Swiftcurrent Creek I am with you.

For a long while they'd roamed together, he and Akavir, taking time for themselves when necessary until they'd been able to find one another. Viinturuth, figuring it was simply the way of bachelor males in their prime, carried on alone. He held no grudge and figured their paths would cross once more when fate saw fit for one to find the other again.

On arrival to familiar turf, he recalled when last he and his brother had trailed through. He remembered how they'd discussed setting up home in the lands of their birth, an idea he'd never taken too seriously. Viinturuth appreciated his freedom; settling down in one place, as Akavir had done as a young wolf, had never truly appealed to him until the heart of a harsh Winter when he found himself aching for companionship.

His memory of a childhood in Swiftcurrent Creek was dark, for those days were tainted by the toxicity of his parents' mateship. He'd struggled to process it all at his tender age during a time when he'd needed stability, and ultimately run off. Constantine and Durnehviir had reconciled, eventually, and had gone on to whelp several additional litters, yet Viinturuth had never truly recovered from those particular difficulties. So as he neared and detected the strong scent of a claim made by his most beloved sibling, he felt both anticipation and anxiety.

A call rose for @Akavir and he paused to wait, knowing better than to welcome himself across the invisible markers and into the fangs of hostile pack wolves despite his own birthright. What he wished for was a private audience with his littermate.

Akavir was proving to be a pretty popular guy. He had wolves coming from all over to join the pack, and friends from other packs who visited regularly. She didn't mind either- it made them a stronger pack, and when the wolves who visited were with other packs, it simply reinforced their ties as allies. 

But it did mean a lot of intercepting strangers for Moss, who considered this to be her main role in life. She moved along the borders with the quiet certainty of a powerful moose. Her gait was slow but purposeful as she approached the stranger. A glance showed her a man of exceptional build; a frame she could appreciate, if he too had come to join them. There was a reddish hue to his eyes, but they were calm. 

She uttered a soft chuff, an invitation for him to explain himself as she slipped from ranging mode to guarding mode.

No voice rose in response to his own, and Viinturuth lingered. He peered through the frosted foliage of a place he'd once known so well, a place where he'd lived a turbulent youth. He'd remained there only briefly the previous year when Akavir had last been at his side, and flicked his tongue curiously over a whiskered jowl as he considered how very differently things might've been for them both if only he'd remained.

An ashen figure stepped between the trees, drawing the white wolf from his thoughts. He shifted to regard her quietly: a wolfess with a powerful frame, her eyes made of unusual shades. She chuffed his way and he lifted a rugged alabaster ear to acknowledge the sound, though did not answer her immediately.

She was not the one he'd called for, he mused with mild irritation. Viinturuth simply stared at her, calm and quiet for a time, before he lifted his chin and announced; my brother makes his home here. I wish to see him.

There was silence; something that often supplied Moss with comfort. The light lift of his chin was slightly arrogant, and there was a slight tint of bemusement in his eyes as he gazed at her, something that felt akin to disappointment. Moss wasn't bothered in the slightest, however. He could feel however he wanted about having a stranger greet him first. He should be glad that his brother's pack had a faithful guardian. 

"He'll come." She said simply. If he wants to see you, she thought. Until then, she would wait with him. She allowed some silence to pass, before she sat down, so she might at least be a bit more comfortable- and she'd allow him to do so as well. She had a feeling he wouldn't be a threat. "Visiting?" Uncharacteristically, she volunteered a conversation starter.

The she-wolf continued to look his way, blank, and he wondered what she might be thinking. There was a quiet tension that hung over them, an uncertainty; Viinturuth did not expect her to trust him by word alone. He and Akavir were so vastly different and it'd been a regular observation throughout his youth that their mother could not possibly have bore a child with furs as pale as his own.

She lowered her hindquarters to rest, but Viinturuth remained upright. He simply followed her movement with burgundy eyes, an alabaster ear twitching at her effort to engage him in conversation. He nodded briefly in response. Yes, was his confirmation, perhaps I will stay a while. There was no promise to be made, for there was no telling how he would come to feel in dwelling within territory where his demons had come to life. He made to divert, for how long have you lived here?

He didn't seem keen on relaxing, but she took that as an encouraging sign. He would rather be on guard than let himself catch a break. She wondered if he had been trained in the ways of being a soldier; he stood so still while he waited, as though he could become a permanent fixture and long for nothing. He certainly had a steadiness that made her feel comfortable in his presence. 

And he didn't talk too much. She didn't over-share, or expose any more than what he needed for her to know. She appraised him, again, now that she'd been told he might want to stick around. She wasn't often quick to accept another wolf, and was typically more begrudging than anything but this man seemed like the type who might be easy to live with. He'd stick to his business, and leave her to hers. So she nodded. There was a possibility he might stick around, though that was for Akavir to judge. 

"Month." She said. The pack had been just a fledgling then, born in the new year. She was quiet. "Moss," She said next, by means of introduction. Her nose twitched, quietly willing for him to introduce his name as well.

She was a she-wolf of very few words, offering minimal information in response to his questions. Viinturuth blinked, quietly considering the bluntness of her answers; he assumed, wrongly, that she was not particularly pleased by his loitering. He did not care much for the opinions of strangers, however, and the gruffness of this ashen-pelted guardian failed to ruffle his feathers.

The ghost shifted his weight. Viinturuth, he offered simply in return, and lifted his gaze to glance over her crown to briefly search for his brother's dark figure against the frozen backdrop. He willed him to quicken his stride.

He hadn’t been back long from his visit to the riverclan. Quiet wolves, he had quietly assessed what it meant to live beside two exceptionally peaceful packs with little desire or means to fight—and then them, who held land at a point of interception from the neighbors behind them.

He wished to discuss this with both Moss and Arric, but all such thoughts fled when the familiar call echoed across the creek lands.

His paws were swift, but not swift enough. A smirk pressed to his lips as he came upon the scene—tension in the air, though one of primary discomfort, it seemed. His brother didn’t seem ruffled, though, and Akavir was quick to step toward the ivory Mayfair. “Gu math, a bhràthair.”


His eyes lifted to Moss, studying the silent wall of a woman. "I can't decide which one of you was likely giving the other the hardest time."

Now that she had a name, she was pleased to be a quiet guardian, who feared silence very little. The man held his position and she hers, two unmoving wolves who simultaneously turned to look at the same moment when Akavir came into view. 

She watched him for any signs that might mean that Viinturuth was not welcome. Akavir’s family history was unknown to her, and of relatively little importance. When their greeting was pleasant, a joke was made.

The stony wolf’s expression didn’t change. She uttered a soft breath, and stood up. She gave a look from one to the other, and began to saunter off. Let the quiet brother deal with the friendly brother’s jokes.