Who's gonna stop me when I'm comin' through?

@Stjörnuáti @"Thalia" @Solpallur

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At last, she wandered back to the base of her mountain. She pissed on its border for good measure, scratching at the ground. Whatever had happened to her in the past eight days had been a mess, but she was at last free of the scent of Lord Kuhn. She had rolled in several dead things. She had journeyed around the mountain in a wide circle. And, finally, she had returned home.
 She doubted anyone would have missed her presence. She was clearly a sore to their regality and diplomatic arrangements that she had never been made a part of. A piece of her began to wonder, if she was so focused on what they would think of her, if perhaps she did not belong to this place at all.
 The fire sister had decided, at some point, to tell her brother of the event. She did not know when or how. She had decided she did not care if she would be ousted, for if she was, she would destroy him.
 After finishing her pee, she ascended the mountain.

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^^

Being on this mountain no longer amused her. It wasn't just the boredom that came with its silence and oh-too-safe feeling within its borders, but she stuck out from the crowd like a sore thumb. The fiery woman grew restless and not having Valmua around didn't help either. 

Trotting her way to the border - Thalia was ready to move on and never look back. Making her way down the mountain side just to have her eye catch the familiar female she was literally just cursing about moments ago. Because of fucking course she would pop up now. 

It didn't matter if Valmua was also technically one of the leaders here, the dragoness approached with fire burning on her tongue, steam rising from her breath as she stopped just a couple meters away from the woman who had gone missing so abruptly for a few days - a week? Fuck, it didn't matter. It was long enough. 
 
“And where the fuck were you?”

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 Picking through a cache, she pulled out and swallowed a rodent that had been dead for several days. As she was doing so, Thalia came behind her and demanded an answer. Valmúa, straight-faced, turned toward her red-branded friend and did not hesitate in snapping her teeth close to her face, growling rather aggressively before pulling back.
 “Fuck if I need to answer to you,” she hissed, though the tone behind it was more I missed you too, asshole than serious.
 “I took a shit on Shiroshika's lawn.” She answered. This, of course, hadn't taken her a week to do. However, she grinned and delighted that she was at last able to share with with someone who would probably appreciate it. That little white empress and her ass-licking companion could enjoy the smell of her asshole as long as they wanted. Despite getting caught in the act, she would happily do it again.

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Everyone so far - at least to her knowledge - liked to greet others with bared fangs. It wasn't something Thalia detested about the pack. Nah, mostly it was fun. Kept her on her toes and wanting to push the envelope further to see how far it would take them to snap. Before she would take it "too far" and be punished for biting back at someone in a higher rank than she was.

What was her rank anyway?

Was there even ranks in this pack? Did she even know a single thing about this place?

Seems like the answer was no -

But anyway, teeth snapped toward her and she retaliated with the same. Unafraid to draw blood if Valmua didn't move fast enough to avoid the same brutal greeting. “I don't understand a single thing the of the brothers say and the other I only understand half - so yeah, you kind of owe me this!” Growling, she was mostly frustrated.
 
“Shiro-what now?” A brow fell in a half-cocked mask of confusion. Clearly someone wasn't keeping up with the pack news - it didn't help that most of it was in some gibberish she couldn't understand. “Don't get me wrong I'm glad you dropped a great deuce somewhere but next time at least give me a heads up so I can go on my own adventure instead of sitting here.”

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 Valmúa was not dull-witted, and moved enough out of the way to have teeth scrape by her cheek and clang in her ears. She did not like this, but this was not about rank. She had never cared about rank. Rank meant nothing unless you were the complete and full empress, like the little one at Shiroshika. What a dream to have her friends and family do as she willed it. But it would not be so, not here.
 Owe her. Thalia, the dragon as her brother called her, was hardly the sort of scales and myth. She was more of a privileged bitch that the sister happened to usually enjoy the company of. The idea that she might owe Talia more than the news of a turd on a neighbour's doorstep was pretty rich, considering it had been Valmúa herself who had gotten Lord Kuhn to spare her hide. Still, there was part of her that admired her tenacity and cantankerous nature.
 “Stars, fífl — idiot, do you not pay any attention? There are wolves on the mountain across from us, and they are rivals.” She sighed, nodding, scrunching her brow and nodding to further to show she had more to say. “You are not wrong, I should have told you before — but the gift the suncat gave to us, the rivals at the other mountain, Shiroshika, they were not happy. I went to find out more. I did not want you with me.”
 Valmúa, for all of her tricks, was quite blunt with those she trusted, generally.
 “You should have left if you were bored — I always do.”

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“I would if I understood more than half of what was being said around here!” Frankly she was getting pretty tired of repeating herself or coming off as some daft follower who had no idea what was going on - and not by choice! There were plenty of things that she wouldn't bother to keep track of, because it never really interested her to know every in and out of what was happening... but other packs? Well shit, that would have been a good thing to know! 
 
“I didn't need to come with you,” Geez she wasn't some petulant child that needed a guardian everywhere she went. “Bored, more like out of the loop. You know you're my fucking translator don't you? WHATEVER —” With the lack of expressive arms to throw up in the air, instead she tossed her head back. 
 
“Glad to fucking have you back I guess.” It sure looked like she was glad. Thalia had a funny way of showing appreciation from the look of it.

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 Valmúa, being largely indifferent to the happenings of others unless it directly affected her, did not understand Thalia's outrage. She acted as a child, tantruming that she did not speak their tongue and this and that. The red women were a strange pair. Valmúa had never had a problem with language, but she sort of understood the frustration around her brothers — it was rare that they spoke in the common tongue, and clearly Thalia hadn't picked it up the way that the sister hoped she might.
 “Not my fucking job to be your translator,” she spat, hackles raised. They were remarkably similar in some ways, however, and it was pretty quickly apparent when Valmúa "attacked" her friend with an open mouthing of her face. She even threw an arm over the red woman as though fighting with her and hugging her at the same time.
 Pulling back, she shook her head. “Why are you such a pain in the ass?”

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^^

“Someone has to be.” She wouldn't relent. If Thalia was anything she was a determined prick who would not back down when she thought she was in the right; and man did she think she was in the right here. As Valmúa's hackles rose, so did hers. It didn't matter what ranks they all had, she'd take them all head on if it meant getting her point across.

A growl rolled from her lips as the poppy woman threw an arm over her back instead, a look of utter disdain and playful hatred painted itself across her maw. “Because I'm not some mindless follower.” Shaking off Valmúa as she pulled back at the same time, she simply tossed her head up high with self pride. She would not challenge for any throne, but nor would she bow to those she did not see worthy of it.
 
Unfortunately for this little odd friendship, it didn't seem she would be around much longer after today to enjoy it. A storm was brewing and soon she would be off on her own extended adventure away from Hrafnsvaktin, one that may not lead her to return.

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“Nor should you be,” answered the firebrand. Valmúa and her brothers had little care for shows or dominance and rarely even acknowledged their leadership positions around other pack mates. The sister had always been a physical creature, showing all manner of emotion through touch. This time, it seemed not to quell the rising tides of Thalia's dissonance. Snipping her teeth together and reaching out toward the haughty dragon, she did not try to poke her again, despite the desire to mouth her.
 Valmúa had thought about telling the dragon about her little escapade with the Lord of the Everfrost. It seemed that today, Thalia was not in a listening mood. She would have to keep such chatter to herself, no matter how deliciously intense it might be.
 Moving toward Thalia's side, Valmúa shifted herself so that she was sitting quite close to the autumn-toned woman, but not touching. “You and I could do greater things than them.” The observation was said factually while Valmúa stared ahead of her, unmoving. It was not an offer, it was not a promise, and it was not a voice of dissent.
 It was truth.

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"Nor should you be", although Valmúa's words said one thing, Thalia heard and saw something else completely. She was more of the 'show don't tell' kind of gal; soon that very feeling would cause her to stride away from the mountain for the very last time.

Casting a sideways glance as the poppy woman slid up to sit next to her, a look of almost unpleasant distrust painted her features. It was a perpetual feeling she had here, or anywhere really. Nothing truly personal. “Not here we can't.” She wouldn't downright disagree with Valmúa. It was possible the two women could do amazing things if free from these... individuals.
 
“Ah but you are tied to Tweedledee and Tweedledum. And I have no interest in challenging them for a bunch of followers who don't even speak my tongue.” A long stretch was given to relax the coiled muscles of hers. Tilting downward as she pulled every leg and arched her back in both directions, feeling every joint and vertebrae 'pop' satisfyingly. 

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 Valmúa knew, at that point, that Thalia was unlikely to stay with them for much longer. It started to feel almost as though her friend was creating reasons to leave them, and the fire sister wasn't going to stop her. She wondered, briefly, what might happen. She wondered what was pushing her over the edge. She didn't fully believe that it was the language barrier that Thalia had cited.
 She laughed. “Tweedledee... Tweedledum. What,” she laughed, finding these two words so absurd and having no context as to their origin. It seemed like the sister was not going to win over anyone today, but to be honest, she wasn't so sure that she needed to.
 “If you are not a follower, then who will you lead?” She eyed Thalia briefly from the side.

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^^“Never mind.” She sighed sharply. Aggravated that one more thing was lost in translation between herself and someone in this pack of theirs. It didn’t even matter if they spoke the same language it seemed, no matter what, there would always be walls in the way of any kind of communication. Perhaps Valmúa was just in tune with Thalia’s temper already as she was just a drop away from erupting, needing just one more thing to set her over the edge and tumbling in fury out of the pack - away from the mountain and all its alien speaking inhabitants.
 
“Funny enough, you aren’t the first to ask me a similar question.” She thought back to the older man who she picked a fight within the hail after he barked out orders to her. Thinking he knew any better by demanding she’d follow him to a “better” shelter than the one she had huddled up underneath. The bruises from the hail lasted days from his little “trip” to the cave. Though better… honestly, she didn’t think the trip and bruises were worth it in the end.
 
“I don’t feel like leading anyone.” Her cutting words weren’t quite directed at Valmúa. Just simply at everything in general. “Too much fucking work.” She’d sigh finally. Though Thalia wasn’t one to loaf around - she also wasn’t too keen on the idea of always being busy and called by pack mates and strangers alike to speak with. “I just refuse to follow anyone. I’m picky, and I have the right to be.”^^

— Total Words: 259

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I really don't understand where time goes - I'm gonna wrap this since I think it's natural and they're both in very different places IC now
Would love a fresh one though!!

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 Valmúa hadn't really been ready for any of this bullshit. She'd come here to be around people she normally felt close to and potentially tell them what she had been up to, but Thalia made it extremely difficult. Everything always had to be about her, and not on a good way. She was too smart to be doing what she was doing, but too stupid and lazy apparently to lead or do anything else of use. Valmúa did not know what would become of her, and at the moment, she was having difficulty caring at her friend sneered and snarked at her.
 “Do you?” She hissed, having had enough of this melodramatic garbage. “I do not know what the fuck makes your poppy ass so special,” she borrowed a phrase her family had used on her here, “but anyone can follow. If you cannot, and you cannot lead, you are shit.”
 At this point, she was snarling facially, but was not willing to fight, so she backed up, abandoning her friend to whatever the fuck solemn bullshit she was feeling. “Bye heimskr — dumbass,” she spat, waving her tail and wandering away unless she was stopped. Her foreign word was intentional, now that she knew how much the dragon hated when she spoke her native tongues.

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