Wolf RPG

Full Version: he's got an everloving bone to pick with one and all
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her search for lucas carried her ever further from home, and each day that dragged on, brought with it only deepening peril. her searches became more desperate, her time from the puppies in bearclaw more frequent. xan or laurel, when not searching, watched the children in solemnity -- but indra, lean and hardened by her roaming ways, pursued lucas still.

no trace of him existed anywhere, and she had exhausted nearly all of the region's northern hemisphere. soon she would have to go south -- a task she dreaded, given her fear of the wolves in the south, and the disastrous treason that had befelled her in the flatlands.

as she traced north, the evidence of snarling fires grew: the air was murky and thick gouts of black smoke rose from the hinterlands; in the distance, she saw a glow of hellish orange -- a field caught-afire. she would avoid that area, and hoped lucas would too.

part of her was vexed there was so little trace of her nephew - it gave her hope, in some small way, that he was still alive -- for she had yet to stumble across his corpse.

that was good, right?
after thoroughly inspecting frostfire ridge and determining that there are no packs present directly in it — though he doubts a claim would be staked so close to the glacier pack — he moves southwest. the ruins of his fallen empire remain, memories etched into the rough hewn rocks and trees and ice. his failed attempt to try and resuscitate the dying embers of duskfire glacier. the war had hit them hard and he bears the physical scars from reek's ( though he knows not the man's name ) teeth on the side of his neck a hairsbreadth away from his throat as a constant reminder. though it's memories are neither all good nor necessarily bad he still feels a draw to it. the tether to a land that once was his and he is contented that none currently reside upon it even though he is unsure if he would try to re-create what had failed the first time.

the silver moraine is formed of valleys of ridges and ruts. the territory itself is rocky and barren with a barrier of evergreens that appear to line it's edges. it's not exactly aesthetic...unless one's aesthetic is barren wasteland. there is not much life ...except for him, the crows scavenging for scraps of leftovers and ...another. he sees her across the distance between them and gives pause to his steps, considering. they are far enough away their paths would not cross and they could brush past the other. she moves with clear intention and his hesitance grows only to be broken as he lets out a low chuff to announce his presence to her out of courtesy, lest she misses him. even if they were not to speak, tezcacoatl thinks it is better that he not accidentally startle her.
indra was consumed by her task enough she did not catch the flash of rich chestnut, nor the crystalline blue of tezcacoatl's stare, until he chuffed: at the noise her head snapped upwards and her posture froze, eyes prowling along the expanse of jutting ridges and broken stone until they caught the wolf that uttered it.

then, indra strode with unusual purpose towards the male, as if forgetting she was wary of all strangers, or carried a deceitful hate of men in her heart -- he might have been dangerous, but indra's will was tempered by her concern for laurel's lost child; her brazenness came from a fit of desperation, not a swell of courage.

"hey, you!" she called as she picked her way nimbly as she could towards him. "i'm looking for someone. a puppy." she didn't give lucas' name or even a description out of wariness, yet she watched him like a hawk for any flicker of recognition or, gods help him, guilt in his gaze.
vague b/c the thread with currituck is still on-going.

if tezcacoatl's attention had drifted — he held the tentative assumption that they might pass by in close proximity but not interact despite his chuff — it snaps back to her as the autumn fire pelaged woman draws nearer, picking her way closer. his gaze takes her in, a quick sweep of his eyes, not lingering on any specific part for longer than socially appropriate except for her stub of a tail. yet, in the interest of not rudely staring he glosses over it after looking a beat longer and focuses his gaze back upon her face as she states her purpose.

so his initial assumption'd been right: she was on a mission. she was looking for a puppy. was puppies wandering lackadaisically around in these wilds a common occurrence? it hadn't last time he'd been here ...to the best of his knowledge anyway. both times tezcacoatl'd been rather concentrated on himself and his own ambitions. "i came across a pup a few days ago but she was taken back to her home to the glacier by one of the adults responsible for her." tezcacoatl informs her. he has doubts that it's the child this woman is looking for ... unless the pack that now inhabited duskfire glacier was in the habit of stealing children.
as she strode towards the chestnut-furred wolf, she caught in his gaze the lingering on her tail, or lack thereof. normally, such a brief glance spared towards its absence might rile defensiveness in the redleaf, but today, indra needed to be approachable, she needed to know if lucas had been seen -- and a hostile reaction would do her (or lucas) no favors.

hope lights in her eyes as tezcacoatl's gaze seems to imperceptibly read he had seen a puppy -- but as he expanded, a frown worried her expression. "no, no -- lucas is a boy." she retorted immediately on the heels of his answer, already feeling a long sigh press through her hoarse throat. "you sure it was a girl? what did it look like?"
the woman confirms what tezcacoatl had expected from the get-go: that the pup she sought was not the same pup he'd met in permafrost hollow. she offered him a bit more information: lucas and that she was searching for a boy. definitely not the pup that'd stumbled across him in the hollow. yet, still, she presses him, asking if he was sure it was a girl. if the serpent king did not get the gut feeling that this was a very serious matter he might've laughed. he had daughters ( and a son or two ) and was fairly certain he was capable of telling the difference between the two but her desperation makes him feel bone marrow deep sorrow. he didn't even want to imagine what it must be like and he, naturally, assumes that lucas is her child.

"red and brown with dark accents, olive green eyes. coywolf." he lists them off vaguely, drawing her coloration from relatively fresh memory. "her name is currituck." he finishes softly.
indra was too intensely awaiting an answer to notice that tezcacoatl might have entertained the idea of laughing. in truth, her question was insulting -- yet it was not intended so. the beta simply had to know with certainty that he had not been mistaken.

he had not.

a quiet expression overtakes her, deep and contemplative as he lists off the girl's features, and finally a name. there was a thick notch in her throat with scratched with dry fevor; indra swallowed and the sensation did not go away. "why was she alone? was she stolen? who are these wolves -- did they mention puppies missing?" each question was fired rapidly, and realizing the barrage she had thrust upon the stranger, indra's mouth shut with a clap.
her questions come at tezcacoatl like a barrage; rapid fire. he blinks, drawing in a deep breath, sorting them in his head, preparing to answer each one she'd fired off at him. "she wasn't alone for long. shortly after i offered her name and she gave me her's in return an adult from the pack came onto the scene," tezcaocatl explained, remembering the aggressive growl he'd been greeted with. it still stung with insult but he understood and still understands. "i don't think so," tezcacoatl answers this slowly. the woman hadn't looked like the girl's mother but ...appearance meant nothing. currituck could have easily taken after her father. tezcacoatl's own daughters took after him and the 'coatl' line at length bearing little of their own mother. "she didn't appear to be trying to escape or distressed in any way. i think she was just curious and managed to slip out beneath anyone's notice for a while." which was pretty common. inca, always the curiously rebellious child, had been infamous for slipping out of the borders when she thought no one was watching. unfortunately for her, her personal guard was always watching but nothing of the interaction between him, currituck and her caretaker had seemed out of place or raised alarm flags to tezcacoatl. he can't offer her all the information she seeks, unfortunately ( mostly because tori isn't sure if he'd know the pack name or not ) and offers her an apologetic expression instead. "you could always head to the glacier and ask them if they'd seen your lucas." he suggests, knowing he will be no real help to her on her search.
she knew the flurry of questions she had lobbed at tezcacoatl might mean one was missed; thankfully, he answered each individually, and with enough grace to soften the hard edges of her held tension. while anyone was capable of lying, and indra was loth to trust the word of strangers, the manner in which he obliged each question in a bald transparency settled her own suspicions on his involvement in lucas' disappearance, which by now appeared to be none.

"the glacier?" she repeated, her ears pulled back as she struggled to think of where that realm might be. she had not seen any glaciers in her life. an irony that was lost on indra, for in her travelings she had gone every which way around the mountains in which the glaciers inhabited, but never through them. "is that where you are from?" while it was obvious he wasn't from the same part as the wolves he had mentioned, indra wondered if perhaps he had lived in the area.
tezcacoatl makes a small noise of affirmation in his throat as she repeats his mention of the glacier. he realizes, though, that he has not been overly specific and though he is pretty sure there is only one glacier in the whole of the teekon wilds he adds, "duskfire glacier." quietly, just in case having the full territory name might assist her in placing it. "just a little northeast of here." he specifies, pointing in it's direction with a gesture of his muzzle before his head swings back to face her once more. he contemplates her following question: on whether it was where he was from. once he could say that, yes, it was where he was from but ...not anymore. the pack duskfire glacier was no more ...as it hadn't been for quite some time. "i'm ...just a wanderer." he settles on as an adequate response; and for the most part it was true.
indra hadn't ever been to duskfire; the name sounded pretty, but it had no meaning to her. she was quick to move past it, her gaze flickering from the roving summits back to her home, and then to tezcacoatl. he mentioned he was a wanderer and in some ways indra was jealous. she had been a wanderer once too, and things were so... different now.

and somehow, she found the more people she stockpiled around her, the more hurt came of it.

"oh. well. i'm from bearclaw valley - it's over there," she motioned with a cant of her muzzle. "listen, you said you were a wanderer.. if you come across lucas, can you please bring him back to us? he's primarily white, with a tawny back and a few spots.. and blue eyes. we.. we don't even know what happened to him."

indra didn't know it yet, but she was devastatingly close to -- crying. her entire life she had built a shell about her, and suddenly it was coming tumbling down around her, and tearing her in the process.

she tried to stiffen up, to regain control -- but there was a crack in her voice that betrayed her. "we -- i'd do anything to find him."
"i will." tezcacoatl promises in response to her request. white. tawny back and a few spots. blue eyes. he catalogs the description she gives in his mind, along with his name. the wilds are vast — much of it remained unexplored by him. there was a chance the boy was still within these wilds ...and there was a chance that he wasn't; but of course tezcacoatl will not bring that to light. it is already a delicate matter and the woman before him seems like she is a hairsbreadth away from breaking down. not that he blames her. not knowing what happened to him had to be unimaginably painful. it left a lot of questions and there was little chance of closure.

tezcacoatl realizes that he was lucky. lucky that his daughters never disappeared on him ( or were kidnapped ), and while he doesn't doubt he has bastards out there in the world he finds it hard ( perhaps cruelly so ) to care about children he's never and likely will ever me(e)t. he feels an obligation to encourage, or to offer some sort of comfort but he refrains. he has no real words of comfort and encouragement seemed like a hollow platitude. "i understand. would my daughters have ever gotten lost i'd have tore down the world looking for them." the earth, the heavens. he'd have searched until he reached the end of the world ...or his life. whichever would've came first.

"i will keep a keen eye and ear out for him." he has already promised to return him if he found him, but it feels worth repeating. tezcacoatl can't promise that he will find him but he can at the very least hold to his word that he will search.
there it was; a wave undeniable rising in her. choking her. controlling her.

indra hadn't cried since her fath--- no, she would not think of him -- quickly, he is shuffled aside for more pleasant memories. hunting with blondine. feeling victorious when laurel had won her rank challenge. merrick when he worried the tattered form of a weasel. nunataq, piper, marten, wyatt and lucas all playing in the new rendezvous.

lucas.

her inhale was shaky, but no wrangled sob came of it. her vulnerability was a glimpse before it was quickly covered, stockpiled behind bitter, thorny walls.

he promised he would help her, at least to look; she sighed again and an appreciation for the dark bay man simmers in her gaze. it was kind of him to promise, kind of him to support her dying hope -- hope whose wings were feeble, but would still manage to carry her home that day. "thank you," indra managed, her voice regaining its strength. "what was your name again?"
the break of the woman's facade was so quick that tezcacoatl wasn't so sure he didn't imagine it. nevertheless, his gaze drifted to scan the territory behind her. he doesn't anticipate danger but the wolves of the glacier, as he's come to learn, are touchy about anyone being in neutral territories that they deem too close to their borders. there was a chance the silver moraine was one of those ...not that the serpent king was in the habit of caring. so long as he was not traipsing through their land they couldn't actually do anything and if their members wanted to pick fights with him over unclaimed land well then ...they were more than welcome to step up to the plate. neutral territory was neutral territory and the possessiveness of unclaimed lands annoyed tezcacoatl, especially when he wanted to travel through them.

tezcacoatl's gaze goes back to the woman once more when she thanks him and he offers her a small nod; and when she asks what his name was again it occurs to the serpent king that he never gave it to her. would anything have been normal about this conversation he might've teases by saying something like i didn't; but this was not the light-hearted conversation for such things.

"tezcacoatl," he tells her and then offers, "or tezca for short." because 'tezcacoatl' was a mouthful, admittedly. it wasn't half as bad as the name his mother could've chosen: some of the 'coatl' names got incredibly long and difficult to pronounce.
it had been mere seconds but indra's composure had returned; she watched him as he offered a name, a strange name in a tongue she had little affinity for. indra's entire life had been rather sheltered, and spent only in the wilds; his name was long and cut on the tongue, in a way that somehow interested her.

her own name seemed common in comparison and for a moment she was loath to share it. "indra."

another time she might have asked him more; about why he had a name that strange, and where it had come from -- but now, she was consumed with the mission to find lucas and it was all she could think of. "thanks again - remember - bearclaw valley, it's that way --" she pointed again with a narrow limb. "look, any other time... but... you know.. i gotta go."

she offered a wan smile, gave him one last thankful look (god, was he the only male to ever receive such prestigious honors from bitter old indra?!) and then made her way for home.