Frostfire Ridge Fuster Cluck

@Manauia I figure we can try and keep these posts short. :) @Citali is welcome to join at any point.

A few days had lapsed between their discovery of the Prince and now. What had she done since then? Absolutely nothing. Well, that wasn't wholly true. She'd found this vacant den and sprawled on her side, letting her aching feet have a rest finally. She'd get food at some point, but she was useless when her joints and pads ached liked this. To go from searching so tirelessly for their charge to just laying here, doing jack-all, was like a shock to her system. Actually, Nochtli wasn't at all sure whether or not she could feel her feet right now. 

Vaguely, that thought led her to the conclusion that she'd woken up at some point, her mind still slow with the haze of sleep clouding it. Soft, lazy breaths were drawn in and pushed out, eyes eventually opening as a scent drifted into her olfactory nerves. Shifting slightly, without moving the rest of her body, the dark girl moved her head to look at the opening of the den, a slow blink letting her focus. Was someone actually there or was she actually still asleep? Perhaps she'd figure out at some point. 

depending :) sometimes she gets long for me lols.  getting this on the log so I won't forget it's there!

Manauia had been made aware that two of her sisters now had returned, and the relief of their safe arrival to these lands was tempered by an ache of longing and fear.  It had been so long since she had been among the Amazons, and though she was glad they were here now, the reminder was painful.  Not only that, but only two had arrived - which meant, at some point, the four had become separated.  Where were Amoxtli and Eztli?  Had something happened to them while she'd been apart?

She had oft butted heads with Amoxtli, but she loved the commander well and was duly upset by the thought that anything had befallen her.  The same went for the priestess.  Perhaps they had gone on alone, returning to the rise while the other two sought her out.  This was the hope that she held as she approached her sisters' densite, a flickering flame that could so easily be snuffed with a single answer from them.

"Citali?  Nochtli?"  She paused, unwilling to intrude yet desperate to know that they were sound, and that she was no longer alone in this nightmare.  Because no matter how much Tezca had come around these last few months, she'd missed her family heavily, and having a part of it here would make all things more bearable.

No worries! We will go with the flow!

Twitch. Yes. Okay. She could feel her feet. Maybe. Her brow furrowed in a slight manner, eyes unfocusing for a moment. Twitch. Yes, that worked. Her foot had moved. So perhaps they were just numb rather than all together dead. It was a silly line of thought but for how far they'd traveled in a short span of time, it wasn't completely out of context. She'd ask Citali later maybe. If she wasn't asleep by the time her companion showed up.

Her name. She heard her name. Eyelids fell over her bright eyes only to reopen again, refocused and vision mostly clear as she looked up again. Oh. There was someone there. Not a dream. Focusing on her nose, Nochtli attempted to identify the scent, her tail thumping on the ground when she put it to a name and a face. "Mana." Her voice was tired, weighted with sleep, but the warmth was there. She was happy to see her sister. 

Now if only she could actually sit up. She'd get there. Right now she was still focused on wiggling her toes. "I've missed your face." Nochtli's way of weaving words was still out of reach at the moment but diplomacy was not needed here with her sister. Not right now, anyway.

Nochtli answered her query, and this prompted the amazon further into the den, knowing she at least wouldn't be disturbing her (hopefully). The warmth that was shown was returned when she answered, as her relief was undescribable, and the tone was a bit rough. "You have no idea." For months she had been alone, and it was almost unreal that they were here right now. Citali was nowhere to be seen, but when the met, she would be just as gladly recieved.

Lowering herself, she crawled a ways in, pressing her nose to her sister's shoulder before backing up. "Where are the others? Do you know?" She didn't want to bombard Nochtli with questions when she was obviously exhausted, but she was itching to know.

Ah-ha! There it was! She'd thought she'd smelled some of that around here. Citali lowered her muzzle to the ground and pulled at the roots of a plant. She yanked, tugged, and finally pulled it from the earth. Damn dirt didn't want to hand it over, but she'd won and now she could move onward to flawless victory. Citali fled the current area and headed back towards the makeshift den she shared with Nochtli.

Sage in tow, she returned only to find the entrance to their den occupied with a rather large female ass. Dark browns and reddish fur was all that stood between Citali and Nochtli's remedy for her sore paws. Staring at the predicament from the outside, she felt her lips twitch in distaste. Really!? She came this far only to be sabotaged by wolf butt?

Sitting outside the entrance to the den, Citali put the sage down by her paws and waited. With a scowl permanently etched across her face, she tapped her foot and waited for the front door to clear. It didn't instead, she caught Manauia's words and decided it was time to chime in. "No idea. We broke off from them and went our own way. However! If they'd decided to join us, I could assure you they'd still be alive and in one piece. Though healing in any capacity in these parts seems downright impossible on account of shitty vegetation and giant asses in entryways."

Citali huffed. "Mani. Love you, girl, but please move so I might tend to Noctagon's feet. She's been complaining for half a lifetime."

"Gods, yes I do. I never want to wander around like that again. I thought we'd never find you guys." Such a thing had been a fear of hers for a while, though she'd never spoken it aloud, in case it came true. Now that they had come together again, she had no problems talking about it. The gentle touch made her smile and the barest of moments allowed her to press into it, the the smile fell away as the questions was posed.

She would have answered, had Citali's voice not piped up, doing the work for her. The dark Amazonian let the healer finished before she interjected. "We never intended to split but Cita and I went scouting with the supposed agreement that we would all meet at a central location. We waited but they never showed." Meaning that they didn't even know whether the others were still breathing in this world. 

Her toes wiggled again as Cita approached, bright eyes settling on their sister. "So what's the plan? Do we knock him out and drag him back or what?"

She was skeptical when Nochtli argued, but did not say anything. They had at least had the company of one another, and were she younger, there perhaps would have been a note of bitterness at the thought. Long ago she had conquered her insecurities about such things though, a necessity when you were one of the only non-pack born Amazons.

She backed out at Cita's insistence, bumping her shoulder lightly as well as she passed, but remained outside now. Her spirits darkened again when Noctli brought up a plan. "I've been trying. He won't come." She wasn't at all happy to hear that the other's hadn't made the meet, and troubled. Something serious must have happened to prevent such a thing, and a large part of her wished to go find out what that was.

They'd stayed together out of necessity. Out of all of them, their particular skill sets were the least adept for singular survival. Citali would be the first to admit that hunting was not her forte despite it's necessity. Smaller stuff she did fine with, but for larger, more filling meals she relied heavily upon the assistance of her sisters. Since they traveled together, they'd managed better than they might have on their own. Since they'd found the right place, their efforts paid off.

"Maybe they turned around?" Citali suggested as Manauia moved out of the threshold. Citali hopped down into the little hidey hole and snapped the root in half. She nudge part of it towards Nochtli and gave her instructions. "Chew, but don't swallow. I need it tiny for a salve." The healer followed her own directions, gnawing on her half of the thing as she tried to worry it down to something a little more useful. She pondered as she did it, contemplating their options.

"What have you tried?" Citali asked, spitting out what she'd managed so far on Nochta's flank. She glared at the dark woman, daring her to complain before continuing. "I say we drug him, then haul him home while he doesn't know any better." It was a good option. One that just might work with their combined efforts.

The healer picked up the rest of her herb and kept chewing.

Eep! Short, I'm sorry!

He wouldn't come. Of course he wouldn't. She gave a derisive snort, her mouth curling into a frown. "Yeah, that sounds like him alright. First he goes and abandons us and then decides he's just gonna sit his happy-go-lucky ass right here on this stupid ridge." Oops. Did she say that? Oh well. There was no taking it back now. Besides, her mouth was full with the stuff Cita was making her chew so now her words got to hang in the air. Her mocha colored counterpart asked some questions and Nochtli nodded, waving a paw in her direction. "Wh' she shaid." Yeah, totally legible. She decided to shut up and keep chewing, waiting for the healer to tell her to stop. 

"Everything I could. Reason. Anger. Explanation. Nothing works. I even called him a coward for refusing to face his past. Pride could not even sway him." That had been a loss of control for her, but the Hail Mary had failed even so. Tezcacoatl was not the man they had lost any longer.

Their suggestion was humorous, but earned only a small smile. If only it were a reasonable course of action, everything would be easier. She wasn't about to reveal her doubts just yet about their queen and their task, but lately nothing seemed easy anymore. "I think our only option may be to let him play out this farce. At least until more of his memories return." A waiting game that wasn't ideal but they could hardly drag him unwilling all the way back to the rise. A pity, that.

Citali had chewed enough. This plant with her spit would make for a decent slave that would do wonders on Nochta's feet. She moved, shifting within the hole to begin to apply it, licking the gunk against the black wolf's paws. She was careful not to tickle too much, but she braced herself all the same. After that long journey, the last thing she wanted was to loose an eye over a giggle fit. They'd suffered enough and she quite liked her eyeballs. They were her best feature. She'd not lose them out of accidental carelessness of another's paws.

It seemed as though their reunited sister had tried a little bit of everything. Citali frowned as she applied the herbal mixture to Nochtli's hind paws and gestured for the wolf to surrender what she was chewing. "I say we try drugging him." It seemed like the most logical thing to do. If he wouldn't listen in a natural state, they could put him in an altered one and they do just fine. Steal him of his will and he could easily succumb to theirs. "Or we can humor him and bitch until he caves in." The plan Manni appeared to be currently on board with. Less fun, but she could work with that for a while. Citlali's ears twitched. She did hate this place. Hopefully this farce would not last too terribly long.

She applied Nochta's salve to the wolf's feet and indicated she lay there while it continued to soak in. Citlali's job here was mostly done, so she turned and made herself as comfortable as she could. "How long are we humoring him for before we take drastic measures?" Memories could take forever to recover or never recover at all. She didn't want to be her indefinitely.

She wasn't surprised that whatever Mana had tried hadn't worked. She could have guessed that long before the female had found her lying here, as soon as they'd met Tezcacoatl again. "I don't think we have much of a choice, unfortunately. Even if we bitch... He is set on this place." She sighed, laying still as the Healer worked. "Plus, if we drag him back, we run the risk of getting punished for not letting him fulfill the mission." The mission. What had that been again? She didn't care to remember right now.

Her mocha colored friend settled near her and Nocta was comforted by her presence. By their presence. "The best thing we can do is stick together like the sisters we are and protect him." YEah. As soon as she was back up on her feet. Sure.

She honestly couldn't tell if Citali was joking or not... The two's humor and charms were lost on the huntress, who was always the more serious type. That wasn't to say she didn't find things funny. Her sense of humor simply tended to things she hated getting their deserved punishment and heckling other warriors over spars. She let the drugging thing pass as an assumed joke though... the Queen would likely be enraged, and they probably didn't want to risk damaging the prince's obviously soft head any more.

"I don't know how long." She admitted, for no plan or alternative had as of yet presented itself to her. Unless they thought of something, though, it could be a very long time. He was settling, after all. Even if he did regain his memories, and even if the faint chance that he would wish to return came to be, duty still might tether him to this place at that point.

"Mission?" Citali repeated, a bit shocked that this would come back up after so long. "He can't even remember his own name. What makes you think he'd remember what he was after?" As far as she was concerned, his original reason for leaving was a moot point. "I think we're past whatever he was up to. The important thing now, is to wrestle him down, tie him up, and drag his sorry ass back home." That's all there was to it. The question now, was simply a matter of how.

Citali was set on this. She did not want to linger in these lands any longer than she had to. She found them unfriendly and definitely not up to par with any set of standards she'd set for herself in life. The other girls seemed fairly passive. They were content to play his game for an indefinite amount of time until he came to his senses. Citali wasn't so sure that would happen. All three of them were close figures of his past and they'd triggered nothing of his memory. It could take years for it all to come back. None of them had years at their disposal. The queen wanted results. Not excuses.

"Fine," she snapped, agreeing with them reluctantly as she pulled herself out of Notcha's makeshift den. "We can humor him. But I ask that we reconvene in three moons to discuss this again. I will not be sitting around indefinitely. The least we can do is hold ourselves accountable to some sort of timeline." A compromise.

The fire in her eyes burned; friends or not, Nochtli had thought quite far ahead on just what dragging him back home would mean and Citali obviously hadn't. "We don't even know how long it would take to get him home. Not only did he lose his memories but we found this place by chance because we were lost. Our scent tracks are long gone by now." in other words, they'd be lucky to get him back alive much less themselves as well. 


But on the defined period of time, the diplomat agreed. "I don't want to be stuck here any longer than you, Cita. I think three moons is enough time for us to see if any of his memories return and concoct a plan to drag him home." She was not going to stay here forever. Her eyes switched to Mana, waiting for a confirmation that she agreed to all of this.

"No offense, but you guys seem to have had enough trouble dragging your own asses here, and I didn't like the trip much more.  Even without an unwilling Prince dragging us down."  Of course that course of action had occurred to her - it had been one of the first.  She was an Amazon after all, by force was her preferred method, perhaps even more than others because her diplomatic side was practically nonexistent.  Having thought it through, though, she could see any other way of getting him all the way to the Rise than of his own volition.

"If a doable plan is made, though, I'm in.  I think I can find the way home."  It was her specialty, after all.  She'd marked the trajectory of her own path, the stars and the sun assisting, and hers had likely led a straighter course than theirs to allow her to arrive so long ahead.  If necessary, with some margin for error, she could find familiar sights to lead them back to the Rise.

"For now I'm going to see about getting some food."  She looked at the roots they'd chewed skeptically.  "I can maybe track you down something too."

"Hence, drugging him." Which would make it easier. Lugging dead weight, while hard, was significantly easier than dragging a wolf kicking and screaming across what felt like half a world away. Maybe they could like... wrestle up some sort of something to pull him on so they didn't have to carry his ass. Citali pondered... this was a very, very probable thing they could do...

Her mind wandered. They seemed to all be in agreement that something should eventually be done, but for now they would be content to humor him until the time came to finally do something about his craziness. She nodded and glanced at Nocta's feet. The salve was doing just fine. Hopefully the female's paws would be better soon.

She was about to dismiss Mani's offer of food when her stomach betrayed her hunger. "I think we'd both appreciate that," she said, glancing towards her dark sister before looking back towards earthen wolf.

I'm gonna wrap this one up, ya'll! Thank you!

The idea of drugging him was dismissed, officially, accompanied by Mana's reasoning. She kept her face neutral. She just wanted to go home. At the moment though, such a thing wasn't feasible and they were left in this den, in this land with only each other for familiar company. At least she wasn't alone though.

"Thanks, Mana." She gave a small smile, definitely appreciative of the offer. In the meantime, she let Cita settle near her again, closing her eyes until someone disturbed her.

Thread fade!