Post by Pavane on Oct 12, 2011 18:51:47 GMT -5
The battle was over, the wounds had stopped bleeding and the group had made it out of the mountains to head for home. Of course for some home will always be in the other direction. The whole way back Lexus was hanging back and not just because he was stiff and in a little pain, if he really wanted he could probably still beat the lot back to the desert. The group leaves the mountains and he doesn't, hanging back to the point he hopes no one even notices that he's turned around and gone back into snowier lands.
Most of the group did continue on, not even noticing the lone straggler. Niyt, though, heard those footsteps growing slower, the way they paused to linger on the rocks and snow... and she smiles. She nudges her little brother, and tells him to stay close to Uncle Tariro. Then she turns back as well, following the trail of her great-uncle Lexus. They're in the mountains now. The last time he went to visit here, she was just a pup, and her parents would never have said yes. Now? She's a wolf full-grown, and those parents couldn't naysay her even if they were here. She'll have her trip to the mountains; a proper trip, instead of this hurried quest to save those in need.
It isn't too far back into the old land of his past that Lexus stops, out of sight of the group, he can barely hear them as he closes his eyes and just lets the wind ruffle through his fur. Finally it was the right wind with the smells and sounds of home, no matter where he went the wind never felt the same as the cold breeze coming down the valley bringing all his memories with it. He sighs heavily but relaxed, it was a welcoming feeling though he was careful to suppress the urge to howl for fear it'd bring the group back. His ears soon picked up on the sound of a set of paws coming back to join him though and a little smile appeared when he saw who it was "Come to hurry me up pup?" she'd probably always be a pup to him but it was a sign of affection.
That same wind continues to Niyt, teasing through her pelt. She's never been here before... and yet there's still something that seems strangely familiar about the place, about the chill breeze. Perhaps it's just all the stories. At Lexus' voice, she smiles, though she doesn't answer for a few moments, simply padding closer and stepping up alongside him. "You said once that you'd show me where we came from. The old packlands," she says softly, facing forward with her nose pointed to the wind. "I've waited a long time for that."
Lexus looks faintly worried mostly as he knows she won't see it. He had always wanted to, since he returned again to find her blind he'd given up on that idea but here they are. He looks back up at the mountains, caught between memories and wishing she could see them but a small smile does appear "I suppose we're unlikely to ever get a more perfect time than this" and he certainly doesn't wish to return to the lowlands just yet. He stretches his stiff legs with a soft groan and finally moves to begin the walk up the valley, even long walk with injuries from a wolverine can't stop him sounding relaxed when he's home though "Come on, we'll head up to the old den and chase out whatever's moved in for the night."
"It does seem like a good time." The time has come, though too late for Niyt to see this place for herself. The vistas of the mountains are beautiful ones - but everything is different, not just the sights. As they start up toward the valley at an easy pace, the air around them is colder and thinner; the ground is differently textured underfoot, with rocks and lichens. The wind whistles as it finds cracks in the cliffs, and it carries with it the breath of glacial snow from further up and the creatures that haunt rocky places. All these things, at least, Niyt can explore. "It can find another den, for the night. We're coming home." Just for the night, but... though she's never been here, she feels it.
Lexus chuckles, even that sounds happier than it does down in the new pack lands "If we're lucky it'll be the same foxes I found the last couple of times, they seem to be learning the drill" he just won't let anyone but family sleep in the den he was born in while he's around to say something about it, luckily for the foxes he's rarely around so it's still a good home "Ahh, you can just smell the lake on the breeze, learnt to fish there. This coywolf, erm, Raan's sister, I think it was her who taught me" he's still searching his memory for a name though.
Niyt smiles as she listens to Lexus talk about times past. His voice is brighter, here; all the old stories coming out. She lifts her muzzle to smell the cold water, and nods. "The wind seems to... remember, almost. Or perhaps it's us, who remember it..." she muses. Even when they've been gone... the mountain still has a place for them. "No wonder mom and dad loved to go underneath the waterfall," she says after a moment. "It's... connected to home. To here."
Lexus is in full nostalgia mode and who could blame him? "Well it does, in a way. All those things you smelt as you were growing up they're all in there somewhere right with your memories" he raises his nose to the wind "A good breeze from the right direction and it was like smelling home. Nowhere else could ever smell the same. I ran these paths so many times I could practically fly down them"
Niyt nods, listening. Of course, by the time she was born, the pack was already down in the desert. Perhaps it's just transferred nostalgia, for her, from listening to Lexus so much when she was young. Or perhaps, strange wolf that she is, something of her heritage - of the place she was conceived - has lingered with her against all reason. She laughs. "You can fly anywhere," she tells him fondly. "You just soar differently."
Lexus laughs, he might be starting to get on a bit but he sure sounds a couple of years younger at that moment "Well that's a new one on me, I like that. I soar differently, ha! Heheh, I always did fancy being able to fly, to go with the wind and soar through the rain. Of course feathers would just be a pain"
Niyt tilts her head to the side, regarding the older wolf. She can't actually see him, of course; but the gestures are reflex as she considers him. "You'd look awful funny with feathers," she says after a moment's thought, tone almost serious save for the smile playing around her muzzle. "And the pups would never, ever stop pouncing on you."
Lexus' laugh loudens again for a second and a grin starts to form "Pups never really stop pouncing anyway, last time I saw one of my brothers I guarantee they will have started off the conversation by attempting to flatten me into the mud, why do you think I learnt to be fast on my paws?" admittedly it was part of it but mostly he just likes to go fast, if not for the recent fight he'd be charging off up the mountains and there by now.
Niyt laughs back, and she leans over to give an affectionate nudge to her uncle's shoulder as they continue at this surprisingly sedate pace. "So that you only ended up in the mud half the time." Thinking about being in the mud also reminds her of her own younger sibling, and that makes her smile grow worried for a brief moment until the call of a mountaintop bird distracts her and makes her ears flick around for the source.
Lexus wuffs and aims a little nip at her ear in return for the nudge as he chuckles "Well, I...eh?" the bird call seems to distract him even more as he stops and squints up at the sky searching, his ears perked for more. As soon as he spots a little soaring blip in the air he finally howls but it only makes the bird fly away and after watching it go for a moment he sighs quietly. It was a nice return to youth while it started but with the good memories come the bad and he almost seems to forget Niyt's there for a second but he does turn to carry on again without explanation "What was it I was saying?"
Niyt grins as Lexus nips playfully at her, and gives a little shake of her head - then lifts it, as he begins to howl. She just listens, for a moment. Even the sound of a howl is different here, echoing off cliff-faces and along the stone passageways. It's different, and yet... it's fundamentally the same, as a howl always is. The sound of a wolf. Of a pack. She raises her own muzzle and joins in, rising and falling cadences that echo and harmonize with her uncle's. When the howl ends, she's silent, listening to the distant echoes. When he speaks, she smiles. "I think the foxes will know we're coming now."
Lexus' ears perk to her howl as it echoes and mixes with his. A small smile does reappear though his voice is quiet as he doesn't want to miss the howling sound as it dies down to a whisper around the mountains "It's been a very long time since I've heard another wolf howl up here" not since the pack moved out of the lands "Ahh I miss living here" a long sniff at the scents on the air and he starts the walk to the den again "With a bit of luck the foxes will have cleared out when they heard us coming"
Niyt smiles, and nods as she continues to walk along. "Why did we leave, anyway? I know my father had dreams, but... that was a long time ago." For her, at least; her whole life, more or less. "Why couldn't we come back? All of us, I mean." Not just Lexus, on these long journeys that take him away every so often. She tilts her head toward him, listening for his answer along with all the other mountain sounds. For his voice is a mountain sound, and she's sure of it now, hearing him here.
Lexus shakes his head as he scans the familiar sights and turns his attention to the mountaintops. There are places where he always visits but wouldn't go with company still, the old den isn't the reason he returns, he's spent more time around the mountain peaks than the rest of the pack "I don't know, I was busy...leading my life and Tariro and Shag I think they left...Then there was the flood and everything changed, fell apart...I...wasn't around much after that" there's a note of sorrow to his voice, he might know he doesn't have to hide his expression around Niyt but he's not good at hiding his tone "By the time I returned the pack had moved on...I wish we could come back. You'd have to ask Tariro why we can't but we must remember that this is the lands of Viridian and that pack is gone. The draw to this place, well you don't see the others returning here all the time, for them they're already home"
"Time is. Time was. Time has gone," answers Niyt softly. She's silent for a few moments, considering as she pads along. "I don't know where home is," she says after a while. Her voice is quiet, an inner voice given substance. "For me. My home." She shakes her head. "For you, it's here. My father seems to find it in the empty places of the desert. Anoki, in the grasslands. I... they all call to me. They have different voices, but they all call. I can't seem to hear just one."
Lexus smiles softly and stretches his head over to aim a lick and a little huff of air at her ear "Your home is where your family is, you don't tie yourself to the land but the beasts upon it. Perhaps the mountains just remind you of me and the pack's history, I don't believe you would wish to live here if you were alone" he chuckles quietly "But you always have struck me as the heart of the pack, looking after everyone, spreading the joy and providing all the right answers, or the ones that are needed"
Niyt's ear flickers at the lick, and she smiles a little, though she doesn't answer immediately. Just ponders on it, as she walks along through the same lands where her mother and father once lived. Her mother, now dead; and her father who roams the desert alone. "I don't have the answers," she says... and then, a few moments later, she laughs. "Nor, I suppose, does the wind have a scent."
Lexus tilts his head a little, also pondering over it all a bit more "Well perhaps not all the answers but still the right words. You're a great comfort and I think you make a very fine guide to life. Grow old enough and they'll call it wisdom" he chuckles "But then I've been mistaken for wise at least once" he looks up the trail with a small huff "This has to be the slowest I've ever been this way and I once had stubby little puppy legs. Evil wolverines or not I defy this dullness!...Besides, the foxes might come back before we get there" he just can't stay that still or slow for that long and though he grunts quietly against the groan of his aching scarred sides he springs into a fast lope anyway.
What is wisdom, anyhow? Trying to figure that out is a tangled and twisted thing. It's slow, and confusing, and... Niyt laughs as her uncle declares his impatience, and she stretches her own legs along with his. Running on unfamiliar ground like this takes all of her attention; listening so very carefully to the thump of Lexus' paws on the ground and the whispers of the wind that help guide her, feeling the scent and faint warmth and of his receding presence and how the ground shifts under every one of her own pawsteps. She runs, yes, but there's no room for thinking; just the exultation of muscles moving and being in this moment, in this place.
The wonder of running, not only does it get you there faster and keep your brothers from pouncing you into the mud it also keeps the endless questions on the way things are at bay. Lexus may have a lot less trouble finding his way over the ground but he still doesn't stop to think as he swiftly climbs the rocky ground over well known paths, only slowing as a stretch of woodland grows up and thickens. He starts to check the scents in the air more carefully, of course the place no longer smells of wolves as it used to but his concern is checking what it does smell like now. Thankfully it does indeed seem to be mostly foxes.
Up and over and through, and Niyt races after Lexus until they reach the thick woodlands. She laughs, her breath coming quick, half-panting, and bumps her shoulder against his side as she slows down with him. Foxes. Some might find the scent harsh, but she's had reason to find it rather comforting, though this fox isn't the one she once knew. She has breath again to speak, now... but her thoughts have fallen out in the run, and she's not inclined to try to recapture them now. She'd rather just enjoy the moment a little longer.
Lexus advances carefully until a small clearing appears with it's own little mushroom surrounded pond and there at base of a few trees is the hole to a den "It smells like the same foxes and I think they're still there. You're not too fond of me but they'll move" he howls again, loud and a little scarier than usual. There's a quiet yelp from the den and Lexus growls "You know who it is, move!" his voice says he's dangerous, his body says he has no intention to be, not that Niyt will be able to see it.
Niyt can't see it, but she knows her Lexus. She nods, but doesn't say anything, just padding up alongside him as he threatens the foxes out. They'll smell a second wolf - not that her uncle needs the help! - and be double extra quick about leaving. For all she didn't get injured... Niyt is still rather worn. The idea of resting seems a good one.
They smell blood and two wolves, one of which is the terrifying giant wolf who strikes in the darkness and keeps driving them out for no reason! Of course they never did get a good look at Lexus the first time and they don't know the blood is his. Lex likes it that way, when being polite fails acting scary and surprising works just as well to avoid a fight and seconds later two foxes are taring off back into the trees to find somewhere else to sleep and hide for the night. Lex gives a little snort of amusement as he watches them go before finally slowly padding to the old den "You'd think I'd done more than bark at them a few times a year" he sighs quietly but happily as he pauses in front of the den entrance "Ahh, home of the pack, place of my birth. If only the scents still lingered."
"At least they're willing to leave," Niyt says. This may be the foxes' home now, but she doesn't feel too bad about making them find another one for a little while. It's not /that/ cold yet. She pads up to the den, and smiles. "Home to Viridian," she says. But Viridian is gone, though Niyt is the child of it. Now there is Cerulean, already gone down from the mountains. The scents have long since faded, leaving... "Only the memories."
They're only borrowing the home anyway, a day or two and the foxes can have it back, Lex might even pretend to be a little wasteful with his dinner and leave them something to eat. Sitting by the den certainly brings back a lot of memories in the aging wolf "Home of Viridian, who knows how many pups were born here" he chuckles again "There used to be a big hollow tree trunk somewhere around here, excellent for howling pups. I suppose it only sees fox cubs now" another sigh and stiff groan and he rises again before turning to disappear down into the den. It stinks of fox but it's warm and comfortable still at least.
"Perhaps there will be wolves here again, someday," says Niyt. "Viridian is gone, but there's still Cerulean. Who knows what other packs there may be? What pups may once more howl in the trees and run up those jagged trails?" She smiles, and follows Lex into the den. Comfortable, yes; and the smell and warmth of their bodies fills it, making it seem more wolflike by the moment. More like home... if only for the night.
Lexus flops down and partially curls up before licking at his wounds. He snorts to the thought of more wolves in the area but does take a moment to consider it afterwards "Maybe, one day. It's a good den, a pair of mates may one day take it. Probably not in my lifetime though...I suppose it would be strange if they did. A new pack would be the end of Viridian entirely, the lands would be claimed again...they probably wouldn't stand for me wandering in either."
Niyt nestles against her uncle, though the den is large enough she could do otherwise. But home is where the family is, and so she curls close against him. "I suppose it would be. Perhaps it will be Cerulean's children who do it, and you can be Uncle Lexus for another generation of pups." She smiles fondly, and nuzzles him.
Lexus leaves his wounds alone when he's nuzzled and moves his head, going to rest it on her back and use her as a big fluffy pillow. He chuckles at the suggestion "I think it'll be a generation or two before the family might wander back again, when few remember that we came from here. For that though Tariro needs to hurry up and find himself another female! Or it's up to you pups to see about carrying on the family, eh? Nice mate? Settle down, have some puppies?"
Niyt wuffs softly as Lexus rests his head on her, and smiles. She's not as fluffy as her dad, but... she does still make a nice pillow. At his suggestion of her settling down for a family of her own, the smile grows a little more tenuous, and her voice is serious in answer to his teasing. "I think I might like that. I thought... I thought I could have that with Zuphi, but he's been gone for so long. I don't know... I'm not even sure if I still feel for him, like that. I want to see him, but it's been so long. And even if I do - can I really have a family with someone who disappears like that? Even if I love him?"
Lexus seems quite relaxed again and closes his eyes for a moment while he listens, a little frown appears for the talk of Zuphi but he sounds thoughtful "Perhaps if there were pups he would have stayed but there's no way to know and I don't think it would have been an easy thing for you or the pups if he didn't. Even if you could forgive him imagine being a puppy who barely knew their father?...I don't know, I've never had pups or a mate, barely come close, I suppose I do believe if it's important to them then they'll find a way to stay."
Niyt nods as she listens to Lexus. There's no answers there, just... more thoughts. More things to consider on. "I don't know either," she finally says, and lets out a long sigh. "Maybe... it's a good thing." The words are slow, because that thought - that the end of her young love, that all those sleepless nights worrying were actually good things. "I suppose... we'll never really know. Maybe he'll come back," and she has no idea at all what she'd do then, because her heart twists two ways at once. "Maybe I'll meet someone new. Or maybe I'll never have pups at all, and I'll just be Aunt Niyt to Anoki or Krisha or Neero's pups." Or Afra's, but her litter-brother has had his heart broken in love as well.
Lexus' eyes slowly reopen again, it reminds him of his life, only his young love was even rockier and not something he talks about "There are worse things than helping the pack and it's pups, even if they're not your own. Pups are for alphas and betas, we can't all be those but you'll love them all the same" he sounds a little sad, the older he's got the more he's wished he'd had pups but he just accepts it's not meant to be. It was just one of those little regrets felt after looking back on his life.
Niyt sighs softly, and nods. She's quiet for a few moments, and then she smiles. "No wonder you get accused of wisdom, if you keep on talking like that." He voice is teasing, lightening the mood as she gives her uncle a nuzzle and then closes her eyes, resting her head against his flank as he rests his on her back. There's a lot to think about, but she's also getting tired. The last few months - ever since her mother took sick - have been stressful ones.
Lexus smiles a little again and lightly snorts his amusement "That's not wisdom, it's just experience. The difference is subtle when you're looking back but one requires a hell of a lot more trail and error to get there. The truly wise don't need to make the mistakes to learn from the, the just mildly smart at least still learn from them" he chuckles and closes his eyes up again, settling in for the night "It's good to have some company up here again"
"I'm not sure anyone is _that_ wise..." Niyt says with a laugh. "Experience, though... that works." It's a painful teacher, somethings, but a good one. She, too, settles down for the night. "It's good to have your pack." Wherever you are.
Most of the group did continue on, not even noticing the lone straggler. Niyt, though, heard those footsteps growing slower, the way they paused to linger on the rocks and snow... and she smiles. She nudges her little brother, and tells him to stay close to Uncle Tariro. Then she turns back as well, following the trail of her great-uncle Lexus. They're in the mountains now. The last time he went to visit here, she was just a pup, and her parents would never have said yes. Now? She's a wolf full-grown, and those parents couldn't naysay her even if they were here. She'll have her trip to the mountains; a proper trip, instead of this hurried quest to save those in need.
It isn't too far back into the old land of his past that Lexus stops, out of sight of the group, he can barely hear them as he closes his eyes and just lets the wind ruffle through his fur. Finally it was the right wind with the smells and sounds of home, no matter where he went the wind never felt the same as the cold breeze coming down the valley bringing all his memories with it. He sighs heavily but relaxed, it was a welcoming feeling though he was careful to suppress the urge to howl for fear it'd bring the group back. His ears soon picked up on the sound of a set of paws coming back to join him though and a little smile appeared when he saw who it was "Come to hurry me up pup?" she'd probably always be a pup to him but it was a sign of affection.
That same wind continues to Niyt, teasing through her pelt. She's never been here before... and yet there's still something that seems strangely familiar about the place, about the chill breeze. Perhaps it's just all the stories. At Lexus' voice, she smiles, though she doesn't answer for a few moments, simply padding closer and stepping up alongside him. "You said once that you'd show me where we came from. The old packlands," she says softly, facing forward with her nose pointed to the wind. "I've waited a long time for that."
Lexus looks faintly worried mostly as he knows she won't see it. He had always wanted to, since he returned again to find her blind he'd given up on that idea but here they are. He looks back up at the mountains, caught between memories and wishing she could see them but a small smile does appear "I suppose we're unlikely to ever get a more perfect time than this" and he certainly doesn't wish to return to the lowlands just yet. He stretches his stiff legs with a soft groan and finally moves to begin the walk up the valley, even long walk with injuries from a wolverine can't stop him sounding relaxed when he's home though "Come on, we'll head up to the old den and chase out whatever's moved in for the night."
"It does seem like a good time." The time has come, though too late for Niyt to see this place for herself. The vistas of the mountains are beautiful ones - but everything is different, not just the sights. As they start up toward the valley at an easy pace, the air around them is colder and thinner; the ground is differently textured underfoot, with rocks and lichens. The wind whistles as it finds cracks in the cliffs, and it carries with it the breath of glacial snow from further up and the creatures that haunt rocky places. All these things, at least, Niyt can explore. "It can find another den, for the night. We're coming home." Just for the night, but... though she's never been here, she feels it.
Lexus chuckles, even that sounds happier than it does down in the new pack lands "If we're lucky it'll be the same foxes I found the last couple of times, they seem to be learning the drill" he just won't let anyone but family sleep in the den he was born in while he's around to say something about it, luckily for the foxes he's rarely around so it's still a good home "Ahh, you can just smell the lake on the breeze, learnt to fish there. This coywolf, erm, Raan's sister, I think it was her who taught me" he's still searching his memory for a name though.
Niyt smiles as she listens to Lexus talk about times past. His voice is brighter, here; all the old stories coming out. She lifts her muzzle to smell the cold water, and nods. "The wind seems to... remember, almost. Or perhaps it's us, who remember it..." she muses. Even when they've been gone... the mountain still has a place for them. "No wonder mom and dad loved to go underneath the waterfall," she says after a moment. "It's... connected to home. To here."
Lexus is in full nostalgia mode and who could blame him? "Well it does, in a way. All those things you smelt as you were growing up they're all in there somewhere right with your memories" he raises his nose to the wind "A good breeze from the right direction and it was like smelling home. Nowhere else could ever smell the same. I ran these paths so many times I could practically fly down them"
Niyt nods, listening. Of course, by the time she was born, the pack was already down in the desert. Perhaps it's just transferred nostalgia, for her, from listening to Lexus so much when she was young. Or perhaps, strange wolf that she is, something of her heritage - of the place she was conceived - has lingered with her against all reason. She laughs. "You can fly anywhere," she tells him fondly. "You just soar differently."
Lexus laughs, he might be starting to get on a bit but he sure sounds a couple of years younger at that moment "Well that's a new one on me, I like that. I soar differently, ha! Heheh, I always did fancy being able to fly, to go with the wind and soar through the rain. Of course feathers would just be a pain"
Niyt tilts her head to the side, regarding the older wolf. She can't actually see him, of course; but the gestures are reflex as she considers him. "You'd look awful funny with feathers," she says after a moment's thought, tone almost serious save for the smile playing around her muzzle. "And the pups would never, ever stop pouncing on you."
Lexus' laugh loudens again for a second and a grin starts to form "Pups never really stop pouncing anyway, last time I saw one of my brothers I guarantee they will have started off the conversation by attempting to flatten me into the mud, why do you think I learnt to be fast on my paws?" admittedly it was part of it but mostly he just likes to go fast, if not for the recent fight he'd be charging off up the mountains and there by now.
Niyt laughs back, and she leans over to give an affectionate nudge to her uncle's shoulder as they continue at this surprisingly sedate pace. "So that you only ended up in the mud half the time." Thinking about being in the mud also reminds her of her own younger sibling, and that makes her smile grow worried for a brief moment until the call of a mountaintop bird distracts her and makes her ears flick around for the source.
Lexus wuffs and aims a little nip at her ear in return for the nudge as he chuckles "Well, I...eh?" the bird call seems to distract him even more as he stops and squints up at the sky searching, his ears perked for more. As soon as he spots a little soaring blip in the air he finally howls but it only makes the bird fly away and after watching it go for a moment he sighs quietly. It was a nice return to youth while it started but with the good memories come the bad and he almost seems to forget Niyt's there for a second but he does turn to carry on again without explanation "What was it I was saying?"
Niyt grins as Lexus nips playfully at her, and gives a little shake of her head - then lifts it, as he begins to howl. She just listens, for a moment. Even the sound of a howl is different here, echoing off cliff-faces and along the stone passageways. It's different, and yet... it's fundamentally the same, as a howl always is. The sound of a wolf. Of a pack. She raises her own muzzle and joins in, rising and falling cadences that echo and harmonize with her uncle's. When the howl ends, she's silent, listening to the distant echoes. When he speaks, she smiles. "I think the foxes will know we're coming now."
Lexus' ears perk to her howl as it echoes and mixes with his. A small smile does reappear though his voice is quiet as he doesn't want to miss the howling sound as it dies down to a whisper around the mountains "It's been a very long time since I've heard another wolf howl up here" not since the pack moved out of the lands "Ahh I miss living here" a long sniff at the scents on the air and he starts the walk to the den again "With a bit of luck the foxes will have cleared out when they heard us coming"
Niyt smiles, and nods as she continues to walk along. "Why did we leave, anyway? I know my father had dreams, but... that was a long time ago." For her, at least; her whole life, more or less. "Why couldn't we come back? All of us, I mean." Not just Lexus, on these long journeys that take him away every so often. She tilts her head toward him, listening for his answer along with all the other mountain sounds. For his voice is a mountain sound, and she's sure of it now, hearing him here.
Lexus shakes his head as he scans the familiar sights and turns his attention to the mountaintops. There are places where he always visits but wouldn't go with company still, the old den isn't the reason he returns, he's spent more time around the mountain peaks than the rest of the pack "I don't know, I was busy...leading my life and Tariro and Shag I think they left...Then there was the flood and everything changed, fell apart...I...wasn't around much after that" there's a note of sorrow to his voice, he might know he doesn't have to hide his expression around Niyt but he's not good at hiding his tone "By the time I returned the pack had moved on...I wish we could come back. You'd have to ask Tariro why we can't but we must remember that this is the lands of Viridian and that pack is gone. The draw to this place, well you don't see the others returning here all the time, for them they're already home"
"Time is. Time was. Time has gone," answers Niyt softly. She's silent for a few moments, considering as she pads along. "I don't know where home is," she says after a while. Her voice is quiet, an inner voice given substance. "For me. My home." She shakes her head. "For you, it's here. My father seems to find it in the empty places of the desert. Anoki, in the grasslands. I... they all call to me. They have different voices, but they all call. I can't seem to hear just one."
Lexus smiles softly and stretches his head over to aim a lick and a little huff of air at her ear "Your home is where your family is, you don't tie yourself to the land but the beasts upon it. Perhaps the mountains just remind you of me and the pack's history, I don't believe you would wish to live here if you were alone" he chuckles quietly "But you always have struck me as the heart of the pack, looking after everyone, spreading the joy and providing all the right answers, or the ones that are needed"
Niyt's ear flickers at the lick, and she smiles a little, though she doesn't answer immediately. Just ponders on it, as she walks along through the same lands where her mother and father once lived. Her mother, now dead; and her father who roams the desert alone. "I don't have the answers," she says... and then, a few moments later, she laughs. "Nor, I suppose, does the wind have a scent."
Lexus tilts his head a little, also pondering over it all a bit more "Well perhaps not all the answers but still the right words. You're a great comfort and I think you make a very fine guide to life. Grow old enough and they'll call it wisdom" he chuckles "But then I've been mistaken for wise at least once" he looks up the trail with a small huff "This has to be the slowest I've ever been this way and I once had stubby little puppy legs. Evil wolverines or not I defy this dullness!...Besides, the foxes might come back before we get there" he just can't stay that still or slow for that long and though he grunts quietly against the groan of his aching scarred sides he springs into a fast lope anyway.
What is wisdom, anyhow? Trying to figure that out is a tangled and twisted thing. It's slow, and confusing, and... Niyt laughs as her uncle declares his impatience, and she stretches her own legs along with his. Running on unfamiliar ground like this takes all of her attention; listening so very carefully to the thump of Lexus' paws on the ground and the whispers of the wind that help guide her, feeling the scent and faint warmth and of his receding presence and how the ground shifts under every one of her own pawsteps. She runs, yes, but there's no room for thinking; just the exultation of muscles moving and being in this moment, in this place.
The wonder of running, not only does it get you there faster and keep your brothers from pouncing you into the mud it also keeps the endless questions on the way things are at bay. Lexus may have a lot less trouble finding his way over the ground but he still doesn't stop to think as he swiftly climbs the rocky ground over well known paths, only slowing as a stretch of woodland grows up and thickens. He starts to check the scents in the air more carefully, of course the place no longer smells of wolves as it used to but his concern is checking what it does smell like now. Thankfully it does indeed seem to be mostly foxes.
Up and over and through, and Niyt races after Lexus until they reach the thick woodlands. She laughs, her breath coming quick, half-panting, and bumps her shoulder against his side as she slows down with him. Foxes. Some might find the scent harsh, but she's had reason to find it rather comforting, though this fox isn't the one she once knew. She has breath again to speak, now... but her thoughts have fallen out in the run, and she's not inclined to try to recapture them now. She'd rather just enjoy the moment a little longer.
Lexus advances carefully until a small clearing appears with it's own little mushroom surrounded pond and there at base of a few trees is the hole to a den "It smells like the same foxes and I think they're still there. You're not too fond of me but they'll move" he howls again, loud and a little scarier than usual. There's a quiet yelp from the den and Lexus growls "You know who it is, move!" his voice says he's dangerous, his body says he has no intention to be, not that Niyt will be able to see it.
Niyt can't see it, but she knows her Lexus. She nods, but doesn't say anything, just padding up alongside him as he threatens the foxes out. They'll smell a second wolf - not that her uncle needs the help! - and be double extra quick about leaving. For all she didn't get injured... Niyt is still rather worn. The idea of resting seems a good one.
They smell blood and two wolves, one of which is the terrifying giant wolf who strikes in the darkness and keeps driving them out for no reason! Of course they never did get a good look at Lexus the first time and they don't know the blood is his. Lex likes it that way, when being polite fails acting scary and surprising works just as well to avoid a fight and seconds later two foxes are taring off back into the trees to find somewhere else to sleep and hide for the night. Lex gives a little snort of amusement as he watches them go before finally slowly padding to the old den "You'd think I'd done more than bark at them a few times a year" he sighs quietly but happily as he pauses in front of the den entrance "Ahh, home of the pack, place of my birth. If only the scents still lingered."
"At least they're willing to leave," Niyt says. This may be the foxes' home now, but she doesn't feel too bad about making them find another one for a little while. It's not /that/ cold yet. She pads up to the den, and smiles. "Home to Viridian," she says. But Viridian is gone, though Niyt is the child of it. Now there is Cerulean, already gone down from the mountains. The scents have long since faded, leaving... "Only the memories."
They're only borrowing the home anyway, a day or two and the foxes can have it back, Lex might even pretend to be a little wasteful with his dinner and leave them something to eat. Sitting by the den certainly brings back a lot of memories in the aging wolf "Home of Viridian, who knows how many pups were born here" he chuckles again "There used to be a big hollow tree trunk somewhere around here, excellent for howling pups. I suppose it only sees fox cubs now" another sigh and stiff groan and he rises again before turning to disappear down into the den. It stinks of fox but it's warm and comfortable still at least.
"Perhaps there will be wolves here again, someday," says Niyt. "Viridian is gone, but there's still Cerulean. Who knows what other packs there may be? What pups may once more howl in the trees and run up those jagged trails?" She smiles, and follows Lex into the den. Comfortable, yes; and the smell and warmth of their bodies fills it, making it seem more wolflike by the moment. More like home... if only for the night.
Lexus flops down and partially curls up before licking at his wounds. He snorts to the thought of more wolves in the area but does take a moment to consider it afterwards "Maybe, one day. It's a good den, a pair of mates may one day take it. Probably not in my lifetime though...I suppose it would be strange if they did. A new pack would be the end of Viridian entirely, the lands would be claimed again...they probably wouldn't stand for me wandering in either."
Niyt nestles against her uncle, though the den is large enough she could do otherwise. But home is where the family is, and so she curls close against him. "I suppose it would be. Perhaps it will be Cerulean's children who do it, and you can be Uncle Lexus for another generation of pups." She smiles fondly, and nuzzles him.
Lexus leaves his wounds alone when he's nuzzled and moves his head, going to rest it on her back and use her as a big fluffy pillow. He chuckles at the suggestion "I think it'll be a generation or two before the family might wander back again, when few remember that we came from here. For that though Tariro needs to hurry up and find himself another female! Or it's up to you pups to see about carrying on the family, eh? Nice mate? Settle down, have some puppies?"
Niyt wuffs softly as Lexus rests his head on her, and smiles. She's not as fluffy as her dad, but... she does still make a nice pillow. At his suggestion of her settling down for a family of her own, the smile grows a little more tenuous, and her voice is serious in answer to his teasing. "I think I might like that. I thought... I thought I could have that with Zuphi, but he's been gone for so long. I don't know... I'm not even sure if I still feel for him, like that. I want to see him, but it's been so long. And even if I do - can I really have a family with someone who disappears like that? Even if I love him?"
Lexus seems quite relaxed again and closes his eyes for a moment while he listens, a little frown appears for the talk of Zuphi but he sounds thoughtful "Perhaps if there were pups he would have stayed but there's no way to know and I don't think it would have been an easy thing for you or the pups if he didn't. Even if you could forgive him imagine being a puppy who barely knew their father?...I don't know, I've never had pups or a mate, barely come close, I suppose I do believe if it's important to them then they'll find a way to stay."
Niyt nods as she listens to Lexus. There's no answers there, just... more thoughts. More things to consider on. "I don't know either," she finally says, and lets out a long sigh. "Maybe... it's a good thing." The words are slow, because that thought - that the end of her young love, that all those sleepless nights worrying were actually good things. "I suppose... we'll never really know. Maybe he'll come back," and she has no idea at all what she'd do then, because her heart twists two ways at once. "Maybe I'll meet someone new. Or maybe I'll never have pups at all, and I'll just be Aunt Niyt to Anoki or Krisha or Neero's pups." Or Afra's, but her litter-brother has had his heart broken in love as well.
Lexus' eyes slowly reopen again, it reminds him of his life, only his young love was even rockier and not something he talks about "There are worse things than helping the pack and it's pups, even if they're not your own. Pups are for alphas and betas, we can't all be those but you'll love them all the same" he sounds a little sad, the older he's got the more he's wished he'd had pups but he just accepts it's not meant to be. It was just one of those little regrets felt after looking back on his life.
Niyt sighs softly, and nods. She's quiet for a few moments, and then she smiles. "No wonder you get accused of wisdom, if you keep on talking like that." He voice is teasing, lightening the mood as she gives her uncle a nuzzle and then closes her eyes, resting her head against his flank as he rests his on her back. There's a lot to think about, but she's also getting tired. The last few months - ever since her mother took sick - have been stressful ones.
Lexus smiles a little again and lightly snorts his amusement "That's not wisdom, it's just experience. The difference is subtle when you're looking back but one requires a hell of a lot more trail and error to get there. The truly wise don't need to make the mistakes to learn from the, the just mildly smart at least still learn from them" he chuckles and closes his eyes up again, settling in for the night "It's good to have some company up here again"
"I'm not sure anyone is _that_ wise..." Niyt says with a laugh. "Experience, though... that works." It's a painful teacher, somethings, but a good one. She, too, settles down for the night. "It's good to have your pack." Wherever you are.