Wolf RPG

Weeks had passed and Kausiut's bitter anger towards Sialuk had dwindled. She still did not approach her older sibling and ignored her existance, but she was not feeling murderous any longer. At first she had plotted on stealing all of the good fortune bones and hide them, but then she had begun to collect her own pile of valuables and hide them in a secret cache (that was visible to all due to her digging there frequently to put new treasure in them).

Today she had pulled out all the stuff - pieces of bones, twigs, leaves, rocks and clump of feathers (which was a dead, frozen and mummified bird) - scattered it around her and was walking from piece to piece, pushing them around with her paws and nose, mumbling something to herself. To an untrained ear it did sound like mix of common-tongue/village-tongue random words put together with no particular meaning. To a trained eye they would easily recognize that she was mimicking, what she had seen Sialuk do without truly understanding, what it meant.

Now that they were officially (if temporarily) neighbors, Towhee couldn't stop thinking about knocking on Meerkat's door. But much as she loved spending time with her daughter, she had a lot of other things to do now. She stuck close to Moonglow's outpost and tried to figure out how and where she might be most useful.

The obvious answer was always "the borders," but how did that work here? Shrugging to herself, Towhee began circling the perimeter of the pack's village, which included both the women's camp located at Killdeer Rest and the hunters' outpost further west. It was quite the undertaking, though it was a great way for her to familiarize herself with the pack's inhabitants and operations, at least in a passing way.

She did not expect to spot a familiar face as she wound eastward again, near where Kukutux kept her ulaq. "Cowstep?" Towhee called out in surprise, slowing to a stop. Her feet ached, so she shifted from side to side as she inspected the various items littered around the homely child.

Kau's mind had two modes - intense concentration on task at hand or total lack of interest in the subject, if she had not caught whiff of, what it was, in the first place. She liked to delve deep in a topic, she liked to get into details. For this reason it was difficult for her to go from one job to another, she hated being interrupted (unless it was a ve-e-e-e-ry good reason) and got very angry at people, who did. 

Her initial reaction to the wolf, who had spoken to her, was a glare and a snarl, until recognition of sunk in and she realized that this was someone she had met previously. "You!" she mimicked the intonation, walked around her set of toys to get closer to the she-wolf. Again, oblivious to any good manners, but without ill intentions, she got directly in You's face, sniffing around her muzzle, gathering information on the last meal eaten. Then she took a step back and frowned at her, as if blaming her partner-in-food for eating WITHOUT HER!

Although they'd only had the single encounter before this one, Towhee was aware of the pup's peculiarities and didn't blink when she was only offered a snarl in response, though she did say, "Well, okay then," in a rather dry way as she folded her haunches and took a seat.

A beat or two later, the child seemed to recognize her. "Me," she agreed, before pondering momentarily and adding, "It's me, You. I told you that would be confusing." Towhee let out a long-suffering sigh, only to crack a smile as she allowed the strange little girl to inspect her.

When Cowstep finished her examination and stepped back with a frown, Towhee's head tilted. "What? Hey, don't look at me in that tone of voice," she chided playfully, then motioned at the objects littered all over the ground. "What the heck are you up to? Preparing for some ritual snackrifice or something?"

You was confusing, but by now Kausiut had accepted that all people were that way. They talked wa-a-a-y too much and had very little reason to go along with it. She let the stream of words slide past her ears, because none included "food" or "eat". When the lady beckoned to the assembly of scattered goods, Kausiut quickly walked back to the area and gave You a pointed look. "MINE!" it conveyed. 

With the ownership acknowledged, she rummaged through her collection, picked a small verebra and placed it at You's forepaws. "Death," she told her, then went back to find another one. That was, what she had spied Sialuk doing - picking up random items and assigning them all the words she knew.

"Death," the child declared, presenting Towhee with a broken spine, to which the only acceptable response was, "Oh, okay, thanks."

She placed a paw over the bumps and ridges of the vertebra but kept her eyes on Cowstep as she returned to the pile of objects and began sorting through them. Not for the forst time, Towhee wondered about her parents. Hang on, was this one of Kukutux's pups? That would make the most sense. She tried to remember what the "moon woman" had said... "My daughters born this year are twin. One does not speak."

Cowstep did speak, albeit very little. Perhaps it was her twin who was nonverbal? Either way, she remembered offering to teach them ptero. With her clear predilection for communicating with body language and expressions, Towhee figured Cowstep might be a quick study.

-"Hey, did you know I can talk with my paws?"- Towhee asked, making sure to sign and speak slowly.

[size=small]One can bring a donkey to a stream, but one cannot force them to drink. In other words - good intentions had no effect on Kausiut, unless she was interested in hearing them out or saw it as an instrument to use in the future for her own selfish gain. You's flailing with her paws was met with a disinterested gaze that said "What else is new?" and then she continued to rummage through her stash of treasures. Her mind was fully occupied with the task at hand and she would go on, until she decided to stop herself. [/size]

[size=small]She found a piece of rabbit fur that had once been something like a cloak that her mom had put on her back. Clothing had had a very short life - Kausiut had had great joy in tearing it apart and eating some of it too. She picked it up and brought back to You: "Narrlek."  It was a combination of something she had heard and something that her mind had created. She had seen that her mom used to go back and forth between two languages that were spoken in the village. Seemed easy. [/size]

Cowstep didn't appear the least bit interested in this revelation. Towhee wouldn't let this deter her. She would continue using the sign language around her and maybe she would cotton onto it without even thinking about it.

The child brought her a rather well-used skin and said a word the former Sovereign didn't know. -"What does that mean?"- she questioned, moving her paw from the hard, bumpy vertebrae to the soft, smooth fur. She didn't particularly expect an answer, though she still wanted to ask.

Kau froze in her steps and cast a glance over her shoulder at You. Asking questions was not part of, how this worked (she had conveniently forgotten that Sialuk's game always began with a question). Especially, if she did not know the answers herself. So, she deliberated a little, then pulled a very stern face and said: "You. Silent. Things. Speak."

Then she leaped in her treasure chest, picked up, what looked like a mummified baby of a flounder, returned to You, put it down, looked her in the eyes and a wave of her crooked foot she pushed the fish towards the lady. "You," she said tapping the item, amusement sparkling her single eye.

She earned a scowl over little Cowstep's shoulder. Towhee raised both her foerpaws in a placating gesture, then set them down again as she read the kid's straightforward command. Things speak? she thought, glancing curiously at the objects at her feet. Towhee wondered if they made some kind of sound.

Perhaps it was time to tell Cowstep she couldn't hear, though she recollected the order for silence. Anyway, the young wolf brought her what looked like some sort of jerky. Towhee bent to examine it, though she wasn't well-versed in sea life and didn't even realize it was a fish. If she had to guess, she would've said it was a strip from a rabbit's hide or something.

Her orange gaze lifted back to the youngster, questioning. If she was supposed to literally listen for something, they were shit out of luck. But maybe Cowstep didn't mean it literally when she said these things spoke, so... what did she mean? At this rate, an explanation wasn't forthcoming.

Something slowly dawned on her. -"I'm not meant to eat this stuff, right?"- she queried, wondering if Cowstep was trying to repay the favor by bringing her snacks.

Had Kau not gone through the pains of being almost choked by Sialuk's divination bones and having some of her ribs broken in the resuscitation process, she would have naively believed that You understood exactly, what was going on. But - both riddled with a disability of different kind - they shared the affinity to read other people's expressions very carefully. And something in the way You regarded her prized possession and asked a question, made Kau wary first and suspicious of You's true intentions second.

With a possessive growl she pounced at all of the items she had brought, tried to pick them up all in one go, failed at it, then grabbed the fish and tossed it as far away from You as possible. "'ool," she told You in an insulted tone.

Whoops! She'd disobeyed the command for silence and Cowstep reacted quite wrathfully to this show of disrespect. Towhee watched as the young girl tried to gather the offerings together, only to fail miserably. She made an abortive move as if tempted to help, remembered herself and went still. She felt bad but the whole display was kind of entertaining.

Her eyes followed the weird piece of jerky as Cowstep yeeted it, causing her to miss the kid's latest enunciation. When she looked back to the youngster, any desire to laugh or otherwise make light of the situation definitely dampened a bit when she saw the truly disparaged look on Cowstep's face.

-"I'm sorry,"- Towhee said sincerely. -"I want to understand. Give me another chance?"-

Kausiut was used to people either being afraid of her anger, weirded out or they simply got up and left her alone. This display of emotions - remorse - was something that caught her off guard. She studied You's face as if she had suddenly turned into an alien of sorts. Might as well have been.

What was she supposed to do now? You had thought of the unspeakable (unthinkable!) - eating her stuff, while Kau had been performing a ritual. Would she be forgiven? One could see the conflict brewing within her, but then she simply growled in response.

She turned her back on You, returned to her toys and began picking them up and putting them together. Just in case anyone else decided to come here and endanger them.

Towhee watched Cowstep's face, hoping for forgiveness. But it did not come. Instead, the young girl turned away. She didn't need to hear the growl to understand Cowstep's displeasure with her. She frowned, wishing she could make it right. There was definitely a language barrier of a kind here. She did think they could overcome it with time and practice. They were pack mates now, so surely there would be another opportunity. There was no reason to try forcing Cowstep's hand today.

-"Hey, I'm sorry. You don't have to go,"- Towhee said to the child's back as she made to gather her things. She hastened to her own feet. -"I'll go. I hope we can meet up again sometime so I can make it up to you,"- she added, flashing Cowstep a small, sheepish smile and then moving away to resume her earlier patrol.