Miss Mysterious

Acere’s comment brought a frown to the shimmering woman’s features, and she posed cautiously, “You’ve members missing as well?” His suggestion that someone could be out there stealing wolves away brought that strange, frigid chill to her eyes, almost feral before she shuttered the emotion away. “My mother and brother were taken when we were pups… They were rescued, and that band of slavers wiped out to the last wolf…. But mother was never the same after.”

However, their continued conversation allowed her to compose herself enough to smile as Acere spoke of his journey in raising two fox kits. “I can imagine. Foxes by their nature can be an adventure to deal with.”

Her mood only brightened as he confirmed that he was indeed interested in an alliance, and she put a mental placemarker on the conversation as she moved to examine the goods, listening with interest as he spoke of what he had. A large, white pelt that smelled of bear caught her eye, and she gently brushed the tip of one paw over the thick fur curiously. “White bears?”

Her head cocked as she studied the other things and materials, her head turning briefly to gaze at the thin plume of smoke rising into the sky from the distant hillock that housed the cave system. She’d noted that some things became more malleable when warm, or hardened into pottery. Perhaps metal was among those things that should be shaped when hot.

As she bent to sniff a piece of the stuff in question, a memory surfaced. The smell was similar in a cold way, to the scents that rose from the earth’s blood in Hell’s River cave… A smile fell upon her features as she asked, “Have you tried heat?”

The sound of dragging turned her head as Aelloshir and Ayodele arrived with Valhalla’s own trade goods, and Paladin gently coaxed the remaining flock of sheep along, nodding to the Winterfell King before he smiled gently at his cousin and trotted away, the sheep bleating warily as the mountain lion took over herdsman duty after working free of the travois of trade items.

Aurielle nodded to the items, moving to show the King the wares. “Being allied with the Nomads is a boon. It’s thanks to them that the festival in Autumn was as plentiful as it was. They provided the sheep as well. They travel far and wide, and trade with Valhalla. Take a look.”

Acere would find a variety of items, from perfumes, to hunting lures that were made from the urine of doe deer—highly valued as it was so difficult to tame deer enough to gather the stuff. Furs, leathers, bones, baubles and cloths that she’d found with in the strange log that the primates had worked open at last. There were even a few daggers made by human kind, long, long ago. There were dried herbs, an excess of aloe very leaves.

She stood aside, letting the male take his time, before she posed gently, “What would be your terms for an Alliance?”

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think