Nova Peak believe in heroes

For anyone from Nova Peak; he's currently wandering in the Tangle. Maybe @Scimitar or @Bazi want to intercept him though? And sorry for the length! This has been sitting on my computer for daaaays.

It was difficult to survive a singular existence without adequate preparation, and it was bad fortune which refused the boy of that. He was not trained in any manner to hunt on his own, and while fishing seemed to sustain him through the hardest of times, no growing boy could subsist on the occasional salmon. It was with a sense of urgency, of desperation, that Tryphon had left behind his caretaker; following the curve of the river which had been his home for so many days, and then trekking alongside the familiar ocean. The journey was initially an easy one, for his belly was full and his body well rested, but by the end of the first fortnight Tryphon's energy had begun to wane. He gathered kelp from the beach for his bed that first night, finding comfort in the familiar scent of brine, the call of the gulls as they circled overhead. It wasn't home, but it would do.

Tryphon did not know where he was going. He felt pulled, perhaps by instinct, towards the sea. But as the days passed and spring drifted ever closer, his desires led him away. The sea never spoke to him, despite his nightly prayer; he thanked the Mother for saving him some nights, or prayed for aid as things got more desperate. But there was no response and the loneliness began to suffocate him. Pressing in on all sides, distorting the boy's view of the surrounding world. The sea no longer seemed like a friend to him, so Tryphon moved on. He headed south along the coast for a few more days, feasting upon the half-rotten carcass of a young seal, and then meandered further inland to roost among the trees.

The forest thinned, leaving him to travel across a bramble-filled pit of rock and dust. What limited cover he encountered was prickly, and the ground was uneven. A few times he thought he would miss-step and fall, and were it not for his rotund belly (which remained somewhat round regardless of how full or empty it was), he managed to keep himself from falling to his doom. Tryphon did not know the name of this place. He had no knowledge of the Teekon Wilds in his mind; the sea had washed him clean of that, for the most part. Had he been southbound he would have encountered whatever remained of Ankyra Sound, and returned to that home which had been lost to him; however, it was not what fate had in store.

Instead, he moved east. Through the strange crow-foot trees, across the irregular tangle of stone and sparse woodland; and eventually, he came out the other side. Faced now with mountains, Tryphon felt his spirit diminish. It had been difficult enough to make it this far - and now he was supposed to scale a mountain? An entire mountain, without a single shred of food in his iron belly, and the last of his energy waning? The boy sighed deeply, feeling his shoulders drop for a moment along with his heavy head, but after a few minutes of silent reflection he was marching along again. Stumbling across the grassland and over the hill, towards the dark line of trees which hugged the mountain's  base.

Perhaps the Mother had willed him away on purpose - but to what end? Tryphon could not see any signs of a river as he explored, he did not taste the sea upon the wind. For what purpose could the sea have for sending him this far inland? The boy's brow creased with worry, and as the hours passed and he neared the forest's edge, he found himself quietly mumbling a prayer of fortitude. At the very least, She could provide him with a little of that.

Bazi was carting around a belly of her own, but it was a foreign and unwelcome visitor. Even at four weeks, she walked with a distinct waddle, the weight of the unborn children tugging on her hip bones. They were either very large, or very many - she knew that from watching both Tuwawi and Paarthurnax progress through pregnancy. The thought of her childrens' impending exit from her womb filled Bazi with dread.

The figure at the forest, however, did not. Even from a distance, he looked woefully lost. Bazi donned her best Alpha Face and marched towards the stranger, belly tugging uncomfortably with each brisk step. "Window-shopping?" She sent the words ahead of her, but even when she reached him, Bazi would not recognize Tuwawi's son.

As if to answer his prayers, a woman as white as the foaming ocean was suddenly before him. Her belly swayed softly in her approached and Tryphon, surprised at having been found so swiftly, found his eyes lingering on that slight motion. Her voice sprang forth and, strangely, tugged at something in the back of his mind; nothing as definitive as a full memory, but... Something. Familiarity? But that couldn't happen, Tryphon had never been here before, he had never met this woman.

It took a moment before Tryphon realized he was staring, not answering the question. He blinked and shook his head, ducking it low out of respect for the woman. If the sea had brought him here, there must have been a reason - if the reason was this woman, Tryphon knew he had to obey her. Perhaps she was a siren and he was meant to serve her? "I... I don't know where I am. Or why." He answered honestly, if a bit pathetically with a softness to his voice that Tryphon had yet to shed.

"I... I don't know where I am. Or why," the youth stammered. He couldn't have been older than a year, if that. Bazi came to a heavy stop in front of him, narrowing her eyes into that obviously judging expression that had become her trademark. Whoever this was he was, he was slow to develop - there was something distinctly childish about his build and a softness to his features. If he had wandered alone, it couldn't have been for long, for he had a paunch to match hers.


Bazi put one paw forward and leaned on it as she extended her neck, sniffing the halo of scent around the stranger. It wasn't an entirely unfamiliar scent, but she couldn't quite place it. A Duskfire recruit, perhaps? "You must have come from somewhere," the Alpha probed, "Which direction did you come from?"

"From the north, I think.." The boy muttered, abd then looked around for a moment as if to situate himself. It didnt work though. Tryphon was not trained in navigation of any kind, which made this encounter completely random; his belief that the sea had pushed him here was strong, yet carefully guarded.

The more he looked around the more flustered he got, until finally sighing and collapsing his rump to the ground. "I was looking for my mother. Er, one of them. But then I guess She didnt want me." Tryphon's voice was suddenly thin and strained by sadness; such a story would be sad if he were younger, but many children dispersed from their parents earlier than him. It was a difficult lesson for the boy to learn (albeit a familiar one). As his head sank to his paws, the boy muttered a final, brooding sentiment. "Nobody ever wants me."

Bazi received the boy's sob story with a frown. Much in the same way that Sleeping Karm placated her boyfriend's coughing fit by telling him to 'calm down', the Alpha of Nova Peak gave a sharp shake of her head and told Tuwawi's lost son to "Buck up, boy. This is no way to seek asylum, if that's what you're after." When Tryphon sat, she remained standing, towering over him in spirit more so than actual height. "Now are you going to offer me something, or are you just going to cry on my doorstep?"

"Asylum..?" He slurred the word, perplexed by it, and watched as the woman seemed to assume a stronger posture. The thought hadn't crossed his mind - or maybe it had, but Tryphon was too slow in the head to notice. He did as he was told. The sadness left his voice because he clammed right up, and he sat up so that he wasn't a weeping willow before her. As quickly as he could, Tryphon tried to think of things to tell about himself; his strengths were limited due to his age and he wasn't sure what to say.

"M-my name is Tryphon," was the first thing he listed, and the name itself tasted strange upon his tongue; he attributed this to nerves. "I lived by a river, and by the sea before that, and.." Elsewhere? As he mentioned these places, the boy's mind flashed with images; first the stranger who found him at the river mouth, and then a brief memory of being submerged in the sea; there was a sharp-faced woman and a boy, pale and young, beside him. And before that...? "And I can fish." Was that it? 

An apologetic look slipped across his round face, creasing it with worry once more. Tryphon licked his lips, pondered a little bit more, and tried to list something of more value. "Y-you, you've been blessed," it was an abrupt change of topic, but he motioned to the roundness of her belly all the same; his caretaker by the river had been a new mother as well, so new that she nearly drove the boy away out of fear for the little lives. He hoped this pale woman would show as much mercy. "I spent some time helping someone with their own newborns. I'm... I'm good with kids." He was still a child himself, after all.

"I'm sorry I don't know what to say." His ears fell back against his head, and Tryphon's yellow-pointed face turned glum again. His nose pointed at the ground, while those moonshine eyes of his looked away from the woman in his company.

Bazi imagined Tryphon's cheeks reddening beneath his fur, but the force of her demands did not bow him. He rambled his short resumé, stumbling through his paltry list of skills. She encouraged him with slow nods, her expression brightening visibly when he mentioned fishing. Bazi loved fishing. There wasn't much of it to be had at Nova Peak, whose miniature version of the Swiftcurrent was too shallow to sustain anything worth catching. She made a mental note to task Tryphon with finding a proper river - it was a skill she wanted to keep well oiled, as well as pass on to her children.

"Perfect," she praised, feeling a sudden swell of maternal love for the stuttering boy with the poor self-esteem. He was a welcome distraction from her condition, and though he was nowhere near Julius and Relonikiv's age, his boyish ways was a balm against the hole their recent departure had left in her heart. Bazi took a symbolic step aside, tipping her head in the direction of the forest's inner sanctum. "I need fisherman - and I need as many babysitters as I can get." She turned herself awkwardly around, motioning for him to follow. "I'm Bazi, this is Nova Peak. Come on."

And just like that, she seemed to accept him. If a resume as desolate as Tryphon's could earn him a new home, maybe there was hope for Java after all. He looked stunned at first, barely registering what the woman was saying until she was beckoning him to follow; and when that occurred, his legs began to move without his own bidding. He moved a few steps after her and then, his mind a flurry of many thoughts, he muttered a hasty thanks.

"I promise to do the best I can, miss Bazi." He could look for a river at some point, that sounded like fun. And babysitting! And maybe even figuring out what he was doing all the way inland. Maybe the Mother had brought him here for these exact reasons. Tryphon hurried after her. "Thank you. Thank you so much!" It would be strange to not live near the sea, or even near a strong body of water like a powerful river - until he found one, of course - but he would adapt. He'd have to.

Bazi flashed him a tight smile, leading the way at a brisk waddle. She had accepted wolves into her pack on less evidence, and Tryphon seemed like a sweet kid - pliable, eager to please. They needed wolves like that. Too many souls that found their way into the Teekon Wilds had left their home with a whole host of ambitions, making them unsuitable as subordinate wolves of an established pack. Even if Tryphon didn't look like much of a warrior, simply having another body that could be counted on to stay was a bigger win than securing a flighty warrior for a few weeks. Bazi had seen neither hide nor hair of the other two recruits in several days, and suspected they had already departed for greener pastures. The thought made her scoff out loud.


"Let's introduce you around," she told the boy at her side, both of them unaware that she was reuniting him with family. "Then you and I can talk jobs - we're new here, so there's plenty to go around."

The two wolves disappeared into the forest gloom.

Concluding. :)