Sunset Valley Contraband Sky Rocket

@Xiuhcoatl <3

With night falling, the dark sister was growing more and more invisible by the minute. Taking advantage of this, she had slipped away from her den shared with Citali and made her way away from the ridge. Tonight, she would not go far, instead opting to learn the lay of the lands at both the kiss of twilight and the cover of the night. With dusk passing quickly, soon the moon was yet the only thing that seperated her from the gloom. The moon and those peculiar white toes of hers.

Said toes flashed as she kept an easy trot, having no set destination and instead wandering, as she was known to do. The wanderlust in her heart had grown with her, from childhood to now. Nochtli didnt think it would ever truly fade away, nor did she want it to. She met a great many wolves, and non-wolves, and experienced much more than most others could boast. She'd seen seas and shores and mountains, deserts of both sand and ice, and forests of all different kinds. And yet that didnt change the longing she still held for the Rise. She missed the familiarity in a way she never thought she would.

Obviously, she was thinking way too hard about this because she could practically smell the place and the wolves that lived there. Or maybe one wolf. One? Her mind sharpened, gaze focusing as she lifted her nose to the breeze and sniffed. Yes... There...

The dark girl took off, long legs stretching to close the distance as fast as possible. The breeze was light so she couldn't be far, couldn't be imagining it, couldn't be--

"Xiuh!" Her light form was easy to detect in this night and she was sure it was her. Positive. "Xiuhcoatl!"

The trip to this place had taken ages. Those of her guard had been left behind in her haste and irritation, but they knew to catch up quickly - or to turn back and head home, if they failed her. Xiuhcoatl was lenient with the women, to a degree, but the men she was forced to drag along with them would get the brunt of her aggression. All of that would be dealt with later, though. The woman paced through the wilderness with less and less care, almost as if tempting fate to spew an enemy her way - she was bored, and eager to get her blood pumping. But night fell, and the strange lands swiftly cooled. The summer weather here was pleasant, but still nothing compared to the Rise - and Xiuhcoatl found herself missing it.

When a voice carried through the still evening air, the warrior woman's attention drifted back to the present. To the potential threat - and potential spar - which approached her now. She could not see anything in the darkness at first. It wasn't until the stranger was nearly upon her that Xiuhcoatl recognized the scent of the other woman - and then searched with a fleeting glance for those pale toes. "Nochtli! Found at last." While the tone of her voice was grim, perhaps a bit too serious for the situation, Xiuhcoatl drew close to the other woman and gave her a friendly bump with her shoulder.

"If you are here, then there must be others. Did you find him?" Initially she sounded pleased, even pleasant, but as soon as Xiuhcoatl brought up the boy which had caused all of their trouble - that foolish child her sister deigned to keep and covet - her mood appeared to sour. "The sooner we return to the Rise, the better."

PSSSS I LOVE YOUR AVATAR. so purty. -touches-.

While the woman was a full fledged warrior, Nochtli had no qualms or fears approaching her; she was an Amazon through and through. Fear wasn't really an emotion in her repertoire. The idea of another sister being nearby pleased her. "It's good to see you again." Her tail waved behind her as their shoulders met, the younger female displaying a brief grin. Fire bright eyes surveyed the blonde female for a moment before her ears twisted to listen to what was being said.

The words that passed, however, brought only a frown to her muzzle and her brows furrowed. The others must not have returned to the Rise. "Xiuh..." Her trademark habit of shortening others' names did not fail, even now. "We did not all make it. Citali and I only just recently arrived together, and Manauia was here before us. But Amoxtli and Etzli... Tezcacoatl abandoned us and in our search for him, we got split up. We were hoping our lost sisters had made it back..." She sighed, frustrated and sad that there was no sign of the other girls.

"Tezcacoatl is here," She confirmed, though she continued on. "But he has it in his head that he will be King of the ridge to the South, Frostfire or whatever. He will not listen to any of us. He... Has also lost his memories and does not remember us or our names." She dropped the bomb as gently as she could, eyes locking to the woman before her to gauge her reaction.

Although she did not share a smile with the younger woman, the sentiment was felt. To be home again among her kind was something Xiuhcoatl wanted, and she wanted it badly. For now she would have to make due with the company of this shadow, and the others of Tezacoatl's guard. Except, as she thought this, Nochtli began to spread the news of their disappearance. The fool of a boy! Leaving behind his guard? What had he been thinking? 'Likely not thinking at all. Tch.'

"Tezcacoatl abandoned us and in our search for him, we got split up. We were hoping our lost sisters had made it back..." Nochtli explained, and the chill in Xiuh's eyes spread to the rest of her. She grew stiff with irritation, although it was not brought down upon the shadow.

'I don't care who birthed this child,' Xiuh bitterly thought, 'Tezacoatl is not worth all of this trouble.' But, obedient as the warrior woman was to her sister, she would bring him back. It was her sole purpose of being here in this strange wilderness, like the rest of the Amazon women. A frown creased her features and she was eager to bare her fangs - to lash out and draw blood from something or someone - but did not wield her frigid anger against Nochtli. She was, after all, only the messenger.

"He wishes to rule? Here?" A scoff accompanied this statement, followed by a small roll of her eyes. This child was turning out to be far more trouble than he was worth - maybe, maybe if he had been a woman, she would have been more kind. Afforded some leniency. But Tezacoatl was her sister's son and worth far, far less.

"I will go to him and beat such thoughts from his head, if I must." It was not beneath Xiuhcoatl to damage the boy she was meant to protect. Perhaps her sister knew this; then again, perhaps Quetzacoatl only sent Xiuh as a last resort. The woman turned her head away from Nochtli then, and paced a few steps. "You will take me to him. I don't care if he remembers me or not - but he will come home."

May the gods be merciful - what had she done to deserve all of this trouble?

The flurry of emotions, mostly irritation and a kind of fury, went by without comment. Nochtli understood the frustration, as she was subject to it herself. Being the diplomat she was, however, she was better equipped to hide such things, mask them until she was alone and could let them out. She and Cita had agreed to stay here only to watch out for Tezcacoatl alongside Mana, who had tried many different ways to convince the male to return home, to the Rise.

Even so, the reaction made Nochtli's expression turn grim, only nodding as an answer. He was truly the only one that wanted to live here and it was clear that Xiuhcoatl would not be taking his shit. Good. Where his entourage wasn't likely to get away with physical retribution, the Beta, the Queen's own sister was fully capable of laying paws on him.

"Sure. This way." Turning, she indicated the direction (South), and made to lead her sister to the Ridge where the other uprooted Amazons were staying currently. "How was your trip here? Short, I hope." Citali and she had wandered for what felt like forever, nothing short of a few months. If Xiuh had traveled for half that, she'd be much better off.

"I don't recall how many days I spent in search of you." She responded swiftly, her tone bland. It was dismissive - a tone she often used for the men of the Rise, and hardly ever for her warrior sisters, but it implied something else as well. Xiuhcoatl did not count the days nor did she have a set schedule; she knew she would find Tezcacoatl eventually. That it had taken this long... That was, in part, the fault of his guard. The least they could have done was send word back to the Queen of their wereabouts.

Aside from that comment, Xiuhcoatl had nothing more to say. She trailed after Nochtli easily enough, and on more than one occasion her swift steps had her nearly overtaking the dark woman's position, but she did try to hang back a little. There was quite a ways to go before they reached the land that Tezcacoatl wished to call his kingdom - the very thought made her chuff softly to herself and pick up some speed - but for the first time in a long while, Xiuhcoatl was not in a talkative mood.

Still... It had been many days since she had seen another sister, and it was nice to have the company of one of her own. "This place is abysmal." Xiuh commented, sounding a little bit bored and still a bit annoyed, but she was trying. After lurching ahead another few feet, she added, "That boy... He really has no idea who he is? Who we are?" And, with a shake of her head, Xiuhcoatl fell silent once more.

No idea. Great. If Xiuh had been able to at least give her an estimate, Nocta might have been able to estimate how far from home they were. But she would not argue or press. No doubt, the journey had the Beta in foul spirits, and the news she'd just been given probably hadn't helped at all. No, the young Amazon would leave her be about the matter, if only in hopes that they'd start the trek home soon anyway. It'd be nice to leave this... barren place; snow and permafrost and cold were not her favorite things and she would totally be down for changing her scenery back to what it had been before.

"Agreed. It makes me miss home. Admittedly, I don't spend much time here. I've been learning the lay of the lands, on the off chance we'd need intel." Explaining herself to the woman always made her feel a bit... squidgy, though she really couldn't have said why that was. It was just a thing, and things happened.

A rough sigh cut the air in front of her, flame-like eyes darkening. "No. He suffered a head wound during some war and barely remembers his own name now, if that says anything. We found him and he didn't recognize us, even after we'd given our names. Mana has tried to talk sense into him and Citali thought about drugging him but nothing so far has really worked." And again, the inability to "punish" the Prince, even though he was a male. Xiuh might not have such qualms but those that weren't related to the Queen couldn't take such risks without worrying that they'd lose their lives.

"Apparently he spent a good chunk of time with the belief that he was a Viking. Claims to go by Týrr now." It was frustrating, unfortunate, and just... ridiculous. Briefly, she wondered how their Queen would have handled the situation but laid that to rest as the Ridge rose in the distance.

Xiuhcoatl expected direct responses to her questions, and so when Nochtli began to chatter away about her own opinions, the woman gave her a pointed look; but the other Amazon moved on quickly, and so did Xiuh. The more she learned about Tezcacoatl's condition, the more fuel she was granted in order to seek him out. Powered by her quickly rising ire, they would make good time and return to the boy's camp before too long.

She could not get over some of the facts that were, shared, however. The mention of Vikings made Xiuh slow abruptly, her fur bristling. "Vikings - here? No doubt they thought to use the boy against us. It is good that he has broken away from them." The woman looked at Nochtli carefully as she said this, searching her dark face for hints to the contrary. "And to choose to fight, without his guard. The gods must have been watching over him."

There was no other way to explain how Tezcacoatl had survived so much. Not to Xiuh, anyway. She made a mental note to give thanks later, once she was situated among the Prince's ranks. "I will fix him." She confided to the dark woman. With a thoughtful lick to her lips, Xiuhcoatl motioned with her head as if to prompt Nochtli to move faster. "Whatever it takes. We will all return home soon, I will make sure of it."

Xiuh's disappointment in the Prince's guard bothered her, if only because it wasnt like they'd tried to lose him. They could have just given up and returned to the Rise instead of wandering all over hell's half acre to hunt down his stupid ass. And yet they hadn't. They'd kept to their duties and tracked him down. But if wanted to get snotty about that, Nochtli would let it go; she had better things to waste her breath on than trying to talk some sense into a brick wall.

Suddenly, she was much farther ahead of the burly Beta and skidded to a halt to look at her, ears attentive to the other woman. "Apparently. Like I said, we haven't been here long. Not even a full moon." Nochtli remembered the Vikings of home and she doubted that these were the same faction. If they were, Tezca would have not been able to slip through their grasp. The comment on being without his guard went ignored. Xiuh was apparently getting it in her head that they had been just playing around when that had been the complete opposite. 

They moved again and Nocta, compliant with the woman at her side, picked a pace that have them there within the half hour. "I know you will. We trust you." However frustrating her attitude was, Nocta did trust the older woman and understood that she would do what needed to be done.

Is it OK to end this here? Otherwise they'll just continue having a grumpy conversation, lmao.

They moved on in silence, following Nochtli's attempted defense of her fellow guards. Xiuh had nothing more to say; she was late to the party and still adjusting to many things, from the terrain to these tales of Tezcacoatl, and it would take time. The first thing she would do upon reaching this new kingdom - if one could call it that - was find the Prince. So without further conversation, Xiuh followed after the shadow until they were within reach. As soon as she caught upon Tezcacoatl's scent, she bade the woman a brisk farewell, and headed off on her own.