Ankyra Sound Orphaned Prince

Once more, Arrille craved adventure, and dared to go a little further than last he did, when he met Chusi along the coast. He searched for an adventure, and hopefully a way to up his skills in fighting, he had yet to do so after that one spar with the mute wolf. He couldn't help himself when he started going into song, just like how Maude had. 

"O, my name was Captain Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed" he recited it from there word for word, while casually kicking at the sand in the morning breeze.

@Caiaphas

home. caiaphas breathed the brine, inhaled it into her little lungs -- the ocean, the sand -- every bit of it belonged to her, and she to it. it was a strange sensation, feeling the cold sand between her blunt claws and the dark still air of the grotto. she would never forget this place, and clung to it like a crusty barnacle.

the coywolf had left the grotto early, having discovered signs of @Lycaon and his brother's scents all along the shore. there was another wolf too, female, though she did not recognize who. @Kierkegaard was likely close by, and caiaphas kept a watchful eye for his mistworn features as she trotted along the beach. she paused as the wind carried the scantest hint of a song to her; her long ears palmed forward as she searched down the strand for the source.

the source came in the form of a young wolf that caiaphas nearly did a double-take over; he looked so similar to a pup caiaphas had once harbored on her shores. she scowled, stalking towards him with doubt riddling her features. he looked intimately like kjalarr -- and caiaphas would be an expert on what kjalarr looked like as a cub, given she considered she practically raised him herself (this may or may not be an exaggeration, as caiaphas was wont to exaggerate). "you," she hissed over the froth of the waves, stopping several meters from the pale youth. "what are you doing here?"

Arrille slowly moved his song into humming, then stopped when he saw someone coming his way. He started to turn, thinking they hadn't seen him which wasn't the smartest thought till they spoke. He turned his head to face them, then gulping back fear, he answered. "Just walking around...there isn't a pack here." At least, last he checked there hadn't been.

caiaphas cast a long glare at this yearling that besmirched what she viewed as her shore -- as far as she was concerned, she belonged to it and it to her, and to rid the sound of her presence was to eek the blood out of some sort of spongy animal; gross and ineffective.

as soon as the youth saw her, he turned to leave - a motion that confused caiaphas and caused her to draw her own conclusions about the gallantry of this particular pale individual. "no, there isn't a pack." she crooned, drawing into a disarming sitting position not unlike the stance of a cat. "what were you singing?"

One of Arrille's ears flicked when he heard that. "Uh...a...a shanty" he said, trying to think of what Maude had called it. "Someone taught me it...why, do you like it?" he asked to the wolf. He still had his body turned away from them, just in case he had to bolt, even though she took up a rather harmless stance.

the (ex, thank god) siren queen was bemused that the yearling would not face her. she had never looked at her own reflection in the ocean, but doubted seriously her features were so medusa-like that they would compel this little wolf to want to turn tail.

she curled her thin tail around her haunches and studied him - there was something about him that was so familiar - as if she had known him in another life. she fell silent for a moment, her mind going through the paces as she thought of ways to console the wolf enough that he would turn around and face her.

"a shanty, huh?" the sea-witch inquired, her tone deceptively light. "it's nice. i knew someone who used to call songs shanties. she was my beta." caiaphas fondly recalled the confusing and complex being that was maude - the wolf's intensity and downright tenacity had jived perfectly with caiaphas' rough and tumble life. "her name was maude - she had several songs, though i've forgotten the words to them."

Arrille wasn't so surprised, as he was sure others would have called them shanties. However the mention of that name, it almost knocked him. What were the chances? "Y...You knew Maude?" And besides that, they had been an alpha? "Wait...she?" Last time Arrille had seen Maude, he was sure they were male. "I traveled with them for a time, looking for...for my father."

it was strange the way the world worked; it was small and ever connected -- a wild constellation of events without herald or precedence. caiaphas smiled inwardly as the puppy revealed he knew maude -- perhaps in some way the she-wolf could use this to hedge trust in the clearly all-too-wary puppy.

"i did. a riotous and rightly amusing individual." caiaphas explained, her yellow gaze focused on her quarry. "brown, bawdy and loud -- the way i like my men. only, maude thought different. was different." she paused for a moment, recollecting one of the first times she had met the wolf. "who was your father? did you find him?"

Arrille could agree to that, Maude had been quite interesting. And amusing...and quite loud as well. But he did not know they were a she. "I guess..she was different" he said. He knew less about Maude then he thought. The wolf then asked him about his father, and he shook his head. "I did not find him...I was told he's dead....his name was Kjalaar, Maude knew him. That's why they helped me."

the news that kjallar was dead broke over the siren queen like a wedge of ice; her expression grew hardened, and strained. her muzzle, ugly as it was already by various scars and past injuries, seemed only to darken.

"dead?" she echoed, her voice different from before. harder. sharper. "who killed him?" she snarled, rising to her feet with an angry lash of her tail.

Arrille was ready to turn and run when she started to get up, snarling. He could already tell. She knew his father. But he could also tell, now was not the right time to ask how. "I-I don't know! I was just told by a wolf who looked just like me, well almost...but he said he was dead!" He thought on it, recalling the heda's words. "My alpha said that the wolf who said it might be at some pack called...Blackfeather. Yeah, Blackfeather."

if there was a pack caiaphas despised more than duskfire, it was those feckless, traitorous blackfeather wolves. her countenance soured as she thought back on meldresi, fat with pups and just stupid. whether the female's intelligence was warranted such an opinion, caiaphas was hardly an unbiased contributor -- far as she was concerned, blackfeather had permanently earned a spot on her kill list for failing to honor their end of the deal in the duskfire war.

the pup seemed ready to go, and caiaphas was nursing her thoughts. she didn't know any wolves that looked like kjalarr other than this one before her. "where are you from again, little one?"

Arrille was starting to be afraid of this wolf. How they snarled when hearing of his father's death, a quick change. "Um...Drageda" he said, quieter this time. "I was...I was born in a pack called Neverwinter." He kept his eyes on the female, waiting for them to make some sort of sudden movement.

caiaphas was aware the child was afraid; it was obvious in the way his gaze remained resolutely trained on her form. she offered the thinnest of smiles, though it was a far cry from convincing or kind.

she knew of drageda, but last she had been in the wilds, the pack had been much further inland. presently, she was unaware of their relocation to a more coastal locale.  a frown evinced the corners of her sharp muzzle and she looked at the wolf almost in a sympathetic manner. "but that is so far from here."

Arrille wasn't sure if he should have, but he pointed with his nose in the direction of Drageda, just in case this wolf ever strayed upon their borders. "It's over there, not too far." Then he turned back to the wolf before him. There was something about her reaction to the name he had spoken. "You knew Father, didn't you?"

the siren queen followed the direction of the boy's motion, not quite connecting he was pointing at the cliffs -- though she did not miss the nebulous area in which he referred to. she noted it was different than the direction they had been in before, but any further thoughts were interrupted by the boy's question.

"i did." she said, returning her gaze to the youth. "this place used to be a pack - called saltwinter. he lived here, on this very beach." caiaphas fell silent, mulling over the news of his death. she wondered which of the wolves it was that had committed such an atrocity -- perhaps it was keith, the male she had once tried to kill by drowning. her hackles lifted slightly as the full weight of kjalarr's death shackled her.

Arrille couldn't recall a pack by that name spoken of by Mother of Father. So it made him wonder why it was never spoken of. "He never told me about it..." Arrille murmured. He didn't notice her hackles raising till he gave her a glance, and thought she was about to get aggressive again. "I, uh...I gotta go..." he said, starting to retreat away.

it didn't occur to caiaphas that it was strange the youth before her had never heard of saltwinter. for one, they were a quarrelsome and sorry group of scoundrels and the coast was probably better off without them. the transient nature of their grouping meant that naturally, it left very little of a legacy when it disbanded.

the pup made to move and caiaphas rose quickly, a long ear pulled back. still afflicted by the news of kjalarr's rumored death, she was slow to react until it registered that he would leave if she didn't stop him. "and go where?" she asked curiously, her long frame starting to coil in gentle circles around where he stood.

Arrille stopped when she began to move, he was about ready to sprint. "I, um...back to Drageda" he said, gesturing back to it, starting to turn and head that way, trying his very best not to look back at her. It may not have been home, and he might not barely know anyone ther,e but it was better than nowhere. Even though he was so very curious to know more of his father, this wolf was starting to give off a not so great feeling.

a long frown played on the sylph's narrow features as she followed the wolf's gesture and looked to the imposing cliffs above them. a single ear pulled back in a confused expression and she slid to her stomach, her body a crescent-shaped barricade between the wolf's egress and the roaring of the distant sound.

"there?" she cast a grandiose and flippant wrist in the cliff's direction: "do you even have family there?" she looked upon him, her gaze intense and longing. "i'm the closest thing you got." her words were sharp with conviction and she offered a strangely saccharine smile: "at least let me show you our home."

He nodded. Then almost shook his head, but he was becoming more and more compelled that he shouldn't answer. She was beginning to creep him out now. Then again, she was technically correct. She did seem to know his father. But by how well. And did she knew mother. He did not stop however, and kpet moving. He was really compelled to see. "I-I can come by another time...yeah, another time" he said with a shaky voice.

caiaphas considered then she could make this very easy: simply pluck this child from the sand and run.

but there was not much fun in that, and she didn't care to have a squabbling, struggling child in her mouth. plus subduing him later might prove difficult, as her wares had been ravaged in her absence -- she could strike him hard enough to knock him out, but that would only reward her short term. long term, he might resent it.

larus had been easy - he came trustingly. kevlyn, gods rest his soul, had been sweet and willing from the day the sylph encountered him.

she slithered past the pup again, her body a barricade against his route of escape. "wouldn't you rather stay?"

Arrille kept going, till he found his escape was blocked. He had taken too long to run. He backed away out of fear, shrinking down submissively. "And wh-why would I do that?" he asked. And the part of his mind that wanted to learn more of his father came back, as if whispering. 

"If....If I did...would you tell me everything about my father?" he asked, the temptation to know it all was great.

the sylph was used to seeing fear in her captive's eyes -- it did not rein her in. while she had very little matronly feeling for this youth, perhaps it would grow -- or perhaps, he would slip off some time in the indeterminable future.

with a sickly smile caiaphas assessed the question, finding it a most amenable trade. "you would want to stay, simply because i can take better care of you." she spoke very matter of factly, as if this topic were a frequent thing for her -- and perhaps it was.

"surely, child -- and i could tell you much more than that." she hunkered down in the sand, her stomach flush with the damp earth. "this could be an exciting adventure for you, if you were up to it." cue a crocodilian smile.

Arrille looked her over the female. He didn't even know their name, yet they were becoming more and more convincing. "I..." He thought back, to Drageda. He had not been there long. And, he did want answers on this look-alike. But what did he want answers on more? His parents, or the look-alike?

It took so long to decide...but soon, he came to it. "I will stay" he said, then he mustered courage and walked toward the female. "B-But you have to promise that any question I ask, will be answered."