They were making their way home via the scenic route. There were a few places in this area he had yet to visit and they'd made sure to explore a vast majority of them as they made their way back to the Spine. The mountain route had been lovely. He'd never been quite so close to Black Deer Plateau as he had during this encounter and the mountains on that side had quite the view. From those slopes it was almost as if one could see to the ends of the earth. Looking out over towards the Spine in the distance was quite a sight to see.
All the same it was time to head back. Tonravik had stopped to pay a visit to a friend in the nearby pack and it had Kerosene thinking. He'd encountered a wolf from this area once before and while their time together had been short it was entertaining all the same. Thinking of the fabulous FitzD, Kero altered their course and turned their paws in the direction of their mountainy peaks.
They climbed once more. It was becoming something of a familiar strain as he crossed the terrain and drew close towards the packlands of an old acquaintance. At the first sign of pack markings, the withdrew a bit and circled towards the southern end so their return through the forest would be a quick an easy thing. When the timing was right, Kero lifted his voice and called for the alpha here. He wondered how much this wolf knew of their new neighbors.
They kept their distance, as was appropriate. As Tonravik would prefer.
Tonravik did not howl with him, as she did not know this man, and because she personally had no desire to hold an audience with him. In this case they would be his audience... Tonravik accepted only to play referee. This male had been a friend prior to his joining the Spine. FitzDutiful could remain just that so long as he kept his distance. Long distance relationships she was fine with. Any wolf not of the Spine too close would be a dead one.
They were not close to where he had picked his claim, despite their small climb. Tonravik was familiar with mountains of all sort. Although her Spine was a squat mountain range, it was still more difficult to climb, lending her less areas to find footholds as this rocky mountain.
It occurred to her this place was familiar. And Tonravik remembered why.
"This mountain once was mine," she idly recalls, thinking of the internal territories that rest within. She knew this place intimately... and felt a yearning for its tall reaches.
A howl rang out amongst the mountains and the echo was picked up and forwarded in a way that only occurred on the mountains. It was one of the things that he loved about the mountain, his home. The howl reverberated around the hollow where he lay sleeping and woke him from his stupor - that was for him personally. It took him a moment to place the call but then the memory of the springs came to him and he smiled. Kero.
He sent out the response, On my way and headed own with bounds and leaps. It was exciting to have friends visit - they were few and far between at the moment. He briefly wondered if Kero had taken up the offer of a place on the mountain but, as soon as he got close, he realised that was probably never to be.
His friend, with a female at his side, stood respectfully at the borders of the mountain, as FitzDutiful approached he picked up the scent of the spine heavily upon them.
"Nice to see you again, Kero" he said, before turning to the midnight wolfess at his side, "Nice to meet you. FitzDutiful, Alpha of Silvertip Mountain at your service." Regardless of other packs and their desire to be feral, FitzDutiful still believed that courtesy was a good call.
He hadn't considered this mountain or its history. Actually, most of what happened in these lands before his arrival was so unknown to him that he didn't consider much of it at all. How was he supposed to know of things that happened before his time? By asking questions he didn't know to ask unless a little information was volunteered. For instance... that Tonravik had once held this location as her stronghold. Awkward. He'd had no idea.
"Feeling nostalgic?" he asked, turning his ears to catch FitzDutiful's reply in the distance. The wolf was on his way. For now, they could fill their time with casual small talk... or Tonravik's usually preferred silence. Either would do. He only hoped that her history here would not recall old memories or grievances of the past.
Before long the alpha in these parts joined them. Cordial as always, Kero grinned. It seemed FitzD did not know or recognize Tonravik which immediately pushed his minor concerns aside so he might focus on his initial reasoning for visiting. "Good to see you again. Tonravik and I were in the area and I thought we might drop in. See how things are going."
He paused glancing at her for a moment, before he turned his eyes back towards the silver male. "Actually...Um. We're alphas over at the Spine and I was wondering if you knew anything about our new neighbors in the flatlands?"
Tonravik wondered at making this territory her own again. It was in a good, strong location. But she decided, for the moment, against usurping this place too. The leader preferred the largeness of the Spine and its solitude. But it could hardly be called solitude when senseless wolves kept moving to ruin it. They did not even live in their area; they lived a week in travel away. They did not want to be found. But found they were.
"When I want for this place again, I will take it." she shrugged. But that time would likely never come; there was plenty of prey at the Spine, and a variety of it. She looked to her mate, and soon the leader appeared in her peripheral vision. They had little time to talk anyway. And he was prompt in greeting them. Iqniq decided to speak for them, and Tonravik for the moment remained mute, given he had even gone so far as to introduce her. The less she needed to talk, the better.
It was a confusing moment for FitzDutiful, although he had directed his words to the female - Tonravik - she didn't deign to say a thing. Whether that was because Kero had said everything she needed to say or just didn't consider him worth talking to who could say? If he had known that just a few moment before he arrived the female had mentioned taking the mountain if she wanted it he would have responded harshly. She had left it for a reason after all.
Turning his mind back, he twigged in on the important news - "Alpha!" he exclaimed, his tail wagging happily. It was good to have a personal connection with another pack, though it hadn't worked out well for him and the caldera it was looking more hopeful with the plateau and maybe now the spine too. "No wonder you never came back this way." he teased Kero, gently reminding of the place he had offered the wolf in front of him when they had met at the hot springs.
His thoughts went to the question that had been asked and he shook his head, "No, I'm sorry." he didn't know anything about a new pack on the plains. "I met a wolf a while ago on our borders who had trouble with our language but I couldn't say what pack he was from. It was new and could be the one you're talking about. Is there trouble with them as well?"
He wondered if the spine knew about the Redhawk Caldera and the troubles that had taken place there. He still didn't have the details on that incident, though he wanted them. It hurt that they wouldn't meet a friend on the borders and yet happily wandered through the neutral lands looking for new members. It hadn't been like he was looking to go anywhere in their pack lands.
Truth be told, Tonravik was horrible at social niceties. Perhaps she ought to have nodded to the words of Iqniq's friend when he had mentioned it being nice to meet her, but the words went over her head, not knowing what exactly it meant. And she did not pretend to, either. Tonravik was an honest woman, and would not pretend to be anything else. In any case, this conversation was not hers to have, yet, or to join in. She was not good with talking, and particularly felt less inclined to speak to others on their territory. Tonravik did not enjoy being here, so near to the others land. But he was clearly a more relaxed leader than she was; perhaps he had no cubs to worry about, or else had not experienced an abundance of imbeciles.
Tonravik looked to the other, FitzDutiful, as he exclaimed his eagerness at the other, her mate, being alpha. Tonravik took note to hear the words "as well", but cared nothing for the dramas of other packs when she had no attachment to him. Iqniq was here to inform his companion friend to friend of the going-ons, to keep an eye out. Nothing more, and the alpha female herself would be sure of that. Alliances were inconvenient at the best of times and downright awful at the worst. Tartok only aligned themselves with Tartok; she would never err from this.
Had the alpha female also known of the incident between Fitz and the Caldera, she would be inclined to side with the Caldera, regardless of relationships. It all became messy and, as she thought before, inconvenient when they came sniffing near your borders. Lasher knew to keep well away from the Spine, even despite who he was. Open land was open land, but pack was pack, and borders were borders. Even wolves near Neverwinter unsettled her, but if they were far enough from her home, she did not bother them as they did not bother her. It was all common sense to the alpha, really. But so many lacked that.
She was not worried, however. Their stupidity would soon enough cost them their life.
Her idle thoughts were just that, and they passed as quickly as they came.
Oh. Well now. He was not expecting this much excitement from a wolf over a title. "Recent development," he murmured taking a step back as he shrugged lightly. It simply was. If any wolf had asked him a month ago what he where he wanted to be in his future, he wouldn't have guessed at this. But it was and would be. If it hadn't been for his desire to share information with this wolf, he might not have mentioned it at all. Kero usually didn't.
He regained his ground and shifted, his posture falling attentive as FitzDutiful recalled an encounter with a wolf who had trouble with the common tongue and also had issues with respecting another pack's borders. "Sounds about right," he confirmed. There was no way to say for sure, but the trend fit. "New pack in the plains area. We've had two of their females invade our home. One of them multiple times and was rather persistent about it. Not only do they have trouble with the local tongue, but their noses don't seem to recognize borders either."
That wasn't the half of it, but in summary, it would do. FitzD had mentioned his mountain of his was to be a family and that he had little ones to look after. The Spine would soon be in much the same position except they had the bodies to defend every inch, nook, and cranny of their home. They also had the talent to do away with the plains wolves trickery.
"One of them left a poisoned rabbit near our lands. They seem adept in the art of toxins and other undesirable things." And why would he mention this detail? The alpha'd mentioned he had pups. They were often unversed in the things of this world that could endanger them. They'd see a body of a rabbit and think it a free meal without wondering where it came from. "They give very few reasons to trust them."
It was true, the wolf FitzDutiful had met and very nearly crossed the borders, the signs had been there that he had been thinking about it and FitzDutiful didn't dare think about what would happen if that had been the case. Kero carried on enlightening him about the new pack and when he mentioned the poisoned rabbit, FitzDutiful growled. That was going too far, too far.
"Thank you," he said through gritted teeth, "Our young are beginning to venture out, I'll alert the pack to not bring back anything that they didn't personally kill themselves." If it wasn't bad enough that they were leaving poisoned meat around, the Silvertip Mountain was currently without a healer. It was time to get onboard with that for it seemed like they needed a healer more than ever - at least he could work on his naturalist trade and start figuring out what was odd scents of poison so that he could double check the meat that his children were fed.
"I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of news to pass on. We've pretty much been keeping to ourselves of late." Why would they not? If packs wanted to wage war then it didn't concern them. They currently had no alliances with anyone and would only consider one with the Plateau for their close proximity to each other.
Tonravik listened to them speak, and was surprised to hear that there were cubs. She sniffed the air gently, but the wind was not in her favor to betray the little lives within. Her ears perked and she looked to FitzDutiful, wary for him. The Plains wolf had nothing personal against her, after all. Tonravik imagined it was a thing of boredom for them. Which left the mountain vulnerable. They were closer, after all...
His recommendation was smart. The leader nodded to it, as though to say, that would be wise. Tonravik had no personal affinity toward cubs herself, but there was a strange urge to relay that nod, for him to know that it was something she herself agreed with... was it... instinct that pressed her to do that? A heavy breath fell from her nostrils, and the hard woman looked to her mate.
It was better he had no news to share. No drama for he and his; that was good.
"Mm." The warm sound fled the confines of his muzzle. Kero'd thought as much and it seemed Fitz was quick to take note of what Kero had implied. Watch out for his own. The Spine was doing the same for their own wolves. Watching out for each other. Protecting the pack. Protecting family. Everything that entailed. The wolves here were no doubt similar in that respect. Fitz had said as much when he'd tried to recruit him not too terribly long ago. Oh, how things had changed between then and now.
At Tonravik's nod, Kero echoed the gesture, saying little as Fitz revealed he had nothing more to share. That was quite alright. Kero'd said as much as he wished to share so it seemed their business here was done. He felt Tonravik's gaze upon him. He glanced at her, catching that stare and holding it for a moment before he turned back towards the silver wolf.
"I hope it stays quiet for you then," he spoke out of good will. "Best of luck to your and yours." He turned, shifting on his paws as he made to leave. Their business here was done. There was little reason to linger with their own pack just a few days travel away. It was time for them to be heading back too. "A pleasure, FitzD. Thanks for meeting with us."
With that he turned, brushing past his mate to continue their journey home.
The female nodded her head at his words and FitzDutiful wondered more about her. When he had last heard of the spine it was run by a wolf called Cara and they had been concerned about another lone wolf - it seemed she was no longer in power. An interesting turn of events, but not one that concerned him enough to ask about. She hadn't been strong enough, that was all that there was to it. It came to them all.
With Kero's only nod, it appeared this meeting was at an end. Kero turned to go while FitzDutiful offered his own thanks for them bringing the new, brushing past the female whom FitzDutiful assumed was his mate. He had never known an alpha pair without the two being mated. Again, that was none of his concern.
FitzDutiful waited while Kero walked past Tonravik, watching the female to ensure that she also left. He always waited for the wolves on his borders to disappear out of sight before he left - he had to ensure they didn't try to double back, ensure they knew he would always be watching.
Tonravik herself turned when all was said and done to follow her mate. She was pleased there was no talk of alliance, although it'd be easy to say no, so many were the sort to be put off and offended. Tonravik was a wolf and cared only for Tartok; this unit was important to her, as was its survival. She could not worry for others when she had her own.
And so Iqniq and herself moved away from Silvertip. Her thoughts drifted back more to the place than it did the interaction, to remember the time she once led the place. She had left out of necessity, Tartok having called her away. When she returned, the Spine seemed to be a good choice. Tonravik knew Silvertip was not snowcapped, and so could not long too much for it; she desired the cold.