Dragoncrest Cliffs there's a fine line between weird and beautiful and that line is covered in jellyfish

She hadn’t been out of the territory very long. The Tangle hadn’t been very fun and she wears a mark around her ankle as proof. Sif had been a pleasant encounter, though, even if he girl was a little weird and she doesn’t know if she’ll see her again. It would be nice. She had a lot of questions about her that she doubts she’ll get answers to anyway, but it would be interesting to try and figure out.
 
Though she thinks about the girl some, she’s more often than not dwelling on the fact Étoille didn’t come home. She’d already been feeling pretty lousy with no one to talk to since the incident with Blixen and Rose that his continued absence only makes things worse. Eske is often busy with other things so much she barely gets any training in—she can’t remember the last time—and to find any other relationship she has, she’d have to travel outside the borders. Witchbaby’s location is still a mystery and Étoille promised to help find where she lives but without him, she’s sure she’d get lost. She hasn’t traveled past the river down the coast and going alone isn’t her ideal of a fun time.
 
Furi meanders aimlessly through the forest until she feels something hot and wet on her ankle. She turns to look at it, noticing a scab on the outside having opened up and started to bleed. Lips twist in a frown and she carefully sits, lifting her leg a little to get better access and begins to clean off the blood. When she withdraws, it continues, and it becomes an endless cycle of cleaning and waiting and cleaning again and she curses whatever she’d hit in the process to open up the wound.

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Artaax remained clueless to the way he had affected Furi when they'd first met. He hadn't spared a second thought to the girl after she'd left, nor to his fairly inconsiderate behavior towards her. When her scent on the breeze touched his senses, he didn't think for a moment of whether or not she'd be pleased or displeased to come upon him - an event that was inevitable, he surmised. He assumed she was indifferent towards him, just as he was towards her, and so he turned to trek in her direction to meet her without a second thought other than to wonder about the scent of blood that mingled faintly with her own perfume.

The pale wolf came upon her not too long after catching her scent, frowning thoughtfully at the sight of her attempting to clean a wound on her leg. He prowled forward with a low growl of greeting, his nose twitching as he gathered what information he could. He paused a few feet away from her, lifting his eyes to her face as he murmured a question to her with his soft voice, "What happened?"

Furi continues to work on her ankle for several minutes, unable to slow the process down. If anything, she’s encouraging it with the attention of her tongue but if she continues to let it ooze, she’ll soak her food in blood. The metallic taste coats her mouth in a different way than prey does. Her movements become robotic and timed, licking away the blood from her ankle and watching it intently until it wells around the abrasion, threatening to spill over until her tongue wipes away any evident.

When Artaax literally comes out of nowhere, growling his presence, she flinches and her silvery mane bristles. She snaps her attention to the pale boy, eyes narrowing and her heart beats heavy in her chest. Where the fuck had he come from? she glances behind him, shaking off the sudden wave of panic, and moves to stand to all four feet. She favors her back right leg. The only thing that makes her feel better is the knowledge they are further in the territory than they are to the borders and she licks her lips, swinging her gaze back to the male.

“I got tied up outside the borders. There’s a place with a lot of vines and some wrapped around my ankle and dug into my skin,” she explains, feeling blood ooze down the side of her foot and between her toes.

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Furi responded to his presence with a moment of fearful almost-aggression, which Artaax ignored entirely. She was quick to get over it and to explain a bit anxiously what had happened. He frowned thoughtfully, holding his tongue for a moment. He had many reasons for rarely leaving the borders of Drageda. One, the world outside of his home no longer held much interest to him. Two, it seemed that only bad things ever happened to those who did leave. Some bad things were small ones, such as Furi's injury. Some were like Wildfire's experience. He would stay in Drageda.

"You should leave the wound alone. You'll only irritate it further," he commented, "Is it deep? Do you need Portia?" Artaax asked the question out of consideration for how she might feel about her wound. He didn't personally think Portia's arts were necessary for this, but he also hadn't thought the wound on his shoulder from that time he'd murdered that dude had needed her attention either so I wouldn't call him the best judge of such things.

Her brows knit together when he offers he tells her what she should do. She certainly doesn’t want blood caking to her paw any more than it already is but she resists the urge to lick at it again because he’s still standing there. “No, I don’t think so,” she says, glancing back at it. The ooze has slowed, at least, and she sighs when she realizes it’s working. Wrinkling her nose, she swings back and shrugs it off. “It’ll be fine,” she adds to reassure she’s fine and she doesn’t need any of his attention. Maybe she’ll have Rose look at it later if she runs into her but for now she falls silent, and a little awkward, as she waits for him to move on.

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Artaax nodded silently as she responded to his questions. He found himself pleased with her that she didn't consider herself to be in need of the medic's services. He probably would have judged her if she'd decided that she did want to take up Portia's precious time with something that seemed pretty minor to him.

He stood quietly for a few moments, staring thoughtfully at her oozing wound, though he wasn't actually seeing it. Eventually, his eyes shifted back to her face and he asked in a seemingly random manner, "Why were you outside the borders?" There was only curiosity in his tone - not accusation or judgment. He personally no longer saw any draw to the outside world after his journey to the Caldera. He had appreciated the experience, but was content not to have any others. He knew that this was not so for his mother, nor was it for the sibling following in her path (idk remember which one), and so he was curious... why?

It only becomes more awkward—at least for her, he doesn’t seem fazed—when he doesn’t begin his departure. Instead, he stares down at her foot and she becomes all too aware of it. Her back right leg trembles, causing the foot to rock anxiously and she moves in a way to try and block the view. He looks up and asks her a question and she stares at him for a few seconds before she realizes what he’s actually asked.
 
“Um,” is all she manages at first and she has to turn away and think about it. Each time she’s left has had a different reason but she isn’t bothered each time she does. Whether the reason is because she’s upset and needs time to think or she wants to explore, there does seem to be some sort of common dominator. “I just like to know the area around us,” she manages to say. She hadn’t been familiar with the sweep when she’d been attacked and she’d only wandered since then, never finding somewhere safe and comfortable. Drageda has offered that, in its own way. “I think if you know your surroundings, you can use it to your advantage.”

Artaax was thoughtful as she responded. Her reasons were sound enough, though he didn't himself feel any more compelled to venture away from Drageda. He supposed though that it did make sense to have some who protected from without as well as having those who protected from within. Appeased with her answer, he still found himself curious about her last comment. He canted his head slightly, eyes narrowing thoughtfully in a non-verbal request for her to elaborate on how she could use her knowledge of their surrounding territories to her advantage.

Artaax doesn’t say anything but his expression does change, urging her to go on. He hasn’t grown bored of what she’s talking about and it isn’t the same blank staring as the first time they’d met. She clears her throat to bide her some time but she struggles to find the words that don’t make her sound stupid. “Well, uh…” she manages to say but she looks away, trying to come up with something halfway decent. “Assuming we come under attack, for any reason. They wouldn’t know our land, in theory, and it’s likely to assume they wouldn’t know the area surrounding us either, but if we did, it would be easier to take the enemy down.” she explains, having discovered it’s dangerous to make the pack upset. “And having wolves that travel, like me… if anything weird happens out there I can report it back,” she adds though she doesn’t quite get the feeling it’s enough to satisfy his curiosity and approve her reasoning.

Furi didn't need any further prompting from him to continue, and once again Artaax found himself silently pleased with her. Not everyone seemed to understand his non-verbal cues. He was a wolf of few words in most company and that was his preferred way of being, so it was always appreciated when his companions allowed him to be. He watched the girl thoughtfully as she continued her explanation of the value she felt her scouting brought to the pack. It was sound enough, though he himself wasn't convinced that having a single wolf know the surrounding territories would be enough.

"Will you show me sometime?" he requested stoically. He was still oblivious to her discomfort around him and even so, social anxiety paled in importance to him when it came to their duties to the pack. If there was information to be known that would help keep the pack safe, then he would know them as well, even if it meant stepping beyond their borders.

The weight in their silence sits heavy with her and she waits for further scrutiny. If she has to spend the rest of her life proving herself in Drageda, when she feels she already has—she’s got a title now, like the others—then what comes next? Will they advance and leave her behind? Will she feel the need to even stay anymore? It would be too easy if things just… worked out.

She doesn’t expect the next question, and she can’t decipher if it’s skepticism of what she believes or if he’s genuinely curious. Unable to find the words to get across an answer, she dumbly nods her head in agreement.

awkward last post for meeee

Furi looked stunned, but she agreed. Seeing as that was all Artaax really required of her, he gave a contented nod and turned to continue on his way along the borders. He saw no reason to make any definite plans, especially not with the current of uncertainty in Drageda those days. Sometime when there was no patrol and there was no hunt and there was no impending march to the South, he would call for her and they would go. That was good enough for now. For him, anyway.