Great Bear Wilderness No more subservience

Open to anyone. <3

Just beyond the borders of the Nightwalkers, Tzila was making the most of her time alone. Inside the pack, it felt stuffy with so many new wolves filling up the ranks. Besides, coyotes were still a constant threat to their remaining caches and she would happily seize the opportunity to skin them for their pelts and their meat for her own belly.

Coyotes weren't the only thing she was looking out for today. As she squatted to mark near the base of a tree, leaving a bright yellow stain in the snow, she kept her eyes peeled for other wolves. Specifically any who might want to join, or foolishly come barging in like that goody two shoes idiot, @Dandelion had. Should any be unlucky enough to cross her path, she was liable to chase them off on site. 

Glancing down at her slender dark legs, her eyes fell on her right forelimb. There lay the gash she received from @Ghidorah during their spar. The wound was not terribly deep and had scabbed over, free of infection thanks to her diligent cleaning. It would leave a scar but when the fur grew back no one would ever know it was there. She moved ahead, nose to the ground, hoping to catch a scent of something edible, even if she wasn't all that hungry.

The coursing waters from the mountains had brought him to the lake and then just beyond on that—the point where the earth almost dared to even out into the flatlands but still held onto the rush of wilderness that he was well acquainted with. Another scouting venture, though just for what he had yet to turn up. The snow abated for the briefest time to aid him, but his doubts held fast to the premise that he would turn up little.

Yet he did hang onto the hope that he would be pleasantly surprised, that here there would be a trace that things were soon to turn around and towards their favor. Even with the looming forest that he knew housed their allies, he hoped that there was more to these old parts than bitter cold and idle fangs in wait. As it were, it was not entirely the case, and it was not easy game he found to cart back across the miles to home; it was another wolf already doggedly in the pursuit of the very same.

One of the Nightwalkers, he presumed, and he called out to her with a chuff.

Perhaps two heads would be better than one.

Tzila did her fair share of hunting. But not as of late, since there had been little game to hunt. She debated heading further out, to try her luck Lake Rodney, not far away. Some wolves often overlooked the alternative of fresh fish, if they were able to catch it. Water dwellers like those were less likely to have been affected by the famine than ground game, cradled safely beneath the depths of their watery homes. 

But it was winter, and she didn't feel like getting her paws wet with a bad case of frostbite. An unlucky coyote would do quite nicely. The chuff of someone else, towards her made her pause. On edge, her first response was instinctive. The scarlet hackles along her neck raised, cold silver eyes swiftly picking out the agouti wolf from afar. She squinted. He was not one of the Nightwalkers. And therefore, not a direct threat to her status. Her posture loosened gradually, and a sniff of her nose brought to her the scent of Moonspear. An ally then. Smirking, Tzila breached the distance. "What brings you out this way?" She asked, pleased for an encounter of an entirely new flavor.

He watched her react from a distance, though such an initial response did little to curb his approach to her. There was plenty of time for a course correction if she did not wish to receive him, but such was not to be the case today. She met him halfway across the wintry expanse and curiosity of one another settled across them.

"Hunting and scouting, I suppose," he answered; it was a far cry of a better reply than offloading whatever else might have bothered him. Midwinter had a certain why of inciting boredom as much as it did a hunger towards many things, but he was capable of behaving for the time being. She was familiar enough, though not enough that he readily placed just where they had crossed paths. The elk, maybe, along the very shores they were not too far off of.

"But you'll have to forgive me for not remembering your name, though I'm not sure we had the opportunity to exchange them last time we met," and here his voice trailed, but her name did not come to him yet. "I'm Dirge." Whether or not she would know him from a hole in the ground was another story.

Tzila hummed quietly towards his answer. It was a decent enough reason and she saw no harm in someone allied with the pack, to be roaming so close. Her silver eyes narrowed in a squint, examining his features in detail. "You do look vaguely familiar...Dirge. Yes, I recognize you now." Several more steps through the snow brought her closer. Unlike many a time, there was no swagger in her step or any of that deadly predatory precision. Just laid-back ease. "I'm Tzila."

The velveteen skin of her muzzle bunched just slightly in the motions of a sniff. The scent of other wolves was woven heavily in his fur. From his signals so far, she couldn't accurately guess his role in the pack, so she made no assumptions. Instead she offered a more conversational inquiry. "Is this your first visit so close to Nightwalkers territory?" 

But at least the recognition was there, he decided. By then the introduction of their side to the his side had been a chaotic matter that he cared little to recall—and the list had continued to grow since. He had left Hydra burdened with the political matter of it all, though for her it was far from a burden by any stretch of his own imagination. It busied her much in the way that his ventures would busy him, though he wanted to believe not finding anything would be more of a failure than a faux pas in conversation.

Tzila didn't seem so bad, even if he still held his opinion of the Nightwalkers at arm's length. There were some things that could not be so readily forgotten and as long as there was a void to be filled, doubt would certain well within. She analyzed him much in the way that he did her, and his gaze wandered the gentle curves that did not belie the strength that she possessed.

"No, I've been through here before, long before your pack laid its claim. Never cared for the area much to be fair, but the world's a strange place these days. I look for things where I can," came his easy rejoinder, and he imagined she did too. They had to if they wanted to survive, plain and simple.

sorry for the gross delay, have been busy and traveling for work.