The Sentinels the sea alone, with its multiplicity, holds any hope

  dated after the starbuck/dei thread where shes in dl

deirdre came again with much news for skellige! she had visited him, recently, but even more had transpired between then and this very day. one such incident she felt quite important to bring up to him, but not because she believed him to have partaken in foul play. and so she tipped her head upward for the man, @Skellige, to come to her, lingering closer to donnelaith than she did the bay.

The call sounded overhead, but the wraith did not move to approach her immediately. He had been searching for the young golden child since she had disappeared, but she had done well at vanishing. Anger had coursed through him, and he had lashed at many who had tried to speak with him. The sea had spoken; she had returned the child to him, and it had been destined that she would join them. Skellige could not believe that the swell had lied so viciously to him. He had been riddled with doubts and plagued by his own temper, but after a short while he began the march toward the edges of Donnelaith. The sands that clung to his fur had bathed him in a pale gold coloration that stretched from his elbows down to his feet. The salt from the ocean had spattered along his chest and belly, fading in with the silver of his ribs.
 
Throwing his glance upward toward Deirdre, the dark creature smoldered. A slight cant of his skull was the request to know what it had been that compelled her to call to him.

deirdre noted that the man that approached her seemed to be the storm that had just passed through the lands; had he swallowed it? vicious and unyielding, fierce and dangerous, except for when the remnant strands of moonlight pierced through its cloud-cover and brought fractured brightness to the world! she sensed why he might fret; sensed, because of the name her beloved friend had called him: daddy.

and so, deirdre steeled herself. she tested the waters, her eyes and voice both gentle and inquisitive: i hear you are a father, now,

Her words rattled him. The fur along his neck and shoulders bristled before he was forced to calm the irregular beating of his heart. The child had run to the wood! The leviathan felt a washing of relief, but it was quickly overcome by the thought that he would not be permitted to retrieve his little Sharkbait if the pale forest nymph denied him. The tone in her voice had not suggested anger or disappointment, but she did peer at him with a curiosity that burned holes through his thick inky pelt. Skellige would not falter in this – the sea was testing him.
 
“You have her?” he asked the pallid woman. Taking a step forward, the wraith lowered his head only slightly so that his gaze was pointed to her own. Though it was faint, he could scent the child on her coat, and his blood pumped so furiously through his veins that he nearly darted into the thick forest in search of the pup himself. Patience was forced on him as he peered at the woman who was to be his.

i do, she informed him, not even thinking of lying to him. she trusted him, implicitly--he had yet to wrong her, and she did not think he would do so on this day. more than that, i know her. how is it that she came to you? she asked, truly interested in the series of events that led her two favored wolves to one another. it is a brilliant twist of fate, this; i love this girl, you see. larkspur, she is called; she is my best friend. but she has forgotten me, here she frowned, and looked just beyond him. this is no matter. she will soon remember. deirdre was comforted by this, and the relief was in her voice; she was being looked after, now, by @Starbuck. she rests while her mind recovers. would you like to see her? she invited, her emerald eyes aglow. something in skellige must care for the girl, she imagined, if he would pretend to be a father to her.

The information unfolded around him in a matter of moments. Deirdre knew the child – had known he before she had washed up on his shores. How could he have been so unlucky? She was honest with him, and direct, and for that he did not see any reason why he should lie to her. The great Cairn was not a beast of trickery; that had always been Ishild’s forte. He was a direct man, and so he anticipated that was all she would want from him. Her question as to how he had come to know the child struck the air and he drew his ears forward, lifting his skull. “She was traveling with her father near the edges of the bay. We greeted them, she became fearful and ran into my territory. Her father attempted to follow her without requesting permission… and I am not a man who allows others to walk over me in front of my kin or on my land,” he spoke to her with a firm nod of his skull. There was no regret in the decision he had made to have Mordecai detained and tossed to the waves.
 
“I fetched her, and the waters blessed her and returned her to me. The sea has not yet sought to do that with her father, so she has taken the name Sharkbait and I have been watching over her as my own,” he then finished, turning his dark eyes to meet her own emerald ones. “I would like to see her, yes,” he then followed with a few steps forward. He wished to brush his muzzle against her cheek – to thank her for finding the child – but he did not know how she would take the news of what had occurred on his bay.

deirdre thought on his words, and saw no cause to not believe them; larkspur, when frightened, had entered into donnelaith's own woods. at this time, she was not herself, but still, it made the words he spoke entirely believable. blessed by the sea? she tilted her head at this. she could not begrudge him the way he dealt with trespassers on his own lands, she supposed. there was a storm--and there was something you and yours had done that frightened her. bathing one another in blood, she told him this without resentment, but with ample curiosity: what was the purpose of this?

he asked to see her, and deirdre nodded. she has asked to remain with me, and within donnelaith. i think it wise, while she recovers. she is in a wakeless rest that is not death. she said, a smile gracing her features, intrigued the heart within him. but she did not speak ill of you. you cared for her, and deirdre knew it to be so; the girl was not at all malnourished, or sickly, simply terribly frightened.

The questions were causing agitation to rise in his gut and he prayed to the mystics that he might wash it away so that he could speak to the fair girl. She was being nothing but genial to him – as she had always been – and he was meeting her with odd bristling fur and a firm voice. It did not settle well with him that the young Sharkbait was being kept inside of the forest instead of by the sea where she was intended to be. As Deirdre inquired about the blessing, he furrowed his brows at her and nodded with a swift bob of his crown. “Yes, Deirdre. Blessed by the sea,” he echoed. “The blood that you speak of was part of our ceremony. You were to be invited, but with everything that you have been dealing with… I did not think it wise. Perhaps we can have you blessed by the ocean at another time,” he rumbled in a quiet baritone. There was an effort to avoid curling his lip over his yellowed fangs. “The ceremony is an intense experience; but I wish to see Sharkbait. I wish her to know that she is forgiven and that the sea will still give her strength.”
 
At the prospect of the girl staying in the forest, he flattened his ears to his skull and frowned. The wolves of the ocean were not meant to dwell in the woodland. The waters had washed her and baptized her – the sea had returned the golden child to him, not to Donnelaith. Fear would be easily washed from her system if that was all that was holding her back. “I know that you care for her, but she is destined to be in the bay. You may tend to her, yes, and heal her, but I would wish for her to come back home with me,” his voice did not waver.

she listened attentively, curious as to the purpose ofo blood in this ceremony; but now was not the time to ask more questions on it, she sensed. his worry was palpable, and she would see it gone! but as he spoke of her destiny, and it being in the bay, deirdre looked to him. if the sea has blessed her, then you must trust its work in the choices she does make. we are allies, you and i, and i am to be yours as you are to be mine, this she said with adamant conviction. deirdre, in her heart, wished that she would remain within donnelaith; but would that be so bad, for her beloved skellige? deirdre lifted her head loftily, her tail swaying behind her hocks. i am to be queen when i am of age. i now have been told of this. aria and constantine will not be here, to see this be so--they have decided that donnelaith will no longer be home for them. though she had started out proud and pleased, positively elated, her voice deflated a significant measure as she spoke of aria and constantine's intention to leave her. there would be a great joy in coming of age, but also, a great sadness. if larkspur--your sharkbait--wishes to return with you, i would not dream of refusing this. had the sea not prompted larkspur to come here? that beautiful thing that had brought him to her? she the land, and he the ocean-water that kissed her shores! for this, deirdre shared a great love of the ocean, and her eyes upon him expressed that toward him. there was a great warmth that engulfed her, and she was forced to look away, confounded by the fire in her cheeks.

There was a moment – a flash that erupted inside of him – when the wraith nearly lunged forward with fangs bared at the pale healer. He could not help but to feel the burning rage of his own pride as it sunk its vicious fangs into his heart. How dare she speak of the will of the sea! She was a creature of the wood – she did not know the trials that had been placed on him in regards to the swell of the water and the crash of the waves. He had been born to it, and raised within it. Skellige knew the ocean better than he knew any other creature on the planet. He was more at home within the bosom of the depths than anywhere else. She dared to stand before him and speak to him of what he must do in regards to her will! His lip curled slightly as he took a step back, away from her. “You are of the forest, Deirdre. I would not come here and tell you the will of the trees because it would not be my place. I would not insult you by telling you what you must do to obey the will of the wood,” he growled softly, brows furrowed tightly over his dark eyes.
 
It should have been a moment of rejoicing. He should have found himself drawn to her at the news that she would inherit Donnelaith just as she had hoped. It was a sinking feeling that he endured instead. They were to be allies through her reign and his rule, but he did not think that he could have her speak for what he must do… not again. He was a creature of war, and he had done well to tame the wild desire to fight while he was with the pale girl. The leviathan would not be told what to do. He would not listen as she willed him to be patience with the sea’s wishes. It was not her place to tell him.
 
“I would like to see her then,” he finally breathed out, turning his sights toward the dense stretch of trees.

she observed his reaction, and felt accosted by the look in his eye, but did not flinch. deirdre stood taller, in fact, though she did not bristle when his lip curled. she remained soft, though was not moved from her former opinion. his offense was one she raised a shield to, but she could not look at him, so hurt was she, as she replied. i misspoke. i did not mean to command you to anything, skellige, by decree of your sea, nor decree of me. i know nothing of your oceans will, not truly, as she is as mysterious a thing as she is deep. he had cut her to the quick with his reprimand, but she hid her wounds with a regal bearing. i only supposed that, as she had been blessed by the sea, perhaps it had a part in why she had come here. on this, you would know better than me, she admitted, still looking away from him. but she is here, nonetheless. for she has trespassed again, drawn in her fear to the comfort and the power of the nemeton, no doubt, at last she looked back to him. even those without magick in them could feel the forests power when they sought it! yes, it was doubtless that, powerless, larkspur sought any semblance of strength she could find. the nemeton had called her; had brought her to deirdre. her destiny rests between sea and forest. she will decide her own fate. she will run again, if her hand is forced, she predicted, her voice distant as she prophecized. 

deirdre looked toward the direction she kept larkspur, and moved on in silence; they were drawing near, now.