Lake Rodney in an empty field and

His cheek itched with lingering pain from the bite that mad pregnant woman had inflicted. Starting to scab by now, but still mainly raw and exposed. Admittedly he needed somebody's help. He needed to slap something on it to help with the healing. He had seen plenty of wolves succumb to injuries, but he was not ready for that part of life yet.

While he was no healer, he knew cleaning it would help. So when he came across the lake he knew what he must do. Slowly he waded into the cold waters. Mid-leg deep before he bent his head down. Dunked it straight into the water. Even went so far as to shake his head around underneath the surface before he yanked it back up.

Head soaked and gasping like a fish out of water, he imagined he was quite the sight.

The young man dunking his head in the ice-cold lake-water was truly an extraordinary sight. Wraen, who had gone out for a brisk walk to check out, who and what had traversed the surrounding lands of the Enchanted forest during the night-time, had spotted him from afar, drawn closer, sat down and watched him work for a while in silence.

"You do know that baptism needs two people, not just one?" she called out of him, coming closer. "One to sing prayers and half-drown people. What God are you devoting yourself to? I am familiar with many - I may be of help?" she offered and smiled at him.

I can spree for the next couple of hours. :)

Women. The plagued and haunted him, it seemed.

Yet...this one was far different from the pregnant one. She did not charge or bare teeth. She spoke in a kind way, smiled at him. Her words were full of fancy ideas about gods and songs. Neither did he have much experience with.

For a moment, all he could do was stare with his scarred and wounded face. Water dripping off of it and back into the lake where it belonged.

No gods. A soft shake of his head as droplets went every which way. Cleaning an attack. He turned his face to expose the right side, teeth marks on the fat of his cheek. Perhaps hidden by his now wet fur or not nearly as bad having been rinsed but...he felt them. He knew it was there.

"Ouch - that looks awfully painful," Wraen squinted, when she saw the man's face. The bite wounds seemed deep and vicious. "Yeah... praying won't help you here much, but a good healer might," she told him. "We have such back, where I live."

"Who did this to you?" she asked.

Was that an offer? He felt weary of such after his encounter, but this strange did not seem harsh and she asked a question after that allowed him to ease his worries about accepting something this moment.

Nyra, He answered with a snort. Over the mountain, on the heights. Some ruler down in the woods below it, looking to expand. He dumped it all out on the table for the stranger. Perhaps the knowledge would be far more useful to her than it had been to him.

"Well... if she wants to expand, she sure does choose odd ways to recruit new members," Wraen remarked more to herself than to the man in front of her. It seemed that, when the world lost one tyrant, they put another in their place. She was not thrilled to have another possible psycho running around and injuring people.

"What did you say to her to piss her off? That she was fat? Had saggy breasts?" she cocked her head to the side and chuckled. "Was not much of a looker, huh?"

He laughed, genuine and deep. She was all of those things but he had not said any of them!

Nothing. He shook his head. She came at me and I refused to move. You're right, though. He noted with humor in his otherwise dull voice. Tail slowly swayed behind him. This stranger was far better than the other had been.

What do you think of it?

The whole...weird situation he had loosely filled her in on.

"Well... she probably read twelve thousand different things in your refusal to move away. Mind of women work like that - ask them "how do you do?" and you'll get an answer to the third question you have not yet asked," Wraen explained and shrugged. "To put it in terms men understand - she was a jerk to you," she told. 

"Unless you happened to stand on her turf and refused to move - but then I gather that you are not that daring or stupid to do so," she said. "How does it feel - the wound I mean. Do you think you'll survive? Because, if not - I know just the person to fix you up. You'll live twice as long after he has been through with you. You could not die, even if you tried."

It was...a lot! Yet he found himself lucky that she would simplify it into terms that he, indeed, understood as a man. She had very much been a jerk. Along with a million other names he could think of for the woman. None worth the breath it would use to say them.

I hope so. A tug of his lips downward briefly before they eased up, the strain on his cheek a bit too uncomfortable for his liking. What does this magical healer of yours ask for in return? What do you ask for?

"Well, I would not say that he is magical, but he does his work with great care and love," Wraen spoke fondly of Eljay. She knew that he would not be too thrilled to know that she had exaggerated his craft just a bit too much, but then alongside Ibis he was the best they had and with the most experience. Blackthorns (throw some Redhawks in for good measure too) were statistically more prone to wounds than any other dynasty. Simply because they did things first and thought about consequences later. 

"What is that you offer?" she asked him in return. She would have been glad to help him without any retribution, unless he suggested it himself.

I am strong. I am good for helping with work. He was a thick man, built for work. Perhaps they needed help in some sort of physical way that he could provide. Perhaps you keep me on call if you ever need a favor. Untraditional in terms of exchanges, but this woman did not seem the traditional type. Not to him.

Regardless he hushed and awaited her thoughts on his offers.

"That's always useful," Wraen agreed - having been the weak one all her life, she had respect to those, who could carry the weight of the world quite literally. "But I would not want to leave you hanging, while I decide, what kind of work you should do for us," she told him. "If you are out here, then probably there's a path for you to walk towards, whatever it is you are looking for in our life," she said. 

"I am a collector of stories - what if I asked you to tell a story in exchange for help? Does that sound fair?" she asked.

It was an easy trade. A story for help. He nodded silently in agreement. A thoughtful look on his face before he spoke to her again.

What kind of stories do you collect? What kind are you missing from your collection? He had always liked to be the first, and he wished to maintain that here as well.

"Come along," Wraen beckoned him to join her on their way to Brecheliant, which was a thin line of trees in a distance from, where they were now. He accepted her offer readily and thus earned some points in is favour. Usually people were more reluctant and he had definitely not seemed as a story-telling type at the first glance. 

"Surprise me," she replied. "The more I learn about the world, the clearer it becomes that I know so very little. Every person here comes with their unique tale. I'll never know them all and herein lies the beauty of it."

I come from a clan of men. The elder teachers are all fathers and the young are sons. He explained hesitantly, carefully. They raise us to be proper men according to tradition. Providers or protectors — of mind and body. Not spoke but mentally sounded was that there had been no influence of mothers or daughters. He had heard tales of those who ventured to go see them, that they were not as far as it felt, but he had never dared to find his own.

We are given the opportunity to take our teachings out into the world as young men or stay and grow to become a father. Some pause before he carried on in case she had anything to say.

"That's very interesting. I had heard about sirens - clan of women, who raise girls to become warriors and protectors, but have no use of men other than being their servants or pawns to get rid off at the first opportunity, but yours is something that I hear for the first time," Wraen shared, what little knowledge she had about Nereides. It reminded her that she had run into such not too long ago, but she had never heard afterwards, if any pack had been established to make those ideas reality. 

"But all men are born from women - do the girls and mothers live in a separate pack?" she asked.

"But all men are born from women -"

This was not brand new news to him, and yet he considered it carefully with a soft hum as she tacked on her question. I never learned for sure. Rumors, really. A shrug of his heavy shoulders. We were never told of their own home. The elders' best kept secret, I guess. Why? He supposed it was to keep distractions at bay.

Or...maybe. Well. He didn't dare to think that perhaps the women hadn't wanted the men, that maybe nothing was as it seemed.

I was once told as a boy that our mothers were goddesses. That is why they couldn't stay.

Wraen sensed that there was more to the story than Emphemeris let on (or was aware of), but did not press further. Sometimes truth could only hurt you, therefore a well-woven lie with an intention to keep you away from that harm was better. For a while. Or until you were ready and wanted to see things for what they were. If that was important to you. 

"If you are off-spring of a goddess and a mortal man, then this makes you a demi-god," she referred to the favourite theme of all Greek and Roman myths. "Do you have any special powers? Do you at time feel immortal?" she teased him gently, as they walked in the vicinity of Brecheliant's forest border, told the man to wait with a quick look over her shoulder and went ahead to call for @Eljay .

He was not familiar with what she called him, but it must have been good. Her questions giving him a chance to puff his ego some.

I always feel immortal. As for powers? I have plenty. Some teasing in his tone. Maybe even ones I don't know about yet. He liked to think that he had a lot of power in his simple being. His strength was often his source of pride.

What about you? Do you have powers?

"These are words of a very bold person, though I have heard that one's sense of immortality begins to waver, when they witness a man die before their eyes," Wraen pointed out, somewhat solemnly, but still smiling. She sat down, waiting for Eljay's arrival. 

"Interesting... makes me think, what I have not yet discovered about myself in my very, very long life," she chuckled, but noted this sentence of his for later use. The key of never growing old after all was not to lose wonder about the world around you. Once you settled for "been there, done that", you were dead.

"I might have just tricked you into follow me for an eternity," she shrugged and grinned at him. "I have bound you to myself by a bit of magic that you are not aware of - so, wherever you go from here, you'll always return here. Does it sound like a good curse to have?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

It came as a surprise when Eljay heard Wraen call for him. He couldn't help but feel a twist in his gut as he wondered if she or someone she knew had gotten hurt. Had Maia gone out of the territory? No, a quick sniff confirmed that it wasn't Maia, at least. Eljay was quick to come into action though, and as he approached the borders of the Fen he saw Wraen and.. someone else that he didn't recognise.

Eljay woofed to announce his approach, and the caretaker glanced from Wraen to the stranger curiously.

Sorry for the wait on this one!

Perhaps the best curse one can receive. To always return to good company. His features, despite perhaps being aged by his scarring, crinkled with a boyish grin. Charmed by her. She was unusual and he wondered if all the good women were like this. Mysterious, powerfully magical.

He didn't dwell on it much as someone else arrived. He assumed this was the man who could make him feel as though he'd live forever.

So respectfully, he dipped his head in greeting. With the knowledge that he was the stranger here, he waited his turn to speak.

Seeing as Wraen is part of the ghost realm now, I will fade this out and archive. :) Thank you, it has been an utmost pleasure to thread with you two!

Wraen smiled in response and then, when Eljay arrived, she explained him the issue and stepped aside to leave the two men to discuss things in more detail and decide on the best cure. Once that was done and Ephemeris had been patched up to the best of Eljay's knowledge, she bid the traveller farewell, asking him kindly to stop by again, if he happened to be in the vicinity of their forest again.