In the aftermath of the storm, Chacal had waded along the shore where the unruly waves had tossed their long-hidden treasures to the coastline. Normally, she might have taken an interest in scavenging for prized possessions or a meal- but now, there was only one gem she would search for; her missing sister.
She did not dare leave the cliffs without first confirming with both
@Erzulie and
@Rosalyn that she would be back, and that she intended to search the shorelines adjacent to the ones they claimed. She'd waited for the winds to settle and the waves to recede so that her own passage might be safe before she stole off, heading south, first.
She hoped not to find her sister along the shoreline- but it was that dread that compelled her to search there first. It was not easy going- the waves had cast hulking, tangled masses of driftwood and seaweed that she had to climb over and move around. Any hint of auburn or crimson drew her wide-eyed gaze as she searched, weaving her way around the wave-worn trunks of old trees, bleached by sand and sun.
can't resist <3
Ashlar had never seen the ocean before. He avoided the pack that lay near theirs out of timid caution, skirting the borders and instead approaching the shore from the southern cove. Now he stepped on the sand and looked across the open water with wide-eyed delight.
It was so big! And so blue.
He'd come for herbs, but even the memory of Avicus' darker words couldn't ruin the beauty of this. Ashlar bounded towards the water with a cheerful bark, ignoring the scattered driftwood.
As he splashed into the shallow water, a bit of the spray hit his face and he pulled up in surprise at the salty taste. Then the water pulled the sand from beneath his paws and he laughed, wriggling them deeper in. This was such an amazing place!! Maybe it deserved a song of its own. There was music in the water, maybe, if he listened for a while.
Stepping over debris, Chacal kept her gaze low, searching for any sign of her sister. The last thing she wanted to see was a tuft of fur or, she dreaded, a limb to be all that she would find, sticking out from underneath one of the many logs that had washed ashore in the storm. She picked her way around them, and found only kelp and sea creatures that had fallen victim to the swell.
She'd searched for long enough, she thought, that any compelling sign of him having washed ashore along Ankyra Sound could be ruled out. Her mind was tired from worry, her neck ached from tension. She rolled her shoulders and tilted her head back, grimacing as she felt the tightness in her muscles. But when she lifted her head and cast her gaze for the first time out over the waters, she was startled to see another wolf in the area. She froze when he barked, and watched him bounce toward the shoreline. She'd been so concentrated on scouring the ground that she hadn't looked up to notice him.
He waded into the water in a way that looked almost playful. He laughed, and she saw his shoulders flex lightly as the current pushed against him. Now that her search was over, she was able to smile faintly. He looked like he'd never seen the ocean before. She didn't remember what it had felt like the first time she'd seen it- not until now, anyway. A long-forgotten memory came back to her, and she felt a bit more of her tension slip away.
She padded a bit closer, warily, and as quietly as she could. With the driftwood scattered about, all she'd have to do would be to duck low and he wouldn't be able to see her. She pressed herself against a log, and threw her head back. She emitted two piercing notes- her best imitation of a gull's call- before she dropped to the ground, and peered with one eye through a knot in the wood to see if she'd fooled him.
Ashlar was absorbed in his game and the delight of the water at his paws. When two swift and sharp cries cut through the sound of the water, he was caught by surprise. As the bard stumbled sideways, he lost his footing and wound up dunked beneath the water.
He'd never heard a coastal bird that close and had no clue where the noise had come from. When he came up sputtering, he looked around with his tail and body language slung suddenly low. Generally the things that were prey would run and hide when wolves played nearby. It was the things that threatened that made noise and Ashlar had no desire to fight today.
He didn't see Chacal hiding but, as he didn't spot any immediate threats, his instinctual fear melted into confusion and curiosity. There wasn't anything here, but there had to be something.
She'd hoped to see him jump or look up- instead, he floundered sideways and flopped below the surface- giving Chacal the opportunity to steal a bit closer, moving from one hulking mass of driftwood and seaweed to another.
He looked around- none the worse for the wear as far as she could see. And so, when she felt his head was turned-
"Eeeeeyaa, Eeeeya!" She cried out again, before hunkering down behind the driftwood. This time, though, a couple chiming notes of a girlish chuckle escaped her before she had the chance to stop them. She froze- knowing if she tried to peek out to see him now, he might spot her.
He was very clearly started by the sound again, but this time, he heard the laughter with it. Ashlar immediately felt ashamed and he went from curious to hurt, still looking around to see now who was teasing him. He crept out of the waves and shook water from his fur, then hunched against the cold. He hadn't meant to get completely soaked.
That isn't f...funny,
he said a little softly. If she was further away, she probably wouldn't have heard it.
Fro. where she'd hunkered down the second time, she'd missed his reaction. She didn't hear his voice above the crash and rush of the waves but when she peeked over the log, she could see clear as day how his posture had changed. Defeated, if not a bit frightened; her heart sank. Was she bullying him? She'd only wanted it to be a game...
She hopped over the log, gracefully, and abruptly dropped her stature when she landed. Her tail was pulled in between her hind legs but waved slightly, and her head was lowered in an ashamed apology. She uttered a reassuring chuff, but knew she owed him more than that.
"Poor soul, I applogize.
I meant to joke, not terrorize."
If he hadn't so recently faced the scorn in Tulimaq, Ashlar might not have been so sensitive to the prank. He'd already felt small and being made to feel smaller had inspired an unusually dour read of the situation. One that was, happily, proven to be incorrect when she appeared and seemed apologetic.
He lifted his head to look at her, ready to be teased, and instead he saw her expression of remorse.
It's, uh... .
His ears swept back as his eyes dropped again, but then she sang a lilting apology at him. His entire demeanor went from closed to open in an instant.
You sing?
He smiled, astounded. She'd turned the words into a rhyme so easily!!
It's alright, Im just new here,
I didn't know I'd meet a peer.
She was surprised by just how quickly he cheered up, hearing her sing. And while her mothers had sung to her in her youth, she’d yet to hear any other wolves pick up the practice. She was a bit overwhelmed and flustered by the fact that this male, too, could sing. And how easily he made his words rhyme! She felt simultaneously very excited, but also very self-conscious.
”My name is Chacal, I welcome you to de coast,
I come from Sapphique, though I mean not to boast.
Where do you come from, then, if this is so new?
And what is a name that I could call you?”
It wasn't just the singing that caught him. Her accent made the words lilt in a way unlike any Ashlar had ever heard. He delighted in it almost as much as he did the game they now played. It never occurred to him to question, or to judge, why she spoke as she did. He was simply joyous to meet someone who rhymed as he did.
Chacal. He committed it to memory. Already they were fast friends in his eyes, the previous hurt completely washed away by newfound comraderie.
Ashlar is the name they call me by
And this is all absolutely new
I've never seen two skies collide with waves and foam and sunlight too.
I'm from a Rise that rose nearby
When my friend decided to claim it
This place, Sapphique, sounds pretty unique
I'd love to hear more if you don't mind to name it?
He smiled as he played with the scheme a bit, falling into something that was a little less song but still had an underlying rhythm and tone.
While it was perfectly normal for Chacal to communicate lyrically, it made her feel a bit nervous to be engaged in a conversation with someone else who was also singing. Would she come up with clever enough words? Usually, she didn’t bother with a rhyme scheme unless it just happened naturally…But now, it felt like she really ought to- especially when presented with a dashing stranger who also sung.
His voice was so lovely; very pure and natural, and she might have found herself distracted by the smoothe timbre of his voice had he not also painted such beautiful imagery with his words. She realized quickly that he was practiced at this art, and felt her cheeks flush warm. Her heart thudded in her chest; it made her nervous to think she had standards to meet, now.
When he asked her to tell him more about Sapphique, she knew thousands of things she could have said about her charming home. She had odes she could have composed on the spot about her family, and ballads about the way the ocean smelled in different seasons. But when she opened her mouth to speak, she simply stuttered for a moment and quickly stopped, shocked and embarrassed by the sudden fragmentation that interrupted their conversation. She tried to rein in her nerves a bit, and calm her fluttering heart.
”S-Sapphique…S-sits on de cliffs of-Dragoncrest,
Where de stone cascades to de sand.
An’ de smell of salt an’ lavender
Perfumes our claimed land.”
The words flowed more easily the less she thought about it.
”I live dere wit’ my family,
An’ de sea fills all our needs,
We comb de beach for treasures
An’ we live a life of peace.”
She seemed to stop and he paused too, a quick look of concern lighting across his face. Maybe it was wrong of him to ask a stranger to sing about their home. She didn't know him! He was so caught up in the song that he had almost forgotten, and Ashlar began to apologize, only to have it stop in his throat when she responded to his song.
He instantly smiled with relief. His tail began to wave again, but he still worried that she might feel like he was prying.
Sorry to ask, or be kind of a bother,
But it sounds really lovely
A place like no other.
A life of peace is something unique
It's hard to find
And even harder to keep.
He had less this time, thrown as he was by her reaction at first, and he fell a little quiet after that. He wished so much that he could show Avicus this, but he knew that no matter how much he wanted it, he couldn't force her to be what she wasn't. It had been a while since he'd considered what peace might feel like.
Your voice is beautiful,
he finished finally, smiling at her again with absolute joy to have found a fellow bard. He dropped the singing for this, and he wanted it to land as the genuine compliment it was!
A bother? She beamed and shook her head at the ridiculous notion. Normally, when asked about her pack, it was simply for business and information but with Ashlar, it actually felt exciting. She loved her home, and now she was actually being encouraged to gush about it! And of all things- he was singing with her!
He valued peace- and seemed to appreciate the effort it took to make it happen. If his pack, led by his friend, was so close by, perhaps this was the perfect chance to extend an olive branch.
”You speak de truth, an’ if you feel dis way,
Wit’ de beginnin’ of our friendship,
We might find someday-
Dat dis life of peace is somet’ing we can share,
Wid mutual respect,
Honour an’ care.”
She’d borrowed his rhyme scheme and melody, as a means of hopefully showing a willingness to work in harmony with him. At his compliment, she smiled and bowed her head, tail waving. And while he stopped singing, she did not. She was a bit hesitant, perhaps- maybe he thought this was a game that she could simply stop playing so that they could speak…But she was trying hard not to be ashamed of the methods she used in order to make her speech flow.
”T’ank you. Your voice be sublime as well, Ashlar.”
Ashlar hadn't felt this comfortable around a stranger in a long time. Perhaps ever. It was rare enough that he heard another wolf sing, let alone one who wished to sing along with him! She continued to even after he'd stopped, but she also didn't seem to mind that he didn't. He wasn't so used to doing it to the extent that she did and he was only impressed at how she wove the music into everything she said. It was magic.
Mama taught me a few songs, but it's better to make them. And even better to make them together,
He said, wondering if she would share how she had learned. They're like words, but with the feelings all there. You know?
He suspected that she understood in a way others might not.
That's the hardest part, I think. Finding the right feeling.
Did she find it easy, with how naturally she combined the song with her own voice? Or did she struggle with it also? He was so curious to know and so excited to talk about music with another wolf who showed a similar love that he could barely contain it!
Chacal’s heart thumped happily in her chest when he spoke so endearingly about his mother. It felt wonderful and almost a little bit crazy to have found someone who understood the value and meaning of music the way she did- and he too had learned from his mother! How much smaller could the world get?
”I do!” She chirruped happily. ”I learned from my Maman too! We sing in harmony toget’er,
De combination of voices always sounds better!” She said with a smile.
She was charmed by how much he considered the emotive aspect of music to be important. She wondered if she ought to pinch herself; it was like living in a dream, speaking like this with someone.
”It is funny to me,
For you to say dat;
I fin’ de feeling and song easy to see,
But de words are where my struggle is at.” She confessed. She wondered if she should tell him…But perhaps another day. She didn’t want to ruin the atmosphere.
”Will you do de honour, an’ teach to me,
A song your Maman taught you when you were petit?”