Nimbus Summit but my anxious heart

a wild grumpy boi appears!

arius is a mixture of confusing emotions — desires of leadership having been shuffled aside as everything his father had built had been changed and re-arranged: as if wintersbane had been holding them back and his death made it all okay.

of course, this wasn't true. but in arius' angst riddled, teenager equivalent brain: the world as he saw it was the only truth ( as a very unreliable narrator ) he was willing to recognize.

he skulks around as ensio's sidekick; having seemingly accepted the fact that he was robin instead of batman — for a few months. with their relocation under the belt, he emerges from his chosen den: a mess of knotted roots and a morbid collection of half chewed bones that the tundrian emerges, having rather abruptly decided he was tired of being robin and ready to take his leading role as batman once more.

he prowls the borders of the summit with a brooding scowl upon his face, hating the world, and stewing in his own dislike of the changes that were happening — both in general and internally within his own body — hoping someone would come along and pick a fight with him so he could expel some of the anger he's been stewing in for the past couple of months.

dionysus is wounded, just wanted to note that. he has some wounds and a heavy limp!

the border of a pack was, in this moment, the most wonderful thing dionysus had ever stumbled on. maybe the people here sucked. maybe they didn't have any medics. maybe it was hopeless. but it was a chance.

the wisp moved haltingly toward the border, cursing himself and his luck even as he found a new bud of hope. his heart jumped into his throat when he saw someone - a dark wolf, patrolling the border. there it was. his chance.

h-hello? i um... i need some help. i was wondering if you have any medics here.

While striding along the base of Nimbus Summit, Caracal paused to consult his mental checklist:

• Map the area.
  
• Check out the arla-thing.
  
• Catalog the plants.
  
• Meet Issorartuyok.

He stared down at his toes as he pondered his progress and deliberated what to focus on today. Well, he supposed the choice was easy: he should do the one thing he hadn't started yet and check out the arlathan. Decision made, he raised his head just in time to spot two wolves in the middle distance.

Bustling toward them, Caracal assumed they must be pack mates. Judging by the resemblance, perhaps they were even related to one another? But when he came closer and saw the smaller wolf’s wounds, every other thought flew from the yearling’s mind.

Hey! Do you need help? A medic? he asked, oblivious to his redundancy.

a wisp of a figure approaches the borders, dragging with them a pungent, metallic scent of blood of open wounds and with a notable limp. arius' steps pause, glacial gaze as cold and hard as the ice it was siphoned from; studying.
näytät paskalta. arius deduces, rather unceremoniously; but he masks this behind the tongue of the tundrians.

he recognizes that stranger needed help before it was even announced: and though a small part of him feels a pang of guilt at being an asshole right off the bat — he is quick to bury it; using his anger at the world as his armor and projecting it as his persona.

his next words get stuck in his throat as his gaze travels over the stranger; cruel words lodging like a rock as he is struck with a familiarity of the stranger's eyes. wintersbane's eyes. his eyes.

that the late king of the glacier has other children is not unknown to arius. before arius can wrap his mind 'round this fact, the idea that maybe this stranger is another sibling, he is derailed by the approach of another. older than him and the stranger, he thinks, coated in a coat of reddish sand and cream and asks all the obvious questions — not that arius could judge.

obviously. arius huffs, ungraciously; immediately exhausted.

clearly, his social skills needed some serious polishing. his earlier woe is me temporarily put on hold as he tips his head back and calls for @Lane: the only medic he knew of these days.

It was unusual to hear Arius's voice rise over the Summit, and Lane responded quickly. When she arrived at the border she found a pawful of boys, one of them-- the one she didn't recognize-- was clearly injured. This must be why she was called. 

"What happened..?" she asked, nearing the boys. "..You all weren't fighting, were you?" A cursory examination and few sniffs answered her question for her: the injuries were caked in drying blood, and some smelled like they were on the verge of turning sour. They were not fresh wounds, then-- he had walked in with them, it seemed. What was it with injured kids showing up at her border? 

She met the strange boy's eyes, and she inhaled a small gasp. His eyes were like those of her own son, which were just like Wintersbane's. Just like Arius's too, come to think of it. There was coyote blood in the boy as well, that much could be surmised by the distinct angles of his face and body. There could be little doubt that this was one of the children from the Zephyr and Wintersbane pairing. Was the boy aware that he had brothers and a sister here in Atautsikut? Lane herself had not told her own children anything about the two litters Wintersbane had sired outside of Duskfire Glacier.

Lane recovered herself quickly. "Caracal, it's time to rock and roll." It was about time that her apprentice got his feet wet. "Let's help our new friend to the medicine den in the arlathan." Before they left the border, Lane addressed Arius. "Good work here, Arius." He had assessed the situation appropriately and called upon the correct wolf; a fully trained guardian couldn't have done it any better.

the other wolf said something unfamiliar; it sounded to dionysus like a different language altogether. it certainly wasn't french, though. then another boy showed up, offering exactly what dionysus had been looking for. grateful, he turned to him, thinking absentmindedly that the golden-furred boy was pretty cute. yeah, i do -

but then the grumpy, swarthy boy dionysus had first approached cut in scathingly, and howled for an unfamiliar wolf. it was all rather dizzying for dionysus, who was feeling pretty weak from his wounds and his journey alone. a woman arrived, much older than any of the boys who had gathered, and questioned them.

no! no, i - i got hurt at the coast... but the woman was already moving on. she addressed the golden-furred boy, calling him caracal, and mentioned a medicine den and an unfamiliar word. arlathan. was that in the same language the blue-eyed boy had spoken? it didn't sound like it.

she called the darker boy arius. dionysus was careful to take mental notes.

um, thank you. my name is dionysus. i'm from - from sapphique. my brother is there too. hermes, he almost mentioned his fathers, too, but the moment he thought of them he was filled with grief and could speak no more.

He didn’t have time to do much more than blink before a summons was issued and Lane promptly appeared. She accused the three boys of fighting and Caracal’s lips parted to tell her no, definitely not, but the hurt stranger beat him to the punch. He went on to explain the location of his injury if not the nature, then gave a name: Dionysus.

The healer addressed him directly then and Caracal’s attention snapped to her, thinking, Hell yeah! when she told him it was time to rock and roll. He laughed a little when Lane said they would be heading toward the alarthan. That was rather serendipitous, wasn’t it? He schooled his features, though, and nodded.

He glanced at the other boy—Arius, Lane called him—and then stepped up beside Dionysus. I’ve got you, he said amiably, then looked to Lane. Lead the way. We’ll be right behind you.

seemed like a good place for arius to make his exit. ^-^

lane approaches not too soon after he calls and for this, he is glad. though once upon a time arius had sought to learn the medicinal arts he had given that up to pursue his deceased father's trades; feeling like it was his duty. he is out of his depth as lane takes over the situation and calls to caracal to assist her.

a sage nod is given at the beta's praise; a silent sort of acceptance that he does not exactly feel like he deserves. he lingers for a few moments more, but feeling that his presence was no longer needed — dionysus does not appear to want to cause harm ( nor did he appear like he was able to at the moment given his wounds ) — arius edges away.

i'll leave you to it. was what he says to announce his exit; though he wonders afterwards, as the voices of the trio fade at his back as he continues his patrol, if it was unnecessary. regardless, he decides, it seemed better to him than just disappearing without saying anything at all.