It took a full day just to reach the Sunspire, and another series of unremarkable hours to scale it. Even with his prowess across the mountains, Njal was no longer adept at moving amongst them; but the order had been issued to him, so he did as he was told. It meant leaving Tuwawi alone in Swiftcurrent for a period of a week. The pack as a whole was tired after the cougar attack, and even their alpha's attempt to raise their spirits had not gone well - so it was with a deep and refreshing sigh that Njal had crossed the mountains. Some part of him was satiated by this wandering, even if it wasn't as eccentric as his own whims may have allowed. He had a purpose, and he had a time limit - eager to return to the creek as soon as he was able, but prompted onwards by his duty to Fox and the creek wolves.
The man rested at the base of some cliffs. He had scented sheep in the area but was unsure of their true proximity; it was likely that the creatures were scared off by his strong scent or burdensome marching, as Njal was not inclined to hunt at the moment. His goal was to move in to the north-west, to the doorstep of a plateau pack which he had no knowledge of. All he knew was that they were north, and that they were ruled by a pair of mated wolves; strong individuals that Fox was aware of, and wanting to update on the status of the pack and her own ranking. Njal shuffled along through the dripping weather and then, when he grew too tired, nestled down in the crook of the cliffs; keen to move on but knowing his own limits. He would get there in time. And then, eventually, he'd be permitted to return home.
Bazi had yet to receive an official mission from Fox, but all and any voluntary scouting increased her usefulness to the pack - being able to relay news of the recent landslide at Horizon Ridge had filled her with a great sense of achievement, despite the nature of the information. The desire to feel that again drove her away from the Creek in the early hours, leaving Ferdie to snooze and wonder what flight of fancy had pulled her away this time. The mountains called, she would tell him, and I had to answer.
Wary of crossing paths with a Vale wolf, she chose to circumvent Sunspire Mountain to the south and drop into the flatlands. It was a straight run from there, and Bazi took full advantage; the witch-doctor's salt baths and a few healthy meals had already restored her health, and with it came the boundless energy that was standard issue among yearlings. It fuelled her sprint along the western border of the range and subsequent conquering of bountiful cliff's southern tail. By the time she reached Sheepeater Cliff proper, Bazi was tired - content to sniff around in the dampness for traces of the local populace, and not so stupid that the relationship between wet weather and steep cliffs was lost on her.
It wasn't long before her assessment of rock and round pellets of poop was interrupted by the smell of wolf. She recognized it from the Creek, and that calmed her fluttering heart somewhat - they were very close to the Vale now, and chances of running into one of their disgruntled neighbours were high. The little white Mu lowered her head and made a low, questioning noise, scanning the crags for any sign of life. Wherever this wolf was, he was well camouflaged.
The cliffs were a dangerous place to be, but not so harsh when one was looking
up at them. From the mountain's base they looked like wide cuts of stone. Paths that could lead to all sorts of places, but vanished in to the tree-line or the creeping clouds. His eyes were not on the sky or the stones above him. Njal focused on the task of manoeuvring around the large boulders and through the crags of the landscape; things he was not wholly adapted to, which swiftly sucked away his energy. He was the opposite of the yearling who appeared so suddenly - lacking in vigour and freedom. Njal was free to an extent, of course. The man was attentive to his duty and pleased enough to be away from home performing it - but spring was just around the corner. It was practically upon them all. He was eager to return home to his wife, with one thing plainly upon his mind.
The plain call of a wolf piqued his interest and Njal was lifted from a pseudo-fugue state; shifting around some rocks to catch a better glimpse of the stranger. Initially he was hesitant, blundering, and his fur spiked along his scruff and shoulders. The stranger was pale like Jinx, yet their size revealed that they were not Jinx; few could boast such a beastly figure. He held back from a greeting at first. It would be a better idea to get a visual on the stranger - a close up if possible - so he moved to intercept. With his peppered body closing in, Njal caught the scent of the creek and naturally relaxed; there was only so much leeway he could give the other wolf, as they were indeed close to the vale's edge. Anything could happen here.
Njal chuffed a response, finally. His head lifted with ears pricked forwards, roaming a moment later to both sides and then back. He was listening for others - friend or foe - but approached with a wholeheartedly gleeful gait. "You are far from the creek," he stated, dipping the still healing head of his in a small nod, and as his silver figure passed by Bazi's pale one, he took a good look at her. Young, yes, but able. Strong. A new face he had not seen yet. Fox must have trusted her if she was outside of the borders doing scout work. Another thought occurred to him, which he was swift to voice: "Are you here to check up on me?"
A head popped suddenly into view, and the yearling took a startled step back until she clocked the posture of the attached body - not only was it a Creek wolf, but he was approaching to greet rather than chastise. Though Bazi was not the sort to run her mouth, she had put several feet in it over the past week, each time in the presence of someone important. The memory of it made her cheeks burn. The pack's Gamma was a large, roughhewn wolf, he too recovering from a significant - but healing - injury. Bazi guessed cougar, but didn't ask. The recent intrusion had cost the pack's Beta dearly, and it was a topic she had been warned not to stray close to again.
The newcomer mirrored and extended his nod, tail whipping close to the ground as he conducted his assessment. "Scouting," she confirmed smilingly, but her expression turned fearful at his question. She knew that he was out on official business, and it hadn't been her intention to doubt his capacity to do the job. "Oh! Not at all! I - Fox didn't send me, I'm just cautious around here, because.. because it's so close to the Vale. I was going to find out those low clouds in the east is," she pointed her muzzle in that direction, meaning the steam that amassed above Firestone Hot Springs when the conditions favoured it, "But there are goats around here somewhere, and I got distracted. Where are you heading? Oh, and - I'm Bazi. Newcomer."
The girl sure was a bony thing, without too much refinement to her features. Perhaps that would come in time. Njal regarded her with a calm and level gaze, although it took a bit of effort not to let a smile creep across his face as she stumbled verbally around his question. It had been a rather pointed assumption from the man, but now that he realized she was only scouting around, it was somewhat comical. Her questions burst forth like a fresh patch of flowers; light and bright, with the insistence of an unsure child.
Bazi, she called herself - and Njal was prompted for his own name, or so he assumed, but he only stood tall and surveyed the land around them. Her questions fell away as he did so, regarding the high cliffs above and studying them for signs of life.
Goats she had mentioned.
A moment or so later, when the girl appeared to have eased out of her amusing state of panic, Njal finally responded to her questions. "I am paying a visit to a plateau pack." He stated rather plainly, intending to put forth his best effort at being an outrider and a proper messenger (not knowing at this point that his visit would be brief, and his view on the position embittered). He shifted his weight and began to walk, prompting with a wave of his tail for Bazi to follow with him. "It is safer to travel in groups if you are worried. I can escort you if you would like?" He questioned with a little quirk to his brow, flicking ears towards her for an answer. "Or if you are hungry, we could seek out one of those goats," The man turned to look at the rocks around them then, and gave a small shrug without turning back to the pale girl. "Although I am more adept with fish."
There was an air of serenity about Njal that comforted her. He took his time to respond, measuring each word carefully. If he hadn't been a wolf, he might've done well as a mountain - the thought made Bazi smile.
She hadn't visited the plateau pack, but had a vague sense of where their borders were. There was a river to their west, she knew, and from there it was a straight run to the source of the steam clouds. "Yes please - it'd be nice to have some company. I'll go west before we reach the plateau.. oh, but there's a river there!" The mention of fish undid a good portion of Njal's calming effect on the youth, whose tail was now whipping dust and fragments of rock into a cloud, "And I'm really good at fish, too!"
The mention of a river raised his own interest, and he turned to regard the girl with a new sense of exuberance; although she was the one to bring out the physicality of the sensation, Njal boasted it in his own quiet manner. His head raised, his tail fanned out in a wave or two, but nothing as boisterous as young Bazi.
"-and I'm really good at fish too!" She proclaimed, and a layer of particulate rose behind her. Njal was pleased at this but also wary - no,
skeptical, as she was a very young wolf. Perhaps a measure of arrogance accompanied that sensation.
"Oh, you fish?" He posited with a spreading smirk; now unable to hold back his amusement fully. It would be nice to take a break from navigating - especially if Bazi did know where a river sat. They could show one another some tricks. But I know them all, Njal thought with another bat of his tail. "Then let us head for the river! I always have time for a little fishing -" He watched her with a sharp eye, gold and glowing with a pale mischief. "Perhaps we can make a game of it."
If the mountain's face betrayed his thoughts, Bazi missed it. Fish held a special interest for her, the way medics coveted herbs - and she
was an exceptional fisherman, but at the expense of all other subsets of the hunting discipline. Large herbivores frightened her, and rabbits - the only red meat she ever managed to catch on her own - required a huge expenditure of energy.
"Yes, always," she babbled, moving her small muzzle like a diving rod in a northwesterly direction. Something clearly went 'ping', because she stopped at a point on the internal compass that she judged would take them close enough to the river without impinging on the plateau. Now they just needed to navigate diagonally down towards the plains.
"And I preserve them, too," she went on.
"Works really well with any fatty fish - like salmon, or trout - I just bury them with some salty rocks. They're hard to find, though. I've been scouting for caves, but I haven't found anything yet." The youngster had spent half of her time at the Creek thus far travelling beyond its borders, desperate to prove her claim to Fox and Jinx that she would make a good outrider. She threw a hesitant glance between Njal - whose injuries were healing, but lent a certain stiffness to his gait - and the way down.
"Like a competition?" she asked, and began to started to feel her way down without bringing it up. He was older than here, and more than capable of judging whether or not it was safe to venture out alone.
Aside from the idiotic cougar who had mistakenly intruded upon the creek wolves, Njal had very little practice when it came to large game; they had this in common, the man and the girl. Although he had chased deer and hare before, habit and natural affinity towards aquatic prey always won out. His roots were with the river - or the ocean, upon thick ice or frosted banks - and there was no changing that.
"Like a competition?" The girl quipped, and Njal rumbled a pleased sound, content at the idea.
"Yes." was all he said at first. Caught by the concept of preserving fish, he loped alongside the girl with his heavy strides, and kept his thoughts internalized for a few moments. It did not take long for him to come to some conclusions. "We can do a timed trial. See how many fish we can catch in.. Oh, twenty minutes?" An arbitrary number. Njal was not prone to keeping track of time. He only really wanted to get close to the river and it's bounty. There was always the chance that his competitive nature would take over, even in the name of fun - but Bazi didn't need to know that yet. "Perhaps keep a few for eating, but toss the rest back in once they've been counted. I do not like taking more than what is needed." Especially if it wasn't from their own river - Njal was not spiteful in such a manner, he would not take another pack's food source no matter how natural the thought may have been.
20 minutes? The corners of Bazi's lips itched to form a grin, but she managed to keep her smile respectable (though unlike Njal, she was utterly unable to disguise her thoughts fully, especially when she was happy). The mountain and the snowflake travelled down and down on deft paws, and it wasn't long before they were well clear of the Vale's most accessible hunting ground. This relaxed Bazi, who slowed her gait to draw breath and enjoy the feel of soft ground beneath her feet.
"That's a good idea. I'm really hungry, but I always think I want twenty fish when two is enough," she told him chattily, keeping an eye on their course. The river betrayed its location with sound, and they would come upon it if they continued to walk northwest from their current position. The distant plateau looked like a fuzzy, dark pancake topped with a generous helping of broccoli.
"Where is Lecter from?" Bazi asked suddenly, incredibly curious to know but trying very hard to make it sound casual. She failed, by quite some margin.
The combat dice roll works!
Rivers were easy things to find even when they snaked their way across unexplored terrain; and this one was no different. With their own eagerness winning out, it took little time at all to find the bubbling, gushing current. Njal was quiet for the remainder of the travels, listening to the girl at first and then falling in to an easy silence. When he caught the scent of the water - then the sight of it - he burst forth and marched confidently to the water's edge. In that time the light spitting of the sky had transitions in to a full-on rain. The added staccato of raindrops added a melancholy (but pleasant sort of melancholy) to the scene.
Charmed by the familiarity of the water, Njal took a careful step beyond the rocky edge to test the current's strength, and felt the chill of the fluid as it wrapped and warped around his forelimbs. In the time it took for him to withdraw, Bazi was speaking again - this time there wasn't a mention of fish, but a name. Surprised by this forthright query, Njal shrugged and had little to say. "I do not know. I have never really dealt with him." the man commented with a tiny shrug, before moving on to things that truly interested him.
Carefully creeping along the wet river stones, he positioned himself where a mediocre ledge sat; it was mostly dirt held in place by tree roots and grass, clearly being worn away by the river beneath it. After a few lunges to test it's stability, Njal roosted there - all the while keeping an eye on Bazi, but saying little. When he was prepared he spoke. "Alright, it is time to fish! Take your positions!" With his accented voice booming over the water, Njal sounded quite foolish; but he was being silly on purpose. With his metallic body looming in place above the water, now it would only be a few moments before Bazi was prepared.
In the meantime, he reeled off some rules.
"Twenty minutes, as many fish as you can catch - and only keep what you want to eat!"
Mysterious, Bazi thought, but let that thread of conversation die. She had a thousand questions about the pack, many of them inappropriate and gossipy, but had yet to find the sort of wolf in whose presence it was possible to let everything spill out.
They were well matched for this competition. Njal took the spot Bazi had been eyeing, and she made a jealous but playful noise in his direction. She settled for a large, flat rock that stood proud against the rushing current, leaping onto it and settling at the edge, both eyes glued to the shimmering mixture of water and life. The only water she had ever known was cold, and she did not bother testing the temperature.
"Ready!" she not so much boomed as yelped back, and started the battle of the fishermen with an equally high-pitched "Go!"
While he outlined the rules for this engagement, Njal watched the water flow by. It caught the light - what little there was due to cloud cover - and kept his ears alert for sounds. He could hear Bazi as she moved, and the shifting white of her mass was highlighted in the edge of his vision. When she was in place, the man opened his mouth as if to prompt the start of the game - but Bazi beat him to it. At her
ready he lowered his head, poised above the gushing water while his eyes traced the deep rocks for signs of life.
"Go!"
At first there was stillness from him. Energy bubbled through his body as he waited for a target, although Njal was adept at keeping himself composed - especially when fishing. This was his vocation; this was what he did every day of his life. There was a darkness motioning beneath the surface, but it was quick. A fat and slick dart moved beneath his waiting muzzle, and he dived in to grab at it. Teeth were shocked with cold as they connected with the water and Njal tasted the river; silt tickled his tongue, but only for a moment.
His head was up again, and down again. Bobbing and snapping, pulling and tossing; the body of one writhing fish suspended briefly, then returned to it's habitat despite the great effort it posed to fight instinct. Five minutes? Maybe it had been so long. Sucked in to the world of fish, Njal paid no attention to the time at all.
With his tongue sliding across his lips, Njal took a moment to peer across to Bazi; he watched her move, eyeing the writhing creatures that she caught. A brief look to the bank soured his mood - for there were scant fish to be seen. It looked as if he would fail in this endeavor, and be tossed aside as the King of Fish.
Caught: 2
Bazi was no more diligent a time-keeper. Her attention disappeared into the water and after the sleek, shimmering bodies that represented victory. Like Njal, she used every weapon at her disposal, upsetting the water with her front paws and snatching at the fish as the struggled to come to terms with what was happening. Left, right, shallow and deep - again and again she dunked her head into the creek, stopping on a few occasions to cough up water.
By the time their twenty minutes were up, Bazi was ahead by three. She ceased her frantic movement and flashed her competitor a thrilled smile, leaping back to the banks of the Creek to inspect her catch.
As instructed, she pushed three lucky bodies back into the rushing water and kept the two fattest specimens for herself. Scooping lunch up between her jaws, she moved closer to Njal's catch. "Yours are bigger," she admitted through a mouthful of fish.
Caught: 5
I forgot that Njal never stated his own name, lmao. But maybe she knows it just through the grapevine.
He stood, restful in his manner, and watched while Bazi pulled up fish after fish. Perhaps he would have done better if he had not been so observant - but it was a thrill to see her work within the water. Few wolves were thoughtful enough to even seek out the fish. Bazi was swift as she sought them out; diving, returning, diving again, and Njal sat pensively. His own collection wriggled in the corner of his vision. Eventually he too slipped to the river's side. His figure loomed over the two fat fish and he nudged one with his nose - pinpricks of
cold creeping along his snout.
"Yours are bigger," The girl commended, her voice slick from the morsels held between her teeth. Njal looked up at her then and witnessed a small line of diluted blood dribble along her chin. He rumbled a pleased note and scooped up the fish by their tails, then moved to intercept Bazi. Walking alongside her for a few moments, he paused and abruptly dropped the fish by her side.
With a small nudge he abandoned his two catches, implying that Bazi could take them if she wished. He had lost his appetite. "You have fine fishing skills," the man's accented voice lilted, rumbling and low. "It was a surprise. A good surprise." Perhaps they could challenge one another again in the future. For now, he would get back to work.
"I must continue my journey." He stated softly, and in an off-handed manner. A remark on why he was slowly adding distance between them - the fish still sitting near the girl. "Farewell for now, Bazi." Ears flicked towards her, turned to catch any comments the pale one may speak; he lingered for a few more moments, but his strides did lengthen the distance as the moments passed.
Probably - I assumed she learned Fox's name somehow, too. :D I'll get this archived!
Bazi dropped her two fish into the same pile, misunderstanding his intention to move on and looking a bit perplexed when he announced it. Wasn't he ravenous after all that? He probably was - but for his
wife, not fish, but that was a kind of yearning that Bazi did not yet know of. Her eyes fell on the plateau, then drifted west to her own destination. Opposite directions.
"Thank you," she twinkled, eyeing the meal at her feet. Four fish was a bit much for one small girl, but she probably needed the energy after the day's climb. When she looked up, Njal had already began to lumber off towards his destination. Bazi woofed a less refined farewell, tail wagging.
"Bye! See you at home!"