Whitefish River It doesn't matter what you mean. It's what you do.

Tired of the humdrum life in Neverwinter, Belharra coursed east. She crossed a thin range and made her way past springs hot with sulfur. Needing no kind of bath in such rancid water, Belharra continued onward.

She came to a river iced over, but did not trust it. Batwing ice, it had been called in her homeland: the ice as thin as the membrane of a bat, with little veins of blue running through. "Not gon' get me, you aint." She remarked, retreating from the bank. She returned shortly thereafter, lugging a stick in her mouth - and threw it heftily into the river.

It landed with a sharp clatter and a piercing sound; the ice, broken over, quickly sucked the stick under. Belharra felt relieved it had been but a stick, and not a leg - very few animals would have survived that type of rushwater.

^-^!

His paws yearned for adventure and without a second thought he crossed the border of Rusalka and headed in the direction of Whitefish River. He had heard of nothing in particular of the river but had enough experience to know, like his counterpart, that it was probably not worth risking his life to cross such thin ice. He neared the river in silence, watching in what seemed like slow motion as the dark furred Belharra threw at the ice a stick that immediate fell through--curiousity brought him closer. He had never seen a wolf do such a trick, the tactic was actually quite brillant in his mind and he thought to give the woman his opinion. "That is something you don't see very often, you must have some experience on the ice?" he asked her, his head tilting to the side. Onyx didn't particularly like large bodies of water, and liked them even less when they were glossed over with ice, his patience was ever expanding but never enough to try his hand at crossing something as expansive as iced over waterways and he figured he'd found the same in Belharra. Picking up a stick of his own, equally as large as the woman's he tossed it onto the ice and saw like his counterpart it was eaten as quickly as it was placed. "that's the most dangerous trap if I've ever seen one, it can't hold the weight of a stick let along that of a wolf." he said, more so to himself than the dark woman. "Mother nature can be so cruel sometimes." and he fell silent, observing the hole in which his stick had disappeared.

Belharra's ears pricked as she heard the assured tread of a wolf approaching. Turning around, she saw a beast of impressive height, dusted over in silvery threads of grey and white -- with a commanding saddle of black that doused his face in matching ombre. She got the impression immediately, this was a wolf of valuable stock. A wolf that would have been coveted on the Islands.

He strode towards a stick and mimicked her, lugging the thing across the ice. It clattered and sunk immediately, with the sucking crunch of ice being pulled underwater. Belharra observed it wrly. "Not just cruel. Hungry." She supposed nature was cruel in that way. "I have experience seeing ice trick others. I myself, have little experience with it - and I'll keep it that way, thankee. Name's Belharra." She turned to him in the wolven form of a hearty handshake - her eyes minted with companionable warmth.

He stood stoic still as the woman looked him over, no doubt admiring his physique and the accompanying dark and dusted pelt to boot. He grinned ever so slightly when she spoke, admiring her accent and found his focus return to the beast that was the thinning ice nearby--like his counterpart he was a newbie of its force and liked it to remain that way. He turned his head from the hole that was created by them both and finally found his voice to make a remark of her response. "I'm Onyx, nice meeting you Belharra." he said, ears flicking backward before pointing them back up just as quickly. "where are you from, I haven't heard your accent before..." he asked with the cock of his head. In the midst of her replying he gave her the once over, noting the beauty in the woman before him, and attempting to keep himself from growing lost in her deep dark gaze.

There was no missing the favorable way each of them looked over one another. Belharra preferred this type of man to the last man (could he be called a man, truly? He was more a child, in Belharra's eyes) she had met, the one that glomped over the forest like a little Lauren protecting his bridge. This one had manners, at least. She smiled coyly under his gaze, and even did a little curtsey just to show she was aware of his prying eyes.

Look upon me (my works), ye mighty, and despair! Belharra thought, with a quaint quirk of her lips. "Pleased t'meetcha, Onyx." As for where she was from..? Wasn't that just what everybody on this side of the Teekon wanted to know? "A nice lil island, very far north o' here. Yourself, Onyx?"

He couldn't help from smiling, her curtsy took him off guard but made her even more interesting than before. It wasn't until she answered his question that he was pulled back to reality and after shaking his thick skull, parted his lips to give his own response. "I'm from the north as well. At least I think it's north of here." he said, chuckling. He wasn't much for directions although like her his home was very far from where they were currently and he wasn't sure if up was down and down was up. He just knew that at this point, there was no going back. "You don't smell of others, you toughing it out all on your own?" he asked with a tilt of his crown. He couldn't believe a smart wolf like herself would want to risk fending for themselves without the safety of a pack.

North was as vague a term as could be given. Belharra was amused to see he employed its usefulness also. Somewhere north for both of them, then. It was befitting - neither had to talk about their past if they didn't want to.

The unpleasant business of being alone wasn't something Belharra was keen on chatting about either, but Onyx left her no choice. "Ye can say I've just had a difference of personality with some of the locals." Belharra murmured, winking slyly her companion before pressing on. "And yerself?"