Permafrost Hollows she names conquerors, and the servile regimes they birthed

tezcacoatl takes in the familiar territory with a overbearing sense of nostalgia. a pack has staked claim to duskfire glacier to the west and there is a resounding disappointment that it is not tuwawi's scent. he hadn't really expected it to be but there is a part of the rekkr that will continue to search for her in the hopes that their paths might cross in the future once more despite that it has been many years since he's last seen her. the peak of the mountain coated in the glacier's sheet ice pokes out of it and reaches towards the horizon like a frost giant's baby tooth. tezcacoatl, upon the pack scent that the wind carries from the glacier, adjusted his course to take him south towards frostfire ridge. it's borders touch the glacier's own and the serpent king makes his way through the forest towards his once and quickly fallen kingdom glad that there are no pack scents emitting from the ridge's borders. it is unlikely there ever would be with a pack settled in the glacier's territory but a lone wolf could make the ridge his haunt without issue.

the season of harvest has just begun though the frosts have yet to come. the herds have yet to migrate to warmer climates and tezcacoatl intends to stay lone for as long as he can. until the biting chill of winter chases him reluctantly into the temporary shelter of a pack's borders, at least. at least this time he comes to the wilds to find it prospering instead of being ravaged by a plague of pestilence as it had been during his last jaunt here. the famine had been enough to force him to reconsider and seek asylum elsewhere ...back to coatl's rise where he found himself leader of a culture that despised him for being male but reluctantly accepted him as their patriarch because of the coatl markings he bore beneath each frosted blue eye. three daughters came out of that time, though, and at least the amazons of coatl's rise could not say his time spent there was not fruitful. he left them with three young queens trusting the legacy of the coatl's to his sprightly daughters while he sought the place that was more home to him than the rise. not for retirement, though. tezcacoatl was too tenacious and ambitious for that. like his mother before him, his retirement would only come with his death.

though it is frostfire ridge he seeks to haunt he lingers in the forest of the permafrost hollows. it has been a long time since he last stepped foot in these wilds and tezcacoatl has nothing but time. much has changed since he was last here and he is an adventurer first and foremost.

The heart of the territory, the glacier, is oft where the other wolves spend their time. @Tahani keeps her entertained most of the time but the air is becoming chilly, making it colder all over the territory. The strange ice has been a shock to her, having once and vaguely remembering heat and warmth and not the need to struggle for warmth. Currituck stays off the ice as much as she can but her bored little legs often work her around all over the place. 

Her ears have become larger, her legs longer and paws awkwardly large for her body. She differs greatly from the other wolves, she’s starting to notice, and questions begin to form. She doesn’t yet bring them to the surface because it seems silly. For her whole life, she’s been around these wolves but something nags at her that none of this is right. It is not enough for her to seek out the answers she needs just yet and instead she pursues onward. 

For a while, she annoying plays with @Aqakuktuq‘s tail when she finds her before ultimately losing her along the way. There’s always been a fondness for the pale wolf that isn’t part of her family but also is, in some way. Having accepted most things that happened to her, she finds it easy to leave behind and when their playing is done she’s moved on, finding herself in uncharted territory. 

Not quite realizing where she’s gotten herself, she stumbles upon another. His coat is not white and she blinks owlishly up at him as she stumbles upon his path. Ears draw back and her tail hangs low, though the tip wiggles in display that she hopes is received with kindness.

the viking and amazon hybrid does not expect to come across another. it is far from uncommon, these wilds had been vastly populated the last time he was here and no doubt that population has grown after all; not to mention there is a pack just upon the glacier not but a territory away... and yet he cannot help but feel taken aback nevertheless. what takes him more aback is that it is one so young. it is hard to guess her exact age but she couldn't be any older than three to four months. it does not fall beneath the serpent king's notice that she is probably a coywolf but he puts no stock in it. it doesn't matter. what matters is she is out here in the permafrost hollows, smelling of the pack that tezcacoatl's been avoiding as he traverses, seemingly alone.

"hello," tezcacoatl offers her kindly, softly, unable to shake the fact that when he looks at her he sees his now-grown daughters when they were her age. she does not look anything like them but he is and always would be a father. those awoken paternal instincts did not leave just because one's children were grown and forged their own paths of greatness. "you've wandered a bit from home pipotzin," he tells her, the nahuatl flowing off of his tongue without much thought as he lifts his gaze from her to scour the trees around them. part of him waits for an adult to come charging through them like an angry bull. none do and his gaze lowers once more.

"i'm tezcacoatl," he introduces himself and then wonders if she'd be able to pronounce his name. "tezca, if it's easier." he offers her with a soft smile. the nickname 'tezca' brings back a brief flashback that cannot quite form. his memory has remained hazy at best even after all these years. he knows he'll never regain it in full and there is a lot of time and memories lost to him. the flashbacks are brief and fuzzy and he does not try to grasp onto them. they will bring him no clarity, they will not guide him forward to his future and he lets them go without consequence. "what is your name?" he asks her.

Never one to be fearless, her hesitation is quickly swiped away when he speaks to her. His voice is soft and friendly and he looks kinda need too—she likes his eyes—and a smile forms wide upon her features. Large ears start to rise the more he speaks. The tip of her tail swishes back and forth. He speaks the common tongue, something she’s not as strong in, but she understands the gist of what he’s saying. Maybe he knows the other words too! She doesn’t even notice the strange word he tacks on.
 
“Tezca!” she chirps when he offers a not-so-complicated version. She eases into a relaxed posture, ears cupped eagerly forward and she takes a step forward.
 
Oh right, her name!
 
“Curri!” she tells him with a smile—“-tuck. Currituck.” The girl licks her lips and looks up to the stranger. “You from home?”

Although she didn't patrol the glacier's surrounding territories nearly as often she she did her own borders, she still made sure to run through them every so often to make sure no trouble was brewing. Today Taki had chosen the peak to check on and was immediately glad she had, because currituck's scent filled her nose not long after arriving. Fear and anger swelled in her chest as she made quick work of following the dangerously brazen girl's scent trail. Her nose flared out over and over again as she pulled in the smells from the ground as she moved quickly in the pup's direction. When the strangers scent suddenly mixed with Currituck's, panic completely overshadowed the fear and anger she was feeling at the start of this mission. Dammit, she thought, as she lifted her nose from the ground and started sprinting in the direction she was sure she would find the girl. As she ran, images of all the horrible things that could have happened to the pup assaulted her mind, and she pushed herself to move faster, hoping to catch up to the pair before anything happened.

When Taki arrived on the scene, she froze a short distance from the two, a menacing growl leaving her lips as she saw her niece standing way too close to the strange male. Currituck, come here now. She said, the growl still evident in her voice as she spoke the stern words. She wanted more than anything to charge at the stranger, but he was closer to the child than she was and could easily grab her before Taki got over there. So, fighting the protective rage currently beating at her to attack, she stayed frozen in place, her angry, citrine glare flicking between the stranger and her niece as she waited. She knew her restraint was weak, though; any false move from the male would easily pull her from her spot.

"that's right," tezcacoatl encourages as she chirps the nickname he offers her. "curri," he repeats the nickname she offers him. while he feels confident he could say her name in full he chooses to go by 'curri' because he doesn't want to attempt it and accidentally butcher it. it sounds like a cross between the sounds of the northmen's language and the tongue of his homeland. "it's nice to meet you, curri." he offers her. "yes; i am far from home too pipotzin." he replies with a soft chuckle. the mirth is short lived as a few moments pass and an adult smelling of the same pack as currituck barges onto the scene, a menacing growl tearing from betwixt the ivory woman's lips. tezcacoatl's head, bowed down to the girl's level, rises and his hackles bristle along his spine on pure instinct. he is not sure that she will not attack him and his muscles pull taunt all the same, ready to defend himself if necessary.

her reaction is understood by the serpent king. he is a father. and would he have found a stranger standing so close to one of his daughters he certainly would not have shown the restraint that the woman shows in the here and now. he would have charged: shoot first and ask questions later. still, it is nevertheless insulting to be assumed to have ill intentions, especially because he is a father. the woman doesn't know that. and all he has is his word ...which would the tables have been turned tezcacoatl wouldn't have been overly inclined to believe without proof. "i mean her no harm." still the serpent king tries the diplomatic approach. he does not feel like defending himself when he's done nothing wrong and would rather avoid a physical altercation if at all possible. especially with a child present.

tezcacoatl takes a few steps back, having noted that the girl had taken a step closer during their introductions; hoping to communicate with this action that neither the girl nor the woman who commanded currituck to her side without gentleness is in any danger from him.

He says the word again when he speaks and her head tilts, unable to pin it into either language she’s been learning from the adults. She’s just about to ask about it or perhaps his home—it does not matter now—when Takiyok comes upon the scene. Thunderous paws cause the ground to shake and she lowers by a few inches, slowly turning as she’s commanded back. Large ears fall back against her head as she glances back to the brute as he backs away. Has she done something wrong? Her mouth parts to ask something, but he speaks to the woman behind her.
 
“I wasn’t doin’ nothin’,” she says, slowly slinking back closer to Takiyok though her olive gaze finds Tezca, saddened she doesn’t get to talk to him anymore.

At first, she didn't reply to the stranger, her only concern making sure Curri came away from from the male. She felt some relief when he backed away, but did not feel capable of saying anything else until the girl came to stand next to her. Taki released a sigh of relief and touched her nose to her niece's shoulder. "You shouldn't be talking to strangers or wandering so far from the borders without an adult," she explained, her tone losing its harshness now that she wasn't fearing for the girl's life. 

She glanced back at the male, distrust in her gaze. Forgive me if I don't take you at your word, she said coolly. She knew nothing about this wolf, and she wasn't in the business of trusting, well most really, but especially strangers. Still, he could have hurt Curri if he wanted, and she quite possibly wouldn't have made it in time to do anything about it. The thought turned her blood cold and made anger bubble up in her chest once more. What are you doing here, anyway? You're awfully close to claimed land, the malguk asked, glaring at the stranger suspiciously. Ill intentions or not, she was never happy to find loners wandering the territories surrounding the glacier.

tezcacoatl's gaze remains focused upon the adult as currituck makes her way to the side of her rankled guardian. she mutters something to the older woman in a language that tezcacoatl does not understand seconds before the woman responds. he has been diplomatic throughout this whole process, despite being held unfairly upon trial in the woman's mind as having ill intentions with her ...daughter or whatever they were to one another. tezcacoatl understands that because he is a father. but he does not appreciate the implication that he does not belong in neutral territory because it is somewhat close to the glacier. the glacier is massive and it touches several neutral territories. he takes her next words not half as well as he's taken everything else.

"i am in neutral territory no where near your borders," he states pointedly. "besides that, this area was once my home. you are not the first to claim duskfire glacier," and you will not be the last remains unsaid. "i am the chronicler of the territory's history." and though the serpent king is unsure how he feels about this woman and her seemingly endless insults towards him: he sincerely hopes that her pack fares better than the original to lay claim to it. so much death, loss, pain and sorrow plagued that glacier once upon a time. it's not anything he'd wish on his worst enemy.

Currituck sighs dramatically and rolls her eyes, looking toward the man as he retreats a little more. She tries to draw him in with a playful look on her face like a child that knows she isn’t going to listen to her lecture. Her tail thumps on the ground anyway and she sits, occasionally glancing up to the pale woman as she reprimands the man too and she doesn’t feel so bad for being the only to be yelled at. Her new friend gets it too!

The chocolate male had the same answer that every other stranger had when Taki confronted them about being too close to the glacier. She was well aware it was technically neutral territory, but that didn't mean she was comfortable with lone wolves hanging out so close to home. As one of the leaders, it was her responsibility to keep the pack safe, and she felt that meant scoping out the glacier's bordering lands for potential threats. 

Still, he could have hurt Curri if he really wanted to. In fact, nothing was stopping him from trying to hurt either them now, except maybe self-preservation. Taki was just as big as he was and had been trained like a soldier from a young age; she could definitely take him. She studied him curiously, some of the accusation leaving her gaze. He was large and bore three scars on his neck. He had explained that this area used to be his home and it intrigued her enough to warrant further interest from the malguk. You lived here before? she asked with a small raise of an eyebrow. She missed her niece's eye roll and attempt to give the stranger playful looks or she would have surely shot her a 'cut it out' look. As cute as she was, she needed to be more careful, and Taki would be sure to talk to her about it later. Maybe she would take Curri exploring more and teach her about scouting so she wouldn't feel the need to go out on her own.

in lieu of not drawing forth the pale woman's ire once more when he believes he has just finally soothed the worst of it — certainly not all of it, of course — he does not give currituck too much attention ...but her playful face is caught out of the corner of the serpent king's eye and he gives a small, almost bird-like cant to his head in an attempt to signify to the girl subtly that he saw her expression. the majority of his attention, however, remains upon the other adult, especially when she addresses his words shared. that he's lived here before. "yes," tezcacoatl replies simply, though he was fairly sure his words implied as much. "i've lived within duskfire glacier and then later laid claim to it's neighbor frostfire ridge." the latter had not been long lived but such was the temperamental nature of packs. interest came and interest went and sometimes an empire's downfall came from traitors within the ranks.

Skipping Curri with permission.

Distrust filled her gaze again. And you're back to do what? she asked, eyeing him suspiciously while attempting to place more of herself between the stranger and Curri. She didn't care if the question was nosy. Taki hoped he hadn't come here to try and reclaim the glacier, because over her dead body would that happen. Literally--she would have to be dead before she gave up their new home. She had busted her ass finding the glacier, and her family had gone through many hardships following her here; she wouldn't give up the land without a fight. Why else would someone return to an old territory, though? She supposed he could just be feeling nostalgic. Whatever the reason, she'd like to know before they continued whatever conversation they were going to have so she would know whether or not she needed to make it clear they weren't going anywhere.

Feel free to continue or archive! <3

Eventually, the other wolf gets tired of the questions Takiyok keeps asking him and decides to leave. Currituck frowns as she watches him disappear but she doesn’t bolt after him no matter how itchy her feet get. Instead, she stands, glances to her aunt, and spins around her heels and storms back toward the territory.