Wolf RPG

the horrible symphony of war played over and over. the drumming step of intruders. clashing teeth. a leader succumbs to an onslaught of brutes. children cry in fear. brothers and sisters are torn apart. a mother leaves her son to fend for himself. the war leaves him broken for life.
it’s been months since the attack, but it still felt like it was only yesterday. the loss of his family still stung. not a day would go by without him thinking about them. maybe they were out there somewhere. somewhere safe. hogo would dream of some over-the-top reunion. it was a stretch, but it gave him a reason to keep moving forward. his family meant the world to him and he’d rather die than be without them.

hogo would never stay in one place for very long, but the cycle stopped when he stumbled upon the coast. it was like nothing he’d ever seen before. he looked like a complete dumbass walking around to the likes of a wide eyed pup. his location of choice was the bay, where he’d study the strange wildlife in the pools. today was no different. he stared at a crab with a puzzled look on his face.

Months before, the skeletal brute had found another male who had shared a similar mindset as himself of the ocean. There had been a small kinship there, and though the titan was not certain just where the golden-draped fellow had wandered, he had scouted out to search. There had been a desire within the other man's heart to claim a slice of the sea for himself. Ford wondered if he had been successful, but the further he trailed from his own bay... the less he believed that it was true. Perhaps Govinda had sought treasures on another coastal plane. A kinder wolf would have hoped that the golden male had found what he wanted, but the warhound only thought of the potential that rested beyond the realm they existed in.

The powerful strides carried him along the edge of the sea for a great distance until he had found himself on the beaches of another bay. The waves still crashed against the shore, and the slice of land did not seem as though it was as well protected as the bay of the rift. No matter how far he trekked along the coast, he always found that he was pleased with the claim that they had made. It was all that they would need to succeed, he knew.

Ahead, there was a figure that he thought was familiar. He thought – for a moment – that it was the frame of Govinda, and he had traipsed into the other male's potential claim. As he drew closer, he realized that it was a stranger after all. The other was preoccupied with the shape of a crab in the sands. Ford watched from a short distance for a while before he closed a great deal of the distance between them and let out a chuff to announce his presence. His crown was drawn upward and his mismatched gaze was latched tightly to the other.

Crabs were certainly a great deal of trouble when they wanted to be. The titan could recall having been a young pup, thinking that he could catch the creatures without fail. He’d had one latch to his tail, another on his ear, and a big one snapped tightly to his upper lip. As a young boy, he’d yelped and yelped until his mother had come around to help him get the crustaceans off of his face and rear. The one on his lip had left a scar that she had worked to clear away. As he’d aged, the warhound had gotten much better at dealing with the vicious little creatures from the sea.
 
A curling smile formed on his lips when the crab found purchase in the stranger’s mouth. He shook his head and swung around before latching his sights on Ford and requesting assistance. The skeletal wolf moved forward and peered at the small crustacean with an amused expression. Then, he latched his hollow mismatched gaze to the other wolf and reached out with his teeth to grip the grab there. If Hogo would hold still, Ford would be able to grip the crab in his mouth and bite down to kill the animal.

That easy, Ford nodded once with a ghostly smile that curled the dark line of his lips upward. He discarded the crab into the sand as soon as it had released its hold and then fixed his sights on the stranger again. He had done this just in time for the other man to start bumbling in another tongue – one that was entirely unfamiliar to the sea wraith. He thought that there was a chance the unfamiliar one had merely slipped up; he didn't realize that the titan wasn't familiar with his native language. So, the dark warhound stared at his companion with a hollow expression on his face until it was made clear that he would not understand what was being said.

Then, the other introduced himself as Hogo. “Pleasure to meet you. My name is Ford,” the thick brute returned in a smoky baritone. His mismatched gaze roamed the figure of the newly introduced wolf with some interest. He was fit and healthy enough; the titan wondered why he was wandering along the coast on his own. “Are you new here?” he decided on asking with a slight tilting of his crown.

The stranger had a familiarity about him, in the same sense that Ford could see similarities between the crab chaser and his joker of a brother. There was a feeling that he might have suited the rift well, if he was seeking to join a pack of any sort. Knowing that it would be a subject to approach at a later time, the skeletal titan placed the offer on a shelf in his mind. Surely, there would be other questions that would take priority over where the unfamiliar male was staying. Hogo, he’d called himself; it was certainly not a moniker that the large sea wraith was used to.
 
What do you call this place, anyway?
 
A smile curled the warhound’s dark lips. To Ford, this was just another bay with a name that he had never sought to learn or provide. “This place? I call it nothing,” he answered with a chuckle that clung to the tail end of his words. “But I have made a claim on a bay in that direction,” he gestured with a swing of his muzzle toward the slice of paradise that was tucked behind large stone guardians and a ravaged forest. “And that, I call Stormrift.”
 
“Where have you traveled from, Hogo? Surely a long way if this is all new to you…”

The rift was a hidden piece of paradise. It was truly a miracle that someone else had not wandered through and intended to claim it before the Mayfair-Cairn children had done so. Even in their forming phase, it had taken a long time to gather the numbers that were needed to make their intentions official. Had there been others, they would have likely found themselves in better standing than the newcomers had been. Fate – it seemed – had been kind to the children of the waters. They had found the bay and made it their own, and they were working to create all that they would need to excel for many more years.

Hogo spoke of his home and confirmed that it was far away from where they stood. He stated that he sought independence in his youth and that had been his reason for striking out on his own. Ford offered a ghostly smile in response and nodded his head. There was an understanding there; he knew the same need to leave behind the place of one's birth and find something more. “Your ambition seems impressive. Are you seeking for a place to make your own? Or a group to pledge yourself to?” the sea wraith inquired in a pleasant tone.

It was pleasantly surprising that the wolf seemed inclined to settle down. While Ford was not the type to poach others, he felt that there was a good chance for equal opportunity and he believed that they could never have enough bodies in their midst. As new as he was to the ocean and the scenery there, Hogo did not seem as though he was an incapable creature. He had a peculiar sort of confidence about him that seemed to bode well with the pleasant nature of his personality and the almost lackadaisical way he conducted himself. In some ways, it reminded the warhound of his brother Rannveig.

“Yes. You'd fit well there, I believe. We have a diverse group, but a good group. Our customs are meant to test our members so that we can overcome any hardship that we are met with. If that's something you think you'd like, you'd be welcome among us,” the titan responded with a charming and ghostly smile that curled his dark lips. The hollow gloss of his mismatched gaze lingered on the reddish hue in Hogo's face before turning to where the bay was. If anything, Ford believed that he would have been accepted readily by the others, and that was a good enough sign.

It was as simple as that, it seemed. Hogo was a willing fellow, and he expressed his interest quickly – confidently – with the request to see the bay that had been claimed by the rift wolves. Ford did not wish to hesitate; they had many miles to cover before they would be on the edge of Stormrift. It did mean that the two males would have time to get to know each other while they ventured toward the sentinels and the bay on the other side.

“We have some ways to walk,” the titan explained with a gesture toward where they would be going. Then, he cast his mismatched gaze back toward Hogo with a soft smile. “Tell me about where you are from? How is it different from here?” the warhound then prompted with an encouraging nod of his head toward his companion. It would have been good to hear about somewhere that was not the wilds or the islands of Warsaw. In his heart of hearts, Ford had always been a vagabond. It was simply not in the cards for him to explore such passions.