Neverwinter Forest pride wreaked havoc

Tezcacoatl could not pinpoint in what point he decided to return to the Teekon Wilds. There was nothing left there for him. His empire was nothing but crumbled ruins, nothing but the ashes of ill-fated glory. He doubted Tuwawi remained ...and even if she did they had not been able to establish what they were to one another. While he could not claim he'd fully given up on the fire kissed queen the truth of reality kept him grounded. Frostfire Ridge ...his once (perhaps) budding romance with Tuwawi ...it had all been an illusion, divine until it was all ripped out from under him and for the second time he was helpless as to stop the decline. He had failed, seduced by his own pride until it'd been the root of his ruin. So he wandered.

Though he assumed these Wilds held nothing for him anymore he found himself wandering back to them, drawn by some unseen but gravitating force. He could not yet stand in the ashes of his once empire and thus he clung to the south. He favored Neverwinter Forest in particular these days, haunting it's tall and snow covered sentinels. It was a fortress in and of itself and offered him plenty of woodland creatures to hunt. Occasionally, there would be a doe and fawn grazing off in the distance, and not too far from her and her young the he presumed the buck that was it's father. Yet, the serpent king did not go after them. The fawn perhaps would have not been an issue for him but herding it away from it's mother and their protect would prove to be difficult. 

Tezcacoatl kept a frosted eye upon them, regardless though he did not ghost them closely. He knew that he would be better off if he joined with a pack ...for there were plenty of them to take his pick from; he was reluctant. He'd been a King and even now the idea of relinquishing what he had been so that he could ensure he would have a future ...bleak though it would surely be ...caused a war within him. For now, he was not desperate. For now, he managed on his own; until a time when he could no longer he would seek sanctuary with a pack...perhaps the one that Fox led with her mate. He had followed her once ...though Tezcacoatl doubted she would even remember him. Still, it was an option if all else failed.

The caches were nearly as full as their ranks, despite the dead of winter, and so Wildfire took an afternoon off hunting to go for a long walk. She found herself near the edges of a woodland whose name she simply couldn't recollect at the moment. The quiet, wintry air drew her in and she wandered the snowy paths in silence, admiring the trees and comparing and contrasting the sense of bright coziness here to the peaceful gloom of Nocturne Summit.

Suddenly, she smelled another wolf on the crisp air. Seizing the opportunity to employ her tracking skills, she hunted down the stranger to a spot near the far edge of the woods. Even before Wildfire approached, she noted the scents of the deer beyond them. He appeared to be hunting. For this reason, the youthful Gamma did not make an approach, nor otherwise make her presence known. Instead, she slunk backward, not deigning to interrupt his attempt at grabbing a meal.

Thank you for joining! <3 Also, I can change any of this as need be if you don't think he should have spotted her. c:

Tezcacoatl continued to let his thoughts wander, seeing the small deer family but not truly looking at them. In truth, he had no desire to hunt them...at least not at the moment. They tempted him, of course, even the fawn would offer him enough to fill his belly, though the doe or buck himself would fill the serpent king's stomach for a few days, maybe a week or so if he rationed. In that moment when he took stock that this was his life so very far from grace he'd fallen. His days were filled with contemplation like this: rationing food, at if he should try his luck at larger prey even though he was one and typically it took a pack to bring them down. Don't look back, you're not going that way. These words repeated like a mantra within his skull every time Tezcacoatl found himself pining for every thing that he'd lost. He had thought killing Ragnar would solve everything ...and yet the satisfaction it had brought with it, the thrum of victory within his veins ...that he had taken the legend down was short lived. That pride was gone now, as was probably all of his dignity.

The Amazon women had betrayed him, in the end, and he'd known better than to trust them. Hadn't the Scandinavian's taught them? Foolish, Tezcacoatl had been though, blinded by his status as prince to them. That he was one of them and thus they would bend to his rule. He was wrong and this mistaken had cost him much. He was alive, though. He was enduring and that was a small victory he had over them, at least. They could beat him but they could not break him. 

It was with a sigh that he turned from the small deer family, only to catch what he'd missed before: a scent that did not belong to the wintergreens and venison. The wind was not in the serpent king's favor but the scent of fellow canine, female and carrying the heavy scent of a pack upon her coat. This much he could pick up, though it was hard to initially pinpoint her location. Until a flash of red caught his attention. The glimpse had been brief, so brief that Tezcacoatl wasn't even sure he'd actually seen it, though it caused his breath to catch in his throat all the same. “Tuwawi?” He called out, in the hopes that he hadn't imagined it. The scent he'd discerned wasn't familiar, not in the slightest yet still he hoped it wasn't all an illusion and he wasn't picking up on a fading scent trail, and that somehow the fire kissed queen still lingered here.

"Tuwawi?" a voice called out from behind her, causing Wildfire to freeze and then pivot. She squinted through the snowy wood, just barely making out his shape in the distance. He seemed to be looking at her, though it was hard to tell from this far away. She paused a moment longer, then broke into a slow trot, her paws falling into the set of prints she had left behind in the snow.

It reminded her a bit of Magpie's nonsensical cry of "Canis!" the other day. Wolves evidently liked to shout strange things at her. With this amusing thought in mind, Wildfire called, "Not sure what you just said..." and then began to slow as she neared him. This close, the first thing she noticed were his eyes, pale and blue like Floki's, thought not quite as breathtaking as her beau's. "Were you talking to me?" she added with an amiable twitch of her black tail.

He heard her voice before she came into view and though he knew instantly from her unfamiliar vocals that she was not his fire kissed queen, Tezcacoatl could not help the slight catch of disappointment he felt like a sinking stone in the pit of his stomach when she came into view. This female was not Tuwawi, he'd knew as much and was only surprised to find that this was disappointing only because for a split and wild second he'd allowed himself to hope. “It's a name,” Tezcacoatl explained to the yearling, offering her a small smile that did not touch his eyes. It did not show true and unbidden mirth because ...he couldn't actually recall the last time he'd felt happiness. He wasn't exactly miserable per say, but he was just ….mechanical. Going through the motions, surviving because it was what his instincts told him to do. 

“I apologize,” The Rekkr spoke, though this was, truly, genuine. He felt silly for mistaking her for Tuwawi when ...everything had pointed to the simple fact that she was not. “I thought you were someone else.” Tezcacoatl admitted sheepishly. Though ...there was something that struck him as familiar about her though he could not outwardly place it. It was a slight nagging at the back of his skull but given how utterly horrible his track record was at recalling things he ignored it. “I'm Tezcacoatl.” He offered his name, his Amazon name though she had not asked. It felt like the polite thing to do, at least.

Ah, she thought. That made sense then. The stranger apologized for the mistake and Wildfire smiled, shaking her head at him as if to say, That's not necessary. He then offered a name and her head stilled. Well, that was quite a mouthful. She was tempted to repeat it, though her tongue could be as clumsy as her feet when it came to words with more than three syllables.

"Can I call you Tez?" she asked with a well-meaning smirk. "I'm Wildfire. Who's Tuwawi?" she asked, blithely unaware—as always—that she might be triggering an emotional tripwire.

“Yes,” Tezcacoatl offered with a soft chuckle. His name was hard to pronounce ...which was one of the reasons why he'd went by Tezca in his youth. That, and, he hadn't “grown into” the Coatl name yet. Not that...according to any of the Amazon women he'd earned the right to bear the name in it's entirety now. “It may not be the easiest name in the world.” But it was his. One of the many names he was known as, but probably the most important. He might not have fully remembered his identity but he remembered some things ...enough that he felt confident by going by his birth name.

She offered her name in return: Wildfire. Simple. Easy to remember. Suited her fur color, he thought. The inquiry that followed the exchange of her name, in truth, was only to be expected and yet it gave Tezcacoatl a slight pause nevertheless. He couldn't think of a reason not to tell her. “She was my queen once upon a time,” He inhaled deeply and let it out. “and well...I'm not really sure what we were to one another. I thought we had a budding romance but,” He puffed his cheeks slightly and let it out with an nonchalant shrug. “I don't know...she sort of left I guess and then I left the Wilds and here we are.” He didn't mind talking about it..

Then again, there wasn't much to really talk about, other than he still harbored those feelings for her even though he figured that she'd never be his and was a fool; but that he already knew.

Oh, crap, Wildfire thought. Why did she always do this? Dredge up difficult, lovelorn stories—typically from wolves she barely knew? She bit the inside of her cheek, though it didn't appear that Tez minded. In fact, he offered up the information quite easily, in perhaps two dozen words. There was no hint of strife on his face, despite his mention of (possibly) unrequited love and whatnot.

"Oh," she replied aloud, not sure what to say. Although Tez didn't seem to mind the subject matter, things had gotten very personal, very quickly. "Indeed," she said in lame agreement with his statement of, "Here we are." "Where did your search take you?" she wondered, genuinely curious about the world beyond Teekon Wilds and taking it for granted that he had left to look for her. "And what brought you back here?" Had he given up?

“No where specific,” As it had last time, it'd nearly taken him back to Oðinn's Cove ...but he blanched at the last moment like a coward, because Ragnar had been one of their favorite rules beneath his father Eitri and he'd been the one to deal the killing blow to the Viking legend. That smug satisfaction he'd once felt had long since worn off and in the void his single-minded revenge had created in it's wake was just that: a void. He'd taken revenge ...but revenge hadn't brought his memories back. He got wisps, some clearer than others, and sometimes he dreamed but the it was as he'd suspected long before he'd taken to his full name: he would never fully remember. He was cursed to live on the cusp of truth and lies, almost unsure which was which. 

“I would like to know that myself,” He responded honestly because ...he truly had no answer for her. There was nothing here for him, nothing but crumbling remains and false hope. Yet he foolishly clung to it anyway, hoping that eventually he might be able to make good on his promise and herald a good life. A new life. “I doubt she remains in these Wilds and even if she did I can't say if she'd even want to see me.” Because it was confusing ...just as his life was. A jumbled mess that Tezcacoatl feared would never straighten himself out. 

Yet, he survived and kept pushing forward simply because he didn't know what else to do.

He was very ambiguous, saying that his travels hadn't taken him anyplace specific and that he didn't know why he was back. Wildfire's lips pursed, wondering what to say to that. Of course, her inner diplomat wanted to suggest that Tez consider doing the smart thing: joining a local pack. Moonspear, specifically. Yet the Gamma knew the ranks were already full, so trying to wedge this guy into them would just be a waste of everyone's time.

She could have offered to help him search but Tez himself had said he didn't even think she was around anymore and that she probably didn't want to see him regardless. So Wildfire seized upon the only subject that made sense, something that genuinely interested her. "What's it like? The world beyond the wilds, I mean." She didn't mean to ignore his ill-fated love story with Tuwawi, yet Wildfire simply didn't know how she could help him in that particular department, other than to get his mind off it.

Just as easily as he had offered up bits of his personal life, Tez describde the lands he'd seen beyond the realm known as Teekon Wilds. Wildfire listened raptly, wondering if she would ever get the chance to see for herself. By the time they parted ways—he intended to resume his hunt and she wanted to continue charting the surrounding forest—she was a bit swept up in daydreams of one day breaching that boundary. One day...