cold

"Tell Stjornny I said hi."

It had lingered in his mind the whole way home. Through lands that felt somehow unfamiliar until the mountain loomed in the distance. Snowcaps beckoned him home, asked to soothe the burns he carried with him.

His skin had welted softly in the places she had drawn blood from, he wondered if the rougher spots might forever wear her brand. Her scent, while faded from the travel, surely could not fade entirely from some places upon his skin and fur.

Perhaps the only regret he had was that he had bedded her before he had a clue how she knew his people, things that went beyond him.

Yet now he knew he must call upon @Stjörnuáti to inform him — and perhaps learn more of her through his leader.

---

if u don't have space/time for this lmk <3

the staff team luvs u

So the call came, so he went, moving at an easy pace. There was no urgency in the voice he was coming to know well, not of the dire sort, anyway; this led to Stjörnuáti taking a slightly longer path to his packmate, stopping to mark here and there. It wasn't until he was close enough to spot Bartel in the distance that a curious scent tickled at his nose. Idly, the man tried to sort out how he knew it as he finally began to walk in a vaguely straight line towards the dark-furred male.

And then his paws stopped, one frozen as it hung in the air. His ears pitched forward, tail held pensively behind him. Closer now, the pale Northerner realized he knew that scent very well, and that it hung around the neck of Bartel like a wreath upon a door. All four paws on the ground once more, maroon eyes considered the man for a moment, time seeming to have suspended around them as he processed how to take this information, and what to do with it.

And then his mouth split into a smile, a booming laugh coming from the vikingr, sending the birds startled from the trees. “So! Bartel has found lítill dreki. Did she bite and burn Bartel also?”

the staff team luvs u

He looked upon the sun-touched leader.

At once he wondered if he had broken some sort of unspoken rule among men. If feuerkuss — firekiss had done the same song and dance with 'Stjornny' — and now Bartel was nothing more than a creep or a loser.

He would have accepted the same slew of titles now if the northern man had tossed them at him.

Instead it was laughter, loud and booming like an avalanche that startled the mountainside birds. A nickname for her upon his leader's tongue. He still held close his suspicion of them having both now known the woman in such ways, if she had earned nicknames from both of them and left with little else to be called.

He only answered with the voice and tone of a man come to give a report.

“She did,” He had not come to flaunt the extent of how she burned. “After she asked of Hrafnsvaktin, accused me of being sent by you. Something of a tiger too.”

He paused for a moment.

“I told her nothing.”

the staff team luvs u

“Of the course litli dragon did. It is her ways. ” His blunder of the phrase went unnoticed by the stareater, fully amused that Thalia would have asked after such things. She was vindictive, and it was one of the many things that had drawn him like a moth to the flame of her personality. That fire had dimmed some, in his eyes, not for Thalia’s lack of kindling but for the presence of another, larger fire.

“Bartel did well. The dragon knows Hrafnsvaktin from before. We claimed this mountain once before gods of this world ah… scatter? This place and it’s wolves. Thalia helped claim the mountain, even if she denies such things.” would she return or would she linger on the outskirts again? If Bartel tangled with her, Stjornuati could not deny the chance that she might show up. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to fuck with her like she did him.

“Bartel should tell litli dragon that Stjornuati does not remember her.” He smirked.
the staff team luvs u

Had he done well?

It hardly felt like such. Yet he listened, not inclined to change whatever view it was that the leader of the frosted mountains held of him. It was best if Bartel did not ruin his reputation for the sake of sticking his dick into something, no?

Yet he also did not wish to ruin whatever image feuerkuss had parted with in her mind. Perhaps she truly had thought of him as nothing more than a creep for the ways they had harshly tangled and burned with one another just to depart. Her last words a lashing against his ego. What man wanted to hear a nickname for his leader after a good lay?

A true Jezebel, perhaps.

“And then she vill know you have sent me.” The barest warming of humor in his voice.

“Maybe I vill continue to tell her nothing. It riles her greatly vhen you do so.”

It was unbecoming for him to say such things about her away from where she could defend herself. He was far from the gentlemen that he had once prided himself on being.

the staff team luvs u

Stjörnuáti's smirk stretched wider, teeth showing as it morphed into a grin. Yes, he liked Bartel greatly and felt that he was cut from much the same cloth as he was. The man's demeanor reminded him of his brother, his other half. Solpallur. The gods had separated them for now, and wherever the suneater was, his brighter counterpart could only hope that all was well and for a swift return.

“However Bartel wishes to handle.” With this, he trusted the man to make his own decisions. While Thalia was an amusement, Stjörnuáti did not think that she would be all too much trouble, in the end.

“This one is hungry. Bartel?” A bonding moment and a favored past time all rolled into one.

the staff team luvs u

Oh, but how did he wish to handle it?

The idea still eluded him and the flicker of knowledge that any outcome might spell trouble. Bartel had never been a man who had intentionally caused ruckus or strife among others.

Perhaps the flame had left a singed mark upon him in the way.

He was far too glad to turn his thoughts elsewhere now, though. Among home and the man he aligned himself with.

“We cannot have hunger in Hrafnsvaktin.” His voice radiated warmth in these moments now. Rallied by the man before him. “Let us?”

the staff team luvs u

“We cannot,” He confirmed, his grin ever-present in this moment, in this meeting. His gold-crested head bobbed to the side a bit, noise pointing into the forest that stretched over part of the mountain. It was an indicative movement, one meant for Bartel’s understanding: Lead the way.

Stjornuati would see the male’s hunting skills, especially as the pack was beginning to grow in numbers and activity. It had been a slow start, something that did not bother the man of the North. It would happen in time, or it would not; Stjornuati, however, would not give up on the call that sang so deeply within him.

This was where he was meant to be, and what he was meant to be doing.
the staff team luvs u