Dragoncrest Cliffs just know that you don't know

the doctor is in

The damndable weather just wouldn't let up. 

Tirgatao, once again—for what felt like the fiftieth time this month—was lying upon one of the elevated slabs in the communal caverns with her chin on her outstretched paws and her eyes fixated on the dark sprawl of the tunnels. Her belly was blessedly content, and a half-chewed bone sat forgotten beside her. She had no complaints about her health. No, Tirgatao was bored. Initially she'd scoffed at the idea: bored? A grown woman? But it was true. The weather kept them trapped here under the discretion of the Heda (which Tir abided by). 

But it wasn't just boredom. It was restlessness and unease. Between Portia (and now Wildfire's heat), the tensions in the cavern were at an all-time high. And, yet, she was unable to do her percieved duty as Shouna because she was still foreign to the tight-knit unit. Tirgatao never imagined that she would arrive in Drageda as a stranger. When she first spoke to Portia, she hadn't understood and even accused Drageda of failing their long upheld traditions. Now she did. She was foreign to them. Not the other way around.

Tir heaved a sigh and licked at her paw, the action soothing the rapid beat of her heart.

There is nothing more Arlo wants than to escape the cavern, if only for a little bit. He barely knows the wolves and his brother has been quiet. Eske has been some company but not enough. And the rest of the wolves he barely knows and Tanja hasn't really given him the time of day he feels he should have been given. He can't help but wonder if he'd been a disappointment to the man but he does not question it out loud, no matter how much he wants to.

He'd slipped out the back where the rest of the seal remained. It was a frozen, blubbery mess after the rest of the wolves had heir feel and he can barely tell what the animal had been prior. Arlo nudges it, takes a bite of what's left, and slips back inside before his limbs fall off from frostbite.

He sees Tirgatao off to the side alone, idly licking her paws, and in another attempt to distract himself from the neverending scent of heat, he meanders his way over. The boy offers a chuff to the woman and a swish of his tail but otherwise remains silent should she not want his company.

A gentle noise of greeting draws her attention and her gaze settles on the pale, gangling form of none other than Arlo. She smiles and lifts her head away from her task. "Arlo," she murmurs fondly. She is glad for his presence after the confusing and troubling series of events stemming from Portia's ire. "Come come—here, join me." The pale woman scoots closer to the wall, leaving room for the other to join her up on the slab. She drapes her tail over the far edge and the tip brushes the ground. It isn't a high perch; a foot off the ground at best, but it is removed enough to give her the breathing room she'd required. 

Tir extends her nose to greet him should he clamber up onto the little shelf she'd claimed for herself. "Staying warm, I hope?" She intones kindly.

Tirgatao seems happy to greet him and he offers a boyish smile as he moves quickly. He battles her nose her attention as he offers a gentle kiss to her cheek as he makes himself comfortable on the perch. His large frame takes up a little more space than there is to allow but he lets himself lean up against her if only to help share warmth. His tail curls up around his rump and ties within her legs so they don't tangle too much together. 

"I don't grow this thick coat for nothing," he jokes as the tip of his tail wiggles, all that room will allow, and he wrinkles his nose. They had not been close in Trigeda but her presence with his brother in Drageda has been a comfort when he's felt on the outside this whole time.

Tirgatao mouthed at his ear affectionately as he sprawled out beside her. His gangling legs were long, and supported a frame far more robust than her own, but he did his best not to get them both tangled up in a heap. When he leaned into her, she leaned back and curled further around him. Her tail flopped over the base of his own, and her nose snaked up to bump him on the cheek in response to his remark "You and me both." She snorted. 

She was very glad of his presence in Drageda, despite only being aquaintances with the boys. It was a reminder of her roots, and to stay true to her beliefs despite the overwhelming feeling of discomfort at all the recent changes wrought by Heda. They were both a benefit to the clan on a whole, too. Two young, impressionable boys who desired to make their mark on the world. Tirgatao respected them for their bravery.

But, she had questions, and decided not to hold back. She lowered her voice to a whisper and murmured softly to the space between them: "How do you feel about Drageda so far?"

His ear twitches when he feels her teeth on him though he doesn’t feel threatened she’ll rip it off. He bumps her nose gently as he settles and he heaves a sigh of relief. She doesn’t mind the closeness—or else she likely wouldn’t have invited him up—and it gives him a comfort he didn’t know he needed. His brother has been a help and support since being here but feeling it from another, especially from someone he kinda-sorta knows. He certainly wouldn’t have huddled up with Portia like this any time soon.

“I don’t know,” he confesses after a moment of consideration. “It’s different. Not what I expected.” The days of Trigeda had been hard and their environment is different. The wolves there are far more vicious than he’s seen in the Wilds and there has been little conflict between them and anyone else nearby. The winter has played a part, feeling cooped up all the time within the cliffs. He can stretch his legs to an extent before the cold becomes too unbearable and he’s forced back inside. “I feel like I don’t know anything or anyone here,” he trails off, his features twisting. Have I made a mistake?

When Arlo took a moment to consider, Tirgatao waited patiently—though her breath is caught a bit uncomfortably in her throat, and she feels like she might shake out of her skin. She wanted to know if she was the only one to feel like a stranger in a place where she, realistically, expected to find the familiar. When he does respond, it is almost a twin of her own thoughts. She hums a note of acknowledgement, and looks back towards the cavern where the dim light of the snowy sky peaks in through the roof. 

But his final admittance hits the root of the problem, and strikes a chord in Tirgatao. She slides her gaze back to his own and it drifts up and down his uneasy expression before her mind can form the words on her tongue, "We know Heda." She reminded him softly. Tirgatao shifted her leg so that it pressed against his own, like a hand upon a shoulder. "Eske is Gavriel's daughter," but she, too, trailed off as she struggled to find any other similarities between Drageda and the only world they knew. She licked her jowls to wet them, but found that her mouth was dry.

"I don't really know how to feel about everything yet, but... maybe—I know Heda came here because of what happened in Seageda. She needed change." She inhaled and continued in a rush, "Maybe we need it too?" It wasn't often she confided her own thoughts in others; it was usually the other way around, but she felt as if it could be of some comfort to Arlo knowing that a wolf his elder, who'd experienced Seageda and everything that happened after, was willing to entertain the ideals that Heda was now promoting.

Tirgatao gives him a small list of wolves they can connect with and though it is not many, it’s something. Eske is close to him in age and is born among them; half of her is Seageda even if the other half is not. Eske is Drageda and he knows he’s not. At least not yet. And Seageda had its share of outsiders but they were few and far between at their borders and weren’t given the best treatment in the beginning. Those that stuck around managed to keep their positions within their clan but they were never outnumbered, not like this.
 
“I was young when Seageda fell but I heard the stories,” he says. He didn’t know Heda prior to now and didn’t know what had made a few wolves turn on her because of her age and mistakes. She’d been young, hadn’t finished her training, but had won over in the Sadgeda. She’d earned her position by surviving and they’d barely given her a chance. The details are mostly lost on him as most did not have them and he’d been hesitant to question them. “We won’t be strangers forever, will we?”

Tirgatao frowns. It's unfortunate that Arlo didn't know much about the circumstances surrounding the fall of Seageda, but she also doesn't blame him. Instead she wonders why no one bothered to inform him, or at least explain to him the basic details, so that the boy could decide for himself. But at that she stops herself—perhaps that was why he left in the first place. To find the truth, and make something of himself away from the stuffiness of the Trigeda hierarchy. "Someday I will tell you when we are both ready to revisit it." She replied with a gentle smile.

His question takes her by surprise, but before she can immediately reassure him, she has to take a moment and think. Would they? Unlikely, unless Heda was challenged by one of the splita and removed from her position. Despite being outnumbered, Heda ruled Drageda and that meant the traditions were alive within her, regardless of how they were currently playing out in the pack proper. "No, Arlo," she murmured to the space between them. "we just need to bridge the gap between us. I know they're different, but we're different to them too. If Heda can do it, so can we." 

Even with the anxiety lingering in his mind, Tirgatao manages to soothe him a little. Her skills in her position don't go questioned and he knows—if only by his conversation—that she'll earn her place sooner rather than later. It is enough just to hear there is no need to worry and his place we'll settle soon enough. With the winter on them, his skills can't be shown off when they are often physical where her's is mental and doesn't require force to show. They varied in skills and he is thankful she'd been there to show him that it'll be okay. "Good," he murmurs softly as he drops his head to his paws with a thump of his tail against hers.

Tirgatao's heart swelled when Arlo is calmed by her words and decides to settle in beside her. The situation was less complex than she made it out to be; it simply required the both of them to participate and keep an open mind. But because she came from roots that dictated she protect her own above all others, it made it far more difficult to simply accept, without question, the changes in Drageda. The pale woman was glad for Arlo. His youth and innocence on the history of Seageda offered her a perspective, and an ear, that she couldn't find in anyone else (save for maybe Melchior). 

She extended her nose to nudge him fondly before she, too, lay her head on her paws. She kept her eyes fixated on him for a time, pondering. "You'll thrive here, of that I have no doubt." She rumbles softly to him before closing her eyes and shifting her head around until she finds a comfortable spot; draped over one leg with her chin resting on the ground. The last thing she remembers before drifting off to nap was Arlo's strong heartbeat thrumming against her own.