Chimera Fields Compass

Salt in the air became more and more noticeable the closer Tuwawi drew towards the sea. She chose the less arduous route, preferring to traverse the southern fields rather than mountains in order to retain the last of her energy. Unfortunately, the road was longer this way. She passed the spine, where Jinx had supposedly moved to. Yet there was nary a whiff of the white woman to be found, let alone any other pack. Little did she know, Jinx and Lecter had both departed from this earth many months ago.

Hunger was the ember's only companion and her red figure slowly wasted, unable to sate herself with small meals. Cold weather meant a higher demand for calories but Tuwawi could not fell large prey by herself. She stopped for a moment to consider her options and looked towards Silvertip in the distance. Could she coerce the pack to share a meal? Should she steal from a cache? As the firebrand mulled over the options first snow began to fall. Her silver gaze squinted to watch fat flakes dust the plains in powder, body uneasy as the frigid grip of winter seized the wilderness decidedly.

I hope you don't mind little ol' me. I couldn't resist. <3

Tev had been scouting the territories that resides somewhat close to Moonspear — though close wasn't particularly a good word to use for he'd had to cross at least two other territories before he arrived in Chimera Fields. Still, Tev saw a certain advantage to holding even a basic mental map of different territories within the Wilds. It would aid him at trekking them, and perhaps in offering advice to others of the best paths to seek out and take. To aim to learn them all was surely some kind of madness but Tev had a good memory though he worked to keep his ambitions small. For now, anyway. 

As Tev kept a steady pace, pausing here and there to take stock of any landmarks that might help him to draw the mental map within his mind, snow had begun to fall. At first, he assumed it to be rain, not having sight well enough to discern the white flakes due to the light sensitivity his monochromacy cursed blessed him with. Yet, it couldn't be rain. It didn't sound like rain. Ears slicked back to rest at half mast as his steps ceased in their entirety, muzzle thrust skyward as they fell and melted upon black, leathery appendage and thin fur of his muzzle. He had no word for this weather, though there was something sort of soothing to the soft sound of it's fall, soundless as it fell to the earth. 

So caught up in enjoying the marvel of seeing snow fall for the first time in his life, the young Viking didn't even notice the fire kissed woman he'd unknowingly been approaching. “What is this?” He murmured aloud to himself, awestruck and presently (perhaps dangerously) unaware of his surroundings.

<3!!!

A thin coat of powder clung stubbornly to Tuwawi's vermilion guard hairs even after a few shakes. She huffed, undecided in her direction, as a thick trail of vapor rose into the gray afternoon sky. Surely she could poke around the borders of Silvertip and see where their weaknesses lay, or perhaps she could pledge herself to the pack and slip away only after she had regained her strength. Either way, Tuwawi knew she needed to reach the coast before the thick of winter arrived. 

Suddenly, a baritone voice made an exclamation downwind. The red matron turned and trotted to the top of a knoll where, just on the other side, a large alabaster yearling gawked at the weather. At first Tuwawi remembered the large Shearwater Alpha... but upon closer inspection the male had a bit of sandy coloring on his limbs. He was in good condition despite the fresh wounds on his muzzle. Was he a lone traveler?

Her ears orbited curiously, a pang of hunger reminding the ember of her true goal. "Never seen snow?" she joked, calling out to the stranger to better gauge his temperament. She loped towards him casually, ears pressed forward. She had the advantage of age. "Hard to believe. I mean, you look like you just arrived from the North." Teasing silver eyes and a cocked brow gave him an obvious once over as if to say 'really?'  They couldn't have been more different in stature and coat type... but Teekon seemed to be where wolves of all heritages converged.

The sound of approaching footfalls drew Tev out of his contemplative trance as he attempted to place a name to the weird flakes falling from the sky — discernible to him in the slight shadows they cast only because they passed close by his eyes. That was how he knew what it was and that it definitely wasn't rain but beyond that he was clueless. It seemed relatively harmless — if not cold. Eyes of Caribbean blue with their rings of silver around the pupil lowered to her silhouette as it approached, unaware that her coat was as brilliantly colored as Wildfire's own and would he have been able to see in color he would have made some sort of remark about it. Tev picked up on her jest easily enough but he saw no reason not to respond to it with nothing short of honesty. “No,” He admitted softly. “I was born mid-spring. This is the first time I've experienced winter,” Perhaps letting on that he was younger than nine months, which was the official age of adulthood by pack standards, wasn't the best idea but he had no reason to hide. He understood that out here he was on his own and while the scent of Moonspear upon his coat might aid him it did not warrant him protection. Protection that, arrogantly he felt, he didn't need (apparently he forgot his lesson about arrogance).

“A little ways north,” He responded amused. “My family does hail from the far North, though.” Or so he'd been told. The Vikings were all over, they raided and conquered and colonized and it was no surprise that Ragnar had found a home in Stavanger Bay. Even if her wolves no longer called the Bay home. He squinted slightly as he brazenly took a few curious steps closer, noting the strange device around her neck. “What's that thing around your neck? Does it hurt?” He inquired with unbidden wonder. “Sorry, I don't mean to be rude,” He murmured sheepishly a few heart beats later. Sometimes in his quest to stifle his curiosity he often forgot to take in courtesies of others. “I'm Tevinter, but you can call me Tev, if you want.” He introduced himself to her with a friendly wag of his tail. 

The boy appeared candid, and although he already outsized his smaller guest, Tuwawi felt at ease in his presence. She mimed his steps, ebbing closer to glean his scent with an outstretched muzzle. It was a casual greeting - an exchanging of sniffs - but much could be gleaned from the encounter. Her ruddy ears orbited forward as the youth spoke. He was a spring-time whelp. Smart parents, Tuwawi thought to herself bitterly. Perhaps if his children had grown a bit more by winter they would have stood a better chance at fending off the forest's dangers.

"Makes sense," she said indifferently before the male made a comment about the collar upon her neck. Her teeth clicked as her attitude shifted suddenly like a summer storm. Argent eyes narrowed angrily, expression glowering at Tevinter. Tuwawi detested the damn thing - placed upon her by unknown beasts. At first it had torqued painfully at her skin and twisted her fur. In time she had become accustomed to its presence. However, she still felt the burn of the cold metal and taught leather now and again. Its place upon her neck was a constant reminder of her own personal failures to family and pack, akin to a wreath of thorns. Pain doggedly resided in her heart and mind... and sometimes Tuwawi couldn't help but speculate that the collar was a manifestation of her sins. Never the less, she felt the pale boy's judgmental gaze upon it and hated him for it, regardless of his innocent question and nativity.

"You pry where you shouldn't, boy, " she snapped at the boy, expression visibly upset. "I do not wish to bear this device. It was placed upon me." A few lashes of her red tail were enough to bring Tuwawi back to a simmer, shaking her red coat to calm herself. Her tongue rolled over her nose as she shifted, changing the subject.
 
"What made you leave your family? That is, assuming they didn't come with you? Ah, and my name is Tuwawi." The Sveijarn's introduction was a bit awkward after her little outburst, but the she-wolf attempted to stay cordial.

The woman snapped at him, understandably, and Tev shrunk slightly, recognizing that he'd overstepped his boundaries. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. I was just curious,” but curiosity wasn't always a good thing. He'd learned that once, the very hard way, in the form of the bear on the beach in Stavanger Bay. Despite that life lesson and the one that had changed his life forever, Tev apparently hadn't really learned it. Tev didn't know what the collar was, nor if he could even help her take it off. “Oh? You think I'm...my family lives here in the Wilds, well some of them anyway,” Tev said and then offered a sheepish little smile. “It's kind of complicated. I was separated from my biological family, swept out to sea and washed up on some shore. I was found and taken in by Scimitar and Bazi Frostfur and they, too, have become my family though they have departed the Teekon. I met up with my biological family and am trying to fit in but there's some discord between my older brother and me.” Really Charon was the only one being difficult about everything. For the most part Thistle and Floki had accepted him and his changes fairly well.

“Sometimes I want to leave because he's also my alpha,” The word came out in a snort of discontent, hating that that simple title gave Charon all the power over him. “but my twin and mother sort of need me I guess.” He wasn't sure why he was telling Tuwawi all of this, for it was probably a lot more information than she'd wanted upon making her inquiry. “Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to unload all of that on you.” He offered a brisk shrug, gesturing that it was no big deal …even though it felt better to get it off his chest. He had told his grievances to Thistle, of course, but he didn't expect her to do much about it.