Whitebark Stream I cut my bangs with some rusty kitchen scissors

@Issorartuyok since he's back in the area. <3 

 

Lane had told Mahler that the Glacier would patrol the Whitebark Stream, and Lane meant to keep her promise. As shitty a mom and friend as she was these days, at least she could still say she'd always kept her promises. 

The thing was, Lane was supposed to delegate the patrols, given that she was supposed to be taking care of her pups and all. But did she really have to be a mom every. waking. (and sleeping) moment? It wasn't like she'd asked for this. 

Meerkat had appeared sometime in the last couple of weeks, bright-eyed and eager to babysit, and Lane had taken full advantage. With Meerkat available to distract the kids, Lane had been able to slip away for a long walk-- no wait, patrol-- along the stream. Her eyes scanned the streambed, and she wondered if she might find some fresh coltsfoot to offer Eldritch for her injured paws.

Thank you so much! *v*

The river water was a gentle guide, carrying the northerner from one terrain to another while providing a peaceful reprieve for his traveled paws. The large shape of him could be made out on the edges of the river, brown eyes trained on the distant mountains and the snow at their peaks.

Ahead, there was another wolf who smelled faintly of the wolf that Issorartuyok had met – Meerkat. It was likely that they shared the same pack. The young scout had been friendly to him. Issorartuyok did not anticipate that another would be crueler than she.

Greetings, a deep bark announced his presence. Issorartuyok waded out into the water to cool his dark limbs.

Eventually, Lane's path crossed with that of another, who was following the flow of the stream in the opposite direction. 

The breeze was blowing the wrong way for Lane to get a decent scent off of the stranger, and the water didn't help things. It seemed to draw in all of the surrounding smells and muddy them, so Lane couldn't make heads or tails of anything separately. 

The stranger reached out first with a rather friendly bark, which Lane took as a good sign. "Hey, got a sec?" she called. He looked like he could be well-traveled, maybe he would be able to answer some questions for her about the state of the surrounding territories.

The earthy stranger called back to the northerner, asking him a question that he did not immediately register. Issorartuyok frowned in a thoughtful manner, thinking carefully about whether he had come across a sec and whether it had remained with him.

Do you need me to give you something? Issorartuyok finally asked of her, pushing through the river water until it washed up to his chest and cooled the warmth of his underbelly. The heat was still too much for the northerner’s comfort. He missed the cold of snow. He missed the caribou on the tundra.

He paused a long time before answering-- long enough that Lane got the idea that she might have bothered him. That frown he wore lent support to that theory. Lane was about to toss out an apology and beat it, but then he finally returned his answer.  

"What?" Lane spat, ears flying to attention. An amused smile and scoff followed quickly. His question had immediately sent her mind to a dirty place. Did she need him to give her something? Oh God, did she ever. 

The intensity of the northerner's stare hadn't wavered though, and Lane was left with the impression that he was questioning her sincerely, without any of the innuendo she had hoped for deduced from his word choice. 

"No, just your time," she assured him, smile twisting downward into a smirk.

The woman was sharp with her response. She snapped and then smiled, scoffing at what he had said. Issorartuyok tilted his head to the side with a curious glint in the deep brown of his gaze. He did not understand what he had done. At least, he did not understand until she stated she only wished to take his time.

Ah, the northerner remarked, flustered at his foolishness. The large frame tensed before he shrugged his shoulders and nodded to the woman. If she needed his time, his assistance, he knew that he should lend it to her.

What are you called? the large wolf inquired curiously. The female smelled of the same pack as Meerkat. Issorartuyok wondered if they knew each other.

He didn't ask what she wanted; he asked for her name. That seemed promising, from the perspective of starting a conversation. Lane was a wolf rather lacking in perception, and she did not register his bewilderment.

"Lane," she told told him. "..from Duskfire Glacier. For now, at least." Lane glanced over her shoulder toward the looming glacier. For some reason, it felt easier to divulge her dissatisfaction with Duskfire Glacier to strangers, rather than to her friends themselves, who might actually hold the power to change her mind.

Lane, he repeated to himself inwardly. The name was not one he would have anticipated from her. Then again, there had been few wolves of the north that he had met in his travels. The names of his village were not shared globally and Issorartuyok knew that he could not be quite so close-minded.

I have met one other from the glacier. A scout named Meerkat, the northerner informed her with a proud stance. Issorartuyok was pleased to have found himself in the company of wolves from the same village. I am called Issorartuyok. The northern wolf bowed his head.

"Oh, Meerkat! Yeah! She's good people," Lane chirped, her eyes lighting with recognition. She waded into the shallows of the stream, drawing nearer to her company. "We've been packmates twice now, each time in different packs," she noted. Both she and Meerkat had marveled at the coincidence. 

The man gave his name, and Lane emitted a disbelieving huff. "You northerners and your names! I'll never get them all straight. Do you know Kukutux? Or Kigipigik?" Whoever decided that three, four, and five syllables of nonsense was suitable for a name ought to have been culled. It had not yet occurred to Lane that these names could have meaning in another language-- she was convinced that they existed only to torture her.

The northerner drew his dark ears into a point atop his broad skull. This wolf Lane and Meerkat had been pack mates more than once, for different groups. That was a curious thing, for Issorartuyok had only ever known the faith of his home village, the dedication to that claim and its protection. Yes, the frozen northern tundra was a vast stretch of frigid winter landscape, but it had been Issorartuyok’s home for years.

Ah, I have not met Kukutux or Kigipigak. Are they a pair?

Then, thinking of what she had said about their names, Issorartuyok regarded her with a thoughtful expression, a twitch of his dark whiskers.

You may call me Tatkret if it pleases you, he offered with a  small bow of his head. Issorartuyok was a leader dog first, but his family was of the moon. If Lane found more ease in using his family name, he would not oppose it.

Were Kukutux and Kigipigik a pair? Lane laughed at the idea. "No, they're just northerners, like you. Kigipigik is from a pack on the plateau on the other side of those mountains--" Lane gestured toward the western end of the Sunspires. "--And Kukutux leads a pack further south, in the valley." Lane had no way of knowing yet just how outdated her information was, but she would find out in the coming weeks when she went to visit Blacktail Deer Plateau. 

"Okay Tatkret," Lane agreed. It was kind of him to offer an alternative, and although it was half the length of the first name given, Lane would probably still struggle with it. She was the worst with names. 

"So.. if you've met Meerkat, then that means you've been hanging around for a little while. Do you have business in the area?" It was a bit of a nosy question, but Tatkret seemed like he was wide-open for a conversation.

Issorartuyok did not know why the woman laughed, but he offered her a stiff smile in return for it. When she corrected him and said that the two wolves she had described were nothing more than kindred spirits, the northerner nodded his head in understanding. The broad male did make a mental note to journey to their claims, seek out those who had also weathered the test of tundric air.

Furthermore, Lane inquired whether Issorartuyok had business in the area. The northerner hummed thoughtfully at the question. It left many things to be said, he felt.

I have traveled with the spirits of the wind to these unfamiliar lands. My intent is to make a claim for myself, to build a family here in these wild territories. When he had answered, his dark brown eyes fixed on her tan muzzle for a moment. Did Lane have similar business there?

"Oh!" Lane seemed to have a habit of running into pack leaders. Or would-be leaders, in the case of Kigipigik and now Tatkret.

"Well.. I'm sure Meerkat already offered, but.. if you don't want to start completely from scratch, you could join Duskfire Glacier. Our alpha, Wintersbane, doesn't have a beta anymore." Lane paused, briefly reminded of the Iana-shaped hole in their ranks. "He might consider you for leadership, if you were honest with him about what you want. You guys seem a lot alike." Lane didn't really have anything concrete on which to base her assessment-- it was just a first impression.

"Or.. if it was the family thing you wanted to start with, Kukutux is a matchmaker. She could set you up with a nice lady." Boy, Lane was full of helpful suggestions today, huh?

Issorartuyok hummed thoughtfully again. The northerner was not certain if the helpful girl had brought up the prospect of joining into the ranks of her own glacial pack. The snow-dusted wolf had assumed that this was because she did not believe there to be space for someone of his stature, his culture. It had not bothered him to think Meerkat had avoided offering him a place within the village she had pledged herself to.

If I am to live in these lands, I should like to meet your village leader – Winterbane, the northerner admitted with a thoughtful waver of his tail. It would do well for him to know the other leaders in the area, those who had already made their villages and had started their families.

Will your glacier pack allow for a visitor, if I should decide I would not like to stay? Issorartuyok inquired of her. He didn’t wish to insult them or to take advantage of what could have been a kind offer. The northerner felt his mind buzz with the prospects that had been described to him – matchmakers, northerners, the bane of winter itself. Issorartuyok was more than curious to learn more.

Tatkret seemed to like Lane's former suggestion, and he was conspicuously silent regarding the second, which only stoked Lane's insatiable curiosity further. Instead of following that train of thought further however, she addressed the northerner's question.

"I'm quite sure you would be allowed to stay as a guest, as long as you had something to contribute. That was what they did it for me." Lane answered with a shrug. "And I decided to stick around." For some reason she could not quite put her paw on, she really wanted Tatkret to visit the Glacier. She just had the feeling he would shake things up, and she sorely wanted to see things shaken. She wasn't a bad person (really!), but seeing Wintersbane and Tzila and Rye and Imaq all coupled up and so damn happy all the time was driving her a little crazy. Admittedly, she was a little bitter that all of the Duskfire Glacier OGs had paired off, leaving her out in the cold as the fifth-wheel.

The girl called Lane was rather informative, sharing that if Issorartuyok could prove that he was worth keeping around, she did not see why they wouldn’t have allowed him to visit for a short time. She even stated that she had done the very same before deciding to pledge herself to their village’s ranks. This seemed suitable enough for the northerner.

You are most helpful, Lane of the glacier.

Issorartuyok regarded their landscape for a moment. The earth brown of his eyes trailed the mountains in the distance with curiosity. He was still young, he knew, but the spirits had ushered him to the new wilderness with a purpose.

I will visit and call for you, perhaps?

Helpful was not something she was used to being, outside the context of her occupation as a medic. Lane swung her tail, and it skimmed over the surface of the water. 

"Sure," Lane returned. She was planning a trip down to Redhawk Caldera soon, but if she wasn't at the Glacier to receive Tatkret when he arrived, she was optimistic that he would still be there when she got back. He seemed like the sort that would be right at home on the Glacier. 

"I'm glad you had a sec," she spoke after a pause, a facetious smile tugging at her expression.

Issorartuyok did not miss the teasing smile that had played on the edges of the glacial wolf’s lips. The northerner regarded her with a steady gaze, rearing his head back to snort softly.

This one is glad, as well.

The northerner did not lie when he promised to call for her. The glacier had been on Issorartuyok’s mind since he had first crossed his path with Meerkat. The large wolf realized that he would like to see her again, if given the chance. So, with a bow of his broad skull to the wolf named Lane, the northerner set a course for his next landmark.

I'd like for these two to have a chance to talk again. I'm only waiting to see how things play out with Wintersbane. ^^