Emberflame Ridge I let you eat me alive

Set around sunset :) for @Turmeric
Sorry it took me so long to get out my life has been crazy haha :’)

The Executioner sidles into the mountains once more, perhaps he would look for the woman’s body that he is unsure if he killed or not. He hopes she’s dead, but who even knows. He assumes every pack has at least one experienced medic and the wonders of medicine are beyond Alduin’s knowledge. He doesn’t quite know what they’re capable, and not capable, of fixing. 

Either way, he saunters back to the spot he and @Tulok had camped for the night during their travel to the canyon. The canyon that some god forsaken pack in occupying. He tries not to bristle too much at the thought of someone occupying his canyon, but he can’t help but feel the twinge of fury that strikes him.

The hellhound would walk in an unrushed pace. His large head even with hulking shoulders. The sunset would paint his brindled pelt a fiery orange along with the rest of the landscape. His bloody eyes are perpetually dark and swirling with anger and a scowl permanently rests on his face. His pelt is abundant with injuries from many fights he’s had recently, but he where’s them with pride.

no worries, I never mind the wait ^^ Thanks for starting, I hope life has been calming down!

The naturalist left the canyon behind him.

Evening fell, the second day. Or had it been more? Did it matter? He had found what he thought he would find within the canyon - mother's scent still missing. And what more, another pack taking residence within the red sand walls. He hadn't recognized the strongest scents and remembered enough from the day Ursus invaded the Saints to know that the wolves who occupied the canyon now weren't them.

So what was he supposed to do now?

His thoughts drifted as he made his way along the lonely mountain path, thinking of family, of remedies and reactions, of how the sunset made the charred trees look like they were still on fire. Distracted, he failed to notice the hulking brute who made his way towards him and instead found himself distracted by a rather peculiar shrub.

Alduin walks languidly towards the area he sliced into that woman at. The suns rays bother his eyes, they’re strong and bright despite the cold that seeps through a thick, course pelt. He squints them softly as he moves and surprisingly, considering the glare of the orange sunset, he sees movement out of the corner of his eye. He’s always on the look out for anything around him that could potentially danger him — or provide itself as an outlet to his undying anger. 

So his head moves in that direction and he finds a wolf. Wine red eyes zero in on them and rake down their form. Their agouti pelt is plush and full from the cold winter clinging to the environment and he squints his eyes some in suspicion. They are a smaller than him and that alone gives him enough confidence to inflate his already overworked ego. 

So, easily making the decision, he begins moving towards them. His approach would be obvious. He’s not trying to be quiet or hide himself one bit. Rather he walks with easy going confidence, secure in his abilities to fend them off if they’re hostile. Though they would probably think he’s the hostile one and they wouldn’t be wrong to assume so. His appearance looks anything but friendly. His many abundant scars and even fresher wounds showing that he is not one to shy away from a fight. Hr might just scare him away.

“You.” He’d call out to them. “Who are you?” He’d ask in that deep, smokey tone of his. Most find it threatening, but even when he merely asks a simple question he sounds like that. He can’t quite help it.

A voice commands from behind him, and Turmeric finds himself completely unprepared. He leaps forward, only he's forgotten he's half-buried in a berry bush already. Branches snap around him, lingering berries squelch under foot, spiky leaves stick to the winter plush of his fur, and it's about this moment that he things to himself, I'm dead for sure!

Somehow he manages to recoil and retreat out of the shrub's pokey hold. Alive, somehow, though altogether littered with scraps of detritus and debris. He hardly thinks of the mess he looks, with fly away fur and tufts out of place, but for the mass of a man before him - oddly familiar, but Turmeric cannot place a name.

He gives a moment's pause - the time it takes for the man's question to register through the fear - and this moment is enough for Turmeric to size the man up -

- and decide he can probably outrun him.

Turmeric turns without answering the question, sure this man is simply playing with his food, and books his way towards the narrowest ridge he can find - one he's certain he can scale, but the hulking man can't, or won't, follow him over.

It’s clear he startles the man with his booming voice, but he seem even more jumpy than Alduin expected. It is just a question, but if Alduin’s honest he’d probably run from himself too if he had lesser confidence. Still, the other man meets his eyes after he jumps pasta prickly bush. They’re both still for just a second, just staring. There is something familiar of this man, but he’s thought the same thing of many others since being back and he’s seen many agouti wolves as well. 

Alduin is content to not move any further, or that was until this wolf does the dumbest thing known to man…

He starts running.

Everyone knows what happens when a predatory animal sees something running. Alduin is much more in tune with his primal instincts rather than his logical, more attentive, ones. 

So he chases.

He’s silent when the other takes that first push of a sprint and his body goes into hyperdrive and follows right after him. Kicking up debris as he goes, his large paws thump against the ground as he runs after him. He can’t help but find it mighty suspicious. Or maybe it’s nothing like that and the man is terrified of Alduin killing him. Something he hadn’t immediately intended doing, but still, the thought is always there — lingering in his mind.

Still, they run, and sure the smaller of the two might be faster but many would be surprised by his prowess in hunting. His stamina is everlasting and his hardheaded will of the mind is even more so. He’s stubborn when he wants something and, right now, he wants that wolf. 

The agouti man head straight to a sketchy looking ridge and Alduin knows he’s going to try and scale it, probably thinking Alduin  wouldn’t follow him up it. Oh, but how wrong he is. Alduin isn’t called the reaper for fun and games — death follows no matter what, it always prevails, and so does Alduin. He has scaled the mountains of Blackwater, albeit slowly and carefully, but he still did it. This shouldn’t be too awfully different. Or so he thinks.

So as they go, the wolf moves dexterously up and over rocky ridges and, to the strangers chagrin, Alduin follows behind. Though he is a touch slower and more careful, watching his every step, his speed is still remarkable on the rocky slopes. Large paws spreading out over the rocks and claws scratching and clawing over others to reach him. The sight is probably terrifying to see a beast with such vigor and determination hellbent into his entire being continuing to chase him no matter the circumstances. Either way, Alduin would continue, even as his chest and ribs huff with breaths from muted exertion. 

Death follows…

Turmeric doesn't look back, but he knows the stranger is behind him. Charging him, pursuing him. He knows by the heavy sound of his assailant's breathing, the clatter of rocks beyond the ones he sends jostling down into the valley below. The man pursues even across the narrow ridges, and Turmeric thinks, he's insane!

And Turmeric grows only more fearful. With nimble paws, he scuttles down a steep descent and clambers forward once he reaches the bottom. Hoping that this move might shake the man. Knowing the beast will only follow him onward and onward until one of them has run out of breath -

His eye catches a shadow in the face of the rock, and he remembers when he and @Thyme used to explore through the tunnels way back when they had been kids. He was still a kid, but he felt much older. His wisdom (or lack thereof) didn't agree.

He decided in the hair of a second. The opening was small, but nothing he couldn't wedge himself into. Who knew how far deep the cavern led? If he got stuck, he was dead. If he kept going, he was dead. If the caverns had a pathway beyond, well then, maybe he was also dead.

Deciding he had a better chance of surviving by tunnelling through the mountainside, Turmeric made a sharp turn mid-dive down the rocky trail and shoved himself into the cave. He found himself in a larger space, and, once a safe distance inside, shuffled around so his back was against the cave wall, and he could try to glimpse his pursuer, who he was certain could not fit inside.

And if he couldn't get out, maybe they could reason where he could be sure he'd be safe... for a little while, anyway.

Their chase leads them to a more than sketchy ridge line. One Alduin may not admit to being a touch nervous on, but he tries not to let his confidence waver  in the slightest. Merely releasing grunts of effort as he moves carefully, taking one step at a time, just in a very rushed way. Even as the rocks crumble slightly beneath their combined, rushing weights, he doesn’t stop. If he dies this way, he might as well commit. 

Only when he sees the man drop off and disappear Alduin wonders if he’s fallen to his death until he too comes speeding up to the edge. In a split second of time, he decides that he can take that fall…and he does. He jumps down and immediately crashes to the ground, crushing his shoulder but he rolls with the motion and growls low in his throat at the pain that blooms when he’s moving again.

Another obstacle shows itself just up ahead. A small vertical crevice. He knows the other is going to go for it and already, even at this distance, Alduin knows he won’t be able to squeeze through that. The bulk of his shoulders jus won’t let him. So he fitfully speeds up, maw open in a  wolf pant as he moves and tries for a last stance. With the time it takes for the other male to shimmy into the crevice Alduin swears he’s going to get him. At the last second though, it’s like he’s popping in with perfect timing. 

Alduin’s jaws snap right into the small, shallow cave entrance. Spit flies and his lips snarl menacingly at him. A purple tongue hangs wide and flat from dangerously large canines as he pants, saliva dripping madly from his tongue and jaws. His chest and rip cage heaves as he catches his breath. He merely watches him like he’s mere prey through the crack. Those hellish, ruby eyes staring at him in a wild, calculating manner. 

It’s then he realizes that the cave has no inner workings. It’s just a hole in the wall. Good. He can wait. He could starve him out. Alduin isn’t above being that stubborn as long as it means winning and soaking his teeth and pelt in blood.

Only about a minute later, when Alduin somewhat catches his breath does he speak. It’s deathly low, raspy, and rumbling…

“Come on out, pup,” He purrs dangerously. “I won’t bite.” He punctuates the end of his sentence with a loud snap of his jaws then, a low growl lacing his words. 

Though the words should’ve been at least a bit humorous, there is no joking tone in his voice at all when he says them. Perhaps a light touch of teasing, but that’s it.

The man snaps his jaws through the cave's narrow opening and Turmeric sinks deeper into the crevice he's crammed himself into. In the light that filters around his assailant, Turmeric can't see any way out except by the way he entered and he swallows. Maybe he's come back to the Wilds just to die after all.

His face is made wet by the spit that flies from the man's snapping teeth but that's really all that reaches him. At least he'll be safe for a little while as he figures out a plan of escape... or figures a way to negotiate his way out of this mess he made for himself.

Turmeric watches in huddled silence through the noise of his assailant's raucous snarls. There is a gleam to his eyes that provokes a memory long pushed away, and an oddity to his tongue that he's sure is familiar: it's black, after all, and his eyes, a hellish red. He's the picture of a demon if Turmeric believed in things like that.

He won't bite. "Yeah. Right." He can't help the nervous laugh that punctuates his own words, and he mumbles "bet you'll just swallow me instead."

As Alduin catches his breath and teases the other with sarcastic, but thinly veiled faux promise, the other looks right at him. He seems to be really taking in his appearance and studying him. So Alduin does the same. Showing the other that he’s in for the long run as he lowers his haunches into a sit. He can wait. Probably to the other’s chagrin, he can wait for as long as he needs to. 

So as he watches Alduin, the hellhound watches him back with those bloodied eyes of his. He allows them to rake over his eyes, face, and body — making a show of looking him over really. Only after a few seconds does he finally say something. Thinking that this man’s eyes, the way he talks, is familiar. Alduin squints his eyes some with that suspicion that he might recognize him, but the memory of who he potentially could be is on the tip of his tongue. Just riding on the edges of his mind but unable to grasp.

“Do I know you?” He asks then, voice low with suspicion, rasping from their previous chase. “What is your name?” He asks more forcefully. “And don’t lie.”

They rake each other down as well as any wolf can do when your only tools are your eyes. Turmeric feels like his assailant is sizing him up like prey. Deciding which leg to eat first, probably. Ah, heck, who was he kidding? He'd probably already decided which organ he'd use to mop up the meal, and which bone he'd choose to pick his teeth with afterwards.

And yet, there is something so familiar...

He doesn't realize how tight he is squinting his eyes until they spring open with a shrewd and sudden realization: "Alduin!" he says, and leaps to his paws, forgetting himself and where he is and finding the cave above him with a dull thump of his head. He hunches back down, but the light hasn't left his eyes, "It's me, Turmeric! From the Saints!" And though he's always had mixed feelings about the older boy, he can't help the nervous - and excited - laugh that punctuates his words.

Alduin watches him as he stands before the small crevice and positively eyes him down. The other seems to be doing the same thing. So much so he even squints his eyes. And just like a western show down he squints back at him. The hellhound tilts his chin up to him, regarding him carefully. 

Why is he looking at me like that. He thinks absentmindedly.

Then out of nowhere he jumping up and bonking his dome on the ceiling, having just apparently realized something. His face and eyes hold familiar surprise and all of a sudden he’s yelling out the Hellhound’s name. Which confuses Alduin to all hell. How does this man know him? Perhaps it’s one of those I can’t remember anything because of trauma kind of thing again. 

His face says it all. Brows furrowed and mouth in a tight frown — basically one of his usual scowls but with a touch of confusion. But when he continues…

It's me, Turmeric! From the Saints! As he says it his eyes light up from excitement and a laugh is spilling from his lips. That’s when Alduin’s own brows goes sky high. The recognition that fills him with that name and his appearance. How could he not recognize him before? 

So Alduin’s jaw drops some. “Turmeric?!” He’s saying back with obvious awe in that smokey voice of his. “Holy shit. Where have you been?” He asks then, backing away from the hole so he can come out. “Get out of there.” He hums with a chuckle afterwards. “My bad for trying to kill you…” he says lowly. He’s almost ashamed he met the younger in such a way.