The heat of the Jungle is no longer as unfamiliar as it once had been. It had started when the Tundra thawed - some of his Brothers had taken themselves to the frozen Jungle, but Brennen had stayed. He was not one to leave the Tundra, even in times of difficulty, and Malka and his son had been sheltering in the Tundra (with many of their Jungle family). It had been better to stay, despite the heat. And then they'd returned here, because Malka had duties to her Kingdom and Malyk was out of his reach, unless he visited. So he did, more frequently than he had visited any Kingdom not his own, other than the Falls.

Malyk was nearly a man grown now, and Brennen was hopeful that his son would come to the Tundra, but he would not force the issue. That wasn't really his style. Regardless of his son's choices, he would be a happy father. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to visit, and perhaps drop hints.

Today he is moving slowly, relaxed, taking the time to enjoy the strange wonders of the Jungle. The humid air brushes his skin and the sounds of birds and animals do not silence around him. Today, perhaps because of his slow speed or his growing familiarity, the wildlife does not see him as a threat to their safety. Perhaps because of this, or simply because he isn't paying enough attention, he wanders past the border rather than halting to call for Malyk, nose lowered as he investigates a bright trail of interesting flowers.

He doesn’t startle, on the outside. Too many long years of self-control give him that much – inside, he jerks to awareness with her words, cursing himself for letting his guard down here of all places! This place, where he can name several women who’d like to catch him unawares, and not necessarily for a friendly chat. Perhaps they’d have a friendly chat afterwords, but he’s relatively sure that Scorch and Lagertha, to name a few, would jump him first and chat afterwords. He doesn’t particularly want to give them the opportunity, and he sternly reminds himself to pay more attention. But on the outside, he simply lifts his head, blinking momentarily at the unfamiliar mare in front of him.

An ear flicks in her direction as he contemplates her words, a frown appearing on his face. Ignoring the borders? No, surely he…did. Mentally, Brennen kicks himself again. These aren’t the behaviors that have kept him relatively unharmed for so many years. More like one of the bumbling children they entertain now in the Tundra. The smile that contradicts the mare’s solemn words registers in his brain a half-second later and Brennen responds by quirking a half-smile of his own, turning around fully to face her. “Ah, well, sorry about that. I was looking for my son, but I got distracted.” He glances back at the bright flowers, and then follow the trail of them back to her. “We don’t get many flowers in the Tundra.” For a moment his half-smile is full, a laugh in his eyes, but he doesn’t hold that expression for long. The wry look of half-amusement, half-serious contemplation is more his normal.

“I’m Brennen.” he introduces himself, noticing as they stand that she’s pretty, in the wild way of many of the Jungle women. Once, it feels like lifetimes ago now, he had loved a woman who was quiet and gentle, but they were not right for one another. Her ideal was not his ideal, though he had at many times wished he fit into the peace of Neraza’s falls. But if the Jungle women are anything, they are never boring. Mad, some of them, on many occasions, totally raving, but never boring. And anyway, she doesn’t look crazy. “I’m not in the habit of wandering the Jungle by myself, really, though perhaps I should reconsider. I never get to meet ladies like you when I do things the proper way.” Nope, usually he just gets serious Lagertha or snarky Scorch if it takes him too long to find Malyk.

He is glad to draw a laugh from her with his comment about the flowers – and it’s true, her rebuttal. There aren’t a ton of growing things in the Tundra. Moss, lichen, that sort of thing; some pine trees…but it’s not a wild green place like the Jungle, or even a quietly green place like the Falls. It’s a stark place, a white place, and he doesn’t mind. Usually. Sometimes it gets to you, the emptiness, and every once in a while he understands why some of the Brothers aren’t quite right in the head. And sometimes, when that happens, he seeks company elsewhere. To remind him that life isn’t always the starkness of the Tundra Brotherhood.

Clouds gather overhead, suddenly, and lightening flickers in them. A small part of him catalogues this (he’d never met a weather-worker before but then suddenly there was Kratos and Nihlus and now Lyris) but the greater part of him is exhilarated. The warrior glances at the sky, and then back down at her, grinning at him, the very epitome of the wildness he appreciates in the Jungle women. And not barbed with sarcasm and wariness born of an unfriendly history, either, which is a huge bonus. Her summoning of the weather is playful, but impressive, and he feels the need to return in kind.

“No, I’m not sure,” he replies, a wry laugh in his voice (he doesn’t, after all, know what else she could be capable of), “But I think I can handle it.” There isn’t much ice to be played with here in the Jungle, and the wind would only potentially wreak havoc with her own display, but there are bones here. Ever conscious of the fury he’d invoked the last time he’d pulled horse bones from the ground in the Jungle (he hadn’t cared at the time, as angry as he was with them, but he cares now), he reaches instead for animal bones, conveniently finding some sort of great feline almost whole beneath their feet. The ground shivers for a moment and then the bones burst from the ground, the shape of the feline obvious as it prowls around them, just a little less coordinated that a live feline (he usually draws on equine bones – they’re bigger, and more familiar – and animating the great cat is harder). “I think you’ll find we’re equally fascinating.” Brennen’s smile is just a bit feral, just a little off it’s normal dryness, just a little bigger. “But you’re prettier, of course.”