Shimmering Sands Ballroom blitz

Chip had been following the coast for a few weeks now, having left her birth pack in search of... what, exactly? She wasn't quite sure, but she was bound and determined to find out. Her sister, Robin, had told her that one of their other sister's lived somewhere around these parts, but Chip couldn't really remember where, nor did she really care that much. It wasn't like she was going to follow around some older, lame sister who was bogged down with kids and a pack and all that. (Not that being in a pack was bogged down, but leading a pack sure did seem like a lot of work.) The yearling had no intentions of taking on responsibility of that kind, nor did she need a lecture from an older sibling telling her that she needed to settle down.

A wave of salty sea water came hurtling toward her, and Chip chased the chilly liquid right back, snapping at the foamy crest. "Take that, ya piece a junk!" she yelled, as if that would somehow intimidate the entire ocean into being scared of her. Of course, this did nothing, and all that Chip got out of the deal was a face-full of saltwater, which she choked on, hacking up her lungs in the proces.

 
The wraith stepped further and further away from the black ring that surrounded his home. He had allowed Deirdre to take Rannoch to Donnelaith to heal his injuries from the drop. In all his time, the silver-banded titan had never seen a child simply walk from the waters – certainly not from the heights that the forest prince had endured. Skellige was beginning to wonder if it truly was destined to be. He could not imagine that great ones would have lured him into the glen to steal a child who was not meant to dwell on the blessed sands of the Blackrock Depths.  
 
These thoughts occupied his mind and drove him further from the bay. He was insistent on staying near the shore – he needed to feel the beating of the waves against the earth. If he so much as drifted, the madness would return to consume his mind. All the while, the paranoia of having Ksenia return to the wilds was lingering behind every thought. The brute could not find true emotion while the pale Cairn breathed in the same saline winds as he.  
 
As the sand shifted and the titan neared a small stretch of beach, he caught sight of a peculiar stranger. The female appeared quite transfixed with the waves. Each slap of the chilling waters seemed to entice the wolf to react with... aggression? Skellige's brow furrowed over his dark eyes and he drew his crown upward to peer on curiously.  

Chip continued "fighting" the waves, crashing into them, hopping out of them, biting at them, swatting at them with her front paws, and so on. She had been doing this for at least ten minutes before she realized that there was some creep watching her. Chip froze for only a beat before she shook her coat, looked at him, and shouted (no matter how close or far he was away from her), "Hey, creep! What are you looking at?" The hair on her back was ruffled from the water, which might have made her look menacing except that she wasn't menacing at all.

"I'm just kiddin," she replied a second later with a giggle. "Obviously you're lookin' at how cute I am." Chip batted her lashes and swayed her hips.

 
The girl spun around suddenly and barked to him, tacking on a word - creep - which caused a frown to crinkle the ink on his muzzle. Furrowing his brow, he watched as she twirled a bit and swayed her hips from side to side. A curious glint touched the mahogany in his eyes and a ghost of a smirk creased his leathery lips.  
 
She was cute. Outgoing – he noted with a flick of his tail upward. Perhaps she would do well within the ranks of the Blackrock wolves. The thought of recruiting adults was still a touchy subject for the swarthy brute, but he was intrigued by the female before him.  
 
"What is your name," he requested in a cracking baritone.  

"Chipmunk," she replied with no hesitation, "but everybody calls me Chip." In fact, she couldn't recall anybody calling her by her full name. Chipmunk was only a formality given to her by her parents, and it wasn't like formalities were something she was particularly good at adhering to.

"What's your name?" she asked, dark brown eyes alight with curiosity, "Or should I just call you Mister Creep?" Chip grinned from ear to ear, so proud of herself for coming up with that one.

 
Her response was quick as a whip as it left her maw, and he watched as she proudly issued a makeshift name for himself. The wraith had been called many things, but 'creepy' was not one that frequented the list. Still, his moment of inquiry had produced a name from the young girl: Chip. He mulled the moniker over in his mind and found it to be fitting enough. The markings that scored her body were nearly spot on when compared to the prey animal she was referencing. Her parents must have thought themselves witty, he thought to himself.  
 
"Skellige," he returned to her with a short nod of his skull. Though he was not certain she would choose to call him by his actual name. She seemed pleased enough with the one she had created for him.  

If she'd known that he thought her parents clever, Chip would have had a nice, hearty laugh. Her parents were, as far as she was concerned, dumb as rocks. They named their kids after what they saw. It wasn't like they tried to come up with new, imaginative names. They looked at the animals around them, said "this'll do," and named their kids after that. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. Skellige, on the other hand... at least his parents had some imagination. Not that Chip was going to put that name to any use.

"Skelly!" she shouted, as if doing so would make the name stick in her mind. "Well, nice t'meet you, Mister Skelly Creep. What's a guy like you doing in a place like this, anyhow? You seem way too... uh, serious for just floatin' around acting all cool." Skelly looked like he had a brain full of serious, somber thoughts. Something that Chip most certainly lacked. The serious, somber thoughts. Possibly the brain, too.

 
The leviathan gritted his teeth as she shouted a shortened version of his name. His siblings had frequently called him Skelly to grind his gears and get a rise out of the swarthy titan. In turn, he had formed his own nicknames for the other Cairn siblings. By the end of their childhood, they had all despised the things that they called each other. The wraith had found himself in many fights as he grew, and most of them were with his younger blood. It had made him strong, though, and he did not wish for anything different. It truly did not matter what they called him; he knew that he was a kingly vessel of the wicked sea.  
 
The question that was presented to him had brought the length of his ears forward. A single brow was quirked at the girl. "The ocean is..." mine he wanted to growl through bared fangs. Instead, he steadied himself and darted his vision toward the waters. "It is my home. I have a claim of land not too far from here." That seemed a suitable remark. The silver-banded dredge gestured with his muzzle in the direction of the Blackrock and flagged his tail once or twice. "But what brings you to the lapping of the waves? You don’t seem to have your sea legs about you," he then observed.  

This guy was so dramatic and brooding. Not that Chip minded, of course. It made him amusing to her, and that was really all she needed in the world. His home? The whole daggon ocean? Who did this guy think he was? Oh, he meant part of the shore was his home. That wasn't really part of the ocean, but she was thrown off by his comment about her (lack of) sea legs.

"Haha, what're you talking about?" she asked, caught in her obvious lack of sea-leggedness. "I'm a total pro at this!" To prove her point, she took a few bounding strides toward the crashing waves, looked back to give him a wink, and then dove into the water. It was most likely hilarious from his point of view, because she promptly inhaled more water than air and came up sputtering and coughing like a goddamn fool. Scrambling back to dry land, she fell to her side panting. "Totally..." pant pant pant "Sea legs."

sorry rem, i was able to post at work for a while and we got busy suddenly. should be much more prompt now <3

It was truly not his stake to claim, buy the swarthy titan believed it to be true. The stretch of the ocean truly belonged to those who had tested their mettle within its savage depths. Skellige had not happened across another who possessed that manner of ancient understanding - not in all his years against the salt and sands. It would not have done for him to attempt an explanation of this, for the female was attempting to demonstrate her prowess within the clasp of the waves. 

The leviathan watched with a bemused expression on his inky features. The girl bounded toward the splash and was quickly met with a slap from the waters. She had moxie, that was certain... but he had seen more grace in a beached whale. As she tumbled back and collapsed on her side, he lowered his skull and peered at her, attempting to understand. "No," he uttered in a quiet rumble. An awkward statement to her attempt. It was not intended to be rude or provoking. His literal mind could not quite grasp the humor of her situation and it left him standing like a statue with a painted expression of confusion. 

He wasn’t even a little bit impressed or amused, and Chip gave him a looking of mild disappointment from where she lay on the ground. This guy totally didn’t get it, and Chip wasn’t about to try and wrestle him into understanding. ”Ugh, whatever,” she retorted, rolling to her feet and managing to keep it somewhat together. ”You can stay here on the beach like a big ol’ weirdo. I’m gonna go find something to eat.” She stared at him levelly for another few seconds, shrugged, then sauntered off. It would take her a little while to dry and get warm, and a hunt would certainly do her some good.