the roads that you take may just crack and break,

AW but any consorts caiaphas is not familiar with would be nice!!

Both Kevlyn and Larus commanded much of Caiaphas' free time; so ample were her duties for the two whelps that she as of late had scarce any time to interact with the lower tier of their pack. While she did not resent the two youths for the amount of attention they demanded (it was her fault, after all, that they were there in the first place) she felt herself vaguely relieved to leave the den and them slumbering blissfully, unaware of her departure.

She struck towards the strand then, traveling through the shadowed bosk until the forest line receded and warm sand met her callous paws. With much of the cache still needing replenishment, and several sea artifacts needing harvesting for their next ritual, Caiaphas set determinedly to work.

What ever happend that other night still rung in Nishu's mind. It was dangerous mistake, Picking a fight with a orange redish female might not have been a great idea. He couldn't remember how it all started but he was worried that what he has done will complicate things. He thought about running away but that wasn't a choice for him. He needed to find some way to make things right. It would be great to not have problems but that was all that appeared since he got involved with the wolfs of Ankyra sound.

Nishu has been patrolling around the forest again but this time it was more like searching. He wanted to find something that he could use as a gift but he had no idea what would be good or not. Giving his life was too expensive, was there anything worth as much as his life around? He didn't find a single thing that he considered suitable to give. He wanted to return to Tethys since he was tired of searching.

Right as he walked out into the open he just happend to catch sight of Caiaphas. It was sudden change of objective, He wanted to know what exactly she was up to. He never did asked questions but he was curious of her activities. Perhaps this was a chance to follow her. He didn't try at all to be stealthy, he casually walked towards her with no other intentions but just to follow her around.

The little sea-waif was fast upon her chores when she heard the approach of another, and with all the stiffness of an old crone she froze and her sharp eyes rose upward. Nishu Inte's white-tipped muzzle fell into few and she regarded him coldly -- if for a moment -- before resuming her tidy scavenging.

There was still much to be done and the creature was in no mood to entertain small talk; with a contemptuous wave of her sickly tail she trotted off towards the flattened sand by the seawash, her long snout trailing the receding water. Without any words she set to digging with a great amount of vigor, heaving sloughs of sloppy wet sand into the air -- uncaring of the direction in which the sand flew.

Nishu was fully aware that she had noticed him but that didn't stop him from following her to the coast. He didn't want to ask anything nor did he want to say a word. He feared that if he did it would only make things worse. He just watched her as he tried to figure out what she was up to.

The female had come to a sudden stop and started digging. If he hadn't stepped to the side to try to see what was up he would have taken sand to the face. He walked further to the side and watched as she dug in the wet sands. He was quite curious but he still didn't say a word. A sudden thought came to mind. She was digging and he was doing nothing, from afar it may look like he was the boss giving orders. The idea made him crack a smile, It was a funny thing to imagine knowing their ways.

If Caiaphas had known the source of Nishu Inte's smug smile she would have whirled upon him in fury -- but as it was, she was incredibly busy, and she only afforded the scantest of scowls in response to the grin that plastered itself across his white muzzle.

The sand she flung abounded, and at last as a large heap appeared Caiaphas crowed in joy and dived into the hole she had dug herself -- emerging just moments later with the wringing form of a large sand crab. As the water filled in the hole several other crabs appeared, and with a motion of her head she flung her paws at them wildly, trying her best to fling them up onto the sand and away from the holes they had burrowed into. If Nishu Inte caught onto her subtle gesture, the two of them could quickly dispatch the entire colony and bring home quite the bountiful harvest.

Nishu didn't quite understand why Caiaphas was digging even after she had tossed out a crab. He didn't know the purpose of it but atleast he knew that whatever this purpose was, it seems worth the effort. As he watched her fling a few more crabs out of the hole he noticed that the crabs she had already tossed out were trying to make a run for it. If the goal here was to catch them then perhaps he could assist her but how?

One of the crabs she had tossed out was fliped on it's back. It appeared to have alot of trouble getting back on it's legs. Seeing that he decided to flip all the others that are out on their backs. Atleast that would delay their escape long enough for the female to do whatever she wants with them. For each crab that was tossed out he would use he paw to flip them over on their backs. He didn't really know if he was assisting or not but watching the crabs on their backs was amusing to him.

Amidst heaves of effort Caiaphas glanced up to see Nishu Inte, who was arranging the crabs in the most peculiar fashion. "No!" She bellowed curtly between mighty hauls of sand, a dark look of disapproval storming her countenance. "Pierce their armor -- you are losing them!" With another toss of sand she sprung upon the assortment Nishu Inte had gathered, snapping up each free sand crab and swiftly crushing their carapaces between needle-thin teeth.

Once the remainder of them were dispatched she went back to her digging until no more crabs were resurfaced. Sourly she inspected their handiwork -- in hindsight, it had not been Nishu Inte's fault he had not grasped fully her intendment, but Caiaphas was a belittling creature and was highly affronted by his lack of clairvoyance. Scuffing the ruined crustaceans into a heap, she trotted down to the swash line for some kelp in which to preserve them in and carry them back to camp with.

Although amusing, it wasn't as helpful as he thought it would be to flip crabs on their backs. It didn't take long to realise that when Caiaphas stopped digging them out to crush those who were out with her teeth. What was surprising though was how she reacted. He felt as if she expected him to know exactly what to do. He didn't recieve any orders or instructions and more importantly he was still an outsider. Nishu came to check on what she was doing but never really had the intention of assisting.

It was better to help than to do nothing, so with the late hint on what he was suppose to do he assisted in destroying the crab's armor. Once they were gathered into a pile Caiaphas took off once again. He sat there not really understanding why she left. He looked up to the sky, seagulls were coming closer. He doubted that the crabs were for them. He decided to sit by the pile and keep the birds away. Hopefully the longer he stays around the better the odds of finding out what this was all for. So far, Nishu still hadn't spoken word the whole time.

She did not glance back as she walked down the shoreline -- her little nose held to the ground as she searched for kelp. Finding several lengthy ropes of a type of seaweed Caiaphas had no name for ('red cellophane'), she nosed them into a small pile and gingerly lifted them from the sand.

Trotting back to Nishu Inte, she was pleased to see he had elected to guard the small cache. How ironic (and how furious) it would have been if she had left and he had let their struggles feed the birds -- with a growl she loped after one brazen bird before dropping the seaweed to the ground. Nosing the length of the weed flat, she started to deposit the crabs into the center of its fold -- and once completed, she folded the lengths of the weed back onto itself in the manner of a 'clutch'. Looking at Nishu Inte only briefly, she rose fluidly and hefted her wares upward.

Task complete, she lifted the clutch between her teeth and made towards her grotto, where the crabs would serve as delectable delights for Larus and Kevlyn.

[size=x-small]I guess it ends here, my first thread with almost no words exchanged :P[/size]

The birds didn't have any chance with him nearby. Any attempts to steal would be stopped by him easily. When Caiaphas came back with the sea weed he assumed would be used to help carry these crabs he realised that this was something not important at all. She just wanted a snack or something, which is what he concluded. There was no more reason to stick around her anymore. It was time to return to Tethys and continue his duties.

With no more curiousity to push him to follow Caiaphas he decided to head back to where he could find Tethys. Following Caiaphas didn't lead to anything nor was it important. He could have used the time to do something else more important if he had known what the plan was here. It was a safe gamble as nothing was really lost except a bit of time. Perhaps next time he'll just ask.

'phas has many of them!! thanks for the thread!

Caiaphas looked behind her only once as she made her way back to the cave -- and Nishu Inte was no longer trailing behind her. She surmised he had likely concluded his duties with here were complete, and since she had no further use for him at the moment, she did not pursue him.

While she found the male most peculiar (a more fanatic Sister likely would have expunged or killed him quite some time ago) she had been born, like him, a free wolf -- so the notion it would take him time to acclimate to his ways was not bizarre to her. She supposed not all wolves could be born with iron resolve like Greyjoy, or molded from obedient clay like Spyridon.

With these thoughts in mind Caiaphas brought the wrappings of crab and kelp back to Aktaie -- the crabs would be used for some ritual, she imagined -- and the kelp would be placed in their cache for further use.