She glared at the icy wolf as he snickered at her clumsiness. Maybe she wasn’t Iki, but then no one could actually be as graceful as her sister. She was still an Abraxas Princess, and Iho was - or would be - her subject.

In regards to that, the lighter toned wolf gave her the chance to try and subjugate him. She just had to win him over first. She could do that, she had time, while he healed. She gave her head a brisk nod, careful to keep her antlers clear of his this time. “That sounds acceptable” She agreed.

She just needed to find a way to win him over. She would have to find out what things he liked, and procure them for him. That was a start, right? “So tell me about the place you came from” she ordered him, settling her head on her paws again. His home. That would be a starting point.


"Speech"

Iho grinned happily when Kitsune agreed to his terms of subjugation. Unfortunately for her, she didn't know just how headstrong and difficult to tame the young lad was. He was like a wild stallion, yearning to be free and roam and explore. Not that he had any intentions of disappearing forever in the middle of the night or anything, but he had serious doubts this little girl could do much to coax him into staying to be her peasant or whatever it was royalty called the wolves under them.

Kit asked him to tell her about where he came from and Iho's ears and attention perked up visibly. Gosh, he hadn't been expecting her to ask him about that, but he supposed it made sense. He was a stranger washed up on their shores. She knew nothing about who he was or where he had come from. Seemed like as good a place as any to start. "I'm from a place much further north than here. My pack lived right on the water, on a coastline like this. But it was much colder and the beaches were a lot rockier too. My pack was isolated from the rest of the world by a mountain range that kept our peninsula pretty much unreachable unless by water, so many of us became very good swimmers or sailors." He glanced back out towards the open ocean and gestured to it with a broad wave of his paw. "The sea is usually much easier to navigate than a mountain, after all!"

Kumiho paused while he tried to think of what else to tell her about his past home life. "My pack wasn't very large. There was maybe just over a dozen of us or so. Everyone lived peacefully and pulled their own weight to benefit the group, but we didn't really, like, have an official leader or anything. My family was just me, my brother, and my mom and dad. Like I said, everyone had their own job to support the pack. Dad was a hunter, mom and my brother gathered herbs, and I was a fisher." He smiled proudly as he added on, "Best fisher in the pack, too!" With his general synopsis of his first year of life detailed to her, he fixed his gaze back on the fire-kissed pup. "Was there anything specific you wanted to know about where I came from?" That would give him an idea of what sort of stories to entertain her with.

"Kumiho"

She daintily crossed her paws and listened in as he began to tell her from where she had been. Kitsune had always loved stories, her imagination yearned to break free. To create wonders, and see them for herself. He spoke of a world hardier than what she had known. She couldn’t imagine being isolated. Ashen was a center point for many, the seat of which so many other packs had sprung. She was constantly seeing wolves of the Ashen Armada, and occasionally some Habari or Hallows wolves. So many new people to know.

“I can almost imagine it. I want to walk those shores some day. To see your mountain range, and navigate your rocky shores.” She grinned a big, trouble-makers grin. She wanted to be an explorer, too. She wanted to have a reason to travel. “How did a fisher become an explorer, anyway? I want to be a diplomat, travel all over to other packs, and meet people.” She paused, and considered his question. What in particular did she want to know? “If there's just a dozen of you, how do your people find husbands and wives?”

"Speech"

Iho was fascinated by the well behaved mannerisms of young Kitsune. Whoever her parents were, they had done a damned good job of making sure that decorum was drilled into her head! The perfect way she crossed her paws and sat upright spoke of good breeding, but he hadn't been fooled into thinking she was this girly little princess. She had performed trauma surgery on him on the beach, gotten covered in blood and sand, and no doubt had her fair share of scrapes and cuts as well. For all the properness she put on display, Iho saw the wild side inside the girl yearning to break free, to roam plains and climb mountains and swim in seas and lakes. He might be her subject now, but maybe he would be the one corrupting her after all was said and done.

Kit boldly declared that she wanted to walk along the pebbly shores of his home and see the snowcapped mountains. He grinned back with a light laugh. "Well, maybe when you're older, I'll steal you away and you can, Princess," he remarked. "Just so long as you don't try to conquer my home in the name of your empire." She asked how he became a traveler next, and his icy eyes lit up. "Well, being a fisher, I love the water! Love to swim in it, play in it, sail on it, everything! It began by swimming to a small island maybe a hundred paces from shore and spending time exploring there. Then it became wanting to sail, then it became wanting to sail somewhere else and the next thing I knew, I was preparing for a voyage to see the world. My parents were heartbroken to see me go, but they understood."

He snickered again at her follow up question regarding how his pack found husbands and wives. Of course she would be thinking about the logistics of his home pack. Or maybe it was the girly side of her wondering how couples were formed. "We weren't always that small. My pack was larger once upon a time, before I was born. It was easier to make mated pairs when there were more of us and less likely to cross any family lines. Some would leave the pack to find partners and return, some simply never came back. When I left, there were a total of four families remaining, so crossbreeding could be done feasibly without the risk of incest, but it was getting tight. I wouldn't be very surprised if I return one day and there's just... nothing left."

"Kumiho"

Her face lit up in a brilliant smile at his suggestion that he might take her there one day. Of course it started with ‘when you're older’ as so many things did in her life. She ignored that fact, and instead held on to that shiny promise of adventure. “No promises, it might be nice to broaden our horizons…” she teased him back. Her people did have a habit of spreading, didn’t they? To her, they were the biggest thing in the world.

She watched the way his eyes lit up, like swimming beneath the ice, and watching the rising sun casting a glow across the surface. His body might be the colors of a mountain peak, but his eyes were the top of the world. A blue capping across the sun. She stretched out her paws and thought of the adventures he must have had already. Just by leaving his home.

“It sounds so sad, like they are dwindling and dying.” she said softly, trying to imagine her own pack and family dying slowly away. No, Venom and Hattori would never allow it.


"Speech"

Kitsune was absolutely enthralled with the idea of seeing the world and the notion of adventure and exploration. He could understand; he shared the same insatiable wanderlust in his heart too. How unfortunate, he thought, that she'll be restricted by her station. As a princess, he doubted she would be given much leniency to run off on grand adventures around the world. No doubt her parents planned to marry her off to a suitor for political gain, and she'd be expected to be a wife, second to her husband, only required to bare children when he desired them and remain ruling over her lands, or his. It sounded like such a drab existence to him, and Iho found himself grateful he hadn't been a highborn wolf. At least with low status came boundless freedom. Would he be able to trade that away for anything in the world? Who knew...

Her words regarding his family sounded soft and mournful, and though they were grim, he couldn't tell her they were wrong. He saw the look of sadness in those eyes as blue as arctic glaciers, like distant galaxies swirling in the inky blackness of night. All Iho could do was offer her a warm smile and reach a daring paw forward to boldly caress the Abraxas princess' tiny cheek. "Hey now, we might be small, but we've been around for a long time. I'm sure they'll find a way to survive. We always do," he said, trying to help assuage the concern he saw in her expression.

The sun was much further towards the horizon now, and twilight began to grip the land in shades of violets and indigos. "You should probably be getting home soon, Your Highness." Not that he wanted her to leave, but because he knew the trouble that would come to her if she stayed out with him too late. Besides, it wasn't like he was going anywhere for a while!

"Kumiho"

She blinked in surprise when he reached over to touch her. Cradling her cheek in a way only her immediate family had done so before. Despite the black-ice tone of his paw, it was surprisingly warm against her cheek. His coat was plush and soft, and she closed her eyes for a second and leaned into the touch. It was comforting, his giant paw seemed to promise much - not, of course, that she needed any assurances, but it was still rather sweet. Daring.

“I hope so, I think the world would be more empty without four families of fishers in a beautiful mountain beach a world away.” She said, a half smile on her dainty lips. She pulled away from his touch and yawned. The day had been a mighty big adventure, but he was right. She needed to get back before she got into trouble. “Until next time, Iho of the mountains” She said, and executed a beautiful bow, with only the slightest tilt of her body. After all, she was a Princess and he was a vagabond

"Speech"

A soft chuckle rumbled in Iho's chest while Kitsune leaned into his touch and said that the world would be more empty if it was without his pack and family in it. He smiled, touched by the sweetness of the strange girl that had saved his life. He watched her yawn, clearly tuckered out from the day's excitement on her young self, then bid him a cordial farewell that felt more like princess than pup. He smirked and dipped his head to her as much as he could from his prone position, not exactly in the state to be executing bows to the degree of grace that she did. If she were a ballerina with her movements, he was a sumo wrestler. "Have a good night, Princess Kitsune," he replied, watching her as she left. Now alone to himself and his thoughts, Iho did the only thing he could in this moment: he laid down, relaxed beneath the fur blanket, and drifted off into a restful sleep while the painkillers continued to do their job. It looked like he'd be hanging around for a little while...

"Kumiho"