attierk

For @Kerosene at first! Backdated, to their first arriving home. before ivitaruk discovery

They had arrived home, at last. In silence they moved to reinstate their mark, and Tonravik howled to inform the pack that they had made it home. She listened for the sound of her mates voice joining her own, and as they pawed and rubbed and pissed on the borders, they then moved deeper into the territory. All seemed well here, and so they moved into the depths of the territory, to again learn of her land and be a part of it. The slopes felt so good to climb and conquer... but as she had with Echelon, she wished for snow. The peaks here were not so high for that, though the air thinned and cooled as they ascended. It was slight... but Tonravik, sensitive to the heat, noted it.

Tonravik and her mate arrived to a slight descent, in Inukpakpok Forest, where the land rose, fell, and flattened. It was a large forest, though not so large as the coniferous one. As they moved, Tonravik thought of her time with her mate, thought of her time with him. Thought of his knowledge of her, of who he knew her to be, and of his knowing of the name. He knew so very much, and yet, there had been no naming. Tonravik thought of the battle with Arverk and the other plains wolf, and how he had promised in earnest it would not happen again. That now, in any circumstance, he would protect his own.

She padded onward, heading toward the well-known landmark of their territory, Nellayok.

And the woman was thoughtful as she moved. Recalling the introduction of "Kero". She knew why he used that name; it had been who he was, before this place, before his promises (unspoken or otherwise) to her that she trusted he would keep. Tonravik stopped beneath a particularly old tree, looking at its aged bark, at its great height. Its roots escaped the earth and dove back in, finding its way again. "Who are you," she speaks then, breaking her thoughtful, contemplative silence. Her dark eyes find his bright ones.