Perhaps if the great brute had known, the would have spoken to quell the inner turmoil that was plaguing the small animal. All of her hard work had not gone unnoticed; the more that he traversed along the bay and noted the caches of prey, he found himself pleased that the ocean had called such a capable young wolf to aid him in his conquest of the territory. But alas, the inky wraith was not a man of words, and so he had often allowed the witch doctor to flit about without showing her the true gratitude that he had felt toward all of her actions.
 
Doe had been a flighty little creature upon arrival, but she had done well at making the bay and the wolves within it, her home. She had worked hard to gather the appropriate herbs and items for their blessing, and she had dug the prey caches as she had promised him she would do. More than this, when Skellige had called on her for medical needs, she had come without question, eager to please him. The leviathan was a lucky man, for he had the unyielding support of a very capable wolf at his side.
 
Just as he had unspoken thoughts and worries, so did the witch doctor. The wraith had simply excused her strange behavior as that of the mystic mind. He did not know that she was troubled by her doubts and by something worse that seemed to ebb away at her very being. The fear of being alone was great, swallowing, like the deep of the ocean’s swell. Skellige had not ever found himself experiencing such a phobia. Once he had been banished from Warsaw, he had been so very driven by the action that loneliness had never been a thought to cross his mind. It had been his anger that had fueled him out of the mental clasps of fear. But even as he allowed his youngest sibling to endure beatings from the others, he would continue to be blissfully unaware that there were treacherous thoughts that sank into the mind of his witch doctor.
 
As he had made his rounds along the bay, there was a familiar noise that had sounded in the length of his ears; a pip that he had grown accustomed to being his summons from the wild-limbed wolf. Drawing the length of strides into longer ones and closing the distance that had stretched between them, the great ink-coated brute looked on her with the dark of his eyes and nodded his head in greeting to the wild witch. Something about her seemed far more eager than he could have recalled before, but then he did not know what good fortunes had fallen upon them.
 
“Doctor,” the timbre of his voice rumbled through the air, and though it was uncommon, a ghost of a smile tugged on the corners of the inky titan’s lips as he gazed on her figure. Instinct told him that their time would be coming, and that they had gathered with them a strong group of wolves; he would see the bay claimed soon enough.

Good news was offered to the great leviathan and he looked down on the small witch with surprise on his features that she had been able to gather her things with such haste. Skellige was certainly lucky that the sea had blessed him with her presence, and with the light that shone inside of her. Before he was allowed to speak again, the witch doctor went on to admit that she had not been entirely truthful with him. The thought of the girl having spoken lies was almost absurd, but it did cause the titan’s pelt to bristle near his neck and shoulders and stand rigidly along his back. To withhold information was something that he would not accept.
 
As the flighty girl continued, though, she brought up the subject of her name, and how she had not fully offered him a sense of transparency when they had first happened upon each other. He met her words with heavily furrowed brows as his mind quickly attempted to mull over what it was that she was telling him. The wraith had not truly believed that she had come to him without a calling, but he had not anticipated that the sea would have made her Doe. Nevertheless, it was not his place to comment on how fitting the moniker was. He was there to accept it.
 
With a great sigh, the beast watched her and then nodded his head. “Doe,” he echoed in the quiet timbre of his voice. “I will call you whatever it is you wish to be called,” the leviathan then breathed with a soft shrug of his broad shoulders. “You have done well to prepare and I have seen the work you have performed here in the bay. Do not fret, little one,” and he extended his muzzle downward to rest atop her skull. The flighty nature of the girl had been concerning to the titan, but he had only wanted her to feel as though she belonged on the sands with the other Blackrock wolves. If she should feel as though her place was somewhere else, she need only speak to him.
 
“Now, tell me what you have prepared,” he then prompted with a short thump of his tail. His eyes were alight with the thirst of his homeland to see if the Doctor had managed to gather everything that was necessary for the blessing. Though Skellige was a towering monster of a man, he had more faith in her than he did in the other wolves of the pack; she was essential in his mind.

Skellige would never have realized that the young female did not know anything about the ways of the mystics; she spoke as though she had been given directions from the great body of water itself. As the titan drew his ears forward to capture everything she would say, he found himself growing proud of the slender woman. She had been found, somewhat scattered, on the cliffs and yet once she had been turned to the swell of the ocean, it had awakened something inside of her that boasted confidence and knowledge. He could not help but to believe that it was all meant to be and that her presence there was a blessing in itself to the wolves of the ocean.
 
The witch doctor spoke of plum whiskey and strings of kelp. Skellige held her gaze captive with his own while she continued to talk of their blessing and her many preparations. Though his expression was stern, there was an excitement that seemed to bubble from within his chest. They were drawing closer to their goal and he knew that it would not belong before they would be able to stake their claim on the bay. The great black rock beneath the waters had done well for him; the mystics had erected a landmark to sing praises to his occupying that stretch of sea. They would be satisfied with all that Doe had arranged for them, and he did not fear that they would deny a blessing to his lands.
 
Once the girl had finished her explanation, the wraith bobbed his head sagely and turned his vision toward the waters with a quiet sigh. He could not have imagined that the witch doctor would become so important to him, but she had. The strange quirks that she had provided were something of a comfort, and the brute felt as though his home had been planted on new sands. While he was capable of it, the girl would not see his rage on that day. Instead, he sought to offer her something more in return for all that she had done for the sea and for his legacy.
 
Turning the dark mahogany of his gaze back to the canary-eyed girl, he fixed her with a stare that spoke of the importance of his intentions. “You have done well to prepare for this ceremony, and I am pleased with all that you have accomplished,” he spoke to her in a grumbling voice and his eyes flashed for a moment on the slender form of the woman. “Your role here will be crucial at all times; you must understand this. As a witch doctor, you will be a great insight to the mystics, as will any others who are chosen by them. But you have shown great promise and I should ask you one thing; take the position of Atoll. You have earned it, even more than my own kin.”
 
As he bore into her with his gaze, he awaited the response that would follow. Surely, the woman would not deny him… she never had.

There was a willingness about the girl – but then, there always had been. Since the day he had sighted her figure yelling to the waters, she had been one to push forward with determination and it had impressed the great king of the sea. There had been doubts, but he knew that her mistakes had been few and she had upheld the promise that she had made. In turn, the leviathan had given the girl a home. Since their predestined meeting, she had proven herself far more than he would have hoped. Her mark had been made on that land just as much as his own. Though the brute was hesitant to offer a role of leadership to any of the wolves he had gathered underneath him, there was a quiet whisper from the waves that spoke of the promise that Doe had. The witch doctor would excel as she had before.
 
“The wolves of these lands would call the position… Beta,” he remarked to her with a frown and a flick of his coral-colored tongue against his lips. “The Atoll will act as a form of leadership. As a witch doctor, I believe it is necessary for the mystics to have a powerful figure to commune with. I want the others to respect the great ones. Having you as our Atoll would help to ensure this.” The other role, that of Argosy had been a thought that weighed in his mind heavily. Arturo would have made a fine leader, and had aspired to his own pack, but Skellige was not certain that the Fearghal male was ready for it yet. There were still hesitations in the heart of the halfling about the culture of their pack.
 
Doe was not one for him to be concerned about. The ancient ones had already spoken their liking of her, and he was certain that this would not change for quite some time.