you do not know who is your friend

or who is your enemy

until the   ICE breaks.

He liked the mountain range with its tall, snow-capped peaks and winds of early winter; he liked the frigid air that steamed from your hot mouth and rose towards a dark sky full of cold crystal stars. The cold made him feel alive, though at times, he was painfully unaware of not being an arctic wolf - when the night wind cut straight to the bone with vicious teeth and the only salvation came in jogging deeper into the land below, down from where the snow twirled in the playful breezes and into the foothills were anything that fell, fell as water. Ice was down there now, as the nights up higher grew steadily colder, too soon for his winter fur to develop and keep him warm. At times, it saddened him greatly that the one thing he truly loved was the one thing that drove him south, into Eden.


The moon shone upon his back as he moved through the night, loping into the lands below. He visited them so seldom, and now that the cold had driven him out of his den for the night - maybe until spring, who knew? - why not just keep running and see where he ended up? With ears and eyes and nose alert he moved lithely across the dying grass, mindful to not cross over a pack's border.


Dawn crept closer, the sun hiding behind the horizon and his precious mountains. In the west, it retained its dark shade, but in the east, it began to ligthen, first into pale blue and then pale streaks of pastel pink and yellow began to flare across it. Ice, being a somewhat simple wolf at times, had never understood why some sought to adore only the complex, and became so oblivious to the simple, but enjoyable, things in life - such as watching a sunrise. Still at an easy lope, Ice lifted his head every so often and stared at the outline of the mountain range. It was beautiful, and so was the land up ahead. The scattered trees became fewer and more far apart, giving way to an open expanse littered with tall wildflowers of nearly every shade of orange and red. Surprise caused his 'brows to arch upwards for a moment, but then he accepted it. Maybe the cold had not come down here yet. Instead, he slowed when he came into their midst. Aimlessly he picked his way across the land, until he came across a fairly fresh scent. Another wolf out here this early in the morning, huh? Ice's head swung around as he listened and sampled the air, and there, sitting on the knoll and looking at the breathtaking sunrise was another wolf, pale in color. For a moment, Ice hesitated; he'd never been good at social interaction, but something in him still, quite naturally, craved the company of others. And thus, he picked up his large paws and began his cautious approach towards the female.


He hoped she wouldn't take offense of him climbing her knoll, and as the sunlight peered over the mountain's ridged back and down onto the world below, he paused again. Her shadow was cast down on the ground, but the further the sun rose, the more the dew left on the undisturbed flowers began to glow. Smiling a toothy smile to himself, Ice moved again, eventually coming up beside her at what he hoped was a fairly respectful distance. "Isn't it breathtaking?" was the first thing he said, his voice awed. For a moment longer he was lost in the scene, but then he suddenly blinked his eyes a couple of time and gave her a bit of an abashed grin. "Uhm, I mean, good morning m'lady."

.ice aesir

you do not know who is your friend

or who is your enemy

until the   ICE breaks.

Her reaction to his words gave him the notion she wasn't fully aware he'd been there - had she been too lost in the scenery to notice? Ice frowned a little at such careless behavior. Did she not mind others creeping up on her? Did she not care what they might do to an unwary wolf? He could've been an angry bear, or a rabid mountain lion, or anything but a kind-hearted socially awkward wolf. Ice, being a vigilant and protective wolf, found her behavior confusing and somewhat upsetting. He almost wanted to slap her and ask her why she didn't care. She didn't even jump, just look at him with a blank kind of curiosity and respond with a hollow voice that forced him to sit down. It sounded so dismissing, so.. so empty. A part of him wanted to just smile at her and tell her to cheer up, but he knew that he knew nothing about her. He couldn't even begin to fathom why she'd speak in such a hollow, bitter voice. Frowning, he replied and his voice sounded oddly childish. "But I like being courteous."


She turned her head away and Ice tilted his head. A scar ran across her muzzle. Was she a fighter, too? But, no, she couldn't be - even though she was sitting, he saw how thin she was. Her fur was unkempt, and while he was by no means fond of bathing, he did at least keep himself clean. She shivered in the wind that merely ruffled his thick fur, and with the frown still on his face he let his ears fall back, uncertain. She seemed so listless, and it frightened him. Ice might be grown and the age of an adult, but most times he had a childish edge - and when faced with things that frightened him or confused him, he seemed to become younger in his head. Somehow, it felt like he sat on this pretty knoll and conversed with Death.


"I don't know," he replied dejectedly. "I don't know anything about them." Hesitantly, he looked at her from the corner of his silvery eyes. She had once been large, probably buff too, but now she looked as if she was getting old prematurely. There wasn't much to her left and the longer he spent beside her and listening to her hollow voice, the more he became aware of how wrong she both looked at sounded. It was as if someone had stolen the very life from her. What he had wanted to become a happy meeting with a stranger, an opportunity to just sit beside someone and relax and look at the sunrise, became something that creeped him out. Fidgeting slightly, he fought down the urge to tell her she was scary. It wouldn't do much good he guessed, but in the end, he couldn't just sit there and keep quiet. "What's happened to you?" he finally blurted out.


Yea right, Ice - you like being courteous? I don't notice it.

.ice aesir

you do not know who is your friend

or who is your enemy

until the   ICE breaks.

She seemed to contemplate his words and Ice fought the urge to whine softly, the tip of his tail twitching erratically across the ground. Flowers waved in its wake, their long stems disturbed by his own disturbance. Shadows danced in front of his mind as he sat there beside Vlarindara, and when she suddenly heaved herself around he startled. For half a moment every sense became fully alert, and a ripple ran through the fur on his neck, his lips twitching across his fangs. But - it was just her, moving, albeit suddenly. Ice blinked in a kind of apologetic manner, before he finally drew his pale eyes to her face. The edge of the scar across her nose he'd already seen, but all of this? He tilted his head, drawn in by the wicked wounds she'd received - they were nothing like the small uneven lines that ran along his own body. Fascinated, Ice leaned just a tad closer, eyes sparkling. Slowly, his head tilted to the side and he drank in her appearance hungrily, like a youth obsessing over their favorite hero's scars. But then, she looked aside, before he was done looking at her. Ice fought down the childish disappointment and listened to her, trying to heed her wisdom. At times a bit dim-witted and acting younger then he was he might be, but as with most creatures that seldom reveal who they are, there was more to him. His face fell a little, and the large brute spoke into the silence left by her words. "Are you ashamed of what you've done?" he asked her, his deep voice strangely soft. He'd noticed the way he cast her eyes down when she began to speak of her failed challenge. Ice would not pity her; pity made nothing better. She'd cast the die and they had rolled in the favor of another. She settled back down and Ice looked at her from the corner of his eyes.


"Uhm, pardon me for saying it, but the way you're looking, it seems the monster is about to chew your entire head off, miss," he said. Blunt, as always, eh, Ice? She looked like hell. The scars didn't make her look like hell - her generally thin body did. She still seemed wrong to him, strange and dirty somehow, but a little of the mysterious veil had been lifted when she shared of her past. It was wise words, in a sense, but Ice was a bit of the mind that you should be allowed to make your own decisions. Still trapped in his more childish self, though, he didn't say it. Instead, he continued to pester her. "Don't you have anything to live for anymore?" He motioned with his head towards her thin and dirty self, before a movement up ahead caught his attention. Suddenly he was half-risen from the ground, ears alert and nose taking in all the scents. Mostly, he could smell himself at the female beside him, but - there, there was something there, right? The wind might blow away from him, but.. wasn't there.. yes..? His eyes dipped down, scanning the ground. Their position on the top of the knoll gave him a good view across the ground, and yes, there was some white there. It did not belong in the setting, and it certainly hadn't been there earlier. Once he'd found it, he turned his head to Vlarindara, as if their earlier conversation was entirely forgotten. "C'mon, let's check it out." Did he wait for an answer, or consent? No. Ice was already moving down the knoll with long, easy strides, and the scent of wolf grew stronger. That patch of white was definitely a wolf.


With his tail slung in a somewhat neutral but friendly position behind him, Ice came upon the crouched wolf. The large male frowned slightly as he stood above her, looking down the length of his muzzle. "Why do you hide? It's rude to eavesdrop," he said. Such a strange creature he was, really; three of age and yet sometimes with the mindset of a child. Leaving the strange conversation with Vlarindara behind, it slowly began to fade, but not in a heartbeat, no. Some of the high pitches and whiny tendencies had already washed themselves out of his voice, but the blunt wording remained. Realizing this, Ice looked somewhat thoughtful for a moment, before trying to make his amends. "I'm sorry, miss, that was kind of rude of me. But you know, you do look awfully frightened." As if that would make it better...

.ice aesir