It was hard to believe Kinra had to resort to violence just to try to get the stubborn fox looking female to clean her own injuries. Even with all the effort put into it, nothing was done. Instead the injuries likely got worse. As much as the Knight wanted to chase that wolf down she did not want to step into a pack's territory. A frustrating feeling lingered around her. Why did that wolf have to make all that more difficult?
Kinra sat there with the slain coyote at her paws. She was not the one to kill it, instead she wanted it returned to the one who did kill it. All she could hope was the a member would be drawn in by the smell of blood. Of course Kinra felt ready to explain everything. She also felt like she needed to be careful. What if there were more unreasonable wolves in this pack?
Amidst a whirlwind of events, spring had sprung. The hints of greenery deepened by the day, the scents changed from barren to freshness, and the mountain began to show its capabilities. It was still small, perhaps a conservative effort on nature's behalf to spare itself from any last cold snaps, but it was undeniable, and she resonated with the sensations it brought.
But, for all the hellacious lows and dizzying highs the last month had brought, while she was doing well considering all things -- made alive, perhaps more whole -- she knew it was not all. Wildfire hovered on the edges of her periphery, without her knowing exactly how concerned she should be. She could just be out scouting, or something could have happened.. even more than she realized. By extension, this brought her to Floki -- her beta and her brother now as well. She hoped he was well, and assumed he searched some as well. To round it out, there was also Jace's absence on the mountainside. She really tried to believe he would be back soon and that he was not needing her to go looking for him. So, with all of this in mind, she'd descended the mountain only to hike towards another.
Her pathway moved without a strict heading for a while, that is, until the scent of blood lured her closer. She prickled at the notion and sped up, bringing her into sight of an unknown gray-scale female. Wildfire's scent lingered on the breeze too, making the alpha tense because obviously, the red yearling was here no longer. Maybe she had only just missed her..
For now, hoping to glean any answers she could before the trail could go cold, she loomed upon the other with her tail up high and question burning in her eyes.
She sighed and relaxed. It can't be helped really, the owner of this coyote will just suffer more while healing. She asked herself if licking wounds was common knowledge like it should be. It's so simple and effective how could it not be known? Kinra shrugged. She just couldn't understand why there was a problem in the first place. All that needed to be done was to clean the injuries. What was wrong with offering some help? Well, it doesn't matter anymore. What is done is done.
Kinra didn't have to wait long for someone else to show up. Couldn't help but feel the need to be cautious. What if that female gone off looking for some back up or was just warning everyone for some reason. It's impossible to tell what was known. She was just going to have to try her best to avoid another fight. Hopefully the dark female who just showed up was more reasonable.
She remained seated and decided to present herself. "First, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Lady Kinra, a Knight." She said while bowing her head in greetings. Instead of explaining anything she decided to simply request something of the dark female. "All I ask is that this would be returned to that fox looking wolf." She nudged the coyote with her paw. "As well as to tell her to make sure she cleans her injuries."
Kinra rose from her spot and stepped back. She kept her head high and her tail was simply on stand by. She wanted to show that she wasn't setting up a trap or anything like that. Kinra didn't have a single injury on her, hopefully that was enough to say something.
Amekaze's hackles were stiffened, and the silver-toned wolf went for an explanation readily. She appreciated the promptness, at least.
The mention of knight struck her and her eyes traveled to the slain coyote, processing this with glance and a grimace. It was the best lead on Wildfire, one that was ticking with an expiration, so she would keep it quick. "Hm, not the first Knight I have known.." she exhaled and closed ground on the carcass, although kept a watchful eye trained on Kinra as she did. "I am Amekaze, of Moonspear." Despite how clipped she was feeling and how she often was not very forward in introduction, she could give that much along with a jerk of her snout towards the peak.
She was not sure how to feel.. because she understood (as well as she could without the exact culturing to make it so) Nishu's distinction as a Knight, and was this the very same? Her sorrows for him were still raw across her heart; she was naturally wary, and somewhat suspicious considering the time. The question lingered if she had been intertwined in Nishu's histories at all, but she'd get there soon.
Amekaze straightened, and took the briefest of comforts in knowing that Wildfire was nearby.. but the mentioned wounds almost offset it completely. "How bad are the injuries?" she asked. "She has not been home. But, I can take this there. Hopefully her soon too." If she didn't get back there on her own, that was, although Amekaze wondered if this was some self-imposed exile. Last she'd seen her, she did state wanting to be alone.. but knowing she was injured (and perhaps not taking care of it properly if this knightly loner took concern with it) potentially changed things.
The dark female approached the kill while speaking some interesting words. She knows another Knight? Kinra did have the impression she was on her own because of how far she traveled. But guessing from the female's words it sounded like the Knight might have completed the task he/she was on. Kinra bowed her head a little in respect when Amekaze introduced herself. "A pleasure to meet you Amekaze of Moonspear." Unlike the other wolf Amekaze did seem more reasonable to talk with, therefore much easier to respect.
Kinra started to have a feeling that there were more problems linked to the fox looking wolf. She never got a chance to do a complete check on the injuries but it was easy to tell that there were many. "She has many minor injuries nearly everywhere on her body. Some are very recent but others looked like it may have been a few days. Nothing looked urgent, but if she doesn't take care of herself soon, she'll risk infection which could result in death." That was the report she could give but that was all she could say.
With her mind still curious about the Knight the female knows she wanted to ask about that. "Do you happen to know that Knight's name? Is he or she still around somewhere? It would be great to be able to meet another Knight out here!" She said as she got a little excited about the possibility of meaning someone on the job. Chances are that Knight has moved on to another place they were needed. But Kinra could visit a little, it's not like she was on a job yet. Although she tried to remain calm, her tail ended up wagging happily.
Mixed feelings prevailed above all things, even down to the coyote dead at her paws. While she was glad it was dead because like this it was at least a meal or some padding in a cache somewhere but she was sour it was around here at all (assuming Wildfire murdered it nearby) and even maybe it contributed to her wounds. There was still a lot to wrap around here yet the overall point remained that Wildfire needed to regroup where it was safest to do so -- at home.
Nevertheless, the female's respect is one thing, and the briefing on Wildfire is another to which her focus grabs onto with a furrowed expression. Amekaze nods and "hmms" softly because there is not much for her to say on it; it's not good news, necessarily, but it could always be worse. This, of course, is without her knowing the full extent of the yearling's injuries, the ones that went unseen. "Nishu Inte. He was among my pack for a time.. but is now deceased," she answered simply so to keep her sorrow in check on the matter. As much as she hated to dash the silver knight's evidently growing hopes, it was perhaps best to get it done quickly before she could get ahead of herself and look forward to encountering a fellow Knight. There would be no meeting him, as much as she would have liked to let it be so. Fate in the form of a bear (and Charon) had other plans.
"Sir Nishu?" That name did sound familiar. Kinra's hope of meeting him went down and disappeared. There was no way to meet a fallen comrade. It took a little time but she finally remembered. Last time she saw him was when she was just a few months old. Maybe her view of him was a bit exaggerated. What she remembered was that Nishu was one of the toughest wolves among the Knights. From what the others said about him, Nishu was that wolf everyone wanted on their team when it came to fighting wolves or beast. Kinra could easily tell that his passion was all about fighting, he likely love everything about it.
To hear he was dead was a bit of a shock. How could someone like him possibly die? Kinra wanted to know what happend to him. She wanted to at least know about his achievements so that she could honor him. "Last time I saw him was when I was just a pup. Nishu really was one of the toughest wolves I got to see. I heard that what made him so tough is that he always pushed himself over his limit. No matter how injured and tired he got he would keep going saying that it's all part of the training." She paused for a moment as she starting feeling sad for her fellow Knight. "It's hard to imagine a wolf like him would die, It really did seem like he could survive anything."
"If I may ask. How did he die?" She asked while falling under the effects of sadness. She wasn't really showing but her tail simply stopped moving. A little bit of it could be seen in her eyes.
Familiarity rang in the female's tone, and Amekaze knew not what to expect. She did not know where Nishu came from originally, just that he had been tossed from the Ankyra cliffs and somewhere before that, had trained vigorously to ingrain himself in the way he was. Ame had only been left to imagine what kind of life may mold a wolf like him and soon, Kinra confirmed that she knew the very same wolf -- her words matched him so well that Ame skirted her green eyes away briefly, fighting off sadness with a taut expression about her.
She nodded, unsure of what to say precisely and how to say everything that sat so heavy on her chest with the ease she'd need. "Indeed.. his toughness was so.. distinct, and he seemed to know no boundaries," Ame reflected, bitter and sad that he was gone but yearning to move past it to celebrate a life starkly different than so many she'd known.
There was much more she could say but the question posed was one she felt obligated to answer suddenly. "A bear. A dead bear, now, but.." she replied and drew a measured breath before continuing. She wished that it was truly that simple. The bear had been the worst of it and he had suffered injuries few ever stood up again after, then even gone on to survive past the few hours she'd suspected it may take for death to come for him. Charon's.. intervention, no matter how inevitable the outcome, was another matter entirely. "He held fast to his stubbornness until the very end," she looked pointedly at Kinra, not even sure how to express just what way she meant that. Not only had he survived what was a finishing blow by the bear, but he had fought back when death had closed in on him yet again..
She gave a pause and meant it as room for final questions for this encounter, because she would only stay so much longer. Amekaze was itching to track after Wildfire, or at least take her kill back if the trail failed.
It's sounds like they were talking about the same Nishu. It's kind of strange to think to he left only to end up dying a few years later. Maybe if there were other Knights around it would have been different. Maybe if Kinra had come sooner she could have done something. That's all wishful thinking. Already finding another Knight so far away was a miracle. But to learn that a fellow Knight had died was a little heart breaking. Knights were so well trained to be able to survive that it was hard to imagine them easily getting killed.
Although a bear was definitely a powerful creature. Nishu must have known how dangerous they were. The only reasonable reason for him to take risk against a bear would be to protect someone. In a calmed voice she spoke "Any Knight would know a bear is very dangerous, he must have tried protecting everyone." It was good to hear that the bear was killed. First Kinra believed Nishu was killed in battle but Amekaze gave a hint that maybe he died from injuries instead. No matter how tough, a fatal injury was very difficult to recover from even for Nishu.
"So, you mean he died from his injuries after killing the bear right?" She asked for confirmation in order to get an idea of what all happend and perhaps learn from it.
The exact circumstances of how the bear had been roused from the cave would never be known to her, mostly because she had to recount it through the words of others thanks to not being there herself. She believed something had happened to Wildfire and/or Nishu, either a misunderstanding or one slip to just make everything go wrong, she new luck had not been on their side that day and especially not his. What he had been thinking in those moments was a mystery to her.
"I think it was his intention to protect," she replied, sounding a tiny bit distant as she did, but as to how that had gone array so badly was not for her to know. She might have thought to elaborate a bit on what she did know -- mainly the cave, an angry bear awoken from slumber, and the slick, rainy conditions to account for, yet the question demanded her attention otherwise. It was not exactly just the bear that had ended him, either, and she was still not ready to approach that topic to a near stranger. Not yet, and not when she didn't want to deal with having her morals questioned for allowing it to fly -- and not to mention, the killer himself was her fellow alpha, her mate. Not right now. "He refused medical help of any sort. I do not think he could admit the injuries were as serious as they were," she nodded somberly. Vague, vague, vague.
Nothing would change the circumstances of Nishu's untimely end, but she still had Wildfire to think about before she met some sort of similar end well before her time. "I have to get to tracking her down, and taking this back," she said then with matching gestures: once in the direction Wildfire's scent went and the next to the dead coyote. "But I think our paths should cross again," she said before she dug her teeth into the carcass and hauled it off, effectively making her exit in one fell swoop.
"That does sound like something he'd do." She commented before getting ready to go. She noticed that she might be taking too much of the Alpha's time. Whatever happen to Nishu happend that wasn't going to change. His death was likely his own fault. Of course she would have never allowed him to reject medical help but she wasn't there for that. It's not like the other wolves would question a Knight's well being. Normally a Knight knows best.
She nodded. "Alright, I'll leave the rest to you. Until next time Amekaze." Both wolves turned and made their leaves. As for Kinra it was time to head back to a place she could rest. There was nothing she could do for Nishu but remember him. Afterwards she would just have to continue as a Knight. A comrades death is sad but she can't let that stop her from her own duties. She'll live on for him but she'll do things her way like she always has and hopefully last much longer.