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 Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 2:50 pm
Location: The Timekeepers
Timeline: Current; approaching the end of summer
Point of View: Rayner
"I'll let the Time Keeper know," he told the other Wardens, then he started for the last place Iver and his mate had purportedly been spotted.
Rayner had lived longer than those two pieces of s**t put together. He'd seen Iver's father, twice the wolf he'd ever be and four times the leader, born and raised. Watched him live. Watched him die. When the Sunlords' new alphas paid their obligatory goodwill visit, Rayner had been there to meet them, the male with his vacuous mind and the female with her subservient mannerisms. Looking back, he supposed that was the time he'd realized how beneficial it could be to dissimulate one's true opinion, no matter how accurate it was. Iver had a long road ahead of him before he wised up to that and it was doubtful he'd make it that far.
One could hope, at least.
Summer still had weeks left to go, according to the Watchers. The days would be short for awhile yet, the deafening booms from the thunderclouds still frightening their pups in the nights to come. The grey of incoming rains had crept across the sky and robbed the dusk of its beauty. It was one of the ugliest times of the season, but of his many flaws, Rayner had never been that shallow. Opportunity was a year-round adventure, after all.
"Uuni." It took several minutes of climbing and several more of searching before he found her. A rare sight to see her by her lonesome, let alone in the darkening hours. So close to the edge, too.
He could push her, he realized, and no one would see him do it.
Rayner took a deep, long breath and peered across what little distance he'd left between them.
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 4:19 pm
Uuni's skill in blocking minds grew rapidly out of necessity, but every other aspect of seerdom disappeared in its wake. This factor did not please the Timekeeper. They practiced together: he'd create a thought, make it strong, and she'd relay it. It had to be perfect. A year ago, he'd have to shout his thoughts and she could handle it for a few seconds. Now, he could merely think them and Uuni could handle an active minute before losing focus. Progress, but terrible. Sessions left her irritable.
Today, she'd given him sass. Snarky, dry, disrespectful. It was clear she was still growing into adulthood, and her own emotions were taking a forefront in her personality.
Being alone didn't suit her, but it was better than looking at Iver's disappointed face, and it was quiet. Who would have thought it was this she would have missed? She hated quiet; surrounded herself in company to avoid it.
Yet, when it ended with her name, Uuni missed it. Her mind snapped out of the world it was dwelling in and refocused on sharpening brown fur. Pale green eyes. At least he'd used her Velskan name, though today she felt more Sunlord than Timekeeper. Rayner's look did little to change that.
"I don't know where the Timekeeper is." This far up the mountain, Uuni only had two guesses. Rayner wanted something, or Rayner wanted Iver. When she'd first arrived, she'd assumed these two things would be one in the same. The more wolves approached the Timekeeper, the more she realized that wolves sought him simply for his attention. Gag.
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 6:16 pm
After the impulse to shove her to an imminent death passed — and it passed quickly, eclipsed by common sense and consequence in the long term — Rayner was faced with two choices: Leave and miss a prime opportunity he was unlikely to be afforded again or...
"I was looking for him," he admitted, not in Velskan, but Sharanjin. Clear, precise, casual as her own flesh and blood would. It was from them he had learned it, from descendants of their descendants, reduced to nothing more than slaves toiling day in and day out. Rayner could count the number of times he'd remembered they were related on the nails of one paw. The Sunlords themselves felt the same.
Likewise, if Uuni did die, there was no love lost between her and Iver, it seemed to him. Their beloved leader only needed her for her requisite skills; otherwise, she was no more indispensable than Tisa had been.
He'd never considered the possibility of swaying Uuni into his favor given Iver did not leave her side for more than four breaths' time.
Slowly, his taut posture eased. He stared at the ominous clouds as his voice trailed off, but for a second; it recovered, still in her native tongue, and he spoke again, "You could be hit by lightning if you stay up here when it starts to rain."
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 6:36 pm
"That's nice." The sarcasm was thicker than the moisture building in the air. Uuni's Sharanjin accent leaked in, softening the harsh Velskan she spoke in and smoothing her voice.
Try as she might to resist, her eyes glanced up to the encroaching clouds. The air smelled rich. Distant thunder agreed with Rayner. Jaw tightening, Uuni cursed that, too. A long breath grounded her long enough to return to his eyes, and the tension that had left his body.
Her ears perked forwards, unable to hide the physical response of her curiosity. Was he glad Iver had not been present to meet with? Or was he imagining her being struck by lightning? The dark clouds glowed in the peaks behind Rayner.
"And I could trip and splatter my insides all over your nice, stoney mountaintop." And be given as much attention as a slave she didn't say out loud, but the thought was projected with such internal loudness, it may have left her mind and hit her masculine company. Taking extra care, she shuffled away from the edge, working her way into the draw next to Rayner.
"What do you want?" Go away.
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 7:00 pm
Rayner's dreams of climbing the ranks had dwindled, not perished, when Uuni first arrived. From the start she was threat to his future, to his vying for leadership and higher social strata. And he deserved it with how pure his intentions were. Iver was a weak leader, not the kind of powerhouse they needed at the front of the pack. It was about them, not him, and if he didn't step up before it was too late, who would?
He told her calmly, "Not everyone wants something from you here," each word sounding as truthful as it was dishonest, and then he added, "These are as much your mountains as mine." As if to prove the point, he spoke the latter half in Velskan.
She's a poor excuse for a seer. And maybe a mate... His eyes trailed across her as he turned away, preparing to go, careful to be inconspicuous in what his primary focus was. Her stomach was still small, not rotund like he recalled Tisa's being even with only two pups in her belly. All four seasons had passed and still the great Iver was absent his heir.
Rayner doubted it was from lack of trying. Not with what his bloodline stood to lose without one.
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 7:20 pm
"That's nice." The phrase repeated as she paused, taking a long, hard look at Rayner as he spoke. The facts curled in her mind, and she pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth as she stared shamelessly. To an outsider, she could easily have been returning a forlorn look of desire. Sent his own son to prison. A son who mauled him. A young wife, strikingly loyal. A liar, if Iver was to be believed.
"But you're full of bullshit." In Telkish, now, as if throwing a child's tantrum. It was not a particularly smart thing to say to a wolf clearly capable of tearing her jaws from her shoulders, but he'd brought the news of lightning, forcing her away from her area of solace. Uuni deserved her fair share of verbal snap.
"What do you want?" Uuni repeated in Velskan. She mostly believed he didn't want anything from her, except perhaps what every male wanted from every female. That didn't count. However, he'd hauled his brown, furry a** all the way up the mountain to find Iver. He wanted something. Not even a perfect lie would change her belief in this. "I'll relay your message," she added, to avoid a needless discussion on how, no, he really didn't want anything from her.
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 7:54 pm
The Velskan equivalent of loud-mouthed b***h sounded loud and clear in his mind. If Uuni had in fact been a so-called better seer, any and all schemes would have come crashing down then and there. Since she wasn't, Rayner was safe. Moments like these were what separated him from the fools.
A fool's successes were that of luck, but those like him earned their victories through meticulous planning and knowing when to bide one's time. The last thing he would have done was reiterate his earlier point.
What did he want?
Rayner paused where he stood, just ahead of her, facing away. Mulling it over took him a moment's pause. "All right." He turned back, relaxed as he could hope to be. His thoughts, though, seethed at her.
This was why he hated these Sunlord females. They sent them their most willfully contrary and called it a token of peace. "The Warlords and the Wardens are requesting more females be brought from —" your pack "— the Sunlords," he transitioned smoothly. "Please tell Iver that when you can."
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 8:16 pm
He walked all the way up here, himself, to say that?
Alright, he was telling her. As though he was doing her a favor. As though we want more warm bodies to help us sleep at night was important. There would be opportunity in the Timekeepers, her mother had said. You'll be able to do whatever you want. Uuni had no idea that being a messenger for the obvious was what she wanted to do. Oh, how blind she had been!
"Alright." Uuni's eyes briefly closed and she used the time to roll them towards the thunder.
She couldn't wait to witness seeing the Timekeepers for the first time on the strained faces of her kin. Perhaps, this time, one of them would be a sister of hers. The seer swallowed, tail rising behind her. An audible breath pushed out through her nose.
"Thunder's louder," she commented idly, breaking into a jog and attempting to pass by Rayner. The land of the Timekeepers was a wasteland. A shithole. And loathe as she was to admit it, she missed the desert. Thinking about it made her head pound and her body ache. Uuni couldn't wait to see Iver. He, at least, wouldn't bother with the word please.
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