Nimbus Summit Eyes wide open

He's just snooping at the borders. Feel free to engage or this may be a read only. <3

On a whim, the lone Duskfire circled back to the summit. To Atautsikut. Perhaps, he thought, he had acted too rashly in not parting with his pack and former leaders with a proper farewell. They at least deserved that much. To know that he was okay. His plans still remained the same. He would carve his own path elsewhere.

The great summit rising into the clouds loomed close overhead. Shadowing him. A silent reminder of paths he had never walked. Of adventures and stories he would never have to share. But instead of looking up and taking it all in, his head was towards the ground.

Deeply, he inhaled along the line where he knew the borders to be. Ears twitched to the side and back as he dissected each and every bit of information and the scents twisted within. Hard glacial eyes flashed up in a glare to the land beyond.

He did not like what he found. Or, the lack thereof.

No Lane. No Issorartuyok. No Tuuluuwaq. Gone. Only a handful of new arrivals and two he distantly recognized. Rage, betrayal, hurt and spite all manifested on his mug. He could not help the tight curl of his lips or the razor line of his hackles. Just when he had been about to part on neutral terms. To try and give them a chance. Now, now they had shown their true colors. The Tatkret's. Users. Traitors. Abandoning what they had stolen and re-built. Even their own young children.

He recalled the earlier days. When his mistrust of the northern wolves was at it's strongest. Now it was justified. He shook his head. He should've listened to his gut. Spitting distastefully onto the claimed soil, Ensio turned to walk away with ice in his veins.

Calida was out on patrol at the base of the mountain, and she paused to mark, lifting her muzzle to the air and sniffing. A familiar scent washed over her, and Calida turned to follow it. It led her to the borders, where she saw a familiar wolf leaving.

"Wait!" she called out to him, stepping over the borders, and began to approach. She didn't know his name, but she had seen him at the glacier and at the summit, though not in some time. Where was he going?

He paused to glance back sharply. With daggers of ice in his eyes, he glared towards the russet wolf whom spoke. She was of Atautsikut. She reeked of it. But not of those traitorous Northern wolves. His scowl deepened. "If you think I am here to rejoin then you are sadly mistaken." He rumbled lowly. He had no attachment to this mountain. No reason, no desire to stay.

He lingered now for only one reason. He turned to face her, drawing up to utilize his full bulk. "Tell me what happened here. Tell me why...why the Tatkret's and Lane, of all wolves abandoned what they worked so hard to build." He demanded through clenched teeth. The answer would hardly matter. There was nothing that could be done to soothe the newfound disdain spreading in his heart.

He wanted answers, and Calida was prepared to give them. She sighed, frowning as she told him honestly, Someone in Lane's family got sick, and they needed special care. So, Lane, Tuuluuwaq, Issorartuyok, and Rye, and... probably Rye's family, well, they left to start another pack close by so that Lane could give her family member treatment. It was a lot, and it was complicated.

Quietly, she told the boy, Myself and a couple others stayed. We're trying to reshape Atautsikut. You can stay or go, just know that the option is there. She paused. She did not know his parents, as they had passed shortly before she had come to Duskfire Glacier. Still, she felt pity for him. She wished she could help him.

The severity plastered all over his face did not falter. If it could have grown any more scathing, then it would have. The explanation he heard, to him, was nothing more than an excuse. "Someone got sick..." He repeated to himself, without empathy. 

He was well aware that Lane and Rye were healers. But not Tuuluuwaq and Issorartuyok. "Lane I can understand leaving. She is a healer." His lips curled further. "The brothers I cannot. What need was there for them to go, especially Issorartuyok, as a father?!" He spat his words, saliva clinging to his teeth and gums. "He abandoned Antha and his own children! Leaving you scrambling to pick up the pieces of this crumbling pack. I can hardly see any sound reasoning in such an act."

Her invitation to go or stay was met with a toss of his head and a low grunt. "I know that. And I wish you the best of luck in re-building, but I cannot be apart of something forged under that man's name. My future is elsewhere." Slowly he pulled himself back together, clearly simmering under the surface. "Thank you for your time, Calida." He turned to leave and did not look back.

Exit

Calida let him speak, and she passed no judgement on him, because part of her was just as angry as he was. She kept quiet, though, and it was only when he thanked her that she murmured, Of course. Then, as he left, a quiet, Farewell. Her heart heavy and her body tired, Calida turned to make her way back up the mountain.