Permafrost Hollows Fight or flight

@Steele forward dated a day or so?, you said either or so here's Uki too

Tapeesa wandered from the glacier at dusk, feet moving assuredly over the ice as if it were second nature. She'd discovered the labyrinth of tunnels that wove beneath the ice but the waif was far more interested in the forest surrounding the Hollows. The night grew darker as Taqqiq rose steadily, illuminating the forest path as her stsa' ran beneath. Now that her wounds had healed, leaving several smaller scars to accompany the graphic ones of her rape, the girl had little trouble sniffing out a nesting fox. She'd have had little trouble making a meal of it either, if she had not kicked the rock by her foot. The sharp scrape of it across the ground was enough to startle her game away.

With a frustrated growl, the tundrian could do little else but head back the way she came in search of game trails - the fox too far gone to catch. 

 Tapeesa stopped at a fallen tree - drawn by a familiar scent. She recognized the variety of mushrooms growing within the damp, decayed trunk and stopped to gather the small handful, placing them in the wide leafy bloom of some plant to carry. 

By midnight, Angakkuq had stopped at the edge of a small stream (likely it ran south to join the Qeya). She placed the bundle at her side and dipped her muzzle to the only waters, the reflection of the stars disturbed by ripples. She sat on her haunches to rest before heading back - unable to find any prey this night. 

Night was the worst time for Steele, his mind was running a million miles an hour as he was trying to get some shut eye. It was sunset when he was laying his head down and shutting his eyes, for a moment it seemed hopeful but then his eyes opened once again red and tired. With a sigh he decided it would be better to be wore out traveling than it would be to just lay around and watch insects run around on the ground. 

The wondering around was getting a bit old but meeting new wolves was a good social outlook for him. The brute was walking when a fox flew by him, interested about it he continued on but with caution. If the fox was running surely it had a good reason to do so. As he came upon a fallen tree he seen that there was some kind of plant picked from the trunk. He dipped his head to lightly lay his nose on the ground and sniff, it smelled of another of his kind lightly but he could tell.

It was a risk for him to keep going as he wasn’t sure if it was a male or female by the scent. If this was truly what he wanted than he would go on. So he made that decision to go on and investigate. His gait turned into a tip-toe as the scent became stronger, this time he could tell it was female.

Tapeesa had forgotten some things about the rape. It was impossible not to; one didn't come back with their mind intact from something that graphic. She could not have answered what direction they came from or what the color of their eyes had been - they'd been warped into evil, twisted beings in her dreams. But there were some things that Uki would never forget. 

She could not remember when she first felt their presence. Idly, she'd been considering the pine trees - wondering why exactly they needed such vicious cones if their needles were inedible - when she first felt her hair stand on end. 

Tupilaq had paused, casting a wary silver eye over her shoulder. A soft sound had left her, a chuff, if there was any there to hear it.

Silence.

The girl had turned slowly, ears flattened with discomfort. The empath could sense a presence at her back but made no further move to turn, only picking up her pace as her heart began to pound. 

Snap!

She'd whirled then, at the sound of a branch broken underfoot only to be locked in the gaze of two beasts - descending upon her like a vulture on a carcass...

When Tapeesa felt her hair stand on end, she didn't think; she reacted. 

The tundrian, completely forgetting the fungi, scrambled away from her perch by the stream on shaking legs. She abandoned her mushrooms, unable to see the male watching her on tiptoe from the brush. 

"English! English!" They jeered between rotten teeth, salivating at the sight of Tapeesa broken at their feet. 

Cowering and half-hunched with panic, the girl practically dove into the long grass nearby, covering her head with her forepaws. Her silver eyes flickered wildly, lips twitching as if ready to bare her dire fangs at any second.

In an instant as he stepped up to see the beautiful wolf with his auds she was gone. The pale wolf left her bag of stuff and lept into the grass and shadow of the night. Steele coward back for a moment as he thought about what he just did. “Hello, are you still there ma’am?” He called out revealing himself from his spying spot beside the stream, on the opposite side of her. Though it was on the other side he was just a leap away. 

He looked close at the grass where she had seemed to have vanished into and then looked down to see himself in the water. He let out a small sigh, I guess I am just a big monster or look like one per say, he thought as he took a paw and rippled the water to watch his face be distorted. Hopefully he would get a response back and could work this out with her. He had no bad intentions just wanted to talk, and know what was in her bag.

Tapeesa flinches when his words reach her ears, unintelligible on her ragged ears. She might have pressed further into the grass for concealment but as it was the wolf was moving closer!

He was a brute of a man - all height and strength and thick limbs where she is slight and small and weak. His coat marked him a southerner and fear immediately struck her heart for her greatest fear was the harsh men of the south. He was a myriad of blacks and grays and whites - all the shades of truth. 

Uki could only catch glimpses of him through the grass, huddled into a protective ball as she was amidst the reeds. Confusion settled, lending suspicion to every snap of a branch or splash of the stream, as he neither approached nor spoke beyond his greeting. A pregnant silence extended between them, broken only by Tapeesa after several long moments. 

She crept from the grass on tentative steps, as if stepping into the moonlight itself was life threatening. The berserker approached, leaving some leap of space between them, a hint of the feral retaliation that would occur if attacked gleaming in her silver eyes. 

"I don't understand," she murmurs softly, pronouncing them carefully so he might understand her tongue was not the same as his own. "I do not speak English," there's venom to the word, for she hates the idea of all things English and southern. 

Steele was surprised when she finally exposed herself from her hiding place. A soft smile welcomed her when she met his face with her gaze. As she began to speak his head unknowingly cocked to the side and he realized that she had no idea what he had said for she didn’t speak the same language as he did. Embarrassed he nodded at her not sure what she said but was hoping it wasn’t a question.

It was a bit nerve wrecking for him to be here with another wolf that doesn’t speak the way he does. Though he knew she didn’t know his language he tried one more time to communicate with her. “Language?” He asked her about the language she spoke. It seemed like a beautiful language to learn. Steele looked at her hopeful that maybe she could understand the one word but knew there was a slim chance of it.

tagging for visibility

Upon closer observation, the first thing she noticed about him was the color of his eyes. Her own felt washed out, lackluster, in comparison to the rich amber found in his warm gaze. Her colorless eyes shifted secondly to the scar spanning across his face from nose to ear, no doubt a hunting accident.

Uki raised an even stare at him, knowing her own scars were visible in the silver light of the moon. Part of her wondered if he found her scars ugly - the thick ropes of flesh that spoke of violence and horror - while another part, a part that sounded annoyingly like @Siarut, whispered that it was utterly stupid to worry about whether or not he thought her attractive. 

The waif could hear the question in his tone but merely shook her head, unable to understand. "I have no idea what you're saying," she murmured, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips and warming her icy eyes slightly.  

"I don't know what I'm doing," she continued, not caring that he couldn't understand a thing she was saying. "I don't know why I came south or why I went with Siarut. I'm starting to think it was all one big mistake," she whispered, feeling tears burn behind her eyes and blinking to stave them off. 

"They're...They're the only ones I can speak to here. And they don't seem to like me all that much," her voice is tiny by the end, for it hurts significantly more than she thought it would - being outcasted. It had happened before, of course, but this was the first time she had found herself disliked by a group without having done something - directly, indirectly, or accidentally - that caused it.

The waif kept her gaze carefully turned elsewhere, so he might not see the sadness she was confessing to. She could have been talking about anything to someone who didn't speak her tongue, only the barest hints of despondency visible in the curl of her shoulders - not unlike the damaged pages of a worn book.

The brute noticed that she was looking at his scars but he was fine with it. Scars were only half the story of someone and he knew that so when he saw she had some of her own, more than he did, he wasn’t one to stare at them. His gaze was directed at her eyes and them only the whole time. To Steele the only thing that made someone beautiful was their personality and how they treated a certain situation not their physical appearance.

The pale female started talking again in the language he didn’t know. At first she seemed a bit happy with what she was saying but as she went on Steele could tell by his own experiences that there was something bothering her. His eyes fell and he took a step toward her hoping to be of help to her if not by saying something than being there for her by being a literal shoulder to cry on. 

As she turned her head the brute nudged her a bit to let her know that he was there for her. It hurt him to see others hurt, he wasn’t the typical male that he looked like, his feelings were too important to shove away like most males do. After he nudged her he walked to where he could be in her line of sight again and touched his muzzle to her shoulder, like a hug. He hoped that maybe she would feel a bit better and they could work out some way of communicating.

His eyes did not wander from hers, did not investigate the curiosities and stories written on her skin with a pencil made of teeth, and the berserker feels a tad of respect for the southerner. 

It appeared the waif was incorrect, he did seem to understand the emotion behind her words. She could only watch warily as he stepped forward - ears flattened with disquiet as he drew near. Her eyes, which had warmed some, hardened as he approached - not unlike two pale stones.

She skitters away from his touch, soft whines falling from her throat. No one has touched her since them. It's too new, too confusing, too sudden for this strange man to be touching her and she bristles - half hunched protectively over herself and her lips twitching as if she might snarl at him. 

Given that he backs up and gives Tapeesa her space - the girl would calm, watching him with sad silver eyes. She offered him two words he wouldn't understand.

"Please. Don't."

 

Steele retracted his head from her shoulder and backed away. Since it was his touch that set her off he wondered what had happened to her for it to be this way. He kept his glowing amber eyes on hers watching as they turned from fear to sadness, wondering why. Males seemed to have such bad light now a days, and he wanted to change that. 

His face softened with her sadness. “I don’t know what to do. I wish I could help you. I know you don’t understand me.” He said frustrated. His brows furrowed and he looked at the ground. It was obvious someone had done her wrong, physically and then that led to emotionally. He took his paw and drew in the ground, it wasn’t anything just lines to give the pale female time to calm after being upset. He racked his brain for any way he could communicate with her to let her know he’s harmless.

He retreats from her and Uki is unsure if this leaves her sadder than when he approached. It's all confusing and she's unsure what to make of this southerner. She finds herself facing for the first time  a southron man who doesn't seeks to hurt her. 

"I'm sorry. None of this your fault. I'm just..." she trails off, unable to explain. Damaged? Fucked up? Scared? All of the above? She can see the guilt in his face, and it strikes her heart - it isn't his fault she's so broken. 

"Would you like to come back with me?" the girl gathers her package of fungi, turning and pointing her muzzle in the direction of the glacier briefly and moving some steps away as if to indicate the meaning behind her words - that he follow and join them.

 

Steele felt horrible for making her feel the need to be so defensive. When he looked up he saw that she was apologetic in her eyes and whatever she said was probably an apology but he wanted to tell her it was okay that it really wasn’t her fault that he shouldn’t have done that in the first place. He softened his eyes to her just to let her know he was okay. 

Then, she motioned away and asked him a question? He was confused but stood on his paws and then came a bit closer, nodding. He would follow her only as long as she wanted him too. Steele would allow for proper space between them so she wouldn’t feel the need to fight for it. The brute felt a bit relieved as she picked up her mushrooms and headed away.

He followed and Tapeesa smiled, relieved. She led the way ahead of him, silver eyes flashing over her shoulder occasionally as she checked to see if he was following. Given that he was, she would lead him back to the glacier to speak with Siarut - given that the southerner was allowed to stay, perhaps he might learn her tongue and say the words they had been unable to communicate to each other tonight.

last from me I believe, thanks for the thread!

Steele was following her, his eyes meeting hers as she kept looking back at him. He didn't know where they were going but hopefully it was somewhere where they could talk better. He would follow her all the way back to the glacier unknowingly to meet Siarut. 

You're welcome!