Blackbeak Bluff And I'll never be alone

@Sequoia 

Wraen had not intended to wander too far away from the flatlands, but the pull to the ocean had been stronger. The sound of the waves and winds traveled far over the fields and she had given in to the whim and followed it. It had taken a long time to get there, but the closer she came the more her heart sang. And she reached the place, where the green earth met vast blue waters, running and laughing. 

She stood on the edge of the tall cliffs, looking at the beautiful and majestic sight before her. And, when she could not restrain herself anymore, she tipped her head muzzle and howled.

This was as far as she had ever gone from home. She would return in the evening, as she always did, but for now she was content to explore the outer reaches of her known world. Her paws carried her far (to her) away from Drageda, along the coast. Sequoia did not have any particular reason to go this way, but it was the way she'd ended up going.

When a howl tore through the late afternoon sky, she knew that she could not ignore it. She was still growing into her nearly five month old body, but she was getting more and more coordinated as the days and weeks flew by. Her gait was more confident, her muscles growing stronger, and her reaction times were getting quicker. As she neared where she thought the howl had come from, she slowed, tilting back her own head and responding with a shorter (and more youthful) howl. She invited the other to seek her out, should they wish to do so.

Wraen heard a reply and turned to see, who it was and caught sight of a piebald wolf in the distance. She went towards the girl in a steady and confident stride and slowed down, when she had come within a distance that they could have a comfortable conversation.

A kind smile, a friendly wag of her tail and a: "Hello! Are you from around here?"

The answer came quickly in the form of a gray wolf with sharp green eyes. Sequoia immediately associated this wolf with the color orange. She'd never come across that particular color, so that was particularly interesting. The orange wolf proceeded to dive right in to conversation, and Seq's ears perked up.

Kinda, yeah! I live with Drageda back that-a-way, she explained, gesturing toward Dragoncrest Cliffs with her muzzle. What about you? What's your name?

Were Wraen aware that she was associated with a color, she would have felt intrigued. Especially, because of the choice - orange - why so? If asked herself this question, after the first confusion, she would choose any of the earthen hues. From green to grey to brown. Colors of early spring. Nothing bright though.

Since she did not, she simply gave another thorough look at the person in front of her, found the girl not only unusual, but very pretty and attractive. She memorized the pack's name and replied to the inquiries aimed at her: "Wraen Redleaf. I formerly ran with the Sunspire wolves, but now I am on my own. I called mountains my home for the past year, therefore seeing the ocean is refreshing. But you probably are used to it already, aren't you?"

Sequoia found it amusing that Wraen's last name was "Redleaf" considering she was quite orange in her eyes. Then again, it was rare that wolves matched up to their color. In fact, she had never considered to ask what color she was. She didn't smell like anything... did that mean she was invisible? That couldn't be right, because others were able to track her down easily. Maybe she would ask one of her parents if she remembered next time she was around them.

Hearing that Wraen had once been a part of a pack, but now wasn't, caused flags to go up in Sequoia's head. Why would somebody leave? She had seen several of her own pack mates leave, although she did not quite understand why they had gone. She hadn't really asked anybody about that, either. She silently added that to the list of things to ask Momma and Daddy.

I've lived by the ocean my whole life! she boasted, as if this were some kind of special achievement only the best wolves could hope to unlock. My name's Sequoia. I don't get a last name until I'm a little bit older, though. She frowned at this, hoping that she would get there sooner rather than later.

Why did you leave the Sunspire wolves? Sequoia asked, unaware that this might be a personal and perhaps even invasive question to ask.

"That must be amazing," Wraen remarked, seeing pride in the girl's eyes as she told this, reading that the novelty and beauty of the ocean had not entirely ceased to exist in her eyes. "Sequoia - lovely to meet you," and the name was unusal too, yet instead of asking, if her parents named all their offspring after trees, she decided to inquire about the family name. She sensed that there had to be an interesting piece of tradition behind it. Or not, because there were plenty of wolves in the world, who led their lives without significant surnames or even names, and were fine. 

"Why so?" she asked right after the inquiry about the circumstances of her decision to leave Sunspire and decided to delay the answer for a bit.

I gotta get good at something first. It's how you know you're an adult in Drageda. Or something like that. Sequoia still didn't fully understand how the Drakru name thing worked, even though it had likely been explained to her umpteen times since she had a general grasp on language, just like all the other Drageda quirks.

Sequoia knew that she and Dacio would likely earn their Drakru name before they were released from their Goufa rank. Assuming that was the case, they would immediately rise higher in Drageda's hierarchy once they came of age. Or something like that. Again, it was one of those things she hadn't quite committed to memory.

"That sounds fair. Names are important," Wraen nodded in agreement with the superficial description of gaining family name at Drageda. You could be a descendant of the most posh and blue bloodlines, but be a disgrace to the whole dynasty. Your work defined your value in the eyes of the family. Challenging, but intriguing principle at the same time.

"Drageda - your home. I have heard about this pack in passing, but I think you are the first member I run across personally," she went on, curious to find out more about the girl's pack and traditions. "Why the odd name? What does it mean?"

Drageda certainly placed a lot of emphasis on names, as did Sequoia's mother and father, and considering that was the only thing she knew, she also placed a significant amount of importance on names. Her own parents always named girls with "ah" names at the end, and boys got "io" names. In fact, even her parents' names followed this tradition. Whether or not it had started with them or some generations before him, the girl did not know.

Wraen asked about her home, Drageda, and Sequoia put on a pensive look. She knew it had a meaning, but she could not quite recall what it meant. I think it means something in Trigedasleng, but I can't remember what. Growing up bilingual gave her plenty of advantages, but she occasionally struggled to find the words she wanted to use in one language or the other. Trigedasleng is how we talk in Drageda. What we're using right now is just called common language, I think. Again, there were gaps in the future Drakru's knowledge. It wasn't the fault of her parents, but rather the fault of a young mind being unable to comprehend and store all the knowledge passed on to her.

"Wow! You speak a foreign language - that is so cool," Wraen exclaimed in sincere awe and then looked away in embarrassment. A wolf her age should not give in to such outbursts of emotion. Calm, controlled and collected was the way to go. "I am sorry, it's just I have never met anyone, who spoke other tongue than, what you called "common language"?" she apologized, but decided not to curb her curiosity now that she had come across an exotic fruit, so to say. 

"How did all this come to be? I have met a fair share of wolves here and beyond, but Drageda and Tri... Tri... something is something entirely novel to me," she said.

Wraen called Trigedasleng a foreign language, which Sequoia thought odd. Drageda was less than a day's travel from here... was it really that foreign? Then again, the girl did know that Thur had come from somewhere else. Maybe she had brought the language with her. Did that make it foreign? If wolves were being born here and learning it from day one, it sure didn't seem like a foreign language to Sequoia, but she kept those thoughts to herself. She did not wish to insult Wraen's intelligence, but it did give her some food for thought (and perhaps another few backlog of questions for her poor parents).

Trigedasleng, Sequoia repeated, taking the word slower this time around and pronouncing each syllable more clearly than she had before. Thuringwethil—the wolf who started Drageda—speaks it. I think she might have brought it from where she came from. Where that was, Sequoia couldn't really say. In fact, she didn't really remember Thur much at all. Only the name and the vague sense of the woman being very mysterious and high ranking. She definitely wouldn't recognize Drageda's founder on sight or smell.

The fact that Wraen seemed so interested in learning more about Drageda was making the girl feel rather important, so she readied herself to answer whatever other questions the adult might have. If she had been taught to keep these things secrets, she had long since forgotten that she was supposed to be doing so.

"Tri-geda-sleng," Wraen repeated the name of the language correctly this time and was sure that she would not forget about it either. And a wolf, who had founded Drageda, had brought it from a different land. Boy, do you learn quickly that the world is much bigger place than you imagined. 

"I will be that shameless person and ask you - can you say some words in it?" she said, giddy as a kid, who sees a bowl of sweets and is about to get them. "Catchphrases maybe? Swearwords?"

Haha, makin' me do research for this!

Wraen repeated the word correctly this time, and Seq flashed her a proud smile. Usually, Sequoia was the one being taught about things. Teaching somebody else was an awesome new experience, and she was itching to do more. So when Wraen asked her to say a few words, bad words, even. She half expected her mother to come barreling up and interrupt right as Sequoia was about to say them, but there was no sign of Momma Portia (or Daddy Dio) anywhere in sight, even after a cursory glance around and behind her.

Jok is a swearword, she explained, Skrish, too. She had only heard adults say those things a few times, and she didn't completely understand their full meaning. Usually they were yelled out in pain, like when somebody stubbed their toe or tripped. Each and every time, the adults would tell Sequoia not to use that word because it was for grownups only.

Eintheing is when... Sequoia tried to translate this into something that made sense in common language, when you're trying to make somebody think it's not a big deal. And klir skai, klin woda is what you might say when somebody's doing really well. They've got everything they need. She hoped she was explaining these well enough, even if she did not suspect Wraen would need to use them anytime soon. Oh! And when we greet each other, we say hei or heya instead of hello.

"Jok and skrish," Wraen found these two words easy enough, probably because silly stuff in sticked in one's mind better than the serious and complex one. "The latter actually sounds like an abbreviation for skirmish," she mused, which was a hilarious word on it's own.

"Okay, let me try these two then... you did klir woda with explaining. Sounds about right?" she asked, canting her head. "And then you have to say - if I am wrong - eintheing?" No big deal, even if you made a mistake. 

"What do you say, when it's the opposite - not good and kind of a big deal?" she was thirsty for more information and was just getting started.

'cause I am too lazy to read in-depth pack descriptions. Easier for people to tell me. :P Look at the bright side, this keeps those words coming.

Klir skai, klin woda go together. It means both the air and the water is clear, so everything's gonna be okay.. In fact, the words even sounded pretty similar to "clear sky, clear water." She supposed the language could always morph a little bit to mean whatever you wanted it to, but that was how she understood that phrase in particular.

Foto means bad, and fotowan is a bad person. Sequoia didn't know many of those, thank goodness. I think we'd just say biga deal, since we don't have a direct translation for that. Sometimes it's common mixed in if we don't have the words. That was the nice thing about the language. Anything that wasn't already in it could be pulled from the other language they knew and used with the wolves who spoke the common language.

"A-haa... speaking in metaphors too. I like it," Wraen said, still full of enthusiasm for every bit of information she got about Drageda and it's customs. Who would have thought that Sequoia would turn out to be a gold-mine. 

"Fotowan," had this character as much understanding of cameras as her player does, she would have noted that the designed name for a bad person correlated well with the idea of "people that camera hates". In other words, no matter, how you photograph them, there is no good photo of them. Wraen did not know this, therefore she memorized the word for what it was. 

"Sounds like the language is still in the making then. Have you ever tried inventing new words in it?" she asked.

Sequoia wasn't sure which language had come first. Perhaps they had been formed around the same time, which would explain their occasional similarities. She did not, and probably could not, know the exact origins of Trigedasleng. Maybe it was not meant to be known, or perhaps it had been lost to history. Whatever the reason for her gaps in knowledge, it did not make much of a difference now.

Wraen seemed to be enjoying the learning process, and she asked if Sequoia had ever made any new words. The thought had honestly never occurred to her. She used the words that were already there, but that was about it. Nope, she replied, Have you ever made up any words? Somehow, she had a pretty good feeling that the answer would be yes.

"Must not be that easy, I guess. Just in case you come up with something that is already there and has an entirely different meaning," Wraen mused, which was the reason she did not speak any foreign tongues or even attempted to find people, who were native speakers, and learn properly. She feared mistakes and embarrassment.

"No, I have not. I found out as a kid that there are plenty of words I have no idea about in, what you call the common tongue. They sound weird and impossible, but they are real. Like..." she fell silent, trying to recall the oddest words in English she had ever heard. "Valetudinarian, for example. It's a posh way to say that you are self-obsessed weakling," she offered, feeling happy that she had managed to spell it right.

"Or obnubilate. Sounds naughty, but it really means that something becomes dark or dim. I have yet to meet a person, who uses it in a casual conversation," she concluded.

Sequoia was glad that she wasn't terribly abnormal, or worse—making up words was something adults did, and she'd been missing out. Wraen also mentioned some really crazy words that Seq had also not heard of, and she leaned in so that she might listen closer and get the full and correct pronunciation of it.

Valetooterin, she said aloud, mispronouncing the word in a way that probably sounded even sillier than the original. She grinned at the way it rolled of her tongue, and the young Drageda wolf wondered what other crazy words could be found. Perhaps there were some words in Trigedasleng that she could dig up from one of her parents or one of the older kids in the pack.

Obnnumilate, she repeated right after Wraen explained that one, again not speaking it quite correctly. Did I say them right? she asked, cocking her head to the side. Wraen had struggled with the words foreign to her, so it only made sense to Sequoia that she would do the same. Wraen seemed like a wealth of information, not to mention she talked to Sequoia like an adult. Those two things alone made Sequoia immediately keen on spending more time with her. Maybe she, like Buckshot, would want to come to Drageda. But for now, Sequoia held that thought.

"No, you did not," Wraen replied, chuckling at the way Sequoia had spelled the words, incidentally creating entirely new terms altogether. "But a simple "toot" is a nice abbreviation of that longer version. And there you have it - you have learned a new swear... metaphor and you can use it without the person finding out that you have insulted them. Creative and twice the fun," she said with a cheeky grin and a wink in Drageda girl's direction.

"As for the latter, it is it's own fault for being a complex word. This teaches you modesty. Be too good and difficult for your own good, and no one will truly appreciate it," she went on in a cheerful manner. "Now, let me think of some other fun words. Like..." she closed her eyes and at the same time in one of the rooms of her mental palace, Wraen upturned a box with a label "Useful Schraps" (because even the greatest make mistakes, if they do not have automatic spellchecker) and dug through the colourful contents to find gems.

"Oh! Here is a good one - Catawampus. What do you think this one is?" she asked.

“Toot” was a pretty good word, Sequoia thought. Having a secret insult to use against others was going to be really, really handy. She could call her siblings names, and there was no way they would find out what she was really saying. Not only that, but this way, she wouldn’t get in trouble! It was the perfect crime, and she couldn’t wait to bring it back to Drageda and use it the next time somebody irked her in the slightest.

Wraen brought up yet another word that sounded like pure nonsense. Catawampus, Sequoia repeated, pronouncing this one correctly with its much easier and simplistic syllables. She tried to dissect the word, taking out parts she might know. Well a cat is a kind of creature that Mamma Portia and Daddy Dio said I should stay away from. They have sharp claws and sharper teeth. I don’t know about the rest of the word... ‘womp’ sounds like hitting somebody. Beyond that, Sequoia was at a loss.

"Ahaa..." Wraen nodded, "quite close, really. It's a fierce and wild animal. The best part about it - it's imaginary." Therefore not real, though there was always the question, how many monsters did roam this Earth, just because people believed them to be true. She was glad that the girl's parents had done their homework and warned their youth to stay away from cats of any sizes. They were a walking malice, cute incarnations of little devils. Ever since her ordeal with a cougar in Moonspear, she herself was hell-bent of avoiding anything that looked remotely cat-like. 

"Some say that these guys are related to bogeymen - you know, those monsters that hide in the dark crevices of the den and are ready to snatch your limbs?" she asked, revealing a childhood fear of her own and the reason, why she even as an adult still preferred to sleep curled up with her four paws tucked snuggly under her body. "Except, this guy could also be a cross between a cat and a vampire - the blood sucking beasts. Makes me really glad, that I have not encountered any in my lifetime," she finished on a contemplative note.

An imaginary cat was much easier to tolerate than an actual one. Sequoia wondered if her parents would be upset if she went close to an imaginary cat. Were the imaginary ones just as scary? Did they have sharp claws and sharper teeth? Maybe they didn’t have any claws or teeth! That was a rather silly though, and Seq giggled to herself, imagining such a thing. How would a cat like that even chew its food or defend itself. She had a pretty good feeling that it wouldn’t be able to do either, which made it much less scary. In fact, it would probably be afraid of wolves! That thought just made her giggle more.

But when Wraen explained what a Catawampus really was, it sounded much scarier than a regular ol’ real cat. Definitely not something that would be afraid of a little wolf like herself. The thought that it would not only kill, but drain its victim of blood was downright unsettling, and Sequoia’s giggles died in her throat. She swallowed hard, trying to conjure up an image of such a creature. Surely it had glowing red eyes and sharp teeth that stuck out from beyond its lips. The girl licked her own lips. Her mouth felt much drier than it had a moment ago when she’d been imagining a much less fearsome creature.

Where does the Catawampus live? she asked, eyes wide and hoping that she would never have to go anywhere near it. Considering she had never heard of such a creature, it seemed unlikely that it lived anywhere nearby. Surely her parents would have warned her of it so she could avoid it at all costs.

People, who knew Wraen well, were used to her musing about imaginary or mythical characters as if they were real. Usually they listened patiently in polite interest or considered her being childish and silly. There was the third group, who thought that she was crazy. And the fourth - children, who were not judgemental and ate from her paw any stories she told them. Meeting someone, who got very spooked by this - in Wraen's opinion - harmless banter, was something entirely new. 

She did not understand in the beginning, why Sequoia's airs suddenly dropped from positively warm and cheerful to a near zero (Celsius) degree of chill. The first explanation was that Wraen had accidentally said something that had insulted her. This had happened before, but somehow did not seem to fit the occasion. Aside mentioning a bloodthirsty... Ohhhhh, right... Really? The light of understanding dawned upon her face and she asked sympathetically: "Did I scare you? 'cause, if I did, I want you to know that all the creatures we are discussing now are 100% not real."