Stavanger Bay Will they ever reach the floor?

Lagertha wasn't sure yet what her place was with these people. Skellige had mentioned that she would have to work with the others and obtain her place but he hasn't clarified what that job was. Whether he expected her to patrol or hunt, she did not know. 

She found herself stalking along the rocky cliffs, searching for bird nests. It was the wrong season for eggs but hopefully she would be able to find some young gulls or other seabirds hanging about. 

The Viking paused, spotting a seagull perched on the edge of a nest. Its eyes were closed but Lagertha couldn't yet tell if it was sleeping. She crept closer, moving silently towards the nest. With a small leap she grabbed the bird in her jaws and snapped down on it. 

Tail wagging with success, the Shield-maiden picked her way down the cliffs to find a cache to put the bird in, or dig one if need be.

As much as Doe had been doing, she'd yet to do her part in marking the borders. Too caught up in other things, she supposed; but she was free now.  Szymon was elsewhere, the preparations were done, and Doe did not want to be caught slacking off. Having something to lose kindled a new kind of fire in her heart; made her nerves jump like lightning whenever she thought about falling out of favor.

So she went along the border, sniffing dilligently at each scent marker she found. Alternately scratching, rubbing, and urinating, she placed her scent between Szymon and Skellige's, filling in the little gaps where scent had faded away, or else been missed entirely; she couldn't know for sure.

It was a relief to see La... La... Laggy in the distance, a welcome distraction from the easy but monotonous work.

"What's that?" she called brightly as she trotted in the other female's direction.

Doe had been the first Lagertha had met, and while a bit odd, was the friendliest in the bunch she had met so far. Lag liked her quite a bit and she smiled brightly around the gull as the Mexican wolf appeared. 

Reaching the bottom of the rocks, Lagertha paused and lay the gull down at her feet. "It's a gull. You all got a cache I can put it in or does one need to be dug?" The Valkyrie was smiling as she said it, not at all bothered by the idea of digging a cache.

"How did you come to join this group anyways?" Skellige had said she was a witch doctor, not that Lag knew what that was, and equated Doe to a völva from her homeland. Perhaps the girl was even a Seer, that was certainly powerful enough to be taken into any group.

"There are caches over by the tall, clumpy grass," she told the female, coming a bit closer than was polite to sniff eagerly at the gull. She wasn't hungry, but the smell of bood always made her a little giddy. "It's the only place where the sand doesn't fall down and collapse. I dug my den there, too."

Self-absorbed as she was, Doe nearly missed her new friend's next question. The word 'den' had distracted her, made her think of her ideas of making it a bit bigger, so she could make Szymon sleep there, too. Maybe even dig a new one! Oh, digging was such fun! What were they digging? Caches? Doe could do that!

Oh, but that's not what they were doing, was it? They were going to put the gull in a cache, and then - then Laggy asked a question, right?

Doe peered intensely at her friend, trying to remember what she'd said. It was easier with Szymon, because he talked so slow - it was hard to miss anything when he spoke, she hung on his every word... where was Szymon, anyway?

No! Focus!

"He found me by the water," she said distantly, trying to remember how exactly she'd come to know this place, these people. It was hard to remember things when Szymon wasn't around. "Or... I came from the water. I was trying to..." She didn't know. "Skellige found me, and he took me in." That much she was sure of. Simple, easy to remember. "He's been very kind to me. I mess up sometimes, and sometimes I don't know what to do, but he's a very good and noble leader."

Yes, that ought to answer her question!

Lagertha felt her brows furrow in concern, paw raising as if to take a step closer to her new friend, uncertain if she was okay. The diminutive witch doctor had seemed to fall into a trance of sorts, eyes unfocused in deep thought. Lag thought of disturbing her, nudging her to wake her from it, but had been taught never to disrupt a prophet of Eir when they communed.

Doe eventually emerged, telling a brief tale of how Skellige had found her in or near the water.Laggy felt her head cock slightly at the description presented to her, unable to agree completely. Skellige seemed stern to her, a bit grumpy. Still he was her leader and she owed him respect though loyalty had yet to come, it would take time to trust him.

"Vell, I am glad ya found a home," Lagertha smiled, shaking off her concern for the doctor. Picking up the gull, Laggy made to go bury it with a gesture to Doe to follow if she wished.

Doe let her tongue loll out of her mouth as they headed off for the caches, her paws lifting too-high off the ground to be quite dignified - but she pranced when she was happy, there was no way around it. Besides, these were her allies, and Laggy her sister in pack. It would be silly to try and be anything but herself around them.

"I'm glad you found it, too," she said with feeling, her tail waving like a flag in the air. "I've only grown close to Szymon so far - and I think I made friends with Deirdre, but she's from Donnelaith, not the bay."

And what a shame that was!

"Where did you come from?" she asked curiously, turning her head to get a good whiff of her new best friend's mysterious odor. It was strange an dizzying enough to think of her own past - imagining someone else's was beyond her power. Even the subtle scents that made up the shale-and-stak beauty's perfume did not help. In this, she would have to rely on the other's words alone, and the scrappy shewolf wiggled her oversized ears accordingly. Ready to listen, they said.

Lagertha couldn't help but let loose a small laugh at Doe's antics, finding them humorous. The doctor had followed her to the caches as the Shield-maiden began to bury the gull in the sand. It was likely some grains would stick to the food but then Lagertha had eaten much sand in her life before, mostly unintentionally. 

Doe's question caused her ears to perk slightly in surprise, though a follow-up question should have been expected. She turned with a small breath, not expecting the Mexican wolf to understand much of what the Viking told her. 

"I hail from a land called Kattegat, it isn't so different from this coast here. I vas a Shield-maiden there, a varrior. I left," Lagertha left it at that, leaving out her parents and the betrothal to Ragnar. "I joined a pack named Sleeping Dragon for a short time, but I left again vhen it became clear they expected me to integrate into their society vhich is far different from Kattegat or even Skellige's," she explained, unsure if Doe would understand.

gonna assume someone filled her in about the BRD customs

"Shield-maiden," Doe said musingly, the term gaining color as she mulled upon it. Warrior, she'd said, though the dove's accent made the words a bit hard for her to keep up with. Still, she had strung enough of them together to make enough sense of the whole, and so, only a few beats after the end of Laggy's explanation, Doe managed to catch up in understanding.

"Do you like to fight?" she asked after a moment, wondering if this shield-maiden was strong and quick like her Szymon. Could she teach Doe? Would she want to?

Doe stared intently at the other woman, ears twitching chaotically as she tried to string her story together into a picture of the past. Maybe if she got to know her better, it would be easier to see. "What do you like?"

Lagertha watched her friend, eyes flicking upwards to her ever twitching ears. What she would have given to see inside Doe's mind for only a minute. She was certain something interesting was bouncing around in her skull from all the heavy thinking the witch doctor seemed to do. 

"I do. Fighting is one of the best things in the vorld," she murmured honestly. The raids in Kattegat had been one of her favorite pastimes come spring. Nothing quite got her blood rushing like battling with the neighbouring clans.

"Me? I like the sea. I liked my family. I like you," she smiled friendly, listing some things off the top of her head.

Her tail flipped excitedly, and her ears flattened in delighted sheepishness as the wolf told her she liked her. Doe liked to be liked. And she like Laggy, too. And she liked that Laggy liked her, and this whole day was just beautiful and glorious. Her paws tapped out an excited dance in the sand, but she refrained from jumping in the air or chasing her tail.

"I like you, too!" she chittered, eyes bright as they swept over her small frame. They were more evenly matched in size and weight than most other wolves she'd met; if she tested her skills against Laggy, she would know where she stood as a fighter. "Would you teach me to fight?" she asked, even more excited by the prospect. "I can hunt and heal and dig big, big, holes, but I've never been a great fighter. Just great at getting away," she explained, a little sheepish at the admission.

Doe seemed to open up further with her offhand comment, certain that the witch had known she liked her, if that was possible. Lag had tried to subdue herself since joining, keeping her friendly nature somewhat under wraps given Skellige's disapproval for she desperately wanted to fit in here. This time though Lagertha could not help the booming laugh that escaped her, amused by Doe's excited prancing. Her mirth had her eyes squinting happily, tail wagging as it slapped the backs of her thighs.

She quirked a brow at the inquiry, a bit surprised the völva wanted to learn how to fight. Doe seemed like a sweet type, as if she disapproved of violence. Nevertheless, the Viking nodded her head with a pleased expression.

"I vill teach you. Vhen do you vish to start?" Lagertha was close in size to the diminutive woman, though slightly larger, and was certain she was proficient enough to teach her.

Though certainly sweet and rather desperately friendly, Doe did not consider herself a peace-loving creature. She would try to keep peace where it served her, but had no qualms against using violence as means to her ends. She was a wolf, after all. She liked her meat bloody, like sinking her teeth into squirming flesh. Such things were natural to wolves, and Doe held them close to her heart, loving them as much as she loved digging and play.

Fighting, though not something she was very familiar with, seemed to her like it would be as fun and exciting as the hunt, with the added benefit of giving her another tool with which she might gaurd her life, and the lives of those she called her own. Sweet and friendly she may be, but the scrappy shewolf became a ruthless creature when herself or her own were threatened.

"Whenever you're ready," said Doe, eyes gleaming.

Lagertha nodded as she received approval for a fight to begin that moment, lowering her body into a defensive position not unlike a hunting crouch. Her face took on a more emotionless look, not her usual candor, in an attempt at not being read by her opponent. Slate eyes scanned her friend, searching for weak spots.

Doe was a smaller wolf than she, less muscular as a result and had a shorter reach. The Viking could use that to her advantage, though she knew Doe would likely be quicker. Doe was also untrained, or so it appeared, and would be an easier target than someone well versed in the ways of war. 

Lag circled her for a moment, watching for the right time to make a defensive move. When the opening came, she lunged forward with the intent of thumping her shoulder against Doe's and knocking her to the ground. This was after all a spar and not an actual fight, thus she wouldn't try to hurt the Mexican wolf.

Seeing that her lesson would begin rightnowthissecond, Doe stood still and ready for the attack. She was not quite sure what to do with her long limbs or slim body, but her ears were swivelling double-time atop her dusk-trimmed head. Her paws, too, soon found a rhythm she was comfortable with, tapping nervously in the sand. Her tongue lolled out as she squeezed an anxious whine from her throat, both fearing the result of the duel and excited for it to begin. Laggy, however, seemed content to crouch and wait, the moment seeming to go on for -

OH NO!

With a started ka-yi!, Doe gave a startled leap as Lag seemed to disappear from her place and reappear much closer than before. The warrior woman's shoulder bumped against her legs and she twisted in the air, shock and confusion reigning supreme.

But then, her paws touched down on warm sand, and she remembered that this was supposed to happen - they were practicing, silly Doe! That in mind, the little shewolf darted forward and attempted to touch her nose to the shield-maiden's leg. Nerves won out, though, and she danced away from the bigger female before getting close enough to hit her mark. No, don't retreat - this is a fight! the sensible voice insisted. Doe, however, knew that the safest place to be in a fight was out of it.

Lagertha might have moved to take a stance of defense, expecting retaliation but was surprised at the sight of Doe twisting in the air from where she had been jumped, landing on her feet nimbly. She was still shocked, shaking her head as Doe moved to press her nose to the Viking's leg, darting away skittishly.

Lag cocked a brow, wondering at the girl's nerves and if she had been hurt before. Pushing away the sudden anger at the thought, Lagertha started forward slowly with the intent of leaving herself plenty of room for an attack.

Doe would never learn to be a fighter if she couldn't get over whatever fear plagued her and took on a defensive act.

As the grey woman crouched again, Doe let her jaw hang open in her fearsome coyote-gape, warning the other female to keep her distance. Shoulders hunched, legs coiled to spring once more, Doe did not feel it when she let herself slip away. Rather, she felt the something else that sometimes lived in her as it rose up to take her place.

Eyes glinting, she searched for an opening, and found herself both pleased and strangely wary as several routes of attack screamed out at her. Why was she intentionally leaving herself open?

This isn't real.

!!! - Oh!

It wasn't real fight; Laggy wouldn't hurt her! She was leaving herself open to teach Doe, and the only way to learn was through trial and error, so... Doe picked the easiest plan of attack, barreling straight toward her and feinting a bit to the left, before darting to the right at the last second and snapping her teeth softly at the shield-maiden's thickly-furred neck. At least, that was the plan - things got a little mixed up when she finally got near enough to the other girl, and she wasn't sure whether or not she'd hit her mark when she tried to slip away again.

Lagertha stopped once more, halting with a cocked brow as her own hackles raised questioningly. This was a lesson and the Viking wouldn't hurt her friend, not unless she turned too serious. "It's a lesson, lass. Ya do well to remember that," she murmured by way of warning, waiting until Doe's eyes cleared and she seemed to remember before starting forward once more.

She felt teeth catch in her ruff, a result of watching Doe race towards her before feinting as if she would attack a different spot before she grabbed the Shield-maiden's coal smattered neck. 

The Valkyrie turned her head, reaching over and grabbing Doe's ear gently in her teeth. It wasn't enough to bleed but firm enough that she would feel it. She released Doe, walking back a pace or two and waiting for the next attack.

Doe's tail flicked in irritation as her attack fell a little flat. Her delicate ear had been caught by the warrior, proving once again that the scrappy little shewolf was just not the same caliber as her friend.

"I don't know what I'm doing," she sighed, ears flattening in embarassment. "I don't have the right instincts for this - I just have really good 'get-out-of-the-way' skills."

She was not as proud of this as she once had been. In her old pack, it hadn't been necessary to fight. They'd been at peace with all the packs around them, switching members and adjusting territories as nature dictated. Here, it was different. Here, their only neighbors were already wary, and they had no one to help them if wariness turned to anger. She had to be able to help herself. To help her pack. To help Laggy, but how could she do that when she was just tiny, anxious little Doe?

"Ya vill learn," Lagertha assured, a gentle smile on her face. The point wasn't for Doe to defeat her, she had only just started training. Literally, that second. Lagertha would beat her at first, she had been trained by Vikings. The point was to learn how to attack, when to attack, and how to protect yourself. 

"Give it another go," she encouraged, taking on a still position to allow the girl an opening. It wasn't something to be learned over night, Doe would have to work for it. For now, Lagertha would try teaching her offense.

Slight PP, assuming they try it a couple more times. Let me know if it's not what you had in mind and I'll be happy to change it!

A bit embarrassed by her half-hearted attempt to end the practice session a little early, Doe stuided the warrior's stance once more, and tried to determine how best to attack without sustaining injury herself. Feinting might've worked in the confusion of battle, but Laggy's easy retaliation showed her that she couldn't always rely on confusion.

Okay, Doe. You have to get tough. Be mean! Her buddy's got Szymon by the throat, and the only way you can save him is by defeating the woman standing in front of you!

With a rallying growl, Doe darted forward again, trying to circle around and catch Laggy's side. It wasn't the perfect attack, but she was learning. These things took time, after all. She was sure that Laggy hadn't popping into being knowing how to fight.

Doe tried her best to rely on her speed and evasion skills, but this tactic proved to be rather futile when one's opponent was just as quick. It was a frustrating lesson, but one she supposed she would have to learn.

"This is exhausting," she said at last, dancing away from another short spar and flopping onto the sand. "And I'm in the best shape of my life!" With newfound respect, she turned her head to look up at her dove-colored companion. One day, she would be as strong and able as Laggy. Until then, she would have to practice as much as she could. Maybe Szymon could help her, too.

"You know," she said suddenly, frowning to herself, "we're pretty lucky Szymon didn't show up during any of those tussles."

She was not sure what would have happened, but she couldn't believe that he would've appreciated finding her under any kind of duress - real or not.

Lagertha nodded, encouranging her pupil as she seemed to be finding the will to train some more. It would be a long process to become strong enough and well enough to be a warrior but she had loads of time and patience. 

Doe was fast and smaller, once trained that would become her advantage, that coupled with the fact that some might overlook the doctor as not being a threat. The Valkyrie had to admit her friend had potential but also a long way to go.

"Ve are done fer taday," she chuckled lightly, sitting in the sand nearby. Her brows raised in curiosity, wiggling them as Doe brought up someone named Syzmon. 

"Ah, ya have a man? He needn't vorry, I vouldn't ever truly hurt ya," Lagertha assured with a fond smile.

Relieved that her friend wouldn't insist on more practice, Doe flopped over more completely, until her body lay pressed against the earth. She stretched her neck until the tip of her nose touched Laggy's paw, her tail thumping in agreement against the sand. "I know that," she said with a wide grin. "He maybe wouldn't have, though. You see what you expect to see... I think Szymon expects wolves to hurt each other."

The doctor's smirk slipped into a frown as the whole statement began to register. Did she have a man? It was hard to say, with everything going on. She kept meaning to bring it up with her master, but things just kept happening, and they were all so busy...

"I hope that he will be mine," she admitted, at last. "I dream of it. But first, I have to ask the Leviathan if he wishes to have me. And if he does not, I have to ask if he will give me his brother."

Another smile was shot in Lagertha's direction; weaker than the first, but a smile all the same. "Oh, wherefore hath the sea curs'd me with such wicked allure?"

Lagertha's grin faded slightly after the second statement about Syzmon, remembering that there were others who would not have even glanced at Doe. Vikings were not a generally good natured people, not to outsiders at least. 

"He is smart then," Lagertha murmured, feeling at war with herself. Part of her was proud of her heritage and culture, the other half saying that she was a mockery. Shaking her head, Lagertha silenced the thoughts. 

Her brows raised, wondering if this was an unspoken tradition amongst her new people. "Is Skellige interested in ya?" 

Another thought hit her then. "Vhat if he picks another voman? Vill they be expected to be his as you say?" 

Doe blinked at her friend, surprised at both of her questions. For some reason, she'd never really thought over-much about either of them. The first, because a simple of course he is had always glossed over any thoughts on the matter. The second, because... well, because. She simply didn't think past what she knew, and she knew that if Skellige desired her, she would be his. The rule did not apply to any others, so far as she knew, because it was a rule her upbringing had made for her, and one that she'd made for herself as she matured.

Skellige had been good to her, and she would repay him in any way he desired. It was her duty. She would bear it with joy and with pride.

"I don't know if he's interested in me," she said after a moment, ears flickering at the profoundness of the statement. She didn't; she had no idea. "And I don't know if he'd force the issue - with anyone. I will serve him in any way he asks; he has been good and kind to me. Taken me in when I had no one, nowhere, nothing. It is..."

What was it?

"It's an honor," she said at last. "But there are things sometimes more desireable than honor."

"Ya sound like my Mum," she teased though it fell flat, her smile weak now. Despite what she led others to believe, part of her missed her mother but she could not; would not marry a stranger. Leaving her mother had been harder than leaving her father. Da' had made it clear she wasn't to come back, that she was a shame to him. Mum had just looked so disappointed. 

"Maybe it's vrong of me, stupid or silly, but I don't vant an arranged marriage. I'm not even sure vhat I vant. Respect maybe is vhat I'm seeking . He vould have to beat me in a fight," Lagertha smiled, looking out towards the sea. 

Her eyes returned to Doe as she spoke of something more valuable than honour. "Love. That what ya mean." It wasn't a statement, rather it was an observation.