Post by Pavane on Jun 14, 2012 15:25:58 GMT -5
Not for the first time, Ikuna is seeking his brother. The sky is gray, thunder-clouds looming on the horizon, and so there's a certain urgency to his steps despite the heat of the day. If he doesn't find Skahla before the storm breaks, the rain will wash away all the scents and force him to wait, or else to search fruitlessly.
For now, Ikuna has a trail to follow; a fairly recent one, for Skahla has been visiting the rest of the pack somewhat more often since his return without Shawnee. He has a trail, and he moves along it at a quick lope, pausing from time to time to lift his nose to a wind that's begun to gust restlessly and call out softly for his elder brother.
Unlike the days when the Ute were in their own home, Skahla is seldom too far off. It is hard to be too far off when one doesn't have any real land to call one's own in the first place. Although he has been trying to be with the others more often, it is all too easy to simply find ways to keep busy. And at least he can tell himself he's helping. Truthfully, though, he knows all of these are excuses. He doesn't feel comfortable with others, and so the way he hunts has nothing to do with an urgency to find food before the impending rain washes away any scent trails the way Ikuna's hunt for him is urgent.
Ikuna sniffs again, and this time, his ears perk with recognition. His brother's here, and Ikuna picks up his pace to approach the older wolf. He comes around a clump of flowering bushes that almost disguise the scent... ah, but he's close enough now to catch a glimpse of fur, and makes his way closer. "Skahla. Can we talk?"
Skahla's ear twitches back behind him before he ever turns to face Ikuna. Before Ikuna speaks. Hearing someone walk so nearby him keeps him from being startled when Ikuna speaks, but despite how well he generally gets on with his brother, it doesn't make him feel any more comfortable. He does slow his pace, though, and he doesn't point his nose quite so closely to the ground. He just doesn't make an effort to offer the standard physical affection like sometimes he does. "Of course, Ikuna." Only after responding does Skahla look at his brother.
Ikuna steps up to alongside Skahla, walking with his brother - so their conversations tend to happen. Close enough to talk, but not to intrude overly on Skahla's reserve, at least not more than he already must do. "There's something I wanted to- Well. Two things, really." Or maybe more? Things seem to multiply, lately. One leads to another, or sometimes one leads to two or three or more. If he tries to chase all of them at the same time, he'll never get anywhere. Start with the first one. "Will you tell me about Ute's spirits? The traditions you learned?"
The question from Ikuna produces a thrill in Skahla that he didn't imagine he'd ever feel. Is it possible that maybe his failure has not been as complete as he'd thought? With a smile that he absolutely cannot hide, Skahla says, "Has Wachiwa been talking to you all?" He knew speaking to her was a good idea. He could fel okay about feeling awkward, and if it has encouraged Ikuna, of all of them, to ask these sorts of questions... "I will gladly talk you you, brother. Just as long as you remember that I am not as good at talking as some. Do you have time now?"
"Wachiwa?" Ikuna tilts his head to the side slightly, thinking on it - and now that he does, he supposes she has mentioned a thing or two lately. Not that she's been much for conversation, as tired as the puppies make her. It was other conversations, by far more circuitous routes, that finally made him seek his brother out for this, but that doesn't mean Wachiwa didn't have some influence, and so he nods. At his brother's answer, he smiles slightly, and nods. "I have time to listen." For however long Skahla's awkward words may take.
"I never really knew Skelaghe myself. But there was one wolf, when I was growing up. Crescendo." Has Skahla said some of this before. He's not certain. He is not well known for being able to provide information in the most concise way, though. "Her mother had been from the original Ute. The one that was from far away. The one that... well, this is not the first time Ute has seen trouble, Ikuna. There was some kind of disease, and it killed their alpha and scattered the rest of them. But not before their spirits, OUR spirits, sent one of them here to find a cure for the ones who survived. Because that's what Ute spirits are, Ikuna. Guidance. Help. And maybe, okay, a little bit of learning lessons that we don't want to have to learn, but that we need to anyway." As Skahla continues talking, it gradually gets easier. All of that time on his own, after all, has afforded him with plenty of time to think, and the words manage to stay together in his head in a way they didn't when he was younger. "You can say that's what Ute tradition is, too. Not recently, no, but... Well, you already know why Skelaghe brought the Ute here. To try to help those who didn't have anywhere else."
Ikuna listens patiently to Skahla's somewhat rambling explanation, his expression thoughtful, considering. There's bits that are sort of familiar, bits that are less so, but... there's something that hasn't really been conveyed before. The history he's half-heard, but mostly in the form of adventure-story versions when he was a puppy, but the bit about what the spirits actually did... Guidance. Advice. Trying to help, even if they can't all the way. It makes him look... somewhere between surprised and glad; because that part, he's never heard before, or else he just wasn't prepared to listen at the time. Maybe he's gotten better at hearing the words, along with Skahla getting better at telling them. "Trying to help," he says, and after a moment of quiet, he adds, "The spirits, I mean. Ute's... Our spirits." He ducks his head a moment, then looks back to his brother. "Sometimes... things don't work. Even Skelaghe, she made mistakes." So Skahla told him, another time - but now Ikuna extends that. "Even spirits, trying to help. Maybe... the troubles aren't the spirits testing us, or... teaching us lessons. Maybe it's just... sending us people who need help. Who don't have anywhere else." In another pack, Hadir might have been killed for his weakness. In another pack... the half-dogs of the past generation and this one might have gotten an even worse welcome.
"Maybe," Skahla responds in a way that implies that he really simply hasn't thought about it before, but that it makes sense. "I like the thought of that, Ikuna." Maybe that's just it, though. Maybe Skahla is so desperate to feel like he will be offering something to the next generation for his time as alpha that any little hope, like the fact that this conversation is happening at all, is something he has to cling to. "His name was Tobba. I don't know that any of their other spirits ever had names, but the one they all wore a symbol of on their leg... the one who lived in the sun... his name was Tobba. I want us to have that guidance back, Ikuna. Or to acknowledge it again, if we've been getting it all along. I don't know if Chewy would have told you, since... she thinks you all may be upset... but I want us all to wear that symbol again."
Maybe. Ikuna nods to his brother's acknowledgement. All he can really have, when it comes to spirits, is maybe - but at least this maybe, this idea of Ute's spirits, is one he's willing to consider. Belief... that's a harder thing to be sure of, but... he's willing to think about it, and to keep listening as Skahla goes on. "Tobba," he repeats, feeling the shape of the name in his mouth as he considers on it. "Perhaps we need that. To remind us... that we're Ute." He looks over to Skahla, and his posture straightens unconsciously for the next thing he says. "We've been talking. Ute... needs to move on, to not be refugees hiding with Cerulean anymore. The dogs took our home... well, let them have it. We can be Ute somewhere else, in new lands. Ute's done it before. We can do it again."
A strong part of Skahla protests the idea that, under his alphaship, they should be driven from what was their home. It is evident in the way that he grows tense. Before he responds, though, he gives himself time to think on what it is that Ikuna is saying to him. After a moment of silence, and before he opens his muzzle, the alpha takes a deep breath. "Maybe... that's why it had to happen." Anything to allow Skahla this idea that he is not entirely to blame. It's something he needs right now, because for so long as he is blaming himself, he is obviously not doing what needs to be done for the pack. "But Ikuna... Listen, I've always trusted you to do what is best, if not for the pack as a whole, then at least for your generation of it. And now there is another generation. I am not saying that you are not right... but we need to wait, at least until Wachiwa's pups are weaned. Just until Wachiwa's pups are weaned. It will give us time, anyway, to look at... where the next Ute home might be."
His brother's tension is hard to miss, but having made his statement, Ikuna doesn't press the point. It took a lot of thought for him to come to this point, and Skahla's having it spring on him all at once. The comment about it having to happen makes him frown slightly, but it's a more considering frown than it would have been in times past. Skahla's trust in his younger brother gets a ear-flicker of surprise, a tilt of his head to look at the alpha as he continues on with a caveat. To that, Ikuna nods. "Until the pups are weaned." It's a reasonable sort of time frame, and besides - it's not like they could make good speed with unweaned puppies, and they do need to search for new lands before blithely setting out. "We'll start looking, and making plans... but we'll wait until then to head out." A slight pause, and his voice is softer as he adds, "It won't be easy. If some of us... would rather stay with Cerulean, I... wouldn't blame them. I think it's the right thing for Ute, though."
Once again, there is a bit of silence from the alpha. He glances at his brother briefly, but soon after looks away. Funny, how simply talking has made even the idea of talking easier, but he still has to take time to make sure he gets his words right. "I am not a young wolf anymore, and I'm afraid that I wasted my youth on foolish things. I think a lot of changes are the right thing for Ute, right now... and if those changes don't set well, then no. I don't blame them either. But there is another thing. You have been there for the pack much more than I have. And I think news like this... if it came from you, it might be better heard."
Ah, of course Skahla's not young, but surely he's not old either - just in that vague elder-brother state, as he always has been. Even with the extra time Skahla takes for his words, Ikuna seems uncertain if he understands these - or at least, if he understands where they're pointing. The idea of changes, yes, he nods to that; as that it may be difficult for some. Even for him, who's proposing some of those changes. So far, he follows, and he nods. As for Skahla's another thing - that's a bit more perplexing. Ikuna's been more there /with/ the pack, but... for them? And the news... but Skahla is the alpha. How could news from the alpha /not/ be heard? He's silent, looking confused and thoughtful.
A smile remains on the alpha's muzzle, but just behind it there is a mournful cast now. This may not be what Skahla wanted, and he'll have to deal with that, but what he has... that's not all bad either, is it? "I know. That I'm being more selfish than I want to let on. But I'm also not just being selfish, Ikuna. Soon, the pack is going to need someone who can be there more, and it will be easier if they already have someone they look to. You always were the unofficial little ringleader anyway, remember." Now, finally, does Skahla feel like he can move a little closer to Ikuna, just to brush against him lightly.
Ikuna tilts his head, looking at his brother. Selfish... in a way, he supposes. Skahla's solitude has been something that Ikuna has just accepted for a long time, but he knows not everyone thinks that way. Not even his own sister. So, as Skahla goes on, Ikuna nods. Things will be hard, and the pack will want someone to be there. Someone to look to. A ringleader... he grins, and as Skahla brushes against him, Ikuna shifts his posture - not stepping closer, so much as just changing the angle of his body so he's leaning into the touch. "I suppose so," he says with a smile. Yes, he always has, with Tala and Ahiga... oh, and now the missing-piece thought hits him in the head to make him blink suddenly. Ahiga's words. 'Someday soon, Skahla...' Is-? Does-? He blinks again, looking over to his brother.
Any hint of mourning leaves Skahla when Ikuna not only accepts the slight physical gesture, but makes his own in return. For all that he has missed, and the things that he ahs lost, at least he still has this little bit of a relationship with his younger brother. He appreciates it, too, but they simply cannot spend all day walking and speaking idly to one another. Who knows where they would end up? "Is there anything else you needed to talk about?"
Is there? Ikuna tries to drag his scattered thoughts back into order. Spirits. Journey. The pack... oh! Right. "Just one. There's been three new wolves around. Brutal, Grim, and Miakoda." Is he asking Skahla what... no. Ikuna knows what, doesn't he? "If they come with us, I want it to be because they're proper guests, not just... following us. I want them to tell us why they're here, and agree to follow our ways." There's not really a question there, more just... information, or maybe a request for approval.
Skahla slowly nods his head in response to what Ikuna says. There is a lot that he can ask his brother to do, but he has to be receptive to his brother asking him to do things as well. "I will talk with them. The next time you see one of them, ask them to stay put, alright?" It's better than chasing these guests of theirs all over their small, temporary resting place if it can be avoided.
Ikuna nods to Skahla. "Miakoda's easy. She's just here because she left her family to go exploring, and found us. Tala, Ahiga and I all like her. I'll tell her." Brutal and Grim, on the other hand.... "I don't know if the other two will listen to me. Or... to you. Be careful with them." A glance, with genuine concern. "Maybe have some backup." Even when it's something Skahla should do, that doesn't mean he has to do it alone! And Grim and Brutal, well... the faces they have shown to most of the pack are not ones willing to listen to authority not their own.
"In that case, Ikuna... Give me until this evening. And then you and I can go have a talk with these guests of ours together, okay?" After asking, Skahla tilts his head to nuzzle briefly at his brother. Is there anything that he really needs to do so pressingly that he cannot go with Ikuna to attempt to find the two apparent troublemakers right now? Perhaps not, but at least the little bit fo time will allow them both to think about what has already happened today. What has been decided. Then, they can go on to the next thing. And, hopefully, Skahla will manage to make his hunt at least a mildly successful one in the meantime, if that storm continues to hold out.
Ikuna nods agreement, and returns the nuzzle with a small wag of his tail. Whether the business of the moment is urgent or not... it's unlikely the situation with Grim and Brutal will become urgent in the few hours between now and then, either. "I'll be by the waterfall," he says. As he often is. He smiles, and leans to brush against his brother again. "See you then. And... thanks." He doesn't specify for what. After waiting for anything more Skahla has to say, he lets his steps veer away.
For now, Ikuna has a trail to follow; a fairly recent one, for Skahla has been visiting the rest of the pack somewhat more often since his return without Shawnee. He has a trail, and he moves along it at a quick lope, pausing from time to time to lift his nose to a wind that's begun to gust restlessly and call out softly for his elder brother.
Unlike the days when the Ute were in their own home, Skahla is seldom too far off. It is hard to be too far off when one doesn't have any real land to call one's own in the first place. Although he has been trying to be with the others more often, it is all too easy to simply find ways to keep busy. And at least he can tell himself he's helping. Truthfully, though, he knows all of these are excuses. He doesn't feel comfortable with others, and so the way he hunts has nothing to do with an urgency to find food before the impending rain washes away any scent trails the way Ikuna's hunt for him is urgent.
Ikuna sniffs again, and this time, his ears perk with recognition. His brother's here, and Ikuna picks up his pace to approach the older wolf. He comes around a clump of flowering bushes that almost disguise the scent... ah, but he's close enough now to catch a glimpse of fur, and makes his way closer. "Skahla. Can we talk?"
Skahla's ear twitches back behind him before he ever turns to face Ikuna. Before Ikuna speaks. Hearing someone walk so nearby him keeps him from being startled when Ikuna speaks, but despite how well he generally gets on with his brother, it doesn't make him feel any more comfortable. He does slow his pace, though, and he doesn't point his nose quite so closely to the ground. He just doesn't make an effort to offer the standard physical affection like sometimes he does. "Of course, Ikuna." Only after responding does Skahla look at his brother.
Ikuna steps up to alongside Skahla, walking with his brother - so their conversations tend to happen. Close enough to talk, but not to intrude overly on Skahla's reserve, at least not more than he already must do. "There's something I wanted to- Well. Two things, really." Or maybe more? Things seem to multiply, lately. One leads to another, or sometimes one leads to two or three or more. If he tries to chase all of them at the same time, he'll never get anywhere. Start with the first one. "Will you tell me about Ute's spirits? The traditions you learned?"
The question from Ikuna produces a thrill in Skahla that he didn't imagine he'd ever feel. Is it possible that maybe his failure has not been as complete as he'd thought? With a smile that he absolutely cannot hide, Skahla says, "Has Wachiwa been talking to you all?" He knew speaking to her was a good idea. He could fel okay about feeling awkward, and if it has encouraged Ikuna, of all of them, to ask these sorts of questions... "I will gladly talk you you, brother. Just as long as you remember that I am not as good at talking as some. Do you have time now?"
"Wachiwa?" Ikuna tilts his head to the side slightly, thinking on it - and now that he does, he supposes she has mentioned a thing or two lately. Not that she's been much for conversation, as tired as the puppies make her. It was other conversations, by far more circuitous routes, that finally made him seek his brother out for this, but that doesn't mean Wachiwa didn't have some influence, and so he nods. At his brother's answer, he smiles slightly, and nods. "I have time to listen." For however long Skahla's awkward words may take.
"I never really knew Skelaghe myself. But there was one wolf, when I was growing up. Crescendo." Has Skahla said some of this before. He's not certain. He is not well known for being able to provide information in the most concise way, though. "Her mother had been from the original Ute. The one that was from far away. The one that... well, this is not the first time Ute has seen trouble, Ikuna. There was some kind of disease, and it killed their alpha and scattered the rest of them. But not before their spirits, OUR spirits, sent one of them here to find a cure for the ones who survived. Because that's what Ute spirits are, Ikuna. Guidance. Help. And maybe, okay, a little bit of learning lessons that we don't want to have to learn, but that we need to anyway." As Skahla continues talking, it gradually gets easier. All of that time on his own, after all, has afforded him with plenty of time to think, and the words manage to stay together in his head in a way they didn't when he was younger. "You can say that's what Ute tradition is, too. Not recently, no, but... Well, you already know why Skelaghe brought the Ute here. To try to help those who didn't have anywhere else."
Ikuna listens patiently to Skahla's somewhat rambling explanation, his expression thoughtful, considering. There's bits that are sort of familiar, bits that are less so, but... there's something that hasn't really been conveyed before. The history he's half-heard, but mostly in the form of adventure-story versions when he was a puppy, but the bit about what the spirits actually did... Guidance. Advice. Trying to help, even if they can't all the way. It makes him look... somewhere between surprised and glad; because that part, he's never heard before, or else he just wasn't prepared to listen at the time. Maybe he's gotten better at hearing the words, along with Skahla getting better at telling them. "Trying to help," he says, and after a moment of quiet, he adds, "The spirits, I mean. Ute's... Our spirits." He ducks his head a moment, then looks back to his brother. "Sometimes... things don't work. Even Skelaghe, she made mistakes." So Skahla told him, another time - but now Ikuna extends that. "Even spirits, trying to help. Maybe... the troubles aren't the spirits testing us, or... teaching us lessons. Maybe it's just... sending us people who need help. Who don't have anywhere else." In another pack, Hadir might have been killed for his weakness. In another pack... the half-dogs of the past generation and this one might have gotten an even worse welcome.
"Maybe," Skahla responds in a way that implies that he really simply hasn't thought about it before, but that it makes sense. "I like the thought of that, Ikuna." Maybe that's just it, though. Maybe Skahla is so desperate to feel like he will be offering something to the next generation for his time as alpha that any little hope, like the fact that this conversation is happening at all, is something he has to cling to. "His name was Tobba. I don't know that any of their other spirits ever had names, but the one they all wore a symbol of on their leg... the one who lived in the sun... his name was Tobba. I want us to have that guidance back, Ikuna. Or to acknowledge it again, if we've been getting it all along. I don't know if Chewy would have told you, since... she thinks you all may be upset... but I want us all to wear that symbol again."
Maybe. Ikuna nods to his brother's acknowledgement. All he can really have, when it comes to spirits, is maybe - but at least this maybe, this idea of Ute's spirits, is one he's willing to consider. Belief... that's a harder thing to be sure of, but... he's willing to think about it, and to keep listening as Skahla goes on. "Tobba," he repeats, feeling the shape of the name in his mouth as he considers on it. "Perhaps we need that. To remind us... that we're Ute." He looks over to Skahla, and his posture straightens unconsciously for the next thing he says. "We've been talking. Ute... needs to move on, to not be refugees hiding with Cerulean anymore. The dogs took our home... well, let them have it. We can be Ute somewhere else, in new lands. Ute's done it before. We can do it again."
A strong part of Skahla protests the idea that, under his alphaship, they should be driven from what was their home. It is evident in the way that he grows tense. Before he responds, though, he gives himself time to think on what it is that Ikuna is saying to him. After a moment of silence, and before he opens his muzzle, the alpha takes a deep breath. "Maybe... that's why it had to happen." Anything to allow Skahla this idea that he is not entirely to blame. It's something he needs right now, because for so long as he is blaming himself, he is obviously not doing what needs to be done for the pack. "But Ikuna... Listen, I've always trusted you to do what is best, if not for the pack as a whole, then at least for your generation of it. And now there is another generation. I am not saying that you are not right... but we need to wait, at least until Wachiwa's pups are weaned. Just until Wachiwa's pups are weaned. It will give us time, anyway, to look at... where the next Ute home might be."
His brother's tension is hard to miss, but having made his statement, Ikuna doesn't press the point. It took a lot of thought for him to come to this point, and Skahla's having it spring on him all at once. The comment about it having to happen makes him frown slightly, but it's a more considering frown than it would have been in times past. Skahla's trust in his younger brother gets a ear-flicker of surprise, a tilt of his head to look at the alpha as he continues on with a caveat. To that, Ikuna nods. "Until the pups are weaned." It's a reasonable sort of time frame, and besides - it's not like they could make good speed with unweaned puppies, and they do need to search for new lands before blithely setting out. "We'll start looking, and making plans... but we'll wait until then to head out." A slight pause, and his voice is softer as he adds, "It won't be easy. If some of us... would rather stay with Cerulean, I... wouldn't blame them. I think it's the right thing for Ute, though."
Once again, there is a bit of silence from the alpha. He glances at his brother briefly, but soon after looks away. Funny, how simply talking has made even the idea of talking easier, but he still has to take time to make sure he gets his words right. "I am not a young wolf anymore, and I'm afraid that I wasted my youth on foolish things. I think a lot of changes are the right thing for Ute, right now... and if those changes don't set well, then no. I don't blame them either. But there is another thing. You have been there for the pack much more than I have. And I think news like this... if it came from you, it might be better heard."
Ah, of course Skahla's not young, but surely he's not old either - just in that vague elder-brother state, as he always has been. Even with the extra time Skahla takes for his words, Ikuna seems uncertain if he understands these - or at least, if he understands where they're pointing. The idea of changes, yes, he nods to that; as that it may be difficult for some. Even for him, who's proposing some of those changes. So far, he follows, and he nods. As for Skahla's another thing - that's a bit more perplexing. Ikuna's been more there /with/ the pack, but... for them? And the news... but Skahla is the alpha. How could news from the alpha /not/ be heard? He's silent, looking confused and thoughtful.
A smile remains on the alpha's muzzle, but just behind it there is a mournful cast now. This may not be what Skahla wanted, and he'll have to deal with that, but what he has... that's not all bad either, is it? "I know. That I'm being more selfish than I want to let on. But I'm also not just being selfish, Ikuna. Soon, the pack is going to need someone who can be there more, and it will be easier if they already have someone they look to. You always were the unofficial little ringleader anyway, remember." Now, finally, does Skahla feel like he can move a little closer to Ikuna, just to brush against him lightly.
Ikuna tilts his head, looking at his brother. Selfish... in a way, he supposes. Skahla's solitude has been something that Ikuna has just accepted for a long time, but he knows not everyone thinks that way. Not even his own sister. So, as Skahla goes on, Ikuna nods. Things will be hard, and the pack will want someone to be there. Someone to look to. A ringleader... he grins, and as Skahla brushes against him, Ikuna shifts his posture - not stepping closer, so much as just changing the angle of his body so he's leaning into the touch. "I suppose so," he says with a smile. Yes, he always has, with Tala and Ahiga... oh, and now the missing-piece thought hits him in the head to make him blink suddenly. Ahiga's words. 'Someday soon, Skahla...' Is-? Does-? He blinks again, looking over to his brother.
Any hint of mourning leaves Skahla when Ikuna not only accepts the slight physical gesture, but makes his own in return. For all that he has missed, and the things that he ahs lost, at least he still has this little bit of a relationship with his younger brother. He appreciates it, too, but they simply cannot spend all day walking and speaking idly to one another. Who knows where they would end up? "Is there anything else you needed to talk about?"
Is there? Ikuna tries to drag his scattered thoughts back into order. Spirits. Journey. The pack... oh! Right. "Just one. There's been three new wolves around. Brutal, Grim, and Miakoda." Is he asking Skahla what... no. Ikuna knows what, doesn't he? "If they come with us, I want it to be because they're proper guests, not just... following us. I want them to tell us why they're here, and agree to follow our ways." There's not really a question there, more just... information, or maybe a request for approval.
Skahla slowly nods his head in response to what Ikuna says. There is a lot that he can ask his brother to do, but he has to be receptive to his brother asking him to do things as well. "I will talk with them. The next time you see one of them, ask them to stay put, alright?" It's better than chasing these guests of theirs all over their small, temporary resting place if it can be avoided.
Ikuna nods to Skahla. "Miakoda's easy. She's just here because she left her family to go exploring, and found us. Tala, Ahiga and I all like her. I'll tell her." Brutal and Grim, on the other hand.... "I don't know if the other two will listen to me. Or... to you. Be careful with them." A glance, with genuine concern. "Maybe have some backup." Even when it's something Skahla should do, that doesn't mean he has to do it alone! And Grim and Brutal, well... the faces they have shown to most of the pack are not ones willing to listen to authority not their own.
"In that case, Ikuna... Give me until this evening. And then you and I can go have a talk with these guests of ours together, okay?" After asking, Skahla tilts his head to nuzzle briefly at his brother. Is there anything that he really needs to do so pressingly that he cannot go with Ikuna to attempt to find the two apparent troublemakers right now? Perhaps not, but at least the little bit fo time will allow them both to think about what has already happened today. What has been decided. Then, they can go on to the next thing. And, hopefully, Skahla will manage to make his hunt at least a mildly successful one in the meantime, if that storm continues to hold out.
Ikuna nods agreement, and returns the nuzzle with a small wag of his tail. Whether the business of the moment is urgent or not... it's unlikely the situation with Grim and Brutal will become urgent in the few hours between now and then, either. "I'll be by the waterfall," he says. As he often is. He smiles, and leans to brush against his brother again. "See you then. And... thanks." He doesn't specify for what. After waiting for anything more Skahla has to say, he lets his steps veer away.