Back to the ridge... back to life sucking. She had no idea what to do with all this time on her hands. Typically, there was plenty to do. Plenty of scraps where her other kin needed patching up here and there. Plenty of herbs to look after and tend. Hell, there were even regular occasions in which she could have an intelligent conversation with another wolf. Here? She felt a little as though she were chasing her tail around in circles and that was definitely an occupation that was beneath her in every way.

Alas, Tezcacoatl was set on the ridge and until Xiuh either reasoned with the wolf or killed him, she was biding time. That meant, she would do the only thing she knew how to do. That meant herbs and plants and tending and doing other healer related things to keep her mind and time occupied.

As of late, she'd taken to trying to salvage what she could of this hard earth. The soil here was used to layers of permafrost and generally uninhabitable for the richer, more quality types of herbs she preferred. As such, Citali went to great lengths to make this soil something that would be of any kind of value to her in the near future. She dug, creating long rows of upturned earth as she tried to to bring a little life and richness back to it. Aerating, she supposed. If she could tap a river and figure out how to irrigate that would also be of an advantage... but one step at a time. 

The Night Queen had taken to wandering more, in search of answers. It was a personal meditative retreat, away from the burdens of her pack, (regrettably) away from Burke. She needed to be alone for a while and think over the things that had happened so far.

She had come up with few answers to her problems as she followed the transient life, heading to the north and wondering if the cold would awake something in her, as the warmth of the summer just lulled her to sleep when she tried to meditate.

Meldresi reached the taiga in quick time for a woman of her age, setting her sights on an elevated part of the cold northern lands that she recognized as being once a part of the Duskfire Glacier pack's territory. Knowing that it was uninhabited at the moment, the queen began ascending the mountainous slopes, panting along the way. My god(dess), she had gotten fat.

After a trial of climbing, Meldresi looked about for a place to settle and catch her breath, only to find that she was not alone. The sound of scraping, seemingly on the hard permafrost soil, caught her attention, and the black priestess walked towards the sound, wary, but curious. It was a wolf. A large wolf, for a female, with a brown coat that faded in shade as it went down her belly. And she was digging, not randomly, but in rows of all things. Was she intending to plant a garden in the frozen tundra? The Night Queen walked towards her, raising her voice to a gentle lilt to gain her attention. "Might I ask what you are doing digging rows in permafrost?"

This work was exhausting, tedious, and dull. It was a farfetched idea that something of this nature would even work considering the quality of the soil in land, but it was a heck of a lot better than making lengthy trips back and forth to distant terrains to acquire what she needed. In her frustration, she worked harder, toiling at the earth until she had dirt embedded beneath her nails and sore paws. She sat down, worrying at her paws with her teeth to ease the remnants of her efforts.

She allowed herself to rest for a bit as she admired her handiwork. Progress. Nothing she wanted or preferred, but it was enough to start. If there was a way to transplant richer earth, she'd consider it, but she didn't quite have the capabilities to sustain a garden of that sort long term. No. She she was going to have to make something from nothing and work a goddamn miracle to make it happen.

It was sometime during her attempt to resume her efforts that another wolf happened upon the scene, she turned, eyeballing the darkness in the female's pet so that she almost mistook the wolf for Nochtli until the scent didn't add up and the eyes were unnaturally wrong. So very wrong. And the females words! How dare she suggest her efforts were more foolish than she already knew they were.

Citali bristled. "Might I ask what you're doing in the middle of what is soon to be Frostfire Ridge?" Tit for tat. This female was unwelcome here.

Meldresi raised an eyebrow, for she did not know of this Frostfire Ridge pack, nor did she smell any borders or large groupings of wolves. "'Soon to be.' " She enunciated, sitting down and curling her tail around her paws like a cat. The Night Queen was the manifestation of calm as she watched the brown wolf, observing her body language. "No one ever told me there was going to be a pack here and no one stopped me when I walked here. Wolves still have the right to wander through here." 


Her eyes wandered over to the rows the woman was making. The land here was not suitable for many plants, even if she made the soil soft. "You're not going to get many useful herbs from planting a garden here." She kept an eye on the bulkier woman, watching her legs and her face for any sign of her being ready to strike. Not everyone took criticism very well. 

This wolf's nose wasn't working. There were plenty of wolves stalking these lands and laying claim to their borders. The scents may have been faint, but they were still present. Citali was beginning to seriously wonder about the IQ level of the wolves in these surrounding lands. Thus far, she was unimpressed. So many avoidable errors. It was a shame, really. She expected more.

"What were you looking for? A fucking billboard?" Seriously. The entitlement here was repulsive. "Need someone to guide you by the tail since you've got a shitty sniffer?" Again. Instincts here. Any wolf with half a brain could have recognized the early signs. She didn't appreciate having to spell it all out.

"I'm stopping you now. Get the fuck out." Citali stepped forward with a snarl, defiant as she ignored the woman's comments about her sucky garden. She wasn't about to take advice from strangers, not when all the wolves in these parts who claimed to be healers were screwing things up left and right.

"There is no true claim." She tensed slightly and her eyes narrowed, but her relaxed stance remained. "Even if you and your friends want to start a pack here, you haven't done so. Any wolf can still stride through here if they wanted until you finally establish your pack. Until then, no one will care if you want to build a pack here." She did not enjoy being so blatantly insulted, especially by some wannabe pack wolves who thought they owned a place just because they lived there and walked around it sometimes.

"No." She said, resolute. "I will not be insulted by someone whose intelligence is so low that they build a garden in a taiga of all places." She hissed, matching the brown female's gaze fiercely, not moving despite the obvious warning signs that she would attack. Was she really thinking that her idea was going to work? And here she was insulting her intelligence of all things. Unbelievable.

Oh hell no.

"You think I want to start a pack in the fucking middle of nowhere where the soil is shit? Ohh. If you think this is my choice you've got another thing coming." She bristled. "Not my choice. Not my preference. Still a thing. And if I have to respect this shit, you fucking will too and just leave it the hell alone."

She glanced at the female, taking her haggish appearance in slowly and spitting it back out. "Surely there's another mountain around here where you can harass a nice little lone wolf who's not gonna spot your tacky dye job." She lifted a paw, indicating the woman's muzzle. "Missed a spot, bitch. Your age is starting to show."

"You still have a choice." She looked bored, unfazed by this wolf's constant use of expletives. She always found that people who have to curse constantly are compensating for something, like a lack of wit for instance. "If you do not want to be here, then why are you? For duty? Some kind of honor?" She looked the female over. "You look like the kind of fool that would be trapped on a frozen mountain because of such silly nonsense." The honor-bound warrior who pledges their lives to serve one person...how generic and idiotic. "Will you die if you linger here, digging in frozen ground? Why not save yourself the trouble and go somewhere you please?" She tilted her head ever so slightly, a questioning look on her face.

Meldresi chuckled softly when the woman pointed out her age. "Do you really think that age matters to everyone? Of course I know I am getting old. I cannot hide it, like you cannot hide your own stubborn stupidity."

A choice. "Ha!" Laughable. If she had any kind of real choice she wouldn't have come this far in the first place. As such, her fate was sealed and there was nothing, short of killing her own prince, that Citali could do about it. Going rogue wasn't an option. Finding a way to work with the tools at her disposal was. She'd make it work. What she would not do, was let this judge-y little wolf sit here and pretend like she knew everything about her life.

"What are you? A fortune teller. That's some spooky shit right there and I want nothing to do with it." She stepped forward, baring her teeth. Of course, at this point only half the words this wolf were saying were actually running through her ears so most of what the female said went ignored. "You know nothing. You are naught but a tourist here. These things are none of your damned business."

Another step forward. "Move along. You can take your thinning gray hide and save your breath for someone who values your opinion."

She had no reason to drag this conversation (as if anyone can really call it that), any further. This wolf was running out of things to say and was looking to fight, something that Meldresi knew she could not win. The Night Queen bowed her head slightly in a mocking way of saying goodbye, rising to her feet. "Good luck with your garden." Was what she chose as her parting words before turning tail and walking calmly away from the hotheaded female. Let her waste her time on a frozen garden in a frozen land. Let her freeze to death. Meldresi had a loving husband and kids to go back to, something she was sure this bitch did not have, and probably would not.

And the female walked away. Mission accomplished. Without blows too. She'd call it a success if it ever came down to it, but the wolf had been right about her garden. It was a foolish hope and a foolish mission. The only way it would come to any fruition is if she could figure out any taiga friendly herbs that would supplement the varieties she was more familiar with.

Well well. It seemed like she'd found something to do around these parts. Now she'd get to sample all the local wildlife, figure out what worked in these parts. Supplement it with dried herbs from her travels and prove to that annoying little wolf that she was still the best healer in these parts. New mission? Accepted.

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