Windsong Fjord under the midnight sun

Subterritory discovery! Reyes will name it later. Enjoy the beauty of Iceland and just imagine this as snowy, instead.

It surprised him, slightly, that the stranger was willing to tag along so easily. Given all the yelling and huffing at the beginning (before the spinning), the loner half-expected the other wolf to give him a much harder time, maybe even insisting on marching off along to his own frozen coffin. Reyes paused for a moment, giving the slightly smaller wolf a short stare, and then he nodded, beckoning for the other swarthy male to follow. They’d have to make quick work of this, or the guy would be a pupsicle before they could find shelter.

After a while, he glanced over his shoulder, making sure his companion was still in tow. “Hey, you got a name, cachorro?” he asked, brow tipped upwards. “I’m Reyes.”

You know, in case offering the first branch got him anything. It was getting dark, he was damned tired, and after the day’s events, wasn’t much in the market for a ridiculous amount of sass. (A small offering was probably still tolerable, though.) Beyond them, in the dimming light, the hillside continued, and that was where Reyes spotted what looked like sheer walls, almost like steps going upwards towards the sky. If they were lucky, they’d find a cave up there. He glanced back at his travelling partner. “Just a little bit further, cachorro.”

 

Askan was being-somewhat- more agreeable than usual, but that wasn't to say he had suddenly turned into a chatty-cathy or that he wanted to gossip about the latest goings on in Relic Lore. He was more than happy to walk in silence, or at least semi-silence as his rapid teeth chattering was more than enough to fill the emptiness between them. But nope, Askan's sort of doppelganger wanted to talk. Ugh, but at least he had the mind to ask a reasonable question, rather than relaying the whole, 'are you okay' thing. It wasn't that Askan wasn't okay and so was avoiding the question, but saying that he was fine wasn't true either. He'd live for sure if he warmed up somewhere and rested a little, but if he kept wading through the snow like this the same wouldn't apply. He'd be a frozen wooficle in no time.

"Assss-kan Seeeel-wyn." He grumbled, as raised his head  to watch the stranger-Reyes-plough through the snow, clearing the way for the shivering Rye wolf.

Reyes though, that wasn't a name he heard everyday. Or ever really. Combine that with the weird words he'd been spurting earlier, Askan felt that it was fair to assume that he wasn't a local, that he didn't come from these parts. Or from anywhere around here. That said, Reyes didn't seem like any sort of wolf he had met around here either. How many wolves would drop what they were doing just to save Askan's spinning ass? Would he have done the same if the roles were reversed?Really, Askan's instinct was to say no, that it wasn't his problem. But despite his callous nature, he was a bit of a softy on the inside. He just went to great lengths to hide it from the world and threw a pissy fit if anyone noticed.

The Rye's stark yellow eyes were drawn to Reyes once more, just in time to see him peer back to look at him. His eyes were quite grey, weren't they? He'd never seen eyes like that, how curious. Like grey moonstones. Askan huffed in disdain at that silly thought that flitted through his mind. That was pretty gross, so fanciful. Like a girl, or worse yet like his sisters. Still, it wasn't his fault. His body was tired and sore and the cold was seeping into his mind, probably making him think all sorts of things. Or maybe it was because he hadn't slept that well the night before. Either way, Askan wasn't to blame for anything he thought. So instead he moved on, as he always did.

"Bet-bet-better be. Feel like my damn... ears are gonna fall off. And my toooes."

Ah yes, another reason why he didn't want to talk. He sounded like a right idiot. Disgusting. No one else could know. Not that it was going to stop him, especially after he realised once again that Reyes was talking all funny again.

"Whaaa-t do you keep caaaaling me. Speak proper-ly.Dammit."

There are several fresh rabbit tracks in the mud. Hunt Opportunity

Ah, the complaining had started again. So he wasn’t at risk of losing his charge to hypothermia – yet. The smile that slithered onto his lips remained hidden as he kept himself pointed ahead, pace picking up now that he had a goal in mind, and he hummed to himself. Did he tell Askan what the little nickname meant? Or had the guy not earned that yet?

Silver eyes twinkled like twin moons as he glanced back over his shoulder, offering the other wolf only a small shake of his head. “I am speaking properly, chaco. Ain’t my fault you’re a gringo with only one tongue. Inglés ain’t the only way to talk, just because it’s the only way you know.” Heh. Reyes chuckled to himself quietly, amused by the notion as he turned and broke into a slow jog. He didn’t particularly expect the shivering wolf to following closely, but as long as he could find a fairly dry shelter ahead of time, it’d get the guy out of the wind sooner.

Several minutes later, he reappeared from the base of the steps, barking twice to catch his straggler’s attention. “Over here, yah? Big enough for two.” If they squished. Which probably wouldn’t be much of a problem, considering Askan wasn’t in the position to be choosy who he shared body heat with. Damn, where was @Cottongrass when you needed him? That kid seemed to be like a damn blanket whenever it got too cold. Ah well. Reyes would have to make do.

Waiting for the other wolf to get close enough, he tried to press his nose into the other man’s ruff and assess just how wet (and frosty) he’d gotten. “Still feel your toes?”

 

"Chaaaaa-ko? Greengo?" He tilted his head in confusion, ignorant of the fact he'd made a right mess of those words."Pfft. There's nothiiing wrong with sp-sp-speaking 'nother language. Just du-du-don't use it on me."

He doubted Reyes would listen, especially now that he knew it got underneath Askan's skin. It was so frustrating, being kept in the dark, not knowomg and not understanding. He felt like he was being cut out, left out, and that Reyes was just rubbing it in. Asshole, and to think Askan had felt kinda bad for not thanking him. Like he deserved that sort of praise, not after being such a pain in Askan's butt. Then Reyes began to speed up and for a moment Askan was tempted to yell at him, to tell him to slow down. With the state the Rye wolf was in, he wasn't going anywhere fast even Reyes 'bla bla bla' must have realised that.

Grumbling, Askan watched his dark form trot off ahead till he was out of sight. Well, that was sudden. What was Askan supposed to do now? He supposed he could follow his prints in the snow, but stubbornly Askan was tempted to not even bother. Why should he? Why was he even here? Why had he agreed to go with him? Another massive shiver rocked through him and Askan remembered why. Ah yes. Because he felt as though he was going to solidify at any given moment. All because of fish, stupid fish, he hated them.

His attention was caught once again by Reyes and with a huff, Askan turned to look his way. It took him a while, but eventually Askan stood in front of the two tongued man and peered in at the shelter he had found. Not exactly roomy, but he was hardly in a position to complain. That didn't mean he wasn't going to go through the motions ,as he always did. He had an appearance to maintain.

"It should b-b-be if you-you breathe innn. Couldn't you ha-ha-have found somewhere a little big-ger?" He shot him a sharp look, but squeezed into their shelter with no other complaints.

It took some squirming to get comfortable, but after Askan huddled himself up as tight as he could manage he looked to his company once again.

"Just a-a-about."

The touch was unexpected, and honestly if he had the room he would have dodged away. It wasn't unpleasant, nor did it make him feel icky,but that sort of touchy feely stuff just wasn't who he was. Askan never wanted contact before and he certainly wasn't hankering for it now, it was simply something he had to deal with, a side effect of their tiny little shelter. He supposed it could be worse, there were worse wolves than Reyes to be squished up next to.

(This post was last modified: Jan 29, 2017, 12:34 AM by Askan.)

“Who you calling fat, chaco? Ain’t you never seen a guy with a little meat on him?”

Idiotas. Estoy rodeado de idiotas.

Between Askan and Tyne, a wolf might start to get a little self-conscious about his size, where he prone to the sort of doubt in his own appearance these sort of remarks were generally aimed at. His ear simply flicked, and the comment rolled off his hide like water off a duck – and if he pointedly did not suck in while shuffling into the small crevasse, it had nothing to do with being difficult. And if Askan was a little bit squished as Reyes investigated his state of dry (or not), that was his problem. He shouldn’t have been so damn thankless.

Ingrate.

Handsome, but stupid. Sure, Reyes wore a few scars, but at least he had brains to go along with his brawn, which was more than could be said for the wolf who’d gotten caught in the middle of a frozen river. And they weren’t out of the woods just yet. The dark loner was blocking the wind from whistling in, but he was hardly generating enough heat to keep them both warm. He was a man, not a blast furnace, damnit – and that really only left him with one choice. He didn’t ask, because he didn’t want the answer, and he wriggled closer, herding Askan against a stony wall before his pink tongue flashed out and he began to groom – and dry, to the best of his ability – the miserable wolf beforehand.

Damn.

“You better be worth all this trouble.”

 

"A-a little? Pffft." Askan snorted right in Reyes' face to drive the point home. "You look like a pregnant d-d-doe. All r-r-r-round at the sides."That was a slight exaggeration, but he didn't need to know that. It was a funny image though, Askan had to admit that.

The Yukon wolf had been content to shiver and lay there in silence after their little bout of back and forth, harmless banter, but really it was quite pointless. He had closed his eyes to try and grab some rest, and to make this squished up situation a little less awkward-for him anyway- when he felt something warm press against his side. Nothing to worry about, Reyes was just wiggling, trying to get comfortable. But then he squished him against the wall and Askan grumbled in discontent. Trying to steal all the room was he now? How typical, at first he acts all generous but as soon as Askan closed his eyes, Reyes went in for the kill and started space hogging!

He didn't stop at that though, he kept on wiggling and wiggling till Askan was pressed against the wall. How uncomfortable. Askan had just been about to snap open his eyes and give the space hogging twat a piece or two of his mind, but then something weird and unexpected happened. The Yukon wolf saw a flash of pink come from his mouth and WHAT WAS HE DOING?!

Alarm bells started shrieking in Askan's mind but all he could do was watch, dumbfounded, as Reyes groomed his thick, dark coat. It wasn't as though he'd never been groomed before, his mother used to do it all the time and his sisters would often pin him down when he got too 'scraggly.' But aside from Percy-who was the exception to most of his rules- no one outside of his family had ever done this. It didn't feel bad or nothing, but knowing that... Askan's face felt warm in a way he wasn't familiar with, like he had a temperature or something.

"Wh-what the hell y-y-you doing!?" Askan pulled away as best as he could, but it didn't amount to much. Reyes was just so damned close. "I-I-I'm not a pup, I can clean my-myself!" It was hard to sound gruff and serious when his voice kept trembling like that. Dammit, it made him sound embarrassed. Which he wasn't, of course he wasn't, why would anyone think that? Fuck them.

“The fuck is wrong with you? Calm the fuck down,” Reyes gruffed, lifting his head back up as his victim companion started to wriggle violently. Damn, you’d think he’d started to pluck the guy’s hair out or maybe just start biting him or something, the way he was twisting away. Drama queen, he thought wryly, tongue flicking out over his own, black nose as he examined Askan for a moment.

No, nothing wrong with the guy.

Well, except for whatever was wrong with his head, but that was not the story of thing he could fix in the first place. (Nor was it anything he was interested in.) “I ain’t cleanin’ you, puta, though you could sure use it.” Damn dirty pack wolf, who did he think he was, complaining like this? Should have left him out to freeze. Or drown. Or both. “Drying you off so you don’t goddamn freeze in your goddamn sleep, comprende? You sure weren’t doing it yourself. And I ain’t keen on waking up with a corpse so shut your damn mouth and deal with it.”

I ain’t yelling at Cotton for a damn week after this.

That kid was starting to look like a damn walk in the woods compared to this guy. Admittedly, the kid was more submissive than a wilting flower, but maybe that was part of his appeal. The sass Askan spat out was one thing, but if he had half a brain, he’d settle his britches. For now. At least.

"The f-f-fuck is wrong with you!" Askan snapped back, with equal venom. "And I am calm! You're the one throwing a hissy f-f-fit."

The way Askan saw it, his reaction had been perfectly reasonably. It wasn't as though he had screamed or pissed himself. He'd just pulled away a little because Reyes had entered his personal space, if that wasn't a normal response then Askan didn't know what normal was. Reyes had to blow things out of proportion, didn't he? He had to kick up a fuss and spin things so that it seemed that Askan was the one who was kicking up sand. How typical. But really, what sort of wolf just started licking a stranger without at least giving a warning? At the very least he should have asked for permission! Not that Askan would have said yes or anything but...That wasn't the point.

Oh no, Reyes had to go there didn't he? He had to insult him whilst he was at it, whilst he was on a roll. Askan's nose wrinkled in contempt and his brows pulled down into a potent glower. Rude. The Rye wolf knew full well that he wasn't in dire need of a clean, as his sister would have told him so, or Adelayde, or Percy, so on so forth. So really, Reyes was just being a jerk at this point. His words were empty and baseless, he was just being callous for the sake of it.

"I'll shut up when you do!' Askan snapped, his mood sour.

With a dramatic huff, Askan turned away and rested his head on his front paws. Of all of his luck. Reyes had seemed like an okay guy at first, not the best (even though he saved Askan's life) but certainly not the worst. Compared to Craw, he was no doubt a saint. But when put next to Drestig, he seemed like a grumpy codger, the sort who had to complain about everything he did. Really, Askan had no right to complain as he was the same, but forever being the hypocrite, Askan chose to ignore that obvious fact.

Still, he supposed things could be worse. As odd as this no doubt was, Reyes was trying to help, in his own snarky sort of way. So again, Askan should have shown some gratitude, but did he? Nope, of course not. He simply continued to sulk.

(This post was last modified: Jan 29, 2017, 03:11 PM by Askan.)

“Right.”

Calm. Calm, like ravens who’d found a wolf’s kill – squawking included. He rolled his eyes so hard they threatened to just keep on going, roll right out of his skull. If his mama had seen such an expression, he’d surely get a twist to his ear, but lo. She was likely gone from the world these days.

The morbid thought put a considerable damper on his mood, silver eyes narrowing to little slivers as he studied the thankless wolf. Not for the first time, he wondered why he was wasting his energy helping Askan out. Sure, he really didn’t want to wake up next to a corpse, but he could pick his ass up and head back out into the weather, track Cottongrass down, and bed with his travelling companion for the night. That’s where he’d be headed for in the morning, anyways. A head start wouldn’t do him wrong – though the probability Askan’s survival would drop dramatically, and why the fuck didn’t this guy care?

“You got death wish? ‘Cos I’m this side of leavin’ you soaked and in the wind, puta,” he finally growled, returning to the grooming after a few minutes of silence. Whatever gentle touch he extended before was gone, running his tongue across wet, icy fur much more aggressively than he had before. If Askan felt like a scolded pup before, he definitely should now. Maybe once he dried the guy off, he’d jet. No need to take verbal abuse from a damn ingrate. “Why were you out on the ice to begin with, anyways?”