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There we go. It's short here, but we can make them longer if you'd like.
The gray and white wolf walked calmly toward the scent of saltwater, the Atlantic ocean calling to him as something new and magnificent. His journey had taken him to the furthest reaches of the continent, and for that a part of him was thankful. He had seen many things during this prolonged endeavor, gained and lost many things during this year-long quest. Now that it was almost completed, he felt a strange quality hanging like a haze about his thoughts...perhaps a certain indecision as to how he should feel. He felt a certain peace, and he couldn't decide if it was his mind resting prematurely, or if it was the calm before the storm of his journey's final chapter.
The werewolf's two padded feet walked nimbly between the rocks of the Shattered Coast territory, a detour in his route to determine the land's layout. The scent was compelling, and he wanted to see the ocean one more time, just in case something were to happen in these final days of his mission. He regretted that his teacher Varn had not been able to see the ocean. It was a sight that the older wolf's eyes would have surely loved to see, he was sure. He stared into the surf, as it came and went hypnotically...he was swept up in it, almost in a trance, though he kept the presence of mind to be wary in this strange land, his honed senses always alert in case of any unexpected turn of events.
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[html]  Looks fine with me. We'll just go with the flow 
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It had taken the female quite a bit of time to make it all the way here to the coast again. Her leg was after all still healing and after a ways she would have to stop and rest it so as to not injure it once again. But she had greatly wanted to return here ever since her acceptance into Twilight Vale. She had passed this coast as fast as she could on her trek west. She had been going at the quickest speed her back leg would permit to find another pack of wolves. However that quest had been completed, and the ebony femme had decided to take the day (or however long it would take her) to come back and see this territory.
Savina had perched herself on the precipice of one of the rocks that hung near the waters, staring out into the vast ocean with her blazing green orbs. She had always loved being near the sea. The sound of the waves crashing against the shore, gulls calling, the salty scent of the ocean filling her head, these were things that she loved. But she also had a great respect for the power of the ocean, now more so than ever after her horrible ordeal on the ship. The wolf would never forget the sound of the sea rending the hull of the ship asunder and then how it had pulled her out into itself. However the sea had not killed her, it had washed her up on the shore of these lands, and with only a minor injury. She would eternally grateful for that. Perhaps the storm had been a blessing in disguise after all. Savina had started a new life here, and so far it had been a good one.
The femme was so caught up in watching tide come and go that she hadn't noticed the shifted male also admiring the coast not too far off from where she was. "Saluti!" She called out to the peppered wolf. Something about the sea had made her almost forget that most of the lupines here spoke English and she quickly slipped back into Italian.
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"Duis nibh tortor, semper quis, bibendum vitae, fringilla in, tortor."
The shifted wolf turned to see the approach of a newcomer, a friendly greeting to break his peace. That was alright...thoughtful reflection could wait until later, in the meantime he could humor one more of the region's wolves. He offered a smile back, remaining where he stood.
"Greetings," he called back kindly, raising a hand in a friendly wave. His calm was unperturbed by her lingual preferences, though he would have to eventually be on his way if she spoke nothing which he could understand. No...he was willing to waste a little time, why burn through the final chapter after going through the trouble of reading the rest of the book in exquisite detail? No, he could wait, and he could watch, and he could learn; he had the time to do these things, to both enjoy and analyze the place where his story would reach its ultimate culmination.
"How are you doing today?" he said calmly, relaxed and casual, maintaining easy control of his outward expression and body language. Not that he wasn't feeling calm and relaxed, but there was always an undercurrent of awareness and preparedness for the worst running through him, just as there was in any member of GreyClaw. No, the climax of the story was not here yet, but he was ready for the day when it was.
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"Greetings" the other wolf called back to her. The femme let a friendly smile break across her maw and her tail began wag a bit. She was somewhat glad of the company. Being around others usually kept her darker thoughts and memories at bay. "Sorry about the Italian, sometimes I forget most speak English here. I'm still fairly new to these lands." Her voice was thick with her accent, but it was still easy to understand what she was saying. Savina was always careful to annunciate when speaking her non-native tongue. The onyx female pushed herself back up onto her paws and shook herself. "I'm doing pretty well, thank you. My leg still bothers me at times, but its been doing much better." She nodded her head to her left back leg that was still bandaged.
The wolfess took a quick stretch and then slowly began walking closer to the peppered male. "And how are you doing? Admiring the sea as I was?" She stopped about half-way to the other and sat down, her leg wasn't happy about the sudden movement, but she didn't show the pain on her face. Instead she looked back out to the water crashing against the shore. "I find it very relaxing. The sounds, the smells, the sights." She looked back at the male, her green eyes smiling along with her muzzle. "My name is Savina, what's yours?"
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Hmm...perhaps they shall be friends, after a fashion =)
"My name is Asmodai," he said simply, regarding her with half-lidded eyes. "I don't come from around here, so the sea is very pretty to my eyes. It isn't something I could have guessed existed. It is a reward in itself for coming here." He wouldn't say too much, though the ocean was a safe subject. Not a lie, but not a truth that was not specific enough to reveal anything about himself. He was very slightly self-conscious about the scars on his stomach...which were all too evident as he stood before her in were form. A tactful wolf wouldn't comment on them, as they were very old and clearly not something recent that needed tending or worrying about. If she asked anyway, he could think of an answer that would satisfy without digging too deep into his own history.
"I am doing alright...I have felt very pensive, lately. This is a good place to just relax and think." A good place to heal the wounds left by what had happened...to recover from the shock of a lost friend, to recover from the bite wound on his left arm, and to gather information and formulate a plan for how Soro and himself could successfully complete the last leg of their mission. Without Varn and Muaru, simply forging ahead was out of the question, even for a small group, the risk was too large. They would need to move with extreme caution to ensure the integrity and eventual completion of their task.
"What have you come here to think about? Anything?"
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"Ah, so we are both new here. I'm from Italy, it lies across that vast expanse of water." The jet-black female once again motioned towards the water. "Yes, I've always found the sea beautiful. I remember when I saw it for the first time. It took my breath away. Where are you from? If you don't mind my asking." Savina didn't want to come off as too invasive. There were things that she didn't want to talk about after all, and she was sure Asmodai was no different. "This is a good place to just relax and think." She nodded her head at him. "I agree. I've always found the coast to be a great place to come and think. The sound of the waves are very soothing. Its a good place to escape." The femme often found herself going to the ocean when she needed to be alone and think about things. Or if the ocean wasn't available, at least a lake or a river. Something about the water calmed her soul. It could make her relax when nothing else could.
She thought about his question for a moment. She knew she had come here because she wanted to see this coast again, but were there other reasons. Had she perhaps come here to close the chapter on her old life across the very sea she was looking at? The female thought that might be it, but she wasn't sure. Her feelings about her homeland were still very mixed. "Well when I was looking for a new home in this land I had passed through this way before. I did not have the time to admire it then, so now that I have found a new pack I wanted to return to appreciate this place more thoroughly. I was thinking about where I came from, and how I ended up here. How ruthless and yet kind nature can be, specifically the ocean." She almost felt like she was babbling, she hoped the male didn't think her dull.
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Asmodai nodded as she spoke, wondering just how vast this sea was for someone to come across. It couldn't be that far, if wolves could traverse it. The idea of traveling such distances by sea wasn't something which concerned him, though part of this was because it was beyond his comprehension. He traveled great distances by foot, but his entire world was his clan and the profession which he had accepted as a part of that clan. GreyClaw was renowned for one thing, and that was the one thing he knew perfectly.
"That's quite poetic," he said quietly. "You have an artful spirit, it seems. That isn't something that a hard-nosed and fully pragmatic wolf would do." It was something that he himself might do...but not something he would have expected from Muaru or Soro. Varn might have had such a side to himself, a side of sentiment and deeper meanings, but he had kept it well hidden. He had shown this side to his pupil a few times, but not often. There wasn't much room in their lives for such things.
"Perhaps, in this way, you and I are the same. We can appreciate the relevance behind the obvious. A meaning beneath the apparent."
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If you could've seen her skin you would've been able to tell that she blushed a bit at his comment. "Why thank you. I do like to try and look beyond the surface of things." She wasn't often complimented by males, and even a small compliment such as this one was enough to bring on that sort of reaction. That was one problem that Savina had that she hated, was how awkward she could be around the opposite sex. The wolf blamed it partially of her "father" Serge. Seeing the way he treated her mother had always made her so angry, and made her often wary of other males when she was younger. Even now she could have troubles trusting men, but it was only when she had a strong bad feeling about them. The ebony girl tried her best not to seem too flustered, she didn't want to make Asmodai feel awkward.
Savina smiled at him again. "A meaning beneath the apparent." She liked that phrase. It was nice, had a good feeling to it. "Perhaps we are. What were you thinking about? If you do not wish to say it's alright, but I'd be happy to hear it if you are willing to share." The femme could sense that he had things that he did not want to reveal or expose, and she didn't want to pry too deep and offend him.
It was only now that she noticed the wound on his arm. She looked from it to his face with concern in her emerald eyes. "Your arm...that looks like its painful. Do you need someone to look at it? I'm afraid I'm no healer, but my leader is. She's the one who bandaged my leg." The wolfess wouldn't try and force him to go anywhere, but she wanted to help him if she could.
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"I was thinking about many things...most of which wouldn't be easily expressed. It is enough to say that the road behind me is a long one, and has left me much to think about. As for this wound of mine, it is old enough that it can heal on its own. I thank you for your kindness, but I will be fine." Asmodai spoke with unconcerned confidence, in a relaxed tone that veiled the true character of the dominant part of his spirit. Artful and symbolic, yes, those elements did reside within his mind also, but something else lay in wait behind those half-lidded eyes, though it would not emerge this day.
"It is only a bite wound, a meaningless souvenir of a pointless misunderstanding. The wolf who did it was not rabid, so I am fine. How is it that your leg became hurt, if it isn't too forward to ask?" He did not put any force behind his words, the inflection of his voice would have suggested that he was discussing the weather or some equally mundane subject. He was not worried, and his confidence was so casual, so automatic, as to brook no argument on the matter. He knew the situation, and had it well under control.
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Savina was glad to hear that his wound was not bad and that he did not require treatment. Even though she had offered the help and would never back out of something she said she could do, she wasn't sure if she was supposed to bring people into the packlands. Though admittedly he wasn't a coyote, and as far as she knew it was only the coyote clan that was causing all the trouble. Certainly Naniko would've helped Asmodai as willingly as she had helped Savina, but she thought she should probably asked before she started bring people back to the pack and offering them the help of others.
As he asked about her own injury she looked down at the bandaged leg again. "Oh yes, that. Well, I actually ended up in these lands by accident. I traveled close to a port town in Italy and wondered onto one of the ships. I had always wondered how one looked inside. However the ship that I got onto was ready to set sail, and before I could get back to land it had taken off. Being in the hull of the boat I had no idea how many days and nights had passed, but after a while a horrible storm came up. The ship rocked back and forth and began to creak louder and louder. Before I even knew what was happening the ship was torn apart and I got washed out into the ocean. After that I don't remember anything until I washed up on the shore east of here. I sustained this injury sometime either when the ship sank or sometime during my journey in the sea. Luckily it is only a sprain and its been healing well." That might've been a more detailed answer than he had wanted, but she thought it was the best way to explain what had happened. It gave the whole picture instead of just bits and pieces.
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Hmm...I'm not sure where they should take it from here.
Asmodai furrowed his brows slightly as she spoke. He did not understand everything she was saying, he did not know what ships or hulls were, so he had trouble fathoming the situation she described. He could glean from the context that it had something to do with how she'd come to be here from over the water.
"It is lucky that you managed to make it on to land with such an injury, though unlucky that you took the injury at all. I do not know what sort of injury is typical in a ship crash." He knew a little bit about how to treat injuries, everyone from Grey Claw needed to at least know the basics of such things. It didn't sound like crossing the great waters was something which he would want to do, though. Taking injuries from putting yourself in a dangerous environment was a way he was taught never to become hurt...Lonna had died that way, putting her old body through the rigors of travel and taking a leap which was too great for her brittle bones. In so doing, she had failed to attain the preferred death of her people, or even the death of old age.
"How many wolves cross the ocean? How often does it happen, and what do outsiders travel here for that they can't get on the other side of the water?" The ocean was a thing of interest to him, but it sounded like traversing it was dangerous and--on the surface, anyway--entirely pointless. He would hold this especially true if he knew how centralized wolf society was in Europe.
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The jet-black colored femme nodded as Asmodai talked. "I don't know what injuries are typical either. I imagine we could not have been far from here when it sank, or I doubt that I would've made it here alive." The girl hadn't really let that thought enter her consciousness, but here it came out of nowhere. It had been a very real possibility that she would not make it out of the ocean alive. She had tried to keep those thoughts out of her mind, how close she had come to facing her own mortality in the face. But there it was. However she shook it off as soon as it had come. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate still having her life, but she also didn't think that it was healthy to dwell on the fact.
"I'm afraid I won't be able to provide you many answers for those questions" Savina laughed a bit. "Most of the wolves in Europe have adapted to a more human lifestyle and spend basically all their time in their Optime form. My pack had decided to return to the old ways of living and we almost never shirt out of our natural forms. Sometime I observed the cities from the edge of the wilderness, but that is about all I know about them. Honestly I don't know why they would travel across the water to here when their culture is so different from the one here. Maybe some of them want to reconnect with that life that they've discarded." Savina had never truly understood why the European wolves had decided to live like humans. The femme had been curious about their towns and buildings, but never had wanted to actually live in that way. It was probably partially due to the way she had been raised and lived, but it just seemed unnatural to her for a wolf to live in such a fashion. She didn't necessarily fault them for it, but she was happy to be in a place where they were more akin to her own lifestyle.
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What she spoke of was strange. Wolves who lived as the humans had? Odd indeed, though it did explain the use of artificial creations to traverse the waters. He supposed that he lived a little bit like a human might...he traveled around on two legs, he had one of the bags they had created strapped to his back, filled with more objects made long ago by their hands. He didn't know just how similar he might be to the wolves Savina described, but he could understand spending a lot of time in were form. It was useful. It had all the advantages of being big, and provided appendages that allowed werewolves to do a wide range of things that were simply impossible for non-weres to do.
"That's alright," he said, "It wasn't an important question, by any means, only a curiosity. So you ended up here by happenstance...you know, that's quite a story. You have done and seen things that I'd wager no one else here has. You should take some pride in the troubles of your life. It's amazing events that make amazing people, and I'd say that what brought you here was a far better adventure than any one else has experienced." His tone was friendly, and a part of him did find it all interesting, but a deeper and well-hidden part of him knew that he was putting on a very slight veneer of wonder to hide the calluses left by his life. He had seen a lot of things himself, but he could act, and right now, a very slight increase in the innocence within his own nature and a decrease in world-weariness would make him much more agreeable to the folk around here, he was certain.
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[html] Sounds like a good place to start to wrap things up? Unless you have some more things you'd like to do, in which case I can edit my post a bit.
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The femme couldn't help but stand a bit taller at his words. She had never looked at her sea-faring ordeal in that light before, but what he said made a lot of sense. Asmodai had a way of making her feel really good about herself. When he complimented her she didn't feel like he was just trying to get something from her or take advantage of her like she did with some of the opposite gender. "Why thank you Asmodai, I never thought of it like that before. But I suppose its like that saying, 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. It was quite the adventure, and it did bring me to what seems to be like a better place than where I was." The ebon female smiled at her peppered colored new friend, her tail slightly wagging. She really liked this wolf she decided, one of the few males she had ever met to win her over so easily.
Savina could tell that Asmodai had his own agenda, his own journey that he was on, but she really hoped that this would not be the only time that she would see the wolf. He seemed like a good soul, and heavens know that sometimes it can be hard to find good souls in this world. The wolfess also didn't have a lot of friends yet in this land that was still so new to her. Sure, she hadn't been here that long, and in time she would probably have quite a few (or at least she hoped). But at this point every friend was precious to her and she hated to lose one. "I know that you're probably not in the market for one, but I live in a pack that's not too far from here. It's off to the west, its called Twilight Vale. The lead female is a very nice wolf. I'm sure that if you ever want a pack that you'd be welcome there. Also if you ever want to find me again that's where I'll be. I do hope that our paths will cross again, and hopefully you will consider me a friend. If you ever need my help or hospitality I will be happy to give it." She gave a warm smile to the gray-colored male.
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Yeah, this looks like a good place to stop. Thanks for the thread!
"I thank you for the invitation, Savina. I'll keep it in mind," he said with a smile. The fact was that he might indeed need a pack soon. This was where he was supposed to be, this was supposed to be the final chapter of his journey, before the return home. He may well need to blend in for a while until his wound healed, gathering enough information to be assured of the success of his quest. Careful planning would be in order for that.
"Thank you also for the offer of friendship. I gladly accept. I, too, hope that our paths cross in the near future." With that, the were rose up to his full height, and looked north, the direction he planned to head. He didn't know what other characters he would meet here, but if they were all as friendly and unassuming as the girl in front of him, he felt that this last step would not only be much simpler, but also more pleasant. He hoped this was the case. He also hoped that Soro would be able to enjoy some such hospitality while he resided here as well, but he suspected that his cousin would steer well clear of anyone for some time to come.
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