Noctisardor Bypass i called your name

Trade thread #1 for mercenary — controlling and refreshing the borders! All welcome!

He had been asked to be a night watchmen when @Mahler had taken him in, so here he promptly was that evening as the sun had started to set. Crest along their borders. Most of the land was well protected by forms of mother nature herself. The walls of stony mountains that surrounded plenty of them.

There was that pesky entrance spot. The western side opened up some for easier access. Which meant he deemed this his first place to watch.

Also the first place to heavily add his scent to those who had already marked before him.

the sun was descending.
having made his neonatal rounds through the forest-limned corridors of rivenwood, mahler's jaws widened in a yawn. with argent here, and now ephemeris, the potential for more hours of sleep grew greater, a relief to the gargoyle.
before he retired, however, mahler found the thread of the last's scent and took it up, meandering until he trudged to a stop alongside the scarred young man with a low clearing of his throat. nothing seemed well enough to say, and so he said not a word, only sharing a moment of companionable silence.

Ephemeris enjoyed the silent companionship that it seemed he often shared with only men. Which meant he wasn’t about to break the silence that Mahler had joined him in. Instead he offered a hearty bump of their shoulders with a lopsided grin on his face.

A slight swing of his head to invite the man along his path, should he so wish.

mahler followed along, pleased enough. they were silent. he thought to ask ephemeris the normal questions of a stranger's past: where were you born? where did you live? but found that he did not have the inclination nor the energy for such inquiries.
in the coming again, a loon crying in that haunted woman's voice.
he leant into the wind and inhaled deeply, eyes shutting with a small delight, unchained if only for a second.

The cry called out as he brushed himself against a tree trunk. A few tufts of his pale rump sticking to the bark, the would not be missed as his coat adjusted to spring weather. Not to mention it would add something more physical to his work along Rivenwood's borders.

A jarring sound, He snorted in response to the loon cry. Would make one think there's trouble. Some jest in his voice as his eyes scanned the horizon dutifully.

"it alvays seems to have that intention," mahler commented back, emulating ephemeris with a push of his own shoulders against another tree. rivenwood, strong, growing, the newborns tucked safely within behind stone walls and steel teeth.
the gargoyle shook out his heavy ruff, following whatever path the new pinne set for them. 
"perhaps in time, you vill see our greatest scourge. a pair of chipmunks, burrowing beneath dens and into trees. not a vone of us have caught them." was he yarnweaving? it would not show in the stoic set of his profile.

He watched as Mahler marked as well, pleased to have someone do as he did. Even if this might have been routine for all, Ephemeris had set out to do this tonight on his own accord. Anyone who followed suit was seen as his shadow.

Would you have me get them? Some eager boyish charm of a challenge in his words. Excited at the prospect for proving himself so well that he might be the first on such a foolish conquest.

Eagerly he marked another tree, maintaining what he had come out here to do.

"you may attempt it," he said gravely, though a chuckle lifted it from edict into a joke. "i rather enjoy how they tear about. better chipmunks than a lynx." he had seen none of those for some time, but suspected as the little ones began to toddle, they might draw the wandering yellow eye of cats who knew only hunger.
he scraped his paws against the earth. "our closest neighbor is duskfire," he said quietly, for a watchmen should be apprised of such things. "sometimes they come close, to visit."

He had a small humph of a sound leave him, but he nodded along. You are right. He would not speak out against the man's stated point.

Will you still allow them so close with children? If he had ill feelings towards such, he did not declare it. Only spoke like a man would about business. That's what this was, after all.

"just their healers." a pause. "i vonce served alongside vintersbane, their leader. i respect his land, and he vill do the same for us." a hint of amusement sneaking into his gaze.
"i have offered myself as a midvife to them, however. it is a point of order above vhat they might have." while he prized the duskfire wolves, mahler treasured his own first, and was willing to keep note of any weaknesses. done were his days of war and seizing. but he would descend from leadership only upon his own terms.

Just the healers.

Something he could understand — respect — with a soft dip of his head. Well, if any come crying of pregnancy or labor, it is all yours. He answered with humor in his words. Sought to bump into Mahler's side with some youthful comradery for the male.

Then proceeded to mark (hardly, the tank ran roughly empty) another tree along their path. For good measure.

fade & have another? <3

he joined, a low grunt emitted in pleasure from him. unless ephemeris broke the silence, the man was happy to continue on, until at last he would leave the night watchman, and seek out a bed elsewhere for the next hours.