Bitterroot Valley Arjunaruk

The smell of blood could be found within the different camps as women worked at their hides, or men brought in fresh meat. It was not so common outside those boundaries, which is why Kigipigak found its presence so striking now.

He was returning from his visit to the grotto. There were distant shapes on the horizon that were easily recognized by their crowned heads, but these caribou did not draw the hunter's eye. There were signs of a struggle in the snow that led towards one of Moonglow's camps.

On alert, Kigipigak moved swiftly to investigate, finding among those scents of blood and wolf, something not quite right (dog), and the strongest scent of all: @Nyra.

Towhee eyed the glacier from a distance and wondered if it was the glacier. Was that where Meerkat lived? Should she knock on the door while she was in the neighborhood, even though they'd just seen one another? Something made her skirt the area and march east, still reveling a bit in her newly solitary lifestyle.

She came to a winding river and roamed until she found some shallows. Towhee crossed, then found herself roaming a cold, dry valley with sparse scrub. There were a lot of signs of movement here, as well as plenty of interesting odors. She slowed her step but still moved forward, curious what she might find as the scents of caribou herds mingled with the telltale smell of her own kind.

While the scarred warrior was nowhere to be found, Kigipigak did not stop following her trail. It led towards one of the camps where Nyra was known for getting treated for her wounds; if she had fresh ones, that was where she would most likely go. Kigipigak only worried after her — if there was danger here, he needed to know. If she was struggling to hunt for herself, he needed to know that to.

He was on-edge as he roamed the valley. The sight of something large and dark against the snow made him lurch to a stop, and then veer onwards, until he was close enough to see the red lining her throat.

Despite being alone, he thought she looked well cared for. Strong, healthy. Not the look of a packless wolf by any measure. Kigipigak called out with a low sound as he resumed his patrol towards the camp, hoping to intercept her.

Her sharp eyes spotted a figure in the distance and Towhee halted, watchful. She tipped her nose into the air, trying to pick up his scent among the blend. When he ranged closer, she couldn't help but think of Kaertok. There was a resemblance, though this male was larger and stockier than Meerkat's father, with brighter eyes.

"Hey," she said when he came within earshot, "what's going on here?" It wasn't just the variety of smells, there was a sense of commotion in the air. Towhee couldn't quite make sense of it. She wondered if the stranger would oblige her request for an explanation.

As he came upon her, Kigipigak's features held their usual intensity and focus. His ears were forward while his eyes were alert, until the woman spoke her question. His tail frisked the air once as the residual nervous energy fled his system.

It seemed an easily answered question with the use of eyes, ears, and nose. A hunt. Many hunts. He answered anyway.

I am Kigipigak, hunter for Moonglow. My people have made camp near the glacier to keep watch for the herds and hunt the caribou. He sniffed the air as finished speaking, finding no trace of Lane's scent on this wolf, or much of anything that would bring to mind the glacier's forests.

Who are you? She was not from either village, which made her a curious addition.

Towhee could only blink, not sure what he meant by "many hunts." But he wasn't finished. Her eyes fixed on his mouth as he introduced himself and mentioned Moonglow by name. She blinked again. Hadn't Meerkat said they resided somewhere not far from the fallen Moonspear? Now, Towhee was no ranger and she didn't really know where she was, precisely, but she was pretty sure they were nowhere near Hydra's former kingdom...

But packs relocated sometimes and she supposed the explanation was contained in this Kigipigak's response, though his mention of the glacier begged a whole other question. "Wait, the glacier as in Duskfire Glacier?" She glanced at it in the distance, though only very briefly, orange gaze quickly returning to him. "How does that work?" she wondered with genuine intrigue.

He had been forthcoming, so she decided to follow his example. "I'm Towhee. My daughter is a member of Duskfire Glacier," she shared.

Kigipigak had grown accustomed to the averted eyes of women, so the way this one stared at him made him feel a touch unsettled. He did not let that affect his usual bearing except his tail had stopped its pendulum motion, focused on the woman as she spoke.

Her voice was almost thick, as if accented. Her questions flowed one after another — until she spoke of a daughter. To this Kigipigak's brows raised involuntarily.

The village of Duskfire is a friend to Moonglow. We followed the caribou. Kigipigak explained curtly, as if this would explain everything for the wayward shadow. It seemed easy enough to understand for Kigipigak, but it was a lifestyle he had been raised with, and he was ignorant to the various alternative ways people lived.

Our camps are made outside of their village but we are welcome to visit it, and I often bring my kills to them to share. It is what friends do. He smirked at this, thinking himself somehow amusing for stating something obvious. What is your daughters name? Perhaps I know of her. He thought immediately of Lane, but did not know why.

He explained as if packs shared resources every day, which threw her a little, especially when he smirked at her. Was this the new normal? She thought of Akashingo's big soirée. It seemed there was a big shift in the wilds' culture these days. Was it really that far-fetched, though? Even highly territorial wolves like herself or Hydra had once formed sister packs. These socialite packs were a bit like that, just kicked up a few notches. Maybe Towhee just needed to get with the times.

"Her name is Meerkat. She's with Issorartuyok. I believe he's the Alpha," Towhee replied to Kigipigak.

She didn't say anything else for a moment, still pondering the information he'd shared with her. It was kind of nuts to think about how much the wilderness had changed, just like Towhee herself had become almost unrecognizable to herself lately. Just a few years ago, the thought of being all on her own after never knowing a life outside of the Redhawks would've probably killed her. And here she was, meandering the map and almost unbothered by it.

"Wild," she surmised aloud, likely to her acquaintance's puzzlement. Catching herself, she said to him, "My pack recently disbanded and I'm on my own for the first time in my whole life. And now you're telling me y'all are forming super packs up here. It's just a lot of stuff to wrap my head around. Anyway, is Kukutux still in charge of Moonglow?"

Kigipigak watched her carefully. She had the bearing of an issumatar somehow, which made him both wary and impressed, both things he kept a tight reign upon because she had given no cause for such thoughts in him. As she spoke of her daughter he nodded slightly, taking in the information.

He hadn't met anyone named Meerkat, but he knew the other name and any residual tension within him began to ease. This was a friend of the glacier — and by proxy an ally to Moonglow too — and so there was no reason to worry. Issorartuyok seemed a capable man, so it stood to reason that he would choose a capable wife, which Kigipigak presumed this Meerkat was.

Then there was quiet, which Kigipigak never liked. He opened his mouth to say something when Towhee spoke first — explaining her own situation. His brows knit at the term super-pack because he did not understand it.

Kukutux and her husband Aiolos, yes. He answered.

Issorartuyok had been departing the glacier when Moonglow arrived, but he has returned now. He thought of the deaths of both Wintersbane and Tzila, the previous leaders to the village, but did not mention them as it was not his place.

Moonglow is only staying here for the winter. You are welcome to tour our camps, if you would like. I can show you where Kukutux has her ulaq?

It seemed like the right choice, given that this wolf no longer had a village of her own, and Kukutux was a wise woman who could be of some help to troubled souls. This, Kigipigak knew well.

It took her a second to realize Kigipigak must be referring to Issorartuyok's visit to the caldera alongside Meerkat. Huh, she thought, it's a small world, after all...

He welcomed her to tour Moonglow's temporary outpost and meet Kukutux. Towhee went very still, thinking about what Wraen had told her about the woman. She was a little crazy, supposedly. But Meerkat had always spoken of her fondly, by contrast. Hmmm...

"What the hell," she said more to herself than to him, "sure, why not?" Wraen was dead and, it seemed, so were some of "the old ways." And Towhee herself was in the process of turning over a new leaf of epic proportions.

"Thanks, Kigipigak," she thought to pin on more directly, taking a step toward him and wondering, "Mind telling me what the heck you mean when you say 'ulaq'?"

The woman was amenable to the idea, and then asked a question that made Kigipigak bark with a laugh; it was short and deep-chested, not that she would know of it, except the look of mirth upon his face. He had judged her to be something she was not — and she was not of the north, made clear by the question. Still, she was impressive.

An ulaq is a sleeping place. Women build them for themselves, and when they marry their men join them. They are used for work as well, as Kukutux is doing. Was she a wolf that slept in the open the way a hunter might? Kigipigak wondered, but he kept this to himself. She certainly had the build of a warrior, and the way she watched everything he said or did was hawk-like.

Kukutux uses one for the healing arts, and one for other work. Come, I will show you our nearest camp in the valley. The camp of the women was one he knew well, now. Having been treated there after his run-in with his rival. He motioned for her to follow him and was already striding north, to Kildeer Rest, where one of the camps had taken root. If she was not there then it only meant a longer visit with this intriguing woman.