Sleeping Dragon vikings attack paris

thread for @Goliath ! c:

Only a few days prior had Gyda chased the trespasser from their borders and while the viking queen had always been vigilant when it came to her patrols she threw herself into them with a renewed vigor. In her mind, she could hear Ragnar's disapproval at letting her territoriality get the better of her — surely the loner could have been brought in as a slave and made useful to the Dragon but the mental chide she could hear her father saying would he have been there earned nothing more than a brief scoff by the shield-maiden. Sleeping Dragon had no use for cowards, and certainly no use for wolves that couldn't even smell borders. It was indefinitely better she chased him from the pack, sparing his life not out of mercy but of necessity. She had little doubt that he would tell of the hostile pack upon the slumbering dragon of a volcano and their territorial viking queen that had no qualms about going up against wolves twice her size. Let the word be spread, Gyda's thought. Notoriety was not a bad thing, in her world. It meant those stupid enough to trespass might re-think their actions, and other packs would (hoepfully) stay away from their claimed land and hunting grounds. She would chase any from them as well. 

Perhaps Thuringwethil might not feel the same, but Gyda did not regret nor feel guilt for her decisions in that circumstance. She had done what she thought was best for their wolves. Neither would anyone find the shield-maiden apologizing for it. Ever. Her patrols since had been relatively quiet, as to which Gyda was of mixed feelings about. In the one end, she took this to be a good sign and yet on the other side of that spectrum she felt an itch for a real fight ...or a spar if she absolutely had to settle. The trespasser had tucked tail and ran instead of fighting though Gyda had been sure to give him something to remember her by. She supposed she should relish in the calm because there was usually a storm to follow it.

Yeyy! Sorry for the delay c: Also gonna assume this was /after/ the incident with Cirrus and the Swan 

He had continued his duty of patrolling the borders, personally he was on high alert after the incident with the silver wolf that dared to traverse the property of his superiors. Although it was small, it took a while for him to be able to drive it out of the territory, and he had been left with a small scar were muscle broke on his neck. He rather enjoyed the stillness that followed, at-least on his side. He tried to calm himself with the walks circling the pack borders, and they always were... word? Beautiful, that's what it was. Boot-iee-full, he hadn't used the word for a long time, and it felt almost awkward in his head. He said it to himself, "Be-oot-iful" he tried, and was satisfied with that.

As he slowly treaded around the pack territory, he tried counting his steps, but failed eventually. He would use this time to improve his verbal and mental skill, each day, so that one day he would be as intelligent as he was large, and yet he would have a loooong way to go.

Goliath soon found the scent of another wolf, but he was easily calmed after recalling that it was the scent of one of his leaders. It took him a while to realize how much younger than him they actually were, as both of them acted much far past their age. With wanting to know his pack members better, Goliath began to trod towards her position, not really thinking if the particular wolf was busy.

That's fine! c:

Gyda moved along the borders, her pace even but slowed, pausing to sniff at and squat to refresh them when necessary. The truth was they did not necessarily need refreshed, for there really wasn't any stale marks upon their borders. Perhaps some wolves' scent were lacking where they had not been patrolling them but she could not hold such things against them. Not all wolves were cut out for patrols, nor guarding the borders at that. 

Gyda had just paused in her patrol long enough to kick up as much of the frozen earth as she could to spread her scent through her paw pads upon another small stretch of the borders before the sound of heavy footfalls drew nearer to her position. Her velveteen ears of silver perked and for the briefest of moments she thought that it was coming from the outside of the territory, still on her edge from chasing James from them. She relaxed some when she recognized that the heavy footfalls could only belong to Goliath and sure enough as she peered over a dainty shoulder he appeared, lumbering towards her.

She turned to face him, so that she might greet him, her tail raising over her back in a display of dominance not to be overly assertive but as a reminder considering his lack of subordinate upon his joining nearly cost him his chances. At first, he had not seemed all that thrilled that she was the viking queen of the Dragon, though whether it was because she was small or because she was a woman Gyda did not know nor did she not much care. “Goliath,” She spoke a greeting to him, his name lilting upon her heavily accented voice.

He didn’t move with much urgency, although he tried to not make the shield-maiden wait. He shuffled towards the space where she was, and kept his tail low in submission.

As she turned to face Goliath, he quickly knelt down, to show respect. "Queen" he saluted, his pronunciation of the word was slow, and detached, as though he was rather saying Quee-uhn, but he had improved greatly from his original stance in vocabulary.  He looked at the position of the snow, he still had quite a while to go to make a full trek around the Pack grounds. He had never grown tired from the pace that he took, as it wasn’t too fast, but rather a bit tedious.


He ruffled the fur on his back, he had never realized how much older he was then them, and now it felt kind-of obvious, or rather, he just felt old. He presumed she was also patrolling her borders, and set a mental note of her protective nature. "Goliath, patrolling since first Sun" he added, it didn't take him too long to survey the area, but he just went on laps around. Goliath simply enjoyed making basic observations of the grounds he now lives on. Not only that but it gave him plenty of isolated time to improve on his language.

Moments after the shield-maiden had greeted him, Goliath lowered himself into submission and returned her greeting with her title. She nodded her acknowledgment and gestured with her muzzle for him to rise. He seemed a lot more comfortable showing her respect now than he did upon his joining which was good for him. Gyda did not like to exert her dominance. She was a queen, not a bitch, after all. She only showed dominance to her pack members if she felt it was needed for they knew who she was and that she held the helm beside Heda; but she did not tolerate insubordination well. Perhaps because Ragnar hadn't and everything she'd learned from leading had come from the legend himself or her half-uncle Dagrun — who was ten times more vicious and hostile than his soft spoken brother. 

“That is good,” Gyda commended Goliath when he informed her that he'd been patrolling since very early in the morning — at least this was what she assumed he meant by “first sun”. As she was still trying to remember her common tongue (for Norse was a much better and by far her favorite language) she still had some trouble with remembering her translations and Goliath's unique way of speaking sometimes made it hard for her. In this Gyda suspected they were on something of a similar page. “Would you care to join me?” The Scandinavian asked with a sweep of her muzzle. She liked to patrol alone but she did not mind company if he was willing to tag along. 

Besides, it would give them a chance to catch up. She began to walk then, and inquired softly, “How are you settling? Do you like Sleeping Dragon so far?” hoping that he was following along and thus heard her questions.

Goliath enjoyed it greatly when people would respond in simple sentences, it made the person much easier to understand. Not that he didn't have trouble understanding, it was just a lot harder to actually speak then listen, and that much was simple. He hoped his limited speech wouldn't become a problem in this pack, but since he arrived, most of the wolves, both here and outside his pack, could understand him easily, and that put him to rest, at least a little.

He quickly nodded at the superior's requested, and began to follow the younger wolf, trying at least to be somewhat to her side, where he could hear her better. "Simple." was the best word he could use to describe his current situation "Much fighting" he replied happily. It was a eventful week, and if anything, he enjoyed the thrill of combat. It was the only universal language, spoken by all living things on this planet, and personally, he thought he communicated through it the best. 

"Goli-" he began, "- I - enjoy greatly" he finished. In his original pack, people's names were always addressed by themselves, it was a form of respecting thyself, and I was all but that, and atleast he had been practicing

Gyda was pleased that Goliath accepted her invitation though she would not have been offended if he had decided to head in a different direction. Still, she was grateful for his company, as she did Hush's. Sometimes holding lengthy conversations was exhausting to Gyda who had never been one for much gossip or talk. She was as stoic as Ragnar who had been a man of few words (though for a man of few words he had spoken a lot; a given due to his rank no doubt); being in the presence of her friends and brothers, however, had filled Gyda with a new-found appreciation of Ragnar's soft spoken tendencies. His ilk had been loud, boisterous, crude even. And sometimes the women could give the men a run for their money in that department. The Vikings ranged from all sizes and personalities. Still, Gyda did not feel an unease in the silence. 

A soft laugh escaped the shield-maiden's lips when Goliath responded that there was much fighting. She had heard of it from Thuringwethil and was glad to know that he was contributing. “It's been an exciting week for both of us then,” Though she had been astonished that the lone male she'd intercepted trespassing hadn't, apparently, been man enough to step toe to toe with her; instead favoring to tuck his tail and run she'd left him with something to think about. And something to show for it. “I am glad to hear it.” And she was. Despite her initial weariness of accepting him he had thus far proven to be, by and far, a large asset to the Dragon and her wolves.

His pace began to slow down, from a trot to more of a walk, yet he still continued to survey the area. There was not a lot of reason to hurry, and he would waste energy over something as simple as pacing. It had been fairly exhausting since he arrived in these wilds, and the new pack was very strange, having 2 female leaders, not that there was anything wrong with it. It was just.. uncommon, at least where he came from. The more he thought of it, the more the pack seemed like a Matriarchy. It wasn't for him to contemplate such thoughts, he guessed he was simply not intelligent enough to understand the politics of these lands.

"Gluh-add" he repeated silently, it was a rather unusual word, and he had not used it for quite a while. He shook his head, he couldn't get it right. "Goliath gla-hd too" he tried, and this time, was satisfied enough with his pronunciation. "Patrol tedious.. but nice" he finished, fairly proud for a moment, before returning to his usual stoic expression

For a prolonged moment Gyda studied him, though her icy caribbean gaze did not linger for too long, returning back to the path of their patrol for the sake of not wanting to, perhaps, miss anything; although in all fairness the borders were quiet. Though Gyda could not outright place it there was something that was inherently endearing about her large, lumbering companion, and the viking queen found that she was glad that she had accepted him into their ranks even if, at first, she had held hesitancy due to his seeming dislike of female leaders. Of course, Gyda did not know if this had been — or was — true; instead running off of the assumptions she had made during their first meeting with one another Despite her hesitancy he had thus far proven to be quite a valuable asset to their pack and this was not something that slipped from beneath the shield-maiden's radar.

In some ways Goliath struck her as simple and yet Gyda found herself enjoying his company regardless. He wasn't a man for much conversation and in some ways this reminded her of Ragnar; though Ragnar had been undoubtedly trying to get the upper hand when he favored silence to conversation. She couldn't be sure but she did not think Goliath was as conniving as the silver Northman that Gyda had loved (even though he had raised her as his daughter, ehem). Gyda offered him a charming smile when he spoke that, he, too, was glad. As a queen this was a good thing to hear. Though things would not always be smooth and there would no doubt be disagreements on how situations were handled, or perhaps even how the pack was run Gyda was glad that there seemed to be contentment through their ranks.

She snuck a glimpse at him once more, noting the stoic expression he wore and for a moment felt a hard pang in her heart. It reminded her of Ragnar, never mind that Goliath was the wrong colors and did not bear the ugly scars to his face that the Loðbrok patriarch had. “It is not so tedious when you have company,” Gyda corrected him with a soft laugh, before she settled into silence, her gait easy though her eyes were alert.

Goliath let a small smile escape his lips, yet it felt more melancholic than humorous. "Yes, is true." He continued walking at his slow pace. Their trekking had taken quite a while, and they almost made halfway through the end of (at-least his) lap around the borders. It was rather strange patrolling with his Alpha, but he enjoyed the fact that this leader would work just as hard at protecting the borders as her subordinates.

Either way, Alpha or not, he did enjoy some company on the patrols. While they were long and enjoyable on their own, with another everything felt less tense. Thinking back on it, they might have missed a predator or trespasser while they were chatting. Although that was highly unlikely, the gaps where they spoke were very short, something which he enjoyed, even though at some points he could forget she was even there. His leader seemed smart... well, both of them did. But, they both didn't really talk more then they could bite, and their was this determination in the pack... It was admirable.

He was slightly out of words to say, not that he had to. More of, there were somethings he wanted to know if he had to stay here any longer. “Where Queen from?" he asked, as politely as he could. He didn't want to seem disrespectful, he had only been in the pack for two weeks, which was rather short compared to the years he spent in his past pack.

I'm editing a small conclusion on this so that it can be archived.

Gyda was contented with the natural silence that enveloped them as they patrolled, blurring the lines between alpha and subordinate. Here, on the borders, she was another pack mate, looking to protect her pack from the dangers and unsavory beasts that lurked outside the sanctuary of their claim. Gyda would give her life for any one of them without so much as a second thought and yet she wondered if there were others that would do the same. This wasn't to claim that the shield-maiden was selfless because it was actually quite the opposite: she tended to err to the side of selfishness in a lot of cases. As in the case with Ragnar's priestess wife. Gyda could pretty it up how she wanted: and in some ways she had went with Nerian to keep her safe, because the Priestess was not a warrior by any stretch of the imagination but her reasoning hadn't all been noble. It was very much true that Gyda had went because she had wanted to feel needed, especially when she had felt the oppression of Ragnar's constant whispers of wanting more sons to her mother in saccharine tones when he had thought that her and her brothers had went to sleep.

Gyda did not realize that it hadn't necessarily been a slight to her, despite that she had clearly been Ragnar's favorite from the start. Goliath broke the Scandinavian from her thoughts abruptly leaving her disoriented thought wise for a few seconds before she was able to grasp and make sense of his question. “I was born in these Wilds,” Gyda admitted giving a short pause before she went into elaborating. “There was a pack west of Sleeping Dragon, on the coast they had once claimed Horizon Ridge. I don't remember my time there well for I was a very small girl when my parents abandoned the Ridge in favor of a sanctuary south of the Ridge. My father called the territory Stavanger Bay.” A fond smile played at the corner of her lips as she thought of her childhood home.

“What about you, Goliath? Where are you from?” Gyda listened to his inquiry with interest, nodding along at points though she offered no further words; and after her companion finished to speak they continued on with their patrol in companionable silence.