Stavanger Bay Morgenstern Balding

Old and wise people say that, when poverty enters the house, love flies out of the window. To rephrase it - you cannot run a business on enthusiasm alone. Dwin was a happy exception to this rule. At least in this moment of time. Thinner and dirtier than she had first left Brecheliant, a little tired and worn, hungry most of the time and cold half of it... nothing could lessen her triumph, when she set foot on the shores and witnessed the wast field of water ahead of her. It was absolutely stunning and mind-blowing. Up until this point in her life the only bodies of water she had seen, had had a margin, a border, an end. Here - try as hard as she could, it seemed that the water reached to the edge of the world and beyond. 

She sat down in the soft sand to take in the view, breathe in and taste the salty air and revel in the scene before her. It reinforced her belief that going out in the world had been the right decision all along. That every boring, difficult of homesick day had been absolutely worth it to have this one moment of distilled joy. The scene was something. Beautiful. Mesmerizing.

Heph was not a particularly cautious traveler, but she possessed enough appreciation for surveying a territory and learning the hunting paths that she had matched the pace of one on her trek north. But when she smelled the overpowering scent of something almost astringent on the air and the sound of water which carried further than her eyes allowed she could convince herself that the sea which she had determined to lay eyes one was a mere jaunt away. That knowledge settled in her and she breathed it in as if to confirm her assumptions before using her legs to bolt off in that direction in a long lope of a wolf who knew where she was going.

And when she did finally catch sight of it her and the heavy air punched into her lungs with the force of that winter wind along the water she felt that breeze burn inside her chest as she rushed forward. It was vaster, than she had expected, more than she had expected. She could not see how far it went and that excited her, made her want to swim out into the waters cooling into the winter months and swim until she was not sure if she could find her way back. There was someone else there that she had hardly noticed upon her approach. "Think there's enough fish in there for the winter?" It was a joke because she did not know what else to say. She was well-able to appreciate beauty but the words that slipped out were playful rather than awe-filled.

"Fish? No, I have no idea," Dwin shrugged, turning to regard the strange curiously and finding that she liked the stranger right away. Sure, there had been plenty of cautionary tales about not trusting people you did not know easily, but at the moment the young wolf was tired and therefore not very inclined on playing the "I am the worst thing you can meet here" game. If she was to be eaten here and now - well, so be it. She had seen the ocean and therefore achieved at least something in her life.

"I skipped my fishing lessons for camouflage classes," she told, referring to Teya, who had tried voluntarily and patiently pass on the skill to the young Blackthorn, who at the time had not considered it necessary. First and foremost, because fish had never been at the top of her list. Now - however - she figured those skills may have come handy. "Name's Dwin - who are you?"

Heph laughed, her response coming easily. Traveling alone had left her once again missing the company of her friends though she enjoyed the act of going to unexplored places once more too much to return quite so soon and this wolf appeared to be promising company. Voice still breathy she added "Ahhh what a shame, there go my grand plans of stealing a meal." The brief tilt of her head betrayed the joke for what it was but there was a glint to her eyes that expressed a faux threat as she glanced over the newly introduced stranger who seemed to share her monochrome palette but also appeared to be slightly younger than her given the length of her legs and planes of her face.

Introducing herself her voiced dipped slightly evening out and her posture moved from movement to something more casual as she settled and regarded the other wolf, answering her question. "Heph, pleasure to meet such a lovely lady. Do you happen to be familiar with the area?" Her own name was simple enough, and she had never gone by any other. Not that there was much to hunt down of her, a few wolves she met would know of her, but she did not think she had done anything in recent history to warrant being maliciously hunted down nor did she plan to anytime in the near future - not that she planned much of anything. She was curious if this other wolf was a mere visitor or might be more familiar. Though information was secondary to the joy of exploring she would like something to bring back and inform Dreven and Atka of about this territory that she had seen - perhaps they might find some use for it.

"How can you steal fish that still swim in the water?" Dwin grinned back at Heph, but then thought that technically "stealing" meant to remove from someone's place of belonging. Which meant that the act of fishing was - in theory - stealing. The bigger question was - from whom? Who did fish in the big vast water thingie belong to? In any water thingies... come to think of it, if they belonged to someone, how many did you have to steal, before they noticed? Or was there a legal way of stealing? Now Dwin regretted skipping fishing lessons, because now Teya was too far away to answer to all these questions and it was very likely that by the time Dwin returned to Brecheliant, she would forget this line (branch?) of thought completely. 

"I am not a lady. Ladies are old people," Dwin corrected. And she would have preferred "fearsome" instead of lovely. Sister Dee was lovely and definitely not, what Dwin was. "Nah - first time visiting. What about you? Where are you from and where are you going?"

Heph was a bit startled at the implication, but her smile quickly morphed into something more indulgent when she realized that either her newfound company was bringing them along another avenue of conversation or truly had not caught the implication. Either way she found the thought a fun one to play and let out an exaggerated hum from the sides of her throat as if in thought. "Well I suppose one could say I would steal them from the water." Her grin turned wolfish as she tilted her head down and gazed more intently at the light grey wolf. "But a more fitting description of hunting is that you steal their life and then their body, no?" She affected an faux creepy tone wavering over the last few syllables before breaking off into laughter.

She nodded along at the explanation. Another wanderer, it was always nice to meet a kindred spirit though she would have had a use for information. "Much the same. Not sure where I'm going, but I just came from south of here, good hunting." There was a fond glint to her eyes as she recalled. Perhaps her memories were jaded with those she had been able to hunt beside, Rodyn and Samani both had made good hunting partners and made the necessary task more enjoyable. Still, she thought those lands full of plenty and had no complaints.

"I never thought of it that way," Dwin remarked, repeating Heph's formulation of "stealing". "But, what do you think - after we have stolen life, whom does the body belong to then? I mean, if I died right here and now, and - if what I am told is right - that the soul travels and the shell remains here... does it really count as stealing, if I do not need my dead body anymore? Isn't it more like... recycling? Because stealing implies that the owner is still there with a claim. If I am not... then isn't it - my dead body - technically garbage that anyone can take?" now this was something. If one raided a graveyard with this perspective... would it count as immoral too?

"What would you like to become, when you die?" she asked. "Where do you want your soul to go and what you want your body to become?" 

Heph's grin continued and she bounced on the fronts of her paws as she considered the question. Though she was not particularly agile of mind she thought her sense of humor to catch up. She cared little for souls or things that did and did not persist after the body. The she-wolf like the feeling of the wind in her pelt as her lungs swelled with air - it felt much the same as the lightness of her heart and the steady pounding of a new story. What was the difference? "Well if the soul is still there that it no longer has a use for the body does not repudate its claim?" She teased nudging her nose closer to the other wolf, barely close enough to brush fur before retreating. After all the past was in the past, but the past also was the past.

Her shoulders shrugged in a large exaggerated movement and she added, again leaping and dipping her voice so as if playing with the words. "But perhaps the soul is like a breeze, it is there and then it is gone and the body is left like scattered leaves. Do I get to choose? Maybe I'd like to be a bird." In truth if Heph believed in rebirth she might have wanted to be a wolf again, feel once more the earth beneath her paws and get to explore all those new places or re-explore ones with memories that haunted her like ghosts just out of her vision. She wondered how many lives it would take before she stopped being excited by those same yet not the same sensations. "What about you?" Her head tilted and she considered the other wolf and her questions tail wagging softly.

The sudden nearness of Heph surprised Dwin and she flinched a little, feeling relieved, when she retreated again. "Maybe," she shrugged, feeling taken off track a little and therefore her flow of thoughts and questions paused. But then her companion claimed that she would want to become a bird after death and Dwin was back in game again. 

"A bird - what kind of bird?" she asked excitedly. "My grandma - her name was March Owl and according to the family legends she knew the names and songs of all the birds there are in this world," she told. She often wondered, what had it been like for her great grandmother to walk through the forest and instead of background chatter here the actual conversations between the birds. 

"I don't know. I think my aunt Wraen wanted to become a tree - I think... I dunno, if I got tired of life and wanted a long rest, then I would definitely want to be a tree. But becoming a bird would be fun also," she said. "I could fly - that would be amazing. Or... maybe become a water-dweller and see, what secrets lie in the depths of the lakes and seas. I think it would be just as interesting to see, what lies below the water as to see, what is above clouds."

Heph glanced at the other wolf slightly, eyes tracking over the motion of the flinch. She had pegged the wolf as a little brash, not unlike herself in that sense, but perhaps she had misjudged, or perhaps simply not gotten the full picture - no matter. Her mind turned back towards the conversation and she sat back on her haunches to consider the movement of the words. While she was no stranger the idea of becoming more familiar with animals other than wolves, after all she would have hardly survived as long as she did as a hunter if she was not at least passingly familiar with her prey, but the idea of becoming so knowledgeable seemed interesting if a bit strange to her. She hummed politely if a bit skeptically at the idea. But she was willing to play along with the idea, wondering what the other wolf might say to her choice. "Hmmm how about a goose, they come and go with the seasons?" While Heph might dislike being so predictable she had to admit that there was a charm to the distance that they covered. And the ones that she had seemed like sensible enough animals willing to defend their flock and their own bodies if approached even if they were birds.

She could not imagine wishing to be anything so stationary as a tree, but perhaps if she were a tree then she would grow so tall that she could see farther than she could travel anyways. "What secrets do you think the water is hiding?" She asked, slightly curious but a little bit joking. After all it not a question which might have an answer that they could know. But they were right on the edge of a  body of water that looked more vast than an island, could conceivably hold an entire world.

sorry for the wait! trying to kickstart my muse into gear

Take all the time you need! We are here to enjoy the game at a pace that is comfortable for us.

"Geese are beautiful. Not on the ground - they look kind of funny and awkward, when they waddle around, but in the water - only swans are more beautiful," Dwin had been born just in time to see geese settle in the lake at the caldera and she had also been there to see them off before their journey. She did wonder, where did all of them go, but Maia had assured her that they always returned. 

"I dunno," she shook her head, smiling at the silly question. "That's, what I want to find out. Though... I know for sure that there lives a Big Fish inside caldera lake," she told. "And Teya... I think it was her, told that he has a whole family there. All of them big and long, and hungry and they eat little puppies. Did you know that?" she told, as if it was a big secret. 

"Have you met big puppy-eating fish? Or worse - big wolf-eating fish?" she asked, because Heph was older and Dwin automatically considered that she had seen more of the world and therefore knew better.

Heph's gaze sparked with interest. She knew that the wilds held many lakes but she had not heard of one called the Caldera known for gargantuan marine life. It was possible the entire thing was merely a pretense to keep pups liable to drown away from the waters, but on the off chance that there was something strange there she was curious. "No I didn't, where is Caldera lake? I wouldn't want to go swimming in it." Her voice was light and playful, but beneath that there was a thread of interest. If she ever did visit that place then she would have to swim in the lake.

She considered the question. She didn't know much of the sea except what Rodyn and Samani had said, but she remembered vividly his description of a seal. They sounded like challenging and worthy prey, and with teeth like that predators themselves. Her voice shifted into something somewhat more unsure, as a wanderer who enjoyed gathering information on places herself she did not wish to give a dishonest representation but she felt compelled to share what she knew. "Not quite, but eventually I'd like to hunt a thing called a seal." Her smile spread to the edges of her maw showing off a few of her back teeth in a grin. "They're big as a wolf and have huge teeth and could probably easily snap up some puppy or even a smaller sized wolf from what I hear." She relaxed back again but her tail wagged slightly at the prospect of running into a seal. While it would probably be too dangerous to kill alone she had no compunction about starting the hunt or perhaps baiting it out a bit to see how such a thing moved on the land or in the water. 

thank you!

"Well, you cannot consider to having been everywhere noteworthy in the world, unless you have visited the caldera. It is THE BEST place," Dwin was a true patriot of her local village, one could sense it in the every fibre of her being, when she told it. Brecheliant's present location was truly an extraordinary place in the Teekon wilds - there was no other like it. But Dwin would be just as proud of her home, even if it was a shack in the woods made out of cardboard, plastic and old tires. Your own castle is still a castle, even when it does not fit the conventional idea of what a castle is. 

"We have a tall mountain in the centre of the territory and there is a huge lake inside - mom told that a long, long time ago at the pit of that now lake lived a dragon, who had a bad temper and spat out such hot fire that it melted rocks and turned everything in ashes. But one day a travelling lake - so you know, in old times lakes were not stationary, but traveled like clouds in the sky, seeking good places to land and stay - came there, decided to rest and fell right in the dragon's lair. The dragon drowned and eventually turned into numerous vicious puppy-eating long-fish that live in that lake to this very day," she finished, slightly out of breath. She loved listening to stories, but was not good at retelling them. She had difficult time remembering all the details and even this version of "how did caldera came to be?" was a patched up, improved and stood ve-e-e-ery far frmo the original.

"Well, if the seals can hunt wolves, how can you be sure that you won't eventually become the prey and not the other way round?" Dwin asked.

Heph's eyes widened. It sounded like these were indeed pack lands which dampened her enthusiasm as she would have difficult gaining entrance if all she wished to do was explore. But the story she considered intently. She had never seen or heard of a dragon before and with the part of the story where the lake moved she had difficulty discerning whether it was real or not but it sounded like a fascinating place if it could indeed birth such tales. "Perhaps I will have to bribe the guards to visit then." Her voice was high with excitement but laughter huffed through it. She was a traveler and hardly had riches with which to beg entry. While she was not above sneaking into territories when she needed a way through it was often more trouble than it was truly worth.

At the second question she shrugged slightly. It was a good question but not one that concerned her overmuch. Voice dipping into something more swooping up and down she asked, half-joking but with an almost sudden intensity as her attention shifted towards the wolf in front of her rather than thoughts of a far away place "Isn't that half the fun?" The flash of her smile exposed her teeth for a moment mid-speech. Of course hunting another predator was serious business, but moose and deer could also kill wolves, the main difference was how likely they were to eat the body afterwards.

"It won't be that easy. You will first have to pass a face control. Then you will have to find correct answers to three riddles. And then you will have to tell a joke that would make even a stone laugh," Dwin made up the stuff on the go, though this order of things was not entirely of her own creation. Long, long time ago the two sisters (one of whom was Dwin's mom) had discussed, what they wanted their pack to be like and having to guess riddles as a challenge had been one of them. 

"How can that be fun?" Dwin looked at Heph, as if she was that mad lady on the street, who was out in her slippers in the snow, waving kettle and lamenting the government (narrator's experience). "Real life is not a folk tale. There you can be swallowed whole by an evil wolf or be smashed to pieces and then put together and brought back to life by a witch. If they catch you and kill you - that's it," she argued. "Have you done all things in life you wanted to do to want to have a risk of dying?" she asked. 

Heph listened intently. The riddles would be a challenge. While the she-wolf had quite the head for traveling and jokes she was less confident in answering any sort of more serious wordplay. So she focused on her strengths and added with a chuff "I think I'd have better chances waiting for the rain and making the stone cry." But it was good to know. Perhaps she could prepare if she wished to go visit - a gift in exchange for entry would most likely also not go amiss if she did decide to visit.

She considered the other wolf's words with care, but had a difficult time taking them seriously. Living itself was dangerous for wolves, for most all animals. Even to eat was a death match as they must kill to consume. And most all the things she wanted to do before she died she needed to risk dying to do. Shrugging her shoulders her tone was light following the dips and rises of her excitement at the last question - everything she wanted to do before she died, could she even begin to think of that? "Everything worth me doing might kill me, how could I live if I was constantly afraid of death?" There was a hint of genuine upward movement towards the end of the question. She was curious as to how this young wolf planned to live, she seemed like a confident enough creature, unafraid, it seemed and odd mixture.

"Well, you might get a pass, if you have superpowers too - making rocks weep sounds just the thing. Though... if you make that happen by upsetting or hurting them, then it is a no go. I mean, rocks are as old as time, therefore they should be respected as all old people should," she finished her thought, but this was the first time in her existence that she had considered these particular inanimate objects as something sentient and capable of feelings. 

"Well, you should not fear Death, but you should also treat Life with care and respect. Because you do not really know, if there is another chance," Dwin shared her opinion, but she also understood, what Heph meant. In a way Eljay was a definition of having fear of life. At least that was, how she translated his unwillingness to leave the borders of caldera ever. Why he had no curiousity in life beyond them was a mystery to Dwin.

"I think that there is a balance possible. Where you can have fun and not put your life in danger. Where have you been during your travels?" she asked. 

Heph considered the other wolf's words. It seemed as if her pack or perhaps just her in particular felt a certain respect to the old. While she understood the theory she had had more trouble putting it into practice. Though she was fairly sure she was older than the she-wolf next to her she was still younger than many other wolves that she had come across. "hmm respecting my elders was not something I was very good at." There was a vague kind of shrug of her shoulders at the end.

She hummed and sat further back on her haunches at the wisdom. It made sense in a way, although she had never stopped much to think about what was after death. But while she could recognize the wisdom in the words she was content with the way her life was going and had a hard time imagining herself taking more care of her life - wasn't the greatest care one could take ensuring that life was filled to the brim with what made one feel alive - getting close to death? "I think I understand your point, but it seems to be like something you do not know if you have accomplished until you have died early or late." Her head turned and slightly and she looked towards the ocean. The vast impossibility of such an answer and the vastness of the sea. "So much worry over an impossible answer."

Dwin was tempted to ask, why had Heph's experience with elders not been very good, but then decided that this kind of information would be no good to her. After all - if you did not respect older people (which meant her dad), then there was no place for you in Brecheliant, where respect of all people was one of the key characteristics. 

"Well, that's, what I will find out, when I die," she shrugged. "And I have not heard of people coming back from the dead to tell the story or warn others to live their lives differently," sure, she had heard plenty of ghost stories and other tales, where such things happened, but so far - since none of her meals had ever had haunted her, she figured that ghost stuff as such in this reality did not exist. 

"You did not answer my last question," she reminded gently. "What have you seen in this world that excited you very much?"

The conversation took a bit of a turn when the she-wolf began to speak of ghosts. Heph had both heard and told a ghost story or two in her own time, they were useful for scaring pups and even occasionally her brother and sister, but she could tell that the other wolf did not believe them any more than Heph did. It made it a less entertaining avenue to explore so she considered the question - it had quite slipped her mind and she was somewhat unsure how to answer it. But she had no reason to be dishonest.

She considered. "When I first traveled here I had not seen many mountains, I've climbed to the tops of them and seen the night sky and the world below from them." There was a far-off quality to her voice as she worked to recall the places she had been. While they amazed her and she had enjoyed them in the moment life in the present was so consuming sometimes the memories were difficult to pull to the surface. "Far east of here, I've seen stone forests where the tops of the stones looked like mushrooms." It had been one of the first places she had really found after leaving her old pack, it had been what had convinced her she had not made a complete mistake leaving them - that the world really would be full of wonderful things. Her lips twitched and she added. "I've followed moose and seen them dive like otters." That had been terrifying, she had almost been afraid to swim after that.

Turning her gaze back towards the present she asked "What about you? Ghosts, the sun disappearing in the day?" She thought of the more outlandish stories she had been told - perhaps there was some truth in them, but until she saw them herself she could not be sure.

Dwin listened attentively, trying to conjure the images of what Heph could have seen, when she had climed those mountains and been so close to the sky and stars - maybe she had been able to touch them too. This reminded her that she had often wondered, how far the sky was from her and whether there was any place in this world that was high enough to just take a step and then just tread through the starry realm. After all they did talk about a Milky Way being there. So - with that in mind - there had to be a ladder to get there as well. Unless it was reserved for dead wolves or Elysian wolves.

"Maybe they had once been very huge mushrooms that were turned into stone, what do you think?" she mused. There were stories of supernatural creatures able to turn living things into stone. Why not mushrooms? Or plants? Or trees? Could you turn water into stone too? And the air? So many questions, but she did not think that Heph would be able to answer them. "Well, my home has a lake that houses the Big Fish. They are huge and can drag a puppy underwater and eat it whole," she shared. "What if... that's what happens to moose, when they spend too much time in water? They turn into big scary fish that takes revenge upon those, who hunt and eat them on the ground? Though... it would not make sense. They are huge and scary and more powerful than us already," she had seen a moose once and the size difference between them was enough to convince her of her own smallness and insignificance. 

"Well, I just started my journey and so far... I have not seen much exciting things, but meeting people and aliens has certainly been very valuable," she shared. "Have you met aliens? Wolves that look like wolves, but are kind of not?" 

The idea of things turning into other things was not wholly strange to Heph. After all rain came from clouds, and ice could turn to water and water back to ice. But she was not so sure, she had never seen medium sized mushrooms between those sizes and she had never seen smaller mushrooms turn into stone. "Maybe, I've never seen a tiny mushroom turn into a stone though..." But she let her voice carry over the words in suggestion opening up the conversation through the trail at the end of her statement.

She listened to the thought with consideration but it was difficult to focus. "Moose are big, but I guess we still do hunt them. I'm sure some of them are vengeful enough to hunt those who thought to chase them." She said, her voice turning away from its naturally easy tone into something that stuttered to halts along the stops and starts of words. After all it was not as if moose had never killed wolves, her own brother came to mind, more from her pack. Why would they need to swim to kill when they already did it so easily?

Aliens. From another place? Heph was not sure she had heard that word used like that - to describe the way someone looked rather than simply where they were from. A soft noise of question hummed from her throat. "Like they're a different kind of wolf, or they are like foxes and coyotes, they share some traits and not others? Alien?" It was a strange way of describing something. Sure there were wolves that looked differently from one another and even other canines that were not wolves. But she had never called them alien before unless they, like her, were not from wherever she had chanced upon them. Most foxes she had met had avoided her, she did not blame them if they had tried to scavenge her kills while she was there she might have killed them.

"Well, not before your eyes. I mean, I do not believe that you have sat by that mushroom, observing it day and night until it finally turns into a stone, have you?" all ideas needed a proof, because without that they were just that. Ideas. Myths. "Or it could as well be that it takes a very special kind of mushroom to turn into a stone. Or - what if they are cursed?" to discover the secret life of mushrooms had never occurred to her before, but seemed a very promising subject to delve into, once Dwin would be old, stiff and cranky, no longer able to run around. 

"No, not like that. Foxes are foxes and coyotes are coyotes. They look a little similar. But these guys - one was very tall, almost naked and looked like a walking skeletong. And its head was so small compared to the rest of the body. And then there was all huge clumsy, bear-like, with round muzzle and ears that did not stand up. And then there was one that looked like a pile of fur and twigs," in regards of the latter she was not sure, if it had been even an alien wolf. 

Cursed mushrooms. That seemed more plausible than the regular ones turning to stone. "Hmmm no, but I also haven't ever returned to a place where mushrooms were and found giant stones either." Her shoulders shrugged. "If they were cursed I'm not sure what they could have done to anybody though." If she had the power to curse someone she thought she would use it to curse her prey or maybe something else.

The kind of creatures that Dwin described all sounded different to her. And almost like wolves? They sounded completely different, at least coyotes pretty much looked like wolves, almost. These ones sounded like they shared only the bones beneath and none of the sinew. Her voice was questioning, but there was an underlying skepticism, she did not know what to think and wanted to know more before she would even know where to begin thinking through such an account. "Curious, it sounds to me like three different creatures. Perhaps they are each of their own kind - the last if you haven't seen more? That would be rather sad actually." Heph tilted her head downwards for a moment. It was not something she had contemplated before. She had always known there were other wolves, she could be alone and even lonely but there would be more wolves.

"Well, just because I have not seen anymore, does not mean that there aren't any around. I mean, I am alone for a lot of time, while I travel. Any squirrel or... or fox that encounters me also could be under assumption that I am the last of my kind. Perhaps... I would rather like to think that, if there is one specimen, there has to be another one as well. At least none of those, who I spoke to, mentioned that they were the last of their kind," Dwin said, thoughi being one Skeletor here in winter was a miserable existance. There being more of those bony, short-furred creatures out there, starving and begging for food, was simply sad. 

"What do you think - what is the thing of the things you have done that every wolf has to absolutely do in their lifetime?" she asked next, referring to the fact that Heph was older and had seen way more than her. She might give her ideas as well.