[Icewatch Barracks] Moving In [Belgar]

[Jaiun]

Timestamp: 55th Fall 511 A.V.

Jaiun's room was empty. All his things, meager as they were, had been packed into boxes, the bed stripped of it's sheets that would be washed and then given to the next occupant of the room. A dismal light shone in from a window in the far wall, the light having shone that exact same way every day for three years to wake up Jaiun.

The bear himself was there, albeit in human form. The room, as it was meant to hold a bear, was just spacious enough to support a full-sized bear, but at the moment Jaiun wasn't feeling up to par enough to shift into his better par. He ran a slim finger along the edge of the windowpane, hesitating when he felt the slight indentation. It had been there ever since an incident he had as a cub, in which he'd found himself so outraged by one of Kalgar's admonishments he had actually sliced the solid rock wall.

The bear froze. Kalgar. Now that was a name he had not thought of in several months, more to avoid the memories than anything. But they were bound to come up at this time. This was the room that Kalgar had often taught his private lessons in, educating the young bear. The chair in the corner he'd often sulked in, one eye amusedly watching Jaiun. And now, he had to leave this room for good.

Jaiun made his way out into the hall. A tall Vantha woman with her hair pulled back stood there, watching with her arms crossed as several bears, conscripted from their loitering around barracks, carried Jaiun's things away from his home for three years. For a moment, Jaiun only watched them as well, face stony, and then he turned to face the woman.

"Commander, can't I stay in this room?" he pleaded. "Why do I need to leave?"

Rafresa cast a glance at him. "Sorry, cub, but there's nothing I can do. We got more cubs than we thought from last year and we need somewhere to put them. You need to move into a room with another bear."

Jaiun wanted to protest, but, as much as he disliked the situation, he knew there was nothing he could do. Instead, he said, "Who is the bear I'll be staying with."

"A bear by name of...Belgar, if I recall correctly."

"Hmph." Jaiun turned away.

"You should probably go introduce yourself, Jaiun." A soft hand was laid on his shoulder. "I know what you're leaving behind here, Jaiun," She breathed softly in her ear, "And you have to be strong. Go and make friends with this Belgar, okay?"

"Fine." Jaiun growled, and he shrugged off her shoulder and moved down the hallway. His commander watched him down the hallway for a ways, and then turned back to the tasks at hand.

Jaiun found his new room a couple of chimes later, though no one seems to occupy the room a the moment. It was almost exactly like his room, except larger in size and two beds instead of one. One was fitted, while the other had no sheets on it. Jaiun plopped down on the unsheeted bed, crossed his arms, and waited for this Belgar to come.

[Belgar]

The room might as well have been empty, when Jaiun found it. The opposite bed was cleanly made; there were no ornaments or trifles, not even a lamp on the bed stand or the wardrobe. The latter was empty, save for a single hanger that was not presently in use, but the drawers beside the bed contained a few spare human clothes and a change of sheets. The curtain on the window would not have been drawn when the new tenant entered, as it was the room’s only source of light.

Belgar had returned from a walk, one that apparently required human feet as much as a human coat, when he found the door to his bedroom ajar. A moment of alarm was tempered by a brief memory: a notice, in the form of a soft-smiled cub-boy playing at messenger. Yokken made his bond, the little voice rang in his memory, He will live with Cevna Winterflame, and another bear will be moving in on the morrow. His name is “Jaiun.”

It was at the same time an assertion and a question, mumbled with a bear’s baritone staccato. Belgar had lived long enough to be rid of the Kelvic’s accent if he tried, but Vani’s liquid flow still seemed to catch on his boulder of a tongue. He peered at the other bear for a long moment, then removed his hands from where they lingered in his coat pockets and shrugged the black leather from his shoulders. As he turned his attention from the young man, hanging his coat diligently in the wardrobe, he reflected on his predecessor. Yokken had been only three, able-bodied and well-minded. Belgar had bonded at that age and, from the looks of him, so Jaiun would soon.

Belgar pulled away the rest of the cotton and wool skins that choked his chest, leaving only the skin on his chest to warm him as he finally sat on his own bed. He might have been described as hard to some; his skin seemed grey at the edges and he had as many scars as a lifetime of mounthood had granted him. But there was still a polar bear’s fat softening his sides and in his shoulders—the healthy kind, the strong kind. The old wood shrieked under his weight as he leaned forward to deposit a tiny wooden carving on the nightstand, the likeness of a bear, warmed by his palm and softened by age. He bent his elbows to his knees, glanced at Jaiun and his things. “Belgar.” He affirmed, whether or not he had been asked. Then, after a pause, “Do you need help?”

[Jaiun]

This "Belgar" is a clean one, Jaiun noted as he sat there waiting. Scarely anything out of place, though there was also scarcely anything in the first place. That was a good sign. Bears who were organized tended to have organized minds. And the one thing a bear of the Icewatch couldn't have was a a disorganized mind. It might be the one thing that determines if you get killed or not, or your partner.

After a bit of a while, the bear came into the room. Like Jaiun, he was in human form; Jaiun couldn't help but approve of the hard muscles of Belgar, the scars and marks from battles past. He was evidently a tough warrior, which Jaiun, loath as he was to do so, could respect. An older bear, too. That was unexpected.

Belgar spent a moment fiddling with the coatrack, hanging his up. He had evidently been out in the snow. Then, he turned to Jaiun and spoke several simple words. He was succinct, for which Jaiun was glad. Too many people spent time beating around the bush, never saying what's truly on his mind. It had been a while since Jaiun had spent time with his fellow bearfolk, and he was only beginning to remember how refreshing it was. Not that that excused the current situation.

"Greeting, Belgar." Jaiun growled in reply. "I am Jaiun. I'm fine." That was not true, but Jaiun didn't want to see Belgar helping him out. Standing up to his full, towering height, Jaiun stood toe-to-toe to Belgar. Dark eyes met dark eyes in a clash of roiling emotion, giving a sense that, despite how different the blond-haired Jaiun was from Belgar, they shared something. An innate bestiality, perhaps, if one perceptive to kelvics had seen them then.

After a moment, Jaiun turned his awaiting boxes and started unpacking them. There wasn't much, but it was still a lot for a single bear to unpack. Clothing for his human form, weapons (not that he hardly used them), his harness...Jaiun begun unpacking them all and sorting them away, scarcely looking at his new roommate.

[Belgar]

Belgar’s spartan living was perhaps a remnant of his bonded days, the kind training of a woman who thought she knew what perfection was. It was right to be clean and orderly because she told him so. It was the same reasoning that compelled him to think of tricks instead of stealth to hunt, to stay in his human form unless otherwise necessary, to meticulously pattern his speech after that which was social and humble and proper. His head nodded and dropped when Jaiun refused his offer, staring his acquiescence into the floor.

He waited in silence. After a moment he looked up, politely watched Jaiun move between his things and where they belonged. The moment they had shared lingered at the front of his mind, that vision beyond eyes which he had never seen in the passionate color of Vantha expression. It was not unfamiliar to him, and yet he still found comfort in it. They shared the same purpose and the same desires. They were the unspeaking halves who gave power to the credit of the Guard, and that was their contentment. Belgar’s face sank and drifted to the wooden carving on the bed stand. He had seen in his fellow the vitality of youth; though he was far from retiring age, the elder bear remembered the concerned words of another young warrior, who had reminded him of the implications of his return to Icewatch, the impossible lifespan of their human counterparts. It had occurred to him many times since, how his age could be a hindrance. He would do anything to prove that was not the case.

Between Jaiun’s turning and organizing, Belgar managed to catch his eye. “I was...” He began, frowned, and cleared his throat. He resumed with a crude imitation of her charming, frivolous pleasantries; he turned them into something gruff and halted. “If you have no other schedule, for the rest of the day, I... How would you like to spar? I am not tired; I could use some activity.” In a beat, his hand tightened and released on a restless knee. “When you have finished unpacking, of course.”

[Jaiun]

The silence was comforting. It seemed soothing, as though nobody was there, nobody was watching Jaiun work. Bears were by nature solitary creatures, an impulse often at odds with his kelvic nature. Jaiun had encountered this more this more than once but did not possess the vocabulary to express it, feeling a strange melding of longing for company and a wish to be alone constantly warring within the pit of his stomach. He wondered if the others ever felt this.

Jaiun had just folding up his last article of human clothing when he heard Blegar mutter something behind me. "What was that?" Jaiun growled a question, turning to face the elder bear. He was silent as Belgar struggled for words, waiting.

"Sparing?" Jaiun's face transformed, settling into well-worn lines of interest. This could also be the solution to all his pent-up feelings. A good ole spar...it had helped him blow off steam before. "That sounds...like a good idea. I'd love to."

Now that the person standing across from him was a potential adversary, he spent a moment sizing him up. His hand fiddled with his harness, just to make it look like he was doing something, but in reality he was trying to gauge Belgar's weaknesses and strengths. Like he had remarked before, Belgar seemed tough and strong, a powerful bear with lots of experience, certainly. It would be a challenge to fight him.

Jaiun liked challenge.

"Alright, I'm done." Jaiun said, stepping away from his closet and closing it. "Lead the way, roommate."

[Belgar]

Belgar smiled: not the sly challenge of a man who suspected an inevitable triumph, but the honest apprehension in the thrill of a duel. There was nothing better for his muscles and his spirit than a good fight, whether it was between friends or foes; he would be glad for it, whether he won or lost. That was not to say the the odds were not in his favor. He was strong, hardened in both mind and body by a decade in defense of the city, but he was often pleasantly surprised by the creativity and ingenuity of his younger counterparts. His weakness was that he thought, invariably chose taught tactics over innate instinct—another of Seisswyn’s many gifts, and something only few had come to recognize.

“Certainly,” he replied, and was glad he had found the right word. He stood and strode to the door. He did not look back as he crossed into the hall and walked the too-familiar path to the training hall. His pace was quick as he descended stairs and politely dodged the sparse furniture of public rooms, but it was not impatient. He made the short journey without words, because none were required.

Soon enough, his breath was turning white against the cool air of the wide, sky-domed arena. A burst of djed, from just beneath his heart, poured warmth into his veins as he bent beside the clothes rack and removed what was left of his own. And suddenly he was sprinting to the other edge of the icy field, which was surprisingly empty for that time of day; after short distance, he lunged forward. The inured earth shook beneath the weight of newly giant paws, as the chilled winds parted hastily around the new bulk of fat and white fur. Ice that had once been hard and solid was tossed in a small flurry of loosed shavings.

Belgar slowed before he turned around, every step a quiet calculation. His black eyes fixed on Jaiun’s matching pair, and with a bowing nose, he growled a rumbling invitation.

[Jaiun]

Jaiun followed Belgar past the spartan furnishing of the rooms with ease, intimately familiar with the various bric-a-brac of the Barracks. His loping stride was easy and carefree, signalling the joy and anticipation he felt. For a bear, physical combat was not something to be avoided; it was enjoyed with the fierce, unrestrained joy one could only find in the depths of adrenaline and battle. In a way, sparring was simply part of a bear's way life.

A burst of djed almost identical to Belgar's warmed Jaiun's veins as he stepped into the open air of the training ground. As always, he enjoyed the myriad of senses the outdoors brought to him; the sight of an endless sky. The smells of many things, of city-bears-people all close together. The hearing of a fellow bear's anxious movements, getting ready for battle.

Jaiun spared Belgar a grin and stripped down himself.

His natural bear form was much more impressive than his puny human form, Jaiun had long since acknowledged. While Belgar impressed in both kelvic forms, Jaiun tended to surprise others when he shifted into the shaggy white monstrosity of a Dire Polar Bear, ivory teeth and ebony claws glistening in Syna's rays. This is what he did now; in a miasma of lights he was facing Belgar as was only natural, two more bears preparing to enjoy a bout of combat. It was...appropriate.

Jaiun let loose a roar in response to Belgar's invitation, and inexorably the enormous mass of his form shifted forward, was brought to bear against Belgar. He leaped forward with all the ferocity he could muster, though he did not use all of his strength in one fell blow. His lunge now was a test, a way to size up Belgar's strengths and weaknesses. As he lunged, a claw was brought to bear, meaning to batter Belgar across the head. How would he respond? That was key.

Jaiun bared his teeth and prepared to follow through on his blow.

[Belgar]

Belgar’s black eyes were nothing but, and yet in the seconds of Jaiun’s approach he was happy. It was as if his feet became lighter, his senses sharper. It had been too long, he realized, but was hardly allowed time to acknowledge as much. Jaiun’s few strides were barely different from any other young bear’s, quick and capricious. Even in the echoing aftermath of a roar, his elder could feel him through the ground.

Then they collided, and Belgar’s feet were not as light as they felt, but rather hard columns of impenetrable flesh. In the last moment he had stood, meeting the lunge like a wall and pushing the power of the impact forward, into his latest opponent’s shoulders. For an instant they were locked in a violent embrace, and then Jaiun compromised their balance with his sweeping claws; they fell sideward, and Belgar’s maw unsheathed the many yellow daggers of his reply in a single, gaping stroke.

He did not duck. His teeth met the offending arm as his own forelegs plunged against the shuddering earth, raking his jaw with all the force Jaiun had intended for his skull. But Belgar had been carefully practiced in catching an enemy with the strength of his teeth; unperturbed, he bowed his head and twisted the limb beneath it, pushing away from the ground again in order to pull his whole weight in throwing the younger bear off-balance. His nostrils flared with the effort of the maneuver as the compacted ice crumpled slightly beneath his hind legs’ exertion. He scolded himself inwardly for his clumsiness, even as he brought his own paw to push against the strength of Jaiun’s neck.

[Jaiun]

Somehow, Belgar had managed to catch his arm with his jaw and was proceeding to twist it. Jaiun snarled, lost in the ice cracking beneath the two monstrous pairs of feet. It was a good kind of snarl. This was going to be more fun than he had thought.

Jaiun felt Belgar push on him with his weight. The older bear was heavy, as he had expected; he could simply lean against Jaiun and Jaiun would become exhausted trying to withstand that. The only option was escape - or to do the unexpected.

Instead of trying to stand up against him, Jaiun allowed himself to fall backwards, even as he hooked his free paw around Belgar's head to pull the elder bear down with him.

As he fell, Jaiun struggled in Belgar's grasp, trying to free his arm.

Now, lying on his back, Jaiun lashed out with his own jaw, trying to catch purchase on Belgar. Yellowed teeth were raked across whatever limb was close enough to his mouth, desperately trying to win back the advantage of the fight.

[Belgar]

Belgar had been foolish enough to think Jaiun would resist, but he was not foolish enough to hold him when he did not. He was almost glad the younger bear had proven as inventive as most, for his jaw was aching in the impact; he released the writhing column of fat and fur, drawing his attention to his forefeet as they were forced to find a place among the compacted ice and the falling bodies. If he were in another place, under other circumstances, he might not have hesitated to descend on the square of Jaiun’s chest.

But he did care about crushing his friend who, in hindsight, might have been glad for the challenge of fighting winded. It took Belgar half a second to lean and reorient, time enough to grant his opponent free access to the soft of his paw.

A growl mumbled through his nostrils at the shock of too familiar pain. Instinct had urged him to keep his mouth open, his teeth at the ready, but a human’s training had ultimately told him to shut it. He might have been ready to lash out, if he had not thought, but in the height of battle there was no time. Instead, he wrenched upward on the heavy maw that was wrapped around his hand; if Jaiun did not relent, he would do his best to curl his claws around and leave a few pink lines on the bridge of the other bear’s snout.

He would not show his belly; he would not fall. Such dishonor was not an option, even in play. He would, however, throw a benign snarl at the soft abdomen beneath him. The gesture mocked a threat to rip it open, should Jaiun refuse to rise.