Stavanger Bay He who leads a war for the love of his fellow men, will defeat his enemies.

@Dalia and @Velen plz kthanx

He and Opalia lingered nearby, maintaining a distance from the place their sister had come to call home. Dacio wasn't sure what kept them rooted there; reuniting with Dalia had reopened old wounds, and the bitterness was resurfaced, but couldnt shake the feeling that his purpose there might not be over.

His grudge against her for leaving was something he'd been unable to bury for so long and he struggled to be happy for her when his own world had crumbled around him. She was natrona, shed of her Drakru name, his real ties to her gone with it, yet his uncertainty remained.

When at last he made his decision to move on from the coast and assume the hunt for Sequoia, Dacio made his way toward Stormrift's claim to seek a private audience with his elder sibling. He intended it to be a final farewell; while she may have wished he and his littermate to join the pack she'd settled with, it could never be a home to him - not while his heart ached for Drageda's cliffs. But as he drew closer, the stench of something that was painfully familiar caused his guard hairs to stand on end and his tail to flag, and a low rumble swelled in his chest at the painful reminder of Rusalka.

They had forced Drageda to fall, and now claimed the bay?

The boy's temper flared and at once he sent forth an urgent request for Dalia, as sudden concern for her safety settled in his gut like stone. He didn't know what happened in the time he'd spent, but he did know that she could never be safe beneath the rule of his enemies.

PPing velen -- i can edit if necessary (:

 

to the end of their last meeting, dalia had little to feel confident about. it seemed she had shattered every bit of her relationship with her siblings, though she was more hopeful now about opalia than she was dacio. she feared that their relationship may never be what it once was -- oh, but how could it? she'd left. and she had promised to visit... it was the incident, with the sandy wolf, that held her captive here. but was that just an excuse?

when dacio called, dalia was with velen. he was concerned at all hours of the day for their safety here, and she couldn't blame him. she was just as concerned. but recognizing dacio's call, the young moreau girl nudged her mate. "it's my brother," she told him gently, and ushered him to come with her. she probably wouldn't have much choice, anyway. 

she approached dacio with velen in tow, gaze settled upon him with concern. "dacio," she said, head dipping once, her tail swaying -- though perhaps it was out of nervousness -- "you've returned." she seemed surprised, and she was. she motioned towards velen. "this is my mate, velen."

velen had not slept well since the fall of ford. loathe to leave dalia unaccompanied for any stretch of time, he had asked rannveig to watch over her while he and his brother took turns searching in the shared lands for the titan.
torn between his duty to ford and his protectiveness toward dalia and their unborn, velen had grown more savage in his appearance, windswept and unkempt. 
when the call rose for his mate, velen glanced toward her, and then followed at a distance as she began her approach. his was one of guardianship, and he was altogether aware of the chance that their new leader might suddenly appear to make another spectacle. 
a man, but familiar to his mate; velen hung back for the present, nosing dalia’s neck once before settling his haunted chestnut eyes on the stranger. ”hello,” was his sole reply to this dacio; in silence he attended this meet. 

Dalia came, but not alone. The ashen youth made a bold step toward his silver sister, gray-green gaze sweeping over her figure in a brief study so he could be sure no harm had come to her, before he blinked curiously in the direction of her companion.

He wondered if this might be her 'someone' she'd spoke of at their reunion, and regarded the other male with a polite dip of his head when Dalia confirmed his suspicion. There was no time for pleasantries or even judgement, however, and Dacio turned to his elder sibling with a troubled frown.

"Rusalka are responsible for Drageda's downfall," he told her in the common tongue, as not to leave Velen in the dark. "The new scents marking your claim belong to them. Your leader...? Dalia had informed he and Opalia that her Alpha was strong and capable, though evidently not enough to protect his turf from Rusalka's wrath.

He inhaled deeply, found himself holding his breath in attempt to settle the flutter of anxiety in his belly. "You can't stay here," Dacio announced, almost insisted, before including in a tone that was more pleading: "come with me. We can help each other."

the name, rusalka, was not familiar to the healer. it blew past her gently as she wracked her brain for recollection, but nothing. she wasn't stupid, though, and she put the pieces together all the same. "firefly," she murmured as the thoughts came, shaking her head to dacio's implied question, "ford was defeated, i don't know what happened. we haven't been able to find him since." she looked to velen, giving him a gentle nudge to the cheek. this was not easy for him, she knew, but she wished she could give him some solace.

dacio's words, filled with a concern and a possessiveness she was only just previously afraid she'd never gain from dacio, startled her. what... should she say? she stared, a little concerned, unsure of what to say to him. "i..." she looked to velen, thinking of the suggestion he'd given her hardly prior to this conversation (i'm assuming lol, can edit). what did he think of all this? "go where?" she asked him.

velen’s ears swept forward at the sound of the name ‘rusalka,’ one he recognized from his talk with rosalyn. it did not appear they and dacio were on good terms, however.
”ford is my brother. we haven’t found him yet and i ... i wouldn’t want to leave without knowing he was alive.” surely a sibling could understand the sentiment.
dalia had not been as receptive to his suggestion as velen had hoped, but he looked to her now. even if he did not leave the bay for the time being, he would not demand that she stayed.
perhaps dacio needed to know that more was at stake here than the lives of the two stormrift wolves. patiently, lovingly, he watched dalia, unwilling to reveal the news to her brother before she chose to do so.

The name meant nothing to him, and it occured to him then that he didn't know any of the Rusalka dogs as more than that. He frowned thoughtfully, trying to place this particular name to a face from the raid of Drageda's turf, but he failed and decided that it didn't matter. They were all enemies to him, and would be until his dying day.

"Home," he ssuggested with a proud cant of his muzzle in the direction of the Northern shores where his heart would always long for, then looked back at Dalia as he considered that she no longer thought of Dragoncrest as such and had not for some time. "Toward the cliffs where we were born. We can gather allies and drive Rusalka out. Drageda may have retreated, but we are still here." He could not - would not - leave Drageda's memory to rot in a graveyard, where Blackhead and her rogues could venture as they pleased.

Velen voiced his discomfort at abandoning the search for his brother, which he understood. Dacio would never leave Opalia to the wilds had she been in this position, and doubted she would abandon him. "We can aid the search," he agreed, "@Opalia and I, we will do what we can to help before we leave for the cliffs?" So far, it would seem to Stormrift's wolves that Ford had simply vanished. There was little that Dacio and his sister could do, but his offer of two additional noses and sets of paws was all he could give for the time being.

dalia watched her mate as he explained that ford was missing. her heart tightened at the comment, anxiety fluttering in her chest at the idea that they may never find the titan. she hoped, prayed, that they did. 

and then... return to drageda. the idea was nice to the girl, her children would be safe among the cliffs. oh -- her children. dacio did not know. dalia hesitated now, knowing she would be safe with either wolf... but not knowing in her heart what decision would be the best. she blurted out, rather ungraceful contrast to her typical character, i'm pregnant. oof. there it was. she fell silent for a moment, ears flicking backwards. i'm pregnant... i don't know if travel is smart in this state... she murmured a bit gentler this time. but her gaze fluttered back to velen. 

but i don't think i can stay here with him ruling us... i don't know if they'd be safe.

dacio's seeming obsession with rusalka was beginning to rub the reactive velen the wrong way. he wasn't here to fight anyone's wars, especially not with dalia pregnant and his own brother seemingly dead. but he knew stating such would upset the precarious balance here, now that she had revealed her pregnancy to her brother.
"dalia," velen muttered, seeking to draw his mate's attention back to himself for a moment. "if — if you want to go back to the cliffs, and you think it would be safer there, then i'll come for you when we find out what happened to ford." it tore him to say such, but her wellbeing was paramount, and velen would not let his own selfishness jeopardize her life, or that of their children. chesnut eyes searched her seafoam gaze, willing dalia to know it was all right.