Otter Creek New and Untested Lands

EVERYONE WELCOME! Come one come all! Meet SIARUT! haha tagging for reference, jump in if you would like

His sister had gone to find an old acquaintances, he wanted to follow and yet something held him back. She wasn't the same sister who left home months ago, she was different. He had to think it through, the pale brute unsure of how their relationship might have changed. This thought in mind lead him away from his other traveling companions. He was tired, the stress from worrying about @Shivali, and the misery of leaving home with @Tahani and @Tomkin was taking a toll. He need to regroup.

As he watched Shivali leave once again he turned away, not bothering to tell his other sibilings where he was going he left in the opposite direction. If they followed or not he gave them no mind.

The creek he followed was twisted, it moved through the forest with a soothing gurgle that lulled Siarut into humblr contemplation. subconsciously, he would pause and dip his head to the water, glad to find relieve from the overbearing heat. His thoughts danced from his father, to his mother, to his sisters, and then to his brother. He thought of their decision to leave, and the previous discussion with Shivali. The brutes head hung low with his silent reflection.

Hey hey! (: Nanook is ready to do some meeting (or, well, I'm ready to force her to be. haha!)
Tagging @Valette for reference <3

It had been a hard thing, to leave Easthollow, harder than Nanook had wished for. Initially, she had planned to return Clary as she had promised, and to spend the afternoon catching up with her sister before she bade farewell to proceed in her travels. Instead, she had lingered for many days - not truly allowing the pack to absorb her again, but staying close enough to watch the lands and to deposit any prey she could along the borders, in places where the pack could retrieve the provisions she left. What else could she do? She had found her sister married, and expecting pups. Her legs itched to reap the knowledge of the world, but at the same time, she found her heart ached to stay behind. To take care of Desna. To help raise the pups. To be there, in case this man abandoned her sister, too.

Yet somehow, now, here she was, a long ways away from Easthollow, with only a plan to keep travelling west. Her sister had made poor choices in the past, yes, but so had she. And though it had taken some time, Nanook had learned from the mistakes she'd made. She could only hope and trust that Desna would learn from hers, too.

Which was easy, in theory, and easy when she was still close by. But trusting from a distance was hard, and now that she had put a mountain between her and Easthollow, Nanook found her body buzzed with the anxiety to turn back. Was it a bad idea to leave Desna and her choices behind? Despite the war, the Apaata kept moving and hoped that maybe, more distance would still her. The tumble of a river made her ears flick again. Distance, maybe - or maybe just a long, cold drink.

Cutting her trajectory, Nanook veered aside and descended a well-treed knoll toward the sound of the rush water. She didn't need to venture far before she came upon the stream, but when the bushes gave way to the thin stretch of shore, her head didn't dip to the water. Rather, she found her eyes drawn to the large, bent figure of an ice bear, or at least, a wolf who could have been. Nanook blinked at the stranger - he seemed lost in thought - and with a slow step, she eased closer to the water's edge. She made no other sound, out of habit more than stealth, and her gaze - intense and curious - didn't leave him.

The feeling was strange as it made his fur stand on end, the feeling of being watched overtook the male. He wasn't used to the sensation of others sneaking around him, and yet he got the distinct feeling that he wasn't alone. Siarut's thoughts wavered as his distraction grew, he stilled his travelling paws. He waited a moment to the feeling to pass. 

It didn't.

Looking over his shoulder his olive green orbs found the intense copper toned gazed of a greyscaled canid. He turned fully to look at her, taking in her average size. Tiny compared to himself and his littermates. "What are you looking at?" The pale brute was annoyed to have been drawn from his deep thoughts. His annoyance clouded his logic however, as it was his mother tongue that spilled from his maw.

Following suit for speech in Inuttuk! (:

She wasn't surprised by the irritation in his voice when he turned around and faced her. Nanook knew most didn't take well to being watched, but like she would let that would stop her. His language, on the other hand, drew the slightest crook of her head, and she fluttered her ears to cup toward him, not certain if she'd heard him right.

But he certainly looked the part, with his fur a collective white. And what much was there to lose? Much more to gain, and after a second's pass, she answered, "You." Her voice and body held total neutrality - she wasn't trying to be sassy or smart. It was simply the quickest way of communicating the honesty of what she had been doing before he'd faced her, and to show her respect for him she turned her eyes away and drew a small step back. Yet she didn't retreat further. His flare of temper didn't frighten her - but then again, not much did.

Before he could retract his statement and correct his speech pattern, Siarut was surprised to hear his tongue returned in equal parts. Well one word. Not quite equal parts, but close enough. It had been a weeks since anyone other than one of siblings had spoken to him in the northern tongue. 

His annoyance set aside for the moment, he took a step toward the woman. His pale ears pulled forward to catch any sound he could, his curiousity spiked. Siarut would dip his head to greet her somewhat properly, rather than his earlier rude remark. "You speak Inuttuk?" Shivali had yet to mention her newest leader and his similar background, the pale man had yet to hear that others of the background had made their way south. This woman was smaller than any northerner he had met, and her greyness wouldn't suit the snow. No matter he background he wanted to learn more. He remained rooted to his position, giving a respectful space between them.

From the way he neared her, Nanook could tell her understanding surprised him, and she didn't need to read his thoughts to know why. From her colour to her size, she knew she didn't look the part. Her troubled youth had left her willowy and slight, and though her time at Easthollow had filled her some, she still cut a sharp and angular figure next to more average women. She had never quite reached the fullness she'd seen in her mother, or even in Valette. No, she did not look a Northerner, but she ran with the blood of one in her very pulse.

She accepted his more proper greeting with a dip of her own head, and felt the faintest smile curl the corners of her mouth. "Yes." Inuttuk was not her mother-tongue, but the language felt more a home to her than the common verse. "My father and my brother, too. We were born here, but my father was born in the North."  She paused. "You are from the North." Or perhaps he had been born here, too - but he could always correct her, and her voice suggested a want for more. Seldom did she find others who shared the tongue of ice, and by this alone, he became a curiosity she wished to know.

She was of northern blood.

Siarut hadn't even thought of such a thing. Now that the proof stood before him he found his thought process faulty. Of course others had travelled south, just as his sister willingly had. It would not be uncommon for him to encounter others.

He lent her a smile, reflecting her own. "I am. I came to find my sister." The ice bear gave her information he might not have revealed to any other. His siblings were not a topic he spoke of with strangers. "We are all from the north." He took another step toward her, closing the respectable distance, to get a better whiff of her scent. Committing the curious woman to memory. 

"What do you call yourself?" He hadn't thought to offer his name, his ill manners peaking through due to his distraction. He usually reserved his rudness for those he knew better. 

The rushing of the river continued to their side, but he gave it no mind. His full attention lay before him, focused soley on the slender woman. The southern looking girl, with northern blood rushing through her veins. He relished in the conversation with a stranger, and yet the familiarity of their shared knowledge gave them a deeper connection.

His sister. She nodded with understanding, for in a way, that proved another thread between them. The only reason she stayed in the South was for hers, after all, and to maintain the connection of family seemed a common draw for many of the displaced she'd met. What struck her more wasn't his reason for venturing here, and she found herself echoing, "All?" In her years, that had always meant more than a brother and a sister. Who else had come with him, and how many more?

Thoughts of returning to Easthollow dimmed, and she found herself mirroring the man, seeking out his scent from the moist air around them. His voice cut her study short and she drew back to allow a comfortable space to fall back between them, though the distance did not range as wide as before.

"Nanook Apaata," she returned, her own social obtuseness failing to care that he hadn't given his name first. Her copper eyes glinted with the slightest gleam. "And you, ice bear," she asked, not knowing quite how he'd take it, but feeling the commonality between them gave her room to take the risk, "what do they call you?"

She had caught his slip, even before he had. He wasn't the brains in his family, but his father had taught him enough to know better. His face drew closed for a moment, his lips drawn into a line, and he lost a bit of his relaxed demeanour. Siarut took a moment to think about his wording. He had already spoken of his sister Shivali, letting this woman know of the other two couldn't be that dangerous. Coming to a decision he relaxed and sat back on his haunches, although his previous smile not yet returning. "Yes all of us. I travelled with my other siblings. We came in search of our wayward sister." He failed to relay their names, and the number of siblings he had brought with him. Ambiguity was sometimes necessary, and he planned to use it as long as was required. He had said enough about his siblings, and he would rather know more of the woman before him than dwell on his own family. 

"Nanook Apaata." Sia let the name settle on his tongue, attaching it to the scent, committing it to memory. Although he couldn't help the smile he had previously adorned return at her moniker for him. Ice bear. He found himself sitting a little straighter, happy with the nickname, a small yet deep laugh would come from within. 

Sia could feel the stress he had felt before melt away. Their brief exchange was a much needed distraction, one that he would continue to welcome until she eventually got bored of him. "Siarut Iyaroak Ateneq." He couldn't help the playful grin that appeared on his maw, as he sought out her copper gaze once more. "But you can call me Ice Bear." 

"Is it just the three of you? You, your brother, and father?" He wanted to know more, he felt a drive to learn of this woman. The pale brute was almost desperate to maintain their conversation. He had no intent of returning to the reality that surround the pair, to glad to be lost for a little while longer.

She could tell she struck a nerve in him, and his calculated response only piqued her curiosity. But Nanook knew better than to press if she wished to keep his company, and she chose to accept his elaboration with a simple nod, and let the subject fall. This was a line she wouldn't cross. Not now, at least, but she would be patient. Perhaps a moment would come when one of her questions would be appropriate to voice, but until then, she would count his answer sufficient, and generous enough.

There was something in the way the ice bear spoke that made her name sound right. Perhaps it was his accent, his Northerner's lilt, or the way it reminded her of how her father once spoke it. Even more, she could tell her words pleased him, too. Nanook found herself grinning, tipping her nose as the sound of his laugh lent her lips a faint yet mirrored curl.

"Siarut Iyaroak Ateneq," she repeated his name, as he had hers, and glanced skyward as she often did when she wanted to truly remember a thing. A proper name of the North, and she rolled each syllable carefully over once again, to commit the name deeper, and so as not to butcher the strong and foreign sounds. "Siarut Iyaroak Ateneq. Quite the name." She glanced at him sidelong and tipped her head with a tried attempt to return his playful smile, "You will be Ice Bear to me."

Unlike Siarut, Nanook found no qualms in offering him the answers to what he sought from her. In part, she felt she owed him - he had willingly provided her with more information than he had needed to share about his own family, after all. But she found the stronger sway came from a genuine want to share with this man, and the personal hope that her openness might prompt him to share more of himself with her. "I also have two sisters. The first rules a pack some days north of here, neighbouring my brother's. The other is alive, but only the stars know where." Yet there was one she hadn't mentioned to the Ice Bear, and Nanook paused, taking her own turn of silence to consider - but what harm could come in providing this, too? "And my mother, but she has been dead for a very long time."

He found that he liked her smile, no matter how minute it was. He admired her as she gazed toward the sky, his gaze softening. The sound of his name on her tongue was new, his frosty ears twitched as she rolled the name. His playful smirk returned in earnest as she agreed to his nickname. 

Siarut listened as Nanook spoke of her family. He allowed himself to relaxe even further in her presence as she too had siblings, but he couldn't imagine not knowing what had befallen his family. Having a sister wandering around, and yet not knowing if she were ok, Sia wouldn't be able to handle it. And hadn't handled it. His very presence here showed that he couldn't let one of his siblings wander the world all alone. Carrying on to speak of her mother, Sia dipped his head and sadness crept along his features. He normally wouldn't have shown such emotion for a stranger and yet felt as though her mothers death was difficult for Nanook. 

"I am sorry for you loss. That must have been hard on you." He hadn't lost any in his family before, and so struggled to find the words to make her feel better. "Losing a mother when you are still so young." The brute could only shake his head. 

He returned his gaze to her frame, not remembering when he focused on the dirt beneath his paws. "I've never lost a family member before. I can't imagine how hard it must have been." He wasn't sure what it was, but this woman brought out his emotions. If he remained for much longer he was sure he would answer her every whim without thought.

Nanook couldn't remember the last time she had spoken of her mother - but here they were now. She had long worked through the sorrow and guilt of Scarlett's death. Age and forgiveness had healed her, yet not before she had lost so much time dwelling in the mire of all she had erroneously blamed herself for. Her thoughts filled with better things these days, truer things - the present life, her family's wellbeing, the relief she'd finally found - yet now beneath the sorrow etched along Siarut's frame, Nanook found her mind drifting, and slowly, her gaze shifted toward the ground.

"It was hard." That felt like such an understatement. As searching as his words came, she found hers just as difficult to find. Nanook had dealt with the grief, but she still didn't know how to speak of it. How to receive comfort, or how to give it. And for this, she appreciated his efforts even more. "In part, I know I'm the wolf I am today because of what I've lost," She lifted her head and set her copper gaze back on him. "All the same, I never want to live through it again, and I never wish such a thing on anyone." She felt nothing short of relief that Siarut had been spared this grief; that though he may wander many miles from home, the loyalty of his family would lead him to leave the many to seek and find the one they'd lost. A fear and sorrow of its own, and a genuine care struck her to weave her words back to him. "Did you ever find your sister?"

Her thoughts, he assumed, flowed as free as the flow of emotions that skittered across her face. The thoughts were hidden from his, and so he could only observe. When words finally came forth, he was glad to find they lacked in sorrow. It was there, he could hear it. But it was held at a respectful distance. He could only nod as she spoke. 

Nanook's question didn't faze him, he could only tip his head to on side. Thinking of a well suited response. He could feel the guilt fall in his stomach as he thought of decieving her. It startled Siarut, he had never found difficulty in lying to hid his closness to his siblings. Yet now he had no desire to lie this Nanook Apaata."Yes, we found her." He let a smile tilt his lips, as he thought of finding his sister.  "We were lucky enough to reunite."

"And what of you Apaata? Do you live within one of your siblings packs?" Curiosity twinkled in his green gaze. He lowered himself further to the ground, coming to a comfortable prone position.

The look of contemplation the Ice Bear took did not strike her as a usual response to such a simple inquiry. The answer was but an easy yes or no; there was no in between, and no thinking needed, unless one had a mind still undecided how much he wanted to share.

Eventually Siarut gave an answer to the question she sought, and Nanook found her own head tilting. For the first time she wondered if he was being truthful - but as sudden as her mistrust came, she abandoned it just as fast. His face felt too real, too genuine, to be anything deceptive. While Siarut seemed a man well-guarded, she trusted his words, regardless of how hard they seemed to come.

Hearing of his reunion, Nanook's eyes warmed, and her voice leaked with genuine empathy. "I am glad." Having once been torn from her own siblings, she knew the pain of separation, and her tail waved softly against her hocks to speak her pleasure and share the contentment that he had found his family here.

The information so brightened her, that she eased to her haunches as he, too, slid into a more comfortable position on the ground. "I was with my sister for some seasons, helping raise her children and serving at her right-hand, until I was called away by a friend in the North. She was ancient, dying, wished to see me before she passed. She lived a long and full life." A fondness passed through her gaze, and she found herself sliding further, as Siarut already had, to lay herself more comfortably before him.

"I know I have a place with my sister, and she will always welcome me back. But there's much of the world left to see, and so much still to learn. So for the summer, I travel. And after that..." and she gave a wolfish shrug and half a smile, for the world was truly open before her. She could return to Easthollow, perhaps find a place with Xan, or choose a direction and just go with it, to find what new things waited for her there. Too many options to consider now, when spring wasn't even through, and so she settled with a laugh, "well, let's just make it through the summer first."

As she lowered to a prone position he's smile brightened, he was glad to see her becoming comfortable. He looked curiously at the mention of her northern friend, "To pass with loved ones close is the blessing of all northerners." That was all Sia hoped for when it was finally his time to go. Deep to his core he was a family man, and no one who knew him could deny that. His devotion to his siblings was evidence of that. 

He envied her travels. Siarut would never be able to travel so far from his family. He became anxious at the very thought. His father had always told him that his siblings were his responsibility to protect. He couldn't help but shakes his head at the irony of protecting them from their father. But it had happened. 

"And after that you could always find me once more." He returned her shrug with one of his own, "My sisters...." He gave a nervous cough, "Shivali and Tahani," Siarut took a leap of faith. This woman had offered him a lot of information about herself it was only right that he returned the favour. He wondered if she would notice the significance of him revealing their names."They would like you."He cleared his throat again. "If you ever find the need for company that is." He shruged again. Sia could feel the nerves rolling off of him.