Lion Head Mesa i hunt the wilderness in myself

[table width=85%][tr][td]

Axolotl studies the seemingly desultory mountain that rises from the arid plains. His search has taken him far from Meares Island. For a wild moment, the Atlanian considers scaling it, seeing if the years of balancing upon rocks that form a natural pier over the ocean on the left side of Meares Island has honed his balance enough to conquer the impressive mountain before him. The imperial turns his sights away from it moments later for the simple fact that he is coastal born and raised and his place is not atop a mountain but near the sea. Near Atlan. The androgynous deity of the sea names him Atlanian — a warrior shaman in their name. Trained to fight for, to protect, to preserve and to navigate. The ability to read Atlan, to decipher their moods and how to navigate them. It is a knowledge that is intimate and highly revered among those of Nootka Sound. It has been a long time when he was found by Tarnish, a scrappy pup of only six months when he left the Sound but he remembers. He remembers the culture, the religion that has become to irrevocably intwined with him.

Axolotl must travel further to reach the coast, this he knows. The grasses underfoot is dry and it’s taller counterparts tickles against his legs as he moves through it, breaching it’s end upon the bank of a small lake that appears as if it has begun to dry up. A frown pulls at the edges of the leviathan’s lips as the monster of the sea looks down at the water before he bows his head and laps from the water, finding it cool and refreshing; enough to sate his thirst. This terrain is foreign to him and the eagerness to reach the coast near unhinges him. It is a restlessness that coils and sparks within his chest, threatening to combust if he does not soon reach the sea. Axolotl knows he must rest, must eat and keep himself in peak condition regardless of his impatience.

[/td][/tr][/table]

Trying out a new char, mind? ;p

Man, did he love the water. Loved the water so damn much, his fur was near permanently swept backwards, especially that dark mane of his, flairing off the back of his skull in a ducktail style. Suave. Well, atleast to himself, he was, uncaring of what the world thought of him and his eccentric fashion, if you coud call it that.
Getting off track.

Today was a Beach day, and the dual colored boy wanted some sun and waves. And some fish. Fish was tastey. And they had pretty songs, sometimes. Loki ran  took his sweet time getting to the beach, sand kicked up and waves singing his name in the sweetest of waves  ways. He threw himself through the hot land, particles being sent in a trail of chaos behind him until he got to the water.
That's when he stopped on a dime.
And put a single toe in.
Very, very, slowly.

An agonizingly slow second sludged by, but the moment it was over, the wolf launched himself into the water.
This right here?
This shit right here?
This was the life.

[table width=85%][tr][td]

The leviathan recoils back impetuously, ears slicking back against his crown as the water coils violently beneath where his muzzle had been, touching just so upon it’s surface. His drink is broken and thirst only half sated as he looks around, glacial gaze wild before it comes to rest on the intrusion. A male has launched himself into the depths of the drying lake. The ink of the male’s coat is easy to spot against the water where it laps and foams around him and to the Atlanian’s dismay against the bank, slopping his paws slick with fresh mud. The sea shaman’s temperament is as unpredictable and violate as the deity’s that he serves so adamantly and lips curl back from his sharp canines in a snarl of displeasure that ends with a noise that is something akin to a venomous hiss. Muscles beneath his ticked cheeks jump as he clenches his jaw tightly. The leviathan has never been disregarded so ignorantly in his life. Axolotl takes the other male’s presence as he will, not bothering to consider that there is a chance (slim though plausible) that the ebony male simply didn’t notice him. “Do you always treat strangers with such disregard?” The leviathan’s words breach in the silence that is broken only by his low snarl and the disruption of the male’s movements in the water.

[/td][/tr][/table]

Loki was doing doughnuts in the water, snapping jaws like some diabolical pike at fish too slow or too unprepared to face the unpredictable swishes of his dual colored face. That one right there, that tastey morsel...swimming so slow, a fat largemouth bass that ventured too close...
SnAPpED-

Kyber rose from the waters, crown up and holding a wriggling bass in tow. He wasn't exactly sure how he wound up in the water...last he remembered he was asleep this morning, and just as he closed his eyes, he expected to still be there. Apparently not, as his terror of a brother had gotten control of the body. And tried drowing him! Well, unless he was fishing, hence the fish. But what for? He had eaten earlier, right? A growling stomach complained how far Loki's rambuncious activities set back his hunger levels, and with a sigh, he pulled himself from the waters. It was exhausting looking after a body it seemed only he cared about.

Dropping the fish on the bank, Kyber lowered a snout to begin eating, but words froze him from such a peaceful delight. He was startled, and didn't exactly know how to react to such hostility. He was a nice guy, unwilling to be rude or porous to anyone. Sweet kid, yea, the yearling tried.

Turning to the left, the boy faced a wolf, obviously older, and more adult figured than he currenlty was. A tail that once hung nonchalantly threatened to tuck under the frosty stare of the earth and shadow shaded wolf. He had disregarded someone he hadn't seen?...

"I...I apologize..I hadn't seen you, sir. I didn't intend to offend."

He really didn't expect someone to even be near. Water clogged his nares, preventing scents from registering, and with a gold flecked paw, he tried working the watery ruin from it. After getting enough work done to where he could somewhat smell again, he picked up and brought the fish to the older man, unwilling to be locked in yet another fight his brother had managed to set him in.

"Here., freshly caught, and very filling- offering to you."

He knew not many wolves went through fishing, and thanks to his brother continuously shoving him in water, Kyber managed to atleast learn. Lung capacity evolved well and after the repeated offense, Kyber picked up fishing. He knew nothing of this male's lifestyle, but he did hope he didn't get angry. He apologized with both words and his only meal of the day.

[table width=85%][tr][td]

Glacial gaze follows the chimera as he rises from the water with his prize — a large mouth bass — as if Axolotl is nothing more than a mere ghost further driving in the nail of annoyance at what the Atlanian perceives to be complete and utter ignorance. Last time the leviathan checked he was fully corporeal. Ticked hackles bristle and upper lip curls back from his teeth once more as the other male finally takes note to him. The warrior shaman draws himself up to his full height watching in satisfaction as the other startles and borders on the line of submission. The leviathan of the seas is not used to be so assertive but then again he’s never had cause to be before. Even in Meares Island where they do not believe in Atlan as wholly (or at all, even) as Nootka Sound does he still garnered respect without asking for it. Axolotl finds himself suddenly in a position where he can demand it and he does.

Assertive or not, as cruel and as commanding as the Sea or not, Axolotl is a shaman and thus is a teacher and the fact that the other male went so long without realizing he was there was little more than troubling. The bass is offered to him as an apology and the leviathan of the seas accept the tribute with indifference only glimpsing down at the kill for a few seconds. “How have you gotten through life so unaware of your surroundings?” The Atlanian breaks his terse silence, truly perplexed by this. Yet, he has seen it with his own eyes and there is no disputing the evidence that he has witnessed. “I had ample opportunities to attack you three times over with you none the wiser until my teeth were sinking into your flesh.” At the end of the day, the male’s incognizance is not Axolotl’s problem but he has been a shaman for most of his life and the impulse to impart some lesson was mere habit these days. “Naïvety towards your surroundings will get you killed.” A lesson that Axolotl himself has learned the hard way though he was not so fortunate enough to have someone offer him such advice. Instead, Atlan had very nearly claimed his life as a young cub. If not for Tarnish Atlan may have never relinquished Their physical hold upon him. Whether or not the male decides to take Axolotl's advice to heart or not ...well that was up to him.

[/td][/tr][/table]

Kyber hadn't realized exactly how hardcore life could be, as the yearling hadn't had much time to interact with others. If it hadn't have been for his brother getting him in situations where he was already in danger, or in situations where he had already escaped danger, he was clueless. He didn't know what to say to the chastising Elder, his own submissive instinct quelling any confidence he could have dared to summon. But what could he tell him? That he had a brother who was mad, running around and flipping switches inside his head? Or that there was a problem he had where the brother happened to take over in the most unexpected times of his life, where he had little to no strength to regain control? It was a constant battle, and hm being so weakened in comparison to Loki, he knew it was a losing battle, no matter how long or hard he fought.

His tail, a dark banner glimmering an occasionally seen hue of sunlight shaded hairs was fully tucked, his anxiety refusing to let him speak until the man before him finished his stern chiding. Almost fatherly he finished, the moral of the situation being presented, handed to Kyber as if sparing his life was something he chose to do. What would have provoked the Elder? Just him not speaking to him?

"I- I have a problem, sir...Who you saw earlier wasn't me..."

He dared to admit it? To admit his unhinged personality? To throw his brother into the limelight of a complete stranger? What if this stranger could help him?
Or what if the stranger thought he was worth putting down...
like the monster...that he is..

"It was my brother."

Kyber was sure to be met with such words possibly the very same uncaring attitude the poor fish received, or the grace of confusion. It would atleast show interest.

"I have a problem, sir...I have a brother, and he is in my head. He is mean, wrong, apathetic, and selfish. I have to fight for my life to continue while he strives for its end...And I don't wanna die. I really don't," the youth sniffled a bit, knowing how dangerously easy it was for something as delicate as your life to be snatched away in less than a blink. But the foul part of it was...It wasn't his fault. He was a good boy. His brother was not.

A tear welled up in his eyes, the first crystaline drop slipping from the left vivid emerald. It was unfair! He had to continuously take the beatings, the bites, the threats, the everythng while his brother sat back and laughed away. It was torment, and Kyber was exhausted. Loki knew how exhausted the brother was, and could flip over with a flick of a claw, but in this instant, he chose not to. Conniving trickster he was, as he let his pathetic brother whimper and whine over the paw pads of another. Be sad, be sad until you cry. Cry, cry, and cry, until you craft seas. Seas of saltine sadness, that in the end, will drown everyone, including you.

Looking up at an angle to the darker brown and shale pelted Elder, Kyber asked him after he relinqushed such biography.

"Can you please help me?"

[table width=85%][tr][td]

Offering advice upon chiding tongue, it would seem, has garnered the leviathan more than he has asked for as the chimera responds claiming that whom he saw before wasn’t him. Initially, this strikes little more than skepticism within the Atlanian because his eyes are fully functioning and he knows that physically he did not see two different wolves. It was my brother the chimera speaks causing Axolotl’s pupils to narrow in the icy, glacial pools of his irises because the other was confused, as far as the leviathan was concerned. He’d only seen one physical being. The leviathan is no stranger to outlandish tales, though, as a shaman he has heard many and with varying reaches of believability. He has mastered the terse look that does not betray him either way though he listens nevertheless, the cup of his ears forth atop his skull an offer of rapt attention. He speaks of a brother in his head. He has heard of chimeras from the elder Atlanian’s: two beasts merged together within the womb. It is rare, he surmises as the male before him begins to cry, pleading for help that the leviathan is not sure he can offer.

He is not sure Atlan can truly help.

He cannot cure a chimera. They are born as they are and if it is truly two personalities sharing a body that is two in one well, Axolotl thinks there is nothing to cure that but what one brother seeks: death. He grapples for some sort of answer but he has none. This is, admittedly, above the Atlanian’s pay grade as it is not a common problem he has dealt with. “What do you hope I can do?” Axolotl asks because he is uncertain of what the stranger is precisely asking of him. Help is vague and though there is likely some sort of ritual he may be able to conduct with Atlan to offer some sort of aid — or comfort at best — the leviathan cannot change DNA or resulting consequences of genetics.

[/td][/tr][/table]

Desperation clung to his words, despite what he calmness he tried to portrait. It was a mess,and he knew he was, too. Words flew from him, out and naked before the stranger, hope even sprinkled lightly amongst the needing plead.

"Something? Anything? A cocktail of herbs, a prayer, some ritual, a head on collision, I just need something that will work, to happen. I don't know his triggers, his motives, nothing other to destroy, maim, hurt, fornicate, involve any and everything that deserves better into a spew of chaos and disaster. I just need help to stop him."

In truth, the half and half colored boy didn't actually know, but rumors were a thing, and he appreciated any help that could rid him of this brother of his, a disease that ravaged and roamed free to his heart's content. Too many times had he near died because of his brother, too many times had be suffered at a cruel siblings behest. Once, he woke up in an ursine's den, for crying out loud!

"If you can't, I wholeheartedly apologize for the demand, I just have to keep searching."

Emeralds were cast back down to the ground, and closed. What could anyone ever do for him? What if his brother was a permanent thing? Something he just couldn't get rid of?...

we can do a part 2 of this thread and continue it on the coast? or if you'd rather we could wrap this up and say that it was done behind the scenes. i'm cool with whichever. :-)

The chimera’s speech is rapid as he spouts off ideas, desperately, in Axolotl’s opinion, anything that may aid him. The leviathan is not a medicinal shaman, for what use does the Sea have for medicines? They have always demanded warriors, devoted wolves that know how to read and navigate Them, how to protect those who do not and cannot understand Them from death. Atlan is dangerous, unpredictable. They could appear calm but a riptide unseen to the eye could claim the life of any unfortunate enough to be caught in it and unknowing of how to get out of it. Atlan is a giver of life but They also take life without mercy, without sorrow, without remorse. Whether Atlan can help this strange man or not Axolotl does not know but if there is a chance of aid, regardless of how slim, or if taking to Atlan offers comfort, at the very least, then it is the leviathan’s duty to assist. “I cannot promise anything,” The leviathan begins taking pause to draw his tongue against his jowls as he regards the chimera with glacial gaze, glimpsing once down at the fish. It is tribute, it is payment. “There is a ritual I can perform that may help but it may aggravate your brother instead. It is hard for me to say,” The leviathan of the seas is dealing with something he has never dealt with before and this is all trial and error. “We must travel to the coast for it is there Atlan awaits us.” And it was where the chimera might find temporary solace. “If nothing else perhaps Atlan can offer you some comfort.” Axolotl gestures in their heading with his muzzle, encouraging the chimera to go forth.

Kybe nodded profusely, already eager to commit to this unnamed man and his unnamed ritual. He could go for anything right now! For it to be here, at the coast, or even in a tree, Kyber wanted it. Needed it. Because if it helped in stopping his brother, he was willing to try anything.

"I thank you."

And with that he stood, ready and waiting for the stranger to whisk him away to this Atlan, and hopefully rid him of his brother, once and for all.

[Fin]

[ooc] I would lov if we could have a part two. :D [.ooc]