Raven's Watch Royal Eclipse

@Stark 

Birk had not intended to wander this far North, but as it happens to people, who are new and don't know the local paths and roads very well, he got lost and by the time he had realized his mistake, he was too far to turn around and go back. Plus, he seemed to attract two kinds of people - scary weirdos and beautiful girls - and with the hope of seeing more of the second category, he was quite optimistic, when he set his foot on the East side of the game map. 

He had spent the night in very comfortable and safe premises - an abandoned den just the right size for a wolf like him to climb into and curl up in a ball - now he was on the trail again, looking for a late breakfast and a source of water to quench his thirst. No luck with the first task, but he soon found a river. He stepped into it knee deep and took his fill, thinking, why was it so that water-dwellers could get nice and plump by living in this liquid environment, while he could not do the same thing, while walking the earth.

Stark hadn't visited Octavia recently. It wasn't from lack of want, exactly, because Stark's thoughts frequently still turned to her. They had only had a few months together, but the life they had lived was a strong one. Stark gave a soft sigh, turning from her gravemarker. He heard someone nearby along the river's edge and turned to find them, seeking out the only other soul he'd encountered in the Watch since he'd buried Octavia there. Being so close to the Keep Stark was full of pride, defensive not only of his territory but also of the area that he considered to be hallowed ground. 

"Hello," It was a neutral statement, he'd used a neutral tone, it didn't exactly matter how he spoke when his body betrayed his caution, his defensiveness. He wouldn't bemoan the male for his wandering so long as he behaved himself. That was the important part. If he was disrespectful he'd remove him from the area. 

Birk's ponderings were cut short, when someone interrupted his train of thoughts by greeting him and stopping nearby. The boy turned around to face the stranger and regarded him with a curious look and a lopsided smile. He might be wrong, of course, but the guy looked quite all right at the first glance, therefore he felt confident enough to safely return the greeting: "Ahoy, mate!"

After a little pause, he sat down, wincing a little, when he realized that his lower half was immersed in the cold water, and let loose his usual banter: "You are not here to kick my ass, are you? Because, if you are - I would really prefer you found someone else. I am not in the mood or the right condition. "

Stark watched the man seat himself in the waters, curious even more of the man. Stark shook his head at the man's concern over his plans though he did not relax. "Should you disrespect this land, I'll be sure you're aware of it. Otherwise, I have no issues with you." Stark said evenly enough, his body still between the male's and the area of Octavia's grave. It was also, of course, the way towards the Keep but he wasn't going to volunteer that information. "What brought you out here?" The general impression he'd gotten from most wolves was that the Watch unnerved him - his own sister included. 

Stark had never truly found an issue with it, but, he didn't seem to have the same sensibilities that most wolves did either. Even in the best of his days he'd never behaved like people expected him to - and in the darker days he'd found himself it hadn't helped. Still, he didn't give up - that wasn't who he was or who he'd ever been. 

When the other mentioned disrespecting the land, it occurred to Birk that by sitting in the river could be considered such act, in case these were some sort of sacred waters. But the male did not seem to have any issues with that and the boy would have continued to sit there, had not his belly and all the precious parts below, where the fur was less and the skin was more tender, begun to protest. Therefore he carefully got up, wiggled his butt to get rid off the excess water and then got out to settle on a dry spot. 

"Me... well, I am fooling around," Birk shrugged. "What about you?" In case the other - as serious as he looked - was doing the same, he could suggest fooling around together. That could be fun.

Fooling around was what Stark had done before life and responsibilities. Although he didn't think the other male was necessarily alluding to what Stark's mind went to - after all, only days after spending an afternoon with Peregrine the man had died. It was unfortunate but it was almost a reminder that Stark had to put that behind him. "I...was visiting a friend." He said, somewhat lamely; it wasn't as festive as he made it sound. 

"I'm Stark, by the way." He offered as he decided he'd venture an olive branch out. He couldn't very well blame the guy for not knowing what the lands meant to him or why, after all. 

"Stark, you say - then you must be very strong," Birk had met a good deal of wolves since he had arrived here, but this guy was the first, who had a name that reminded him of the common tongue used up North. His parents and his siblings had been quite fluent, Birk - less so, because his ability to learn and remember languages was not great. Especially, when one did not use it for a long time. Some words stuck though and he thought that perhaps he should elaborate on the subject: ""Stark" means "strong"."

"Anyway - my name is Birk. Though I am the most tree-unlike person you will meet around here. Or in the Ice Fields, should you hapeen to wander there."

Stark was surprised by the fact his name meant anything. He'd never known why his parents gave him his name, nor his sister's theirs, but he didn't worry so much about the meaning behind the title. It was his all the same. He'd made it something more than he imagined he ever would. Strong - he had become strong. He'd refused to be anything else. Stark gave a little laugh at the man's words, shaking his head. "Ah, you won't find me out in the ice." He wouldn't dream of it - he hated the cold. 

"How...how exactly would one be tree like anyways?" Stark asked, warming up somewhat, pushing past the emotions that visiting Octavia's grave gave him. It wasn't Birk's fault - and all he needed was to find a way to chill out some. 

"That's simple mathematics," Birk replied without hesitation. "Say - if you look at me and know that I am "un-tree-like", then a thing that is not like me is... tree-like?" That did not sound logical at all, therefore he closed his mouth shut, looked up in the sky for a bit, thinking about the matter in depth.

"Scratch that. Let's try again," he still had not come up with a good explanation, but he decided just to work his way through the problem by going on talking. "I will think about it, but, while I do that, maybe you have ideas, hm?"

Stark gave a little laugh, shaking his head at the thought of it. Well, he was definitely untreelike, of course, he wasn't covered in bark and he wasn't stuck to the ground. "Well - you aren't rooted to the ground, so that's an obvious difference." Stark hummed out. "And I've never seen a tree take down some prey, so, there's another difference." He was rambling a bit, but the idea was a pointed distraction from the thoughts plaguing him before. 

"Are all your family named like that? Mine's all over the place." He admitted. He and his siblings had odd names, nothing in common that he could tell, so he didn't find it strange at all when others popped up with unusual titles.

"I sort of am rooted - I can't fly after all," Birk commented on the "rooted to the ground" argument and he had something to say about the next one too. "But a tree can take you down... by falling onto you," he had not seen this happen, but the possibility was always there. 

"I have no idea..." he shrugged, because up until now no one had ever pointed out that his name was any more extraordinary than the ones the rest of the folk here had. "Well... there is this old tradition that the scarier name you give to your offspring, the more likely they are going to survive the cold. Which means... that perhaps my family was not too optimistic about me." Or simply the name theory had nothing to do with real life.

He spoke to the guy for a little while longer and then they parted ways never to see each other again.