Tyrian had made a deal. Yes, the price was steep and no, he wasn't particularly thrilled with it, but he was certain he'd made the right call. If the information he got from the viking woman proved to be as useful as he was betting it to be the Fireside wolves could potentially benefit from it for generations. It was that fact that he repeated to himself over and over as he made his way to the meeting place. This was going to be a quick little meeting just to get everyone up to speed. He could have just howled and told them all that way, but that struck him as half-assed. His people deserved the full explanation and they deserved the right to speak with him, and to voice their concerns if they had them. This coming season was going to be different to say the least.

He sat down atop a knoll and howled for the pack. The bison were grazing down below and his call sent a visible thrill of unease through the herd, but he paid them no mind. Tyrian was choosing to bring his pack together here because of its proximity to the vikings. Soon enough his reasoning for this would be made clear.

OOC: mandatory pack meeting! This was supposed to happen at the beginning of winter so I'm liquid timing it back to that. Due date is 6/1!

Álarr adjusted the organization of the healing store room, moving all his teas together in one area and the ointments to another. As he did he sniffed them carefully and anything that seemed to be spoiling was tossed out. He was working when he heard his brother's call. He cocked his head to the side as the call coming from the knolls but it didn't seem like a call to hunt. Slipping his pack on just in case Álarr moved to answer the call. He arrived and gave his brother a soft smile before moving to sit down. He was curious what this meeting would entail.

After finishing her patrol Valdís started heading back toward the range. The sun was shining, warming her back and shoulders despite the chill in the air. It felt good and she was considering finding a nice place to sun bathe when she heard Tyrian calling for the pack to assemble. Her ears flicked forward as she turned her head toward the knolls. Without more of a thought on the matter she headed for the meeting place. There was nothing stressful in his tone so Valdís assumed there was no cause to charge in ready for battle. She arrived and moved to take her seat, waiting for the meeting to begin.

Aerndis dragged the elk leg back into the territory. She was an opportunist as well as a hunter so when she'd found the half-eaten kill she moved in quickly to start picking it apart and dragging the good parts back into Fireside. Every little bit helped and she figured some elk for lunch would be a hit. Aern licked the blood off her lips, raising her head at the sound of Tyrian's call. They were meeting at the Knolls? She wondered for a moment if he'd found injured game and was calling them together for a hunt of some kind. Aerndis finished cleaning up her face then quickly moved to join the other wolves at the meeting.

He hadn’t been able to convince Tyrian to take his life, to rid his curse from the world. He was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, for misfortune to strike again. There was no way it wouldn’t, even if Tyrian didn’t believe him. The pink marked boy heard the call and followed. He was making friends with the sheep, they were easier to get along with than other wolves. They were soft and warm and seemed to have taken to him. He worked to take care of all of Tyrian’s livestock though, but the sheep had a special place in his heart. A brightness in his life of darkness.

The horned wolf slunk into the meeting, hoping to keep from being noticed like the dirt he was. Close enough to hear but far enough to show he knew his place, Erys settled down and waited to be dismissed. He was already ready to be back with the herd.

He was getting things ready for the missions he had been asked to do. And by that, he was thinking up ideas on how to pull one over on the packs they were supposed to take a look at. It was often hard for him to not be a snarky smart ass, but he felt like these particular missions might need a little more tact than just waltzing up and pissing on borders. After all, he wasn't exactly in the mood to get his ass chewed up by an entire pack, but...he had to remember he wasn't going alone. Chaos would be with him for one, and his dad was pretty smart and could usually avoid trouble if he really, really wanted to. But Ares? He didn't quite have that quality. He didn't like to back down or bow to the whims of others very much. He was a prideful creature, he knew that well enough. When he heard Tyrian calling for the pack, he had to admit he was curious. Did he have more missions for them? Had the others already gone and come back to report? Shaking out his fur, he headed towards the gathering and sat down, curious to know what they were being called for.

"Speech"

Sparrow was already looking forward to the mission with Jupiter. It made her feel like a real adult that she was getting a mission and that her uncle trusted her with something so important. She hoped Jup felt somewhat similarly at least. She was confident the two of them would do a great job and if any thing went south, then they'd at least have each other. Besides that, they had the rest of Fireside, so Sparrow wasn't nervous at all. Probably. Kind of, anyway. She really, REALLY wanted to do a good job, but she also didn't want her family to know how much she wanted to do a good job. She wanted to exude confidence and rightfully so. She wanted to have that place in the pack, and she was eager to earn it.

When Tyr called for the pack, Sparrow was a little shocked. Had there been a change of plans? Was her mission cancelled? Had he changed his mind? No, of course not. He had faith in her- as he should. She was awesome, she told herself. This meeting was totally unrelated, no sweat. Sparrow came to the meeting and settled down next to Alarr, boasting a bright smile at Tyr. Totally confident.

Ashmedai had been trying to figure out what was the best "training but not a typical training" he could hold. He knew Tyranis wouldn't wait forever to let him figure it out. So far he settled on melee fighting, but it still felt so lackluster. When Tyr called the pack to meet, Ashmedai wasted no time in approaching, donning his shirt and harness just to make sure he looked extra embarrassing for the pack- his specialty. Confidence in his step, he entered the clearing, landing a large lick from the base of Sparrow's skull to between her ears, sticking his kid's fur up like a little Mohawk. Good, now both of them were meeting ready.

Darya's ears flicked as the call from her young alpha reached her. She was busy herding some sheep back away from the border and had to at least make sure she helped them not wander too far before she was satisfied. Nodding to herself Darya took a moment to summon her courage and then headed off to answer Tyrian's call. She pushed timidly through the knolls, peering at the gathering, her hellfire gaze sweeping across the wolves, searching for the telltale pop of color Jupiter gave to the group. She didn't see the blue man but another familiar form popped out to her and Darya felt a wave of relief wash over her. The skull marked woman padded quickly towards Aerndis, settling beside the starry woman and offered her a slightly strained smile. She wasn't as close with her as her brother but there was a feeling of comfort of seeing another face from when she was a pup. Though she kept glancing over her shoulder for Jupiter. "Говорить"

Art by TakahiroReta

A call from Tyrian was hardly any reason to be concerned, at least at first. There was no hint of panic in his voice though, so Asvor saw little reason to be overly worried. Regardless, she definitely was curious - was it time for a meeting again already? - and she headed toward the knolls in response to his call. With a healthy amount of hurry in her gait, she eventually showed up to the gathering. Not everyone had showed up yet, but most had, and she wasn't quite let yet. Her gaze found Valdis quickly and moved to sit by her side, offering a quiet nuzzle before her attention turned to their young leader and what he had to address them all over.

Chaos was asleep in his old den in one of the knolls, surrounded by the treasures that had been buried there by humans long ago. He had to admit he did enjoy sleeping among the shinies, dragonlike, and he had been glad to see when they returned to their old lands that the barrow had been unaffected by the wildfire that had raged overtop it. Things had grown back since then just as well as ever, and with it had come back the buffalo and such that he'd grown up seeing here.

A call from Tyrian pricked up his ears, even in his den beneath the earth, and Chaos pushed himself up with a yawn before making his way out of the barrow and over towards his baby brother. He was late, of course, not quite able to push the sleep cobwebs away fast enough to beat the rush there, and gave out another wide yawn as he flopped down among the pack to see what Tyrian had up his metaphorical sleeve this time.

Talon wobbled along the half-fallen roof timber in one of the rougher sections of the barn, slowly inches his way upwards with a manic grin on his face. The view on the roof was going to be the best. He'd been puzzling it over for ages trying to figure out how to get up there before the debris holding this old beam up had finally crumbled, sending it nearly all the way to the ground and some judicious positioning of other random stuff had allowed him to reach it enough to scramble up.

Tyrian's call startled him and he wobbled even more, his face falling into a comically dismayed expression before he lost his clawhold on the beam and... fell.

Luckily he'd only made it partway up what would have otherwise been a rather long fall, and he fell into old, rotting hay, screeching the whole way until he landed with a painful thump and undignified squeak. He laid there dazed for a long moment before making his way gingerly back to his paws and weaving his way out of the hay and debris. He paused beneath the beam and sent it a longing glance before sighing sadly and dragging himself towards his uncle's summons.

By the time he reached the rest of the pack his bruises had been stretched loose and he was grinning again, tail wagging, at his pack members. He flung himself down near his dad and sister - wincing when that made those half forgotten bruises twinge - and stretched out on his belly with his back legs out behind him. You know, to be comfortable and all.

Torrent had been far enough outside pack lands that, while she could faintly hear Tyrian's call, she hadn't been close enough to get there in good time. She really needed to be spending more time in pack lands so this didn't keep happening...

Running flat out she was able to reach pack lands relatively quickly with her long, bounding run and the area that the pack was gathered not much longer after that. She wasn't particularly winded from the run, but she was pretty late, so she dipped her head apologetically towards Tyrian as she slowed to stalk through the pack to Alarr's side and seat herself beside him, poised with eyes fixing on their littermate as she waited for him to tell them why they'd come together today.

Tyrian waited patiently as the pack gathered. He was about ready to start when a distant 'wait we're coming' bark from Jupiter gave him pause. That was strange. His nephew didn't really strike him as the sort to give warning when he was going to be late. Rather, he expected him to just show up when he could. Well, now Tyrian couldn't help but be curious - and of course he waited. Soon enough Jupiter's flashy coat came into view. Beside it and so muted in comparison it was easy to overlook, was the familiar shape of his father, Valentine. Even from a distance it was easy to see the latter of the two was spitting mad.

Neither late arrival said a word, though Jupiter did give Tyrian a nod to encourage him to begin - which Tyrian did gladly. He wasn't sure he wanted to ask questions anyway given the pointed, furious gaze his father was directing into the distance.

"Thank you all for coming. First off I want to assure you there is no cause for concern. I called everyone together because I have made a deal with the Hjarrandi that will effect everyone here and you deserve to hear it from me in person, and you deserve to have any questions you might have answered." He paused to let that sink in before continuing. "Some of you are aware of my admiration for the market the Hjarrandi hosted last year. I wish to do something similar with the goods and services Fireside has to offer. In exchange for mentoring me on the subject and perhaps working together in the future, I am allowing the members of Hjarrandi to overwinter on our land."

Tyrian swept a quick look across the many faces looking up at him to assess the reception of the news. "Their leader, Valkyrie Finnvi, has assured me her members will adhere to our rules while they are here and treat our land as if it were their own. They will be staying in the Range along the riverbank and are not to approach our herds or our caches, or enter into any of our buildings, but they are welcome to move around the Range. We are not allies, but we stand to both benefit from this agreement. Consider them guests, treat them as such, but don't tolerate any attempts to test boundaries. They know the rules."

He nestled his tail around his paws to ward off the chill that was beginning to set in and then addressed the group again. "Any questions?"

Though she had no idea what Tyrian might have to say to the gathering, Asvor wasn't the least bit concerned. In fact, she was intrigued at any potential news... they'd been tasked to find out as much as they could about the other packs that inhabited Boreas. Perhaps Tyrian had found out something interesting? Her ears pricked forward as he began to speak, listening carefully as he began to address them. He clarified that there was no cause for concern, but allegedly he had struck a deal with Hjarrandi? Interesting. Not something she'd argue, that was for sure. Truthfully she had bigger concerns, and she had little interest with Tyrian's deals, unless it interfered directly with her or Valdis's well-being. She nodded in understanding. Maybe it'd be entertaining, if nothing else.. she'd have to keep an eye out for them and see if they were of any interest to her.