Northstar Vale you got hell to pay

a mess writing for a messier mess; a thread.

the morning is drab, the sky a dull overcast grey; lightened by the sun that cannot pierce the solid veil of clouds in the sky. wintersbane walks the borders of the vale that courtfall lays claim upon with cold eyes and purposeful steps. the action is familiar even in a terrain he has only freshly learned. he's sold his loyalty to many and more packs over the years but this is the first that has been based in the sunspires. upon the borders that remain unfortified by walls and towers of jagged teethstone he pays extra attention, adding his scent to the mixture of those that have came and patrolled before.

his progression is slow, leisurely. there is no scents upon these borders that shouldn't be and nothing of the territories that touch their own seems amiss. still, he is vigilant despite being unrushed. let it not be said that wintersbane is not a thorough man.

she moves with an almost uncanny fluidness driven by nothing above purpose. despite anything that may be plaguing her, this was something tundra could and would always do. in fact it was oddly reassuring, the familiarity of simply patrolling. steps are slow as she wanders along the border and it's only when she instinctively moves to avoid a hidden dip in her trail that she realises the borders are becoming yet another familiar path to her. a soft sigh escapes black lips as she pushes on, unable to help but wonder how many more packs would she pledge loyalty to and spend days wandering their familiar borders only to end up alone and seeking once more. her long tail flicks, gaze as gloomy as the heavy skies above, she tried so hard not to wonder but it rised from the fog of her mind unwelcomed as ever; what was the point? 

unable to answer, she simply grits her jaw and continues on. 

time passes slowly as she allows herself to succumb to the mindless nature of the routine until- 

ears lean at the soft sound of delicate footfalls along with the mingling scent of another. brows furrow, the scent isn't completely foreign to her yet where...? steps pick up slightly until she rounds a slight bend and dark eyes fall upon the form of a large man. surprise flickers through her, stopping abruptly whilst gazing into those familiar shards of ice. she hadn't exactly conversed with him often yet considering he was the first wolf to ever accompany her across the borders of blackfeather, he would remain significant nevertheless. ears lean back as she blinks a few times; "wintersbane..?" is all she finally exhales, head tilting slightly to the side. he'd disappeared back after maegi had only recently taken leadership of the woods, where had he gone and..why? 

something else burns dully in the pits of her stomach, perhaps a dull jealousy that he had gotten to choose to leave the woods whilst she'd had to have it unwillingly taken away from her life. perhaps an unfair assumption considering it could've been thought of her too yet it rears its ugly head nevertheless. swallowing slightly, her tail flicks uneasily. for the first time in..quite the long time she thinks of the first blackfeather she'd entered, yet to realise what it would do to her. relmyna..the late listener hadn't crossed her mind in quite some time either. gosh screw this man, she wished she'd never followed him back to those woods in the first place.

the sound of snow shifting and crunching beneath the weight of another, prickles at wintersbane's guardhairs, his ears pivoting to better determine the direction of origin. from within courtfalls claimant, he tells and relaxes only slightly. slightly only because his name falls from a voice that does not sound entirely unfamiliar to him. wintersbane's head turns, ear twitching to see a pale shape in the snow, as to which she almost blends in with. unlike andraste she is not marred by pink scars and her eyes are not moonbeam silver; instead they are a reddish color.

it takes a moment before recognition sinks in.

tundra. he rasps. he had recruited her many and more moons ago for blackfeather woods. with this knowledge and his lack of knowledge of what had befallen the dark woods after he left ( the second time ) the surprise he feels at crossing paths with her here is raw and left unbridled. past the initial recruitment he doesn't recall having a lot of interaction with her. his shifting loyalties leading him here should not come as surprise, there are six packs previously that once called him one of their own and he has left each of them without a look back.

i'm surprised to find you here. wintersbane breaks the silence that follows the rasp of her name.

eugh gross post sorry

ears lean back slightly as if hearing her name stings them so whilst dark orbs press forth in the lingering silence to follow. no words are offered to fill up the void that festers yet she does not believe he minds much for both gazes are sharp with assessment as they regard the other with...what? how did she even feel towards him? nothing overly dominant for sure which is understandable since she doesn't actually know him so much as what he represents for her. yet still...why is it that her stomach coils uncomfortably at the sight of him here so nonchalant on the borders of courtfall. 

hints of amusement flicker across pallid features in the telltale signs of tempted smiles when he does decide to break the silence once more. his voice...it was different, no longer the deep, self assured tone of the man who'd brought her home; it now scratches forth into the frigid air as a rasp. yet aside from the mildest of curiosities as to what may have caused it, it has little affect on the young soldier as she blinks up at his stormy form. "i could say the same" she returns smoothly, leaning back on tense haunches as her long, feathered tail refuses to be stilled amid restless flicks. she'd always respected him and it works in his favour now, perhaps it was the familiarity in the cool, soldier-esque demeanour he portrayed but there is a contrasting calmness swirling about the edges of her mind amongst other doubts when in his presence. "blackfeather is gone" it's spoken with a chipped brandish, an answer to an unspoken question as eyes bear sharply into his own.

the irrational, utterly unfair part of her wants to give into angers that had no right to be present. to challenge him as to why he had to leave, why he had to be one of the many who'd left maegi until there just wasn't enough left. yet never could she voice them or even think them guilt free for even if unintentionally, she'd left too. noise catches her attention as eyes lift to catch sight of bertók swooping lazily towards them from who even knows where. he always looked so odd out here in the mountains; exposed. yet she couldn't let herself harbour guilt for that too, he had chosen to follow her after all. the bird casts a beady eye over the two but doesn't descend as he opts to circle overhead. she wonds idly does he know who wintersbane was, did the birds keep note of any who chose to reside within their trees. it's odd to think of bertók watching them before he was bertók to her and an almost overwhelming fondness towards the raven bubbles up in her chest as she glances back towards wintersbane, sighing softly as she lets go of sharpness that made the air around them feel much more chilled than it had to. 

a soft sigh slips free into the crisp air as the ghostly woman simply murmurs wearily; "so what happened to you?"

you get my 800th post!

her return of his words: about being surprised to find him here was ...well not wrong. wintersbane's been a wayward vagrant for so long that, as he's admitted to easy not so very long ago, he's begun to fear he bears some ill effects of a curse. settling down has been hard for the tundrian; though perhaps he will come to think in coming days ( weeks? ) that it simply hadn't ever meant to be. all paths would converge like a celestial aligning: leading him here. to courtfall. to andraste.

the tundrian doesn't expect her next words to be the fall of blackfeather ...or its revival, rather. i'm sorry to hear that. he offers as condolence; genuine. though he can't claim that it truly comes as a surprise. though he is hardly one to speak about being a fit leader he had argued with relmyna numerous times about maegi's fit for it, considering how her and mou had brought about the first blackfeather's fall. these thoughts are from the past, where they belong and he doesn't speak them aloud. it is bygone ...just as blackfeather woods.

i wandered for a bit. travelled with a stranger who turned on me. we fought and died leaving me with these scars to remember him by. i nearly died as well. but a persistence to live and the kindhearts of two women: easy and reiko, had kept him alive. a slight shrug of his shoulders is given, as if he doesn't take how very close he came to death: a hairsbreadth; as very troubling.

tenebrous gaze is cast off into the distance, hazy and unseeing as focus remains primarily on the onslaught of memories and thoughts brought on by the appearance of this familiar face. a soft sigh breaks free at his apology and all she can muster is a tight smile accompanied by a slight dip of her head. the gesture is appreciated in its evident sincerity yet it does not ease the knot in her chest. the worst part had to be imagining other wolves strutting about those woods, paws lacking the silent grace of the shadowed blackfeather wolves as they trudged about disrupting the crows with their racket. eyes narrow bitterly, these were not the borders that needed to most protecting right now. yet such arbitrary thoughts are quickly put down by the remaining spark of rationalism, those were not borders anymore and she'd do well to remember that. 

deep rumblings tickle velveteen ears as she is snapped from such consuming thoughts to listen to what her fellow warrior speaks. seraphic features crease in displeasure at what he'd endured, shadowed gaze trailing the scars with an air of distaste. nothing, nothing irked her more than those that betrayed others. as fucked up as her 'home' before teekon had been, even they did not tolerate betrayal; in fact it was punishable by death. which could be considered hypocritical in its irony for tundra to be so opposed to a thing she herself could be accused for doing and yet like a glitch in the matrix; her mind simply skipped over that finer detail. "that's pretty fucking shit" she hums, swishing her feathered tail at her haunches with a gesture to invite him to continue along the border with her, the chill was already settling deep into her bones and she did not wish for such claws to get a chance to sink deep. 

"so any particular reason you happened to join courtfall?" asked with idle curiosity as they presumably fall into step along the pack's perimeter. never the most skilled of conversationalists but there's something almost soothing about the simple art of small talk with someone she didn't feel pressure to act any certain way around.

❝ah, that's life.❞ wintersbane responds with an errant shrug of his shoulders. he sees little sense in holding a grudge against a dead man. the fact is that he survives and the betrayer was nothing more than picked clean skeleton having presumably been left to the scavengers to pick at. ❝and he paid the price.❞ as melkor believes he's paid for his own sins in the loss of memory and usefulness for however long easy and reiko had had to take care of him as if he were some overgrown infant unable to eat and talk and hunt for himself.

at her invitation, wintersbane accepts with a nod of his head, falling into step beside her as they begin to patrol the borders. glacial gaze rises from tundra to scan the uncharted no-man's-lands just beyond courtfall's initial claim but nothing menacing lingers in the shadows. in fact, this particular stretch appears calm and nestled within the sunspire's womb they have an added deterrent from too many unwanted visitors ( or so he would believe ).

❝i've known andraste for a long time,❞ wintersbane begins after tundra's finished her inqury. ❝almost a year's time now and i've always admired her.❞ though admiration these days might have grown to something stronger yet ...though there was always attraction ever since he first set eyes upon her nigh a year ago now. ❝and it's beyond time i try to put roots down.❞ wintersbane tells her honestly.

❝how did you come to join courtfall?❞ he returns the question though does not seek to pry if she does not wish to divulge that information with him.