Except I did not realize Rurik + Sonja would not know one another. ;_; Also, I stole another pet name from Crime and Punishment--Rodenka? :B Is that okay!?!?
Rurik wasn't particularly picky when it came to discrepancies of age; he didn't have much trouble with the younger ones, but had he known Sonja was just a few weeks shy of his own daughter's age, he might have reconsidered. Maybe—Rurik wasn't exactly picky to begin with, and he might have jumped on something a few months older than his daughter, though now with Rikka it would seem he was attracting a more age-appropriate crowd. No matter—she'd been wonderful anyway. The Russian wolf grinned at Raskolnikov's English, which was pretty damn good. Maybe he had a touch of the linguist in him, as well. The tip of his coal tail wagged this way and that, and he offered a smile to the woman as she introduced herself. He had no idea she spoke Italian, else he might have exercised the scant vocabulary that Cambria had imparted to him. He certainly wouldn't have done so out of coquetry; though neither canine had been outright in asserting their relationship, Rurik could guess it well enough.
“Aye, funny thing to bump into you here, Rodenka” the werewolf said, shaking his head and grinning, applying one of the numerous pet names for the man. Everyone had just about a million names over in Russian—the Sobirat'sya clan especially was font of diminuative forms of names. Maybe the stories of this foreign continent were finally having some impact over on the far coast; Rurik would not be surprised. He turned to the stranger and offered her a smile, ecstatic to meet her. “Good to meet you, Sonja,” he sad, earnestly. She seemed reserved, but he extended his hand to her anyway in a gesture of friendliness. He didn't have to guess—she wasn't relative to him, so it only made sense that Raskolnikov would travel with her for reasons of love or devotion. “Doing pretty well—would to believe Anatoliy showed up just today, even?“ he said, lapsing into Russian as he spoke of gossip. “What about you? How is Avdotya? Ivan?” he asked excitedly, eager for news of family.
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