Redhawk Caldera Mistral Firefly

It was an unusually hot day for spring and Birk, who had spent the earliest part of the morning, hunting diligently for food, sought some well-deserved rest at the lakeside. While living in the North, he had never even thought about swimming, but after observing some of the pack-mates having fun in the water, he had decided to give a try.

The hardest part, however, was not the activity itself, but rather taking that first big step and immersing himself fully in the water. This took more time and courage than he had anticipated, therefore by the time somebody found him, he was still standing, where he had initially been, and was thoughfully regarding the shiny surface.

The warmth of the day brought a certain liveliness to Andalusia. Having been raised in the South, weather like this reminded her of home, and that was enough to warrant a run through the sprawling grassland that formed the bulk of the Caldera. That, and she could only scout for herbs so long before her legs grew restless. Having spent the better of the morning doing just this, the Ostrega rewarded herself with a sprint.

With the sun strong on her back, she bound through the level plain until the heat sunk deep into her skin. Muscles a buzz from the exercise, and throat parched from the heat, she struck at an even trot toward the lake. Andalusia had passed the water once at the beginning of her run, and was surprised to see the same hulking white figure standing in the midst of the shallows, unmoved from where she had seen him on her first venture round.

She considered he might be fishing, but shoved that off with the smile crooked that bent around her lolling tongue. Andalusia drew closer until her toes touched the water's edge. "Stand there long enough and you might become the water itself." She teased, and tilted her head with a curious mirth.

"Oh, really?" Birk turned to face the stranger, who had spoken to him, and much to his delight that the voice belonged to a young, pretty woman. She must have been one of the recent newcomers, because he did not recall seeing her among the original core of the pack. 

"Do you speak from experience?" he then asked, taking few steps out of the water and towards the packmate, curious to find out, who she was.

"Not from my own," Andalusia quipped back, and in that moment, she sized him up. He was nothing far from the ordinary, but had a good a face to him, and an amicable glint to his eyes. Andalusia returned his curiousity with a sly twitch of a grin.

"But I've heard a tale of wolf who has." She left an open invitation, and stilled herself at the water's edge. Was this man privy to legends and myths? Her story was but an old wives' tale, but one she had the time to tell - if he had the time and interest to listen.

"Really?" Birk's interest was piqued. Out of habit - when it came to listening to a story - he tried to sit down, but once his butt met the surface of the water, he decided that being submerged half-way down in a not so warm water would not be a good idea. Therefore he got out on the bank, shook his coat and cast the girl an execptant look. 

"I am all eyes and ears for that tale," he told her. "But first - what is your name?"

The man seemed to forget he was standing in water, and Andalusia bit back a laugh at his sudden realization. She tracked his hurried ascent with bright and humoured eyes, and when he met her with a gentle spray of lakewater that cascaded like the mist of a waterfall, she welcomed the refreshment he rid himself of.

His eagerness sent a pleasant warmth through Andalusia, and she tilted her head, eyes glinting and still trained on him. "I suppose introductions are important, aren't they?" The laugh finally escaped her, gentler than the outburst would have been, and she met the stranger with a theatrical dip of her head. "Andalusia Ostrega. And while I'm all eyes and ears to tell you my tale, first - " at this she raised her head, and exentuated with a slight thrust of her snout toward him. Humour played through the fall of light and shadows on her face. " - what is your name?"

"More than you can imagine," Birk replied with an empty phrase just to fill in for the conversation. It turned out that the girl ran by the name Andalusia, which had a very foreign taste and sound to it. The second - he assumed - was the fancy family name, of which many wolves here seemed to be very fond off. If that made them any more special than the rest - was still to discover. 

"I am Birk," he gave his name with a small dip of his muzzle. "So - the story - how can one become water, if they stand in it for too long?"

He replied with a name much simpler than hers, and famliar. Her ears perked. Burke - wasn't that the name of Sebastian's father? That he offered no surname only served to conclude that he did not belong to the extensive web of Ostregas who teemed these Wilds like rabbits, and, knowing him not of long-lost blood, Andalusia let the matter slide from her mind altogether. They had differents matter to discuss.

"Well, to be fair, it was a bit more complicated than standing in the water," she said, and a sudden touch of nerves shadowed the smile on her lips. Andalusia had never counted herself among the chroniclers of any pack she had run with, but she had heard this story enough times to hope she'd give the tale some justice, even with her rusty account. The outrider eased back on her haunches, and stepped into the tale: "Have you ever seen the ocean, Birk?"

"I have walked one too," Birk replied, recalling the vast ice fields of his former home, many of which were part of an ice cap that covered the ocean. At times, when the water had moved underneath, he had heard the crackling and creaking sound the ice made. Another time his family had arrived at a place, where the waves had created large heaps of ice blocks as tall as mountains. 

"So - what happened?"

Totally winging this haha! I've also never told a story of this length in character before, so I hope the pacing is alright (:

Andaluisa's eyes lit up. Though she'd received the story from a coastal wolf, she herself had never had an audience who'd had much experience of the sea before. Birk's knowledge would bring an interesting challenge to the telling, one she took with a lift of her head and head-first plunge into the tale.

"Many years ago, the sea was still, like the smooth unblemished surface of a wave-striken stone. Though the wind swept over the waters, they remained calm, peaceful, and undisturbed.

The animals of sea and land lived in like manner. Though the beasts would hunt the fish, the fish understood their place in life's great dance, and, when time came for them to die at the teeth of lion, wolf, and bear, they would die knowing their life would give life to many after. And the beasts ate with knowledge of the sacrifice the creatures made for them. So life went on, for a very long time."

She paused for a brief second, and glance at Birk to read his reception.

Birk got in a more comfortable position for listening - he lied down and crossed his forepaws in front of him. With head tilted slightly to one side, he took in every word the girl told him and, when he paused, his face fell for a moment. "That's it?" he asked in a surprised tone, wondering, when and how he had missed that part about a living being becoming a water. He knew that he was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but - hey - how complicated the short story had to be, in order for him to miss the punchline entirely?

Her pause brought an opposite effect from Birk, one that surfaced the bark of a laugh. "If that was it, you could throw me into the sea," she teased, and amusement danced through her eyes. She shifted on her paws, and settled to continue. "No, rest assured, life went on for a very long time. But peace never lasts, and soon, a new beast came to the edge of the world, a beast called Ma'an, who rode the quiet waters and pillaged the sea.

"The surface cracked beneath their husks, and burst from the rigour of their claws. They struck the waters with such violence that even with dawn faded to day, the ocean ran red. Yet when they retired at the blink of light, the sea settled to the same stillness, and the fish grew fewer by the day. Smothered by water and bound to the deep, their cries fell silent, for in fear of Ma'an, bird and beast no longer graced the sea - all but one.

"When all the others fled, one drew near: Maiyun, the lowest of Wolf Kind. And, every day, he would slip into the inlet where the river fed the sea and listen to the cries from the ocean. And every night, he would follow the river back home, with their voices to carry alone. For as the lowest, none gave him ear to speak, and any words he uttered, they ignored, for he spoke of justice and vengeance - yet the fear of Ma'an drove them to cowardice.

"And so the burden grew every day Maiyun spent in the sea. And every day, his heavy shoulders sunk him lower to the depths, until water covered him. But he kept his snout angled to the sky, his mouth and nostrils free from the waters, and air still filled him, until a day came a so bloody to his ears that he couldn't carry his burden any longer. He struck the waters, but the weight slipped his face into the sea.

"The ocean swam into his mouth, and breath choked from his lungs. Where air once flowed, the waters filled him. But instead of taking life, they raged through him like the spring floods, and he surged from the inlet and tore the surface of the deep, to where the shadow of the husks and the blood of the fish ran thickest.

"Maiyun thrashed the husks and broke the claws of Ma'an. He swallowed the ones he could to the ocean's depths, and fought the ones above with the massive waves forged by his fury. The ocean frothed with, and when he finished, the husks lay in scattered across the surface of the sea, and those who escaped were retreating shadows as they tore back to their packs in the cliffs of the sea.

"Exhausted, Maiyun collapsed, and the fish swam about him, and whispered his name on their tongue. They carried him ashore - but the land would not receive him, for the Wolf in him had become the waters. From the seafoam, he watched as his pack emerged from the trees, eyes agape, with the rest of the forest creatures, but their mouths did not wonder after him. Instead, the voice of the waters filled him, and so he turned. The sea did not fall silent that night, nor any night that follow. And he remains in the waves, the vicious and the gentle, to warn Ma'an of his fury, lest they seek to destroy the ocean again."

Andalusia breathed, and a grin filled her face. Satisfied enough with the telling, she let herself slide to her stomach, and crossed her forepaws in the process. "And that's how wolf became the sea." She said - a slight tease, to let Birk know this was actually the end, and her eyes watched again for his reaction.