After gathering her band Valkyrie led the motley crew into the south. They'd passed by pack after pack, and each time Valkyrie had to fight the urge to scout them out. There would be time for that soon enough. It was different now that she had a band. She couldn't move quite as freely among the packs. While many of her wolves were familiar, a few weren't and she wasn't quite ready to draw attention to the group. Better to get a feel for their abilities first before tempting fate.

 

She'd chosen this island carefully. Its abundance of wildlife and foliage-choked terrain made it a good place to fatten up and train - all in relative seclusion. Here they would hone their skills for the coming raids.

It was with the next part of her plan in mind that Valkyrie made her way to the beach facing the mainland. She gazed out across the water and studied the trees on the other side. From this distance she could hear nothing from the mainland. Valkyrie could see the trees moving as a breeze blew through them. She could see waves crashing on the rocky shore and she could guess at the sounds coming from the Plains. But she could hear none of it; it was a world apart.

""

WHAT'S UP DANGER The northern continent was much better thus far, and its yield of herbs was a significant improvement on the barren wasteland of the southern continent during its dry season. He was hunting for herbs that would be useful to most anyone, to improve his odds of trading them for other goods. As he strolled along, head between his shoulders, he caught a scent. A very familiar one. Oh no, her again. He had missed the companionship that came with having friends, but right now he was... not in the mood to socialize. He was drained from interacting with so many different wolves lately, after moons of isolation while his parents grew sick and died. He'd catch up with Valkyrie later. Now that he had a beat on her, he'd pick up her scent when he was less tired. Granted, she had a knack for being the single most mentally draining wolf in his life. His wound was mostly healed, and beginning to form a rather broad scar across the front of his forelimb. He wasn't limping anymore, and so he could roam freely. A patch of brightly coloured flowers caught his eye. Perfect. Honing in on the clump of magenta flowers, he began to carefully scratch away the first layer of soil around it. He gave a fair berth to the plant, that way he could collect more roots from the outside edges, and leave most of the inner ones intact to preserve the plant. When the soil began to grow softer, he began to carefully curl his toes inward to scoop the dirt instead of scraping it. The strange rotation of his massive body as he circled the plant, dark tail sweeping in broad strokes across his heels, was likely an odd sight. He muttered a bit to himself as he worked, chiding himself when he felt his claws nick something. "speech"

After several more moments spent in silent reflection Valkyrie abandoned the beach in favor of the jungle. She was tempted to track down one of her thanes and demand a spar. No time like the present to prepare, right? The season would go by quickly and if they weren't careful it would be wasted on growing fat and lazy instead of strong and skilled.

 

A scent on the breeze caused Valkyrie to abandon her thoughts of harassing a band mate. A slow smile began to draw up the corners of her mouth. She'd recognize that scent anywhere. "Oh, Deion!" she sang before lifting her nose to the breeze and attempting to lock onto a trail. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"

Ah, ha. There he was. Valkyrie frisked closer. He appeared to be after a plant of some kind, which didn't surprise her in the slightest. Plants were kind of his thing.

She sidled up beside him and made a show of peeking around him to get a look at what he was after. "I see how you are. Too busy picking daisies to come see your friend."

""

A familiar voice rang out, calling his name. A grunt was all he uttered, focused on the task at hand. Valerian root would be useful during the winter with any respiratory problems. However, he needed to take the time to properly harvest it. "Come out, come out wherever you are!" the young female called out, breaking his concentration once more. His chest rumbled with a low growl for a moment, before he shook it off and buried his snout in the dirt. His tusks cleared more of the soil from the edges of the hole, and he shoveled the remnants away from the roots with the top of his nose. Closed nostrils and short breaths inward kept him from inhaling the loam. He had to contain his reaction when he felt the brush of breath against his flank, and there was Valkyrie. "I see how you are. Too busy picking daisies to come see your friend." He exhaled heavily through his nose, resulting in an explosion of dirt around his face. He lifted his head from the soil with a deadpan expression, tusks and snout coated in a thick layer of dark dirt. "Better to be picking them than pushing them, Kiki." he used the informal name in hopes of riling her up, though it rarely worked. He shook out his pelt, clearing specs of loam from his ruff. An appraising look flicked from her head to to her toes. He hadn't seen her in nearly a year, not since his parents had become ailing. "And it's valerian root I'm collecting, not daisies." he added with a scowl, amethyst gaze meet with her own icy optics. "dripping with sarcasm"

Art by risketch

As he suspected, Valkyrie was unperturbed by his use of her much-hated pet name. Had it been anyone else she may have been offended, but since it was him and his goal was to annoy her, how could she been anything other than amused?

She grinned up at him and then a point to look chagrined as he corrected her. "Oh, my bad," she said in a tone that made it clear she wasn't at all sorry. "Daisies, valerian, they all look the same to me."

Determined to be a pain, Valkyrie sat down hard beside Deion and flopped her hind legs out in front of her so that one paw hung over the hole he'd been digging. Her tone serious despite her playful attempt to annoy him, she said, "I was beginning to think I wouldn't see you again."

HEAVY METAL BROKE MY HEART Much to his disappointment, she didn't rise to the bait. Instead, she fixed him with a winning smile. A new low, even for him. What kind of scoundrel couldn't even annoy his own friends? "Oh, my bad," she admitted. Liar. "Daisies, valerian, they all look the same to me." she added. The titan didn't move a muscle as she sauntered closer. He huffed again in disdain of her comment, rolling his eyes with little care of whether or not her feelings were hurt. "Which is why you were never in charge of patching everyone up." he retorted dryly, tracking her movements as she closed in. Would she lash out, angry that he hadn't tracked her down the second he'd put his parents in the ground? Who knew. Valkyrie was a mercurial creature. The chocolate pelted femme flopped heavily onto the ground beside him, legs heaved out in front of her to obstruct his digging. He let out a tactless, heavy sigh. Since it was now painfully clear he was supposed to be paying attention to Valkyrie and Valkyrie alone, not the task at hand, he backed himself out of his furrow. Forepaws firmly on solid ground, he flopped heavily onto his haunches beside her. There, now she had his undivided attention, and could stop making him miserable. "I was beginning to think I wouldn't see you again." she said gravely. He was suddenly reminded that despite everything, Valkyrie was his friend, and he'd done her a great disservice by not looking for her after his parents' deaths. Not that he was going to let that awareness reach the light of day. He had a reputation. "You're a bad penny, Kiki." he grunted, gaze drifting away from her in case she might take his sincerity for sappiness. "You always turn up at some point." There. That was better than "Sorry, my parents were dying and I couldn't drop everything to come galavanting with you and the Skaldi boys." ... Right? "dripping with sarcasm"

Art by risketch

Aw, he didn’t smash her toes for annoying him like she had expected. This and his capitulation by laying down brought a grin to her lips. Clearly he liked her more than he let on, but of course she’d always known that. Deion wasn’t always the nicest of wolves; if he truly disliked her he would never have put up with her shenanigans when they were children.

“Hm,” she hummed in an uncharacteristically girlish tone, her eyes briefly rolling heavenward as she considered his rude compliment. “I suppose, although this time it’s you who has turned up. It just so happens that you have somehow managed to find the island where all your childhood buddies have gathered to prepare for the raiding season.”