muted breath

^^

@Ludvík here you go! :D

---

He was loathe to leave his girls for too long. @Olive Olive and his daughters were all equally as precious as each other and though he found himself overwhelmed with their new additions, Tiberius didn't regret what was happening. It was... it was a lot and yet despite his inexperience he found that there was no one else he would rather be experiencing it with. That was something he had realised long ago, when he realised that what he felt for Olive was love. He trusted @Genghis to continue being alert and patrolling, hoping he still was finding time to take time to himself where Tiberius was not as on it as he had been prior to the birth of his children.

He trusted @Kuhn whenever the tiger found himself within the Vales reaches, trusting him explicity like one normally would with their best mate. Tiberius hoped his girls would find the trust in the tiger as he had, opting to coexist just as he and Olive did with animals other than canines. It was the stag that the titan was finding himself struggling with, uncertain as to how such an animal of prey found themselves so close to a wolf -- his instincts telling him he was a meal and nothing else.

The titan knew that soon he would need to return to the duties he had been falling behind on since the arrival of the children yet he found it difficult to pull himself from Olive's side with the four young girls. Today he had managed, a hunt for a young caribou taking him out of the territory as he ran. The rest of the herd had retreated to the depths of the Vale as he cornered the young from them, the youth clearly out of sorts and fearful for being alone and had taken itself from the direction of its family.

Tiberius charged after the scattered calf, snapping at its heels as he drew it through the snow. It had a wound on it's flank that was slowing it down from where Tiberius had managed to bite on before it had slipped and slid out of his grip, canines tinged red from the sliced flesh. His nostrils flared as he inhaled and exhaled, trying to even his breathing as he ran and caught sight of the dip in the snow that he could lunge and tackle the fearful calf into.

A plan made, the Chief would angle himself to the side of the calf and guide it off to the right, closer and closer to the snow dip. He lunged then when the calf was just in front of it, the plan unknown to the youth as he collided with the unsuspecting calf and down they went to the crashing dip. The calf on unknown territory flailed but found no solid ground to try and use as Tiberius kept his teeth on it's neck, attempting to suffocate it sooner rather than later to put it out of its misery. ^^

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sorry this got so big!

---

The world had been beautiful.

He remembered sunlight, warming the wealth of his black fur. He remembered the smell of fermented berries and the laughter of charming faces. He remembered the meeting of bodies and dances in a wide open field. It had seemed like an endless paradise of his wildest dreams. He had been fawned over, presented with berries and honey and furs. He had been on a bed of them.

He had a love.

Had it been a wife? A husband? One or two?

It all seemed to slip from him. Like a storm cloud had come over his endless summer fields, the world darkening around him. Thunder and lightning. What had once been laughter and singing had turned into panicked voices.

Then darkness, fully and utterly.

---

There was an undetermined amount of time between the past and the present. He could not have placed it if he tried. He couldn't even determine if he had actually moved at all, in that abyss. Every jolt felt more webbed into his conscious than his body, but when the time came for his body to move on its own, he knew it very well.

A coldness had replaced what had once been a wonderful summer sun.

His joints felt stiff and for a moment in time he felt double his age. Disorientated, slow, aching. Whatever place he had found himself in had not been where he had known forever. None of that mattered though as the world moved on around him. With or without his say.

The evidence of this was the sounds of a struggle. Not one of a wolfen kind, but one more akin to a prey. Strangled cries of an ungulate. Softening as the moments ticked. He spun as if he might suddenly find a compass in himself — and one did show up, more of instinct than any actual knowing the land.

He moved in a stumbling jog until he saw it.

A man akin to a titan, tall and heavy. Built for hard work. Like the work he did now, holding down a calf whose cries seemed to die out. Ludvík did not know what to do or how to help. So he merely worked in a half-moon shape around the man's place. As if he might be a buffer against any of the herd who might try to return with a vengeance.

He would stand well against a caribou, but perhaps the presence of two wolves, might be warning enough against any return.

And a way to silently introduce his presence.

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^^

thank you SO much for the stardust!!

---

In all the fuss, Tiberius could vaguely see someone else introduce themselves to the event. They didn't come into the mess of snow and limbs, keeping to the edges though constantly on the move -- maybe seeing if he had an opening to steal his kill, maybe to help out, he had no way of knowing just yet. Tiberius felt the calf start to grow slack, it's ability to fight growing weaker as less and less air was being given to its lungs. He kept himself atop the calf, caging it in with his forelegs and breathed heavily through his nose as his mouth remained tight on bleeding flesh.

Eventually the calf stilled entirely and Tiberius, airing on the side of caution as to not allow any possum like tendencies from the calf, lowered his heavy chest to the calf's side and kept its legs pinned as he removed his grip from its neck. It's eyes remained open, unblinking and unseeing. Satisfied that the kill had been entirely successful, he drew his molten gaze to the horizon as his damaged ears flicked, making sure there had been no angry mother caribou come and seek to try and save her child. There was no one, no one other than the shadowed wolf who half-circled the scene.

Tiberius lifted his chin and settled his gaze upon the man, "damn things can be real fuckin' annoyin'." He rumbled casually, flicking his tail as he observed him. He wouldn't get far if he desired to steal his kill, Tiberius favouring bringing the new-mother of Duskguard a good meal over not getting a few cuts and bruises from defending his kill. "Ah shit," Tiberius grouched, "ain't no way fer m'ta introduce m'self." Tiberius didn't automtically seek to find the worst in others but sometimes even he felt the defensive nature crawl up his spine.

"Names Tiberius," the titan introduced as he watched the other man before he jerked his head towards the calf, "were yer on tha lookout fer more caribou, mate?" it was one way to find shit out, wasn't it? ^^

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it was very well deserved!! :D

---

The man seemed a skilled hunter.

Ludvík could not remember seeing such a man like this — or a place like this. Cold despite him thinking it had not been wintertime, the land was primarily barren save for some short grasses and wild shrubs. He assumed that's why the caribou enjoyed this place. No place for their antlers to tangle and the low growth was fine for feeding as they passed through. But, oh! He had been thinking of the man. The hulking, beastly man. With a roguish accent. Marred by things Ludvík could not even begin to imagine.

“No,” He told him with a soft shake of his head, and a smile teased his lips. “I was making sure an angry mother did not come back for you. Babes are priceless to all mothers, no matter the species.” He noted, eyes glancing to the still calf beneath the male.

“I am Ludvík. I...just arrived?”

He felt foolish, sounding so confused by his own admission!

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^^

The man didn't seem aggravated or up to no good, not yet anyway, not with the teasing Smile on his lips. Ah, so he had been on the look out -- Tiberius appraised him with a tilted chin. He was silent for the duration before he have a short, sharp nod. "Ain't tha' tha truth," he rumbled, his tail giving a wag behind him. The titan thought of Olive and just how fitting the other man's words were. The girls were priceless, to both but he knew that there was something in nature that pulled mothers to the children that they had grown in their own bodies. It was fair enough, really.

"Cheers, mate. Yer didn't 'Ave ta," he was helpful to a stranger. Tiberius hummed lowly as he shifted over the calf and drew his head down to grasp the limp neck of the calf and with him he dragged it. Dragged it until the snow became more even and less like the ditch he had tackled it into. Tiberius dropped it to the side, casting his molten gaze back to the man as he spoke again. Ludvík, he introduced himself as and seemed real confused about his surroundings.

The titan chuffed a laugh as he quirked a silvery brows to the man, "shit ain't normal 'ere, mate. We git animals droppin' from tha damn sky." And that wasn't a lie. "It ain't much ta reassure yer wit' but yer ain't tha first ta not know 'ow yer git 'ere." The titan offered in a low rumble, rolling his shoulders as he watched him. "It 'appened ta me." Perhaps giving him that would ease some confusion or even loneliness in the unknown. ^^

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He wondered if that may be it. The man could collect his kill and go back to where he came from. Leave Ludvík behind, knowledgeless and lost. No good deed ever went unpunished. It was an easier line of thinking.

Save for the fact that this man, this Tiberius, stopped to give him some more breadcrumbs of knowledge.

That beast had dropped from the sky before. That this was more like a common spring morning than some sort of great even to be tallied in history! It had even happened to the very man before him. The one who seemed well composed and adjusted to whatever wasteland terrain this was. Ludvík would not have ever guessed such a thing. If he was supposed to find camaraderie, he only found a sudden sense of dread sinking in his stomach.

What was he supposed to do if this was the norm? The great man was still here, which meant there wasn't some known way back. He had a sudden yearning for things he could hardly remember. The warmth of the summer sun and the bodies of those he loved. What had happened to them? Had they been scattered so? Did they sit now with panicked thinking about his vanishing act? His lips drew together in silent thought.

“What do I do now then?” He may as well try to gleam some knowledge of his new life from somebody who had suffered the same.

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^^

He knew it wasn't an easy pill to swallow. Some got on with the new land easier than others, some unable to get over what was left behind. A part of him still held onto the Dominion, the originals left behind in the valley he had been plucked from. That was oft buried unless he was over tired and over worked which... before Duskguard, before Olive, had been the norm for him. Tiberius had worked himself to exhaustion and he would do it again if it meant his small group of people safe and happy.

Tiberius thought on the man's question and thought that he was probably the most useless creature to give this man advice on what to do with his life now. The titan would give a small shrug, "all depends, mate. Yer can travel past tha snow, find mountains, grass, more green than snow," he tilted his head as he wondered on the man's thought on the snow. The Tundra was daunting, as was his Vale but once inside, the beauty came easily. "Yer can find Yer footin' in tha snow, if its wha' calls Yer," Tiberius mused, casting his molten gaze to the powder at his paws. The expanse of it in the distance.

"Yer best decide if Yer wanna face this new life alone or whether yer wanna do it wit' others at yer side," he had decided quickly he wouldn't do it alone. Tiberius was a protector and not of himself- of others. He had needed that purpose. Not everyone held that purpose, others were meant for other, grander paths. "Lifes tough, mate. Yer gitta make it easy where yer can. Make tha most of it, yeah?" Fuck knows he had wasted a lot of time being goddamn unhappy. The least he could do was try and help someone else from making the mistakes he had.

That sometimes he still made. ^^

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Mountains, grass, more greens than snow — or stay in the snow and learn its ways.

But he would still be alone, wouldn't he? The moment he left this interaction he'd be alone. Utterly and entirely. Had he hands, he might have been running them down his own face. Exhausted and horribly conflicted. This man was now his lifeline, the only thing that had kept him from going entirely mad the moment he had stirred awake.

Ludvík knew that was an unkind and heavy burden to place upon a stranger, though.

“Drahý Bože, — Dear God,” He huffed, shifting his weight between his lean limbs. Rolled his head as if it might loosen a good thought in there. “Well, I can't do it alone.” He told him with a pitiful laugh.

“Where will you go when I've exhausted you with my questions?”

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^^

The language he spoke felt familiar to the language that Minerva and Faustus had spoken way back when but he wasn't familiar with it enough to know if it were the same. He thought little on it, knowing everyone had their past and their origins. "Ah dunno 'bout tha', mate. We surprise ourselves sometimes," the titan mused lowly when he spoke of not being able to do it on his own. Tiberius knew that in the end, there were wolves who were not built to be alone. They were pack wolves through and through, or even some who simply needed the company of one other. Kuhn wasn't a man who sought out to be around too many at once and did it on his own terms, though feline, it could be relevant to this man.

Tiberius gave a brief chuckle, it weren't gonna be him that caused the titan's exhaustion, that's for sure. "I'll be goin' 'ome," Tiberius stated. His home, his Vale, his people. They were his home. "I live in a Pack, a little ways away. We ain't thousands but theys good people," he shrugged though his voice told the truth on how proud he was to be able to call the small selection his wolves, the wolves and dog of Duskguard. (And stag? Maybe? He didn't know.) "I learned quickly tha' whilst I can survive alone, it aint tha life I gitta lead," he revealed with a small smile stretching across his deformed lips.

"Duskguard is m'family," he nodded, molten gaze watching the other man, curious of his mind. "It 'as openin's if yer find yer aint wantin' ta learn alone," from what he had seen of the man, he could do with an Olive branch extended and ready to take if needed. Tiberius wouldn't force him to take it, not a man to force. He knew he needed to be cautious when inviting others to join their family, especially with his new born children yet the protector in Tiberius fought against any desire to be a bastard and send the man on his way with little help. He would do his part where he could and if the Olive branch was rejected then the titan knew it was meant to be that way.

It was likely he would think on the man's well being for days after, if that was the case. The titan couldnt stop his desire to help, his instinct to protect and offer safety. ^^

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He was grateful for the man's wealth of things to say. The more the better, as far as Ludvík was concerned. He was not one to look this gift horse in the mouth.

Especially as the true gift was laid before him.

Duskguard, the place the man spoke of with fondness. It had openings! For him! Ludvík was not one to hide his emotions well and this showed as his face blossomed into something better, something lighter. As if the great titan hunter had made the moon and sun himself. “You are, ah —!” His tongue sputtered in his mouth as he clutched for the word. “Dobré znamení! — Good Sign/Good Omen I think I was meant to find you.” What were the odds of him waking in some strange new place with a helpful stranger? He very easily could have wasted away out here — or even worse.

“Please.” A soft strain in his voice as his paws threatened to tap at the earth with excitement. “I will pay you back. I will learn very good.”

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^^

welcome to duskguard!! If you're on discord, feel free to message any questions and if not, here's good! Feel free to post threads in the Vale!

---

He hadn't really expected the man to accept. He had extended it because it had been the right thing to do and because the man seemed good-- so it had seemed to be right yet Tiberius was still adjusting to the notion that others would respond positively to him. He looked as surprised as the man was, only for different reasons. He made him think of Olive when he spoke of being meant to find him and how Olive's thought process seemed to be the same, in some ways. He smiled as he ducked his head, looking somewhat sheepish and actually his age -- a rarity.

"yer all good, mate. Yer will find yer footin' an' wha' yer wanna do," the titan rumbled with a dip of his head. "We git newborns in Duskguard. M'kids. We been focusin' on keeping tha borders marked up but ta be 'onest if yer find tha' shit ain't fer yer, ain't nothin' ta worry about." Tiberius revealed in a rumble, amused at the man and feeling... pleased? Was that what it was? To have a good man want to be part of Duskguard. "Frostfang Vale is 'ome," he cast his molten gaze to the distance where the guarded mountains and trees loomed. "Lets go 'ome, mate," he offered, leaning down to the calf and grasping it in his teeth, moving to lead the man to the Vale. ^^

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ahh, tysm for the stardust!! :D I'll make sure to ask any questions if I have them! Fading here?

---

It felt easier to relax now. A slow slope of his shoulders aligning back in place with his spine, his tail still offering a few arched waves.

The great titan was a father!

He held this knowledge close in his mind and heart. His head bobbed in understanding to everything that was said as he pepped his stepped alongside the great man. “I will protect it all! We are family now.” This he beamed with honesty and excitement. The Vale beckoned him more than he could understand.

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