Boartusk Heights Corpus Craggus

It was one of those nights where his body was weary from activity, but his mind was alert. They did not happen often; Tulimaq was not a heavy sleeper but he rarely had issues with the event, and right now he needed a few hours of shut-eye but it just wasn't happening. He was restless. His mind played back the various moments in his travels that led him here - training Merrit; talking to the overbearing giant by the river; meeting and exchanging information with a stranger; the dark woods with the ornery youth, and beyond that there was the forest with its quick-to-rise horde.

None of these places had suited him. None held many warriors - ah, and here his mind went back to the Hollow and the guardian there, one of the rare moments where Tulimaq could test his mettle; he thinks of the red-coated woman as well, and wonders how she fares. If perhaps, he will find her some day and he can get back to work as a tutor.

Many events brought him this far, and yet here he was, alone in the dark. Frustration had plagued him since he came upon the central valley. Frustration and the zeal to do better. He knew wolves to be strong, independent, and wild things, and yet Tulimaq had not encountered many of them here. In this place calm prevailed. Nobody yearned for more than the status-quo, and this irked him greatly.

The beast was lost in thought; they were many thoughts, flickering from point to point, a conflagration of intellect he had not shown to the creatures of the wilds. His thoughts were broken by the sound of a call in the dark, and he pushed through the muddying mess within his mind and looked around with sharp, but tired, eyes.

A figure moved towards him; in the dark Tulimaq couldn't make out where they started or ended, and he got to his feet with a swift lurch, just in case they meant him ill.