Part 1; Muddied Words

[Marrow]

Voices echoed in the inky void and as small shape resolved into view. Jhoti's charm. Reaching out with unseen paws, the charm faded again as if sinking into black waters. The voices becoming muffled by the sound of a roaring torrent. A feudal attempt to shout produced only choked gurgling as lungs filled with icy water until suddenly Marrow awoke. Spluttering mud, he found himself on the saturated ground beside his makeshift bed within the lean-to. The Bone Rattler sat up, trying to wipe the sticky mud from his fur. One of his escorts, Koga the female fisher, sat up as well, apparently woken by Marrow's nightmare.

"What's wrong, Ghostwalker?"

Marrow tried to blink the confusion from his mind as he stood.

"Nothing. I-I think I just need some fresh air."

Another, markedly more irritated voice came from Marrow's other companion, Ruka the wolf, head buried beneath his head roll.

"Why don't you stay out there and take all that racket with you, Rattler." The fisher boxed the wolf's beadroll.

Stepping outside, Marrow drew his cloak tighter against the chilly night air. Mercifully the sky wasn't crying, and he decided to go sit by their sleds to collect himself. There, flanked on either side by the dead, two on each sled, he felt more at ease. At least they wouldn't complain about anything he did. They were content to lay quietly as though slumbering a sleep he wished he could achieve were it not for the nightmares that so often stole it from him.

Marrow felt their cold forms as he leaned against the canvas-wrapped cadavers and gazed skyward. The cloud cover only allowed the faintest silhouette of moonlight to backlight one small spot above. He longed to see the Spirit paths course and dance among the stars. Though they were always visible when he walked in the unliving world, it had been nearly a week of solid rain and overcast that masked the stars. Even before the deluge, though, the soft green trails, like so much luminescent ribbon twisting in the heavens, had been steadily receding further and further northward. A worrying sign.

After some time, Marrow's reflections were cut short by the sound of a clearing throat. When he opened his eyes, a grinning sable face hove into view. Koga had come with a steaming skein of milk to check on him. She followed his eye line skyward.

"What are we watching for, Ghostwalker?"

Marrow sat up and graciously accepted the rich snack and the fisher took a seat on the edge of the sled across from him.
He took a careful sip of the hot cream, its sweet, buttery silk poured into and warmed his belly.

"Thank you. You've been so kind to me. Please, call me Marrow."

"You're my charge, Marrow.", she said, taking the skein for a swig. "I get in trouble if I don't bring you back in one piece."

The skunk allowed himself a smirk as he lay back again and looked skyward.

"The paths above have always been a comfort to me, but they have remained hidden from my eye for quite some time now."

Koga surveyed the heavens above as she took a sip.

"Is it true what they say? That you death-touched can see the ancestors walk the paths?"

Marrow half-mindedly fiddled with the scrimshawed knucklebones in his pouch, the implements of Rattler communion with the long passed.

"Yes. All 'Death-touched', as you call us, can see those who came before walk the heavens. Though here in the far north, the veil between the living and un-living world is thinnest and even those without the sight can see their illuminated sojourn."

"Why is this veil thin here in the whitelands?", the knight wondered.

"Because all are close to death up in the frozen wastes. Though it is colder the further northward you travel, the death-chill of the world beyond the veil bleeds into our own, which is why the ice never melts here... or it didn't."

Koga noticed the Rattler's countenance darken. "This concerns you, then?"

"It concerns everybeast of my order. The Paths recede farther and farther north. The permafrost melts and the elders fear it a terrible portent. My compatriot among the elders and I have been investigating these and other signs. Souls not crossing into the afterlife as normal, an increase in pleas to our Dancers to exercise malicious spirits, this endless rain... it all seems like an ill omen. I fear grim tidings lay behind those clouds above."

Marrow looked at his companion and immediately recognized the worry creasing her face as she had begun to anxiously wring the neck of the skein. He smiled and waved the thought away.

"Ah well, probably just the ravings of mumblers and rheumatic sages as your friend back there would no doubt agree, yes?"
Marrow stood, offering a paw to Koga. "C'mon. let's go try to steal a few winks before the sun rises again.

Koga sighed with some relief, encouraged by Marrow's demeaner, even if it was a put-on. She took his paw, passing the skein back, and the pair walked back into the lean-to as the slightest drizzle began to dapple the canvased bodies laid out on the sledges.



The morning sun seemed to come more quickly than predicted, bringing with it a mood-smothering half-light for the umpteenth day in a row. Breaking camp came swiftly and silently as Marrow mostly tried to stay out of Ruka's way. When all the supplies had been packed onto the pair of sledges, the skunk took up a position in front of Rukas sledge, thinking it an olive branch of sorts to the wolf. Instead, Ruka growled when he saw the little striped nuisance in his way.

"Each carries what is his own concern. Take your trinkets and elixirs to the back where such trifles belong, stripe-cat."

Marrow scowled and threw down the pull-line.
"If they are such trifles then why do you wear that bit of scrimshaw on your vambrace?"

Ruka glanced at the small piece of carved, heirloom bone ensconced in his wrist armor and snarled at Marrow who had already turned and started walking back to the back of their little three-beast caravan. Koga shrugged, putting on her sledge's harness as the Rattler passed in a huff.

Marrow opened the flap of his pack, checking its contents one more time. All his oils, powders and incense were there. He pulled out something carefully wrapped and peeled back one side to reveal a small section of some piece of bone more intricately scrimshawed and gorgeously colored than his other heirlooms.

"There you are".

A sigh of relief and he placed it carefully back in its place at the top of the pack. Then, shouldering the bag, he hurried to catch up to his half-reluctant escort.



Clouds hung like soaked cotton blanket across the sky. It had been since noon the previous day of travel back from the far north that snow and permafrost had given way to mud. Far sooner than it would have without the odd behavior of the veil, let alone all the resulting rain. The ancient Ice Walker footpath they trod had been transformed into a slick mudslide. Easier going for the sledges but not for his unaccustomed step. Marrow strained against sucking mud that pulled at his boots with each step. By late morning, the skunk's muscles burned. His training with the Bone Rattler Dancers made him limber enough, but nothing could have prepared him for the sheer strength of endurance this journey had demanded. However, his escorts never complained about their lot and load over the entirety of the trip, and with as snappy as the wolf had been, if they weren't going to complain, Marrow wouldn't either.

The skunk never thought he would prefer the bitter conditions of the wastes, but he found himself missing the dry powder. Anything was better than near freezing mud. It clung heavy to galoshes and soaked into fur and bone alike.

With an almost mocking *pop*, the mire freed his footpaw but kept the boot. He teetered and fell forward, only able to avoid fully faceplanting in the puddled rut of the footpath by catching himself with a forepaw. His pack shifted awkwardly over his head and the carved knuckles in his pouch clattering an applause.

Koga looked back over her shoulder but before she could voice an offer of help the skunk held up a muddy paw.

"No, I've got it."

The swarthy-furred fisher hesitated a moment, unsure of what to do as the Rattler collected himself and stood to one paw.

Marrow looked ahead to Ruka who hadn't stopped trudging along ahead. "I'm alright, really. Come on, let's not slow your cheerful friend there", he said, feudally attempting to shake the gluey mud from his claws.

"Well, you can't really blame him for not wanting to linger in this mess any longer than we have to, aye?", Koga offered as she shouldered the pull-line once more.

Marrow scoffed as he struggled to balance on one foot paw and re-sheath his unbooted one.

"He and I can agree on that at least." Finally landing his paw back in the nearly sunken boot, the skunk found it firmly cemented in place. "Piss on a stick..." he hissed to himself.

Koga dropped the strap again and went around behind her sledge, offering her paw. "Are you ready to let me help yet?".

Marrow relented with a sigh. "Yes, please."

"Good," Koga nodded as she grasped his paw and elbow. "Now, turn your foot paw in and hold fast."

With surprising strength, the well-toned knight pulled Marrow free.

Before he could thank her, the sky's ripped open and a sudden deluge began to fall, accompanied by a foul curse heard up ahead from Ruka.

"Get up here quick you two, there's an outcrop at the pass up ahead."

The pair hurried to catch up to the wolf and up to the great overhang that stood near the mouth of a narrow stone pass through which their footpath would run. Pushing the sledges underneath, they resigned themselves to a longer stay than anticipated.

"That pass'll be a stream with this rain. Too dangerous to haul these up through there. We'll have to wait it out." Ruka growled at his own words.

Koga set about taking their last cord of dry wood from up under the pack canvases, intending to heat some tea and boost morale.

"Just be patient. The valley is just over the ridge up there. This is a chance to rest our legs before a final push.", she offered cheerily.

Some time passed and the unrelenting rain formed a stream on the path as predicted out beyond the overhang. Koga passed out cuts of jerky and hot tea. The three sat in silence over their lunch with Ruka's temper beginning to steam like the tea he held. Koga sought to finally break the tension.

"It would be much easier going if you just put your pack on one of the sledges, Marrow."

Marrow, grateful for the gesture, responded in kind.

"I suppose you're right. I'm liable to snap an ankle out her and drown in that deluge. Then you'd be hauling three bodies, aye? Hehe."

Marrow's momentary mirth melted from his face once he clocked Koga's awkward silence and Ruka's angry gaze and he wished he had died in the mud.

"I'm-I'm sorry, I-"

"No, it's ok. This all must feel routine, especially for the Ghostwalker, huh?", koga offered to try and avoid what she knew was coming.

Marrow's shame blushed on his cheeks. "Yes, but-"

"No, it's not ok, Koga. I'm tired of this incense-huffing fools' games and insults. It's all a massive pile of Great-maw dung and I'm sick of ignoring it."

"Cool your temper, Ruka. I'm sure he meant no offense. Such matters are certainly more mundane to one of the death-touched.", she reasoned.

"You coddle this stripe-cat like he was your own kitten!", Ruka snapped.

"We've endured the bog gasses bellowing from your slobber hole for days now, Ruka. Give it a rest!", the fisher lamented.

"This is ridiculous, Koga." The wolf pointed a claw toward Marrow. "You believe this mumbling fool?"

The skunk held his paws out, confused. "When did I ever mumble?" Koga shrugged.

Ruka's head snapped to face Marrow. A snarl curling his lip. He jabbed a hunk of jerky accusingly toward the Rattler.

"If you're so powerful, why don't you ask this longtusk how it liked being hunted?", he jeered, throwing the meat to the ground.

Marrow frowned.

"Or why don't you tell this log to lend more heat!" The wolf, riling his anger, kicked the bespoke branch further into the fire, sending a shower of sparks at Marrow.

"Ruka, calm yourself!", his companion shouted as she stood.

The wolf stooped and picked up a stone as he bit out his next vinegar-soaked words. "Why don't you speak to this stone, Ghostwalker."

"That stone was never alive.", Marrow quipped flatly. "I thought you would learn such things with the Walkers. Then again," he looked up to meet the wolf's glare, "Maybe that's why you wear Kastor's red hand on your face not the paint of a pack."

Ruka howled as he leaped at the skunk, pinning him up against the stone escarpment by the neck with a single clawed paw.

Koga shot up, her dagger gleaming in the firelight like the wolf's teeth that hung inches from Marrow's face.

The skunk struggled to pull even a single claw away from his throat to catch his breath. With the other paw he bade Koga stay back and slipped it behind his back.

"You mock me again and I will reach into your chest and eat your heart as it beats in my claws, musk or not, you rancid corpse-cat."

The Ghostwalker took a strained breath.

"You could take my life with a single flick of your wrist, and I could do nothing to stop you." his voice suddenly seemed to duplicate itself as he spoke. "But in death, yours or mine, you will fear me."

The last word was emphasized by a reflection of the campfire flaring up with a green flash in Marrow's eyes. The subtle flick of the Rattler's wrist going unnoticed even by Koga.

The wolf, taken aback, released the skunk and Marrow collapsed to his knees, spluttering. Koga called the wolf's attention, her dagger slowly returning to its sheath.

"That's enough now! Go, quench your pride in the rain, Ruka."

The wolf looked at the dagger hilt, then to Marrow still on paws and knees coughing, and back to his companion. He spat on the fire and whirled around stalking off into the rain with a growl.

Koga let out a sigh of relief and helped Marrow back to the stone he had been sitting on, breaking the tension with a chuckle.

"Either you've iron in your gut or soot in your head. Not everybeast would sass a wolf, Ghostwalker."

Marrow rubbed the goose egg rising on the back of his head ruefully.

"I'm not sure which it was to be honest."

Koga spotted and recovered the piece of jerky Ruka had spiked into the dirt.

"He wears Kastor's armor, but the heart of an Ice Walker still beats beneath, even if they don't see it. Amicable disagreements are not his strong suit. He just needs a moment." She bit into her mostly brushed clean snack, tugging like a kit at play. "How did you do that anyway?"

"Do what?"

The fisher mimed fire with wiggling claws and then a wide-eyed expression.

"You know, woosh, aaaah."

Marrow sat chin in paw, distracted by guilt.

"Oh, that."

He half-mindedly retrieved a pinch of his ritual powder from the pouch behind his back and flicked it into the fire. A much smaller flare of green emanated.

The knight grinned and clapped. "You're a clever one, Ghostwalker."

Marrow shrugged.

"Were Ruka in better spirits, he may even have appreciated the trick."

Marrow looked out up the path where Ruka had gone and sighed.

Koga stopped yanking at the jerky momentarily, realizing what skunk was thinking.

"You mean to go talk to him, don't you?"

The Bone Rattler stood.

"I suppose the saying about your kind is true; you skunks have a death wish."

Marrow chuffed as he made his way out.

"Oh ha-ha, I've never heard that before."

He really hadn't. He would have to remember that one.



The rain, as it had been for days now, somehow felt colder than it should to still fall as water. It was a kind of shock that a Bone Rattler would grow accustomed to, especially Marrow, who could step farther beyond the veil than anyone. The supernatural cold of the unliving world would go unfelt while he was within, but his living body, which remained entranced in the living world, would show the effects of dwelling so close to death's icy touch. Marrow cast his gaze about, searching for a pawprint or some such sign of where Ruka had gone exactly. He pawed at the missing digits of the two smallest claws on his left paw; scars from one of the first times he passed through the veil and lingered too long, prompting death to take a small toll.

Marrow's hackles stood on end as shadows grew from crag and crevice that shouldn't appear with overcast skies, and a voice like smoked glass seemed to stalk from gloom to gloom.

It would be soooo easy if you just let me handle the wolf.

"Not now."

When?

"Not now, not ever. Now be silent." Marrow's words came with weary irritation.

The voice hissed as it coursed through the pass, the shadows once again receding.

You know I'm right...



It wasn't long before the narrow pass opened as the path emerged from the rock formations and Marrow could see a ridgeline off the left side of the path that looked down upon the valley to which they were headed. He spotted the glint of wet bone affixed to insulated leather among the rain. With a sigh, he made his way to Ruka's side to sit, though he did so just out of angry-claw-swipe range.

A moment passed without words. Marrow followed Ruka's eyeline to a pair of twinkling amber points that seemed to float against the tree line on the far side of the valley. Kavo's Trove, an Icewalker lodge and their destination, stood with twin lantern beacons on a bluff. A feathered column of hearth-smoke reached high into the sky from the same source.

"You knew them, didn't you?"

The wolf side eyed the skunk and scoffed.

"You got guts, stink-cat. I give you that."

"Or soot in the head?", Marrow recited.

Ruka smirked, recognizing one of Koga's sayings. The sound of rain pattered unchallenged.

"Omahk was a den mate from my kufka days. We tussled like a pair a' rabid badgers." The wolf flicked his ear which Marrow only just noticed was missing a quarter of mass. "Broke 'is muzzle s'bad once I set it crooked for life an'e took a piece a me as payment." Marrow sat listening as the rain soaked in. "I had the honor of carrying his mother to her pyre in his stead while he hunted. I never thought-." The rest choked in the wolf's throat.

The Rattler sat quietly for a time. Even without Singer training, Marrow knew sometimes a silent ear was all that was needed.

"He crossed the river without effort, if that is any solace to you."

The wolf's chipped ear turned to Marrow.

"Forgive my careless words. They- your friend deserves more respect than I give. You have my word; Omahk and his pack will have a pyre befitting the wolves that they were. The north wind will carry them over the mountains, Ruka."

The wolf looked over the skunk before him, seeing the sincerity on his patterned face and nodded. He stood and leaped off the rock, calling back to Marrow as he started back toward their makeshift refuge.

"C'mon out'a the rain, stink-cat. Little thing like you'll catch 'is death."

Marrow sighed, searching the clouded sky for patience.

"Can you at least call me by my name?"

"Not a chance."



In about the time it took for the soaked pair to dry their fur and clothes by the fire, much to Koga's amusement, the rain had cleared. The clouds broke, giving great roiling puffed canvases for the setting sun to paint with its fiery brush. The valley was washed in a coral hue as the little cortege made its way down and across the valley. At the stream crossing in its center, the rain-swollen current licked at the bottom of the Keaner-built bridge in a way that left Marrow with a feeling of unease that he couldn't shake even as they made their way to the lodge.

Ruka stopped them short of the great front doors.

"Make your way inside, Rattler, while Koga and I take care of the bodies." He turned and began hauling his sledge in a trajectory around the lodge. "There better be a hot bowl and mug in there for us when we join you."

Koga made to follow, turning to Marrow with a big grin.

"Two mugs for me, please!"



Marrow dried his paws in the fore chamber before entering the main hall proper. A cozy den that was surely a bulwark of warm respite were it not for all the looks and side-eyed stares that chilled any welcome he may have otherwise felt from the man Wolves within. This was a normal reaction to his entrance, and he never quite knew if they were leering at the Bone Rattler or the skunk that stood before them. It didn't matter, the pit formed in his stomach all the same. Without meeting any gaze, he ordered only the pair of meals and three mugs for his escort and made his way up to find an open bed.

Finding an empty chamber, he climbed to the top bunk. Placing his pack carefully in the bottom corner he laid his head back, the full effect of exhaustion and aching muscles hitting him all at once. His eyelids began to droop as he watched the shadows cast by hearth fire out in the main room dance on the ceiling when one of them spoke.

I've been waiting for you.