Ankyra Sound just like the rug in my bedroom growing up

she approached the coast. 

cerulean was less entranced by its beauty than many of the locals, though what did draw her attention were the islands further out.  there were three of them.  one, she mused, for every sister.

if they all made it.  if — no, she couldn't bear the thought of it.

aimlessly, she traveled up the shore.

@the listener

a woman. a wolf so like the sands she nearly disappeared into the wide stretch of the sound. the spirits gathered, whispering.

from the shadows, the prophet answered their call. she swept forward like the wind, a silent and looming presence.

she waited.

though the other wolf gave no indication of her presence, intuition drove cerulean to turn around.  she stared at the shadow, stiff and frozen, as if she were looking at a spectre and not a wolf of flesh and bone.  hello...  a trembling foot sought the ground behind her as she took a single step backwards.  the wind blew in her direction and she let out a sigh of relief; this was not a wolf from the grounds her sisters had terrorized.  i didn't hear you at first.

words, twisting and fading into the seaside breeze like smoke on the wind. the listener cared for none of them. she had eyes only for the bigger picture, the greater plan at play. this woman was marked by the spirits.

why are you here? the prophet inquired in tones airy like the saltwind, drifting forward until the distance between them dwindled to nothing. what do you seek? why do the spirits sing your name so sweetly?

the shadow cuts through the thick of it, directly to her heart.  why she was here was a longer story than she was willing to tell.  she couldn't give up those secrets so easily.  but what she sought was an easier thing to discuss, and the answer she felt would cover both questions.

i'm looking for somewhere to stay with my sisters, she explains.  two of them.  but one is gravely ill.  she glanced at the ground.  the one who is sick is an adept healer.  the one who isn't is still learning.  cold, perhaps, and had lazuline been here she might have protested.  but it was true.

sisters.

a family.

that two of them were healers was a boon, no doubt, but the listener found herself more interested in the wolf who stood before her. the harbinger of the fated family of blackwater.

and you? dark head tilted by fractions, eyes glimmering.

the other wolf was so impassive that cerulean had not even an inkling of what they thought.  she shifted uncomfortably, not knowing how to answer that question.  i..

she didn't do anything.  i try to guide them.  teach them how to behave.  how to love each other. it didn't always work.  hadn't been these days, without a doubt.  i can care for myself, she says.  there were many wolves her age who couldn't.  it was something, at least.

a leader. a healer of the mind. a creator of connections. the listener realized as the woman spoke that the druids had need of her. they did not yet know it, but the need was clear and real as the sun in the sky. but the prophet could not simply thrust fate upon them. they needed proof. a reason to trust her.

my followers reside on the islands near this beach. we are called the druids. i believe there is a place for you among us. your sisters as well, but for you alone i have a unique offer, the prophet studied the woman's visage as she spoke. a rank, should you prove yourself suitable for the role. there is power in the rank i offer. you will be given a task. your sister will be tended to by a skilled healer, and you will all be given refuge. and when you have completed your task, we will speak more of the role i have in mind for you.

what would the woman make of her offer?

she was in such a desperate position that she would have given anything for her sisters; had the shadow asked for her life, cerulean would have leapt from the cliffs.  but instead she offered her power, and the thought tickled away at something in the back of her mind.

ironic, wasn't it, that out of the three of them she was the one who cared for title or position the least.  and here she was...

i give myself to you, she says, bowing her head respectfully.  she worried about her ability to complete this task.  there were certain things cerulean could not do.  but this wolf had given her no reason to worry.  she pushed it from her mind.  i can bring my sisters here.  the sick one, viridian, will need help crossing over to the island.  i am cerulean.  the other is lazuline.

i give myself to you.

the price of a soul was quite cheap, it seemed, when that soul wore the rags of desperation. the listener withheld her judgment, knowing this deal worked in the druids' favor. in time, her followers would understand.

but for now, cerulean was unproven.

when you and your sisters have been introduced to the druids, you will leave the islands. you will wash the scent of us from your fur, and you will seek out two packs. your purpose will be to make contact, to tell them of the druids and establish a relationship, at length, the listener paused, as if in thought. you will be told all you need to know in order to accomplish this task.

visible tension that she had carried in her body was released when the shadow detailed her task.  these things would be simple enough, so long as the packs she would be sent to were not immediately hostile like the ones who had injured her sister. 

she still did not understand that punishment.  they'd left their territory unguarded, then punished some youths for traipsing through?  she shook it from her mind.

it does not matter what i think of it now, i have already agreed to do it. but i find that to be a generous agreement. 

she paused.  what can i call you?  i will get started immediately.  viridian needs attention as soon as she can be seen.

the listener.

cerulean would be told all that she needed to know for her mission. seek out packs, the listener told her; packs inland, packs in the mountains. she could not know what lay ahead, but she spoke of the existence of these packs with certainty. brecheliant, at least, existed. sapphique existed. surely there were more. if cerulean took this certainty as knowledge, the listener would not discourage it.

she described the purpose of the druids, the terms they would offer other packs; the importance of secrecy and the image of benevolence. all of these things, she passed to cerulean with utmost precision. it was necessary that she understand.

then the sisters would be taken in, the ailing oddity among them ushered to the spiritglade in secret. the listener would allow the remaining sisters to come to know the druids in their own time; she had no time of her own to spare so she might hold their hands through the process.