As evidence of summer's final days began to mount, Bazi find herself seeking out her fellow northerner.
Despite Dovev telling her that he had come from the east, the young Alpha presumed he must have lived in winter's country longer than she had - a year, perhaps less; Bazi did not know where she had been rehabilitated. What were the packs like where he came from? Was the population mixed? What was winter like
here, in the south?
The questions burned on her tongue. Bazi rose early that morning, stretched thoroughly, and made her way down from atop the Guardians to seek the male out.
His muzzle had enclosed around and old elk bone, and his black gums were curled upward as his molars took hold of the calcified matter. With a resounding crack, the femur split, and the brute's rough tongue soothed away the marrow that had remained locked inside. Finishing the inner casing of the bone, Dovev left the shattered halves to lay desolately in the cool grass.
The quiet surge of water against the pebbly bank reached his ears as Dovev walked towards it; his legs pushing the tall river grasses away from his step. On the opposite side of the creek lay a grass slope steadily rising upwards. The wafting scent of his new pack teased his nostrils, but already the aroma was tinged with disbelief. Two days in, and Dovev had already learned of an undertone of conviction and scandal within the pack. He started into the stream.
The white figurine stood out against the backdrop of trees and blue sky, a cloud on a dark blue field. He drew closer to the alphess, the controversy seeming to flow from her. But the canid kept a calm and endearing face as he padded forward, his gray eyes a smooth plane as he leaned forward to brush his shoulder against her's. He made an exaggerated motion to touch his nose under her chin, his lips twitching, before stepping back.
Good morning.
Bazi remained blissfully unaware of the waves that Shadow had created, and gladly received Dovev's gesture. "Good morning," she chirped, nuzzling the pale bridge of his nose with the tip of hers. Her nostrils flared as she stepped back, brows crinkling as she searched her mind for the source of the scent. Marrow, she realized, and smiled at the thought - even in a time of plenty, a northerner was frugal.
That, and marrow was freakin' great.
She moved around him, coming up on his left side so that they could walk together. "Setting in alright? I'm so glad you're here.. I don't know how everyone else is going to deal with the cold. Some of them have come from warmer places, you know?"
They started off down the hill, Bazi a step in front of them as the ground fell away into the large bowl of grass. The sedimentary-streaked mountains were visible over the far ridges of pine trees that marked the edges of Swiftcurrent borders. "Setting in alright? I'm so glad you're here.. I don't know how everyone else is going to deal with the cold. Some of them have come from warmer places, you know?"
Dovev's pools swept briefly over the Alphess' face, calculating. The older wolf had realized as soon as she spoke that she was looking for a second opinion something to reconfirm her own thoughts. He had enjoyed the idea of having a territory he was tied to after the moons of wandering and scrounging about. Even if the cost of protection brought out his aggressive side, Dovev had slept better on the fields surrounding the creek. It was not far off from the feel of tundra.
All wolves grow thicker coats as the seasons turn, he responded. Even if this land wasn't coated in snow for seven months of the year, the previous winter had shown Dovev how strong it could be, and the mountain winds were not a force to be pushed aside. His banner tip twitched shrewdly.
You're from the north. Your followers will be looking to you to see how to deal with the winter.
"All wolves grow thicker coats as the seasons turn," Dovev pointed out. Bazi shrugged - yes, of course, but how would Paarthurnax do when winter got its claws into her golden fur? She didn't look fit to weather the cold, but perhaps that was because of her metaphorical warmth. And anyway.. Paarthurnax was no longer Bazi's responsibility.
"Do you have any advice? I've only weathered winters with other northern wolves.. but you had a pack in the east," she reminded him, noting the flick of his tail and sweeping her own in an arc through the air in absent-minded response. There was something comforting about the way Dovev conducted himself; he was very.. official, and it made her trust him. Whether she was unwise to do so whilst they were still virtual strangers remained to be seen.
Her response belied her true age. Haven spent winters only in the north, Dovev could infer that the female had come to the Wilds in only the year past, and the change of landscape had caused some... tumultuous thoughts. When the sky clouded with that familiar hazy gray, the onset of winter would be in full-force and there would be little to combat it.
The mention of his aforementioned pack brought Dovev's ears to swivel forwards, his eyes slightly narrowed. He had faded away after his disposal, never suited to bowing down to his outmatched agressors. He had been pleased when Diablo stepped up, but he himself had never returned to the group. Besides, he was more content to watch his daughter take on her ancestral duties as a Dreamer, and eventually join his distant cousin's pack. There were few arctic creatures there, and he understood Bazi's concern for the colder season. Especially in a territory this open, there would be no trees to block the wind and the mountain would shear cleaving freezes that would turn Swiftcurrent into an icy ribbon. His former pack was lucky enough to gain nominal snow in their woods, but this higher clime would face a treacherous winter, and he had seen it once before.
It is important to keep them close, so you can monitor them. The summer moons may spread a pack wide over the territory, but winter is the season for cooperation.