Greatwater Lake When I feel the snakebite enter my veins

It took time to wind his way down from the mountain range into the flatlands below. He felt more at ease here, though the land was still too crowded for his liking. Back in The Gilded Sea, you could look in any direction and see for miles. It was all golden grass, with only a few stunted, shrubby trees here and there. Tybault didn't miss it, exactly, but at the same time he felt uncomfortable with the strange scenery.
Sometimes it was striking, though. The lake caught his eye from a distance, and he found himself heading in that direction before long. He had never seen so much water in one place before. The lake was so vast, it hadn't even frozen fully. Ice and snow were still things he hadn't quite gotten used to, but he knew this was strange even with his limited experience. He'd been traveling through the cold season for some time now, and when it came to water, if it wasn't moving then it would freeze.
Except in this case, apparently. Tybault stepped closer to the edge of the lake, where snow and thin ice met. He pushed a paw through the ice, wincing at the sharp edges against his skin, and bent to drink. It was so cold it made his throat ache, but it was better than eating snow.

tags for reference! <3

kivaluk heads northeast, after letting @Rodyn know he was heading out to track one of the herds he'd taken note of in the general area. he's old enough to at the very least track on his own and delights in the using it as an opportunity to ( hopefully ) prove himself.

he follows their tracks to the greatwater lake, lowering his body and stalking thru the tall, wild grasses; eyes taking note of useful tidbits of information: size of the herd, doe to buck ratio, the ones that hung at the back, a little from the group even as they stop to graze.

he's almost so focused that the stranger almost goes unnoticed: until the cracking of the ice that crusted the lake is heard ...and not just by kivaluk. the heads of the deer rise up over the grasses and they skitter off; skittish. kivaluk's attention then turns to the source of the noise, gaze taking in the earthen colored male.

a low chuff passes betwixt kivaluk's lips.

He had just lifted his muzzle from the water when a chuff from behind startled him. Tybault spun with hackles raised, taking a half-step back. His toes brushed the ice.
It was a boy close to him in age. Maybe even a bit younger, but far larger than Tybault would ever be. His fur was smoky-pale with blooms of crimson like blood in water, and he had twin stars for eyes. Tybault had never seen anyone who looked like him before.
He forgot what he was doing.
Oh. Hi. I - I was just... He blinked, and looked around as if searching for some clue in the landscape. Then he remembered. He tried to look confident when he looked back at the other boy. I'm looking for someone, actually. She has gold fur and eyes, and she might be in poor condition. Have you seen her?
And just like that, he was business-mode Tybault again. That was much better.

whatever kivaluk has expected, it had not been the stuttering that had greeted him from the other male. a soft tilt of his head is given, gaze taking in the sunbeam kissed male as if he could discern what appeared to make him nervous. perhaps, kivaluk thinks, it was simply the fact that someone else was out here in the first place.

he was looking for someone: golden fur and golden eyes. a family member? kivaluk asks. he supposes, in truth, it matters little whether he is told either way. it wasn't actually kivaluk's business; and either way his own answer would not change.

no, kivaluk admits a beat later. you're the first wolf i've came across out here. then again, he hadn't been looking.

He was much friendlier and more forthcoming than Germanicus had been, which Tybault chalked up to him not being old and crusty yet. Still, the Medeiros was disappointed with the answer he received. No one had seen her. No one had heard of her. Was he wasting his time here?
My sister, He confirmed, immediately ready to move on. The other boy's next words were of interest to him, though. The first wolf he'd come across out here. Are you new to this place, too? Tybault wondered aloud. For some reason, it was a relief to consider that this boy was an oddity even in these lands. He wasn't sure what he'd do if everyone here looked like... that. It was distracting.

his sister, the stranger tells kivaluk, affirming what the natigivik had already assumed. for a moment, kivaluk lingers in a moment of uncertainty...for he both understood the want to find one's sibling ...and yet, he did not. he had not chased akkuma through lands yet undiscovered by himself. no, he'd left his brother to his own choices and had estranged himself from his littermate.

though, this is to no one's knowledge but kivaluk's own for he does not speak of it.

at all, if he can help it.

no, kivaluk replies. i was born here. well, not here here. i was born in these wilds. he seeks to clarify as if to say that he wasn't familiar with this particular neutral territory they presently occupied. my home is with the wolves of moonglow. they claim the spine, he gestures towards it, over his shoulder where in the distance the rocky walls of the spine could be seen in the distance. i was only out this way because i was tracking a herd.

kivaluk hadn't been asked but offered the information all the same.

Again, he was disappointed. He didn't have long to linger on the feeling, because the silver-eyed boy continued. It was a lot of information for a first meeting. Tybault almost felt embarrassed himself at the level of oversharing, and that threw him off all over again. Moonglow, he thought, trying to latch onto something that didn't feel awkward, at least that name makes sense.
It reminded him of home.
He glanced past the boy, in the direction he'd gestured. My home is pretty far from here. I've been traveling for weeks. I was born in The Gilded Sea. We didn't... And here, he wrinkled his nose slightly, shaking his head. We didn't do all that pack stuff, though. Sitting around in one place, chasing people off. As it turned out, you could not combat oversharing with your own oversharing. He felt worse now. And he'd pretty much just insulted the guy, which he hadn't meant to do, but he wasn't about to take it back either. Instead, he tacked on, Is that what Moonglow is like?

oh, kivaluk replies, letting the golden boy's words sink in. he wonders what could have inspired such a long trip from home though he is willing enough to chalk it up to looking for his sister. it made kivaluk wish, almost, he could say the same. that he would cross countless unknown territories for akkuma. but the harsh truth was: he wouldn't. he didn't. their relationship had cracked and fissured long before kivaluk had even realized it happened, let alone that it was happening.

uh, kivaluk hesitates. no. we're not, he offers in moonglow's defense. not entirely, at least. we are a pack. we all contribute. and we chase trespassers off because you can't let strangers just come and go and raid your caches as they please. kivaluk explains, perplexed as to why anyone would think that was ok ...but then again his upbringing from the golden boy's — from what little kivaluk knew, of course — appears to be vastly different.

He denied it, and then proceeded to confirm Tybault's suspicions with everything else he said. Spoken like a true pack wolf, he thought, but he knew better than to say it. It wasn't that he didn't see the logic in their way of life — it made total sense, actually.
He just thought it was pretty lame. Doesn't matter if you don't have caches, He said, thinking of home again. I can't imagine staying in one place all the time. Don't you get bored? He was familiar with just about every corner of The Gilded Sea, of course, but none of it had ever grown stale because they never lingered long. With this to focus on, Tybault forgot some of his awkwardness. It didn't matter anyway; he would never see the other boy again, so why waste time getting comfortable?

kivaluk, knowing no other way of life, finds it very strange — discomforting almost — that any wolf would be ok with strangers coming into their territory whenever they wanted with food caches ripe for the taking and cubs unable to defend themselves. the very idea causing a soft pinprickle along his guard hairs.

food isn't always guaranteed, especially in winter. food caches can be the difference between life and death. he does not know this from experience from the word of wolves much older and much more knowing than him. his first taste of winter was rapidly approaching and though he has come to expect the worst he is not really sure what exactly he's in for. not truly.

and what about cubs? do you just leave them for strays and predators? it takes a pack to raise cubs. that, he did know. natigvik and moonglow as wholes had both been crucial to his own upbringing. but if kivaluk was learning one thing about himself it was that he was extremely biased towards pack life.

no, he blows out a sharp breath. there is always plenty to do. borders to patrol. prey to be tracked or hunted. neighboring packs to visit.

He was a defensive one, wasn't he? Tybault found some twisted pleasure in making him uncomfortable; it felt like payback. For being distracting, for being a weird oversharing bootlicker, for somehow making Tybault want to talk to him anyway. Despite all appearances to the contrary, however, the Medeiros was not actually trying to be an asshole. He just naturally was.
Where I'm from, we don't get snow. Prey doesn't disappear. And we keep an eye on our pups, It was still weird to Tybault that anyone would leave a mother and her pups unguarded in any context. Other predators cared nothing for the laws of wolves; the scent markers on pack land would alert them, but not deter them. And if something isn't to our liking, we move on. Simple as that. It's impossible to stay in one place in The Gilded Sea anyway.

no snow?

kivaluk finds this tidbit of information both particularly interesting and unbelievable, if only because he has known the cold kiss of winter's breath from the wilds and the particularly colder qeya river. i can't imagine any sort of place like that. kivaluk speaks plainly, perhaps a bit more rudely than he intended.

a small voice in the back of his head advises him to try to imagine something other than what he knows but he, stubbornly, pushes it away.

that's strange. and thus not a way of life that kivaluk could ever see himself entertaining. a stretch of awkwardness ensues then ( at least it feels awkward to kivaluk ). well, he drawls. i should keep tracking the herd, he can only hope they didn't stray too far during the time he's spent conversing.

good luck on your hunt for your sister. in this, kivaluk is strangely sincere: a crack in his otherwise cold facade in regards to his own experience with his littermate. maybe, he considers, if things had been different he might've trekked akkuma to the ends of the earth. but the rooted deep thought that his brother would not do that for him chases away any hope of that kivaluk might've fostered.

Maybe someone else would have taken offense to the boy's dismissal, but Tybault was pretty smug about it. In his eyes, it was an admission of defeat. He knew something the other boy didn't, and they both knew it. The shame of it must have been too much, because he started to excuse himself.
Tybault almost stopped him. They still hadn't exchanged names. For some reason, that seemed important. But then he mentioned Ophelia, sounding genuine in a way that felt out of place in the conversation, and Tybault remembered that he couldn't afford to waste more time. And this situation was more than a little weird anyway. Tybault liked plenty of people, and he held a lot of disdain for others. But he'd never found himself feeling both of those things about one person. It was probably best if he let it go.
Thanks. Good luck with your herd, He glanced toward where the boy had indicated Moonglow was, and set off. He had some direction now, at least.