Mountain of Dire Reject the whole world

Tannis
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Within three days she'd made it out that forsaken valley. Skadi was not meant to wallow in those glorified trenches. That was for the deplorable wolves that lived here. They huddled in their forests and shivered like pups. On every pure breeze the silvered woman was constantly catching their stench. Her black nose wrinkled in disgust, the first expression worn in days. They had mixed their blood for so many years. Mutts, not wolves any longer. The peaks were too much for them to endure now. It was a relief when her webbed feet sank into the untainted snow of the heights. Like a woman putting on a plush fur coat, she rubbed first one then the other shoulder into the snow. Finally she was clean, let their stink stay in the valley with them.

She climbed, feeling the pressure settle around her like that fur coat. This is where she belonged. It was not so much different than home. Paw pads were hardened already, she didn't flinch at the brittle ice and biting cold of the stones under foot. Even if it hadn't made a perfect vantage point she would have come here anyways. From the moment she'd glimpsed the Mountain of Dire Skadi simply had to see if it had been blessed by Fenrir. The god sometimes left his presence on peaks that rose sharp and high enough, and the psychotic woman longed to feel it again. As she left the valley far below, the familiar feeling returned. It felt like her chest was being squeezed and she had to stop a moment, dizzy with affection for her patron.

(This post was last modified: May 12, 2015, 04:15 PM by Skadi.)

For the past few days Tannis had been very, very on edge. Every single tap of a pebble tumbling down the mountain side, every single creak of a distant tree branch, the howling of the wind in the night, the fluttering of a bird overhead in search of shelter... everything made the low-ranking subordinate nearly jump out of his skin. At times it even seemed like the moon wavered in the sky, the sun flickered behind the winter clouds, and the stars, on the rare cloudless night, vanished and reappeared within a few blinks of an eye. It left the sand-furred brute unsettled, unnerved, and without a valid reason to go scurrying into Heigen's, Ace's, or Phineas' shadow.

With his tail tucked up against his belly, he slunk around the rocky heights; his elbows and knees were bent so stiffly that the tufts of fur on his chest were mere inches from grazing the frost-covered ledges. Every so often, when his head lifted, his red ears came up. For the past few hours he had been straining his eardrums so much as to hear every single sound around him that when the silence eventually came, a faint ringing resounded in his head. He decided to stay put alongside a crooked tree for sometime, to cower in its presence and also leave a bit of his shoulder hair in its rough bark (his way to say that the lands along this part of the Dire Mountain was being watched over). His ears came down again but before he could even get up to continue along his lofty patrol, something moving just in the corner of his eye.

Tannis froze, his heartbeat inching up to pound from his chest to his throat and ears. What was that? Who was that? What is it? Then, the worst musing of them all: What was it doing all the way up here and what did it want?

He slowly angled his neck and turned his head so that he could fully peer down onto the landings below, his pulse quickening as soon as he realized that he was now in the presence of another wolf... Particularly, someone he did not know. He thought of calling his superiors, wondering in the meantime if they would come to his aid if he managed to howl and yelp that a strange (or not-so-strange) individual had come along the borders of their lands. Something told him not to make a scene. At least, not yet...

He drew up onto all four of his lanky limbs, crouching down as though standing up tall might give him vertigo. For sometime he watched her, his eyes wide like two full moons. He thought he might enjoy watching her, observing her, taking note of anything that might make her recognizable should they meet again; but, knowing Tannis, the Andreas was never one to really have it easy. While positioning himself so that he could lay on his stomach along the ledge, his paw pushed a bit of snow off a gnarled root and over the ledge. It wasn't long until he noticed what he was doing and with a panicked gaze, he watched as if it were all happening in slow motion. The clump of snow was spinning and disintegrating into smaller pieces, drawing closer and closer to where the woman was standing.

He clenched his teeth and flattened his ears. He would consider himself lucky if he didn't hit her square on the head or nose...

@Tannis Re: the wait... permission to shoot me

This must be what Garmr sometimes felt. Skadi had watched him many times and seen the way he seemed to sense something that she could not. Her legs splayed to keep her balance at the effect of Fenrir washed over her. It felt like she was spinning, the sensation of many pins and needles raised the blades of her hackles in rapture. This must be Fenrir. How blessed Skadi was right now... to not realize that it was altitude poisoning instead of the presence of her patron god.

The heap of snow was an insult she didn't understand. It struck high on her neck, showering gun-smoke gray shoulders in snow and fine shards of ice. Her first instinct was to snarl indignation. Lips were curling back and a low rumble started when thought went back to Fenrir and teeth snapped shut on the sound fast enough to catch her tongue. It could have been a message from him, and she had been about to bicker. Her tail tucked firm between her legs and ears pressed flat to her skull in submission, as was appropriate for the situation. She spun in a tight circle, not sure which direction was the correct one. Skadi didn't dare look up, the idea of holding Fenrir's watching gaze enough to send her cringing downwards. Her parents had been harsh in that lesson, she wasn't about to make that error. But still it was rude to remain silent after that sign. "We are here now. Soon your request will be done." The appeal was meant to impress. She sent the clear words into the cold air of the mountain, sure Fenrir would hear.