The knolls stretched out and rolled long into the distance before the woman. She tried to conjure up whatever she was feeling and found herself feeling empty. Had it not hit her yet- that there was no pack here anymore- or had she simply already accepted it and moved on? She wasn't entirely sure and she kept expecting to feel something from this, but other than the small pang of, "damn I should have raided sooner," there was nothing. It wasn't like anyone had died or gotten sieged, they simply moved on. But the fact that she couldn't stop thinking about it meant something for sure... didn't it?

He didn't expect to find anyone here. Torben walked far, too far, until he came across the woman. She looked to be in thought, and he caught wind of her words at the end. The man blinked before deciding... perhaps she needed someone to listen to her? Who knew for sure. Still, his legs broke through the deep snow until he came from the side of her. He didn't like to come up behind wolves, especially females. It made the wrong impression. "Hello" he rumbled to the brown-hued woman, interest piqued at her mention of raiders. As the son of former raiders, he wondered if she held a connection to them. But his hope was dashed easily, reminded that no one seemed to have escaped the bandit attack. Torben certainly had never seen this woman before either. He fell silent, wondering if she'd shoo him away or accept company. SPEECH HERE

A man's voice came from her side and Sparrow turned to look at him. He didn't look familiar and definitely wasn't an old Fireside wolf hanging around. Sparrow tossed on a lazy smile, "You know, if you came here just a little earlier, there woulda been a pack here." She looked into the distance for a moment longer then turned her attention back to the large man. "I should pour out some alcohol for them, but it's not like they're dead or anything; which honestly feels less satisfying as an end for a pack like this." It wasn't that Sparrow was sad that they DIDN'T die, it just felt more like a fizzle than a true end. It felt unfinished, unsatisfying. "So, hope you didn't come here to join."

He blinked, though had a feeling. The paws of many leaving and coming, mostly leaving, were on the snow. He bit back a sigh. Did packs usually fall here? "Ye speak as if ye knew them" he pointed out politely "was it a good knowing?" She spoke of doing a typical thing in his culture; drinking. Especially for the fallen. Grand feasts had been thrown in the great hall at one point. Now there was nothing there but cinders. Torben moved a bit closer, though kept his distance still respectful. She seemed to be the talkative sort but he would know when she didn't want company. She probably would tell him directly. "On great journeys, good or bad" he began, glancing around "we'd place markers. If they ain't gone, a little piece of 'em remains here for the next generation to come" the massive wolf pawed the earth, making a snow marker "usually done wit' stones, but..." He gestured around the deep winter. Fashioning a tall and flat 'stone' marker, he stepped back. "I ain't here to join" he added "the pack scent... was stale. I came to see if an'one still remained." He could point them to Valhalla, as Ardyn suggested. But he was more concerned about mothers and pups left in the cold. SPEECH HERE

The pale man said Sparrow spoke as if she knew the pack and asked if it was a good or bad knowing. Sparrow snorted lightly, not at him, but at the situation of it all. "Yeah I knew them," she said, casing a glance around. "It was my home before I made my own pack. It was led by my grandfather, then my uncle, then my other uncle- but he's the same age as me, so it's like... three generations anyways." The man then spoke about markers and carved a spot out in the snow. He dais he was just looking to see if anyone remained. Sparrow shrugged, "Who knows, they had a meeting and all so I'm sure everyone had decent warning. I had a thing to see if anyone wanted to come over y way, yanno, stay with the family and all. I guess the others just went off on their own." Sparrow shrugged. That was that, she guessed. "What would you do if your pack dissolved?"

She posed a good question. "I've no connection to me pack" Torben replied honestly, because she was being honest with him "joined recently. Not 'nough time to really make a decision on them, but... if they dissolved, I'd help who needed it. Move them somewhere else. Make sure t' pups are safe, t' elders taken care of." The massive wolf shrugged. Valhalla still deserved decency despite his reluctance to really trust them. But that was... because he lost his home before. He didn't want to love and care for them because it could be snatched away. He knew this. He had experienced it. "M' place... before now" Torben added "was burned down. I guess I'd just move on to t' next land. T' next location. Try to find somewhere to live, to settle. That's all I really want." Perhaps he was boring, aye? The woman seemed to know her own head. "What's yer pack like?" he asked instead. SPEECH HERE

The man said he had no connections to his pack and Sparrow tilted her head quizzically. He then informed her that he'd only just joined recently. Sparrow thought about it and she had never really joined a pack before. Those that joined hers usually did so on the promise of fun and raids. She couldn't imagine why someone would or wouldn't join a specific pack. The man went on to talk about his old place, which burned down and he moved. "Y'know, one time that big mountain over there-" she motioned in the direction of the volcano- "erupted and the whole world was like on fire for a year or something." There had been a lot of fires and a lot of ash. "Then another time it was night time for like half a year and my back grew these giant mushrooms out of it." Sparrow leaned so he could get a good look of the mass of scars between her shoulder blades. "So I get it. Life can be pretty rough." Which was exactly why she drank, but he didn't need to know that. He asked what her pack was like and Sparrow thought for a bit. "So like... most packs are pretty staunch with rules and honor and stuff and none of that appealed to me. I just wanted to run around and do what I could to enjoy life. That's what my pack does. We raid, we drink, we party, and we look after each other so much as it doesn't cost the whole pack. We don't maim unless we need to or kill anyone, and we definitely don't force ourselves on others or sleep with our siblings to keep some bloodline pure or anything like that. We just are here for the thrill and spoils." She threw him a smirk, "And sometimes to annoy others, because it's boring if everyone gets along too well. But that's what makes us bad or whatever. Disgusting rascals, I know."

He had a feeling that whatever he said, it would make no difference to Sparrow. She seemed to live in the moment, not the past or even the future. Torben fleetingly smiled, finding her pirate band a lot like the Viking clan his people had once been part of. "It ain't a bad way to live" he commented before his focus went to this Long Night. He eyed the nasty-looking scars with a frown. "Seems like I didn't get the memo" he remarked airily "yer the first to tell me of these things, Sparrow" Long Night, Volcanic Eruptions... Killer mushrooms? He shuddered inwardly, grateful he had passed all these things by "what don't kill ya, makes ya stronger, aye?" he added with a huff. He could stand to live by that statement a lot. "Long as ye live for yerself... It ain't bad" Selfish, some could claim, but not bad "ain't hurtin' anyone. Not terribly. Disgusting rascals, or freedom fighters?" He remarked, casting one red eye her way. SPEECH HERE

The man mentioned that the way she lived wasn't a bad one and Sparrow nodded in agreement. He also didn't seem to know about all the events, and Sparrow figured it wasn't because of his lack of age. "Funny," she said, her brain working, "How something that shaped your life can just totally not exist in someone else's life." Torben said what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and Sparrow worked her way to show him her scar-laced shoulders, "Or leaves ya with one hell of a scar!"

He furthered the sentiment by saying she was living for herself, that it wasn't bad, and that she may be a freedom fighter. If Sparrow had been even an ounce attracted to men, this would have been it for her- someone who could summarize her whole life in a few words. "Aye," was all she had to say. "And so what do you live for now?"

He smiled thinly, agreeing with her words. "Makes me wish I was both here for it and not" Torben admits to Sparrow "I could stand to have me life up-ended for a few months" He shrugged idly "part from a raid on me clansmen, I've had an easy life than most in Boreas." A shame, that he didn't have much to compare himself to. Wishing pain and suffering on himself... What did that make him? "I live for myself" he said simply to Sparrow "and I think, that'll change" he shrugged again, chuckling this time "if ye live for yerself... it'll be fun if that changes down the road, aye? A surprise. A sneak attack..." He smiled faintly "I look forward to it happenin', all things considered." He was averse to change at times, but available to be thrown into the depths of Hel itself. He looked back to the horizon, wondering what would happen - if anything - in his time here. SPEECH HERE