@Echelon , pre-dated
Tonravik moved slowly, steadily. She had seen the mountains from afar, and moved now with intent. But as she drew closer, the reek of
claim was already upon it. Tonravik turned, to find Echelon. From the look of it alone, Tonravik wanted it. It was private, and further off from other packs.
Perfect. Tonravik would have it. Her long-legged strides took her toward where she, Echelon, and Kroc had stayed for the night. It was deeper in Neverwinter Forest, which she knew well. This was around Silvertip, where once she had held her claim.
The woman remained silent except for when she arrived at the camp. Neither Kroc or Echelon were around the area; she was sure they were scouting the lands nearby, as she had. So the woman moved to follow Echelon's trail, thick plume waving. She had found the place they would grow.
She had come back to the little ringlet of squat mountains again, though she could not fully understand why. Having poked around their borders once before, Echelon had never found anything. She had never really seen any of the wolves that may or may not have lurked between its proverbial closed doors, but she knew they were there.
Just like she knew in a way, in the depths of such an overgrown and monolithic wood, she was not alone. Not truly. Things had been quiet and her previous folly of stirring trouble across the countryside had grown boring to her. Echelon wanted something else, something with more purpose and meaning to it. Tonravik had been busy looking for something else, something more attuned to her features, but Echelon found herself none too interested in those ventures. The mountain they had been resting upon was now of no interest, as they had begun scouring the flatlands and beyond for something else.
Slipping through the tangle of greenery in full bloom, the lithe wolf lingered as she paused to take in the smells of the place. Of the old wood and dankness; of the flowers that had begun their slow bloom into existence. But also, she checked the air for any sign of the wolves from the mountain, the wolves that she had enticed one day and never again.
It had taken her long enough to find where. Now to find Echelon. When was no question. When was now. Tonravik found her as she knew she always would; Echelon, too, was investigating. Tonravik rumbled darkly, moving to bump into the woman slighter than she. Her tail waved and she bounded ahead, encouraging Echelon to follow her with a whuff.
Tonravik would lead Echelon to that ringlet of squat mountains, that place where she had been. The wolf was excited to show her dark companion what she had found. Its face was not so lovely; but Tonravik did not see things for beauty, she saw things for what they were. The dark Tonravik would soon regain her place as First, Alpha, Supreme. Siku was the one Issumatar, The Matriarch; Tonravik would continue her legacy here.
Through the brush, something came. For a moment her hackles rose like jagged spikes along her nape and spine, only to settle when the wolf that emerged was none other than Tonravik. Echelon's tail rose in a friendly wave, only settling at the passing bump and the rush of connection of body against body as her aokkatti passed her. She did not need to ask what it was that they were after; she would soon see.
Bounding after her, Echelon kept pace with her easily through the tangle of growth of centuries old. Wonder imparted the curiosity of what it was that she was about to be shown, though they still had miles to cover. They would go quickly however, for both Tartok wolves were carved from stone in spite of being nothing more than flesh and bone.
Tonravik and Echelon moved at a quick pace. They had plenty of mileage to cover; Tonravik threw her head up to call for Kroc, to let her know they were on the move and would change their rendezvous point to closer to the lands she would take for herself. It took her and Echelon a good while to arrive to the exact point she wanted to take her subordinate, but finally, she broke through the brush, skulking while her eyes hungrily took in the terrain before her.
Her own range.
"We will take this," she rumbles to Echelon, so she was now up to date and informed with her plan. "Whatever it takes." A savage grin took over her features then. The Bypass she had let go of, due to her debt to Njal. This land she owed nothing to no one, and so, she would take from it everything. Its jutting spine appealed to her, curved and rigid and toothy, and it was large enough for her to desire it.
When the terrain morphed into more familiar things, Echelon's attention visibly increased through features alone. Her ears stood tall as they came to a sloping stop nearest to the borders, not at all too far from where she had once emerged from the hollow woodland behind them originally the first time she had seen it. She didn't need to say that she had seen it before, because she imagined Tonravik to be perceptive enough to pick up on that through action alone — actions that brought her out ahead of her aokkatti to lead them a little closer while she investigated their rough borders.
"Abandoned?" she queried with some disdain as the majority of the scent markers were weak. They were not of the lead female she had scented previous after her jaunt near Silvertip Mountain, but of others. Many others. "There was a female here, dominant," she explained as she paced a rough edge, absently kicking a piece of old scat out of the way as she went. It was stale. All of it was stale. Their opportunity had come and suddenly, abruptly, Echelon stopped because she was not sure what to do next.
The moment they had been waiting for had come along for them to seize and her locking up was exactly why she was a supportive role to Tonravik's lead — she now looked to her aokkatti for instruction. They alone could make the attempt for the claim, but she wondered what their numbers were within, how many of them remained and whether or not they were capable of putting up a fight. Long forgotten was Njal and his Glacier. Long forgotten was the mountains they had been residing in. All that was now, was this. This ringlet of squat mountains recessed into the earth like a treasure trove all for the taking.
Tonravik was, in fact, intuitive when it came to Echelon. She knew the woman well enough to know she had been here before; Tonravik observed her actions, wondering what she knew. Some was said just then; there was a lead female, here. Or, had been. Echelon confirmed what she had known; the place was abandoned. Her keen nose had picked up on such... and it meant that the place was ripe for the taking. "You have been here before..." Her rumbled statement was short, and she tilted her head some to look at Echelon. "You have met her," she half-asks, her tail twitching idly. Tonravik did not know that none had come to receive her.
Tonravik moved with her lurking near the border, blinking slowly as she felt Echelon's searching eyes. The lead looked to the inky woman, revealing her fangs. "We will take it. Tonight." She gestures to the land, knowing they first had to collect Kroc before pressing onward. Her comrades in arms and her would make short work of this. They would rise, as they always did. Her plume swayed as she looked to the land before them: theirs.
"No. Scented her." Echelon had never met the wolf that claimed to lead here. Truthfully, outside of just one wolf from the Spine, she wasn't sure that she had met anyone else. And for the most part she had avoided their eyes and scurried off back to wherever they had been at the time. Only now they were back and Echelon had wished she had explored the terrain around them more, if only to gain some advantage that would aid them with the task to come.
She returned to Tonravik's side then, only to cast her gaze back to the landscape that had been molded up from the earth before them. It was no high mountain peak like they had been scouting. It was a fortress of sorts with muddy and rocky passes, containing a basin within that housed the majority that did not stay in the higher climes. She could only imagine these things, because beyond that mountainous ridge there was not much to see. Echelon brought her gaze back to Tonravik inquistively; she wanted to know how they intended to take it.
She felt Echelons inquisitive gaze and snapped her jaws fiendishly near to her subordinates cheek, the action clearly intended to miss as Tonravik was not one to miss her mark. The action was a demonstration done to answer the question: by force. Her tail waved, in a good mood. The typically ornery Tonravik felt lighthearted in her discovery, and looked to the land that she would soon lay claim to. First, to retrieve Kroc. With no leader, there could be no objection. None had stepped up in her stead.
Tonravik moved toward the border now, drinking heavy droughts of air with her nose. At the least, perhaps they could scent the direction the leader had went in, or if she had gone with anyone... but her interest in that at the present moment was minimal. Tonravik would take first, ask questions later. So she turned toward Echelon and surveyed her.
The snap of Tonravik's teeth in the damp air did not spur Echelon to look away, but rather understand what it was that she intended. Many things Tartok came into control of were taken by force. Much of the land Siku had taken in her breadth was by force. Such was the way of their life and rightly so, Echelon could not help but feel the tug of a smile break the stoicism that stayed on her features.
But instead of that smile forming swiftly, she returned Tonravik's wave with a wave of her own; her tail eagerly swinging side to side. She would not come waving it highly like her soon to be (and yet always) alpha, and fell in line easily as they closed in the gap between a veritable no man's land and what would be theirs. It did not matter which way they went along the borders, for the markers were stale. They had not been kept up for days, perhaps even more than a week. Maybe even longer. She couldn't have said nor wanted to figure.
Her eyes shifted towards the rolling slopes that went upward over the lowest of the ringlet, making the squat mountains almost seem like hills against the grandeur of other vistas they had stumbled across. Echelon almost collided with Tonravik because of it, though the flash of darkness in her periphial was enough for her to halt herself and likewise, return her attention to her aokkatti. They were but a duo now and she wondered, where was Kroc? Surely not far.
ONE LAST POST FROM ME!!!
They both observed and strolled along the borders of the Spine. She inspected the land before her, this mountain very different from the others that she had claimed but no less of a challenge. It's altitude was certainly less... but it made the place no worse for it. The wind tousled her furs, a strong gale passing over them and pushing into the sturdy walls of the place. Tonravik had decided when she had seen the place it would be hers; she wanted to explore inside its depths, know it and learn it. Whatever history this place had, she knew nothing of it. The land would start anew.
Tonravik shifted away from the place at last, sniffing the air for the wolf Echelon thought of. Her head turned into that direction, and she moved past Echelon to find the woman. They would rest a while, and then, they would take this place. As always, they would rise.