Serpent Lake have you tried turning it off and on again?

He needed a change in scenery. Something... a little less mountain and a little more flat. That lured him from the Spire into the valley of which they'd crossed. The storm damage was still plain as day, but the land was healing. Nature bounced back. Just like the rest of them. Now if only they could snag a good meal, that'd be great.

His original intentions in leaving was to hunt. He'd managed a large rat. Just something to tide him over for the next little bit. The meadow was supposed to be home to deer, but it seemed as though he was out of luck on this adventure. He'd crossed through the grasses and found traces of them, but nothing solid. Nothing worth reporting. He continued onwards.

In all of his adventures, he'd never made it quite this far before. The land shifted and with it came that sweet, sweet scent of water. He dropped all of his current endeavors and made a bee-line for that water. Without stopping, he splashed within the shallows before dropping his head to lap at the surface. Mmm. Tasted delicious. Felt cool to the touch.

Without thinking on it, Kero flopped into the water and floated. He paddled, pushing himself further into the lake and lingered on the surface. Water wolf. Yes he was.

the mountain of hawks was at his back, and lasher meandered along, a brace of hares dangling from his jaws. water was his desire; his throat prickled uncomfortably with the need of it, and as the scent of the liquid entered his nares, the beta male changed his path and delved down toward the waters, stashing the hares in a scrub-brush near the edge of the bank.

there was another there, a reddish wolf whom lasher vaguely recognized. wading to the shallows to drink, he too flung himself down and there he realized that this man was the mate of tonravik. he greeted the other with a low chuff. "we are well met."

he wished to ask after the tartok witch, but held his tongue, merely closing his eyes against the sunlight as he basked in the water's touch.

The water was a wonderful thing. From the depth in which he floated, Kero paddled his feet here and there to maintain buoyancy with every exhale. Eyes closed, his expression became somewhat passive as he drifted aimlessly within the cool waters. This was his reprieve. His solace. It was his time to contemplate nothing and meditate.

A voice cracked through the air. His ears lifted as he paddled, turning his body in the lake water to better view the wolf who'd spoken. He recognized the male. It was the one from a mountain by one of the first stops he and Tonravik had taken after delivering the catatonic Kivi to Hoshor Plain's borders. The wolf's name escaped him, but he'd never forget a face.

Kero paddled, bringing himself back into the nearby shallows were the water met the shore. Lingering in the lake, he drew himself to lay with his paws facing the bank and his back towards the greater depths. "It's been a while. I hope all is well with you and yours."

his eyelids had fallen to half mast, but he reopened them at the other's words. here was a man of the spine -- tonravik's man, but he did not hold the feral savagery lasher knew to be tartok's legacy. "the storm did not touch our lands," he murmured, shifting in the water so that he could look more fully upon the other. "what of yourselves?"

the male seemed agreeable enough, so after a pause taltos gave a gentle clearing of his throat. "tonravik must have been delivered of your children since we last met, yes? i trust they are well?" he asked out of curiosity, but also because he cared for the bear-witch, as firm and cold as she had been toward him in their meeting. it was her nature, and lasher did not hold it against her.

He had not asked directly about this one's pack, nor their survival of the storm that wrecked these lands, but it went without saying. After tragedy such as that, the aftermath was a topic of conversation easy to share between all the wolves of these wilds. The damage was still apparent everywhere a wolf traveled. The earth was healing, yes, but it would take a fair amount of time to recover.

"I'm glad you and yours were safe from it," he murmured. Truthfully, he did not wish the storm on any pack. Their own had faced the brunt of it, but in it's own way, that storm had been a blessing in disguise. "Ouroboros Spine was ruined. We were forced to relocate to greener pastures." The Spire was... everything Tonravik could have asked for.

Think of the devil and she'd come up in conversation. He grinned. It seemed all the world wished to know how she was fairing. "She's doing well. Kept her legs crossed until we could find our new home. The pups? They grow quickly." He stopped there. He did not know this wolf well enough to divulge any additional information.

"Forgive me," he said suddenly, catching himself. "I don't know much about you, otherwise I'm sure there'd be more for me to ask about. I don't wish to hoard the conversation."

the sanguine pelt of the man caught the full reach of the sun's light, dazzling the spirit somewhat as the man spoke. so ouroboros had relocated. "i hope that no one was injured," lasher murmured, sympathy lacing his voice. as the other did not proffer the locale of their new dwelling, so the beta did not press for it.

a brief smile was given the bawdy way in which the ruddy man spoke of tonravik's delivery -- the druid knew that the tartok woman would have moved water and earth for a safe nest in which to deliver her brood.

"not at all," taltos replied affably. "i am taltos, also called lasher. i served beneath tonravik's mother, and tonravik herself, for a brief time. i am the beta male of blacktail deer plateau, mate to its healer, blue willow, and father to a trio of lovely children. i do not believe i took your name at our last meeting," he added with a rueful glance.

The sun was pleasant. It warmed his now exposed back and the water within his fur was slowly evaporating. In the process, it pulled the damp, tawny hues from his coat and brought it back to life. The flames within his fur gleamed.

He thought nothing of himself. The conversation at hand was a far more stimulating thing than that which he could not lay eyes upon. "We survived," he murmured. They'd lost a few to disorientation from the storm, but they were one-by-one tracking them through these lands and showing up at their doorstep once more. It was good to know not all had been lost forever.

The wolf offered two names. Truthfully, this was the first time he recalled placing any kind of alias to the face before him. "Which do you prefer?" he asked, before the wolf continued. Siku. He'd been a wolf under Siku. From what Nanuk and Tonravik had told him, she was the lifeblood of everything Tartok. Curious this wolf was no longer an active part of that world.

"Kero," he replied easily enough. "It sounds as though you have a lovely family." It was nice to meet another male and a father, but in all honesty, Kero was more curious as to his ties, or lack of them, with Tartok. "I know the ties to Siku and Tonravik run deep. What led you to go your own way?"

he smiled; it was an ageless question, and one often put to him, so he did not mind it. "i prefer whatever you wish to call me," he rejoined with a wry grin to kero's handsome features. the second inquiry, however polite, gave him pause, for it bespoke a gently prying into the past that lasher shared with the ruddy man's mate. dazzled as he was by the play of sunlight upon the fiery fur, there was a misgiving suddenly cropped upon in his heart.

"i loved siku, but i believed us abandoned when she departed tartok to rear her young ones elsewhere. i waited for as long as was possible, and was eventually rewarded with tonravik's arrival. i pledged myself to her, of course, but the warlike nature of tartok means that they must away, and i found this to be altogether too unpalatable, given what had happened in the past. i traveled away, i settled, and the rest you know," the earthen man finished with a wan smile, his eyes fixed now upon some distant point.

"Lasher then," he said with a grin. Of the two, Lasher sounded less Tartok and since the first rule about Tartok was not to talk about Tartok, Lasher seemed like the safer option of the two. It was for that same reason Iqniq offered up the name Kero as opposed to the one he wore within the confines of his home. The less a wolf knew about another, the more secrets they could hide.

Within him, Kerosene harbored a few questions he did not think he could truly find by going straight to the source. Tonravik spoke infrequently. Echelon was too flippant to pin down long enough for details. Nanuk was involved, but not in quite the same way as the males to exist within the shadow of these Tartok women. For a shadow it was. This much, was becoming more and more clear to him. As Lasher recanted, Kero found himself in something of a similar situation. It seemed history was destined to repeat itself.

A soft laugh escaped him, though there was little merriment in it. "So fiercely independent they are." And perhaps instinctive. All cleverly disguised excuses for them to submit to their own selfishness at the expense of those who worked so hard to help secure their place in their world. How disposable they all were. Replaceable.

"Was it worth it in the end? Loving Siku?" This question was all the more personal, but he was curious as to its answer. It seemed the mother had very heavily influenced the daughter whether the wolves realized it or not.

discomfort wreathed at the edges of lasher's consciousness -- he had never before had his love for the witch questioned -- but he shook off the consternation and turned to face kero more more directly. "always," he confirmed in a tone that brooked no argument. "siku was my witch, and i her faithful servant. but while i love her, i cannot say that i would leave behind my wife and children to follow her again. her duties took her from tartok, and summarily mine took me from her shadow."

he wondered in what way the reddish wolf was interested, but quickly decided it made no matter. stretching languidly, the plateau leader pondered a school of tiny minnows not far from him, lifting a forepaw to ripple the water in their direction.

"independent, yes. they need no other. it was because of this that i felt blessed for siku's confidences, her savagery on my behalf, and her feral sort of love."

He lifted from the water. His pads were starting to become soft and he did not wish to soak them any longer. Rising to his feet, he took a few steps towards the shore and turned upon the grass. He shook himself briefly, careful not to shake himself too vigorously lest he spray Lasher in the process. Finished, he settled in the sun, sitting sphinx-like upon the grass as he looked towards the wolf as he spoke of many things.

The earthen wolf confirmed many of his suspicions and validated much of which he'd come to learn. Those things... there were not secrets. There was no questioning the feralness of Tartok and everything that was derived from it. Apathy. Conceit. A number of other words he couldn't quite place his mind on, but the overall feeling of those words was there.

"Has anyone suggested you take up poetry, Lasher?" he asked when the wolf had finished. "You have such a way with words... No doubt you'd spin the most magnificent tales if you ever wished to pick up storytelling." With the words he'd used in their short time together? Kero could only imagine the chivalry of heroes and the dastardly deeds of the villains he might dream up.

momentarily, lasher joined kero on the bank, though he sat upright in the sun and began to lick the water droplets from his fur thoughtfully. "hmm," he fluted to the red wolf's inquiry. "i have been told such before, and i do love to spin yarns," he chortled with a merry look. "do you like to hear stories, kero?"

without waiting for an answer, lasher relaxed himself and lapsed into remembrances, surfacing with an anecdote. "pray do not think me vain, but i was told by my mother upon her deathbed that i am the son of a king, a man of the glen in which i was born. donnelaith." a bitterness flickered in his eyes. "i was not the son of her husband, a king in his own right, and for this he feared me, and cast me as a youngster into the wild, to fend for myself. but so tiny was my body, so weak my limbs, so cold the air of pre-winter, that i had not a scarce chance of living."

"and yet! no sooner than i had begun to cry out for my mother, i was found, swept up by a pack of odd creatures. to this day i know not their species, nor their name, only that they nourished me, lavished me with love; one of their females fed me even from her very breast. and thus i grew strong, though i entertained no cliche thoughts of killing the king who had so cruelly threw me off, for i knew not even his name. my mother i did miss; even now her visage grows dim in my mind's eye, but i remember the smiling curve of her mouth, the way that she touched me in tenderness."

"i was not to return unto her, but i would meet suzanne in my youth, the first of my witches. oh, suzanne!" taltos breathed, before memories drew him away and he grew quite silent.

He watched as the brown wolf joined him on the shore. Lasher spoke and Kero grinned. "Of course." Storytelling was a wonderful things. Those with morals were lessons well learned. Others were meant purely for entertainment or to remember history that would otherwise be lost. The tale the wolf began to tell felt like a personal history. It was... a little hard to tell, but he listened all the same.

The words he spun were pleasant upon the ears. He described the struggle, the love and the loss with beautiful words. No doubt the wolf felt as passionately about the experience as he did in retelling them. The feeling he spoke with captured such range of emotion. All he needed was an audience and no doubt he'd soon have quite the following.

"What of Suzanne?" he asked, bidding the wolf to continue. Though at this point, he could tell recanting such history was some kind of painful for the wolf. Memory lane could do that. "If it's too much, please don't feel the need to continue."

"suzanne was the first of my witches. i loved her. she breathed life into my cold soul," lasher murmured softly, glancing with a wan expression at kero. "she was killed by those who once gave her solace, and her crime was me, perhaps." so many convoluted, horrid things had occurred in such a small span of time that taltos was unable to recall all of it.

he lay his muzzle across his forepaws with a sigh, but his eyes remained trained upon the ruddy creature. he wondered how kero fared beneath tonravik's rule; his affections toward the bear-woman were apparent, but the wolves of tartok were a feral sort, and cold in many ways. despite his affiliation, the crimson man did not seem to be of that same ilk.

"what about yourself, kero? have you any tales to tell?" he jested with a heart heavy as a millstone.

Almost without hesitation the wolf spoke on his lost love. Suzanne. The first of his witches. He found it strange the brown wolf would use such a word. Witch didn't normally resonate with the same fondness he spoke of, but he supposed, in some ways, every woman was a witch. They captured with black magic and made mere adolescents out of grown wolves. Or perhaps it had to do with the way these females he spoke of were burned at the stake of memory. He did not know. Either way, he did not press any further into this wolf's history for he asked instead for Kero to share his own.

"I don't have a talent for storytelling," he admitted as he put his thoughts together. His past... was very much his own past and it wasn't something he shared often or ever. "Truthfully there's not much to tell. I was born. I was raised. I grew up. I wandered. I roamed. I found my way here." Kero shrugged. Was there more to it than that? Yes. There were a lot more details he didn't find relevant enough to share. Tartok cared nothing for a wolf's personal history. His own fell into the category of "no-wolf cares anymore."

"I'm afraid I'm not all that exciting." He said this with a slightly bashful shrug. "I wouldn't know where to begin with a tale of any kind."

lasher grinned at kero's brief, sheepish recollection of his own origins. gathering himself, the earthen man moved to where the crimson wolf lay, resting down again a few feet away. "draw from your heart. we all are born; we all live. breathe. travel. your very guardedness makes you interesting, kero," taltos explained, pondering the slow travel of a yellow caterpillar across the top of one forepaw.

his murkwater eyes glanced to the tartok-man then. "but if you do not wish to speak of it, that is understood. i spoke very little of my witches and the glen in which i was born when i ran with siku. there was hardly need for words." his countenance glowed with an affable light; he fell quiet then.

The brown wolf rose and moved to settle closer. Kero shifted, rolling from a more upright position to shifting his hind paws beneath him so his back paws kicked out beneath him on the same side. A light smile curled upon his muzzle as Lasher spoke. So he had noticed the iron walls he held around his history. How very observant of him.

"Does it?" he asked somewhat cryptically. "To myself, I am a very important creature in this world. To others? I'm simply another face to be forgotten." He shrugged, downplaying the hint of wisdom within those words as he turned his attention more completely to the wolf.

Lasher gave him an escape. He took it, choosing not to speak of his own history as it was of little consequence to things of this current date. At his last statement, Kero couldn't help but laugh. "If the mother was anything like her daughter, there would be no words ever." Tonravik spoke so infrequently, and when she did, it was almost as if those words pained her for letting them escape. "You've met both. Are they similar?"

i love these two :D

the man took the path away from the awkward conversation, and for this lasher did not fault him. yet he could not help but comment upon the seemingly low opinion kero had of himself when it came to his role in the eyes of others. "that is as may be, but have you considered that those who think so lowly of you are not creatures with whom you should grace your presence?"

lying one foreleg over the other, taltos glanced into the distance, a wry smile curving his lips. "very similar. tonravik seems to be a more feral image of her mother, for reasons unknown." his eyes moved back to the redfurred wolf. "does she speak of siku these days?" the druid inquired softly, appreciating the handsome angularity of kero's features.

Haha! This thread has certainly gotten interesting!

Kero shook his head. Had he considered keeping a more selective company? He had. Unfortunately life didn't work that way. Not anymore. As a loner with no strings attached, he could pick and chose as he so pleased. As a pack wolf and an alpha? Things weren't so simple.  "If only things worked that way," he mused further. "You're in leadership with your pack aren't you? You know how it goes. They love you or hate you. They trust you or fear you. A wolf in my paws doesn't get to pick and choose as much as one would think. We simply lead, regardless of whether or not we truly desire another's company."

Their conversation was in two parts. The first a more whimsical approach to life and living, the second more specific to the Tartok women who were legends within their world. Siku, certainly. From what he understood, Siku was the lifeblood of everything Tartok. Tonravik? A daughter who'd set off to forge her own piece of Tartok. She was known, but she was not legend of the same sort. Over time? Perhaps, but for right now Kero had a feeling her legacy was still in its infant stages.

Having never met Siku, Kero couldn't truly say what she was like. The only thing he had to form an opinion on her was the opinions of others. He wove together the many stories of her and had something of a mental image as to who and what she was like, but he'd never be able to fully comprehend her. Instead, he had a far better understanding of the daughter, and even then? Not by much. Tonravik spoke so infrequently that getting to know her was always through an experience of trial and error. She was no easy wolf to get along with. Simple... but that strong instinct of hers was hard to fully understand.

As for Lasher's question, Kero shook his head once more. "Very seldomly. I've only heard Tonravik speak of her when she spoke of the family history." Once. Once so long ago it felt like a lifetime away. "Words seem to pain her." He'd never understand that. Kero was very much a wolf for conversation, but he did his best to make it work anyways. "She's more physical of a beast."

yes indeed!

he remembered siku's face, and the remnants of old love and aged bitterness had flickered back into his heart's cadence. and yet he felt the same for the dark witch as he always had. tonravik had earned his respect, and tartok pulsed in his blood, but he belonged inexorably to the plateau, and not only because of his children. "i am indeed," he confirmed with a nod, submitting that kero's point was firm.

he wondered if the ruddy man felt a kinship with the fierce witch, or if he existed solely as the father of her children, an accessory to her ferocity. certainly in her heart of hearts, if she was anything akin to siku, she did not feel like she needed the crimson wolf. but wisely he held his tongue upon that point.

"hearts together, those two," he mused laughingly. "i do not know how we would have fared, had siku accepted my love and my bid to rise alongside her. i am so vastly different than the feral creature lurking beneath her lovely surface." he smiled. "how did you and tonravik come to be, if you do not mind my inquiry?"

Siku was something of a mystery. It would have been nice to have met and known her, if only for a reference as to what this world he was no a part of was all about, but that was only wishing, not reality. He could only make do with what he had at his disposal. He knew Tartok only through Tonravik, Nanuk, Echelon, and a handful of others who wore the name at some point in life. Fragments really. Nothing concrete. He'd take his understanding and merge it with his own reality and make something of it.

Knowing Lasher and knowing Tonravik and Siku to be something similar of a creature, he wondered the history of the wolf before him. Tonravik... there were times when he wondered if she were capable of emotion of any kind. Affection wasn't her strong suit and often felt displayed out of necessity, not true desire. Lasher seemed a highly emotional creature. Kero wasn't so sure a wolf like Lasher and Tonravik would compliment each other long term.

As for Kero and Tonravik? Kero grinned. The way they came to be was simple. Really. "She went into heat. I didn't want to bow to the other guy." So he'd fought his way to the top. That was all there was to it. The rest of things? He sobered. It was history. He often felt he and Tonravik were together out of the mutual benefit they provided one another. There was admiration and respect for one another, but he would not go so far to say he loved her with as much passion as Lasher spoke of Siku. He believed love was something to be exchanged. Tonravik was an emotionless beast. Without feeling, how could a wolf love in a way another needed to be truly loved in return?

he longed fiercely for the days of tartok, and yet he did not, for such a time had its own complications, implications. siku had shown one emotion to the outside world, and that had been anger backed by the sharp edge of her teeth. but she was also a warm beast when she wished, affectionate, passionate. taltos wondered if kero had experienced any of the same from his feral mate. in the recesses of his heart, he rather doubted this.

he smiled; it was so simple, and yet the very baseness of it was purely tartok. it also provided one viable answer for his earlier inner query; tonravik surely was only doing her duty to their yoke out of necessity for the children. such was his assumption, though he did not know if it was true. "and now you shall be the father of a nation," he mused with a brief smile.

Lasher's way of wording caused Kero to laugh lightly as he shook his head. "You make it sound so grand!" he said back. Truthfully, Kerosene was not interested in "fathering a nation". Worded like that it sounded something of a chore with far more responsibility than any one wolf would dare to take on; or at least more than he would dare to take on. He understood Tartok was a vast thing, but he'd only ever been exposed to the small chunk that existed now. He rather liked how quaint it was as of current and was curious to see how his world might expand.

"Let's keep it to one litter for now and see where things go from there, shall we?" He couldn't predict what lingered around the corner. Every hour, minute, and second of every day offered the opportunity for something more. He wasn't about to plan too far in advanced. Such things only left room for disappointment when events didn't happen as one hoped for. Better to be spontaneous and free of expectations.

he gave a nod of his head with a small chuckle. "agreed." gathering himself to his paws, the druid gave a long stretch of his slim body, tossing his ruff as a yawn split his jaws in twain. "care for a walk? i must depart soon, but your company is intriguing indeed. i am loathe to leave," he added with a wry grin in kero's direction.

though betwixt luke and blue willow his carnal appetites were sated, lasher remained ever-appreciative of beauty in all forms, and kero was a feral, crimson example of this. coupled with the wild aesthetic, the tartok-man was an intelligent creature, and lasher felt a kindred spirit with the wolf.

The earthen wolf pulled himself to his feet. Upon seeing this, Kero was reminded that he too could not afford to be lazing away idly for any extended period of time. There were far too many things to do to afford excessive luxuries such as basking in the sun. He'd had enough of his own time. Best to get back to the daily grind of everyday life.

Following suite, Kerosene also rose. He sunk into a bow as he stretched out his limbs and leaned forward to repeat the motion in reverse. All better. He was feeling limber already. "I too must be returning soon. We can walk until our paths pull us in our separate ways." He fell into pace beside Lasher as they turned their lounging into strolling.

"Enough about me. Anything happening on your mountain?" He'd hogged the stage for far too long, or maybe Tartok had. Either way, he'd not shown such an equal investment in Lasher's current life and he intended to fix that with his inquiry now.