The beach was jarringly bright, so she kept to the trees. It was what she knew. Every once in a while, though, something would coax her out of the shadows. She supposed it was her proclivity to confront unfamiliar faces back home that sent her out to meet the newcomer now, but she did so this time with uncertainty, rather than with the self-assured strut she'd usually employed in Blackfeather.

"Hey." Her voice was low, a girlish sort of croak. She'd been talking to no one but the puppies, and those conversations had been little louder than murmurs--the Valley pup had only a handful of words, and the two from the dead mother were still too young to comprehend much.

She approached him slowly, keeping him in her sights before sitting down with a gentle sigh, a few tail-lengths away. Maegi cocked her head, thinking. "What're you staring at?" she asked, inquisitive, not demanding.

She nodded slowly, eyes moving to the lagoon. "Yeah, I've never seen anything like it before," Maegi remarked, one corner of her mouth lifting in a faint smile. "Where I come from, it's completely different. Different birds, fish, everything. Lots of trees, not all this water."

The words were flowing easily, and she didn't quite understand why. This guy was no different from others on the island, and yet she had encountered so much difficulty opening up thus far. Perhaps she was finally bursting out of the shell she had crafted for herself after the trauma she had faced.

"Are you from here?" she asked. Maegi didn't think so. He stared at the water like she did, like he wasn't used to it. And so, if not--where was he from?

Satisfied that this guy (probably) wasn't going to do her harm, Maegi drew up beside him, sitting down and looking at the creature he had pushed away. Curious, she outstretched her right, clubbed paw toward the creature--and found herself stumbling backwards, letting loose a yelp of pain.

"Ow! Hey! Ow!" she cried out, trying to shake the thing--which had attached itself to her!--off her paw. After a few seconds, it flew off and hit the ground in a small puff of sand, scuttling away. Maegi whined softly, licking her paw and wincing at the sharp pain of the cut, the tiny trickle of blood that coated the tip of her tongue.

"I should have listened to the last thing you said," Maegi said ruefully, staring over at the man. "So is that what they're called? Pinchers?" Whatever they were, she made a mental note to stay far away from them. She saw another, edging closer, and shied away, eyes flashing warily.

"What's your name? I'm Maegi," she added hastily, looking back at the stranger.

"Well, that's what I'll call them, too," she muttered sourly, resisting the urge to suck on her paw like a child. "It's a good name for them." She peered in slight curiosity at Rokig, head tilted. "Creepy trees? That sounds a lot like my home. How'd you end up here?"

Now, the fish, she liked looking at. Unlike the pinchers, they weren't a foreign concept to her; there were fish in Otter Creek, after all. But these were different, bigger and some were more colorful, and the water tasted different, too. She didn't want to drink it--it tasted bitter, salty. Not like the cool refreshing streams back home.

She supposed there were pros and cons to everywhere, but in the mental checklist she kept, the mainland was considerably winning out. Not to say she wasn't grateful, for everyone taking her in and feeding her thus far--but it didn't erase the homesickness. Nothing could.

She saw his face change and knew the question had been a mistake. He stammered out a reply, words that took her aback. They didn't like me. Maegi felt sudden empathy for the young man. The circumstances surrounding her conception and birth had been highly suspect. Potema had hated her from the get-go. She had earned the hatred of her brothers, and probably her father, too, by remaining behind. As for the rest, it was mostly cold indifference she had been given--so yes, in Rokig's story was a glimmer of hers, as well.

"I'm sorry," she said simply, frowning. At least he seemed to have shaken it off, remarking on the island scenery. "Yeah, it's pretty," Maegi observed, bicolored eyes dancing round the lagoon. "Lots of colors." She looked over at Rokig again. "What do you like to do? What are you good at?"

Her eyes softened as his lips gave way to the ghost of a smile. His features were rather drab, but the expression gave new life to his face, and Maegi thought he was kind of, well, cute. Not in the way a tiny pup was cute, and not brawny and handsome like Aries or Vaati--but there was something about the man that appealed to her. As well as his interests--

"I've never tried fishing," Maegi responded. She looked down at her bad paw, scowling. "I, uh, can't really hunt. My mentor was going to teach me how, but then--" But then what? The war. The collar. The kidnapping. She couldn't well say any of that to Rokig, and so she chose to trail off, lips relaxing into their normal neutral--now half-grinning--state.

"The sky is cool. Some wolves like to look at the stars, I've heard. And I always liked to look at the ravens, back home." Gods, she even missed the ravens, loud and raucous as they were. It would take some time to get used to waking up to the sound of ocean waves, rather than the squawking cries of the ebony birds--and she wasn't quite there yet.

"I pray," she said, "and speak to the gods." As matter-of-fact as if discussing baseball scores. "I like plants, too. Poisons, herbs. . .yeah."

Maegi wagged her tail, excitement blooming over her features for the first time in a long time. She loved to learn new things; she lived for it, really. She usually had to pester wolves into teaching her, but now Rokig was offering. Of course she would take the opportunity.

"Yes, definitely," she said, smiling. "That would be cool. And I could catch my own food, for once," she added, genuine laughter--so rare, for her--bubbling from her lips. She pondered his questions, wondering how to respond, at least to the first. To give away too much about the daedra might alert him to her true home; she was leery about revealing her origins to anyone, even if they were kind.

"Uh, my family's gods," Maegi said vaguely, the impassive mask coming down over her face once more. "All the rituals and stuff." The poison question was easier to answer. "Depends on the poison. Some of it isn't that strong; I've tested it myself. But my father said that you need to test stronger stuff on, like, foxes. Or wolves you don't like."

The proselytizer and the pragmatist warred within her; the former screamed out the names of the gods, urging her to tell Rokig, the latter petrified of what that information, when spilled, could do. In the end, she went with neither, giving a small shrug and a nod at his question. Yes, maybe one day. When she knew she could trust him fully.

The poisons were an easier matter, and to this Maegi smiled. "I promise," she said warmly. She looked down at the crabs on the beach. "Maybe we could test on the pinchers." That would sure show them, for locking onto her as that one had.

She didn't like to be too long away from the pups, and she shot Rokig an apologetic glance. "I've gotta go," she said, a little reluctantly. "I'll see you again soon--for that fishing lesson?" She gave him one last grin before hobbling away, exiting the beach and back into the brush, a much more familiar setting.

All the while thinking of Rokig, with his own demons. The smile that lit up his face.