tezcacoatl takes in the familiar territory with a overbearing sense of nostalgia. a pack has staked claim to duskfire glacier to the west and there is a resounding disappointment that it is not tuwawi's scent. he hadn't really expected it to be but there is a part of the rekkr that will continue to search for her in the hopes that their paths might cross in the future once more despite that it has been many years since he's last seen her. the peak of the mountain coated in the glacier's sheet ice pokes out of it and reaches towards the horizon like a frost giant's baby tooth. tezcacoatl, upon the pack scent that the wind carries from the glacier, adjusted his course to take him south towards frostfire ridge. it's borders touch the glacier's own and the serpent king makes his way through the forest towards his once and quickly fallen kingdom glad that there are no pack scents emitting from the ridge's borders. it is unlikely there ever would be with a pack settled in the glacier's territory but a lone wolf could make the ridge his haunt without issue.

the season of harvest has just begun though the frosts have yet to come. the herds have yet to migrate to warmer climates and tezcacoatl intends to stay lone for as long as he can. until the biting chill of winter chases him reluctantly into the temporary shelter of a pack's borders, at least. at least this time he comes to the wilds to find it prospering instead of being ravaged by a plague of pestilence as it had been during his last jaunt here. the famine had been enough to force him to reconsider and seek asylum elsewhere ...back to coatl's rise where he found himself leader of a culture that despised him for being male but reluctantly accepted him as their patriarch because of the coatl markings he bore beneath each frosted blue eye. three daughters came out of that time, though, and at least the amazons of coatl's rise could not say his time spent there was not fruitful. he left them with three young queens trusting the legacy of the coatl's to his sprightly daughters while he sought the place that was more home to him than the rise. not for retirement, though. tezcacoatl was too tenacious and ambitious for that. like his mother before him, his retirement would only come with his death.

though it is frostfire ridge he seeks to haunt he lingers in the forest of the permafrost hollows. it has been a long time since he last stepped foot in these wilds and tezcacoatl has nothing but time. much has changed since he was last here and he is an adventurer first and foremost.

the viking and amazon hybrid does not expect to come across another. it is far from uncommon, these wilds had been vastly populated the last time he was here and no doubt that population has grown after all; not to mention there is a pack just upon the glacier not but a territory away... and yet he cannot help but feel taken aback nevertheless. what takes him more aback is that it is one so young. it is hard to guess her exact age but she couldn't be any older than three to four months. it does not fall beneath the serpent king's notice that she is probably a coywolf but he puts no stock in it. it doesn't matter. what matters is she is out here in the permafrost hollows, smelling of the pack that tezcacoatl's been avoiding as he traverses, seemingly alone.

"hello," tezcacoatl offers her kindly, softly, unable to shake the fact that when he looks at her he sees his now-grown daughters when they were her age. she does not look anything like them but he is and always would be a father. those awoken paternal instincts did not leave just because one's children were grown and forged their own paths of greatness. "you've wandered a bit from home pipotzin," he tells her, the nahuatl flowing off of his tongue without much thought as he lifts his gaze from her to scour the trees around them. part of him waits for an adult to come charging through them like an angry bull. none do and his gaze lowers once more.

"i'm tezcacoatl," he introduces himself and then wonders if she'd be able to pronounce his name. "tezca, if it's easier." he offers her with a soft smile. the nickname 'tezca' brings back a brief flashback that cannot quite form. his memory has remained hazy at best even after all these years. he knows he'll never regain it in full and there is a lot of time and memories lost to him. the flashbacks are brief and fuzzy and he does not try to grasp onto them. they will bring him no clarity, they will not guide him forward to his future and he lets them go without consequence. "what is your name?" he asks her.

"that's right," tezcacoatl encourages as she chirps the nickname he offers her. "curri," he repeats the nickname she offers him. while he feels confident he could say her name in full he chooses to go by 'curri' because he doesn't want to attempt it and accidentally butcher it. it sounds like a cross between the sounds of the northmen's language and the tongue of his homeland. "it's nice to meet you, curri." he offers her. "yes; i am far from home too pipotzin." he replies with a soft chuckle. the mirth is short lived as a few moments pass and an adult smelling of the same pack as currituck barges onto the scene, a menacing growl tearing from betwixt the ivory woman's lips. tezcacoatl's head, bowed down to the girl's level, rises and his hackles bristle along his spine on pure instinct. he is not sure that she will not attack him and his muscles pull taunt all the same, ready to defend himself if necessary.

her reaction is understood by the serpent king. he is a father. and would he have found a stranger standing so close to one of his daughters he certainly would not have shown the restraint that the woman shows in the here and now. he would have charged: shoot first and ask questions later. still, it is nevertheless insulting to be assumed to have ill intentions, especially because he is a father. the woman doesn't know that. and all he has is his word ...which would the tables have been turned tezcacoatl wouldn't have been overly inclined to believe without proof. "i mean her no harm." still the serpent king tries the diplomatic approach. he does not feel like defending himself when he's done nothing wrong and would rather avoid a physical altercation if at all possible. especially with a child present.

tezcacoatl takes a few steps back, having noted that the girl had taken a step closer during their introductions; hoping to communicate with this action that neither the girl nor the woman who commanded currituck to her side without gentleness is in any danger from him.

tezcacoatl's gaze remains focused upon the adult as currituck makes her way to the side of her rankled guardian. she mutters something to the older woman in a language that tezcacoatl does not understand seconds before the woman responds. he has been diplomatic throughout this whole process, despite being held unfairly upon trial in the woman's mind as having ill intentions with her ...daughter or whatever they were to one another. tezcacoatl understands that because he is a father. but he does not appreciate the implication that he does not belong in neutral territory because it is somewhat close to the glacier. the glacier is massive and it touches several neutral territories. he takes her next words not half as well as he's taken everything else.

"i am in neutral territory no where near your borders," he states pointedly. "besides that, this area was once my home. you are not the first to claim duskfire glacier," and you will not be the last remains unsaid. "i am the chronicler of the territory's history." and though the serpent king is unsure how he feels about this woman and her seemingly endless insults towards him: he sincerely hopes that her pack fares better than the original to lay claim to it. so much death, loss, pain and sorrow plagued that glacier once upon a time. it's not anything he'd wish on his worst enemy.

in lieu of not drawing forth the pale woman's ire once more when he believes he has just finally soothed the worst of it — certainly not all of it, of course — he does not give currituck too much attention ...but her playful face is caught out of the corner of the serpent king's eye and he gives a small, almost bird-like cant to his head in an attempt to signify to the girl subtly that he saw her expression. the majority of his attention, however, remains upon the other adult, especially when she addresses his words shared. that he's lived here before. "yes," tezcacoatl replies simply, though he was fairly sure his words implied as much. "i've lived within duskfire glacier and then later laid claim to it's neighbor frostfire ridge." the latter had not been long lived but such was the temperamental nature of packs. interest came and interest went and sometimes an empire's downfall came from traitors within the ranks.