Broken Boulder to keep him merry company along the way

vilkas walks the borders out of sheer necessity for the routine. the action strikes the raptorial whitemane as moot given the sanctuary's lax atmosphere highlighted by their open border policy. for the companion's ex-slayer this is by far the most challenging part to adapt to. while it's true the firebrand thrives in rigid, militant structure he can work around that by making his own structure for his self-assumed duties. the nord ensures that he performs exactly how he did with the companions and jorrvaskr. bracken sanctuary — for the moment — is thankfully secluded in the far reaches of teekon wild's north but vilkas has his doubts and concerns and doesn't believe that things will always stay so peaceful and unchallenged forever. that is his expectations of the world; he's seen wars come and go, seen warlords conquer and take what they set their eyes on, preying on packs where weakness and ripples in loyalty are easily exposed and preyed upon.

it is this reason, this distrust that pulls him to the borders. he won't mark them — he is territorial as it is and the message he leaves behind will not be kind or welcoming. the idea that wolves not of the sanctuary could come and go on 'claimed' land as they pleased settled uneasily within him so he patrols 'loosely', with intention of cataloging scents both of and not of the sanctuary. vilkas doesn't exactly know what he'll do with the information but he knows that it keeps him busy and that is always a good thing. after all the number one rule in his owner's manual was: one must keep their vilkas model busy or else it might default to aggression and high irritability out of boredom.

Alarian hadn't had much chance to speak with Vilkas, the male Lily had directed to the Sanctuary. Honestly, he didn't really want to— but he knew it was necessity. As much as he wanted to avoid the male— avoid everyone, really— he was the Governor— the leader. It was his job to know everyone. Among other things.
So he set off to find the Cipher, pace slow. It wasn't such a difficult task, thankfully; he found him along the borders, not marking but patrolling. Pleased to see he was already contributing in some way, Alarian drew up beside him with a chuff.
Hey, He greeted, unable to still the wandering of his gaze for several moments. Even if he already seemed weirdly familiar with Lily, Alarian could admire the dude, right? Settling in alright?

som stole this but u know what im COMIGN IN ANYWAY

queenie is due any day now and so he is making an effort. it helps that the sanctuary is so swollen with life, bustling, busier than he remembers tindómë ever being. maybe his curse isn't going to doom them all and the girl who died was just an unfortunate fluke. 

delight is not by any means convincing border patrol but he figures he'll do a lap, maybe try to find something to pick up for queenie, maybe look for alarian, who he wants to be around for some reason. the rest of the pack he finds.. a little overwhelming, unsure how to meet their expectations (or what those expectations even are). he catches alarian's scent and trails it until he sees the governor standing with a stranger. a new pack member he hasn't had the chance to meet, he guesses, issuing his own chuff as he draws closer but staying awkwardly quiet lest he accidentally interrupt some conversation he didn't know about.

vilkas keeps a steady stroll that is neither too fast or too slow subconsciously using the rhythmic beating of his heart as his guide. it gives him something to focus on as he mechanically makes his rounds. a new sound fazes him through the absent-minded work he's fallen into, breaking through the 'thump, thump' of his heart beat. his ears perk as he discerns quickly that it is the sound of approaching footfalls and that it is coming from within the territory. that alone keeps the firebrand from turning hostile as his attention is forced to re-surface.

vilkas's steps slow as the governor himself appears and sweeps his gaze over the santuary's leader before it flickers back to his path. he does not stop entirely in his patrol even as the alpha offers him a greeting. "hey," the firebrand echoes back. "yeah," vilkas responds noncommittally accented by a slight rise and fall of his shoulders. "the sanctuary is very different than what i'm just to but i'm adjusting as best i can." vilkas offers alarian as a more in-depth response to the question.

the firebrand's attention is once more diverted from his path at the sound of additional footfalls quickly approaching seconds before the darker coated male join the small party. vilkas offers him a small nod of acknowledgment as a form of non-verbal greeting unaware that the newly joined male is the chancellor that alarian had mentioned when vilkas had first joined.

He opened his mouth to respond— but then Delight was there, and he turned to look at him instead. His arrival was welcome, though for a beat Alarian wished Vilkas wasn't right there. Or that he could, like, reasonably tell him to get out (Alarian had never actually claimed to be nice, he just sometimes came off that way).
Oh well. Hey, He greeted Delight with a faint smile. It faded slightly at how quiet he was. Alarian followed his friend's gaze to Vilkas, catching on quickly to the lack of familiarity between the two. Both were quiet; it seemed he would be responsible for introductions, unfortunately. Vilkas, this is Delight, the Chancellor. Delight, this is Vilkas— one of our newer members.
Uhhh, haha, shit. What do I say now? He glanced away, ears flattening for half a beat as he had a small crisis to the tune of 'Oh shit, I'm really boring and now there are two people to witness it.' It was cool, it was fine; Delight would have something cute to say like he always did, right? Right?

vilkas. he nods, shuffling his feet as he glances between the two of them. if he interrupted a conversation it doesn't look like it's about to start back up any time soon, so he clears his throat and speaks into the silence, "nice to meet you," offering a hesitant smile to the other man. there's a beat where he looks between the two of them, very much wishing he had gone back to the den instead of approaching them, but eventually he settles on saying, "you patrolling?" the answer is obviously yes, but what he's really trying to get at is if vilkas is filling the gap left by queenie -- because if so, queenie will definitely want to know it and frankly it'd be nice to give her a piece of good news for once.

alarian makes the introductions between the unacquainted pair, informing vilkas that the other male was the chancellor and that he was named delight. in turn, he offers delight vilkas's own brief and in retrospective entirely unimpressive status. vilkas is reminded abruptly of how much he detests starting from the bottom. once upon a time in the companions, he bore the rank of 'commander' and now? now he's been demoted to 'one of our newer members'. nice. of course, he understood it came with the territory but that didn't mean the firebrand had to be pleased about his average and unexciting status. "likewise." vilkas returns as his attention shifts to delight, ears cupping forth to catch the other leader's words. "yes." vilkas responds and then adds, after a swipe of his salmon pink tongue across his jowls. "in my old pack i was their commander," it's the most he's talked about the companions at length ...and that wasn't honestly saying much because he offered very little information in truth. "patrolling is familiar." in a pack that was otherwise entirely foreign to him.