach him, but continued with a few more words, and their translations. "Pack. Family." They were the wolves of the North, pride in her words and her explanation of them. Perhaps he would join their numbers soon enough, a thought that pleased the female.

Whatever strange affliction had taken over the spider upon his beta's approach was swiftly staunched with the discussion of Lusa. Topic turned militant. The crackling heat beneath the Delta's skin was quelled and stilled, just a small tremor of muscles attempting to warm within the dampness of the evening. 

Stay close. The spider would do as instructed. Reluctantly. 

The invitation to walk with the bear-wolf was met with action, a bitter cold step lurching the inky wolf forward. Ears preened atop head to absorb every detail, curiously digesting the strange words and how they so fluently slipped off the tongue of his pallid companion. Inuluk was an enemy and sounded far too superior to be placed upon the worthless that tallied the Sawtooth rage. 

A small scratching of wide paws provided a (mostly absent) scent mark within the soil, tending after the larger leader at a steady pace to reawaken frozen muscles. "What about promise?" he asked behind the ghostly outline of superior, inky ears preening forward to catch response.

His quiet did not bother her, waiting a heartbeat to see if he would accompany her. Her patience was not everlasting and yet, he did not test it. Only once the dark male was at her side did she resume her late night patrol, one ear turned his way as they walked onward. Her shoulder connected with a tree every so often, rubbing her scent away on bark to give warning to any who came this close. Another tree, she would rise to her hind legs and draw dulled claws down the trunk.

He asked another word and she glanced back at him, metallic gaze curious. Why that word? Her mind filtered through what she knew and what she didn't. "Mmm... Angeruserk (promise)." Her shoulder pressed against a tree again as she paused, thinking of what else she could teach him.

A smile curled the edged of her mouth, slipping closer once more to snip her teeth lightly at his shoulder before her nose touched the same spot. "Amak (tag)," She announced, humor in her voice. They had engaged in this game before in the underground maze and while the game now would not be long-winded, it would likely help him remember the word.

There was meticulous meaning behind the specific request of this word, yet the inky Delta did not voice it further or explain. The inquiry was met with vague interest of the beta, the throaty hmmm predating the foreign translation. Angeruserk. Memory gathered this bit of information, tucking it carefully away for later use. The bear-wolf sprouted a lopsided smile, a quick nip of teeth producing another word. Inky body kept a steadfast beat despite urge to snake away, allowing guard hairs to be ruffled by fangs while the new word popped into the silence. Yes, tag. The day that had changed everything for the spider. Tall ears swiveled upon their bases, churning back against their wake for any semblance of followers.

"Fight?" he wondered next, jawline touching against bark so softly that just the tiniest bits of inky fur were left behind. The motion of walk prompted a new warmth, soothing aching bones that had lost feeling during the brief lapse of pause. "I will never leave?" he joked so subtly that it may have been missed by most that did not understand the spider's awkward humor. "Touch?" he started again, this new request slipping into almost a murmured purr. Fiery stare did not even dare to chance a look towards the pale companion bestowing knowledge for fear of what would be found within golden eyes. The Delta imagined they would hold reproach.

Lanky body formed around another tree, slightly tapering off from the leader before lingering there in pause.

While she was teaching, this was also a good lesson for her, helping her curb her urge to respond in the common tongue automatically. The wolves of the Spire would need to learn these words, and the easier she could bring them to mind, the better. "Ugiarput (fight). Akiraqtuutijut. War." Certainly words in any Tartok's vocabulary, they would always be prepared to go to the aid of their own in the instance of war. Their prowess in battle simply ran through the veins, whether it was inherited or learned.

She glanced his way, thinking about the phrase; not about how to say it but what he meant by it. A wry smile glinted in the dappled moonlight all the same, assuming that he meant he would never leave the Spire. Good. "Uvanga angertok katimavaa katjait. (I will remain with pack.)" The words were not quite the same but she told him what she could, watching his form press against a tree. There was something there. Something... that bothered her, though she did not show it.

She moved on. "Savitkaa (touch)," She responded, not thinking much of the request. Perhaps it was a word that appeared often in his vocabulary or perhaps he had a reason. Either way, she spoke again in a cryptic message that she did not translate for him. Not yet, anyway. "Ilvit aniyuq, uvanga aquijuq ilissi." No matter what she had said, her tone had not been slanderous or cruel. Nothing of the sort, actually. It had simply been a statement, that was all.

Tree bark scratched a spot on her shoulder, her form leaning into it to itch a particular spot. With a satisfied sound, the bear moved forward, watching the trees ahead thin. You could tell that the forest was breaking, the light of the night hitting the floor where it had not before; they were no longer confined in its depths. Leaving the Holow was an easy thing for her, not liking the confines of having trees on all sides, as it made it difficult for her to maneuver. A deep breath pulled in, head turning to look at the Spire looming above them.

"Aihimavik. Home."