In Dire Straits

// liquid timing this to before the earthquake because i'm a god and i do what i want

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That day at the border had been SOMETHING. Puffin stared at the harness in his paws, sort of still in shock, sort of in denial. His brother? In Nardir? HERE? He shook his head. It had been years. A lot of years. He still remembered...the old village, his siblings, his parents, the humans, the tents...the wolves. A lifetime ago he'd made some decisions. It was as though it was through another's eyes, now, that he could see his father's disapproving stare. His memory of Auklet was a youthful pup with a mischievous grin, much like his own had been. He'd barely been a year old when his father issued his exile.

And then he'd joined Cyrus' pack, spent years there. Thyme had joined him there, eventually. He'd gone home to visit, once. Things had felt different. He'd felt different. Like home wasn't home anymore, because in his leaving he'd shifted heaven and earth and set his path irrecoverably towards a small island in a wet marsh where he would pass the same judgement his father had passed on him, and fall in love with a wolf...

Funny how things turned out.

He put the harness down. Time passed and people changed, and things could never be as they were, but some things remained fixed points in time and space. Auklet was his brother. He was loud and crazy and ridiculous, but that had never put Puffin at a loss for words before. No, he knew what to say.

Butterflies in his stomach, he set out for the den sites. Auklet! Here! In Nardir! He couldn't help but smile. He couldn't help but grin. Worlds colliding in ways he hadn't thought possible, and only good could come from it. Only good. He thought fiercely of the past as he tracked his brother down, and when he finally spotted Auklet's black and white form against the green, he called out, "Hey! Auklet!" He would trot the rest of the way, tail awag, butterflies growing into sparrows, and fix his brother with a quizzical stare. "Time for us to talk, don't you think? It's been so long! Tell me everything."

(ooc: guess who's finally responding to this? lol - no pressure or anything to respond, just want these two to shoot the breeze)

Auklet wished he still had a harness to hold onto and cherish.

However, he had nothing from his past life. Absolutely nothing. He had nothing to show for his lifetime of hard work and diligence. Just half-dead memories and the smouldering remains of his village. The husky was sick of his life of working hard and getting no appreciation in return, he was done with it. It was why he had made very little effort to fit into Nardir or befriend its inhabitants. As far as he was concerned he was here for one thing and one thing only: to prevent his brother from becoming breakfast.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Puffin was in no real hurry to save himself and leave. As usual, Auklet was going to have to come up with everything by himself. 

Early concepts of an escape plan we're already forming in his head: there would be a few border guards of course but they wouldn't present a problem. Of course, they'd expect the two huskies to fight for their freedom but Auklet was not that stupid. The thing was that he knew both he and his brother were good runners when it came to hurling sleds and so on, so outrunning wolves would be no problem. Of course, there was likelihood they would run into other dogs along the way but Puffin did not need to worry his lil head about that. Auklet intended to make them see the light as well.

"Hey! Auklet!" 

Puffin was soon approaching him and, despite the confusion and doubt that he felt about his brother being here, Auklet could not deny he was happy to see him. His tail also wagged - albeit a bit more reluctantly - as he trotted to meet Puffin, a small smile playing on his lips. "Hi, Puffin." 

Yeah, this conversation was not going to be easy.

"Time for us to talk, don't you think? It's been so long! Tell me everything."

Oh, God. Everything. Telling Puffin 'everything' meant 'tell me how fucking hard you've failed at life'. As a proud husky, Auklet's worst disgrace was his constant failures and he would be disappointed if Puffin no longer felt the same. He had always been the more ambitious of the two, the most eager to please. But now? Auklet could only clear his throat awkwardly and lie his head off. "Oh, I haven't been up to much," he started. "I've been part of a few sled teams here and there, mostly errand runs so nothing too challenging or exciting. My last home was burnt down by some bandits so I had to take to travelling and - uh - here I am. And you don't even need to get started on yourself. Look at you, all nice and cozy with the very first wolf pack I run into, huh? Small world."

Of course, inside, Auklet was internally screaming. We have to get out of here! They're going to eat us! You're just too kind-hearted to see! He was merely stalling, just in case anybody was listening in, ready to strike the moment their secret was out. Once his eyes did a quick scan all around them, Auklet would walk to stand beside his brother, trying to encourage him to walk with him.

"Actually, I think we should really talk about that in more detail, since it's something I'm very fascinated by," he announced loudly, before whispering in Puffin's ear. "Keep your cool and follow me. We need to talk somewhere private: I think you might be in danger here."

Auklet smiled back, and the world was whole again. It was so strange to see another sibling after all this time. He had thought he'd come across Thyme again, perhaps, but Auklet's face had been a welcome surprise. Perhaps he should look for some of his other siblings. How many more were wandering around alone? It occurred to him not for the first time how unlikely it was that any would approach Nardir's borders. His birth home had not had good relationships with wolves. Bringing any of his siblings to Nardir would be like bringing Phillip: difficult, with lots of mistrust and complaining.

All of which added weight to his surprise that Auklet had found and joined Nardir all on his own. He wondered who he had met at the border. What Jovian wouldn't have scared him away? He could only think of Hudson.

"Keep your cool and follow me. We need to talk somewhere private: I think you might be in danger here."

Puffin cocked his head to the side in confusion. Danger? He thought instantly of Saboro, and Nardir's part in that war. Could Auklet have stumbled across information about a new threat? Up until now he'd thought that his brother was unaware of his position in Nardir, but now he wasn't so sure. All of Nardir's allies knew him as Nardir's chief ambassador, though all of Nardir's allies were wolf packs. It wasn't impossible for Auklet to have heard, he supposed, just unlikely.

Well, now he was thinking in circles. He nodded to Auklet and allowed him to lead him to a more private place, away from listening ears. "Danger?" he whispered back. "What kind of danger?" If Nardir was in danger-- he swallowed the thought. Auklet did seem a little on edge, now that he thought about it. It would have been easy to pass that uneasiness off on a general wariness around wolves, but what if that wasn't it at all? Puffin struggled to keep his hundreds of questions from bubbling up all at once. "Auklet, what's going on?"