he knew if they were to successfully reunite with Wylla, they'd need to increase the scope of their search. whilst Ingram was presumably preoccupied by his courter, his sullen sibling elected to strike off on his lonesome to rout the less-frequented regions of their homestead. perhaps she had holed herself up in a field, staking claim over a fox covert and sustaining herself on voles and shrews, an occasional grouse--however unlikely it was, given her unsettleable disposition, Lycaon had to make certain no stone was unturned before they forged ahead to more promising areas.
it was well past sundown by the time he found himself picking along an aimless trail, busied by the task of shoveling snow out of the way with his snout to snift the frost-bound terrain with elevated hopes that it might reveal his sister's nearness to him.
to his disappointment, he was unproductive in his search, unearthing only deer scat and mice distraught over their desolated hovels.
however, a crashing in the tallgrass seized Lyc's attention and he snapped his head up in time to catch a spry shadow streak across the sward. the figure was distinctly female, and whoever she was, appeared to be visibly shaken by something. Lycaon checked if there was a pursuant, then loped after her, reducing the distance between them until he could intercept her path as non-confrontationally as he could muster. his ears enfolded to further denote his unthreatening nature. "hey! take it easy--where's the fire?" he asked, attempting to pry eye-contact from her overwrought gaze.
a look of mighty alarm flushed his features as the sylph untwisted herself from the ragged syncopations of an anxiety attack. if he didn't know any better he would have thought there actually was a fire--what with her hypervigilant, doe-eyed expression and the way she panted as she breathlessly addressed his question with a seeming lack of ability to parse the dramatization therein.
"sense what?" he followed her gaze with a loyalty that indicated some raging curiosity. screwing up his eyes, he scoured the blanched landscape encompassing them for the source of her distress. if he wasn't mistaken, she was being pursued by one of lovecraft's machinations, for he saw and sensed a grand amount of nothing.
he darted his gaze back to the fear-stricken girl. "do you know you're by the coast?" he asked. occultism wasn't exactly unheard of on and around this parish, and those without the intent to partake or observe would be surely unsettled. this blow-in, however, appeared to be less unnerved and more like... outright blood-curdled, by something or someone. "were you separated from your pack?"
sorry for the delay!
as she slowly caught her breath--damn if it hadn't taken off like a hare into the hedgerow--Lycaon kept scanning around them just in case she was indeed spooked by something corporeal. his ears tensed against the all-encompassing stillness; all-encompassing nothing.
the bewilderment she expressed when he brought up her whereabouts gave him the impression she was in a very susceptible position, and he masked faint concern that she might parade into unsavory circumstances if he left her to her own devices now. the wolves who chose the coast as a home were not seldom fiendish, and generally unobliging of strangers. troubling company to keep if you were a timid girl trying to elude unscrupulous beings. "oh, well. it's nothin' special this time of year," he imparted modestly. it was difficult to ward off the elements on the open-faced coast; there was a greater risk for exposure; but it was his preferred residence, so here he remained and did what he could to eke out a fair-to-middling existence for Ingram and himself.
taking note of her intrigue, Lycaon moved stride alongside her. were she to accept his inferred bid to walk with him, he would lead her away from the vulnerability of the ringent fields and onto the path that would take them inshore by moonlight.
if he had struck a cord with his inquiry about her pack, he did not detect it. her story of dispersion from her family was not uncommon, and didn't particularly astound him, but he did wonder why the lash-black girl elected to leave with the apprehension that seemed to feast gluttonously on her nerves. he shrugged. "just figured you were out here looking for something and got turned around." evidently projection on his part. that was his reason for being here--seeking out someone he desperately longed to find. sadly but surely, her anticipation would be dampened by his lack of reasoning.
"um, shot in the dark here. have you met anyone going by the name Wylla? she's.." he drew back slightly, straining to find the ideal way to describe his sister without gratifying the character-assassination aspect of such a task. "the 'scorch the earth' type. about your size, with a distinct v-shape of white on her face to compliment the permanent scowl. maybe the reason you were running in the first place." he spoke, a mirthful smile tip-toeing to his lips.
she seemed possessed of an interminable longing, sneaking wistful gazes towards Ankrya Sound. it was a difficult question she posed -- what made it so not special? -- and he had to carefully consider his response, certain to be found lacking in profundity. "it's colder." he rationalized first. "food is slim pickings." he added after a moment. all of his complaints were anchored in resource privation, but he figured that was as good a reason as any for his decree. "maybe i'm jaded to it? i grew up there." he shrugged. when he thought of the strand, tired memories amalagated in other past ashes came to settle on his mental windowsill; a grey sooty film he was unable to dust away. he briefly wondered if her windowsill was anything like his.
he didn't want to dash her hopes against the rocks with his negative critique, however, and pricked his ears alertly, shrugging off the roughcast drabness of his previous words. "can't beat the sunset though." he compromised, eying her sidelong to gauge her responsiveness. "that's pretty special."
he followed the imprints of his initial arrival, which had become rimed inscriptions, routes darkened by paw-tread, as they walked in union further away from the hinterlands. Lycaon didn't mind this girl's unassuming presence the least bit, and could concieve somewhat of an understanding as she alluded to the yearning inside of her as being something unidentified and haunted with uncertainty. "i think i feel that way too, sometimes." he offered, empathizing with her lack of sureness. his experience of life was in avulsions of emotion -- and unsureness was a dagger that often pricked him. "sometimes i'm homesick even though... this is home." it sounded sort of absurd, but he hoped she might infer the meaning behind it. what did ihe mean by it, anyway? it was the existential dread that frivoled his sense of self far and away.
after asking about Wylla he hung on her every next word. unfortunately, she had not encountered his vulpine sister. it was one of those circumstances in which she had all the fortune, and misfortune had him. Lycaon slouched somewhat visibly, ears pancaked on his head as the prospect of getting a trace of his sister drained along with hopefulness. "oh." he uttered, prepared for the dead-end but resistent to facing it. Kaori presented a willingness to humor him, which he appreciated and tried to reciprocate with whatever particulars came to mind. "um..." he tried to call to mind the details Ingram had shared about their hunt gone dialectical, on the day they'd all fallen away from one another, and squinted towards the shadowclad female. his ears, somehow, flattened lower against his head. "a good while? i haven't seen her in a year... or so... she wasn't really missing for that whole time, just... to me. and now she's literally missing, i think Ingram said he hasn't seen her in months." knowing he was loading the barrel of a long, convaluted story, he tried to prune initial confusion by backtracking someways. "Ingram is my brother." yeah, that about clears it up.
she was considerate and offered to help, despite her own strife, and there was profuse gratitude in his voice. "it's okay, you really don't have to do that. if you see anyone matching her description you now know where to find me, though." he said, and hupped over a frost-interred logstrewn across their path. the one and only thing he asked of the ground beneath his feet was for it to be infallible and predictable, so when his legs punched deep holes into an embankment of snow on the other side and he was promptly buried up to his neck, he looked up at Kaori (presumably smart enough not to jump sally-ho over blockades in the darkness) with outright shock splashed across his face.
it was also then that he realized that he hadn't even introduced himself yet, and in casual, Lycaon fashion, he took the opportunity to do so as he was put, essentially, six feet under. "it's Lycaon, by the way." he revealed through a garrote of snow before struggling forward, shifting maybe five inches with notable effort.
ew i’m a drag. sorry! i tried to shorten this post so their 4 different conversations weren’t so spliced but obvious fail :s you’re welcome to wrap up with your reply!
”if you want to test your sea legs, sure. there’s seal and fish. it’s not bad if you’re used to it.” he shrugged. he liked those meal options, but he preferred the variation plains-dwelling wolves proffered in their culinary inventory. that preference often led to him departing the strand in favor of hunting game he could find in the forest or the mead adjoining them—quail and rodents, generally. he and Ingram could dispatch a deer with unified effort but it was a large expenditure of energy that was best conserved for traveling.
despite his criticisms, the nautical lot was still a desirable waypoint for Kaori. he sensed how the coolness of her eyes lit like a match when he mentioned their view of the sunset, revitalized. ”there’s a bluff just a ways north-west of here, that’s where i would go. i'll show you sometime, if you're up for an escort.” he offered companionably. Ingram was infinitely more focused on cross-examining the entire community than observing the earth’s rotations, but Ly felt particularly and perhaps peculiarly drawn to its mystique.
he hid the scope of his relief that he had a compeer who, at least in part, shared illogical feelings of homesickness. it was an isolating emotion that was hard to explicate, though Kaori did well enough of that for him to know they were mutually harrowed by it. ”i get that. it’s hard to explain, but i get you.”
the ink-tressed sylph was in the middle of ensuring her intent to help, when he found himself in the conundrum of a snowy inhumation. he peered up, she peered down, cobalt eyes seeming to assess his situation and determine his fate good as sealed. ”pleasure to make your acquaintance.” he muttered through the snow, drawing his legs up to his chest and propelling his body forward like a snow-plow. she had appeared at his side, but was as wispy as she was spry and would not be able to pluck him back from his providence. Lycaon sighed. ”i’m feeling very ice-olated right now.” his woe-face disintegrated into a wide grin and his lips poorly stifled a schoolgirl’s giggle.