Ankyra Sound one gonna help me keep, another gonna help me take

@Sif  - set along the edge of AS

as dusk fell over the sound ingram was trailing along the outer perimeter, his nose riffling through the powdery snow. he had patrolled a little of the eastern ridge earlier, leaving smatterings of his presence here and there as it suited him.

presently, the rakish wolf was following the elusive trail of a hare. he had hopes to stockpile the sound's pathetic cache, and thus far the thin-framed creature had eluded him.

Sif had eaten her fill of half-rotted fish carcasses a few hours earlier, and now travelled along the coast with her stomach rumbling uncomfortably. @Isengrim had refused in his silent, violent way that he would not be left with their siblings, so with few other choices, Sif had relented and accepted his companionship once more. She was still, however, not quite comfortable in his surly presence, and often made excuses to scout ahead. On one such occassion, she saw a dark shape moving through the shadows.

Ears pressed forward atop her head, Sif struck out to investigate. Where there were other wolves, there was often food - and she needed something a bit less salt to calm her upset stomach.

When she happened upon the other wolf, however, it was to find him without a meal. Her interest flagged, but a tiny spark of it remained. She watched him from the shadows, not quite sure yet whether or not her presence had been detected.

ingram paused on a snowclad knoll and raked the snow with a paw, his nose buried in the small gouge he had left in the surface. the scent was stronger here, but still no hare. he whuffed, blowing powdery snow from his white-crusted muzzle as he glanced about him in frustration.

out of his peripherals he caught the figure of another wolf - he jolted, feeling an uncanny sense of discomfort. was he being spied on? she was not close enough to the borders for him to posture or threaten her, but ingram did not like feeling as if he was being watched. he flagged his tail slightly, cutting the wolf an assessing glare. she was around his size, clad in earthen tones with the most peculiar razoring of cream markings along her ribcage. ingram lifted his muzzle to the wind and scented, feeling wary but not brazen enough to outright challenge her. if she was with company, the odds were not in his favor.

Sif stiffened further as the male's gaze fell on her. It looked like she hadn't been sneaky enough. She'd have to work on that - but in the meantime, she glanced anxiously over her shoulder, thinking that now would be a good time for Isengrim to rush onto the scene and hand out one of his firm 'talking-to's.

Her mahogany gaze slid back to the male's. He was glaring at her, and she drew herself up as much as she could, thinking that she could probably take him on. But right then, her stomach gave another loud gurgle, and her ears slicked back in momentary fear - What was that?

When she realized the sound had not come from an aggressor but from herself, she folded into her own embarrassment, her stance going from aggressive to uncertain in a few seconds.

as the stranger visibly stiffened ingram shifted, standing square over as much ground as he could. it was not his attempt to look intimidating, but he wanted to make the prospect of altercation most uninviting -- and he had learned often standing ones' ground was the way to ensure that.

his ears folded flat against his skull as a sound erupted -- at first he thought it another wolf, and he hunched down defensively with his gaze glued to the stranger. in that moment she folded and he realized the sound had sprung from her oddly-marked stomach -- his posture softened then, though he still regarded her somewhat coolly.

he was new to the whole "protect the realm" clause, and since she seemed unsure of herself now, he cleared his throat and ventured: "no further, stranger." he was somewhat unsure if that's what you were supposed to say to wolves technically within periphery of the borders. "the beach is grimnismal territory." he thought it was not bad for his first attempt, but kind of felt bad for adopting such a gruff mein around a clearly hungry peer.

Sif's ears were pinned back against her skull when the stranger spoke, causing the fur along her spine to bristle in wariness before he said something that completely disarmed her - This is Grim's something something territory. How strange! Sif had never bothered to question where Isengrim had been up until they ran into each other. He'd had another home all alone! Why hadn't he brought her here?

"I have Grim," she said brightly, tail wagging as her whole mein seemed to shift once more. Posture open and friendly, she crept a bit closer to the other, wanting to take in his scent and see who else he smelled like. Anything he recognized? Was her firebrand sister with them? "Haave - have Jule?" she asked, hardly daring to hope.

ingram was wholly not expecting the female to shift gears -- at least not so quickly. just a moment before the duo had been glaring daggers at each other, and now the umber-hued female was closing the distance between them with quick wags of her tail. ingram felt his neck stiffen instinctively but he obliged her approach anyway, his muzzle outstretched to gently inhale her scent.

it was varied enough that he was not sure she had company, but he was not the world's best scout. he pulled away with his own tail waving gently. "um... sorry, what?" he didn't know what she meant by 'have grim'. was she affiliated with chusi? or possibly the wych in the cove that gave ingram heebie-jeebies? "what's a joole?" confusion was writ clearly across his face, but his defensiveness from before was entirely forgotten.

He seemed confused by her words - Sif guessed that this was due to the clear lack of Isengrim around her person. "Um. Have... follow? Come soon," she corrected herself, beginning to doubt that they were on the same page at all. Was it possible she'd misunderstood his words? Were there two Isengrims running around the coast? Either way, it looked as though he didn't have Jule, either. He was asking her where she was!

"Gone away," she said with a meek shrug, wishing she had more answers for Isengrim's friend. And Isengrim wouldn't be able to help them, either! Were Cairns punished for leaving the sea by having their ability to communicate taken away? "Sorry," she echoed, feeling sheepish and unsure. Her stomach gave another obscene gurgle, and abruptly, Sif keeled over and vomitted a large pile of half-digested rotting fish on the man's paws.

ingram was just as confused as sif -- if they were on wavelengths, his was bucking wildly and hers was leagues beyond his reach. he pulled his ears back, their folding mirroring his confusion by her words. he thought maybe she did not understand his language -- maybe she was like chusi and knew two tongues. ingram settled on that, though chusi was much more fluent... and easy to understand. mostly, anyway. sometimes she confused him and sometimes the feelings he had for her confused him as well.

ingram interpreted that sif had requested he follow her. he shook his head firmly. "no, can't. grimnismal is my home. the beach is where i was born." he explained, casting a longing glance back to the shore.

when he looked back she had lurched forward and a heavy, steaming mess of vomit was deposited upon his paws. he leapt back like a cat frightened by a cucumber -- he was not mad but he was definitely not thrilled to have upchuck spewed on his lower limbs. "um. are you okay?" he asked as he shook his feet with quick gestures, not unlike a cat that had just unwillingly tred across water.

When she'd finished vomitting, Sif sat back, willing down the unpleasant miasma that was rising up inside her. The dark girl's head was spinning, and the male that had been standing before her suddenly seemed much further away, his image wavering and his voice echoing strangely.

"Baaad fish," she bleated, splaying her legs to try and keep the ground more firmly underneath her. It didn't seem to want to cooperate, so Sif dug her nails into the snow, unwilling to surrender to her tunneling vision. And, a few seconds and deep breaths later, she felt a little more like herself - albeit rather ashamed. "Sorry feet," she said in a small voice, not quite able to meet the man's eye. "Don't tell Grim," she pleaded, not wanting her brother to know how silly she'd just made herself look - it was bad enough that this stranger had seen.

ingram's expression was a mix of concern and revulsion - not so much disgust of sif, but for what she had left on the ground besides him. she rocked back and looked distinctly disoriented. ingram picked around the deposit carefully, keeping his back to the shore as he did so. he didn't really want to abandon his lookout on the borders, but she was ill -- and ingram would never admit it, but he inherited tachyon's kindness enough that he felt compelled to help her.

"um.. don't.. worry about it.." he brushed aside the apology, because deep down inside, he wasn't really mad at her. she couldn't help it, and he felt sorry for her to be suffering. "do you want water?" he asked, already starting in the direction of a stream that cut through the sequoia. maybe drinking would make her feel better. she said something about grimnismal again which caused ingram to pause and piece together that they weren't at all speaking about the same thing. "who is grim?"

Sif gave a grateful nod at the mention of water. She pulled herself to her paws and picked her way after the dark stranger, wobbling a bit while her mind further cleared. Hopefully, some water would help balance the contents of her stomach.

While they walked, she realized what he'd last said to her, and latent embarrassment washed over her once more. Obviously, there had been a misunderstanding here. "You don't... don't know Isengrim?" she asked, a bit dubious still. He'd said that this was Isengrim's territory, hadn't he? But, she had to concede that it made little sense for Isengrim to have kept this from her. He would've showed her, wouldn't she? With a little sigh, she accepted that this was the truth. "He is my brother," she explained, choosing her words carefully. "I... thought he lived - um -here."

he took slow steps, trying to match sif's pace as to not tax her any further. he was unsure if she was truly ok - 'bad fish' seemed enough of a reason to upchuck on a neighbor's toes, but ingram found her mein strange enough that maybe this wobbliness was more of a permanent setting.

ingram knew no such wolf by that name, and shook his head contritely in answer. "grimnismal. it's a pack on the beach." he repeated, his words carefully enunciated. he assumed the blame was on him - perhaps he had more of a coastal accent than he knew. he stopped as they came to a gurgling stream and he lowered his slender muzzle to the water, lapping carefully as he watched her. "i.. could keep a lookout for him if you want. i'm also looking for someone. wylla. looks like me but greyer. we could look out for each other?" he smiled sheepishly, though his tail beat hopefully around his hocks.

"Oh," said Sif in a small voice, repeating the word to herself under her breath. Grimnismal. A pack, and not her brother's. She moved gratefully toward the stream, hoping a nice, cool drink of water would help clear her head and calm her shaky limbs. Vomitting always made her feel this way, and she hated it more than any other bodily function.

Finally, she lifted her head, feeling a bit better phsycially, but uncomfortable once more. "Oh - I don't... I haaf him. Close by," she explained, feeling terribly guilty to have led him to believe they were both sad and lonely. But, "I will look for her," she promised, taking a good look at the man's face so that she could later identify this "Wylla". And - oh. She had seen someone who looked remarkably like this young man. "Does she... mean? Mocking?" asked Sif, horror dawning on her once more. When would this train of embarrassment stop?!

ingram busied himself with studying the forest around them as sif stabilized herself. he was patient -- more patient than either of his siblings would have been -- as sif took droughts of water from the crisp stream. like lycaon, ingram felt out of place in this massive forest. the sequoias were what did him in -- they were unimaginably humongous. ingram wondered if in this ancient forest, there had once been wolves or other animals proportionate to the sequoia's massive heights.

he was snapped back into sharp focus as sif had finished drinking. he guessed she meant that her brother was somewhere nearby -- he could see how a wolf that did not share his tongue had misinterpreted his initial statement. his eyes lit up in hope as sif studied him and then spoke. ingram's ears swept back a little, unsure how to answer the query. was wylla mean? truthfully, ingram didn't think she was mean -- but he had never truly been at the reciprocating end of her barbed tongue.

she was lusca's daughter, which meant certainly there was thin undertow of cruel humor in her blood. "um.." ingram started,  still struggling for an answer. "well... she's got a sharp sense of humor." (a polite way to put it.) he admitted, hope still bright in his gaze.

Humor was not a word within Sif's dictionary. She only knew the words Fen had taught her, and he had never spoken of humor. Colloquialisms and idioms were also - as of yet - out of the dark girl's grasp. The most she could discern from the man's small string of words was something about sharpness and something about senses. She could not see how that applied to the conversation at hand, and after a few halting tries - She has sharp senses? She senses sharp things? She had sharp... teeth? - she gave up entirely.

Sif was sure this was one of those things that she was just too dumb to understand. The meaning was probably just out of her grasp, and if the stranger realized she didn't understand him, he would probably laugh at her.

Instead of letting on, the dark girl fixed a look of polite agreement on her face and kept her mouth shut. Silence she didn't know how to break stretched on between them.

a spark of hope still glittered in ingram's eyes, and he tilted his head curiously at sif, wondering why she had grown silent on the subject. he wondered for a moment if it was something he said and his brow furrowed as he trenched through their stilted conversation and tried to identify the locus that had shifted the mood.

he was fairly oblivious, so whatever it was, he didn't detect it. all the same he lowered his head and cast her a meaningful look: "does that mean you've seen her? where?!" his breath rose to his throat and a sense of steady excitement pitter-patted in his chest.

"Mountains," said Sif, who had finally learned how to properly prounounce that word. She did not say that she'd growled at Wylla, for the other male seemed particularly intense about his friend. Sif liked him, so she didn't want to start a fight. She swivelled her head toward them, but they were hidden by the trees. In lieu of pointing out the vague area in which they had met, Sif opted to offer more about her state of being. "Not hurt. Skinny, a little," said the dark girl, tail whisking hopefully. Did I do good?

She realized the pair had yet to introduce themselves to each other, yet they knew the names of each other's siblings. "Naame?" she asked with another wag of her tail. "I am Sif."

ingram whipped his head almost immediately around, peering at the distant mountains as if he could see wylla from his vantage. he couldn't, obviously, but it did not stop him from committing sly hopeful glances towards the ridges that rose well out of his vision.

his tail swayed back and forth with a newfound excitement -- if she had seen wylla, that meant she was alive. thus far, wylla being among the residents of the living had not yet been confirmed. faith stirred fiercely in his heart as he configured his next coordinates: the mountains.

"oh god, thank you thank you thank you!" he gushed, stealing another glance towards the hills eclipsed by fog and trees. "i'm ingram. god. she's alive." he whispered wonderingly, not realizing how often wylla tempted death by insulting strangers.

She was already feeling much more like herself, and at her new friend's improved mood, her own flagging spirit began to soar. It was always nice to feel useful. 

"Alive!" she echo/cheered, tail whisking against her hindquarters. There was no love lost between Wylla and Sif, but she was glad for Ingram's sake that their meeting on the mountain had not come to blows. She'd make an effort to resolve things, should she ever run into the woman again. Perhaps she'd misread the situation.

"Have to go home," she said reluctantly, realizing she'd remained in Grim's dismal territory for far too long. Her own Grim would begin to worry before to long, and all his emotions seemed to be expressed through biting these days. "Bye! Thank you," she said brightly, offering Ingram a lick on the nose before turning tail and zooming away. She'd have to come back and visit the next time she was on the coast.

ingram could not contain his excitement; it spilled over like a frothy wave, infectious and uncapped in its temerity. he kept stealing looks at the mountains -- even when sif announced she had to go home.

he was sad to hear that, only because in the short time they had together, he had found her interesting and her company easy to keep. with a low wave of his tail he accepted her statement, nodding in understanding though he hoped their next meeting would not be so fleeting. when she licked his nose he pushed his muzzle into her fur in gratitude -- a real and surprisingly vigorous embrace -- she had given him wylla -- she had given him hope.

"bye! thank you!" he called after her, before making his way to the very mountains she had seen wylla last.