the stone circle drew her as it must draw all. silvertongue felt as though she must have been here before, or somewhere close; the land compelled her. she drifted, letting her tail stir little moths from their rest among the taller grasses; she practiced melting into this landscape of few shadows and sunlit pools. and here she caught the thread of
@Tauris' scent, a woman she hardly knew. hesitation became curiosity, and eventually silvertongue continued on in vague hopes of coming across the other.
All day within her a rain has been pending. It gathers, withholds, consulting her emotions for a brief count, vanishing before she loses herself in examining it. It’s kept at bay in little exchanges with Skáld or Taktuq, or several superficial hunting attempts, one she is partaking in now when the steely Riverclan woman falls into view.
She raises her head nervously, standing in the noon-day lawn, skimming reasons why the pack leader might have need to approach her and finding none. She is a rather large mess right now and if she can skirt diplomatic exchanges, she will endeavor to.
“Silvertongue,” she greets stiffly.
"tauris." silvertongue had spent a length of time with gunnar; now the wind rose and feathered itself through her pelt, and she sighed. "i had not stayed so long in kvarsheim before." the glow in her eyes was approving, of the rolling territory as well as its inhabitants. "and i did not get a chance to truly meet you." they had already given their leadership introductions; now silvertongue was piqued by who tauris was to gunnar.
A gust of wind reveals Gunnar on her and Tauris’ eyes narrow as they rake over the woman. She had not been blind to Silvertongue’s offering at Germanicus’ trial: a bouquett for Faðir? What was that? Now this: their scents commingled.
Why has she come? To preserve a controlling interest over the valley; over Gunnar? And so shamelessly close to Taktuq’s due date. Her spine ripples. If she had any patience before, she certainly had none now.
“You’ve heard the news I imagine? Móðir and Faðir’s litter is due any day now.” Her tail casts aside in annoyance.
“We’re all quite occupied with the impending litters.”
"today is my first time hearing of it." not a warning in her voice, but a firm recognition of tauris' open dislike, which for now was not returned. silvertongue had spent a great deal of time polishing her reputation; now it glinted steel and daring between them. "he also told me of a man named bonnie who you do not like." a delicate paw, lifting in genteel elegance. "i happen to disagree that thieves can be trusted." now her glassblue eyes rested toward tauris with some semblance of invitation, its type unrevealed for now.
Perhaps the truth. Perhaps she had been swift to doubt the river woman’s sincerity. Or otherwise, a feigned ignorance.
Maybe Silvertongue was too preoccupied with picking flowers for Gunnar to take notice of Modir’s swelling belly and the way she sidled beside the father of her cubs. She smirks the thought away.
“It is my duty as Nornir to question the motives of those who walk our land,” She explains plainly, the inference thinly veiled. “Especially those who fail to amend their mistakes.”
She holds tense a moment before breaking eye contact, softening if only slightly. "I don't want a man like that around the cubs."
mistakes; a calling-out. "all right," silvertongue murmured, using the self-same digits to cup a flower, to bring it toward her nostrils for a pausing inhale. "once i was gunnar's companion, before riverclan was truly established." her eyes were upon tauris once more; she tilted her head. "since then i have only been his friend." and now, this bonnie; her teeth glittered in an unpleasant little smile. "perhaps he needs to be gentled, his focus taken from this circle as you prepare for the children." gunnar's children.
“Listen, it’s none of my business,” she cools, brows softening with a rueful glance. “I’ve a vested interest in Taktuq’s happiness.” Especially now, with her pregnancy at nearly full term.
But she says no more. She has no knowledge of the arrangement between the alphas, nor where Silvertongue might fit in that regard, and it’s not fair to hold Gunnar’s old flame with such suspicion.
Especially when her following offer is so enticing, a way to eradicate the nuisance in her home willingly given.
“It’s a prickly pet project,” she warns, but her shoulders raise, a weight lifts just in the prospect of getting him out from under her nose-if only for a time. “You would do this?” She asks curiously with a cant of muzzle.
“I don’t know that Faðir would agree to it," she fears.
there it was: the tacit thing known between women even if silvertongue had not been able to explain it for gunnar's ears. formal or not, arrangement or not, she understood inherently that her time here must be minimal once the children arrived. feeling rather vindicated, the sharpfang flicked her tail. "you are right to think of gunnar. i told him to send this man to riverclan, where i will instill better manners. he told me only do not slay bonnie with such work." see? it had been rather approved; now tauris was the final stamp, and silvertongue's eyes glimmered as dragonfly glow winging over still water. "introduce him to me, somewhere beyond here. say i have some need or other, some task." silvertongue; glittering in intrigue.
So Gunnar has agreed already to the proposition, there’s surprise in that. Perhaps he’d witnessed the boy’s sadism first hand. Tauris has no idea what could possibly be involved in this reformation school, but she didn’t much care. The sooner he was off Kvarhsiem ground, the better.
“And in return? What do you want, Silvertongue?” Were they to be friends, now? Surely this offer is conditional.
She turns, nodding, sparing no moment of delay. “Mutt wont follow me willingly... I’ll think of something.”
"gunnar helped me to find the place where riverclan was built. i want him to be happy. he will not be so long as you and this man are ill at ease, tauris," silvertongue answered in a low tone. "i also do not care for men who show two faces. if he will not come to you, he will certainly come to me. say it now, and i will call him myself in some days, and you will not need to be any more involved than this." her eyes flashed resolute, for silvertongue meant all she said.
There is clear resolution in her voice, a conviction that has Tauris hanging onto every word.
“Please,” she asks, relieving the burden of him. To prepare for whatever comes next, this must be her focus, not this artless dodger with a vengeance.
“It is my debt to repay. Ask me a favor and it will be your’s, when you have need.”
a debt, then, and the glimmer turned to a harder gleam, for silvertongue knew the worth of a debt. "i accept," she said, mouth a little curve as she danced beyond the nornir and toward the borders in a slow waltz. "you will see me again." gaze to gaze, a meeting, and then if there was nothing else, the sharpfang would depart for riverclan.
She dips her head and watches the sharpfang for a time as she retreats, grateful. A pillared sun paints the dormant stones in a radiant light and there’s an ease to her steps as she passes through them.
Home would be safe, now. For those among them, and those yet to come.