Herbalists' Cache κ

nearer the cache but not really going in, set after skorpa leaves here
@Dark Fang

---

a white fang knew when to hold, and so pulling a halt the bearman surveyed a thronged clearing. even from here he smelled the scent of blood, of saliva reeking on tufts of fur.

a bad omen.

rolling shoulders beneath the bearskin, skorpa called out that he had come to speak with sun eater, if it was able.

---

a voice. one he did not know—but was that rare? a few days he had walked with his brother's clan. dark fang only let himself know the most important, others faded easily and swiftly into the background.
but this voice is heavily accented, contorted by speech he does not recognize. it is outlandish, in a way. the hunter sets out in a stalk, though fairly quick footed, leaving the area of sun eater's inhabitance.
there, a man clad in bearskin. fur grizzled, smelling of carrion. dark fang shows no outward signs of disgust as he lopes closer, tail high now, flying arrogantly above. you.
why you would speak to sun eater? a demands. eyes narrowing sightly upon this bold stranger.
dark fang leers impatiently, feeling the rise of hackles; of guard hairs that sat comfortably at his shoulders before, now spiking with authority. he could not have this.
we kill you, a threat bitten off his red teeth, soon if you no go.
all were a threat now, deemed by dark fang. no stranger could walk the cache.

---

a man came, bristled, stiff-legged. he barked at once a threat and the bearsword loudly scoffed with as much impulse. "you are stupid fool. i come to peace. am not darukaal," skorpa snapped, though his posture remained rigid and still where he had stopped moving forward.

"his wife. in plain," the words went on. "with my wife. she say sun eater fate not his own. hm?"

"can speak?"

---

dark fang does not react to the insult. instead, eyes narrow; looking from red crown to scoffing teeth. dark fang only hardens in his stand.
no! it is said brusquely, adamantly, eyes snapping at once to glower upon this man's face. you fool, he says, if you think we trust to you. it is matter of fact.
his shoulder stance widens when he takes a stern breath, past nostrils ringed by wet, and jerks his head once in the direction from which skorpa must have came. his wife traitor. she go heal sun eater’s try slayer, no go to him.
gesturing with a wild paw, angry and flippant. no trust. i no believe you if you speak to her. go now. i no say again.
it is crucial in these moments that dark fang protects the integrity of his brother. sun eater would live, dark fang would ensure this. and no one could be trusted, especially if not even the mother of his children would stand at his side.

---

"do not trust me." skorpa shrugged. "i will go. i will go," he said, backing some sauntered steps to indicate he would hold his word, "and your chieftain not know what i learn of glacier."

hamstring themselves.

some steps more, and unless the reindeer-man moved to stop him, skorpa had finished his time in negotiation.

but this meet had said two things: sun eater was not available for discussion, and the story of what had happened took another turn. he put these details aside, prepared to wait elsewhere for ayovi.

---

It is not her younger brother that breaks the northerner's path, but the phantom Meleys. Her eyes hard on the great stinking beast. What gain. With words. She struggled to speak the language. Unlike her brother, she did not care to learn much of the common tongue. She spoke words of the caribou people, at least two of them, granted interactions with the Muradoii were slim to none, and some pigeon speech with the sea hunters to get by with trade. She didn't need common tongue. She was Lanzadoii. Stubborn.

skip w permission!

---

the bearman had taken two strides in shedding himself of this place when a woman's accented voice sounded. he turned to take in a powerful warrior with half her face dipped to white.

he watched her, then accepted audience. "your man? rude. you want talk?" skorpa asked with what he felt was unceasing patience. "take me to camp. give me meat. then i tell what i know."

---

Brother, she might have said, though didn't know the words. Instead, blood was given as she just her muzzle to the scar-faced man. There was a rumble in her throat. If the visitor considered Dark Fang rude, he wouldn't get much better with her. It was information alone she wanted. Many of Star Eater's people came after Gjalla. Many loyal from an empire long from here. They should all go back. 

Meat for words. Her eyes narrowed. Surely he did not come all this way to give valuable information because he was hungry. Did their group not have hunters? Surely nothing compared to tbe Lanzadoii, but still. 

She juts her muzzle again and begins to move. Yet not far. The closest cache she could find it offered to him. Piled organs near a carcass not yet completely skinned of its pelt. [i]Watch close, brother. If he falters, he dies.[/i] She speaks in their tongue and then sits.

dark fang resists all temptations to say more words when his sister appears. instead, taking a step back, paws splaying against ice and snow that began to thaw with the spring. watching carefully.
a lowered head watching what transpired. meleys would speak with him. dark fang's lip curls; he had just made the decision to send this man away.
what if he was darukaal! a threat! he could kill sun eater and it would not matter if they killed him in return. their brother would still be dead. but, he watches, and nods, hearing her words to him.
yes. he says with brown teeth. i watch.

---

in truth, skorpa was neither hungry nor did he wish to dine, but he wanted these reindeer-wolves to see the worth of hospitality. and so he made a show of it, swaggering after the woman to crouch in opposite, filling his mouth with meat, licking offal and blood from his claws with relish.

"faust, blackfell of darukaal come to mountain. beg for fighters. darukaal saying that sun eater start war, hurt blackfell wife. but blackfell tell me twotime he — chal-lenge — your chieftain." skorpa watched the pair, eyes shifting. "darukaal come back. back. demand. saying things of fool. breaked peace with winsook."

words, heavy, final, an axe stabbed into a tree.

another strip of caribou stuffed into his jaw. "i am ayovi husband, skorpa. ayovi offer — green leaf. skill. to saatsine. but chieftain wife also say her husbondi start war." a pause. "she say he mad."

skorpa belched. "winsook not fight. any leave stjerneberg for blood not returning."

---

Though Meleys could not share these words with Dark Fang at the moment, she knew this man not to be a glacier wolf, from the meeting which she had bare witness to. He was a wolf of a mountain further, aiming to seek peace between the neighboring northern clans. 

Meleys listens now, as blood is licked from the maw of their visitor and in his hunkering down over the meat, shares news of the north. There is many things which Meleys wishes to say, but does not know the words to speak them. Fight. Own. Fight Saatsine. She shakes her head. No, that did not help. She lifts her head to Dark Fang with a sigh. Tell him Saatsine hunter disrespect her chieften. So chieftan punish his subordinate. Was this not the way of all packs? For the alpha to reprimand his lessers when required? Tsk! She spats. 

Blackfell's challenge against Sun Eater meant little now that he was no longer here. He had left those he wished to lead, with such a challenge. Had left his wife. These things had nothing to do with Darukaal, other then them making it about Darukaal. Now the glacier wolves demand the north mountain to fight with them and because they would not, had broken their peace-bond. A good thing for Saatsine, for now they did not have to worry about a larger army. 

He mad. She nods. Yes, yes. And the madder he would only be with these news, for his wife to deny healing aid offering from Winsook. We all mad. She lifts again, a flash of her fangs, a grin as wide as the Cheshire cat. 

She had heard of northman. Some as wild as Muradoii. That feasted like gluttons and hungered for blood all the same, as the way into the kingdom of their afterlife. They feared death not. Meleys licked her maw. Perhaps he was not this type, though he made look the part. 

Come to heal.... A shrug. Stay away. No matter. Darukaal bring war. Get war.

dark fang listens with burning measure. letting eyes sweep between the two, careful, considering. watching the man for any sign he may provoke. but nothing comes.
yet. he only eat voraciously, filling his gullet with their meat. dark fang curls lips, feeling urge to rip it from him, but words from meleys capture his attention. it had begun to sour. good thing for it.
saatsine hunter no respect chieftain. chieftain punish his own. he says with toothy face, coming to circle now, to stand at meleys side.
gazing upon this bearskin with hungry, watching eyes. depraved. senseless. wishing him gone. gone! go! but meleys wish to speak more. to hear his words? dark fang grimaces.
it is dangerous having him here. he trusts no one. no one but bloodkin. sun eater no speak to you. we fed you. now you go. back to wife. dark fang wishes him to go now so they might feed this information back to their brother. he must know.
his wife was a traitor. dark fang felt it deep. she was not one of them. and they must take back their lanzadoii children from her before she poisons them.