Moonspear Is there a spirit that spits upon the exit of signs.

He woke with a grunt. Saliva pooled beneath his jowls. There was an ache in his ribs along the side that he lay, and he twisted so that he sagged on to his chest, briefly sphinx-posed. The sound of the rain exacerbated the chill of the air upon his face. He blinked slowly in to a squint, his eyes having been crusted shut for some time now.

When he moved to wipe his face off with his forearm, he felt how remarkably thin it was. Just out of reach of his paws was a pile of would-be debris: some dry herbs, a chunk of fish or something similar, a wide flat stone gathering rain drops just outside the edge of cover. If he didn't know better Revui would have thought it was the work of a medic, but who would bother helping him?

He could not remember the past few weeks; nor should he, really. The fever had infested his wounds and would have driven him mad if he had not been sedated. What he knew was scarce enough: his name, for one. Where he was, although that too perplexed him. It did not look nor smell of Ursus; he had somehow made it home.

There was a scent she had picked up in her scouring of the Spear for the lost child, one that she hadn't picked up anywhere else. This was curious to the silver-touched valkyrie, if only because the scent was that of a wolf's and yet it remained prevalent only when she approached the vicinity of the medic's den. Intrigued, the woman had decided to take a short break from the search and go and meet the one that remained so secluded that she had not seen hide nor hair of him.

Carefully, she would step, a gentle call leaving her so that she would not surprise whoever it was that lived here. Hello?

After the meeting with Valour, Desdemona head up from the Moonspear. She saw Keres, an unfamiliar packmate, go near the medics den. It faintly reminded her so there was an Ostrega hiding in there- moreso healing, but the man had left Moonspear so long ago only to come back, she was curious so.

Though she was right to come forth, as he looked to be stirring in an awake, "Revui," Desdemona said, as she gave a slight nod to Keres in a greeting, "you are awake. It has been some time."

His mouth was dry. He edged himself closer to the slab of shadow cutting across the dirt, reaching out to sniff at the smooth stone and then dab his tongue across it. The rain had brought out the cool blue tones of the flat stone, and he felt the moisture collected across its pock-marked surface gather on his tongue.

As he swallowed, the behemoth took another breath. A warm twinning of scents swam to the forefront of his attention, contrasting against the woodsy aromas of autumn and the minerality of the rain. Revui felt the hairs stand on his nape. He peered around, his mind a little bit foggy from whatever herbs lay scattered nearby.

He saw the grey face of a stranger - sharp eyes that looked moodier with the backdrop of light rain - and then a voice, but the voice came from a different angle. The stranger's dark face reminded him vaguely of Merrick's; this one had two eyes, and they looked colder than the water-stone.

"You are awake. It has been some time." They said. It was not a voice he recognized. The faces were not faces he knew, either. He gave them as much mental investment as he might bestow a pest, such as a raven zeroing in on a kill. They held the familiar scents of his sister and that alone kept him docile.

That said, Revui wasn't exactly in fighting form, if that's what they came about. He grunts in response to the words, but that is all.

She will be back after a round or two from y'all :]

Revui.

Keres gave a subtle gesture to Desdemona in return, pine colored eyes flickering between the two. There were all sorts of questions swimming in the depths of that gaze, though the woman would give voice to none of them. Now was not the time, and despite her curiosity, especially as the darker female spoke as if she new him, the Ostrega woman would remain quiet.

Even if she was quiet, she remained observant; the man was thin and malnourished. His coat lacked a certain shine, his eyes looked guarded and careful. There was something that hung in the air here, something tense and unsure. From this she turned, leaving with a specific location in mind; to one of the nearby caches she would venture, intent on procuring even just a small meal for the male that appeared to be on death's doorstep.

Long ago was Revui a member of Moonspear, the Beta before Jarilo, and even before Arcturus. Though she doesn't remember the specifics on why the member left, he also vaguely wandered back and forth from an unknown area and to the mountain. Desdemona in particular never truly interacted with him, moreso with Arcturus then above all else; but it was a given she knew him.

"Shall I get Hydra?" Jade eyes watched the gray woman leave, before turning the focus back onto Revui.

"that is not necessary."

kukutux reappeared at the eaves beneath which revui had been tucked, gaze flicking between desdemona and the departing grey wolfess. keres — but she had only known the stormstar by name. an ostrega, from the look of it. one of their own. one belonging to moonspear. "i was allowed to treat him." 

revui, trader and sickman, notched into the no-man's-land betwixt the glen and the spear. hydra would be busied with seeking mira's whereabouts, and saviguk too had disappeared briefly. the duck was strained, her carefully groomed pelt flyaway and usually pristine paws stained with mud to the ankle from trekking between revui and the shared lands, searching for her son. he had returned, though aloof, and the loss of mira had tugged heavily at her aunt.

she pressed among the two now, seeking the trader's greyscale self and lowering her muzzle to brush his forehead. "the fever demon has gone," kukutux whispered for his ears alone. there was nothing left in the woman to inspire polite nature, nor deference; she felt bereft, clinging to that which she knew. in this moment, it was revui.

His presence raises a few eyebrows. Did they think Hydra would let him waste away to his fever dreams, that she might toss the resulting carcass from the mountain, perhaps even feed it to her slithering spawn? He was an Ostrega. There had been complications, malign errors; he still held the blood in his veins. No rights to the mountain but no reason to perish.

Revui had lain in the nameless darkness as the fever reigned within. He had seen things in his mind that were close to reality, occluded and then twisted, in a way that made things difficult to tell apart. He did not know he was awake now, in fact. These faces he saw were permutations on a theme: they were faces he may have encountered and registered somewhere in his brain, revived again by the sickness.

It was Kukutux that proved otherwise for him. She, he never dreamed of. The smell of fresh herbs, of mountain green, of spicy autumn and Jarilo, came to him as she approached. She spoke, then bent by his face and spoke again. A touch to his face, and Revui understood he was awake. He looked at her. She appeared worn, maybe even haunted.

The attitude he held now melted away. He snuffled softly at her nearness, holding a private moment in full view of Desdemona as he had forgotten she was there with them. Forgotten Jarilo's scent that hung garishly upon her. Then as he remembered, he drew his touch away from her and lay his head across his wiry parallel limbs.

skippable

"Very well." She had thought maybe the Alpha would desire to know her kin was awake, but she listened to Kukutux and stood a bit back. The woman was as she always as, a shadow of a guard. Desdemona didn't trust him too much and felt wary to leave him with the woman despite him being of Ostrega blood. He had shown some maniac behaviors of previous days-

it was better to be cautious then trusting.

One-post cameo for me!

Sialuk trailed her mother's scent today, following it until she spotted the unmistakable light fur ahead. Her mother was tending to a sick wolf, though Sialuk did not recognize him. Keres and Desdemona were present, too, though Sialuk was far enough away she could not make out their conversation. Sensing she was not meant to overhear, she ducked back toward the rendezvous site and away from the scene, curious questions floating in her mind.

a moment then, where the world fell back into something muted. she looked into the pained gaze of the trader, lips ready to lift, to whisper anything she might; but then revui was turning away, and kukutux bowed her head in silent concession to his unsaid wish.

pulling away, the healer blinked toward desdemona. she had not seen sialuk's quick arrival and departure. sharing a quick glance with the impassive warrior she had come to trust, the duck drew a breath. "do you think he is a dangerous being in this moment?" she muttered, meaning for revui not to hear but unsure if that would be possible.

kukutux herself did not share the notion.

He sank inward, thinking of his dreams as they faded from his memory. Bits and pieces that patchworked with reality, clinging to them as if they held more sense than what stood before his eyes.

A cliff face, with raging sea below. Waves crashing so violently that they foamed the edge, frothing like rancid spit over the tooth of a rabid animal. A dark shape and a voice speaking. The waves crash, the foam becomes a shape - a wolf - he thinks it is his father. It does not speak but it also does not solidify.

Revui does not know how to make sense of this. Even as he tries to recite the moments to himself, they are fading. Was it the ocean booming on the cliff in his dream, or was it the shouting of a voice? Was the wolf white like the cresting foam, or is he confusing the scenes in his fever dream with memory, or with life now? It did not matter in the end; the pieces fell away to nothing. He was left empty-headed and tired.

A raging storm at the edge of the world, but the ground is made of tall wheat, not jagged rock. The booming comes as a stampede. He is running, a bear at his hocks, its mouth open and pouring hot breath. It reaches for him; he is falling, he looks back to the bear with one eye and sees a face sprouting between the massive teeth. A wolf head in place of tongue. It grins, its teeth are black, its eyes are blue.

Over his thoughts was a whisper he did not hear. Kukutux said something maybe. Revui kept his eyes shut and pretended to go back to sleep, as if that might bring clarity - but he was too awake for that, and merely looked childish and avoidant in that instant. The images he tried to pull up again and again, and they mixed and muddied, twisted and faded until it was incomprehensible. He lets out a heavy sigh as the last of the images leaves him.

The emotions that rode the air upon her return to the medic's den were both palpable and uncomfortable. There was a tension sung here, its melody woven by a sharp, disharmonius chord. She did her best to ignore it as she carried in the small carcass that she had fetched from a cache. Tension or not, if Kukutux had taken her time to heal him, the silvered Ostrega could not imagine that they would allow him to starve.

Gingerly, she stepped, weaving between the warrior and the medic to slip into the den and set the meal beside him, no care given to if he was dangerous or not. If he was, she would rally up and put him in his place; if not, then she would step away and give the man space once more, looking to the other adults with questions filling her gaze, though she didn't think now was the proper time to voice them.

desdemona did not immediately answer. the grey woman she did not yet know had come back, seemingly with a meal for revui. she watched with some anxiousness as the she-wolf drew closer. for reasons unexplored, kukutux felt protective over the man into which she had poured her healing, though she knew he would not ever walk among them again.

for that reason, a low ache to her chest, the duck offered a swift, sunless smile to the pair of silent wolfesses. "i go now. please, call to me if ..." if his fever worsened. if he worsened, somehow, in another way, though kukutux did not think that she would be suitable for that. if her name went unmentioned, the snow-wife would turn aside, heading back to her ulaq in contemplation.

A woman appeared, having left temporarily outside of his notice, and dropped warm meat at his side. He glanced at it, then to the back of Kukutux' head - she was addressing one of the other bodies present - sighed, and tucked himself in to a heap; hardly hungry enough to pick at the offering, and lost with the dissolution of his fever. He fit in here as well as always. He had many questions but no energy to ask them, and resorted to drowsing while the strangers spoke with his caretaker; he could not help the curious flicker of one ear to listen, however he was drifting sleepily soon enough.

Keres would linger for only a few moments more, not one to hover or coddle, generally speaking. She, like Kukutux, departed with little fanfare, uttering a quiet good bye to the silent Desdemona before being on her way.

Keres exit!

Desdemona was watching in thought, the words of Kukutux seemed to slip past her ear, and only when Keres finally passed by her, did she snap out of it. She was in the same thought- was he dangerous? The man known as Revui was once the beta of Moonspear, and sibling to various of Ostrega's in the mountain, most particulary the Queen Hydra.

Would he dare do something to her?

He was unpredictable, and not even she could think of what he may do, "We should watch him," the guard whispered to Kukutux, before turning away, and giving a final glance to where the long-lost prince of Moonspear is.