This wasn't right, this wasn't right at all! Hadn't it been clear? Go towards the mountains, that's what the boy had garnered from his orders, even though he had been forced to make sense of them without knowing the language. Cause havoc. It had been days since he had seen hide nor hair of his dark accomplice - even his scent had waned, vanishing as Tiarnan's route took him east instead of west. He had bedded down for the night beneath the stars, hoping that the sparse canopy of a few trees would protect him; and then in the morning, he had tried to worm his way in the correct direction.
That had been days ago.
A hunger plagued him now, the same kind that had driven him towards Silvertip in the first place; desperate and deep, churning his stomach and making his knees want to buckle. The cliffs above showed signs of animal life: worn paths, dried piles of dung, even a few patches of grass that were bitten to the root. There was something here that could be hunted, but the problem persisted—Tiarnan was too exhausted to do anything but lay low and moan pathetically to himself, surrounded by strange stone formations. He was a pitiful and useless creature, and he knew it.
Bazi had departed Swiftcurrent Creek at the same time as the warriors headed for the Sunspire. Her invented truths about Jace and Ferdie had not yet hardened into facts, though she desperately wanted to loathe them both.
It was easier to hate Ferdie. Thinking back on their conversations, it was clear that he had been an alpha too long to go back to to a subordinate role - it had driven him mad, and Bazi thought that incredibly petty; bordering on ridiculous. When it came to the crunch, pack mattered above all else. Sure, her own promotion had come with a sense of euphoria - but that had been short-lived, and a demotion now would not turn her into a lunatic. Ferdie had attacked his own - and that was that.
But Jace - it was harder to hate him. She needed more time to layer his memory with lies.
To distract herself, the girl had journeyed to Sheepeater Cliff. A large dinner rested happily in her belly, and her she made swift, sure-footed progress through the rocky terrain. The territory was named for its particular delicacy, and Bazi was keen to see if there were any foolhardy youths that could be lured into a fight and picked off. Ideally creatures without horns.
But before she could put her nose to the ground and get to work, a soft moan caught the Creek wolf's ear. Bazi froze. The terrain made it difficult to establish a point of origin, but it had come from nearby - and it wasn't a sheep. The girl's ears fell flat. "Show yourself," she snarled, lips twitching over clenched teeth. If this was a Sunspire wolf, she would conduct her own invasion.
He wallowed for what felt like days, when in reality time dredged by far slower than he was aware. A handful of quiet hours slid by him as he lay there, alone and in need, before a voice broke through the stillness and roused him. The sound of it made him simultaneously excited and nervous. Hesitant as he was, Tiarnan was hopeful that whoever was nearby could be of some use—even to just point him in the right direction so he could get home. A thought occurred to him as he rose to shaky limbs: when had the mountain become home? He hadn't exactly lived there long. The thought fell from his mind when he saw her. A pearly white silhouette against the dark of the mountain.
Bazi? The boy rasped with a parched tongue, and before she could confirm herself, he was jogging out of hiding and towards her. The beaming glow of her fur led him away from the tangled roots and dried summer grasses, and he came upon her in a flash that could have been misconstrued as an attack. Bazi! He chortled a second time, feeling far more mirthful now that he had found a familiar face.
Kaname did not know where the fuck that idiot wolf had gone to. They left days ago to scout out the borders of Horizon Ridge. Kaname had come back a day later. A few days hence, that fucking idiot of a foreign yearling was still gone.
After not smelling his scent for days, Kaname got up and decided to look for him, be it his carcass or the boy himself. He was already pissed from losing that fight with the Blacktail Deer wolf, and pissed even further with the wounds he had attained. As he walked, searching for the boy, his flank enflamed and enraged him.
He sweeped around Blacktail Deer Plateau and Ravensblood Forest and headed towards the Sunspire Mountains to search there. WHERE THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU?! he wanted to scream. But the wolf would not answer, because he couldn't even speak his damn language. He headed towards the Sheepeater Cliffs, hoping to at least find a wolf who he could talk to. Instead he heard a name being called. Bazi? Bazi! The voice was raspy and thick with an accent. Is that him? He growled and ran towards the voice. It'd better be him, fucking I swear....
Several things happened at once. A dark shape, presumably the moaner, trotted into view - and it knew her name. Bazi scarcely had time to connect the fading memory of Tiarnán's face with the now very vivid reality of it before a second voice, this one growling, joined the mix.
Elation, trepidation, and confusion clashed and fought within the ghostly Creek girl, rendering her unable to do anything but stare, speechless and a little open-mouthed, at her approaching friend. "Tiarnán," Bazi croaked awkwardly, but the sound of approaching paws was getting louder. She craned her neck and the body reluctantly followed, until she was looking in the direction of the third entity (presumably a wolf) with Tiarnán-sized space beside her.
She stood like a beacon and he flew to her as a moth to a flame. Even strides, bold and quick, brought him to her side; but she was distracted by something else. Something that the boy had missed and now looked for. His brow furrowed as he looked beyond Bazi—towards whatever she was looking at. While he did not strain himself much, the boy looked in to the distance fruitlessly, and his gaze slid to the side of her face and back again a few times. When it became apparent that she was distracted by something, he grunted and drew closer, brushing against her carefully before slinking back a step, suddenly shy. He was about to speak her name again (one of the few words he knew) when sounds of approach finally reached him. The boy braced himself against the ground, limbs and tail stiffening.
He walked out of the foliage and approached the two wolves. Tiarnán looked bedraggled and starving, flattened against the ground, stiff. The assassin growled softly and glared at him. "You little shit." he hissed. "Where the fuck have you been?!" He knew that the boy did not understand his language, but he hoped that he could sense the anger in his voice. He was worried about him, but not in the compassionate way. He was worried that he was captured by the Horizon Ridge wolves or that he had died along the way, taking away another hunter.
His icy glare turned to the white she-wolf. "I assume you know him. Do you know his language too?" The dark wolf never learned what second language the boy spoke, but he hoped it was a common one, and that someone else would understand him. It was bad enough that Sitri just had horrid grammar, but now there was a wolf who didn't even speak his language at all.
The imminent arrival of a third party forced Bazi to anchor her gaze in the shrubbery that blocked their view of Kaname’s approach, but she felt Tiarnán draw up beside her. Their guard hairs brushed against each other, like tiny hands reaching from each other from the bows of two great ships. A strange sensation hooked into the nape of Bazi’s neck and tip-toed towards her tail, raising fur in its ay. It felt like the cool burn of a heat rub. Here was the boy that had started it all - the intense flirtation with Cutthroat, the way her eyes wandered lustfully over Scimitar when he wasn’t looking.
Kaname’s arrival put a stop to her slowly nebulizing thoughts, like a pipette suckig up a spreading drop of blank ink in water. His voice was brusk and cold, and it was obvious that he knew who Tiarnán was - though he didn’t seem particularly fond of him in that moment. Bazi took a moment to piece the information together, glancing briefly at the wolf beside her. ”I don’t know his language,” she said slowly, frowning at Tiarnán’s hobo-esque appearance before turning back to face Kaname’s cold, glaring eyes. ”How do you know him?” Had Tiarnán formed some kind of alliance with this stranger?
Kaname emerged, spitting like a cobra as if his words were the only poison he needed; yet still the truth evaded the boy. He remained plastered low, even when Bazi recognized the words and turned to glance upon him. Her gaze gave him fortitude, albeit briefly, but it was enough to empower him upward. As he braced himself in a wobbly seated posture, Tiarnan's ears twisted when Bazi's tone became accusatory. He did nothing to correct her attitude towards the other wolf; he did little at all besides stare at Kaname, awe-struck at having been found.
Kaname breathed in the scent of the female, trying to discern what pack she belonged to. The familiar smell of the river was prominent in her scent. Swiftcurrent. He had only been past the territory once or twice, but he had not met any of it's members.
"He is my packmate. He disappeared a while ago and I am here to bring him home." he responded, eyes focused on her. He wouldn't dare tell her how Tiarnán got lost in the first place: doing a spying mission for Jinx. He questioned why Jinx had chosen him of all people. He couldn't understand a word anyone was saying.
Tiarnán wobbled in Bazi’s peripheral vision. There hadn’t been time to assess the state of him before two had become three, but she was certain that he had looked underfed and ill-groomed. Was this pack a pack of two, struggling to make it? A swift glance at Kaname told her no - his eyes were bright, and his dark coat looked to be in good order. He made Tiarnán look like.. a captive. I am here to bring him home.
Bazi’s blue eyes hardened. There was only one pack between Ravensblood Forest and the open west that had, as far as Bazi had been aware , swallowed her foreign friend whole. ”And what pack is that?”
The tension in the conversation was palpable. Tiarnan was keyed in to the two wolves' posture and physicality more than the words, which was an obvious thing for him to do. Without really knowing what to do about the tension between them, Tiarnan whined softly and - against his own better judgement - got to his paws and took a daring step between them in time to hear Bazi's question. He understood that, on some basic level. At least the word pack and the cautious, questioning tone that she used. Silvertip. The boy muttered next, before Kaname could intervene.
Kaname felt as if the female did not trust him, which was a normal reaction from most. Hell, even he didn't trust himself sometimes. But, as he was going to answer with annoyance tinged in his voice, Tiarnan approached and answered for him instead. Kaname raised an eyebrow. So he did know how to speak? Maybe only a few words perhaps?
"Yes, we're from Silvertip Mountain." he confirmed, looking at Bazi.
Silvertip slipped from between Tiarnán's lips and fell on Bazi's ears like an ineffectual guillotine. A surly, hurt look befell the Creek-dweller, searing into cowering boy's face like the glare from Scott Summer's eye. "Oh," she said, entrusting a single sound to act as vessel for the anger that welled in her - since he wouldn't understand a true bollocking. "Well, you'd better take him back, if it was Silvertip Mountain he chose."
Without further word, Bazi turned to stalk off in the direction of home.