it surprised her that, in all her wanderings, all her time in Teekon, she had never found this place. she stepped soundlessly between the pools, maw agape and drawing the thick, humid air into her lungs. in the gathering coolness of evening, the stream from the pools wreathed around her tightly, tendrils of smoke reaching out to her, begging her to let them pull her into the mist. but there was another scent here, one that reeked of carrion, but too of life. 

the woman followed it, moving like a wraith through the mists, until she stood at the brink of a pool, larger than the rest. but it was not the pool that stole her gaze, but the male that lumbered within it, and the gaze of burning coals that burned from a filthy skull. submerged as he was, she could not guess his size, but he hardly seemed the type to be small and scrawny. 

she was still, made no effort to speak, as she regarded the male, the monster, within the pool. mist danced between them, but it was thin, vapid, and the gaze of the beast was glowering within the ghostliness of the pools.

there was a hardening of the coals that lay within the skull of the other, and instantly she was aware of the minute threat made by such an action. yet she made no move to alter her stance, or to leave, or to do anything. his question had her pause; briefly, she had been searching for the scent of living-carrion, yet such a remark ought to have consequences. 

" What is it you offer?" her tone rang cool, indifferent, offering a different form of directness than his low words offered. the words were delivered as part of the game of speech she intended to play, yet behind them, there was, too, interest. for they eyes through the mist radiated a sort of power, something different than all the had seen before.

face hardened all the more, and finally, did he rise. gaze fell on a form built for power and for the attack and the kill. the male truly was a monster, and yet, she did not baulk, stance firm as her gaze betrayed little of her thoughts, of the stirrings of interest in the beast. words rolled from his tongue then, a growl leaked from betwixt his jaws. his form moved into motion, then, approaching, and despite herself, her stance shifted in the slightest, to better be prepared for conflict, if that was what the male sought. 

his question rang again, and this time, her words fell hollow and true. "I wanted to find out what reeks of carrion, yet lives. And I have found you."  came her words, blunt and simple, adding a moment later, "Now, I wish to know what the beast with a gaze of hell calls himself."  she continued, intentions, while simple, laid clear.

there came a release of the intention that gathered, that dissipated as soon as the male sunk back into the pool. the woman found herself dimly acknowledging the awesome power of the male, who with a simple act was able to shift the tides of what transpired around them. his words, though simply, spoke of something greater, some brutal intellect. a nobody, he claimed himself to be. a nobody here, perhaps, but it was easy to sense that he possessed a primal power that ought to make him somebody, someday. 

gaze remained cold, distant, stance still. even though she stood, and he lay within the pool, she felt a sort of dominance radiated from him that she could not match. it frustrated her, this silent power that he had, but all the more intrigued her. " In a pack I once ran with, they praised a Sithis. He was said to be primordial, chaos, darkness incarnate."  There was little she remembered about Blackfeather, but whispers of one of their gods had stuck with her. "If their myth ever came close to being made flesh, you are the closest I have seen."  she answered, truthfully.

his maw split into a toothy grin, the beast that was him momentarily shattered by the mundane action, the laughter. her maw pulled into wry grin, gaze sparking at the mirth he emanated. when he spoke, understanding came; for surely he had been called, likened to things before; his presence demanded it. but, unlikely, had it ever been to some deity like the one called Sithis. his question had her shift, moving to sit lightly upon her haunches, feeling that no threat came from the male, nor that she ought to present one. sure, it was evident that should a threat be integrated, it would be quick to come, but that was not her plan. 

"While formidable, their worship and religion I could not conform to. When their leadership came to clash, I chose, in hindsight, the wrong side.  Balckfeather, they were called; when I left, they were led newly by an assassin, Nemesis." a shortened, clipped version of what had come to pass. "And now, after a series of rather unfortunate events, I find myself here. Nobody, with no allegiance." She had been Tyro, once. And then Warlord, next Gamma, and then she had been alone. And finally, shortly after the absence of titles came the absence of all those she had known. And she had been left with the moral that to chose less than power, to change, to thaw, led to this; led to being nobody, queen of nothing.

his words, despite herself, had a flicker of irritation stir in her gut, undetected, hardly acted on. but it was there, and she knew why, as he continued. she had allowed herself to become weak, to become attached and to change her ways. and that had hardly ended well for her, while she knew the Blackfeather pack still stood, still stood through all the changes and failings in her own life this past year. she would no longer be weak, would not allow it. 

"You speak wisely," she admitted shamelessly, knowing his words to be true. Yearning for companionship, for a pack to run with, was perhaps what had led to her following for so very long with nought to offer for it. "I have followed the wrong individuals for far too long, perhaps as a cost of my own folly." She would not repeat that mistake, realising slowly that Vengeance's words might have been the precise cause of all the failings in the past.

she considered a moment, asking then, "What of you, Vengeance? Do you take pleasure in the solitary life, or simply bear it?" Obviously he would not be actively seeking a pack, as his ideals had just spoken against. But she wondered if the life of a loner was something he admired. Even for her, the woman often refered to as "cold" and "heartless", could not honestly say that she wished to remain a loner.  

her words were not long in coming, her mind made up shortly after that had uttered her first few words. "I will join you."  she answered with finality, resolute in her decision. her gaze too drifted into the steam, before falling to rest on Vengeance once more. "There is something I must do here. But I will find you, Vengeance, if not here than the North." Captain was a title she had not born before, a wolf like Vengeance one she had not followed before. But this was right, she knew it to be so. 

the woman shifted, tail lashing at her ankles in the slightest. " I leave you now, but know that my allegiances lie with you,"  she added, voice cool yet firm in her decision. she was not one to make decisions especially lightly, yet once she did, she was firm in them. her muzzle dipped, nodding in a gesture of farewell. proving that he raised no qualms to her departure, she would turn tail and slip soundlessly and seamlessly into the fog, no longer an aimless loner, but one with purpose.