the brewing of aspiration reached a boil as she felt the chill of a glacier’s kiss upon her spine.
the scents here were fresh, changing, and few. a stirring in the pit, the coil unwound. the aroma of a lone ruler invaded her with feverish desire, and she thought then that he must be lonely on his throne of ice.
she could keep him company. she could warm his bed with pretty promises.
crown tipped skyward, her voice spun of bewitching tunes and unassuming motives as she called for the chieftain.
come — make your bed with a serpent concealed amongst the grass.
sulukinak lurked the icy slopes, finding that the glacial grotto was a comfort so far from the everdark. when she heard a voice calling for her man dutch, she thought it could be the pale woman from before and stalked after the sound, to get a glimpse.
what she saw brought the same prickling rise to the fur between her shoulders, but this smoothed as she moved pantherine and silent, getting closer. it was not the woman from the mountain - it was someone new.
still, something inside of sulukinak was turned sour by the sight of another woman on their doorstep. she perched herself high upon a ledge to look down upon the stranger, the glacier at her back, and watched them with a moodiness she could not contain.
a figure graced the edge of her vision in a shadow of godless raven robes. chin tipped upwards to drink in the scent of the sulking silhouette, though retracted at the discovery of a distinct sweet aroma — a woman.
not who she sought. not who she desired.
her attention beheld the vision of the nameless black swan for a hushed moment before she tore her sight elsewhere.
tail swayed irritably along misty hocks, lips pressed thin in thought.
sulukinak followed her movements. she became like a true shadow. the girl could read the way the stranger moved, the expression she tried to hide, the malaise.
who was she? this was a question sulukinak was not prepared to ask. why was she here? that one was easier - she was hungry for dutch; the same way the mountain woman was hungry for him.
the same way the hungry men had come for her own mother.
this time sulukinak had control over who could come and go. she flashed her teeth and stomped before the woman, bristling, although she did not look the part of a warrior for how tall and sinuous she was.
her tail was up and writhing.
the look on her own face implored the stranger to speak, or to leave. what made her worthy of morningsong? of her man?
the viper had not expected a tantrum to unfold as her greeting, but the raven-girl came stomping about like an enraged doe.
displeased, but not one to press for dominance — yet — the serpent took a relenting step backwards. tail pressed stiff to align with her spine, though she made no move to challenge the girl's motion.
she might have chalked up the raven's poor manners with youthfulness, but they appeared visibly near in age. she thought then that the glacier girl was simply uncivilized.
to think they appeared so few in numbers during the dead of winter yet greeted prospective members with childish impundace.
no wonder it seemed a man ruled here alone.
she cast a feigned look of bewilderment towards the black swan, another step backwards. she could read the pressed lines of judgement, of silent demands.
she could play the fool.
"have i done something to offend you?"
fangs sharpened like knives, but tongue cut like a razor.
The panther prowled, searching for Sulukinak. The shadow girl was often close — and Dutch preferred that. Preferred to have her under his eye.
As it happened, he saw the striking stranger before he saw his girl. His nostrils flared; he took in her scent, and then spied Sulukinak's bristling form. Whatever works were spoken before were lost to him, but he heard the woman's question before he came out into the open, coming to stand beside Sulukinak.
"We've had many strangers at our borders, lately," he said, perhaps a little pointedly. He was not sure why Sulukinak bristled at her, but given the season, he did not think she needed a reason beside the fact that this stranger was a woman. That did not mean Dutch had the same opinion of her — but it did warrant consideration.
She was pretty, and sharp-fanged, and that made the panther a little less critical of her small stature. He might not have thought so much about it if he hadn't so recently spoken to Eira, who had a similar build.
"What brings you this way?" he asked her.
she moved to clip at the woman's face with her teeth, finding the sound of her voice only adding to the ire that built inside of her; but before contact was made there was the voice of dutch from behind her, and sulukinak was immediately cowed. she pulled away and rounded upon her man, keeping to his haunch.
but her eyes did not leave the woman. she did not know what possessed her to be like this, only that she was agitated and something about this stranger was not to be trusted.
she gave a small huff in to dutch's fur, pressing her cheek against his side.
should the raven have pressed her temper, she might have found herself granted with clipped wings.
but before unsightly acts could befall the blackbird and viper, the voice of a man cut the tension like a dull blade.
muscles relaxed, though only slightly, and her tail fell to rest neatly behind her in a practiced sway. the raven turned to shadow, and the blistering assumption of the pair's relationship crept upon the serpent with steady belief.
she did not care.
nephele drank in the sight of the man as she would any other. admiring the height of his frame, the sculpted edges of befitting brawn. she appreciated the experienced lines of aged wisdom — though promptly decided he was not as handsome as what she might have wished him to be.
still, he checked the boxes, and from that moment forward, was considered a candidate.
a question rung in the air, and the vision of absinthe might have glowed with forethought.
"i intend to bear children come spring," she revealed bluntly, a glance cast towards the lingering girl.
"as you might intend to bolster your ranks." they might be of mutual benefit to each other, or they might not. but as it be, that card was presently dealt to him.
She answered promptly enough. The chief's nostrils flared to take in her scent; he stepped a little closer to do so. There was no sign that she was with child, nor that she'd brought any men with her. These things could be remedied, of course — but he was skeptical.
"We are in want of a young couple to bring new life to the mountain," he said, wondering idly at the girl's upbringing. Dutch had been raised by a single mother himself for the most part, so it was not as though he disapproved. "Do you seek a husband?" he asked her. "A family?"
He had not missed the way her gaze skated to Sulukinak. The unrest there did not puzzle him, and he was inclined to let women sort out their own hierarchy. He wondered, though, if her presence would cause lasting strife.
sulukinak did not know why she disliked this woman. the way she looked at dutch made the dark girls skin crawl. her earlier display of warning teeth had failed; that was usually enough to correct her brothers and yet it had not worked with the stranger.
it did not help that the woman spoke so plainly about her desires. there was nothing wrong with wanting children. the way she looked at dutch was unwelcome.
sulukinak had nothing to say. she watched the woman with a clear upset upon her face, unable to help how openly expressive she was by nature, and comforted herself by leaning on dutch.
serpentine vision flushed with consideration at his words, at his questions. she had not set out with the intention of romance or frivolous courtship. what she valued in a donor and what she sought in a husband were of two entirely separate brackets.
she currently valued the former of her desires far above the rest.
"i seek a brood of my own, and a safe place to raise them." she gave him a moment to absorb her words, to consider them on the tipping scale. "a husband would be an unforeseen bonus, though not a necessary one."
the same could be said for family. should she not find kinsfolk amongst the communities built in these lands, then she would birth her own.
The chief thought about this for a moment, his mind far away while he studied the size and shape of the female.
"This village is called Morningsong," he said at last. "I am called Dutch."
He gave the girl a chance here to share her own name before going on:
"We may be willing to shelter you, if you will agree to certain conditions. Mainly that you would not take them away from the village before they have seen nine new moons," he said. "The others are related to the pack's participation in raising these children. Trusted pack members need to see and love the mouths they feed, if peace is to be kept."
it sounded as though the woman might stay.
the thought disturbed sulukinak; but she knew what dutch had told her, that they needed new blood upon the glacier and that children were important.
her attention drifts finally from the woman. sulukinak watches something further afield; a bird in flight maybe, or the clouds.
abruptly she removes herself from alongside dutch and ambles away, as indifferent as a cat, and goes about her business. the fur at the nape of her neck does not smooth down - and judging by her gait alone, she is annoyed.
no matter. sulukinak disperses from the pair and leaves the details up to her man, since he is chief. dutch knows best and the girl trusts him.
he introduced himself and his company, and she answered back with a brisk "nephele," as an introduction of her own.
he presented his conditions upon the possibility of her acceptance, and in this she became pensive. she mulled over his words, chewing them well with intention and reasoning. contracts and negotiation were a normality for the bleached viper, and in this she felt a stroke of comfort.
finally after a few moments she gives a curt nod and a quick, "these terms are acceptable," just as the raven soars free in brooding vexation.
The shadow's departure drew the panther's gaze for a moment, but he did not call out after her. His attention returned to the girl — Nephele — as she spoke.
"Come," he said then. "I will show you to our common place."
After all, what harm could a woman mean to them?
"Tell me about yourself," he said as they walked. 'Your skills. Your homeland."
he spoke, and she followed.
a snake amongst the yard might bite and hiss, but it'd keep the rats at bay.
he questioned her of skills and home as she steadied herself to match his pace. "i was a negotiator for my homeland, which often left me in the company of ambassadors." her people were a philosophical sort, always serious, always making deals.
as for the realm she'd once called home, "it is a cold place, though lacking in ice." the chill of her homeland was less in the terrain, and more in the hearts of those who inhabited it.
The details were lacking. Dutch wondered if the woman was as cold as the place she'd come from, or if there was a hidden warmth to be found somewhere beneath the ice of her pelt. Would her children be like her?
"We are at peace, here in the valley," he noted. "What did you negotiate?" And, more importantly, "Can you hunt?"
peace. she had not known such a thing for the vast majority of her life. she was unsure if she knew it even now.
"this is a comforting thing to know." the viper would have often left her words at that, but the man pressed for knowledge, for a familiarity that she was not accustomed to. he wished to know of a history she did not frequently speak of.
a die rolled in the back of her mind, and landed in favor of the chief.
"i was born to war. negotiations for land, migrating herds and temporary truces were customary." she'd thought this a typical thing, though perhaps this land of peace did not know such trying history. "many deals were made. many deals were broken."
she grew quiet then in light of his final inquiry. nose wrinkled in blatant bewilderment. "are there those who can not?" she'd been taught from a young age to acquire her own meals. to provide for herself was necessary since there was never a guarantee someone else would be around to do so.
to not know how to hunt was to die.
Although he was not one to take the truth for granted, he saw no reason to be suspicious of her words. In this case, he believed that what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him — and so he believed her. And what a strange land she'd come from! Though not the kind that Dutch was entirely unfamiliar with. It was these sorts of packs that hired bounty hunters, after all.
Finally, on her last point, she earned a tiny smirk from the chief.
"Sure enough," he replied, borrowing a favored phrase of his cousin.
They had come to the common place, where kills were often left and where Dutch could often be found. There were sleeping places near, some sheltered and some under the open sky. It smelled of the pack, although not as strongly as Dutch would have liked.
"When your time comes, you must stay away from the red man who lives here," he said, deciding this on Eira's behalf. "There is a doctor here called Leith. You may ask him. Or my father, Aditya — you may seek him. If they do not please you, then you may seek outside the village — "
He wavered for a moment, on whether or not to add this: "But I would be far more invested, I think, in the wellbeing of my brothers and sisters than the offspring of a stranger."
an odd sort these locals were.
she thought the inability to hunt a weakness. had there been such an individual amongst her homeland, they likely would have been culled off before ever given a chance to become burdensome.
but she was not home.
they arrived at the common place, and she took note of each area that lay within visible sight. an ear twitched at his sudden instruction to steer clear of the red man during her season, along with two names of those who she might seek out. his own father included.
nephele did not think it his place to decide who she did or did not take to bed, but she did not press against his words and simply accepted them with a silent nod.
the last of his words stirred her attention in a reflective gaze. she did not think his statement unusual given that most would feel the same, and yet she did not feel inclined to care much on his preferences for her children. she considered her tongue for a moment before lips parted and she offered an indifferent, "i will consider the men you speak of."
Something flinty lit behind the panther's eyes. He considered her for a long moment, a tiny, downward twist to the corner of his mouth. Nephele was a hard woman to read, and her lack of warmth — lack of anything — made the back of his neck prickle in warning.
"I hope that I will grow to like you, Nephele," he said, a little more frank than he might normally be about such matters. "Strangers may rest their heads here for a time, but only those who become family to us will remain."
she'd never had anyone outwardly express that they hoped to like her. where it might have stirred some emotion in others, she was left only with the swirling void of detached insensitivity.
perhaps in time they would cultivate a friendship, but for now they were only strangers. she would play the sociable act purely for the future of her children, but forging affection for herself felt like more of a chore than anything else.
unsure what to say in regards to his final statement, she simply gave a few understanding blinks and a curt, "i would expect nothing different."
The narrow-eyed assessment lasted another moment longer. Truthfully, the panther was considering whether it might be better to chase her off now — but the unease he felt was surely unfounded. She was hardly more than a girl, and motherhood was a noble ambition. He would wait and see. Perhaps she would prove herself warmer than she first seemed.
"Go in peace," he said at last, dipping his head in acceptance. "I will be near, if you have need of me."
The panther departed — but he would be keeping an eye on the girl.
he departed, and she was left to explore.
she would keep to the common place for the remainder of the day, discovering the nearby caches and a place to hunker down that wasn't so near to others.
should any approach her, they would be met with an air of scrutiny and a raised brow.
thankfully it appeared most of the glacier's inhabitants were off attending to their daily routines, and she was left to own devices.