Wolf RPG

Tuwawi slipped out of Swiftcurrent the morning following Ferdie's return of Leaf and Magpie. It was a good time for scouting. The others would be tending to their wounds, and the children were under Njal's capable wings. No others would dare venture from the creek's lowlands during this precarious shift. Their alpha, Fox, had been dethroned and soon, Bazi would hold a meeting.

The ember wolf ran hard before the sun had peaked in the summer sky, and had covered good ground before the air grew too hot to keep a rigorous pace. But even Tuwawi, who was a skilled traveler, felt the effects of motherhood. She had grown soft and where she once had lean muscle, she now had curvy padding. Her chest heaved as she sucked in air, side cramping in the afternoon sun. A babbling brook caught her attention, and she moved towards it to quench her thirst.

The cool water eased her aches, and the she-wolf looked to the distance. The mountains were closer, but she still had a long way to go.

She had covered miles and miles since leaving the side of her friend Red of the Sunspire pack. The war zone was left behind without incident. She hadn't even realized that the packs in the area were at odds with one another. She might have counted her lucky stars if she knew she had avoided putting her lot in with wolves whose drama could flood Jersey Shore by refusing Red's offer.

Her feet took her northward, to the very edge of her known map of the region and further still. She skirted around the wetlands, remembering with a sour taste her encounter there with Magpie and the hours it had taken her to find her way out. She had no desire ever to return to that place. Beyond the wetlands were open fields broken by forest spires, and beyond those, the grand caps of even more mountains.

A proficient traveller would have noticed that the Teekon Wilds existed as alternating bands of mountain and valley. The fact didn't go missed by Ptarmigan, though admittedly, the Endore didn't care enough to really think about it. She suspected that beyond these northern mountains was another valley, and then even more mountains. Maybe the entire world went on and on like that, a quilt of mountains and valleys with rivers for seams.

The thought that she might leave the Wilds behind forever, without even bothering to inform Viggo (whose handsome figure crossed her mind suddenly), didn't have time to manifest. Her eyes fell upon a red female at the riverside. For a brief instant, Ptarmigan mistook her for the wolf who had chased her when she fled the duck lake several weeks prior, and her hackles lifted uncomfortably... But the slow padding that brought her nearer soon brought her close enough to see the size difference. Tuwawi was much taller than herself.

“You leaving too?” she wondered, now doubting whether or not she would eventually turn back and return to the wolf-ruled Wilds.

A few beads dribbled down Tuwawi's chin as she stood with her legs half submerged within the idle brook. Ahhh, the water feels so good, she thought as forest birds flitted nosily about the higher canopies, chattering about a firewolf in their presence. Though their whirling songs warned smaller prey of the predator's threat, Tuwawi could not help be reflect that it was a good omen. It meant this part of the grand forest thrived.

The summer weather made travel easy but, if not for the burning sun, the Sveijarn's pace would slow until the heat of the afternoon passed in favor of cool night time air. She crossed the pebbled creek, and took a few steps before the familiar shuffle of canine paws ensnared her full attention. Ruddy ears orbited to target her company, steely gaze eventually landing on a charcoal smudge against the verdant wilds. A small female hovered nearby, leek-green eyes bold against their dim canvas. Who was this wolf?

At first, her vermilion hairs began to raise due to her company's unexpected presence. However, any posturing was quickly subdued when Tuwawi reminded herself she was outside Swiftcurrent's borders... someplace she hadn't been in a very, very long time. Was there an unknown pack to the North? Or was this a rogue? From this distance, Tuwawi could not decipher any familiar scents.

Her tongue rolled across a ragged lip, pondering quietly. 'You leaving too?' the destry queried. "Too?" Tuwawi parroted almost immediately... trying to make sense of what the other asked, only to realize she had not prepared an explanation should an encounter like this come to pass. A brief pause hinted at uncertainty, should her guest be perceptive enough to realize it. "Scouting the North," she lied, not yet willing to divulge her true objective should it lead her into trouble... or worse, invite danger onto Swiftcurrent.

If it were any other mission, the singular answer would have been enough to satiate etiquette. However, these empty woods reminded Tuwawi of her situation. The Sveijarn couple wanted to leave, but had four one month old children in tow, no followers, and hardly any friends with loyalties. It couldn't hurt to make small talk, could it? "Why're you leaving?" she asked, turning 'round to close the distance between fire and coal.

A brief stand off served as their prologue, though Ptarmigan relented any authority with ease long before it became uncomfortable. Tuwawi seemed to regard her with a level of suspicion, telling even from afar. Although affronted by the apparent doubt, the Endore knew she couldn't blame a stranger. It wasn't like she had done anything miraculous to earn brownie points, after all. They had never met, and on more than one occasion, she had shown the same face to others herself.

Tuwawi gave voice to her confusion, prompting Ptarmigan to lift her lips in a mysterious smile. “I'm not sure that I am leaving,” she admitted, shifting her feet slightly and glancing back over her shoulder as though looking for a reason to stay, “but it seems like I'm not staying right now.”

Despite its riddle-esque quality, Ptarmigan's response wasn't intended to be snarky. Rather, it was sincere, revealing that she really didn't know where she was going with her life. Would she keep walking into those distant mountains, only to disappear as she had done half a dozen times before? Would Tuwawi do the same? Or would each of them in time turn back, seeking the familiar sights and smells they had come to know in the Wilds? She didn't have the answers to these questions.

“I didn't know the Wilds stretched this far north,” she eventually admitted as some sort of in-between explanation for her previous question.

Tuwawi closed the distance, her shrewd and guarded expression turning into one of interest and curiosity. Red ears cupped forward in a friendly way as she outstretched her tattered muzzle to glean some kind of whiff of scent off the ebony drifter, eyes catching the more subtle hues of the stranger's summer locks. The loneliness of travel and her apathy for Swiftcurrent did well to inspire Tuwawi's hunger for information and companionship, and acted as a catalyst for conversation.

Her company was finely built, with a spirited and bright expression, however worn to suggest that she might have been older than Tuwawi herself. The women were peaceable, and the mother's tail wagged with a slight sway against her umber hocks. 'I'm not sure that I am leaving, but it seems like I'm not staying right now,' she said with a small grin - a decidedly uncertain rhetoric, 'I didn't know the Wilds stretched this far north.'

It could be assumed that this female had been bitten by wanderlust as well, though Tuwawi still hesitated - still unsure of the other's honesty. She had been deceived by silver-tongues before. "That they do. I arrived from the East... past a dry-spell of rocky mountains covered with ash. But here... its green for as far as the eye can see. No knowing where the North ends..." she told the other before swinging her head towards the distant peaks in between the trees. "I'm heading there. To those mountains," she said before her silvery gaze returned the trace the edge of Ptarmigan's face. "How about you come with me? You don't seem too tied to this place," she observed.

It was bold offer, at least to Tuwawi who had never been at liberty to bring along an untested foreigner on a scouting mission. A small sensation of leadership fluttered in her breast. "What's your name?"

No knowing where the North ends, Tuwawi said, and Ptarmigan agreed. The North was an enigma well beyond her understanding, birthing monsters from its icy womb that dared inhabit no other place on the wide world. Bears that towered above their southern cousins, huge eagles capable of lifting a fully grown mountain goat into the sky, and the largest seals the world had ever seen. These were but some of the fairy tales she'd heard that came out of the north, and every last one of them was true.

But she suspected the North proper began somewhere far from where the pair stood. The mountains were distant, but not so distant as the windswept tundras of legend. Her eyes followed the line of Tuwawi's gaze to the distant mountains and, upon the extension of an offer, she smiled. Often she forgot it, but the female had small crow lines at the corners of her eyes from several years of similar smiles, despite being a traveler almost by trade.

“Sure,” she easily acquiesced. Ptarmigan Endore was not terribly ambitious nor argumentative about her place in life, and saw no reason to question Tuwawi's assumed authority in this scouting mission. That wasn't to say she wouldn't seize an opportunity should one present itself—it was in her blood to do so, as all Endores had at one point or another—but for the time being, Tuwawi had the reins.

“Is it... Curiosity?” she guessed, tilting one slim ear toward her red companion as they started off again. Had she been a better observer, she might have noted the subtle curves of motherhood still apparent in the densely corded female's physique, having once had them herself, but she saw only the superficial. She could tell from looks that although Tuwawi was small like herself, the woman could probably throw a better punch, and was bulkier than the svelte southron Endore. “Or does some other desire draw you to them?” For once, she actually cared to know.

As an afterthought, she remembered the question and said, “Ptarmigan Endore. Yours...?”

A broad smile found its way onto Tuwawi's blistered maw when the crepuscular woman easily agreed to join her party without a second thought. "Perfect," she exclaimed as they turned towards the distant bluffs, their naked peaks jutting out from the landscape in an enticing way. Already the warm air had begun to cool, sun falling from it's noontime zenith. They could reach their destination in a matter of hours if their pace was good.

Silver eyes gleamed with ambition, though Tuwawi's expression remained focused and rather enigmatic. Few facts were required of her partner - mostly due to the fact that the Swiftcurrent woman was hesitant to divulge much information or purpose, herself. 'Is it... Curiosity? Or does some other desire draw you to them? Ptarmigan Endore. Yours...?' she was asked. "Tuwawi Sveijarn," was offered, surname and all. Sveijarn... the title husband and wife had created together. An original act. "A bit of both," Tuwawi mused, thoughtful of Ptarmigan's inquiry. The thirst for her own land grew stronger by the day, driven by instinct to settle and the upsets back by the creek. Fox was gone and Bazi had been able to establish a truce with Sunspire, but it was shaky at best. Eventually, someone would cross the borders and the deal would be broken. Tuwawi didn't intend to be caught in that crossfire. "Perhaps more the latter," she suggested. That was about as much information she would provide... for now.

"What about you? Where are you from?" Tuwawi asked, falling into place besides the Endore as they walked Northbound.

Appreciation for another's quest wormed its way into her breast. Though the Endore had never really paid heed to other's plans, and she had few herself, she was a social beast with an understanding of the collective wolf heart. Few of them longed to be alone for long, yet many of them wished to range far and wide and accomplish things to put to their name. No doubt Tuwawi had similar desires. She accepted the cryptic answer with a smile as she said, “I hope they hold up to expectation, then.”

Her ancestors had done their part to contribute to the Endore legacy in various ways. Many of her relatives had been leaders. Ptarmigan was admittedly lacking in that department, so when Tuwawi asked where she was from, she shrugged. “A little place in the steppes. My mom and dad were Alphas, but they were also alone. They didn't want me around when I got older.” Rodeo and Quail had expected their daughter to be ambitious and seek their throne, having been the sole survivor, but they couldn't have been more wrong.

“So I've wandered most of my life. Can't say I intend to stop.” Something big would have to happen for her to truly stop ranging. Opportunity would have to knock on her door as an incentive to stick around anywhere... Or, in her case, slap her in the face. Ptarmigan wasn't a terribly hard worker, after all.

The vast grasses and small glades of the south slowly faded into dense groups of grand pines and firs as the two women journeyed towards the mountains, slowly leaving Rising Sun Valley behind them. Summer winds scented with blossoms transformed into a heartier musk, challenged by the alpine loam. Even though they still had a ways to go until the mountain was reached, it was clear to see the changes in the earth as time and distance passed.

'I hope they hold up to expectation, then,' replied the Endore, and Tuwawi nodded in return. "So do I," she said, a bit of uncertainty in her voice. It was possible these cliffs wouldn't be the right home for them. And how would Bazi and the rest of Swiftcurrent take the news? It wasn't like Tuwawi to usurp a trusted comrade, especially one who had found her place in the alpha's seat circumstantially. Her conscious was too strong to be as opportunistic as the Endore, at least when it came to hurting those she knew well.

Ptargiman's story of her heritage began. 'A little place in the steppes. My mom and dad were Alphas, but they were also alone. They didn't want me around when I got older,' she started. Tuwawi's head cocked to the side, a bit perplexed. Her family hadn't wanted her? Kicked her out? It all seemed strange to the new mother, who would never had the intention to refuse her offspring. Then again, Tuwawi herself had been abandoned by her family... perhaps Ptarmigan's situation hadn't been that unique. Nevertheless, at that moment the ember made a silent vow: family was life.

She frowned, not knowing whether to offer a word of condolences for such a sad story. However, the loner seemed casual enough to not merit sympathy. 'So I've wandered most of my life. Can't say I intend to stop,' she added. "You never plan to settle down?" Tuwawi asked the traveler as she tried to imagine a life of constant uncertainity. Already, the fire wolf had been apart of four packs - soon to be five - in her life: Kindred, Tartok, Snapjaw Battalion, and Swiftcurrent Creek. She laughed, "I am quite the opposite. I seem to find a place wherever I go." Tuwawi reflected on the creek's troubles, "though I can't say its all peaches and gravy. We have our problems." She paused to think, silver eyes meeting Ptarmigan's mossy eyes. "Maybe this mountain will have some answers."

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Slowly and surely the path towards the naked crags rose in altitude, but the ground did not betray this. Even as they climbed, soft underfooting camouflaged fragments of granite and shale - much unlike the harsher Arktayok Peak, or Ivik Summit of Seahawk Valley. The pulp of decaying trees, fallen pine needles, and soil stewed together in a fragrant potpourri to cover the forest's floor, and only the heartiest of grass and saplings managed to worm their way up to the sun. This land was the opposite of Swiftcurrent, and though Tuwawi - born as a summer child in the southern plains - was more accustomed to their valley home, something about this new land was enticing.

'I don't plan to, but that doesn't mean I won't. Should the right opportunity arise...' Ptargiman responded, silky voice trailing with open-ended words. One of Tuwawi's ears turned, and she had half a mind to suggest such an opportunity... but still, the ember was cautious with her words. Only a small smile was offered in lieu of the invitation she wanted to deliver. It was easier to simply network... for now.

Do you think there's a pack out here? asked her companion. "That is one reason I have traveled. To find out," Tuwawi revealed as she rolled her shoulders, flexing tight sinew - it had been months since the new mother had traveled so far. The Endore commented on the downfalls of pack life; her words mirroring Swiftcurrent's troubles. "Sometimes taking that road is for the best," the Sveijarn reflected, glimpsing briefly to the dark women before turning her gaze back to the mountain's crest, which was just a league away. "We're here."

Tuwawi observed the peaks with a marked admiration, but her attention soon turned to Ptarmigan who was regarding Sunspire's rise in the West. "I think so too," she said, feeling somewhat impartial towards Ferdie's claim. Even Northstar Vale was visible on this clear day (to which Tuwawi remembered Xi'Nuata with bitter memories). Soon, if all things went according to plan, this would be the Sveijarn's domain and thus would trump any others in grandeur. It would provide enough space from the valley and a good lookout to keep watch on their more unsavory neighbors.

Tuwawi had rather aloof sentiments towards the whole clash — feeling like most of the tension stemmed from Fox's negligence. Hindsight was a bitch.

Even so, she wanted to suspend Sunspire's communication for as long as possible as if to help wipe the slate clean. It was possible with Bazi at the helm of the creek. The girl had shown decent instincts with more elegance and compassion than their previous spitfire, and though she was prone to bouts of naive and childlike behavior, Tuwawi felt her friend stood a fighting chance as leader. It was all very emotional... however grief could not put a stoppage on their plans; but it left a Bazi-sized hole in her heart.

A keen eye turned towards Ptarmigan as the purposeful silence between the two women enticed Tuwawi to share more details. The Endore was good enough company to forge a possible connection, and a tolerable traveling companion. Perhaps there was more to know... more to learn about this wolf. "Over the next few days I plan to chart these slopes... and if all goes well I hope to bring my mate and family here as well," she divulged to Ptarmigan with a look of zeal, "move up from the South. It's been long overdue." Time was ticking away... and Tuwawi's biological clock rang independence bells. Njal and herself had half a year under their belt in these wilds. They knew the land. The natives. The packs... they had bided their time and would soon be rewarded for their patience.