He glared at the peak of the mountain, huffing and wondering if the there were any spirits atop it. No Dotharan had ever reached here, he thought, nor did any khalas raid and expand here. He doubted it, but he didn't want to even try. He lingered at the foot of the mountain, only venturing as far in as he could before the elevation started to worry him. Was the rest of the pack really up there? How was he to meet the Khal,
@Charon or his mate
@Amekaze if they were up with the spirits?
A certain sort of peace started to settle around her as the pups gradually began to quiet down for a nap. She dozed with them briefly, but couldn't find herself as committed to the rest as they were even with the warm little bodies all around her. Once she saw a trusted packmate lingering in the area, she decided to slip away and find something to busy herself with in the meantime.
She made her way from the general rendezvous area and further down the mountain, eventually assuming she'd land herself at the borders sooner or later. But there was no rush, not with a few certain trails capturing her attention, and almost going so far as inspiring earnest hunger to get her in pursuit. Maybe.. soon, she reasoned, and remained uncommitted precisely.. although interested enough to keep it in mind.
Although, when the winds spoke of a presence she did not know a lot about, much of this fell to the wayside in favor of scoping him out better. She snaked down the last stretch of trail until she caught sight of his earthen shades, and approached him calmly with a soft sway about her lifted tail.
Word had trailed up to her that he was a friend of Alastor, the friend of Aesop, so that itself was a curious little note she'd keep in mind. Otherwise, poised, she chuffed. "Greetings," and watched.
He wasn't alone for lone. He was met by a dark-furred woman, with soft green eyes similar to his own. She approached him with a regal stance; he instantly knew she was higher ranking, not just above him, but perhaps a leader? She smelled of pups and milk. He was glad that they had pups growing the pack ranks, but he doubted he would be allowed to see them at the moment.
Athchomar chomakaan,
He said, nodding his head in greeting, Hello, I am Zoratto,
Unfamiliar words flicked her ears forward with a new tilt about them. Zoratto. She could not pin the influence on the name, although knew it was foreign and thus, an immediate tripwire to her curiosities. She might have distanced herself from her own family's tongue, but to hear others spoken so true among different individuals always fascinated her. "I am Amekaze," she nodded with a soft waver of her tail. She only knew a tiny bit about him, mostly just that Floki had deemed him acceptable and his ties to Alastor, so she was liking seeing, hearing, and smelling him up close. "What is that language? And, that was a greeting, presumably, yes?" she asked. Multilingual in her own respects, while sharp enough to usually pick up on inflections and certain tones, she had a feeling she was right and was curious to hear more.
He wished that the Dotharan had made their presence more widely known when they remained in Teekon Wilds. It would lessen this constant explaining he had to do. But, she was his new packmate; he had to be less critical, especially if they were going to be stuck with one another through the winter. It was,
He assured her. What did she think it was? An insult? It was Dotharan. We Dotharan are wanderers, from eastern plains. Hunt buffalo.
Dotharan, then. No wonder something was keying as vaguely familiar, and what he spoke on with did reflect on what she'd learned about from Zaria. That had been a long time ago, she realized, since it had been around the end of her last summer on the Sunspire. So, well over a year by now. "I see. I knew.. of a band of them once, but it has been a while," and thus why she was not well up to date with their lot. She did wonder if he had come from the same pack she'd had only fleeting contact with, or if he came from a different group. "They briefly claimed a golden plain not too far from my last mountain, but after a storm the Khalas took off for elsewhere, presumably.." She didn't know much more beyond that.
So she knew of them. She must have met one or two of them before they disbanded. Zoratto was silent for a moment, remembering that day. There was a fire in Hoshor. Many died,
He tried his best to maintain a mask, but it was hard to when all he could see was Azzaro, burned, gaunt, infected, dead alongside a rock, left to die in agony. Khalas all gone now.
Pieces came together, and him being so familiar with the circumstances keyed her into more than she had anticipated. Where Zaria's information had tapered off, his could go towards the cause of what had driven them away -- fire. Amekaze nodded softly, a thoughtfully somber gesture, and her signalling that she understood the delicate nature of such a subject matter. She had known those to be sacred golden fields to them. Having them, and their comrades, burned, surely struck deeply. My apologies.. was her silent message in the pause. "The female I knew left before it had happened, but later returned to find the pack gone already." Evidently for good reason.
Ame was not looking to open old wounds on the specifics of how their Khalas had come to meet their end, so she let it go without further questioning on it. She understood why the pack had dispersed. It wasn't the first, nor the last. "So you wandered since then?" she asked, trying to recall what little she did know about him and gauge what else she could find out about.
She looked at him with sympathy and pity, to which Zoratto shrugged. Dotharan lost wolves nearly every month, whether to hunts, to raids, to disease, they grew used to loss. Loss happened, and he did not dwell on it much. But her next comment intrigued him. Female?
He had heard of the others after the fire; many had returned to their homeland in shame, but Zhavvi was not accounted for. He half wondered what had happened to the she-devil. Did she linger? Many went back to home. I did; I did not come here of own wants. Cast out soon after. Came back here,
A female, indeed. She nodded. The stranger's accent and overall manner had been enough to make a mark on her well enough to remember her by. "I only met her once because I was tracking on the edge of the plains. She said she went to Silvertip. Zaria? I think," the dark alpha provided with an accompanying point of her muzzle towards the smaller mountain's direction. "She was the one who told me about the Khalas and the bison," Ame added.
But what else he had said intrigued her. His straightforward delivery of the information had her wondering how delicate a subject it was. She was curious though, not to judge. "Cast out? Even after you had returned to them after misfortune like that?" She understood exile in its multiple manifestations, although her own brand of it was far more self-imposed than his implied to be. Ame had not thought, at great length, what it would entail for her to return to her own birthplace, but it likely would not have been removal from them..
He cocked his head. Zaria? It was familiar to Zhavvi, he supposed, but it was not that similar. He knew no Zaria, unless it was the name of a coyote slave, which would not make sense. I do not know Zaria,
He claimed, though he wondered it was her, the Khalakki. Is Seelvertip still there?
She asks why, why if he had returned to his birthplace was he cast out once more. He sighed, knowing that it would eventually come, this revelation. Cast out because I...no word for it... anha me hile... liking another man.
Well, if he didn't know a Zaria (if that was even her getting the name correct), that was still about all she could share on the matter. "I am not sure, I have not heard word from them in a while, truthfully." Never had she maintained real, tight relations with the mountain pack. It had always been a live and let live sort of situation, and as she saw it, they had generally been the sorts to keep to themselves. "And packs here in the Teekon shift and change often," she shrugged. So many had come and gone in her time between the Sunspire and here.
Then, next, his cause of exile was somewhat unexpected and although she'd missed the foreign words' meaning, she was all ears all the same to what she could understand.
Males liking males didn't really ruffle her any, so she did not find herself bothered by his history with the matter. It meant she didn't have to police them over unintended heats or litters, most of all, and if it made them happy, then have at it. "I see. Is it the culture that dictates that be so?" she asked, knowing that could give her a new angle of understanding -- despite her clan never passing something like that onto her, it still represented in other ways. Or, it could have simply been the current Khalas' preference to not have any of that in their presence. "To me that seems a bit harsh, especially to exile an able wolf over it, but to each their own.." she mentioned as to where she stood on the matter. Her upbringing had not enforced any values otherwise on her and she was comfortable enough in the gray areas to respect it for whatever it was.
He had no way of knowing, since she did not know. He didn't like the idea of going to yet another mountain. He didn't remember the Silvertip name from when Alastor went and gave his greetings to some old friends, nor did he care to. He shrugged, simply accepting that there were no more (fullblooded) Dotharan in the Wilds. If he was honest, he liked it better that way.
Dotharan could die at any time, from many things. Pups die all the time. Pups needed all the time. It is considered waste if men hile men. More waste if men love men. Graddakh if I do it often.
That was the only reasoning he could get out of it. It made sense, but he could not bring himself to love women like the other men did. He did not respond to their heat, nor did he ever catcall them like the others, or pick out the favorite of his female slaves. And I was declared Graddakh. Worse than waste.
He continued to humor her questions with answers providing enough detail to let her see, and understand just a bit. While not among her typical, more formal pursuits, it sang sweetly to her personally indulgent interests in histories and cultures.
In that way, and remembering that they were an intense society, she could understand why they'd want a lot of puppies if many wolves were turning over often. "Harsh, indeed. Although I guess I do see it, somewhat.. with the need to keep numbers up so." She made a thoughtful frown, deciding whether or not to elaborate a bit on her own history considering what he'd shared of his -- and such subjects too. "In my original homeland clan, peacetime had just been won so it was a strange in-between. Not very many litters were born considering the size of the pack, since my parents emphasized their family's quality, but not many of us survived anyway. Maybe if it had been different, more of us could have kept the lines going.." And thus, her bloodline had thinned considerably to this tiny trickle she cultivated quietly here on Moonspear.
Granted, she knew they could have grown more after she left, but they simply were not an overly prolific group by nature. "Anyway. I would not punish for it here. Moonspear does not have such issue," she said. They didn't need many warriors to keep their numbers bolstered -- unless she suddenly wanted to shift gears to a new homegrown militia, keeping it the way it was was plenty fine with her. Short of somehow whisking her mate away, who she didn't know how he felt about it either because she'd never really brought it up to him, males liking males were far from her concerns.
He was glad, relieved, that the Khaleesi saw no fault in it. She provided her own pack's lifestyle, and he saw a pattern. When numbers were low, pups were emphasized. When numbers were high, they could live their own lives and follow their desires. It was an understandable cycle, but he saw no need for it. He could very easily have mated with some woman and then continued on with his own...pursuits, but he supposed he might set a bad example. The Dosh Khaleen had stated something different, something more religious, but he knew why. The status quo must be kept. And so here he was. That is good. I am content then.
He wouldn't need to hide here.
She'd learned her share, and was pleased with that -- as well as knowing that he was content with that. Amekaze nodded. "Good to hear," she murmured quietly. "I should leave you be soon -- it is almost time to rally my pups, but I am glad I know more.." About him, his cultural upbringing, and what that may translate to in the future. Perhaps in time to come, she would find out more. For now, she knew better than to get greedy. She'd get out of his fur for now, so after a quick farewell, the dark alpha was on her way to gather her puppies.