Wolf RPG - and the gulls gave me my singing voice

@Tadashi whenever ur available! hope this works :) lmk if i need to change dates. tag for reference (and for if aimi wants to stop by)
64F, rain, 2pm

yunxu has not done the best job at endearing himself to the locals. it’s hardly all his fault. owlglass’ endless smiling, the woman on the cliff bearing down before he could even apologize for entering unclaimed territory – he has a temper, to be sure, but none of them are helping.

what also isn’t helping is remembering he killed someone.

if there’s a time to leave the sea – much as he hates it – this would be it. it’s not duty that carries him away from the shore as much as the memory of stone crumbling away into empty space. so he leaves @Aimi wherever she is along the coast – further ignoring her instructions to rest – and ventures inland.

there are no cliffs here, but there is plenty of water. the rain continues on, and there’s no shelter in this meadow. just an endless sea of long grass. the smell of salt on the wind is nearly gone; when yunxu looks back over his shoulder, all he can see behind him is grey fog.

the temptation comes immediately to turn back.

yunxu grips it by the scruff of the neck. his shoulder pulsing with a second heartbeat, chin ducked down against his chest, he trudges onwards, doing his level best to think of nothing beyond the pain and the water dripping down over his coat, already miserable but refusing to stop.

timelines are a lie and I will just vaguely slide this in before this thread. ty for the tag! making a minor assumption about Yunxu’s movements, but lmk if you want anything changed :>

what’s the opposite of bad encounters—good ones, or none at all? tadashi will take none over terror, but lonesomeness is a heavy burden to bear. and yet, with weather like this, is he surprised? if he finds minori here, anywhere, he will have to ask what drew her to such a dreary land.

the torrent slows his trek; discouragement rumbles on the horizon. yet he’s made it this far, and who would he be to give in? she is here. surely as the rain falls.

when he spies a dark head dipped in the grass his heart dances—but the seafoam coat in tow evaporates the sentiment just as swiftly. it is not the first time he’s mistaken a dark stranger for his sister and, at this rate, it will not be the last.

still, tadashi squints at the way this one walks. it is not a natural gait, as though stiffness claws at each step, the pulsing tug of rapids of pain. the wolf has not succumbed. where is his army?

tail swaying gently across the waterlogged undergrowth, tadashi announces his presence with a small chuff. “hello, stranger!” by his own standards his voice is tempered, an empathetic cheer for an exhausted soldier. “what happened here?” he hasn’t the slightest thought that his help might be neither expected nor welcome—or even, without ample supply, possible at all.

it strikes yunxu, pushing through another curtain of grass that rises up to his shoulder, as singularly ridiculous that island wolves would move this far to escape the rain. surely the coast would do, instead of sharing space in someone else’s forest? but then, he prefers the quiet. who knows if huā is the same? or if she even has the choice?

he’s happy aimi is here, of course. but aimi is the exact opposite of quiet.

and as though someone is just waiting for him to tempt fate, a small chuff comes from somewhere nearby. his newest acquaintance is much smaller than the last ones he’s crossed paths with here; fur in the same pale seafoam as his own, an ink-dark splotch around an eye the same color as the horizon where it meets the sea. delicate and fine-boned as a gull. not from these wilds; there’s an accent under his words, not chinese but not vallkyrie's or umbra's either.

biting back a sigh, the young shark drags up an echo of owlglass’s smile – the contained, civil one, hoping it’s more genuine than his own, which has gotten him nowhere with these people – and hastily bows his head.

“hello,” he says. “it just a…misunderstanding.”

his greeting prompts a joyless smile and a dipped head, tempering tadashi’s cheer all the more. he lowers his own head in a dutiful greeting, partly the dredged remains of nigh-lost habitus—how long it’s been since he bowed among the empire’s subjects!—and partly to get a better look at his patient.

yes, his patient, it’s decided in mind if nowhere else, certain as the rain falls. facial wounds suggest a fight for dominance; the neck, an intent to kill. a frown tugs at the corner of tadashi’s lip. the small wolf’s image thus far is that of a polite if distant follower; his dismissive non-answer, citing “misunderstanding,” is but seafoam on a tide.

who would do such a thing? are the wolves here, too, prone to such horrific cruelty?

no matter. curiosity comes second; tadashi has a job. he offers a sympathetic nod and lifts his head again, scanning the grass. naturally, he can’t see—anything, nothing of use. his eyebrows furrow; flooding might dilute herbs’ use, but it pains him to stand here doing nothing.

with a gentle, questioning smile, tadashi turns back to the bright-eyed wolf. “what a misunderstanding.” he takes a chance on familiarity; the accent has not escaped tadashi’s attention. it isn’t quite japanese, but hardly local—a fellow weary traveler, then? more than enough cause for empathy either way.

still, should the language go unrecognized, tadashi takes a moment to recall common tongue and adds, “is anyone treating you? you need rest.” small, affirmative nod; it’s the only command he’s ever been confident giving. “and shelter.” away from those who’d make it worse. he’s tempted to ask if any has been found, but that’s quite enough talk for his turn. it does a medic no good to speak over his patients.

he is briefly buoyed by the bow the seaspray man returns, his suddenly muted countenance. it hasn't been so long that yunxu has forgotten the habits, or his manners, and he's grateful for the structure. more than that, he's curious. the accent is unmistakably not of the southern coast, but there could still be others –

or not. the seawolf's smile retains its even civility even as the rest of him deflates, though a thread of curiosity lingers. it's not english he's speaking, but it's certainly not chinese. it makes as much sense as owlglass' had, at least this man's smile is a gentle one, and doesn't make his spine prickle.

a part of him resents being treated as though he's fragile, but that part feels uncomfortably close to the same one that started his last two fights and has put him in his current position.

yunxu examines the stranger blankly as he continues on, but there is nothing he can put a finger on as threatening. he's...earnest, maybe? and it doesn't...seem like there is any deception. but the young shark can't imagine this is the best use of his time, and thus immediately assigns it to the same category as vallkyrie's offer at the coastline.

aimi's help might or might not have counted as treatment – they both knew she was no healer, but it didn't matter. "i...it is healing fine," he lies. his eyes twitch to the curve of his shoulder, where the oozing wounds peek out from underneath the fur. "i not have time to rest."

aha! a contradiction, sore as the wounds on the patient’s shoulder. there is no healing without rest. blithely oblivious to the rumbling resentment, tadashi points his nose towards the evidence with the tact of a child who’s never seen disability. “i’m a medic.” aiding his cause, his eyes gleam with mischief. there’s no lying to him this time.

“but i won’t pry,” he adds, shaking his head in exaggerated disappointment. “i’ve been traveling and haven’t found a single herb. all i can offer is advice.” how sad—his profession, rendered useless without supply.

frustrating, frustrating. tadashi turns, pacing. what are his options? if he knew shelter he’d take his patient there; alas, he’s rested unceremoniously in whatever semblance of a dry patch he can find, and hardly bothered to keep track. all he knows is that he’s turned inland, none too keen on staying by the coastline as the waves swell day by day. (traces of seafoam scent on his patient’s fur go unnoticed, if present at all; without remedy tadashi has no excuse to plunge his nose into inkstained shoulders.) it’d do him good to mentally map the landscape, yet the opportunity refuses to present itself. the nerve of this weather.

but ah, yes. travel. if he cannot solve his own woes he can lend an ear to his patient’s.

“where’re you headed?” tadashi asks, swinging his head back with a curious tilt. “if it’s too far, you’ll crash whether you like it or not.”

yunxu has never been a good liar, but that doesn't stop him from living in the hope that next time will be different. tadashi isn't fooled for a second, and the seawolf's ears flatten under his gaze. he tucks his muzzle protectively over the curve of his shoulder, scruff prickling.

it isn't that he doesn't want help. but his leg aches, he's exhausted, and the fights have left him on edge. not even the exaggerated sweep of the man's expressions and movements can set him at ease, if he'd ever been set at ease at all.

still quiet, yunxu watches the man pace. he's no less eager, but maybe a bit more...impatient. annoyed? for a heartbeat yunxu calculates his chances of just walking around him, but that would be more aimi's conduct than his own.

...it was likely she would have been happy to accept his help in the first place. she'd never been as wary as he was, but even he can see nothing wrong in telling the truth -- or part of it.

"not far?" as though he has any idea where he is or how much walking he has left to do. "i look for neverwinter. was told it past this meadow."