Stand still, old crow

RE: This fortnight, the rains seem to have stopped.[/I]
The temperature was still low, but Sagacity plowed on through the snow which, she noticed with as much satisfaction as she could muster, was beginning to melt. The rains had helped with this but given the fact that the rains had subsided and the temperature had not gone above zero, the process of winter changing to spring seemed to have ground to a halt. It was morning and there was a slight chill in the air, but within the Sacred Grove the air was still, so in the very least, there was no wind to bite at her cheeks and ears. The sunlight filtered down through the leafless branches to the ground below which was still coated in white, unblemished and smoothe. Sagacity left behind a perfect set of pawprints as she moved along, her main task was her focus- she needed to find her son.

Not long ago she thought she'd had his trail, she was almost sure of it. But it wasn't in a part of the Lore that he would have known and his scent had been faint. Too faint for her to follow it very far. Still, it was enough to convince her that he was alive- and Aponi as well. It meant they had not been kidnapped by the wolves of Cut Rock River, which meant that she would not have to confront them. It was the last thing that she wanted to do- but if it brought her closer to finding her son and the alpha's heir, she would do it. She had informed Naira of her newest scouting goals and had set off to fulfill them.

In the still air, she found herself wishing desperately for spring to come. Her body ached for warmth, to be able to stretch out in the sunlight at the end of a scouting mission and absorb the warmth without a care in the world. Winter was the time for curling up in a den and hoping the temperature didn't drop too low, for snuggling up with other wolves and hoping that the combined body heat would be enough to keep them warm. Sagacity preferred isolation, rather than sleeping alongside others, but for her survival she could put her wants aside and focus on her needs.

She called out for Mercy every so often, and for Aponi as well, knowing that her job meant bringing them both home. She was faintly aware that Chulyin was also scouting as well, trying to find his niece and the bastard boy. She could only hope that she would find them before another storm hit, or before starvation claimed them.

Avatars by Arla!

Kassander had begun to find himself wandering north from the marsh. A grove covered in snow even if it was above freezing temperatures. Hopefully it would all be gone and melted soon enough. Kass was calm as he caught sight of the light gray fae who happened to be sharing the scenery with him. He said nothing and just kinda watched her. The way she moved, how she behaved. The rains that had lasted quite awhile slowly started to fade and Kassander was relieved. The rains that he had slept through made his bones ache when he had first woken and even as he stood near the light gray fae he could feel the pain they had left him in that morning. He couldn't wait for the spring, the sun, the warmth. It looked like they would all have to wait a little more for that weather though.

Kass wondered what the wolf was doing there. Every wolf had a story that drove them, no matter how large or small it was, it still drove them all. He took a small breathe that was almost as quite as the lanky teen was himself. He was socially awkward with his choppy English and fluent Russian. How he wished to learn something. He turned and started to leave, departing from the scene in hopes he was not spotted by the female. The last thing the teen was comfortable with was an encounter with another wolf. He had no idea if she was a danger to him and his health or not. But then a thought crossed him, perhaps she had food. It seemed like it was harder and harder to come by than it had been last winter. However he had lived in a place with mild winters. Oh how he wished for those times to return to him.

That was, those times but without the pain he had been put through.

No sign of him. No sign of many other wolves, either, or prey; the snow was an unreadable slate of blank white, teasing her and taunting her. It would have been so easy for her to follow a set of pawprints in the snow- but here it was, like parchment paper ready to soak in the ink and become a beautiful, intricate celtic drawing, blank as the day it was made. It irritated Sagacity; she could track prey in the summer when the ground was dry and hard and no footprints could be left behind- but in the winter, when visual trails were almost as easy to follow as a scent trail- if not moreso- yet here she was, searching and searching and finding nothing.

Her facial expression had gone from neutral to grumpy as she moved, but her features were wiped blank when she caught the scent of another wolf. Her head lifted quickly and she scanned the area searching for whoever it was that had come into her periphery. He was moving away from her- he didn't look terribly old, and it pulled at her heartstrings to see another young wolf out on their own. He looked lost, for some reason- something about his facial features seemed to speak of indecision, and it seemed to Sagacity that he was trying to seem as though he either hadn't seen her, or didn't care to interact. Sage's ears flicked back. This was usually what she hoped for whenever she came across another wolf, that they would ignore her. But she knew that she needed help.

"Wait," She called out, and turned toward him. She did not go after him, and instead hoped that he might stop and turn, give her even just a second or two of his time.

Kassander had almost thought that he had made it out of the interaction until he heard the softest whisper from the woman. At least that was what it had sounded like to him. He stopped in his tracks and hesitantly turned to face the gray lady who had requested he stay where she could see him with those simple words. He had almost expected her to pursue him but she had not. He crouched down, his tail tucking as he looked at her in an unsure manner. The goal was to make himself look as small as possible. He took a deep breathe that seemed to draw on forever and then he tried to speak, but the words got caught in his muzzle and he ended up looking at her and gaping like a fool.

Davay Kassander, skazhi chto-nibud'. YA dayu na vas. He told himself with a fierce scolding from his conscience. He wasn't very high in the heiarchy when it came to the TOTEM pole structure he had learned as a boy. The fact was alphas were the second highest with the gods above them. Below the alphas was the preachers and clergy. Even farther down was the heirs and pups of noble birth. Then the subordinates of a pack. The yearlings were under the subordinates and eventually you reached the lone wolf like himself. he was foolish to think that this interaction would end good. Most that he had with pack wolves ended badly or with him being hurt.

Although he was a decent fighter, he would never admit it. He hated to think that he was good on inflicting pain on others. Hunting he could excel at without feeling the scowl from his inner mind but something had never felt right about it. It was healing that had graced him with a talent that would cause no pain, only try to mend what others had done. That was what he wished for. His mind was extremely off topic from the task at hand.

She judged, as he turned, the young man to be in a tough spot in his life. Now that she could see him more clearly, she could see how young he was; probably around the age and state that Sagacity had been in when she'd left her birth pack to rove- though she'd been fortunate in finding a few travel companions along the way, especially during her first winter. And here was this traveler, a nomad, out on his own in what most wolves had deemed the most insufferable winter any in their generation had experienced. He seemed tentative to respond to her at all, but did so obediently, more, she supposed, out of fear than anything. He didn't look terribly willing to speak to her, so for a change, Sagacity felt guilty.

He looked uncomfortable and unsure of what to do- he didn't say anything, but his body language spoke volumes. I don't know what you want from me. I don't know what you want me to do. I don't want a fight. I want to be left alone. Sagacity's form softened and she exhaled gently. "It's alright," She said in a low voice. She wasn't the best at being kind to strangers, and felt somewhat awkward as she felt obliged to make sure he knew she wasn't going to hurt him. If anything, she pitied him, and felt her maternal instinct pushing her toward the idea of taking him in, taking care of him. Her boy was missing- this was someone else's boy. This was someone else's son. And he looked lost too.

"I'm Sage...You look...Are you alright?" She asked, deciding to put her own matters on the back burner for now. She still wanted to question him, to see if he'd seen any sign of Aponi or Mercy, but he looked like he needed to be calmed and tended to first.

Kassander

All men must die. All men must serve. Valar Morghulis. Valar Dohaeris.

tag; @Sagacity
words; 310
notes; No translation hover because English is almost directly after it.

He was asked if he was alright and he honestly had no idea how to react to that. Was he really alright? He was a bit on edge but he always was. His eyes still held onto that uncertain glance. It's alright. How could he trust a stranger that he had just met? That would be foolish, even for him. The winter was wretched and it had left him in bad shape. He just wanted to be away from wolves where he could hide and not be disturbed. If he went into an isolation state than surely he would not pick a fight by accident despite his decent sparring skills that he cared not to admit he had. His eyes started to soften just the slightest bit. He blinked when he was asked a question he barely understood. It was that question that every wolf seemed to ask. Are alright? He couldn't understand some words of the common tongue and he could barely speak English at all.

He blinked, gulped and looked at her uneasily. Should be speak in Russian to get his point across? It might be best if he did. He took a deep and calming breathe before saying something. "Russian?" It was one of the few English words he had managed to get a grasp on. He was Russian, but did she understand that from one simple word? Probably not and so he spoke in Russian to go with it. "YA ne govoril na ochen' khoroshem angliyskom mem." The words were simple for him to understand. I don't speak very good English ma'am. Surely she did not understand that though, for she obviously spoke the common tongue of the region. What place had he washed up on? Why was he never taught English in his birth pack? He was not an ambivert and very much an introvert.

♥ NEVERTALE

Russian?

What did that mean? Having grown up in a fairly small birth pack of wolves who only spoke English and who gave her no knowledge that other language even existed, Sagacity was perplexed by the word he spoke. It sounded like he was asking her if she was in a rush, and so, her answer would have been no- had he not begun to speak again, this time a mass of words and sounds that she couldn't understand at all. The only word she was somewhat able to grasp was the last- because it sounded enough like its English counterpart, and was spoken in a similar way as well. She looked him up and down for a moment and tried to decide what to say.

It was obvious that those words meant something to them- there was a recognizable flow to the tone of his voice that signalled to her he was speaking something that made sense to him- rather than just being a jumble of syllables and sounds that a pup might speak. She couldn't really ask him about Mercy, now, not if he didn't understand her- and she couldn't understand him, so even if he did know what she was saying, she wouldn't be able to understand his answer. She shook her head gently in a reply, to show that she didn't grasp anything he'd just said. She gritted her teeth slightly, and exhaled gently. Well he was useless to her now, wasn't he?

"Sage," She said, not knowing what else she could say that would mean anything- but she bobbed her head in a sort of greeting, and repeated the word. "Sage." She then flicked her muzzle, gesturing to him, and tilted her head to the side. They could, at least, speak in basic gestures, she figured.

Kassander struggled as she stated 'Sage' twice and the first thing that came to mind was a sorcerer or a wizard. He cocked his head to the side slightly as he struggled to form words in an attempt to communicate what little English he actually knew. "I-I K-Kassander." He stuttered out as he was slow to form the words that he had meant to say. He felt cursed because he knew so little of the native tongue of the lands. If he had remained at Rock Mountain than he would have no issues going and communicating with others. However, Rock Mountain wasn't really a choice anymore. No Russian pack from The Stone Hills {ass all the packs were native to Russian language} was a choice anymore. Too much war and not enough peace for him.

Kass remained there, his tail ducked as he detected a light scent of other wolves who he assumed to be a pack that she belonged to. She looked trouble and he wondered why. He spoke again, being careful to point out he had a fairly decent understanding of what she was saying {or at least he believe as such} and that she could ask him things. "I know little English." He had repeated the words over and over in his head until he was accustomed to how they were pronounced. He did that when he was trying not to mess up on his language skills too much. He did, however, draw in a deep breathe and plant his rump on the ground. She had gotten him into this situation and so he felt it was respectful and his duty to stay until it was over... he hoped soon as he felt uncomfortable just as he had when talking with his siblings both from older litters as well as his own littermates.

He hoped that she would have an anagnorisis or the critical moment of recognition that he could at least give it his best effort to help her out. She looked like she needed it and he wanted to know why. It was a source of knowledge. Knowledge was one of the few things that he actual held to dearly. The other two? Loyalty and pride.

Kassandur. She pricked her ears so she could hear exactly what he'd said- he seemed to have cottoned onto the idea of name sharing at least- and his accent made it tougher for her to understand completely what he'd said, but she thought she'd grasped it. He looked confused, but it didn't seem like "Kassandur" was a question, but a reply. "Kassandur?" She asked, hoping she'd pronounced it right- naturally, she was a bit off, but she was simply trying to repeat what she'd thought he'd said. The cream wolf sat down, so she moved a bit closer so the distance wouldn't be a factor in any misunderstandings, and sat down as well. For some reason, she was slightly consoled while talking to him; he was someone else's son, someone else's yearling lost in the wilderness. If she was kind to him, maybe someone else would be similarly as kind to Mercy.

Finally she understood what all the jibberish was about earlier- he didn't speak English. He spoke some other sort of language, which was an inkling of an idea she'd had, but her upbringing hadn't really allowed for her to learn much about wolves who spoke other languages. She was aware that Mapplethorpe knew how to speak what he called a very old and somewhat deceased language, but that was Mapplethorpe- he was a scholar, and his primary language was English. This was a wolf who didn't know much English at all- but maybe he knew enough, she hoped, for her to glean some information about him. His foreign accent intrigued her.

She nodded slightly when he confessed not knowing English, but she didn't intend to let him go without trying to get more words out of him. She, after all, knew no Russian at all, so there was nothing he could say to her that she would understand, but she had a suspicion that he'd be able to understand a few basic words from her. "Pack?" There, that was an important one. She could tell by his smell that he was a lone wolf, but she couldn't exactly go into length and ask him 'what pack did you come from?' or 'have you been to any other packs here?' As that probably would have perplexed the youth even further.

There is a rabbit's nest nearby. +1 Health