dreamers of the day are dangerous men

For auntie @Xiuhcoatl ! c:

Týrr did not make it a point to venture out of Frostfire Ridge too much, lest it was to track herds for the soon-to-be pack, or on a hunt. He enjoyed traveling, but he did not feel the need to seek out the adventures that the mysterious territories yet to be tread by him as he once would have. He was no King yet, and Frostfire Ridge was not claimed to call his own though he was content to settle into the would be responsibilities and stay firmly rooted. When the pack took hold and rose to live his days would be filled with diplomatic and leadership duties. Time to slip away to venture forth would be few and far in between, and beyond that he had an Amazon for that. Nochtli, she was his scout after all, or so it was claimed to him. His two other trades sought after by him would be more practical for his rank, stationed upon his lands where he was meant to be. As far as the other packs in the Wilds went Týrr did not see the need to concern himself with becoming acquainted. He knew the wolves of Stavanger Bay well enough, had killed their Jarl as retribution for what Ragnar had stolen and done to him, but the others...he didn't care. Not of the Bay and not of them. Frostfire Ridge did not need to forge alliances — they would be formed with the intent of learning how to fight as all Amazon's did; even the slaves who took to the arena as sport and breeding rights were taught to fight, entering not as helpless ignorant creatures but as Gladiators. While Týrr had aspirations of being the harbinger of the new era Quetzalcoatl had desired him to be in Coatl's Rise, he intended to see it brought to fruition here.

He could not leave these Wilds, they were an integrated part of his fate and the Amazon Rekkr would not be swayed — though this was not to a lack of trying upon his garrison's part. Despite the fact that Manuia had always seemed to Týrr to be rather uptight and cold, he was pleased to find that life with the Amazon women wasn't as bad as he had initially assumed it to be. He did not remember them from before but thus far he actually found himself enjoying the company of Nochtli and Citali, even though some times he found himself exasperated at them. Their ways could not be helped, and he was not ignorant enough to believe that the decree of one Queen could erase generations of men being nothing worse than slaves to them, their only purposes to entertain, to perform arduous manual labor, and when the time came produce them with daughters. Rather than be discouraged by this knowledge and accepted fact it caused Týrr to push himself, determined to prove himself to him even if it was a wasted attempt. He was stubborn enough to try, used to pushing himself past boundaries in the effort to strive to be his best.

A deep breath was drawn in through his black, leathery nostrils as he walked the would be lines of his territory, where someday he and those he'd gathered to stand behind him would mark as borders. In the distance the glacier loomed like a glistening glacier blue mountain, beautiful to him even though it brought with it a stab of sorrow. The few that had stayed when Duskfire Glacier had fallen seemed to be gone now, too, at the very least Týrr  had not seen nor heard from them in quite some stretch of months, and he was left to his assumptions. The view the Ridge provided him with was breath-taking and he took it in with a swell of pride in the strong curve of his chest, sparing a glimpse at the cloudy sky overhead for a split moment before he pushed forward, lost to the devices of his wandering mind.

Nochtli had outlined only so much about what had occurred to Tezacoatl; and most of which was ignored by the newly arrived aunt. Her goal wasn't to reacquaint herself with the boy, but to bring him home. His mother had given the task herself - although Xiuhcoatl did not know of her sister's own venture in to the wilds. She would not fail. Failure was not permitted.

Once the dark woman had brought her deeper in to the territory, Xiuhcoatl bid her farewell. She was keen on hunting down her nephew herself, and would acquaint herself with the lands in her passing. It was no Coatl's Rise, to be sure: this land was composed of permafrost, massive sheets of ice, and too much empty space.

What could have drawn Tezacoatl to this dreary location? What did he hope to accomplish here, if anything? The boy's guard had found him, but they had not returned to the Rise in some time - and no word had been sent in their stead. Or, as far as Xiuhcoatl knew, there had been no indication that they were even alive. To find Nochtli in this place was a complete fluke, but it wasn't something Xiuhcoatl would squander.

The gods were leading her towards success. All it took now was a bit of urging from her, the esteemed Beta of the Rise, and the boy would see reason. He would return to the Rise and become it's leader, as his mother decreed and the gods desired. This thought was what prompted the golden woman to pick up speed. She sucked in a cold breath and roamed, seeking out the scent of Tezacoatl - and then, when his silhouette appeared, she barked sharply.

He was moving at a lazy pace (according to her) and paused to look up at the sky; she strayed a glance upwards as well, but saw nothing of interest.  With a scoff, Xiuhcoatl rounded upon Teza's position and came to an abrupt stop, cutting him off. She leveled a chilly expression his way, but did not speak - as if to give him a chance to explain himself.

There was another, and not a scent that Týrr readily recognized. It belonged to a female, though to none of the Amazon women he tentatively thought of as subordinates. His memories might not have came back with any sort of quickness, the idea of thinking of Amazon women as his subordinates felt strange to him. A good sign for it meant that while it might not have been conscious he was beginning to remember small tidbits from his life as Tezcacoatl. Tezcacoatl might have been Prince but women still ruled the Rise with an iron paw and he found admiration in that, in breaking gender barriers even if it meant leveling males where some pack leveled females. It was no mystery to him as to why the Amazon women were rivals to the Vikings (never mind that free women were more or less seen as equals among the Norse wolves). Both cultures dominated the Valley they held, the largest and strongest packs of them all, and the feuds between them had been tempered for generations; yet, Týrr couldn't ignore the irony of it. Born an Amazon, taken as a Viking captive. Ragnar had lied to him, given him a new and false life when it became apparent that he'd had amnesia from the wound he'd suffered, trained him only to be brought to death by the very training he'd ensured that Týrr underwent; and now he was not Viking nor Amazon but some combination of both. Something that was never supposed to happen but had, as he was both Týrr and Tezcacoatl and yet neither of them. 

At first, the Rekkr paid no true mind to the new, foreign scent (though he should have), assuming that it was another loner drawn in by curiosity. He minded it to an extent but did not know how else to garner potential interest — not to mention the only things he and his could lay claim to was the caches they'd built. With no official claim to the Ridge they had no ground to chase out those that would come to investigate. Yet, the scent grew stronger until Týrr found himself, startling, face to face with the woman in question. She had positioned herself as to cut him off, and Týrr slowed to a stop, puzzled at the icy stare she afforded him. “Have I offended you in some way?” The soon-to-be King inquired, a bit miffed by the frigidity she was radiating from every tendril of her fur.

He had not changed much since his first weeks of life; he was still a mewling little boy, as dark as dung and as strong-willed as his own mother. The boy pulled to a halt as soon as she cut through his path, and then lanced at her with his words - not attacking, as perhaps he ought to. As a King might attack a stranger upon his lands. He afforded her some doubt, then. It was not something Xiuhcoatl would have done. She scoffed at his question - "Aside from being born, you mean." she spat right back at him - and then turned to face him head-to-head. Her body squared to his own, and the woman sized him up with a fleeting once-over.

"Tezcacoatl, heir to Coatl's Rise, son to Quetzalcoatl - my dear sister." The spiel was long and arduous for her tongue, but she named him all the same. There was even a slight air of awe in her tone, but that was swiftly withdrawn. "You are to accompany me back to your rightful place." There was no room for negotiation (nor introductions, she realized a moment later). He would hear her and obey. If not, then she would grant herself the pleasant task of dragging him home herself. As an afterthought she appended the statement. "If you do not go willingly, I have permission from the Queen to take you by force."

Her spitting retort, sharp with the edge of razor wire, told Týrr told him everything he needed to know of her. She was another Amazon, another ghost of Tezcacoatl's past come back to haunt him. Whether to wrangle him into returning to Coatl's Rise, or to jog Tezcacoatl's slow coming memories (or both) he wasn't sure and didn't care. The greeting of this one was not the same as his garrison — for even Manuaia hadn't been so commanding, so resolute. She was definitely a woman of power, and if he had to guess more likely one of the overzealous keepers of their tradition. It was a suspicion he had born of the steady trickle of memory, subconscious so that he did not immediately recognize it as as a memory; nor as Tezcacoatl's warning. For now, Týrr thought it as nothing more than perception, a guess given by her stance and her spitting words. “It is not the circumstance of my birth, but the fact that Quetzalcoatl decided to keep me.” Týrr had garnered enough from the other women to make this assumption with absolute confidence. Would he have been made a slave, given to Five to be trained as a Gladiator as he should have been, likely the women would have not harbored so much dislike for him and what he symbolized. He was a threat to their traditions, made possible by their reigning Queen, Quetzalcoatl, whom for whatever reason had not been able to let him go despite that surely, Týrr assumed she knew she should have. That it was their way. 

The woman gave him his name, and then spoke that she was Quetzalcoatl's sister. Týrr did not remember what his mother looked like, knowing only that he was a carbon, male copy of her, and going off of his own appearance, fur of rich chocolate, and the unique silver markings under each crystalline blue eye he didn't see much of a resemblance in her, except for the pale line under each of her eyes. Not as stark against her golden tones as his was against his darker coloration, but there, nevertheless. So he his family tree had grown. He had an aunt. “A rightful place that I cannot remember?” No, he would not go. He would not lead a culture that would never fully see him as their leader, nor would he do it ignorant of everything that made him an Amazon. Why was that so hard for them to understand, he wondered. Instead of being joyful that he did not want to mess up what traditions and culture they had carefully preserved for generations upon generations they became angrier with him.

Týrr held his ground before her. He was not a small child, and in these lands her rule meant nothing to him. She was on his territory, and the game would be played his way. His home was here, and they were free to return, though none of them would. Not without him. It worked out for him, in selfish ways, but he knew so long as he and they stayed they would never let up in their deign to get him back to Coatl's Rise. “Why? So I can ruin generations of carefully preserved culture and traditions that I don't remember? You and the other women will never recognize me as the true leader of your Rise, so what is the point? I will not be the death of it. Quetzalcoatl can have more children, daughters to take my place as heir. My place is here, and if you insist on taking me back it will be as a corpse.” Those were the stakes, and brazenly he would stare death in the face. He had no intentions of dying this day, or any day soon: he had too much to do, too much life to live and the God of Death would not see him for many years to come (at least this is what Victoria hopes, aha).

He was a stubborn fool - and as much as Xiuhcoatl loathed to admit it, she recognized his fire well enough. Her own sister seemed to be staring her down now, and for a moment she felt herself falter. But this was not Quetzalcoatl, this was her son, a proper bastard who could barely remember his name let alone his place among their kin. His delusions were indeed grand. Xiuhcoatl did not take the word of the other Amazons in to account as fully as she perhaps should have, and now found herself regretting her decision of being so forthright; however, there was no going back now. The threat she threw before him was real and true. The boy decided quickly enough, even allowed his voice to raise against her - her, of all beings! A superior. It didn't matter to Xiuh where she was. In every waking moment of her life, she would be superior to this child, and she would make him obey.

"What you want is of no concern to me." She spat back, her tone just as fierce as before - even a little amused. As if the very concept was the biggest joke she had ever heard. As to the substance of his words, she merely scoffed, her fur bristling all the more. "She has likely replaced you with shit that is of finer composition, but, I follow my Queen. Her orders were to bring you home, and that is what I will do."

If that meant killing him, well, then it could not be helped. Xiuhcoatl would do whatever was necessary to bring him - or his body - back to the Rise. "If you continue to protest, I will happily bring whatever pieces of you remain." Her face split in a grin of pure malevolence, then. The thought of taking down an unruly man such as this was tantalizing indeed - even if it was her own blood.

"Your companions have given you more time than they should have. They have settled to appeasing you rather than obeying their orders." She snorted, and as her teeth hid away, her tongue snaked out to lick her lips. "I am the remedy to the situation. Whether that means taking you down or simply ordering your guard to return home alongside me -" That would leave him exposed, and without anyone to aid him in this new kingdom of his. She shrugged, and let him make the connection.

He had a decision to make. And if he chose to fight - which Xiuhcoatl fully expected of him, if he were truly an Amazon - then she would relish the opportunity to prove her superiority.

Touché. Týrr could not help but think as she spat, her tone hinting at underlining amusement, that what he wanted didn't concern her. That door swung both ways, in what the Rekkr thought to be fairness, even if his aunt wouldn't have agreed. Frankly, he didn't care. He couldn't make himself feel the level of affection for wolves that were strangers to him (as he once had), despite that he'd known them (apparently well) as Tezcacoatl. He didn't remember enough of his past to affirm such things and had no choice but to take them at their word; but that didn't mean he had to accept their desires to force him into something he didn't want to do. He had a choice, regardless of how males were treated in Coatl's Rise and he refused to be treated like some common slave. “Then there you go,” Týrr deftly shrugged his broad shoulders when the golden woman before him offered what he took to be an insult. Though she did not seem inclined to back down. A lot like him, in that respect, not that he had any intentions of pointing this similarity out to her. It might ruffle her feathers even more and gods forbid that she didn't get her way. Whether she was spoiled or not was lost upon the Rekkr, but it was how he chose to see it (though the fact that the same could be said of him did not fall beneath his notice, either).

“I'm sure your Queen will be pleased to see me in pieces, especially after the effort that she's exulted to find me,” He spoke with sarcasm. Perhaps Týrr should have felt guilty for using Quetzalcoatl as his leverage (especially when he couldn't really remember her) but he didn't. If she was trying to threaten, or scare him for that matter, it wasn't working. “I'm not going to fight you,” He told her point blank, sharply even as she bared her teeth at him. He did not want blood spilled within his home ...or at least not the blood of his kin and regardless she was his kin. Blood, even. “But I'm not going to lie down and die, either; neither am I leaving. I have set things in motion here. Things that cannot be undone and you can either join your sisters and join me, you can roam around these Wilds if that isn't an option for you or you can return to Coatl's Rise without me.” He felt weary of offering her a place within his pack but she was strong and...she was knowledgeable of the Amazon culture. Since he looked to implement things of their culture, he was all for collecting the Amazon women, as long as they saw him as the man and leader he'd become as opposed to the boy he'd been when he had set off with them to find himself.

In a way, he had found himself, simply he had taken a long detour along the way, and forgotten a few (important) things on the journey.

Last post from me, maybe. And whoops you get a novel? I haven't written this much since the Tuwawi/Njal romance days.

Xiuhcoatl's bared teeth - her form of a smile, however malevolent - flashed across her features again, but faltered as the boy spoke. She snorted when he mentioned her sister. She knew, thanks to the stories told by the other Amazons, that Tyrr had very little understanding of the Amazon ways, as well as a limited knowledge of his own mother; he had no idea what he was talking about - but there was a point to what he said. Quetzalcoatl would be devastated to learn of her son's demise should such a thing occur. But with the boy dead, Xiuhcoatl could spin the tale however she wished - her sister would heed her words, grieve, and move on. The sooner she forgot about Tezcacoatl and focused upon what was good and right about their matriarchal ways, the better.

But he refused to fight her. He refused that which Xiuhcoatl wished for the most - a death match, which would prove herself superior over him and all of the men who dared to fight their customs. Xiuhcoatl's tail lashed behind her once, twice, and then lay calmly across her hocks - but she was silent, brooding, seething.

He was arrogant, just like her. In his own way, but not so dissimilar from either Xiuhcoatl or Quetzal. It was something that ran in their blood, connecting them in a way that would have made Xiuh's skin crawl and her anger unbearable, had she truly thought about it. Tezcacoatl continued to speak and she continued to listen, only breaking her silence when she couldn't help but snort and roll her eyes. "-you can either join your sisters and join me, you can roam around these Wilds if that isn't an option-"

"Those are hardly options." She spat at him, fur bristling across her shoulders. The very idea was insulting - following a boy that should have been cast aside as a slave, such a concept was beneath her. All that Tezcacoatl should have been ruling was the gladiatorial pit. "-or you can return to Coatl's Rise without me." That wasn't an option either, and Xiuhcoatl made this perfectly clear with an obnoxious little laugh. Her chuckling rolled from her chest for a moment or two, and she shook her head.

"You will not have things your way, boy." She would be staying here, feining a role within his so-called kingdom, for as long as necessary. Xiuhcoatl would do everything in her power to make his efforts fail, and to take her Amazons back to the rise - leaving him without the bulk of his pack - and then there would be nothing for him here but the empty ice. "But I am not leaving, not yet." This was a promise, and it was clear by now she meant him ill.

Without another word, she turned from him and began to stride away. With her back facing him now, it was entirely possible that he could try and attack her for her hostile words, her vile promises. And Xiuh hoped he would try - it would give her a reason to sink her teeth in to him, after all. It was doubtful he would choose that route though, after stating he would not fight her.

You can either archive as is or post once more, I'll let the decision up to you. ^-^ Thanks for the thread!

Týrr rather thought the options he'd given her were as good as they got. He wouldn't force her to stay and he wouldn't force her to leave unless she left him with literally no other option. In reality, they were the same choices he offered everyone: stay, or leave. He did not believe in stealing freedom. They all had the choice to leave, if they wished; but they would not. So they stayed. Týrr was silent when she stated that he would not have his way, calling him boy. Retaliating against her would only give her what she desired. The Rekkr suspected that she wanted to rouse him, but Týrr had no intentions of giving her the satisfaction. Xiuhcoatl stated that she was not leaving, not yet, and left the soon-to-be King with the distinct impression that she meant him ill will. This set him on an edge of razor wire, making him even more weary than he already had been. He could chase her out if she pressed the issue, or he could give her what she wanted: a death match. After all, it would not be his first and he did not fear her as much as he had once feared Ragnar. Or, and this was the option he chose to go with for the moment: he could attempt to thwart her and keep his control iron tight. She would not take his kingdom from him, and she would not take him back to Coatl's Rise.

The Rekkr watched her turn her back to him, and for a wild second he felt the temptation to rush her, to tear at her exposed spine; but in the end he resisted it. “If you plan on staying,” Týrr called out to her retreating form. “You can help the others by marking the borders, patrolling and filling the caches.” Just because she was against him, and believed her stature was higher than his did not mean she got to do whatever she wanted. She was on his land now and she could either chose to live by his rules or die by them, if she wanted it that way. "I'll be checking in." Satisfied that he had control (even if he didn't?) Týrr turned and headed off into the opposite direction of his aunt, mentally noting that perhaps it was better if he kept his distance for a while.