skill: warrior 1/5 for Tiberii

Though he had felt well enough to leave Svajonė and Reid even with the strange shift to the world and the flames that Aurelia and he had found humbled him quickly. Vidarr had reacted stronger than he had expected to seeing them, given the unnatural color and the glut of other problems with Mythris as of late it was rather understandable. It also was an understandable response given how deeply he had been burned by the flames Mythris had unleashed before. He had felt compelled to investigate again, and Howling River seemed to becoming a bit of a troubled spot. If not for his aversion to the flames, he might have found them pretty.

But without seeing them again Vidarr wouldn’t know if they had spread. The Asulf could not risk flames eating the Vale and injuring any of his family. It was not a shock this time when his mind shoved Svajone and Reid to the forefront with the rest of the Shakti-Vaes children. He’d woken early to a midnight nightmare from Reid, and once the boy was settled and asleep with Svajone again, Vidarr had laid awake frustrated. Not by his son, mind you, but by the nagging feeling Vidarr couldn’t shake. If rest wouldn’t find him again, then Vidarr would do something productive. Maybe he could search for more runes in the quiet as the last two attempts to search ended up with pivotal distractions: a child and another cosmic sign.


The giant bad taken off toward the west with a determined gait, hoping that by putting his energy to good use he might be able to silence his fears. Vidarr had little traction in his journey when his focus was diverted by the scent of a wolverine just outside their borders. He did not expect the tenacious creature to cross into the heavily populated area of their pack but desperation made them all take risks. It wasn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility with the way the world was off balance. Maybe things were hard enough that a hungry belly would lead to a potential threat to Reid.

His course shifted to intercept the Wolverine and Vidarr let loose a howl. Though he would apologize later for interrupting their slumber, the risk to Dawnbreak was good enough to warrant the call.

The giant hadn't slept.

It wasn't something unfamiliar.

And so she'd fallen into the monotony of her morning routine, paws landing in the same spaces they had the mornings before as she trailed along Dawnbreak's borders. And even though her heart was closed, her ears remained open. Silently, she searched for anything even remotely out of line.

The bears, thus far, had stayed fucking clear.

For the best. She had been told to cease with her spontaneous bullheadedness, for there were new lives and children in Dawnbreak now ... and her sister was to be married. And that was something she should probably show up for in one, mostly functional, piece.

And that was when Vidarr's howl took her from her routine, a note of urgency laced in his deep tones. 'Mostly' functional piece, she reminded herself, not even hesitating as she re-routed and angled herself toward the man's call from their more Southern borders. She bulldozed through the snow with ease, her golden eyes flashing as she processed the unfolding scene. Vidarr had made a move to intercept a rogue wolverine — a dangerous animal likely drawn to the security of their cache in the dead of winter.

Not today, she rumbled, taking up stride and aiming to block the wolverine from the opposing side. A snarl whipped from her lips as she flattered her ears atop her head, her body barreling through the tundra.

Now, the wolverine had 2 choices: run into one of the jaws of either Vidarr or Tiberii ... or turn tail and fuck off.

---

skill: warrior 2/5

As Vidarr had expected, it was not long before another of Dawnbreak stepped in to answer his call. The wolverine was aware now, as well, that they were under the scrutiny of the wolves living unfortunately nearby. The wolverine didn't look like it was extremely young, but there was no bloat to it's body to suggest soon it would bed down for birth. Instead, Vidarr had the feeling that this was a younger wolverine - an adult, but young - with the energy of desperation and the keen look to it that suggested they'd do something stupid.

Stupid being, swinging their direction away from Vidarr directly into the path of Tiberii and of Tiberius' children, the Bull had quite the reputation. She was excellent at defending their lands, as Vidarr liked to think he was - but the bear found himself far more subdued than Tiberii on a mission. Vidarr licked his lips, hearing the snarl from the Bull. Golden eyes gleamed as he tracked the dark figure and saw the flash of what he thought were her eyes in the early morning, but maybe that was her teeth. The viking let out his own sound of frustration as his shoulder protested, but Vidarr did not give in. They would not allow the wolverine to press any further towards their lands.

The sound of his own occasional grunts and the snarls of the wolverine were all he heard at first. Vidarr was able to snap at the wolverine's bushy tail from time to time, but it was unfortunately timed where his leg gave him trouble, and he lost some of the distance. Vidarr had skidded across the borders, the wolverine turning sharply with the hopes to perhaps distract or just lose the large wolf. It would have been smarter for it to try and escape without heading into the pack's land and that only supported the idea that had formed in his head about how young the wolverine might have been.

Vidarr slipped on his weaker leg, embarrassed by the fact, and cursed loudly. Another disruption in the early morning hours, and when he stood and got his feet under him he was even more frustrated.

In silent tandem, the two Dawnbreak wolves corralled the rogue wolverine. But it would seem, in its youthful stupidity, that the beast would attempt to push itself further into their terrain rather than out of it. Tiberii would snarl, watching as those nimble paws would skitter, a frantic and snarling face of a desperate predator moving toward their home.

Their home.

'Not today.' The words would echo, flooding Tiberii's mind as she moved in collaboration with Vidarr. But suddenly, Vidarr would fall off, slipping slightly on the snowy terrain and only now treading water against the rogue brute. Part of her wanted to stop, to fall back and check on Vidarr ... but more of her wanted to press forward.

Seeing only red, Tiberii accelerated, bursting through the familiar snowy terrain like a miniature plow. She would trail after the wolverine, nostrils flaring in the wake of the now-fleeing animal ... before she would give one final push, her body lurching forward through the air.

She would land on her target, powerful paws falling with force upon the back of the wolverine.

And without hesitation, Tiberii's teeth would meet the creature's nape, fangs gripping flesh and barely hesitating at the taste of crimson that flooded her mouth. A wild screech hit her ears, but the static of her empty mind overpowered the cry for pity.

And Tiberii would shake.

And she would not stop until the cries were silenced and the creature in her jaws ceased to move.

Her flanks heaved, breath coming in ragged waves as the snow around her became drenched in crimson.

---

skill: warrior 3/5

If he did not know her so well, if he did not know him so well - it would quite easy to mistake Tiberii for Tiberius in the moment. She was fierce, and she was fearless, and she might just have been unhinged. He had downed kills with Tiberius just like this, he had to bring himself firmly into the present and think of what they were doing. To remember that this was not his brother, this was his neice. And Vidarr needed to remember the threat they were unified against.

He caught up but was not the first to reach the wolverine.

Or the thing that used to be the wolverine. Tiberii had lept through the air, looking even more her moniker as she charged the wolverine. Her landing was loud and he heard the cry of the wolverine. Tiberii might have gotten a couple of snaps from its jaws, but she didn't react at all, and Vidarr skidded to a stop to watch as the Shakti-Vaes used the wolverine to recreate what must have been her favorite Jackson Pollock piece. Blood and viscera littered the snow, clung to her fur, dripped steadily from the carcass.

That.......

He had seen that, before. He had seen that anger and rage, the depths that you ended up lost in. He had seen it with his brothers in battle who had seen their family downed. He had felt it himself when his own father had been killed. There were a great many things that had been thrown Tiberii's way in the years they had spent on Mythris. It wasn't hard to imagine how she might have felt - Vidarr felt many things then. Empathy, sorrow, concern, and yes, anger too. Anger for everything that the children had lost, all of the things that had happened to them since Mythris decided to release her horrors upon them, for the fact that so much seemed to be unstable even when right before their very eyes! You could not predict if you remained in the morning or not, taken from one place to another by the world itself, stolen from elsewhere and discarded just so easily like toys a child was done with. And like children were apt to do, some of them ended up being put up in the wrong places.

Eventually Tiberii stilled, and Vidarr paid little heed to the bits of wolverine confetti that ended up on him, he still approached the Bull, crowding into her space shoulder to shoulder, side by side. Tiberii.... His deep baritone rumbled across the sound of her heaving lungs, through the wind that swept the snow up, over the strange vague ringing in his own ears that heralded something big on the horizon. It was obvious that this moment had not simply been about the ranging creature.

The ringing in her ears steadily ebbed, flowing away into the horrible grip of silence. All she could hear was the roughness of her own breath catching upon puffing lips, as her eyes, half-feral, stirred wildly. She was powered by the adrenaline, by the firelight of her own tortured soul. But slowly, that gasoline would fade ... leaving Tiberii to digest the destruction in her own wake.

Her breathing quivered, jaws releasing as the limp form of the wolverine slipped with a soft thud into the bed of crimson snow at her feet. 'Not today,' she reminded herself steadily, her eyes squinching shut for a few precious moments of silence as she shook her head. Droplets of blood and dark wolverine fur would shake free from her coat, further littering the air around her.

"Tiberii..."

Why did he sound like that ... why ... why did he ...?

Her adrenaline dissipated as the warmth of Vidarr's shoulder pressed against her own. The bull took another few breaths, her heart rattling against her chest as she turned her gaze toward him, suddenly very aware of the mess she'd made. I had ta, she said quickly, shaking her head back and forth with a few rapid, erratic motions. I ... I had ta, she said again, searching Vidarr's face but only imagining the apathy that was there — that he must have felt about her.

The buzzing in her ears was coming back.

She wondered if this was what she would have done to that Jakten dog if he'd not run just fast enough ... and the taste of metal coated her tongue ... reminding her of the rotting flesh of the bear. The bear ... the fucking bear. Are ya alright? She still sounded out of breath, her head swimming as she tried to steady herself.

---

skill: counselor 1/2

He could feel the electric current of her energy; the adrenaline was palpable in the air even.

Vidarr might have been smart to stay out of the range of her sharp teeth, but his golden eyes only watched her, aware of the chances of the storm brewing inside her suddenly exploding outward. Maybe that was what Tiberii had been enduring, in the months since the world had turned upside down. It was a lot, and even with the three young leaders sharing the responsibilities of leadership, that didn't mean that it didn't grate on them. If anyone knew how heavy the burden of leadership was, Vidarr Asulf did, after all. He had suddenly ended up a King when he had never ever thought his Father could actually fall. How predictable it would be, how instinctive and natural it was, that Tiberii might have felt those feelings. It was also true that Vidarr had felt the torture of existing without the ones you loved.

He might not let on, but Vidarr was a bit of a gossip, and he'd been curious about the red flame boy. So perhaps he had asked around Dawnbreak, curious about what (to him) was the first of the children's love affairs he'd gotten to see during the precarious dancing stages. By the time he'd made it home and back, Dalmatia and N​ó​ttin were already living together it seemed. He was not blind either, to the orbit of Aurelia and Sólúlfur - though he wished they would just talk. The glacial pace would likely bring about his old-age death before they figured things out. How much fun would it be to watch Euphemia get her first crush and find someone special for herself - though the dream of seeing all of them, every one of the girls, just happy....sometimes it felt too far away.

Right now, up close, Vidarr blinked back surprise after following up, echoing herself with 'Are ya alright?' as if he was the one who was having an emotional moment. Tiberii hadn't even caught her breath after wheezing out that she had to absolutely eviscerate the wolverine. She still asked after him and Vidarr let out a little soft sound, somewhere between sorrow and concern. You look...tense. He settled upon, before he cleared his throat and continued. We had a saying, 'The wise man must know the measure of his own strength.' He gave her a moment to ponder it, not wanting to lecture.

Instead he took his time, clearing the bits of wolverine debris from Tiberii's nape. The motion was familial, a thing he would do for his siblings, his own child, his shield-brothers too. He did not fear her turning those fangs to his neck, so close to her it would be easy. Grief was brutal. Anger only cheered the feeling on. There had to be a way that those feelings spilled over, bubbling right up from the veins that pulsed with them and carried the feeling through her body. It spilled into a rain of red, and Vidarr dutifully worked to clear the pieces he could reach without moving from where he was. Shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, side to side.

As Vidarr swore he would be for each of the remaining Shakti-Vaes children.

They would never be without someone to brace them so long as he had air in his lungs. He would do everything in his power to not leave them questioning where he was too ever again. It speaks to knowing when to rest, when you have pressed your limits without taking care of yourself in the process. That was...probably a far more wordy a way to explain it, but he was also working off a translation of old tongues. I am fine, though a bit disappointed I wasn't much help. Vidarr hummed out. Are you alright? It was the natural response, after all, and it was a genuine question. Be honest. It was rumbled warmly, said with a sincere smile that did not wipe the concern from his eyes. Maybe Reid really was making him even more paternal, but that was what uncles were for, right? Fun stories, occasional words of wisdom offered, all he needed now was to learn how to make a decent cup of tea.

Somehow, in the deep recesses of her heart, she hoped that Vidarr would just … not notice how utterly unstable she was. Or, perhaps she would simply hope that he would be courteous enough not to bring it up, even if he noticed the instability painted across every cracked feature of her face.

But Vidarr did notice. And he would bring it up.

“You look…tense.”

Her lip would curl, a spark of her previous ire threatening with a flash from behind her golden eyes. Tense? Tense didn’t begin to cut it. “We had a saying, ‘The wise man must know the measure of his own strength.’” The Bull would swallow her emotion, nearly choking on it. And much to Vidarr’s likely dismay, Tiberii didn’t ponder his words at all, she simply puffed. I get it, I get it.

Though the shredded wolverine would argue otherwise.

Vidarr neared her, testing her boundaries with familiar, soft motions toward her. If it were any other, perhaps she would have moved away, perhaps she would have snapped — but Vidarr was practically family, and Tiberii would soften slightly as she allowed him to groom the gore from her fur. As he did so, his voice would speak more, offering melodic vocals that would hide the soft chiding he would deliver.

Knowing when to rest.

Ain’t got time ta rest, Vidarr. Her head would turn sharply toward him, not challenging him, but instead questioning him — his logic, at least. Of course, Vidarr was right. Tiberii had been learning, up until recently, that she needed the help of Dawnbreak just as much as they needed her. But didn’t have time for that anymore. Not with everyone disappearing and the world ending and the grip of eternal winter at their doorstep. 

“Are you alright? Be honest.”

Not with her heart broken and her willpower struggling in the wake of that.

She would pull her gaze from him, looking back toward the bloodied ground. The carcass. The wake of her anger painted across the snowbanks. I’m tryn’ tha best I know how. That much wasn’t a lie. She hid within her own heartbreak, keeping it close to her chest. Inside, she was a girl who missed her family, an aching woman with a broken heart who’d lost her first love and her best friends, and a leader who had lost half of her clan. But on the outside she was the broad-shouldered warrior who could carry it all, she was the relentless protector … she was the sister with a warm smile at Dalmatia’s wedding while her insides were clawed to shreds.

She was many things. But she was not alright.

This is what I know how ta do, she relented with a soft grunt, throwing her head as if a gesture to the destruction at their feet.

---

skill: counselor 2/5 bwp

Even with the flash of her teeth as his superior, Vidarr did not back down or flinch. There was something about seeing her in so many stages of life - as a hot headed child trying desperately to find her own place and way, as a grieving daughter and sister, as a young leader trying to forge a path ahead when all directions felt wrong, and now - a grieving woman who was still trying to hold too much on her own shoulders. Tiberii was struggling to be everything for everyone and was forgetting to keep any reserves for herself.

There was a patience in his touches, a slow rhythmic thing as he continued to clean the muck from her fur. He snorted when she refuted his claim. And when she whipped her head to him, he took a second to at least clear the wolverine chunk from the top of her head. There was something to be said of parenthood - he had gained an entirely new level of patience since surviving some of Reid's tantrums. One of the tasks of Leadership is learning how to care for yourself just as much as your claim. Vidarr was pointing out the obvious - and maybe it was a conversation that he needed to have with each of the young leaders of Dawnbreak. They could not burn themselves up like fuel just to keep the others warm. Even with this brutal winter that seemed to be worse than every winter he'd ever experienced.

The bull gestured towards the last bits of the wolverine she'd made swift work of. The spray of blood could be seen in huge arcs from where she'd slung the thing about. He would want to clean this up before anyone came upon the bloodbath. I know, Tiberii, I know. His tone was soft with a genuine warmth. It was not just from feeling like he owed Tiberius to step up for the children he'd left behind. He did care about each of them. They had all grown up with a very heavy legacy to uphold. It would make sense that it would drain them eventually, that it would be too much to hold up all of the time.

It is good to get your anger out on......safe targets. Vidarr conceded before he gently touched his snout to her temple, offering a loving boop. How long had it been since she'd received a paternal kiss? When he pulled back, he let out a sigh. If this is what you know, maybe it is time to learn more. Vidarr knew enough about leading, even if it had been different than the way the Pillars operated. He liked the system they had now, making up a unique option that meant that no one wolf had to make all of the choices all of the time. You still have so much you can learn - but not every lesson has to hurt. And when they do hurt, you know you have many to care for you. He assumed everyone in Dawnbreak would have done that for the Pillar.

He could tell, if nothing else, that the Shakti-Vaes had cultivated a deep sense of community. It wasn't something every leader managed. They had just never given any other option.