Moonspear They say they know what I can feel

Her hunt was a fail, not surprising given the gash on her shoulder but still disappointing. Heldi had hopes of catching something to bring back to Amekaze, prove she was trying to contribute, but it would have to wait. What was that saying? You could take a wolf to water but you couldn't make it drink? That fit the situation right?

Once within the territory, Heldi headed to a nearby stream and lay down to soak her paw pads in them. They were still scraped and sore from travelling so long, though they had shown improvement. Hunting had irritated them but the cool water was soothing and Heldi sighed quietly in relief.

A bit further down the stream, Charon was fishing. It felt like forever since he had had any food in his stomach, the caches running dry and thought plant life was returning slowly but surely, the herds had not yet done such. He was hungry and irritated and so it was probably a lucky day for his unknown pack mate that he dove into the river's water and caught something. It was not a big fish, perhaps, but it was food and while he wandered to make his way towards his mate, for she needed the sustenance if they intended to birth a litter this year still, Charon was distracted by the unknown female by the stream.

Deciding to check it out, Charon approached, his body exuding dominance, tail lifted tall above his back, and he put down the fish and started to tear a piece from it to still his most imminent hunger before he said, "You're one of the newer recruits, aren't you? I'm Charon Ostrega." He guessed that Flóki or Ame would have informed this one of his importance but in case she did not know, still carried his body with pride and dominance, silently asking her for submission and respect.

The male was white of fur and speckled with silver spots and marred with scars. The spots made Heldi wonder if he was old or just freckled with the marks. He bore himself dominantly, his scent that of an Alpha. Heldi dipped her head respectively, face solemn with her former standoffish demeanor.

"That I am. It's a pleasure to meet you Charon, I am Heldi Rivers-Vledfest." The bastard claimed, getting to her feet so as to speak with him better.

Heldi did not seem too taken aback by his feasting and Charon wondered if she was so recent in this valley that she had seen other places that were not so scarcely littered with food. After taking a few more bites Charon left the fish between his front paws, determined to save the rest for Amekaze.

"Heldi," he repeated. "Where are you from? Anywhere around this region?" Such an unfortunate time to arrive in such a barren place if she was, he thought to himself.

"Not anywhere nearby. A place called The East." Heldi commented, figuring he wouldn't know where that was. Most wolves here had no idea, it was so far away. 


"What of you? Have you always been Alpha of this pack?" Heldi asked curiously as he ate, wondering if he had formed the pack himself or just come into leadership.

Charon assumed that 'the East' simply meant the eastern direction and so he did not question it further. Maybe she didn't remember the place's name or maybe she didn't want to talk about it. It didn't matter much to him and they moved on, the spotlight returning to him.

Though it'd been nearly half his life now, he had not always been Alpha of Moonspear, of course. "I was born in Stavanger Bay," he said, "It's to the north, near the ocean, not far from here. I was made Beta at nine months old. Amekaze was Alpha of the Sunspire at the time. Our packs were both small and weakening with winter approaching, so we bonded our packs together as Alphas of Moonspear." And the decision to do so had not been disappointing thus far.

Heldi blinked in surprise, genuinely curious about the situation. "So you were in an arranged marriage or just combined the packs politically?" Arranged marriages weren't uncommon in The East, all of her half-siblings were in them or would be someday. As a bastard, Heldi hadn't had to worry about marriage. There weren't many bastards and it was always expected that she would move away and marry. 

"I apologize for all the questions, I'm just generally curious in nature." Heldi apologized, smiling sheepishly. If he minded the questions he could always just tell her to stop, sometimes she needed a reminder to lay off.

"What? No!" Charon said, almost defensively, because he thought it was a weird idea that they would have been arranged to be married. He'd chosen Amekaze because she was a fit leader and as Alpha pair, the rest had been a given, pretty much. He hadn't even stopped to think about it. Everything had just fit together and he didn't really see their merge as anything of either. It was about survival, really, and it had grown into something more as a natural course of events. "What is that even, an 'arranged marriage'? Who even arranges it?" His earlier twinge of disgust had been reformed into curiosity now, and Charon looked like he genuinely wanted to know about this. He knew about many things, but maybe in the eastern regions where Heldi had come from, they had different customs.

Heldi flinched at his vehement response, curious if she had offended him. It wasn't her intent, Heldi had only been curious. That was her problem it seemed, she was always too curious and social customs went right over her head. 

Charon didn't know what an arranged marriage was? How odd, maybe they didn’t happen down here. "It's where two people decide their children should be married when they get older. Most of my family is in them." 

At first, Heldi's speak of arranged marriages seemed like a ridiculous idea. Why would two wolves come together that did not even love each other, but were smushed together by their parents? Then again, the more he started to think about it, the more it made sense. He and Amekaze had been put together by their own choice, but ultimately the day they decided to lead a pack together had orchestrated their eventual getting together as mates. Maybe it would be easier if parents made such choices for their children.

It was a good thing to remember. Maybe he would use such an idea for his own children. He nodded thoughtfully and said, "That's interesting. We combined the packs because we needed to survive, but maybe arranging mateships might work." He kept it in mind, in case his children would ever need him to tie such knots. If it strengthened his pack in some way, why not?

Heldi herself had conflicted emotions about it. It was what she had been raised to believe was right, it had been ingrained in her young mind ever since she was a child. Being denied such an opportunity as she got older was meant to spite her, not spare her, and it had brought shame to her family.

Part of her still believed in marriage for love, of finding a male that would sweep her off her feet and she would just know instantaneously that he was the one. "I won't comment on that, you don't know me well enough for advice on child rearing. Besides, I'm shit at it." Heldi laughed in good nature, knowing if she ever did have children it would be pure luck if she didn't mess them up the way her step-mother had done to her.

Charon wasn't really sure how the subject got from arranged marriages to child rearing, but he figured it was a good sign that Heldi thought him to be expecting of pups soon -- that meant that she must think him mature enough for it, at least. A big step up from when he was a yearling and some had laughed either behind his back or in his face about his supposed immaturity and inability to make this pack flourish. He wished they could see him now, those asshats, see how well he had done for himself.

Curiously though, Charon asked, "Have you ever had any, then?" It would be good to gauge what experience the pack's wolves had. "Ame and I will likely have pups soon, this summer or fall. The whole pack will need to help raise them." He looked at Heldi, something in his gaze expressing that if she was shit at it, she'd better take a quick course to catch up so that she wouldn't ruin his perfect little children.

Ouch, am I that bad? Surely just because she made a joke about her own childhood that wouldn't mean he expected her to fuck up with his own kids. That was just absurd, it wasn't like Heldi would ever hurt them or teach them the wrong kind of things. It was rude in her opinion to assume so and just a tad offensive when she had been so ready to prove her worth to Amekaze. 

"No. I haven't." Despite the fact that she had just been joking, laughing with him even, Heldi was once more closed off with the tiniest bit of hurt in her chest. "I should probably go find something to do, patrol the borders of something." With a nod of departure, Heldi took her leave.

Charon didn't understand at all why Heldi suddenly closed herself off from him, and he found himself frustrated with it. He hated seeing things happen in front of his own eyes but not knowing what had caused it. Ears pinned back and forward and his brow darkened as he felt like the little hurt boy again, all alone in the world. He felt the urge to command her to stay, to grab her if need be like he had Dhole that day.

But he did not. He turned away his gaze so that she would not see how hurt he was by her gesture in his eyes and said, "Good luck with that." Then he turned away too, feeling hurt and angry with no way to express himself, and with a bitter frown on his face he continued along one of Moonspear's trails, up the mountain, hoping that a walk would expell the bad thoughts from his mind.