Sawtooth Spire cold, cold man.

Its been about 2-weeks since the thread with Virtute, for self reference. Vague on cougar details. They're nearby the territory limits but have not noticed yet. Minor PP to fill that big chunk of time, can edit just let me know!

It had not felt safe to linger at the mesa, and Stryx did not think too long about which direction she would go. The young girl, Connie, remained with her. It was simpler to double-back across the meadow where they'd dined together upon the carcass. Stryx hoped to find it, or something similar to it, so that both could be satisfied. Perhaps along the way she would encounter the girl's parents and be free of this obligation she'd stumbled in to.

None of those things happened, unfortunately. The meadow was barren save for the fully rotted carcass, itself having been picked clean by other scavengers after the wolves had taken what they could, before. Stryx had to herd @Conquest away from the remains with a flurry of protests from the child, and they headed towards the mountains from there.

Upon sighting the distant spire, Stryx estimated it would take them another week or so to get across to the other side, and perhaps longer to descend in to the valley. She'd done her best to pacify Conquest with mice, rats, a fat little bird at one point, but if they did not find somewhere to camp soon, Stryx feared for the girl's development. She ate like the world was ending — no amount seemed to be enough, but at least the physician's body was adapted to this lifestyle and could give up her portions to calm the child.

She finally turned around to address the child, and noticed that they weren't immediately flanking them on the path, but instead they had planted themselves firmly some feet away and were refusing to go any further. With a roll of her eyes Stryx back-tracked and then stood before the petulant blob.

If you sit there too long you'll become a stone. That's how mountains are made - grumpy children, all piled high. C'mon now. She moved behind the girl, nudged her shoulders brusquely with her snout. No change.

Children were not her strong suit, despite her recent acquisition. Broken bones, blood, bile — all the inner workings of the body, that was where Stryx' power lay. Having this needy urchin with her was proving difficult, and she was becoming more irritable by the day. Hiking the narrow hills of the range did neither of them any favors.

They had to keep moving.

i hope you don't mind that i snagged this!

patrolling the borders and keeping a strict eye out for the hopeful man who thought he could split himself between two packs — praimfaya is ready to turn him away should he return during one of her patrols regardless of how the matron feels and whether mahler is a bleeding heart for his case or not. on high alert, expecting the kaistleoki stranger to reappear, praimfaya feels her hackles bristle at the sound of footfalls and a muffled voice drift thru the evergreens that she paces thru. she climbs down a small slope of sturdy drab rocks and steps quickly over the borders, lips curled back from teeth in a manner that states she was entirely all too willing to give chase.

... only for the warning growl that began to bubble in her throat to die as she realizes she recognizes the adult she is closing in upon. stryx. stryx? praimfaya calls out the medic's name into the hazy air of the sunspire, frostbound gaze shifting from ( one of ) the woman that saved her life to the cub in tow sporting a pelage of fiery reds. the cub, praimfaya does not recognize.

what're you doing here? praimfaya asks, unsure if stryx knows how close they dwell to sagtannet. and who is this? a new addition for as far as praimfaya was aware the girl hadn't been with the medic when she and sugar glider'd been tending to her wounds.

Gonna keep this moving! Feel free to drop @Conquest in here whenever you want / if you have the time. I'll try not to PP.

The stomping of feet alerts Stryx to possible danger, and even if Connie had begun to move again, the physician did what came naturally and lunged over her as a shield in the moment. The nape of her neck bristled while her tail raised in the manner of an angry cat's, spiking and writhing at her hips. There had been a warning on the air but it seemed to evaporate as the stranger's body blocked off the path and Stryx could finally take a look at them.

Praimfaya. Her face was deeply scarred but the rest of her looked healthy enough. She had managed to get this far after their last encounter some weeks ago — impressive. Stryx became aware of Connie wriggling out from under her and did not try to herd the girl back; they were safe here for the time being.

You look well. Stryx judged with a small tip of her chin, a friendly nod. I am travelling, as always. As for the child... I have no idea. They were alone when I found them. The woman glanced to the cub briefly as she explained the situation in case they had any contributions to the conversation, and sighed. It is clear by the harrowed look upon Stryx's face that she is at her wits end.

Oh yes she was stubborn. She appreciated the woman who was keeping an eye on her, keeping her safe and a good companion, but she was not her mother. Honestly, she didn't have anyone who she thought of as a mother, just one guardian to the next, unsure of how she should feel about them or even act around them other than by pure selfish needs - and right now, her need was to sit. Right. Here. Her little legs were tired and sore, she simply didn't want to take one more step forward. She even leaned back and defiantly sat on the ground she chose even with the nudging encouragement from her caretaker. 

Her frown only deepened and her brows only grew more stern as she stared off into the mountains. If she was going to become a mountain then so be it! She will grow big and strong like the strong, immortal too and stand the test of time. It seemed nice.

The thoughts of defiance were cut as someone else arrived, finally, the little ball of fire stood up, whipped around to see the stranger and puffed up just enough to indicate her dislike for them - but Stryx seemed okay with them, and as Conquest looked up to the steward and how calm they were, her own fur relaxed as she just continued to look at them both with one single brow across the two. 

Feel free to skip Connie if I'm taking too long! she's just cameoing every now and then~ JB ur doing good PPing her!

to the valiant effort of you and sugar glider, praimfaya says with an appreciative smile tugging at the edges of her lips. as she had with sugar, she feels the pressing urge to offer whatever she can as payment, though praimfaya knows it will never be enough. how can it when she is a body of commanders past? they might've saved her physical life but they did so much more. more than praimfaya could explain. i owe you my life. if there is anything you need, just ask and it'll be yours. anything within her power, at least.

i'm glad to see you're safe. wanheda's words are earnest as she moves onto the next topix, unable and unwilling to deny that she'd been worried about leaving her caretakers to the whims of the territorial — crazy, if praimfaya had anything to say about it — wolves that inhabited the ravensblood; however smart she knew the two women to be. still, praimfaya wasn't sure her half delirious rambling when they'd found her had been clear enough. sugar glider passed through a few weeks ago. said she was leaving to visit family. she's well. stryx hadn't asked and praimfaya wasn't sure how close the two women were but felt the need to pass it along anyway. she can't help but wonder if working together to save a woman's life might've been a bonding experience.

hm, praimfaya draws in a noncommittal exhale, studying the fiery cloaked girl. did children often go missing? was that commonplace in these wilds? she hasn't told you where she lives? where her parents are? and yet even as the words pass thru praimfaya's lips she assumes the answer to be 'no' for surely if the child had she'd be back home and not tagging along in stryx's adventure.

From the higher ridges, Wylla could see the trio of wolves standing on her borders, but she took her sweet time working her way down to them. The silver-furred Praimfaya was familiar to her, not formally but from chance sightings, but the other two were definitely not Sagtannet wolves. Wylla, in her ill temper, didn't appreciate loners loitering around on her borders, not while her son was still lost, not while they remained tense. Howl coming and going as he pleased with Mahler's misguided blessing was bad enough.

She halfway hoped by the time she reached them, Praimfaya would've turned the pair away, but that wasn't the case. The thin Eisen drew up at a slow plod, clearly unimpressed as she swept her gaze over the visitors. She wanted to snap at them to get off her borders, but Conquest's fiery fur drew her eye and instead, she flatly asked, what the hell is this?

The kid was young, probably almost around her missing son's age, and bore no resemblance to Stryx, leading Wylla to wonder if she was looking at a kidnapper. The woman would regret ever coming near this particular pack if she was. Wylla skimmed her lips back from her teeth in a quiet warning growl.

Hope this makes sense, I'm running on four hours of sleep & am pretty dead.

It was good to see Praimfaya again; it wasn't uncommon for her to revisit old patients for quick updates but she had no idea where Praimfaya called home, or else she would have tried to visit her the same way she had visited Raleska and the newborns of the coast. When the woman explained that Sugar had come through just shy of her, Stryx was again surprised, but also pleased. That young woman was proving to be a very skilled apprentice. What was the term she liked to use? Nomedic.

Stryx nods at this news, the corners of her eyes pinching with crow's feet as her smile grows, lingers, and then falls away. That's good. She's becoming quite a phycisian. And without the influence of a solipsistic cult of bitter spinsters. She was a little bit jealous.

There was no mistaking the warrior's trailing eye, though. Conquest remained in the vicinity behind Stryx and could be heard pacing impatiently for a few steps, as if she's forgotten her petulance temporarily, and then upon catching Praimfaya's attention she sits back down with a deep frowl on her face. She hasn't told you where she lives? Where her parents are? Both good questions, but Stryx had tried everything, and shook her head immediately.

As far as I can tell she's far from home, wherever that might be. All I know is, she responds to the name Connie— Stryx turned to glance at the fireball as she spoke, not aware of the approaching eisen until the soil crunched near Praimfaya and an unknown voice rolled forth like a rogue thundercloud darkening the sunny reunion. What the hell is this?

Stryx turned back quickly. A wave of discomfort along her shoulders caused her grey guard hairs to quill, but she otherwise was silent, and aside from turning one ear towards Conquest to make sure she was remaining safe behind her, she was unmoved. Her eyes darted to Praimfaya and then back to the surly looking woman who had just appeared, hoping that her patient could explain.

Annoyed that the two adults were speaking, it seemed like it too forever and Conquest just simply couldn't understand what was so important about this. She didn't quite understand what friends were yet, or comrades - she knew of her guardian and that was about it. How important that woman was for her survival, but it wasn't anything more than just that. A survival tactic, did she like the woman? It was hard to say, the little fireball was as confused with that as with anything in general but with Stryx, she was learning more now than she ever did in the misty woods. 

It was the new-new face that struck her more than anything, that attitude that came along with it. She didn't understand the hierarchy yet of other packs, and the woman's reaction and showing of teeth only meant one thing that Connie did understand. Instinctively she bounded forward, quick to come to Stryx's side and stared daggers to the woman with her own little warning growl. The pup had a temper and the short fuse only seemed to get shorter as she got bigger. 

While Stryx waited for her friend to speak, Conquest just kept her eyes on the woman who dared to growl at her guardian (maybe her too but she wouldn't pick up on that yet).

having never officially met wylla — or at the very most had any sort of conversation with her — praimfaya has no idea what to expect of the elusive ( to her ) eisen. the demand goes heard by the wanheda and to her chagrin unanswered by her once companion. understandable, praimfaya considers; and turns her face to peer at wylla with a slight lower of her head. she's just travelling, praimfaya responds in what she hopes wylla finds to be reassuring. this is stryx, she gestures to the older of the two women. she saved my life after that crazy bitch attacked me in the ravensblood. not that praimfaya's real sure that wylla would care and then glimpses at connie and offers stryx an apologetically sheepish look.

and this is ...connie? praimfaya gestures to the child. it seems to be that stryx isn't sure where she comes from. praimfaya offers, hoping that her explanation of the fact that she knows stryx is enough to indirectly answer wylla's demand. would praimfaya have thought sagtannet was in danger she would've seen them off with a flash of her teeth. as it was, she knew the nomedic, as sugar glider called herself, was of no threat to sagtannet.

Wylla's first impressions of all three wolves plummeted in the interim between question and response. Stryx didn't deign to respond to her at all, but Wylla was used to that kind of flippant disrespect. No matter what she did, no matter if she worked hard or didn't, no matter how she carried herself, she seemed to be met with nothing but disrespect. She was convinced that if she was a man, or if she was taller, she would be considered a reasonable and respectably fierce leader for her territoriality and stern demeanour.

Instead, she got to suffer belligerent idiots like this.

Rather than reacting with her usual fire, Wylla's yellow eyes drilled straight through Stryx's skull, her expression somewhere between unimpressed and expectant, and there they remained unwavering. Praimfaya supplied the answer but Wylla cut her off with a grunt. I asked her. She can do me the basic decency of answering my question while hanging around my territory. Stryx saving Praimfaya was irrelevant. It didn't give her the right to traipse around so close to Sagtannet and it sure didn't give her the right to disregard a direct question from one of the pack's leaders. If anything, it bought her a pinch of patience. But Wylla wasn't known for tolerance or empathy. She was known for suspicion and hostility.

Anything else she might've said at that point was cut off when the aggressive cub decided to step forward, effectively dashing that patience on the stone underfoot. Wylla surged forward with a savage snarl, hackles raised, and if Connie didn't have the good sense to draw back, the Eisen's teeth would slam into the bridge of her muzzle with barely inhibited ferocity in a rough muzzle grab. Enough to hurt, not enough to do significant lasting harm. Saving Praimfaya be damned. She would not tolerate this shit on her turf, not even from a kid. Connie was old enough to know better. She might've thought such a fierce display from a cub was admirable on another day, or in another place, but instead her impression of Connie was one of sheer stupidity. No matter how savage the kid was, she was no match for Wylla, and challenging a pack leader on their own borders was just brainless and insolent. Being a child didn't excuse her.

A thick snarl wound through the air and her eyes flashed dangerously. The message was clear: Get lost.

Skipping Connie.

The newcomer snapped at Praimfaya and made her frustration known in one fluid breath, then moved to intercept the red girl with the same vigor, expressing her displeasure with Connie's attitude with a corrective measure. Stryx was not the girl's mother; it startled her to see such a display but she would not intervene there. Best someone teach the child manners, she reasoned.

Stryx answered her then, not batting an eye to the reactive display against the child aside from a flick of her ear. She could not smell blood so it wasn't like Connie was physically hurt after the reprimand.

My name is Stryx. I am a travelling physician. Saved your girl here a few weeks ago as she explained, but I am here now by accident. Didn't know there was a pack here until today. The kid is someone I found wandering in cougar territory and we have been together since. Stryx motioned with her shoulder towards Connie when mentioned, then carried on. I was hoping she belonged nearby but clearly that's wrong. It is not my intention to cause a fuss here, and I apologize for any upset.

The last thing she wanted was a set of teeth grabbing at her, or Praimfaya to be in trouble for merely playing catchup with her.

to praimfaya, it seems that wylla doesn't not wish stryx and her young ward to continue to linger; and though the eisen's 'get lost' snarl smarts like a sting against her abilities as a guardian, praimfaya draws in a stiff breath and watches stryx depart, presumably with her fiery ward in tow. praimfaya cannot help the well of disappointment she feels, that a proven friend and skilled medic is turned away due to difference. she has nothing left to say and though wishes to offer words to stryx's retreating back, does not if only because wylla lingers.

i'll continue on my patrol. she offers a stiff bow to wylla before continuing on her way.

I'm going to go ahead and assume Stryx and Connie left to wrap this up, because the only alternative is Stryx being severely wounded for failing to heed a clear warning, and this thread is pretty out of date.

Whatever Stryx had to say was cut off with a snarl and a snap of Wylla's teeth as she surged forward and forced the medic to turn around and leave. It never failed to astound her how fucking stupid some wolves were. If a man had a gun cocked to one's head with a finger on the trigger, they were incredibly unlikely to start spouting off explanations in lieu of doing what was asked of them, but many wolves had less self-preservation instincts than a rock. It wasn't the first time—and probably would not be the last time—that Wylla's immediate threats were met with this arrogant tendency to start blabbering instead of heeding the command.

When the pair fled, Wylla lashed her tail and turned on Praimfaya. Next time you stand there and let some outsider disrespect your leader like that, it's your ass on the line. I don't care if they're your friends, she snapped, shoving past the yearling and heading back to the rendezvous. All of this could've been avoided if Stryx and Connie had simply behaved themselves, and Praimfaya's failure to stand beside her leader in correcting that behaviour only made Sagtannet look weaker as a whole.