the beat of the earth

for @Tiberius

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Hrafnsvaktin was quiet today, inside and out. The suneater moved along the borders like a dark blot against the fog that lingered in the lowland beneath the mountain. It was a meandering path that didn’t quite stick to their true borderland, but those minute deviations would not stop him from marking and plotting signs that they existed in the area.

Those that did actually reach their true border would always be in for a surprise, presuming that they were found. He had noticed at times this happened without knowledge, but even that was to be expected—even he had tempted fate himself a time or two, if not many more. Even the forests that were fastened close and tight to the rocky outcroppings and slow rise of the monolithic mountain provided advantageous cover to those who could utilize it properly; he was certain he felt eyes on him here, though for all he knew it was the ravens that followed along from time to time.

Ahead of him, a stone cropping jutted from the ground.

He scaled it with relative ease, his hulking form cresting to stand at its worn down peak to survey how the path ahead dipped through the forest naturally. It was a crossroads he had come to a time or two before, only a mile or so beyond Hrafnsvaktin proper, where one path went back towards the border proper and the other went towards a narrow brook from which he could quench a budding thirst. The fog didn’t give him clear line of sight, however, and he debated which would be the wiser course of action.
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There wasn't a day in which Tiberius had dedicated to anything other than work. Patrolling, exercising, scouting nearby territories -- everything he was doing was to ensure that whilst there were little wolves like him, that he covered every ground he could to make sure there were little possibility of another breach. It was exhausting yet he was used to it, having been always on the go in the Dominion, too. Little time did he have for friendships though certainly he thought he may be somewhat there with Reiko and Izumi; though a part of him thought that it was certainly only for show for them. It mattered none to him, he supposed, Tiberius was used to being a lone wolf in a Pack and perhaps that's how he best operated. Even if a part of him did miss having someone to pal around with, on the rare occasion he was not head first in work.

Even now, the brute was traversing outside of Pack lands as to scope out another surrounding area, wanting to be sure of them. He wanted to know them as good as he would know Tsukiishi. He found himself on the side of a mountain, muscles tight and taught as he pushed ahead. Faustus had found him on the mountainside, all that time ago and here he was; back on one. Though not the same, he found it oddly soothing. Though these mountains didn't hold the scent of claimed land, they certainly held scents of others. Was there a Pack that pondered a decision to claim the mountain as their home, utilize having eyes in the sky without being a bird themselves?

Across his lips ran his tongue as he moved, dark, nicked ears cuffing forward as he realised that he was not alone, that one of the scents were disgustingly strong alongside the mountain. Fresh, he thought. He needed to do his job properly, seek out the scents that were ensuring their scents carried through the mountain but did not hold proper borders; yet. For the information of Shiroshika but for him as a Samurai. It did not take long for Tiberius to encroach on the path of the other, their body dark like his own but lacking his silver accents was ahead, standing before a crossroads. It wasn't a social visit; he was acting as a wolf of Shiroshika but he supposed attempting to be... social would benefit him. Somewhat.

He sighed, casting his gaze to the sky in a roll before bestowing them upon the other man; slimmer in nature. "Ya seek ta claim tha mountain," Tiberius stated from behind, holding fort where he stood. It was a statement, not a question and he wondered how far they were into being able to hold a claim to a thing such as a mountain.
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From on high, he heard footfalls come from behind him. Knowing that even here, in the tundra’s pockets of untamed wilderness that there were dangers all around, Solpallur turned slowly on his stone perch to regard the other in time with the words he spoke. His lip curled slightly, ugly with the glimmer of yellowing teeth—he knew few words of the common tongue, sometimes scarcely enough to piece together context from what he did know.

This, perhaps fortunately, was one of those cases.

His lip returned to where it belonged best, a hard line to go with an even harder gaze of the deepest summer green. Did this wolf know the hazards of approaching another from behind on his own territory? The suneater assumed that he did, but also knew that they were evenly built by comparison. Warriors, creatures borne of blood and bone and perhaps taught little else. Confidence drove them and here, it drove Solpallur more knowing that his kin and kith were but a call away to rend flesh.

“Yes,” he managed out in the common tongue; it was a voice rough and disused. He was no conversationalist on that note alone, though his expression and body language would drive that point home with little doubt. He was direct regardless. The mountain would be theirs but in their own time, in their own way, and he believed it at the will of the fates that they answered to. It would be through their efforts that would decree and dictate what would come to fruition… or to ruin.
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A gaze vibrant and bright with glistening green turned to him, peaking out amongst the shadowed fur that covered the man before him. Tiberius regarded him with an observent eye, his nose flaring as he waited. He was not a man that radiated friendliness as Reiko did, no, he was stand-offish and though he was not defensive; he was on the edge, Tiberius thought. He almost wanted to laugh because fuck, it was of course the way it would go that when he was trying to be more... sociable to try and fit into the Shiroshika standards, he would find a man more similar to the he of before than the he that he was trying to be, now.

Though he knew his words to be right, at least now he could keep the information with confirmation in his mind for other things. "Shiroshika is ta be yer neighbour," Tiberius stated evenly. A little bit of information thrown out there and though he doubted the man would care, he'd be a fool to pass up any information that could confirm the situation of the lands around him. Especially if they planned to claim parts of the same mountain as Shiroshika. It would do, Tiberius thought, to scope out anyone that could be both a neighbour and an ally.^^

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He gleaned two things from this interaction, the first being that this wolf was of about as many words as he was; the second being that he was from somewhere nearby. Or at least about as nearby as Solpallur could figure out from the mess of language that he did know. Enough to pick out neighbor and Shiroshika, but not enough to know what the latter meant outside of it being potentially a name.

With his head canting slightly to convey that he only halfway understood, he had already reached and impasse. The conversation halted itself, the suneater unable to pick and choose enough words to do any thing more than be dismissive. He could have called for his sister, or his brother, or even someone with more talent and a grasp of the common tongue to translate.

So the look on his face simply turned into one that said and?
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He wondered if Reiko would have had better luck with this interaction. Tiberius had never been the social one amongst his own kind yet for Shiroshika he had been... trying, yet it was exhausting to him on some days. Teasing Izumi was likely the most talkative that the man had gotten. The man, did he even speak the language? Accented he had been when he had spoken, heavy and thick and Tiberius eyed him with his golden gaze. His own accent wasn't the easiest for normal wolves to pick up, so what hope did this man have should english be a struggle for him ordinarily?

"Ya ain't of me tongue, are ya?" Tiberius huffed a breath as he rolled his eyes to the sky before returning them back to the man in black. He started somewhere else, instead, "m'names Tiberius." Hopefully he would get that, otherwise... Tiberius would need to think of some other way to talk that the shadow would understand.^^

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The wolf didn’t seem impressed with him, but that was a mutual feeling. It wasn’t all that often that Solpallur encountered anyone who took kindly to him, unless they were of a more feminine nature, which obviously Tiberius was not. The suneater gave a similar huff in turn, but it was less about meaning and more to clear his own throat.

“Tiberius,” he repeated, tasting the word—the name, rather—on his tongue. It was a tangled mess, but perhaps not the most difficult name he had come across in his travels. Some had simply gone without a name, or by some other epithet instead. He may have done the same here in time, but was falling short of what else he could have called him.

“This one is Solpallur. This is Hrafnsvaktin.” Minute, wolfish declarations; he tried to convey which was what, but it was crude at best given that they were not exactly built for such actions. It was his own test of the waters to see just how this brute would react, or if he would manage to eyeroll himself into another dimension the next time he let his gaze go skyward.
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Barriers were in the way and truly, Tiberius was not surprised. Interested, too, he supposed but still. He was not Reiko and was not the best at this, unfortunately. The man spoke Tiberius' name or a version of it, as he wrestled it out of his mouth and fought against his own language, his own accent to try it. An attempt, Tiberius acknowledged and for that he nodded his head, accepting the attempt. It was just good that his name had not been Zephyrus, that one would have been butchered, the man reckoned.

He watched him quietly, easily, as the man tried to convey his own set of words. Two names, he guessed, but the rest was not something that Tiberius could piece together. "Solpallur," he repeated in a rumble, "an'... Hrafnsvaktin," he likely butchered that but he eyed him, hoping that the easier of the two words were the mans name. "Ya tha Solpallur one?" he motioned with his nose as best he could, spoke slowly with hope that it helped the shadow understand more. Fuckin' christ, he thought, this was a mess. ^^

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“Hrafnsvaktin, this one Solpallur, yes, he repeated—for what little it would probably do. He was not a teacher of languages, but to Tiberius’ credit, it wasn’t the worst of pronunciations he had ever heard of either his own name, or anywhere he had lived. The fact that he even made the attempt to try and pronounce such was favorable in Solpallur’s eyes.

With a tilt of his head, he wondered what else might come spilling forth from the accentuated tongue of this Tiberius. The look on his face, grim as always, seem to convey a what more? sort of suggestion; he lacked the way to ask for it in shared language, but body language was a universal sort, wasn’t it? At least now he knew that Tiberus' intentions weren't necessarily nefarious, though he was from being at ease.
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