she had left donnelaith, though she was grudging in doing so. she fretted over her father, and would work with eilidh to be sure he was well. she was but an apprentice in this, and could only watch and learn as these things occurred, and do as she was told. but when she had a moment of reprieve, while her father slept, deirdre emerged from the cover of the trees to find the man she had aided with seaweed, the best alexipharmic that could be found in these times.
she called for him gently; the strand was large, and deirdre lurked near home. he had promised her a lesson of fishing, but she thought nothing of this, only wished that he was well and healing.
The wraith had brooded in the days that had followed without the pale girl there to tend to his wounds. She had informed him that it would be no more than two moons, but when she had not arrived on the intended date, he found himself unnaturally agitated. For the frightening Warsaw wolf, he did not feel it wise to give word without the intention of following through with it. He was selfish and crude; no thoughts were given in the sense that she very well could have been injured or things could have taken a turn for the worst with the lack of prey. He had managed well enough on his own, therefore he had assumed she would as well.
When her call struck his ears, the inky titan turned his skull in the direction it originated from and he frowned heavily. He had long since stripped the seaweed from his own body and the wound was healing nicely. It would scar but the thick hair of his pelt would have grown over it.
In his pause, the eldest Cairn thought not to arrive to her. He had told the green-eyed woman that he was to teach her how to fish like the wolves of his islands, but had she not told him that she would return sooner? If he were to turn away from his word, he would be doing to her what she had done. As sour as he was, the silver-ribbed feral took off along the beach in a strong sprint. His legs felt the need to be stretched and worked, and when his dark eyes found the white fur of his companion, he scowled.
“You are late,” Skellige growled in a guttural tone.
deirdre watched him come, and though he scowled, she smiled warmly at him. for his mobility looked well, and he still wore the seaweed upon him. i am sorry i did not call to inform you i would be later--
she responded, her voice gentle, and she fumbled for a moment. it did not seem wise to inform him who was ill, and though she trusted others with herself she was not so open when it came to those she loved, for it was not, she felt, her place. there is an ill wolf within donnelaith, and i needed to aid in tending to him. you--you do not need to teach me to fish, if you do not wish,
she uttered, her eyes downcast. deirdre had been late, after all, and not kept to her word. why should she expect him to do so? why should she ask this of him?
and she would do her job with pleasure even still; for the wellbeing of this man was her priority, and of utmost importance to her. let us go toward the ocean; its time to remove this, but we do not want to open the wound with what i placed upon it.
no doubt it would cling to his furs; it was why he could not wet it for so long. removal would be easiest when wet, and painless as well.
His dark gaze was locked on her face with expectancy. When she returned his sour expression with a beaming smile, he entered a short state of confusion. Was he not aggravated? Did he not look displeased with the idea that she had promised him one day and arrived on another? Still, she carried the conversation onward with a polite apology and explained that her pack housed a wolf who was in greater need than Skellige – hard enough to believe for the self-centered brute – but that she still had intended to return to him.
Before allowing him to make a remark on the subject of the other wolf she was tending to, the white-furred woman motioned to the seaweed wrap that still clung to his frame and suggested that they remove it. His eyes remained locked on her face for the longest time before he huffed softly and motioned with his muzzle for them to approach the water.
he obliged her without complaint, though he retained his expression that seemed to find the perfect point between irate and disappointed. the latter bothered her more, she found; she did not wish to disappoint the man she only desired to help. so when they drew nearer to the waters, deirdre followed him in. it was best that this day, the waters were calm. so weak with hunger was she that she might not be able to stand against the sea if it were to press against her; she would become foam, and slip away into the ocean deep. and yet she maintained her grace and poise, for although she was exhausted, she was outfitted in this always. deirdre kept at his shoulder, and only when it became wet itself did deirdre begin her gentle ministrations.
her teeth pinched the edge of the wrap, but did not press against flesh. she pulled gently, and let the slowly rocking waves aid in pulling off the bandage. in minutes it was removed, and she let the sea carry its wrap away; it had done its duty for them both, and as she looked to the wound, she smiled. you can hardly see it! your furs have grown over it. it has healed, though it has scarred.
she was glad that there was no sign of infection, and that it no longer smarted. her tail waved and she looked to him, her emerald eyes gleaming.
Once his paws had touched the wet sands, Skellige could feel at peace again. The water lapped at his feet and ankles until he stood in the sea chest-deep. The brine and saline of the water was sharp on his nose and he breathed heavily, happy to be allowed to thrive in his home once more. All the while, the pearly woman made work of the wrappings that she had placed on his neck and shoulder, allowing the ocean to beat softly against the wound and the seaweed over it until the binding fell away and was pulled out into the depths. Once gone, the girl looked to his wound and seemed pleased with the work she had done. A scar but the fur would cover it; either way, it mattered very little to the dark brute.
After feeling the sands beneath the pads of his paws and letting the gentle water flow over him, Skellige turned to the woman and furrowed his brows. “You did as you promised,” his voice came as a growl at first, but his gaze softened somewhat. “I will teach you to fish now.” While he was ungenerous, narrow-minded, and oftentimes infuriating to be around, he was not altogether dense. There was something strangely charming about the white wolf and her fresh breath of optimism – a breath he would never share with her.
the growl caused her ears to flatten atop her crown, and the whites of her eyes to be revealed. though all along she was fixated upon him; there was something in her that disallowed her to be truly frightened of him, and she wondered if she was wrong in this. the power within her seemed to come to its fore as she stood a little taller, though no verbal rebuke came. only a look that simply said, i did not deserve that! -- for though she had been late, which she had admitted, she expected nothing of him, and he had snarled at her in turn. do you snarl at all those who help you?
she teased gently, and offered him a smile so that he would know she was only partially serious. she truly did wish to know the answer, and that childish curiosity caused her eyes to gleam.
he then told her he would teach her, and she let out an eager little gasp. oh, you will? are you sure?
she blinked at him past thick lashes, their very tips encrusted in sea-salt that brought a new sort of sparkle to her eye as she looked upon the beastly man. she was grateful; she would give to him her first catch, if his teachings prevailed and she succeeded.
He saw her ears fall in reaction to the sharp growl that had left his throat and struck the open air with no purpose there. Immediately she seemed to reprimand him for his actions; for speaking in such a tone to someone who had offered him aid. The titan felt his ears lower to his skull and he frowned at her with confusion etched to his dark face. But when a smile danced across her lips after she had spoken to him, he drew his ears forward once more and watched her with his dark, cautious eyes. The feral had never been spoken to in such a way; he was taken aback and surprised by her moxie all the same.
When her face became lit at the thought of being taught to fish, she inquired if he was certain that he would be able to teach her. A slow nod followed her question. “Yes. You healed me and I will show you how to keep yourself alive in times of famine,” he answered her. She had kept his life intact and he would not allow her to leave without repaying the favor. In turn, the beastly creature could learn to be something more of a man and less of a savage.
the man spoke of famine, and she knew what this was, now. it was the hand that had touched the world and ripped from it the hue it was normally dressed within. and he would help her in these dire times by teaching her these lessons. by the look of him, he was a man of the sea; as he stood within it, it seemed the water was as gentle toward him as it was her, as though he belonged in it.
she looked to the waters and nodded to him, her tail swaying unseen beneath the waters in a happy wave. her ears pricked alertly atop her head, and deirdre glanced to him, her eyes bright. je vous remercie,
deirdre thanked him warmly, not realizing she had lapsed into another tongue she was as comfortable in as she was english. the lilt was warm and she gestured to the water. would you show me?
The words that fell from her lips were foreign to him. He watched her with blinking, attentive eyes but she did not seem to want to translate. Instead of inquiring, he cast the words aside, wondering what she had meant when she spoke them. She did not seem the type to scorn him in a language he did not understand. But before long, the thought of her unknown words had left his mind and he had turned his attention back to the lapping of the water against his neck and chest. There was a comfort there that could not be explained to one who had not felt it before. The black savage simply
belonged.
“Fish are fast,” he remarked quietly, turning his gaze to the waters with an intense stare.
“They’ll dart from you before you even get your head beneath the surface of the water.” Looking to her expectantly, the titan lifted his brows and without proper instruction, breathed air into his lungs and plunged beneath the water. From underneath, it was clear to him, and he could see the prey as they lazily swam about near the sand underneath the placid sea. Like he had known nothing but water all his life, the dark monster swam forward, kicking his powerful legs in the direction of the fish. In turn, they began to move and dart about. Their sharp fins made them quick in that environment.
With a quick snap of his jaws, the silver-ribbed male just missed his intended target. His eyes quickly sought another that haphazardly began to dash towards the surface. Following the movements of the fish, Skellige parted his jaws and
clasped tightly to the frantic swimmer, allowing the momentum to carry him back to the surface of the water, fish in jaws. Once he had emerged, his eyes sought the white beauty who had surely remained chest-deep in the sea.
his initial instruction was less that and more information for her to retain. she nodded her head, and he soon disappeared; deirdre looked 'round in a small panic. it felt like an eternity that he was beneath the waters, and she gasped as he erupted forth from the sea like the beasts that breached from the waves for a seal. she gasped and blinked at him, a little dumbfounded. you were like a fish!
she marveled, and laughed in amazement. did you swim with them? does the water not burn your eyes?
it stung wounds; eyes were not those, but she could not imagine it being a pain-free instance, if his had even been open. but surely they must be! she had been told and taught of the great dangers the sea harbored; it would never do to turn a blind eye to them, and surely this great beast of a man had survived for so long with this in mind.
The woman seemed to marvel at him once she had caught sight of his large form in the water. His legs pushed him towards her until he could feel the sand dig between his claws and he was able to gain his footing once more. It was natural for the Warsaw wolf to move as he did underneath the lapping waves. His culture was based entirely on that of the sea and the dangers that came from not knowing how to behave in such a frightening expanse of water. He not only had been taught to seek food from underneath the swell, but he had been taught to fight there as well. When he was met with inquiries from the pale woman, he narrowed his brows to her and gestured with his muzzle for her to follow him back to the shore.
Once the sand beneath them had faded from clumped and wet to gritty and dry, he dropped the fish there and turned to face the girl. “You will… eat this,” he spoke softly, frowning. It very well could have sounded like a command, but it was his nature to speak in such a way. Flicking the tip of his tail, he returned to the questions she had prompted him with. “The salt burned as a child but I have grown so accustomed to it that it no longer ails me… and we are not the fish down there,” he darted his gaze back to the ocean waters. “We are the sharks.”
she did as she was bid; deirdre wondered even still at his skill, and wondered if she would ever be capable of doing exactly as he had done.
he explained to her each of her inquiries, though not before offering, in his way, her the fish. she tilted her head some at the way he had phrased it, and then simply nodded. for him, she would do this; and she would repay him, as well. as she dined on the aquatic creature, deirdre listened to him. she licked fish-guts from her lips, and smiled warmly. you are the shark. i would be the fish,
she quipped, but there was true worry within her tone. it will burn my eyes,
she acknowledged nervously, glancing to the waters and back to him. she had not yet accepted this fact, though only because she wondered: and your eyesight... it is unaffected?
she drew a bit nearer to him to observe his eyes with the scrutiny of a doctor but the genuine concern of an apparent friend, her curiosity ever that of the cub she still was, while her confidence befitted the teen she was becoming.
The young woman followed after him as he had led her to the shore and when instructed that she was to eat the fish, she peered at it curiously for a moment, and then him, before she took the food and began to feast upon it. He watched her with expectant eyes; as though she should marvel at the flavor of the fish – the natural salts and the chill of its body – when really she had probably dined on it before.
Cleaning the gore from her pale face with a quick flick of her tongue, she made mention that she would be more akin to a fish than a shark. Skellige shook his skull a bit and frowned. “You will learn to be a shark too,” he then told her with a determined bob of his head. His brows were knitted seriously over his dark eyes. The woman then went on to express that she would feel the pain of the water in her eyes if she were to try. This could not be helped. His broad shoulders shrugged a bit at the comment and he frowned softly to the concerned girl. “I have known the ocean as a home for all my life. My eyes are as sharp as any other… even more so under the swell,” he tried to comfort her in the only way he knew how.
“Let us not worry about catching a fish. Let us swim first,” he told her. With a kick of his hind legs, the wraith was already bounding back to the lapping water and only for a moment did he pause to turn his head back to the white-furred healer. He did not even know her name.
he insisted that she would learn to be a shark, and she smiled at it. she had heard of those creatures. stealthy and silent, a weapon beneath the waters that none could see coming. they were not known for their gentleness; she recalled watching one thrash around an already injured seal--she had wept for hours, before her father found her and comforted her. skellige was wrong, but she did not correct him: she would never be a shark.
he mentioned his eyesight being sharp, and even as she looked into the depthless things with her own brilliant emeralds she knew he was not wrong, for there was nothing in his eye that meant his sight would be obstructed, and she could not see the whites of them to note any redness there. she had never seen a wolf swim as he had, but she was eager to learn. were not all aquatic creatures graceful? could she not learn that grace, beneath the waves? carry with her what she was on land, and take it to the sea?
and then he spoke of swimming with her, and she followed him. as he looked to her, she smiled to him warmly, excitedly. her tail flew over her back as she waved it in a manner that expressed only her joy, and when he paused she laughed as she moved to streak ahead of him. she was not shy as she bounded freely into the water, but now it was her turn to pause and look to him with an eager grin, waiting for further instruction.
Skellige believed that they could only be sharks. The thought that he would help to train someone beneath the water to become nothing more than another fish was absurd. She was correct in what she was saying, though. Grace and prowess were key beneath the churn of the water. And though he sought the fish only to fuel the fire in his gut, they too were graceful creatures. His mind and his thoughts were very different from the pale woman’s. He had known nothing but predatory nature. From birth, the dark titan had been taught that it was a dangerous world and the only way to see success was to fight for it… every inch of the way.
The girl seemed delighted by the jaunt back into the waves. She darted ahead of him somewhat and his dark gaze followed her with a sharp interest. She was still young, but her body was taking an adult shape. Skellige could see how she would grow into a beautiful adult. The thought set fire to the lining of his stomach and he felt his limbs quiver just slightly before he shook his head and moved closer to where she was.
Eyes following the sands beneath the water, he was careful enough to make sure they did not travel too far into the waves just yet. When his dark figure was beside her, he turned his head and peered directly into her emerald eyes. “Can you swim above the water?” he inquired. While it may have been a silly question, he truly did not know how much of the ocean had shaped this girl’s life. If she could not swim above, she would be no good underneath.
as he drew alongside her, deirdre was watchful. but first he asked her a question, and it was a very simple one; to it, she nodded. in lakes and oceans alike could she swim, as her father had taught her the ways of the water and to not be lost at sea the moment it would not immediately carry her away or overwhelm her. she did not swim when the surf was tumultuous, as she had been taught to steer clear of the waters then; the sea was as merciless as she was kind, as adept at killing as she was healing.
deirdre did love the ocean, but not as she loved the forest. she was a maiden of the wood, and her element was earth. emaleth might be more suited for this, but deirdre would learn this thing nonetheless for the sake of her family. she quite enjoyed this man and his company, and would aim to please him this day as she aimed to please all she adored. she wished to make him, and all others, happy.
The pearly woman had nodded in answer to his question. This was good, he concluded with a shadow of a smile curling his dark lips. His gaze travelled to the waters again and he could feel the familiar tug in his chest as he watched the lapping waters. It pushed and pulled against his body, luring him towards the deeper dangers of her sink. The love that she shared for her forests was strong, and if he were to know about her drawing to the wooded area, perhaps he would have asked about it; to understand the kind of fervor but for something other than the sea. It was – in that moment – completely foreign to him. His children would know the ocean as he did, and so would the pack that he would form. Their bodies would be stronger for it. They would know battle from underneath the waves, as most wolves did not.
Swiveling his ears atop his skull, the dark wraith motioned with his muzzle towards the sudden drop that would occur before them. It was an area of the ocean that he favored greatly. There was nothing that could compare to the security of land being ripped from underneath you. “Under the water is different. Similar but not the same,” he spoke almost reverently of the experience. “You will move slower until you learn to use the water to your advantage. You must be aware of the sea at all times. She changes,” he huffed quietly, dark russet eyes following the vast expanse of blue water.
“Try to lower your head under and open your eyes to adjust to the salt.”
the advice given was listened to with keen ears. she heard his words over oceansong, and at his first instruction her gaze lingered upon him for a moment, a worried look there from the start that soon faded to determination. pain was not something she willingly put herself in, a hedonistic wolf when it came to such things, but knowing this served some greater purpose caused her to decision on this to not waver. after she sucked a loud breath of air in, deirdre plunged her head beneath the water. it took her five grueling seconds to actually do what had been asked, and in that span of time was the frantic debate of 'do i, or don't i?'
and in the end, she did! and it would be visible to skellige even above land by the ripples she caused as she parted her eyes and noted, just ahead, the plethora of fish of many sizes she had not even imagined existed--how strange!--her shoulderblades rolling in a defensive backward movement, and a heavy exhale of much oxygen she had stored through her nose. and then, the wincing as the heavy concentration of salt invaded her eyes. she lifted her head from the waters, emitting a loud ah!
, more shocked than she was wounded by the sting the salt brought. thick lashes pushed the waters out as she furiously blinked, trying to discern her feelings on the matter.
The pale woman seemed hesitant about the instructions that had been given to her. There was a short pause before the girl lowered her head into the water and Skellige watched her with a strange fascination. When he had been but a boy, they had taken his young body out to the sea and dropped him in, expecting him to sink or swim on his own. He had done what many others had failed to do. The giant wraith did not think that he would find himself in a situation where he would be forced to patiently teach another the rules of the ocean. But there he was…
Her head erupted from the water with some surprise and he took a step back as she exclaimed her disliking for the salt that had invaded her vision. He furrowed his brows at the girl as she frantically blinked to remove the water from her green optics. Skellige could recall the female wolf of his pack – Hephzibah – who had been the caretaker for the young Cairn children, and had been the one to soothe them when they had survived the drop.
Taking a careful step forward, he found his face quite close to her own. Without warning, the dark creature parted his jaws and carefully slid his coral-colored tongue across the lids of her eyes to force the salt water out. The titan’s fur burned red under his dark coat, but he continued for a moment before pulling away from the girl and peering at her curiously. “It will get better,” he remarked in a gruff voice, his brows still furrowed.
though she was surprised by his touch, she did not flinch away from it--rather, she leans toward it, soothed by it and feeling rather differently on the matter. what was this feeling within her? there was no shame there, creeping in her belly, but an affection she wished to give to him in turn. never shy of such things, young and sweet as she was, she nuzzled into his cheek by way of thanks, nose lingering there for perhaps a moment longer than appropriate--though this was something she did not quite understand, she did not question it. it was all innocent, to the pure white witch.
he spoke, and she nodded. i trust that it will,
she responded, and after a beat, she felt it quite important to say: i trust you.
for he had trusted her, had he not? she smiled to him, and looked to the ocean again. at least now she had an inkling of what to expect. the pain was not blinding, but it was enough to make the gentle deirdre wince. he had said it would get better--she believed him. and so, after taking another breath of air and looking to him with that same smile, she dove downward again to try again. this time, she managed to keep beneath the water, and when she opened her eyes she ignored the burn. it was, at this point, more than uncomfortable to her; the fish attracted her attention, and yet it was the nameless man she sought.
The girl's cold nose found his cheek, and he felt the fur along his neck rise ever so slightly. She lingered there and the great dark wraith could taste a peculiar lump in the back of his throat. He swallowed, breathing a quiet sigh before the pallid woman pulled her head away from him and he caught a glimpse of her bewitching emerald eyes. The Cairn male held his own dark gaze to her curious vision. The words that fell from her mouth were peculiar, causing his dark ears to swivel forward and his head to cant to the left. She trusted him but she did not even know his name.
With a ghost of a smile, the inky titan watched her pull air into her lungs once more before plunging her head back into the water. She did not retreat immediately this time. With a sudden thought, the Cairn moved his head back toward her rear and without warning, pushed against her body. It would cause alarm, that was certain, but he took the opportunity and lowered himself into the depths of the water. The blue of the sea made him look like a shadow beneath the waves. Bubbles erupted from his nose before they ceased and he sought her gaze once more... bodies suspended in the water, colorful fish darting about.
names were lovely, beautiful things. deirdre so loved names, and used one to identify all the things she loved--and yet, even if they were absent a name, she would love them no differently, trust them no less! they had a scent, a look, that she would adore in any lifetime. this man bore no soft look of all the things she loved, and yet there was something to him that drew her to this conclusion, this belief, that she could trust him. her intuition had not once led her astray.
she searched for him in the water, and when she did not see him she felt him at her hindquarter. had it been him, or was it some ocen predator? to be sure, she looked--alarmed--toward him, nearly pulling upward in panic to gasp for air. bubbles erupted from her own nostrils, but then he was by her side, and she opened her mouth to speak--only a garbled sound came out, and then she had to laugh at her foolish mindslip, the sound a siren song to the fish nearby, who seemed to be delighted and curious by the waters newest resident. her aching eyes were forgotten in favor of the strange, giddy feeling she experienced. she closed her mouth for a moment as she noted the aquatic beings swimming between them, and her eyes moved to look at skellige, who had been looking at her.
The dark brute had been born in times of war. He had been taught to fight since the day his wobbly legs had held him upright. Even the appearance of the inky titan suggested that he was a creature fused with bloodlust and anger. But there was a substantial difference in his nature once he was under the swell. The intensity of his gaze did not soften, but the movements of his limbs became poetry. He was a shadow suspended in the water, eyes locked on the pale woman who had bravely accompanied him into the depths. The green-eyed witch had trusted him. The wraith could not have expressed the emotion that beat in his chest, and so he excused it. Gracefully, the great predator used his limbs to propel himself forward a short distance into the darker parts of the water.
The fish darted around their bodies as if they were curious to the two creatures who had invaded their home. His vision followed their movements with a quiet reverence. More bubbles arose from his nostrils and he quickly pushed himself to the surface of the water to swallow the air outside. It did not last long, though; for the moment he had filled his lungs, the titan dove back into the sea and swam deeper. With a curious glance towards his pearl of a companion, he gestured for her to follow.
deirdre watched him then, quietly captivated. in the waters, there was a newness to his every move that intrigued her; she herself was carried by the water, she let it move her, though even the beauty did not match his grace beneath the sea, too new at this to do so. moving was awkward for her beneath the swell, but she anticipated that she would learn. to learn from him, adept as he appeared, would only aid her.
she followed his gaze as best as she could; her own vision was blurred and now and then, pain hindered her focus. when he rose, she followed; she kept above for a moment longer before she forced herself to be strong, reminded herself he would help her, and that they were swimming! so she followed him downward, and as his gaze came upon her she moved her limbs in a way that she hoped would maneuver her beside him. she squinted, some, as though this would no longer let her feel the salty sting that kissed her eyes.