sandpiper had been casually strolling along the perimeter of stavanger bay when she came across
@Smokestep's tracks, which laced intricately in and out like lattice-work along the ground. curious as to what her brother was doing, she traipsed after him at a jaunty trot.
it took a few tries before she successfully tracked him down; his meanderings went back and forth in the most confounding of manners, and as she drew up alongside him she could see concentration writ across his brow. her lanky tail strung out behind her, she hailed him with a soft huff of breath as if his wanderings had been incredibly inconvenient for her.
sandpiper slowed to a halt as smokestep saw her, her tail brushing each hock in a slow wag as he pulled towards her and gently buffeted her with a pale skull. she brought her head down in a reciprocating manner, and studied him for a moment before speaking.
"the usual. patrolling, yelling at birds. trying to figure out what you've been up to." there was a bemused yet suspicious glint to her eye -- she wondered if because it was spring, smokestep was feeling his oats. perhaps the women in his crew had not garnered attraction or favor from him, and he had elected to set sail outside of their realm. either way, she was curious to hear what he had been busying himself with, as it had been some time since their last one on one interaction.
while smokestep's mind was on his family -- or rather, the only family that really mattered (her, of course), sandpiper's mind replayed like a record over all the women she didn't like in ironsea. so basically, all of them. she thought with a certain smugness that it was befitting none of them were good enough for smokestep -- truth be told, it was unlikely any other wolf was good enough for her brother either.
in her eyes, anyway. the only eyes that mattered.
her attention was drawn back as smokestep admitted his woes -- wow, was she egregiously off base. she rounded her shoulders and bit her lip with a frown, considering his words with a certain composed reticence. in truth, she hadn't really noticed any specific absence -- but now that smokestep mentioned it, she found herself wondering who had abandoned the front.
"can't help yellowbellied curs." she said with an air of grave dignity, as if all wolves were beneath her. certainly, all wolves were beneath cairns. "you aren't doing anything wrong to them... yet. want to take a look-see, see if any of our old friends found better haunts?"