Azure did not like having to trust Hanako alone at home without him. She'd promised him she "wasn't going anywhere" but still the possessive Fatalis struggled to accept that her wanderlust could ever be turned off. The last thing he needed was for that meddlesome pirate Sparrow to show up looking for her just as the two heirs were a world away, but Az could never say no to his father. The Warlord had made his will clear, and Azure and Mortis started the long journey north in search for 'survivors.' Azure wasn't given the entire story, but whatever Sirius had done to free his wife had apparently rivaled the wide-spread destruction of a tornado and while Az doubted that any single wolf could survive his father's wrath, whispers had spoke otherwise and so here the boys were. "Prints." He commented to his brother, the first word they'd spoke in hours. Azure was not good at small talk or idle conversation at the best of times, but now each brother had been through so much and had so much time apart.. he didn't know what to say or where to begin. With a gesture of his wrist he directed Mortis' eyes, though surely his brother would have seen them as well. As much as Azure liked to feel the superior, the two brothers had received equal lessons and opportunities and Mortis was just as an accomplished of a hunter as he was. The snow deepened the further they traveled toward the bridge, melting into uncomfortable clumps between his wide toes that he had to occasionally shake out. Az decided that he hated the snow and the memories it dredged up. They needed to find this 'survivor' and get the fuck back home, asap.   "Speech"

It was a sobering thing to encounter the destruction their father had wrought on the icy compound near the bridge. Mortis didn’t think it was a thing anybody could survive. The fire had long since faded, and scavengers had munched on the cooked and chilled remains. At least, of those where any meat had survived the fires.

He was quick to turn away from the sight, following his brother's view to prints. Proof, that a survivor had indeed made their way out of the compound. Like bloodhounds, the two brothers took up the scent, and began to follow it towards the ice bridge.

“The gaits uneven, they were injured” He made it a statement, instead of the question it felt like in his head. He had to trust what he had learned. He wondered how far this survivor would have managed to get. Judging from the path so far, the destination seemed obvious. The bridge that had brought Zee and Azure out this way in the first place.

"Speech"

A gust of icy wind kicked up, throwing shards of sleet into Azure's face and bringing a frustrated growl from his throat. This place sucked, and if he didn't know better he'd think his father was punishing him for losing Zee to begin with by making him suffer through even another hour in the cold wasteland. "Good." He returned with a shiver. "Injured is as good as dead out here, can't we just leave it at that?" Azure wasn't the type to half-ass anything in a normal situation, but it was fucking cold and he was eager to get home to the sun, the ocean, and the warmth of his koi-wolf. He alternated picking up and dropping his left and right forepaws, giving them each short breaks from the snow, glaring down at the prints that staggered unevenly towards the ice bridge. "There's barely any game out this far and what does remain is difficult for even a healthy hunter to take down. They will starve to death if the wound doesn't kill them first." This he knew from experience, having spent more then a few weeks struggling to feed himself while he staked out his mother's captors' camp. Once Azure swore he saw what must have been a God, it was at least ten times his height, furry and wide with dangerously long dusks and an appendage upon it's face that wielded the strength to tear a tree from it's root. He'd of course dismissed this as as sleep deprived hallucination, but still back in unfamiliar territory his hackles rose with every distant snap of a twig. "Speech"

The winged wolf grimaced, disliking the idea of going back to their father to tell him the man was 'probably' dead. That they had no further information as to the 'why' of the kidnappings. He heard his brother stomp in the snow beside him, and knew he was suffering. Mortis felt it too, smarting his ears and nose and pressing against his eyes. His toes were stiff from it, but he also had an extra layer. A thick brushing of feathers pressed tightly against his side, warming his core.

He glanced at the wolf beside him, and knew he might get his nose bitten off, but he did it anyway. He unstuck a wing from his side with a shake, letting a draft of cold air brush against his side. He shivered as he stretched out thr appendage and let it fall over his brother. Offering him its warmth and protection from the wind.

"If you head back the way we came, we can ensure he hasn't looped around us to head to better weather, and cut off any exit." Gicing his brother an exit, heading out of the wind himself under thr guise of responsibility.

The logical side of Azure knew that it would be a terribly bad idea to call it quits now and head back, not when they were so close to whatever information they may find. Mortis seemed to know better as well, but rightly kept it to himself. Azure was thinking to himself about how much more bearable his happy-go-lucky sibling had become as he aged, but then the wing came up over him and derailed that train of thought. "I'm still not a cuddler." He reminded his brother, though he made no effort to move away. The feathers worked wonderfully to block the wind, and though he'd never outright accept sharing body heat with any other man, he could at least take his time in pushing the gesture away and enjoy it a while longer. "No, I can keep going with you." No matter how uncomfortable he may be, the alternative was admitting that he was too uncomfortable to do his job. Sirius had come here, murdered a few dozen warm bodies, lit it on fire and probably pissed on the flames for good measure. If his father could handle it all without complaint, Azure could too. He only wished he could trade in his snow-shoes for feathers. He continued forward, grimacing into the wind and squinting both to protect his eyes from the sleet as well as to better track the trail. As they neared the bridge and the unobstructed winter winds that swirled across it, he motioned to his brother's side with a pull of his skull. "Put those away tight, Mort I don't need a gust of wind carrying you over the edge and we already know you can't fly."   "Speech"

“It’s a windbreaker” Mortis defended the gesture, a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, there and gone again. The freezing cold and bitter wind didn’t give him much to smile over. He did, however, withdraw his wing again. Not one to push where he wasn’t welcome.

At his suggestion that Azure double back, the other wolf disagreed. Not losing his pace at Mort’s side. The winged boy shrugged, hoping Azure would turn back if the cold started to sap too much of his strength.

Tucking his wings tightly about himself, he grimaced, and nodded his head. Surprised at how easily his brother said the words. Determined to let old wounds lie, and move on with his life, he didn’t comment. Just like with Hana, he had to pretend none of it hurt him. Perhaps in doing so, it would eventually be truth.

Pulling his thoughts back to the mission, he looked at the ice bridge unfurling before them. Endless and slippery. He looked harder and… there. “Is that a body, half buried in the snow?” he called out to the other boy, pointing right at the beginning of the bridge.

"Speech"

From the corner of his eye he caught his brother's ghost of a smile, though before he could think to return it the expression was gone and all that lingered was the reminder of the cold and ice. He ground his teeth to prevent them from chattering too loudly, eyeing the wing with envy as it folded back around Mort's body. He followed dutifully alongside his warmer brother, catching sight of the way Mortis pointed something out with both gesture and words. "I'd love to just take your word for it." Az complained, shaking out his fur from the accumulating snow for the hundredth time. Regardless, he still moved forward to confirm Mortis' suspicion. Get the job right, then we go home. He pushed alongside his brother carefully, ducking to peer beneath the winged wolf's chin to the beginning of the bridge. Something lay there in the snow. "Lets go see, then." Az was not a fan of the way the texture beneath his feet shifted from fresh fallen snow to hard packed ice, and he reflexively grasped at the smooth surface with his mutated paws. Walking carefully and more sideways then forwards, he approached the body and gave it a cautionary stab with one claw. "Yep, dead, sucks for mom and dad." He didn't linger long on the train of thought, more focused upon getting warm and rested then he was avenging his mother's kidnaping by chasing ghosts. After a moment he turned to his brother, cocking his head. "Do you think there's somewhere nearby here to build a fire?" "Speech"

At his indication, Azure pushed close to him, ducking his head under Mort’s to see what he had seen. Mortis subtly leaned a little closer, unobtrusively offering a little of his warmth to the shivering Heir.

Moments later, Azure was pulling away and heading towards the bridge. Mortis caught up with a trott, and gasped when his paws hit ice. His daintier toes didn’t have the purchase Azure’s did and he immediately started to slip. His paws spriling in front of him and his back stretching away from his body, he started to go down hard. He instinctively fanned his wings for purchase, and the howling wind immediately snagged at them, and only aided to throw him backwards. He landed in a mound of snow just off the ice bridge. Hitting his rump hard.

Feeling a little out of breath, he watched Azure, who had reached the boy with envious ease, and poked at the body. Dead. Hopefully their father didn’t blame the boys for that one…

Getting back to his paws with a grimace, and not daring to venture back onto the bridge, Mort shook his head. ”We would have to head a little further back, closer to the pines.”

"Speech"

The distinctive sound of feathers rustling caught Azure's eye and he turned his head just in time to see his brother unfurling his wings for balance on the bridge. Azure let out a hiss of frustration, digging his claws into the ice and throwing himself forward toward the other heir. To do what? He wasn't sure how exactly he could help should the wind decide to carry Mortis over the bridge, but that was his brother and he wasn't about to let nature succeed in what Azure had attempted so very long ago. Thankfully the direction of the gust was on Mortis' side and it threw him backwards away from the bridge and into the snow, not forward to his death. "I warned you!" Az shouted as he reached him, breathing hard against the sudden appearance of fear. Staring daggers into his snow-covered brother couldn't change the past, so he indulged his protective anger for only moments longer before turning from him with a snarl and kicking out against the pile of snow. The volatile heir closed his eyes hard, allowing himself to feel the cold bite of the wind and willing the pain to chase away the guilt and panic that threatened to eat away at him. "Be more careful." He snapped finally, blowing out a small sigh and side-eying his brother to ensure he was not limping or broken. "Lets find somewhere to make a fire." Waiting for Mortis to take the lead, Azure's attention remained upon his winged brother in case nature gave another effort towards ending his life. He'd already felt enough burden at allowing his mother to be captured, he sure as shit wasn't going to fail another family member in that way. "Speech"

He blinked in surprise at the anger in Azure’s voice as he raced towards him. Had he… had he been running to save Mort's life? All this time, he was convinced his brother would leave him for dead if the chance ever arose, and yet he had raced to save the winged wolf. The fierce, protective anger met something in Mortis. Something that had always been there, but grew under his brother's anger. A need to protect him.

Pushing himself to his feet, he looked at the snarling spurred wolf, rubbing his side where it smacked into the ice, and holding his wings tightly to his body. He wasn’t sure if he had strained or sprained his wings, but they were definitely aching. He didn’t let it show on his face.

“Yeah, alright, I think I saw somewhere back by the tree line that might work.” he agreed, taking the lead his brother offered and moving away from the freezing, gusty bridge. He grimaced, knowing he wasn’t going to try walking on it again any time soon. He was built all wrong for the ice.

Taking them back, he found the thick pine trees along the ridge, heading to one which the branches swopped particularly low and offered some protection.

"Speech"

To his credit Mortis did not argue back with him, which was perhaps the only reason Azure could breathe out that annoyance and not let it overwhelm him. He shook out his coat, both of the accumulating snow and to force from him the sticky feelings that clung after the moment of panic. Mortis took the lead and Azure lagged behind him, watching his brother's strides until he could be certain nothing was broken or irreparably injured. He followed along to the cluster of trees, shuffling beneath their branches in hopes it might help break some of the wind. It then occurred to him that Az had never made a fire. He'd certainly watched others do it enough times, but that sort of work always seemed to be more fitting to the lower ranked Armada wolves and Azure wasn't sure he'd paid enough attention to emulate it. He hesitated, unwilling to speak his realization allowed and instead deflecting the topic in hopes his brother would take over as Mortis was usually inclined to. "I knew he'd killed them all, but I didn't expect to see what I did." He began, motioning with his skull in the direction of the razed compound. "I hear he went off the deep end, do you think he'll be angry when we don't bring back a live wolf for questioning?" While Azure had been gone for seasons, Mortis had remained. Surely he knew if there was truth to the rumor's of Sirius' self destruction. "Speech"

Mortis duked under the branches and moved close to the trunk of the tree. The snow filled branches did seem to help block out the wind and some of the chill. He was already considering the issue of starting them a warm fire, and how they would be going without dinner when Azure spoke.

He glanced up at his brother, and hesitated a moment. Not sure how to put those six months into words. “I took a hiatus from the Armada” had Azure known about that? It had been shortly after his fight with Hana. “But Tamsyn came to me, to tell me how our Father had begun to hallucinate Zee, and how he was becoming volatile and unpredictable. The reason I returned to the Armada was… was to see how true it was, and if I would need to take steps to protect the Armada” he lifted his eyes and let them bore into Azure, waiting to see if his brother understood what he meant. What Mortis had been willing to do. “With Zee back.... I don’t think his anger will have the same edge”

"Speech"

Azure listened intently, and not until did the understanding of Mortis' words hit him did his expression shifted. His brows furrowed and he swallowed, taking a seat against one of the tree trunks and redirecting his attention to picking the snow out from between his toes. So Mortis had left the Armada too, but had returned to take the pack from their father in his most volatile state. The question was - why then was Mortis still before him as an heir, and not wearing his father's crown? "So were the rumors false, then?" He implored, feigning interest in his paws and trying to appear as if the line of questioning was small talk and nothing more. The wind whipped around them and Azure leaned further into the tree, seeking shelter from the overhanging branches and trying not to bring up the fire that he did not know how to make. "Speech"

Mortis let out a long sigh, shifting his back against the trunk, and wrapping his wings about himself. Tucking his chin under one long feather. “Well…. He did seem terribly angry. I know he scarred Briar's chin, and he did something to upset Tamsyn. But while I was in the pack and running patrols, he seemed to be managing okay. I didn’t see him hurt any of our wolves - and then suddenly Zee was alive again.”

He paused, and then added “You might get better luck if you talked to Art. He seemed to confide in that Hallows wolf a lot”

"Speech"

Mortis gave an answer that wasn't quite an answer, and Azure grimaced down to his paw. So was Sirius controlled, safe, and fit to lead? Or had Mortis simply been too afraid to tell the Warlord to step down, and not willing to force him if he were to refuse? Hindsight was 20/20, but Azure liked to think he would have had the balls to do something about it. Thinking otherwise would only throw him back into his guilt and misery. The mention of the Hallow's heir brought Azure's head to raise and he gave his brother a look, examining the winged wolf's face and unable to discern the expression there. With a shrug he tried to push the pain of the words away, murmuring just loud enough to be heard above the wind. "So he's replaced us both, then." There was at least one benefit to that knowledge - that it wasn't just Azure who risked falling from his father's good graces. Artorias was a mere yearling, what did Sirius see in him that he did not see in his own sons? No matter how hard he tried, Az could not remember a time when the Warlord had ever confided in him. He sighed again, gritting his teeth. "Speech"

Mortis grimaced at the words. He had been trying very hard himself not to feel jealous as his father mentored the blue wolf. Mortis, who was always too clumsy, too easily hurt, too silly. “Artorias is going back to the Hollows at the end of the season, he’ll be taking over the mantle of leadership there” he explained with a shrug. He might have found a piece of Seer's heart that Mortis had been denied, but at least Azure coils rest assured that he wouldn’t have another contender to his throne.

Mortis shivered beneath his wings, before remembering his desire to start a fire. He got up, shaking out his feathers and tucking them back against his side as he began to search in the thickest part of the tree for any wood that was still dry. Upon finding some he whistled to Bast, and grabbed his flint kit off her, crouching down as he began to build his small fire.

"Speech"

Azure caught the grimace that touched Mortis' lips and frowned, the expression deepening when his brother's words did not match the look on his face. "So what if he's going to lead the Hallows? Why does that earn him dad's favor, when we should be the ones taken under his -" He sighed, his words coming out too fast for thought and by the time he realized the pun, it was too late to take back. "-wing." The bear paw he'd been inspecting had been thoroughly cleaned, and he dropped it into the snow once more only for it to pick up more clumps. "The Armada needs strong leadership too, if he wanted a protégé he could have had you tag along with him instead." Because of course, at that point Azure was dead and Mortis was the only correct choice. Mortis called over their father's companion and took from her a kit, focusing his attention on the dried wood he'd collected. Azure watched, trying to make sense of the movements but otherwise did not comment on them. "Speech"

Bast stepped forward and gave a pointed look to the bone-spur heir as she put herself into position for Mortis to grab some of the things he had stashed with her earlier. Mortis, oblivious to the look, managed to get a small fire going with a soft sound of relief. He could already feel the warmth of it.

Still, he took a step back to ensure Azure had room by the fire as well, leaning against Bast who had flopped down behind him. “Yeah, well, you know dad. Doesn't like signs of weakness, and i’ve shown so many of them. I haven’t fucked up once since you left, but he only remembers the mistakes. Could only think about the perfect son he had lost, and not the imperfect one he was left with.” he said, which was more truth then he had shared with Azure before.

"Speech"

The fire roared to life and Azure pushed off the truck of the tree, escaping the low hanging branches that shielded him from the wind and approaching the warm flame. He settled down across from his brother, laying upon his hip and shuffling so he formed a half-circle around the burning sticks. "He's never seen me as perfect." Az corrected his brother with a grunt. His body was warming slowly, and he held his mutated paws out further so the flames might melt away the balled chunks of snow from his paws. "I've never had enough of mom in me, he sees that, I think." Azure's brows scrunched as he stared into the fire, trying to recall childhood memories and exactly how much of his darkness that he father had gotten to see. Az had always done his best to hide it, but even against his best efforts Sirius had never thought his bearish son to be worthy of the crown. "I've had two strikes against my title, how many have you earned? How many times has father threatened to take your rank away from you?" "Speech"