Duskfire Glacier I am never the first to know

ooc: @Tryphon - it can be located at the DFG, but can be anywhere, where it is suitable for your character.

When Hedda awoke from her previous night's journey, it took her some time to register, where she was now and what had happened in the last few hours. The loss of sense of reality was one of the unwelcome side-effects, when you chewed on the root, one of the strongest, yet the most unreliable part of the recreational plant. But she had achieved her goal, seen through her master's eyes and been brought to a shore made up from corpses, an open gate, a feast set up waiting for those, who didn't die heroically during a battle. For a brief moment she had been able to look the queen of this realm in the eye and listen to her chanting words of wisdom and secrets. Hedda had gained the feeling at being on the verge of a very important discovery only to wake up and realize that she could not remember, what it was.

"You are a bastard," she growled under her breath, getting to her feet and stretching. Her head was pounding and there was still the bitter taste of the plant in her mouth. She was not in a good mood, when she began walking in search for a source of water to quench her thirst and wash away the disgusting taste. She was a loyal follower, but sometimes she really hated the ways her master tested her patience.

He was on his way back towards the crescent of trees, the one where he had encountered the pale woman, when he came upon something wholly different. The sight of a dark figure silhouetted by the barren earth, similar to the man who had come upon Tryphon earlier, made him stop in his tracks. But this silhouette was different; it was more fluid, and darker, and held a malice which wasn't entirely imagined by the boy. The stranger was mid-stretch and appeared distracted. Tryphon, however, was a clumsy boy. His wide paws crunched across the withered grasses and the weight of him split some twigs, alerting the world to his presence. In the hope that he'd get away before being ntoiced, Tryphon simply ducked his head and slunk away a few steps - trying to maneuver around the dark stranger.

The headache was unbearable and the only thing Hedda wished now was that she hadn't scorned at the healing properties of the aspen trees' bark, when she had been at that forest, and that she had taken some with her. Because - here she lifted her gaze to cast a glance around - obviously was nothing that could help her now. Sometimes she wished that her spirit was not trapped within the boundaries of the mortal body, that she could be as free as the gods were, not having to feel the pain, the useless emotions, be guided and ruled by hormones and archaic instincts. Her mind was superior and these things simply prevented it's progress.

Hedda's gaze snapped up almost imediately she heard someone's clumsy footfalls making noise. Due to the delicate state of her aching brain, every sound of rustling, cracking and breaking was as if someone was stabbing her with daggers, making the pain more intense and her patience and self-control limit to zero. She let out a hiss and broke out in a quick lope to cut the young wolf's path short and have him cornered. He had angered the witch - a very foolish thing to do - and he had to be punished.

The boy was very, very unlucky. His near-drowning experience was one obvious identifier of that, and the things from before - the things he couldn't currently remember - were another. Encountering a rogue shadow, and an angry rogue at that, would soon be on that same list. Tryphon tried to avoid their attention for as long as he could, but they were fast - surprisingly fast - and intent on reaching him. He was panting heavily by the time he stopped moving, having started to run at some point while trying to flee. As he felt his energy level sinking, Tryphon turned his head in an effort to locate the shadow; and it was in this moment that she came upon him.

Hedda was not the fastest or agile creature among her kind. There were many that exceeded her in skill. Yet her "prey's" clumsiness and slowness was her advantage. The chase didn't last very long, the witch had caught up with the boy soon enough to cut his way short. When it was achieved, she looked at the young wolf with a hostile gaze, the fur along her spine was bristled, making her lanky form appear bigger and more intimidating. With tail lifted straight up in a dominant manner, she bared her teeth at him, before barking at him words that made no sense at the first take: "Now... explain yourself!" Yet since she was in a hangoverish state with a pounding headache there was little room for reason. If the lad was not quick with words, Hedda would lash out at him.

The stranger was suddenly there, first beside him, then cutting off his path. Lurching in to the space between himself and a possible escape route while he tried to gather his wits. Tryphon was slow to recover, and slower still to respond to the stranger's odd demand. He slurped his tongue back in to his head, licked his lips nervously, and tried to make some sense of the passing minutes.

"Who -- what? W-what are you talking about." His tail was the opposite of her's, being low at first, and then curling to touch his belly. He caught on to what she wanted in the next moment, but still stumbled over himself verbally. Her angry expression didn't help. "I was just passing through, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bother you. S-sorry, sorry! I -" The boy would've continued, but the stranger's expression scared him; what was she going to do? A small whine slipped out of his lips and he looked hastily away.

The kid mumbled something about being sorry and not meaning to bother Hedda. She watched him stumble on words and felt annoyed by the young fellow with every passing second. Her amber eye burned in a deeply felt hatred aimed at this innocent boy. There were no valid reasons, aside for the fact that her "aid in traveling" made her senses and outbursts of emotions stronger than usual. When she felt she had had enough of his weak efforts of explaining himself, she barked at him sharply: "SILENCE!" The tone in her voice implied that, if he did not, then the consequences would be severe.

"Let's go," she beckoned with her muzzle the direction the boy had to take and waited for him to start walking. Just in case he decided to do something so stupid as to... try running away.

The woman - or at least he thought the creature was a woman - barked a command at him, and Tryphon was shied in to obeying. His mouth snapped shut quickly after that, with a pathetically wounded expression crossing his features. She was bullying him and there was nothing he could really do about it. But that wasn't the only order given - just as soon as she'd commanded he shut the heck up, her voice issued another command. 

"Let's go."

Go? Go where? Go -- why? Tryphon didn't have the courage to ask, and simply began to move in the required direction. His tail remained stuck to his belly, curving beneath him in the most subservient display possible; he was practically a slug, wiggling his way awkwardly along.

The kid was awfully slow - this, of course, didn't help him gain any respect in Hedda's eyes, nor change the opinion that such a weakling and scaredy cat should not be walking the earth. Why was it so that often the harsh natural selection, which spared neither the weak and sickly ones, nor the strong, sometimes let these kind of fellows slip through and continue exist? They said that the gods had a grand plan behind it all... yet - she glared at the yearling, this was the furthest from grand she had ever seen.

When Hedda thought that she had been merciful and patient enough in coping with the chap's slowness, she left her post from walking behind him and came to his side, letting out a low and menacing growl: "Speed up!" If he did not, there were other effective means of making one move. Ankle biting and herding was the most harmless of them all.

Whatever she wanted with him, she wasn't getting it fast enough. She barked at him with more insistence, slipping up along his side and trying to urge him to go faster. But this was not something Tryphon was eager to do, nor something he would happily take from a stranger - even with all his spinelessness, there was only so much that the boy would take. As soon as the woman commanded that he speed up, Tryphon stopped completely.

His tail was still curled beneath his body, against his belly. His ears were still against his head, only snaking down to protect his throat as he wheeled about, leveling an agitated glare upon the shadow beside him. "NO." The boy all but shouted. "Who are you? What makes you think I'll do what you want? I apologized!" As he spoke, he scrambled to one side in the hope that he'd out-distance any sort of attack, assuming her foul attitude wasn't the only nasty thing about this lady. "Why are you so mean?"

If the young wolf thought that him showing an attitude and not obeying would have any effect on Hedda, then he was very wrong. She had dealt with these kind of snotty whelps, who thought that the world belonged to them, before and not by scolding or shouting them. Her means of teaching a lesson had a long lasting but beneficial effect. Especially, since no one of the punished ones had ever dared to challenge her again.

The witch rolled her eyes, sighed and closed the little distance that the cub had put between him and her and looked down at him in an annoyed manner. "What great things in life have you done to be treated nicely?" He was definitely at the top of Hedda's "naughty list", for making horrible noise and thus causing her head to ache even more. Being on a list was not a good thing though. "Because from what I see now you are nothing but a detestable and pitiful excuse of a wolf. So - either obey and be useful - or I will truncate your miserable existance here and now," she bared her teeth, thus showing that she really meant her threat.