Wolf RPG

Wanting to make the most of the trip and knowing @Gluskap will require a few more trips to make up for what the lolcusts had destroyed, she travels further down the coast. Her coast had often been cooler for longer during the year and the mildness of these stretches are a nice change. The thought to up and move Drageda to the coast, to somewhere familiar, rests heavily on her mind but between the famine and Gyda's pregnancy, the damage she would do is far greater. Currently, there isn't any benefit other than feeling closer to what she's used to and settling her own restless heart to hear the waves again. Now that she knows an easy route, despite the grotto and ravine in her way, she's confident she can make a few more trips without their disturbance.

The young leader makes a wide path away from the few sea lions left, vaguely wondering if packs and the area had depleted their number due to the famine—something she would have considered—but she doesn't linger long. A small peak is to her right and she takes a few steps in that direction but ultimately decides against it to keep to the coast so her companions can find her. She gives one fleeting glance behind her, Gluskap nor @Dio to be seen, but in good faith she continues on her path of adventure.

Although she had little in the way of food, and quite nothing in the way of fat on her body, Lucani stood strong because she once again had purpose. She had gone from illness to starvation, with a hellish crossover period, but truly she preferred this undying hunger to her erstwhile worthlessness.

Green was hinting its return to the land, a speck of emerald here or a lost seedling there, and subsequently the healer was out on manoeuvres. She searched for patches around Donnelaith that looked likely to yield the remedies she'd once used.

But as the towering and bony woman ventured onwards, she stopped upon a rocky path and saw a swarthy figure down below. Dark, purposeful and powerful, there was no mistaking Thuringwethil the Heda. Lucani regarded her without word.

the coywolf he had met upon the sands had mentioned that the sea was a bounty that lasher must teach himself to hunt, and he had agreed. thus, he set aside time to take a trip to the lapping waves. toward the grotto he glanced; he missed caiaphas' thorned company, the fierce fire of her eyes, the barbs beneath her tongue -- he pined for all of it, but this time he sought another part of the beach.

lucani's scent was found, and he tipped his ears forward curiously. perhaps she could be of assistance if larger prey was discovered, though he doubted so. the famine's stress had greyed the druid's muzzle further; his pelt fell raggedly around the skeletal appearance of his body, but he had retained a wan sort of elegance.

he would have called to lucani had not he spotted a darker wolf in the distance. lasher drew closer to his wolf to regard the other with a mingling of curiosity and wariness.

Thuringwethil takes a long, heavy breath of salty sea air, knowing her time is limited next to the shores. They had the travel back north and each moment she will relish, enjoying each breath and letting her fur soak up the breeze and for days to come she'll be able to smell it. A part of her lives in the ocean, a calling she cannot explain any more than she can explain a high power residing in her. Missing Seageda may never part from her, nor would she want it, but she can't deny she misses the rocky terrain of the dragon beneath her feet either.

It isn't a scent that turns her attention, however, but a nagging feeling behind her ears that something is amiss. Her head makes a slow swivel until the sight of two wolves catch her attention. It takes only a second of recognition to notice the female, a bristle along her alone begins but she suppresses the urge. Her two companions are out of sight and trouble is the last thing she wants.

Her head lifts a little, glancing to the dark wolf for only a second, before her gaze rests upon Lucani. Her dips once in acknowledgement but she doesn't advance. A longing feeling pulls at her heart, as well as the sting of betrayal still fresh in her mind. Whatever she has found with the male next to her side, she knows she had not been able to offer, but he had not given her life when she fought for it that frightful day. Risking the loss of two pack mates, she can't even find bitterness dwelling within, but it remains painful still when she cannot offer the safety to her wolves she had so desired.

The young leader finally lets go of the breath she had been holding, yet remains fully planted. As much as she wishes to approach, to talk to the older woman, she finds she can't force her feet to move.

Stationary and pensive, Lucani could not settle on any one thought. An emotional reaction to Thuringwethil's appearance, positive or negative, was surely inevitable, but not present on her face. A rational, self-stated reaction was also likely to come from Lucani, likely with a few thoughts about social strategy, but that didn't come either. She just stood there as Thuringwethil's eyes met hers, and felt almost as if she'd never seen her before.

Saving her from further analysis, Lasher came on scene in his rangy and mysterious way, shadowy form catching her eyes just as Thuringwethil's did. Lucani's reaction to him was more immediate. Lowering her muzzle and ears, the tip of her tail round her graceful ankles, the healer came to join her Alpha. Lasher, she greeted from his side. This is Thuringwethil. She looked upon the young female. So unsettlingly familiar. An Alpha from the east — from the mountain I called home.

It was not up to Lucani to share the names of their respective packs.

there was an odd sort of tension betwixt lucani and this woman, thuringwethil, which lasher liked the sound of immensely. he stood quietly, glancing between the pair, until he dipped his head to the dark woman with the regal bearing of a queen. "of donnelaith," he added. "and lucani has been quite a boon unto us," the man went on, a smile given his wolf.

he was silent then, awaiting the response of sable thuringwethil, and wondering what had transpired between her and the stoic medic that had come to reside in donnelaith, a woman to which he owed much.

The distance closes between them before she realizes it, surprised by their approach, but their words are not silent to her. She hears the faint introduction of Lucani, her name instead of title, and she feels a rumble begin in her chest. She quietens it, mostly due to the dark male with her, but her focus doesn't break from the older woman. She's thinned out, perhaps more than when she left, but the famine had not been kind—her survival, however, does remain surprise—but her own figure has narrowed with hunger.

Lasher introduces his following and speaks highly of Lucani, and she has to break her attention away from her. Once, she'd felt a fondness for her, a connection she didn't get to fully pursue, but her spot has since been marred black with betrayal. Thuringwethil had worked to keep her life that day, against her better judgment, against the respect of her other wolves, and a sour taste raises in her mouth. She hadn't realized relief and bitterness could share the same palate, but being in the same space as she leaves her unsettled.

Another pack gets her benefits, gets the life she deserves. Thuringwethil has nothing to show for it and the ungrateful bitch goes elsewhere as thanks. The words sear her tongue and she bites back the bile the builds, threatening to spit fire from her teeth dipped in poison. Words swell her cheeks and, when she realizes no good will come from the things she wants to say, she dips her nose once in acknowledgment, "perhaps she will not betray you and your own."

The dark leader does not linger, and turns to go instead.

It seemed, at first, as though the meeting might be amiable. For Lasher offered kind words, and Lucani gave him a faint smile and a slow blink of content respect, but her smile faded as she looked at the departing youngster.

Having kept her feelings deep within her so that they did not spill so much as into her conscious thought, when Thuringwethil spoke those feelings were finally felt. Relief. That was all. For while she had left Sleeping Dragon so she would not be euthanised and so that the Alphas would not receive further disrespect for keeping her alive, the more time she'd spent at Donnelaith the clearer Thuringwethil's... state had become to her.

It was like watching a stubborn puppy throw a tantrum upon losing a game, and Lucani watched the sad sight in silence, and sat down slowly at Lasher's side, unmoving. She hoped she would never see the child again.

lasher had not expected the response that the dark woman gave him as they drew near to her; the bite of her venomous tone caused him to pause, to blink in consternation to the stranger and then toward lucani, but the former faded into the landscape as quickly as she had come, her back proud and gait unforgiving. 

lasher did not follow; he sat alongside lucani in the sand and sighed, nudging her gently but saying nothing. what words were there to be said? he knew not of what had happened between lucani and the dark wolfess -- and he did not wish to know.