Ankyra Sound you gotta be your own 3am

aw but maybe a @Caiaphas now that she's back seaside? :^) other tags for ref!

there's a pleasant business to her life now, similar to when she trained closely with eske as a kid. having a goal to work towards keeps her satisfied, the routine of following nomi (and if part of that is an attempt to not dwell on mother's disappearance, well, who can fault her really) when she isn't doing her usual patrolling. drageda's seen some fresh faces lately, something both welcome and uneasy to the fleimkepa, though she wants to make more of an effort to get to know them. blackbear at the least for sure.

more uneasy is her brother's absence, though, like nomi, she trusts that he will come home eventually. 

even more uneasy is her inability, at the moment, to find @Mallaidh. the girl isn't gone, though her anxiety spikes uselessly anyway--if she slips through blixen's paws again after everything, she doesn't know what she'll do. ergo she finds herself slipping down from the cliffs in the early morning mist, under the gentle patter of snow. there's not a strong scent path for her to follow but she knows mallaidh well enough to try and guess where she might have wandered. hopefully not too far, given blix isn't eager to get lost on the coast again, but she can at least check. 

the sound holds an interesting mix of activity lately, it seems, from her scenting. intermingled webs of drageda wolves and others, fresh enough to be notable, though furi isn't among them, she notes with some frustration. still, might as well be thorough, she thinks, drawing closer to the shore as she's lost in thought.

i knew i was forgetting something. dang- thanks for the tag I am sorry I dropped the ball!!

a new figure made its way across the coast - moving like a small trail of blazing fire as it went. at first the sylph believed it to be Mona — and a protective twinge of annoyance climbed up her spine — only, as she closed the distance she was made aware of her mistake. 

not mona. someone else. 

she was not perturbed by the unknown presence, though with her children afoot she was compelled to answer it. drawing close, the sylph cants an ear forward - it looked as if this stranger was lost in thought, and she was almost loathe to interrupt the demons that chewed at her.

no worries!<3

so intent her focus is on mallaidh that for a split second she sees her in the corner of her eye and twists, her expression warming. only it isn't furi, it's a woman who bears no resemblance to her beyond the darkened head/light scruff combo (only, of course, mallaidh's is silver and the rest of her is dark and this woman is strangely stark -- a distinctive appearance that rings a bell for some reason, though she can't place it).

her expression closes again, not harsh, merely neutral. nothing about the stranger suggests a threat to her (yet, at least). dimly she recognizes her as one of the scents mixed in the sound, though what that means right now she doesn't stress about. instead she barks, "hei," in greeting, straightening her posture slightly. "i was looking for someone--she's not here, though. are you staying here?" 

given she never met caiaphas, nor does she remember the description given by nomi so many months ago, the woman's presence does not perturb her. for now, at least.

it took little time for the blaze-furred she-wolf to notice her -- at first caiaphas is taken aback by the warmth that flushes the stranger's features, for she was certain she had never met the woman -- yet then, the expression fades, bit by bit the warmth is lost and replaced with neutrality.

caiaphas' own posture remained unchanged: interested, but unchallenging -- thus far the red-caped woman has done caiaphas little wrong, save for occupying the ranks of a pack the sylph would rather see existed elsewhere. she kept herself prepared, for she had learned the hard way these wolves oft could not be trusted.

yet blixen didn't turn on her - at least not yet. caiaphas took that as a positive sign, though did not part with the careful readiness that told her to keep her guard. "who are you looking for?" she ventured, though the second question was given careful weight before she answered. "this was my home - for years." as much as she wanted to fire off a thousand reasons for why she was more entitled to stay here than any other johnny-come-lately, caiaphas curbed her tongue - it had gotten her in enough trouble as of late, and it seemed a missing pack wolf was of more importance than her nostalgic feelings for the sound.

hm. she sighs, her (slightly forlorn) gaze drifting out over the coast. "just a friend," blix says, "she's not missing, she just likes to wander on her own, sometimes." she hasn't cottoned on yet to the fact that mallaidh is avoiding nomi, and by extension, her, and good thing, considering. the woman's answer to her question is curious -- she wonders, belatedly, if she'd belonged to the pack that briefly resided here. if so, blix needs to be more guarded, but the for years part throws her off. 

for now she figures she'll act casual. "i'm guessing you already know about drageda, then," blixen says, with the oblivious arrogance of a child that assumes her home is the world, though her tone is unassuming. she knows drageda didn't always live on the cliffs but they've been there long enough it's not an unreasonable guess in her mind. she adds, "my name's blixen," as an afterthought, and nearly describes furi, but stops, just in case the woman is less neutral than she currently thinks.

the siren hadn't missed the near despondent way blixen cast her gaze out to the shore -- a shore that stared despondently back. caiaphas' gaze briefly followed the line blixen had scanned over: miserable coast, cold stones, and grey skyline.

if she was annoyed at all by mention of drageda, she hid it well -- but her eyes snapped back up to the firebrand, a tinge of recognition curled in that tourmaline gaze. "yes. you settled here around when this--" she gestured to the rocky shore --"was called saltwinter." she was about to add something in afterthought when the flame-fringed vixen offered a name. "caiaphas. your friend have a name?"

saltwinter. blixen is not a historian, but there was definitely no saltwinter when she was a child. when drageda relocated from sleeping dragon, then, she thinks, and isn't sure what to do with that knowledge. caiaphas names herself -- it does not set off recognition in her the way she thought it might; her experiences with the pack in the sound had largely revolved around ingram and arrille, the rest of minimal importance. 

still, she's not eager to hand off mallaidh's name, some instinctively protective urge sending warning bells up to her. unfortunately, 'quick on her feet' or 'good at subterfuge' are not qualities she possesses, and the first name that springs to mind (given where she is) 

"it's ingram," 

which could not be a more obvious lie, assuming she's right in her guess that caiaphas was in the sound last time it was settled, and given that she's already gendered her missing friend as female. of course she can't go back on it now, so she straightens up slightly, committing, as it were, to the bit.

caiaphas couldn’t say she knew the locals, so when it just so happened blixen shared a name of a wolf she happened to have a hand in raising, her back stiffened. she made no move to disguise the flicker in her eyes - and it is then the crone wondered if blixen took her for a fool. 

is ingram tall, black and male? she queried, rather dryly at that as she allowed her gaze to rake curiously over the russet female. she supposed blixen could have her reasons for lying - gods know caiaphas had lied plenty enough. ingram had never been caiaphas’ favorite - he was too much like his dolt of a father - but she still had wondered after all this time where he — and his siblings — had gone.

i apologise for my idiot daughter

yeah that went over about as well as she expected. there's not a real way to backpeddle (oh did i say ingram? i meant... angram), nor would explaining why she lied make the situation any better. she looks at caiaphas, carefully avoiding her eyes, and nods once. "more or less," she says inscrutably, "though it's been a while since i saw him." that she could have pretended this is a different ingram she is referring to, oh what a funny coincidence is that, doesn't occur to her in the moment. it's a good thing she's never had any aspirations to be steltrona. 

continuing to put her foot in her mouth, because why not, she adopts a casually interested tone and adds, "he used to live around here, right?"

blixen's gaze was conveniently elsewhere as caiaphas looked upon her, attempting to pry from her features any indication for the deception. perhaps she was not really here looking for her friend -- perhaps this was some ill-timed reconnaissance mission, and caiaphas just so happened to stride by.

for as much sense as that might have made, caiaphas didn't believe it to be true (yet) - the woman had not walked in a sly manner, nor had she attempted to conceal herself once she was spotted. after some consideration caiaphas decided she was wasting too much energy speculating, and might as well have cut to the chase.

after all, she had never been known for her propriety. "hmm. yes, he lived here once." she answered, briefly glancing out along the cold winter waves. it was so cold this time of year. "but i do not recall him caring much for drageda." she paused to measure blixen's reaction, her hungry gaze studying carefully the lines of the firebird's face. "so, who are you truly looking for? perhaps i could be of more help, if i knew who it was you came here for. unless you enjoy your friend being missing -- in which case, seems paradoxical."

right. well. she raises her eyebrows innocently, quite unable to stop herself from saying, "oh, i don't know, he was pretty okay with it when he brought back our wolf you took captive," you, in this case, of course, meaning the sound in general, and not caiaphas specifically. foot, meet mouth (as if it could get any deeper lodged in there). caiaphas tries to prompt her to give details on mallaidh, which is actually not what she expected, helpful even, but blixen doesn't trust her enough. she can't. 

pulling herself to her feet she shakes her head and shrugs, grimancing. "i don't, but --" you know, sort of enemies or whatever, though she doesn't want to say that out loud. "i should keep looking, anyway. um," what's the polite way out of this? "nice to meet you"? "thanks for -- i don't know. bye, caiaphas." inelegant as ever, the young fleimkepa backs up and then starts making her way back to drageda, feeling incredibly foolish all the while.

the girl remained tight-lipped as a clam, not that any further detail would have spared her much help. caiaphas shrugged it off, though darkly her thoughts swirled around what the firebird had said about ingram -- and captive.

truth be told, the old shrew had forgotten all about the girl that had trespassed and been held against her will. she had figured ingram had a hand in rose's sudden disappearance, but truth be told, there was little sport in holding captives for caiaphas - they had to eat your food, you had to watch them constantly, and they were always the rudest guests. truth be told, the siren wasn't typically one to bother.

blixen had already excused herself, and caiaphas spared her only the briefest of glances as the girl went. finding herself alone once more, she turned for the tidal flats in the hopes of filling her snarling gut.