Fox's Glade Serenity Ribbons

@Nanook - I consider that this takes place after Birk has joined Easthollow.

Birk had run accross a fox that morning. The agile, red-pelted animal had been hunting mice in the snow, and it's movements were so beautiful in the complexity and accuracy, that the man had settled down and observed from afar. Usually he did not give much thought about aesthetics, considering them impractical and useless, but today he was not hungry, in no rush and in a mood for some fun. 

After a while the fox was done and ran off, leaving it's spectator alone. After little thought he picked up the scent trail left and followed it to a little island of unusual forest nearby. The main entertainer was not visible, yet Birk caught scents of at least two or three others.

Thanks for starting!

Birk intrigued her. Perhaps it was something about his appearance, with fur as stark as her Northern kin. Perhaps it was his silver tongue, or the practiced way he had carried himself at the borders days before. Whichever case, the woman knew his novelty came in part from the simple fact that he was new, and thus generated, to no fault of his own, a healthy level of mistrust. They hadn't known of the man's existence until he'd roamed up in search of a home, and though she had little doubt he truly intended to integrate here, Nanook sought the man out in hopes his company would allow her reservations to loosen.

She picked out his scent without much trouble, for he still carried the unfamiliar, and followed the path he charted over Easthollow's claim and out toward the nook of forest just beyond. Like any day in the Glade, his trail co-mingled with the acrid tang of fox, but Nanook knew how to navigate through the tangled web from having spent many days tracking and studying the creatures herself. Soon enough she caught sight of the ivory man, and the Apaata paused, watching him a moment herself. But she picked up her pursuit soon enough and made a wide circle to approach him the side - quiet, though, and she sought to catch his eye to wordlessly raise the query of what he was doing out here.

Foxes were entertaining as long as there was no other wolves around and the moment Birk caught the sound of the approaching footsteps, he was quick to divert his attention from his earlier amusement to finding out, who the person was.

The she-wolf didn't hide, nor did she appear wary, when she came into the view. The Northerner smiled at her and dipped his muzzle respectfully, more due to the fact that she was a woman than admitting that she held higher rank than him at the moment. Give him time and he would earn the position in the pack he felt worthy of.

"Nanook, am I right?" he asked her, smiling and then sat down and prepared to listen and answer any questions or requests she might have for him.

He was quick to meet her, and Nanook returned his greeting with a nod of her own. Smiles still came slow, but she managed a faint quirk of her lips, if only to mirror what appeared socially acceptable. The Apaata had never been expressive, and despite finding herself in pleasant company, her face lapsed back to easy neutrality, while his remained in a comfortable grin.

"Correct." She remembered his name without asking, and so forewent the formality of seeking confirmation in that. She would use her breath on what she didn't know - like what prospects had drawn him out to Fox's Glade. "Hunting?" Closer now, she could pick out the fresh scent of foxes - a trail, perhaps, that he had been following before she interrupted. The Apaata shifted her eyes to peer into the bushes, head inclined and eyes alight with a curious flicker.

"No," Birk shook his head. Though he had devoured other canines (including other wolves) during desperate times, the taste of the carnivore's flesh was neither pleasant, nor ever felt morally right to eat it. Funny, that it should matter, when the life was all well and nice, but did not exist, when you were cold and starving. 

"Never my favorite kind of meal," he explained, closing the matter with this sentence, not wanting to go into details of his life that others could neither take in, nor understand. "But it is good to keep in mind, where they are though," he said, becoming still for a moment, when he saw a flash of red fur moving behind Nanook and then disappearing just as quickly. 

"What about you? Tracked down to see, what the cryptic stranger was up to?"

She turned her head, piqued by his answer - but she agreed. "No, not mine, either." She had eaten fox in the past, in times when prey was scarce, and would eat them again if the choice meant life for her. But the sterling woman had spent many days here, watching the foxes and other creatures alike, and they provoked her curiosity more than her hunger.

His accuracy startled her, but perhaps she shouldn't be so surprised. She drew a step closer. "I know little of you but your name. Trust is built on more." She had never been one to beat around with cryptic words or concealed agendas, not so much because she enjoyed being blunt, but because she knew no other way. If she was going to speak, why would she waste her breath on words she didn't mean? "I watch the foxes, too. I enjoy their movements. Their mannerisms. They are... curious to me."

"That is a very wise thing to do," Birk said in response to Nanook's statement about foundations of mutual trust. He did not take offence, because in her place he would not trust himself either. Not until he had proven to be worthy or stayed long enough to show that he was not going to disappear any other day. 

"Curious little creatures..." he said thoughfully, tensing, when he caught a flash of red fur in the distance, which was gone in the next moment. "So - Nanook - how can I earn your trust? Questions to begin with?"

Trust was not so easily gained. She turned to the rustle behind her. The sign of the darting fox swayed only in the vacant nod of the distant bushes, but she felt their presence all about them. Nanook turned back to Birk, ignoring the glint of a small pair of eyes that watched them from the shrubbery.

"There's no one thing to earn it. Mine builds over time." As he proved himself not merely an asset, but as someone worthy of calling kin. Actions, words, and longevity combined - and the words of others for or against him. Those were almost more valuable than his own. But Nanook understood that conversation was a step in the right direction when one lived with others of conversational nature, and she did have questions for him. "Conversation," she corrected, with a slight tip of her head. She wanted their trust to be a mutual one, for she recognized their unfamiliarity fell both ways. "Why Easthollow?"

"Mine as well," Birk replied, though so far he had always been the one, who had had to prove himself to others. First his birth pack, then Redhawk caldera, now - here. And he hoped that perhaps this would be the really last time he would have to start from the point zero - be always the one, who had to be grateful for everything. Hardly any of the leaders (except Valette, who he did not know that well) had ever thought that that earning one's trust worked both ways. Maybe this time would be different.

"The first pack in the vicinity and people, who did not try to kill me first and ask questions later," he replied with a wry smile. "And I like Valette," this was said in more sincere way.

His answer satisfied her enough, and she found herself returning the look he gave her, content to share in the twisted humour. “New blood is more useful alive.” They were a pack who could hold their own, and she would let no one believe otherwise, but even a warrior like herself was not out for blood when it didn’t need to be spilled. Birk had been respectful and mannered, and she, in turn, knew the kind of attitude that deserved from her.

The shift when he spoke of her sister brought her ears to cup forward, and she nodded. “My sister. She’s a good wolf. A strong leader.” Desna had done more for her than she had ever earned or deserved, and she felt the weight of a deep and unshakeable loyalty to her. To hear her spoken well of brought the tug of a smile to her lips, and a glint to her fiery eyes.

Birk knew that he had hit the right string, when he had mentioned Valette. If he had had any doubts about Nanook's affinity to her sister, then now it was quite clear that she regarded her sibling highly. And for that reason she was yet another acquaintance to value, a relationship to care and nurture, so that she was handy, when he would decide to climb the ranks. 

"What about you? I heard that you have not always been by your sister's side?" it was not an accusation, rather a polite inquiry about Nanook's own adventures in life. "Been and seen many places, I presume?"

He listened to her story, told the brief version of his, had some sparring, some hunting and returned with her back to the Easthollow.