Remind me of the babe

“They are loa?” queried the Silvertip Mountain Alpha female, coaxing a responding nod from Itsuki as he strode along just behind her and to her left. “I believe they are the same,” he murmured thoughtfully. Though he had never heard the term that the northern Kesuk female used, the Shintoist knew well the meaning behind it. She referred to the spirits and essences of nature, the same entities as the kami.

In this, the two found a common interest: preservation of the kami, or at least preservation of a relationship between wolf and kami. The pair descended down one of Silvertip Mountain's well worn trails, but Itsuki could tell before they reached the end of it that Jinx would soon leave his company. The black-footed Alpha was busy, he gathered, and had lost herself to fanciful dreams of the valley they would soon inhabit, and so her interactions were often cut short so she could return to their verdant future home and continue securing their claim.

The Alpha female did just that, with a brief bob of her larger head, leaving Itsuki to trace their path back up the mountainside. He himself was trapped in thought, though a smile lifted the corners of his lips and gave him a welcoming aura.

Hello~

There were a few new recruits to replace the traitors who had run off. A male and female, Istuki and Vectra. He hadn't met them yet, but he intended to. It was his unofficial duty as Gamma to know his pack.

He was close to Ghost Rock Network, a rabbit in his jaws when he heard his alpha speaking with someone from down below. His eyes widened in amazement. Jinx sounded actually interested in someone else's conversation for once. Not that she didn't listen to others, but he had never seen her invested in with someone besides her mate.

Curious, he approached the pair, only to have Jinx walk away, most likely towards Ourobous. The Gamma snorted and dropped the rabbit in front of the new male. "Greetings."

The specifics of Jinx's frequent departures escaped Itsuki, but often the male reminded himself that he was new here and had no right to information. Someday, perhaps he would prove himself worthy of something in the white beast's eyes and would be told of her secrets, or at least informed of her whereabouts whenever she took off, but for now the Keizo was content to remain a mere subordinate. It was none of his business what others did in their free time.

He was in a dream-like state when Kaname found him. The sun beaming down on his back felt lovely, and the pale tawny wolf had found himself a nice ledge to settle on, so that he could lay in it a while. He didn't mean to rest long, but Itsuki valued the time he did take for rest, for it allowed him to attune himself with the world around him and appreciate it for what it was: pure nature and essence, all filled with kami.

So absorbed was he in his surroundings that Itsuki started when the rabbit hit the ground, and immediately he looked up at Kaname questioningly. His gaze dropped to the other wolf's lips, skirting the direct locking of eyes out of respect for a clear superior, though he didn't make any move to rise. Instead, he shot a glance down at the hare and then back up to the male, and responded to the gruff greeting with an assumption: “you are the hunter.” It wasn't that anyone had told Itsuki that Kaname was the hunter. It was merely a more formal way of putting it, at least in the Keizo's mind. “I am Itsuki Keizo. I am the lorekeeper.”

The new arrival was a mix of tawny, beige and gray. His eyes were a forest green, and when Kaname approached, the Iota's eyes fixed on his lips instead of his eyes. A proper gesture of respect, something he didn't get much from some of his subordinates *coughTyrandecough*.

The Gamma stared quizzically at Itsuki when he called him the hunter. "I am not the only hunter in this pack." There were plenty of others who accompanied him on hunting expeditions. "My name is Kaname Sicarius" Sicarius literally meant "murderer" in a dead language, it seemed perfect for his family to have as a name.

I just realized Kaname did not have a last name (I forgot apparently). So now his first name is Japanese and his surname is Latin. How multicultural.

The questioning stare burned into his scalp, and though it was uncomfortable for a moment, the Keizo found himself easily forgiving the other man. Not many understood the way in which he paid respects, not only to nature but to wolves in general. Kaname revealed this by mentioning he wasn't the only hunter, a fact well-known to Itsuki. He tilted his head toward the ground as if to silently apologize for the mistake, though none had been made.

“Kaname,” he repeated. The name sounded smooth and silky on his tongue, and hearkened back to a time in his memories when things had been simpler. “It is my mother's tongue,” he revealed, glancing briefly up at the other wolf's eyes before casting his gaze elsewhere once more. “You are Shinto?” Perhaps he was not... Not all wolves of Asayo's mother tongue were Shintoist. She herself had not been. It was something that Kaito and Itsuki had intuitively come into.

She had taught them all about honour and dignity, had made them eloquent and gentle, but the respect and reverence for nature was all their own.

Shinto. The name was familiar but it took him a while to remember it. His mother had mentioned it a few times, saying that her birth pack had been that way, but she had been disinterested in the... religion? Culture? She never explained it to them. Those who came into the pack were not questioned on their pasts, so there was no way he would know unless he asked her personally. And it was too late for that.

"No, but my mother might have been Shinto. Her name was Michiko. She named my littermates and I." If Shinto was having a personality such as Itsuki's, being respectful and kind to others, then his mother might not have been Shinto, or adhered to the practices. His mother was devious and manipulative, a master poisoner, boisterous and crude when she was not on missions. Not a reverent and polite person like Itsuki at all.

No, said Kaname, and Itsuki felt sad for that fact. He found that seeking purity in his life, and cleansing himself of bad influences and “sin” made him feel free. Not only in the sense that he was free from guilt and self-loathing, but free from the judgement of the kami, free from the weight of being someone he wasn't, and free to pursue his pleasures, of which there were few. He often wished he could share his ways with others, but they didn't often understand why he felt the incessant need to ritualistically lean himself after every meal.

“It is rare to meet another so in tune with the world,” he observed, leaving the statement to hang in the air as the equivalent of a rhetorical question. He stretched his forelegs out in front of him, splicing open his jaws into a wide yawn and pulling his hind toward the sky, before finally standing. He was smaller than the assassin, but that wasn't something the Keizo usually paid much attention to.

“Have you been with this pack long, Kaname Sicarius?” asked Itsuki, only now realizing that his last name did not match his first in origin. He supposed that meant the surname must have come from the father. Itsuki's had come from his father, despite his never having met Takashi in a time he would remember it.

Kaname left Itsuki's statement go into the air without a response. He did not know exactly what Shinto was, but he did overhear words from Jinx and Itsuki as they travelled together: loa and kami. Two similar things from two different beliefs. So it must be a religion, he concluded. Overtime he had learned that Jinx and Lecter worshipped some god named Sos, and these "loa"? were part of their religion.

"Almost two months now. A lot has happened since then." he said, thinking of the wolves who came and left, the new packs that were created, the potential pups that were to be born from that whore Erika's womb. So much had happened.

So a lot had happened. He couldn't say he didn't understand what that was like. Although his memories of it were already hazy, Itsuki had experienced a lot of upheaval in his youth, from the disappearance of his father to the deadly Fimbulvetr winter. He could relate, albeit on a different level.

“Change... for the better?” he ventured, clearly hungry for more information but unwilling to press too hard. No doubt the pack was close to Kaname's heart in one way or another, and Itsuki dared not offend him by seeming too curious about its history. He didn't wish to strike a tender chord. All the Keizo knew so far was that the pack would be leaving due to disputes with neighbours. It wasn't much to go on, and hardly explained how they had got there in the first place, or what had shaped their unforgiving personalities.

It was good to him that Itsuki ventured a positive thought. There were too many pessimistics in this world. Maybe it was his religion that made him that way. But alas, the only good thing that has happened so far was the discovery of the new territory.

"Barely any good change." he said, with a slight sullenness to his voice. "Two of our pack members betrayed us and left, starting a new rival pack. A few of our other members left soon after, though whether they followed I'm not sure."