Dragoncrest Cliffs Someone said something one time, but Daddy didn’t talk too loud

Raleska had informed both @Erzulie and @Rosalyn to her plans to scout. Initially she had intended to go north, but as the trail unwinded Raleska found herself taking to old footpaths as well worn and known to her as her own two front feet. 

She skirted Ankyra entirely, feeling an inhospitable chill seize her spine as she saw the cliffs in the distance. Somewhere below the Grotto her mother’s ghost clanked and howled — best to just avoid any run in with Caiaplasm if she could help it. 

By nightfall Raleska found herself standing in the patch of dirt where she had seen Eurycrates be dispatched. A somberness shouldered her, heavyweight with a strange species of nostalgia. 

So long ago, the cliffs had been rife with tension and bloodbath. Now, the stony hall was eerily still — and not a soul to be seen besides her own as the sun sank into a bloody expanse of dark sea.

She'd traveled a ways again, but that was alright.  This time was different... @Wraen tried to play it off, but Maia could tell how much traveling got her.  So when she knew she wanted to go for a while, she tended to go alone, letting the others know that she'd be back.  This time she was hunting for coastal food.  She'd managed a few birds she'd buried to come back to later, but as she scoured the coast, she was really hoping for something cool.  Maybe some giant crab, or a huuuuge fish.

The cliffs were her stopping point.  Here was where she'd turn back... and she still hadn't found anything awesome.  Maia sighed with disappointment, then saw the silhouette of a wolf, caught in the rays of the setting sun.  Oh heck, this wasn't a pack, was it?  She sniffed, but couldn't detect anything but the salt air.

Hey!!!  You!!! Uhh... you wouldn't happen to know of any big fish or anything in the area, would you?  She yelled up the incline, figuring it was worth a shot.  She wasn't too worried about danger.  So far, most loners Maia had met were friendly so long as you had nothing they wanted.  She had no food and nothing worth taking, so all's well.

Astute as Raleska believed her senses to be, Maia went entirely unnoticed beneath her up until the point her voice cut across the cliffs. Raleska jumped involuntarily, sending pebbles and scree pit-pattering down the slope. Looking downward, she was met with the soft-faced figure of a stranger coated in stormy greys and soft dove-tan. 

At first she had feared Dragedans had returned to the cliffs, but Maia possessed neither the scent nor the hard-edged exterior she’d come to expect from the Dragoncrest clan. Taking a moment to register what Maia had spoken, Raleska cast a gruff voice to the wind in return. Big fish... like, in the ocean? She looked at the pounding surf below, confused. There’s sharks in that reef down there sometimes. She’d seen her share of shark fins jutting out the water in her time at Ankyra.

Oh my gosh.  Maia had no idea what a shark was, but if it was a big fish, she was so down.  Whatever they were would likely make some good and interesting eating for Wraen and Arcturus, and she'd tie the story up too.  Nice, thanks!!  She hollered back, grinning.  Then stared down at the reef, wondering just how she might pick her way down to it.  

Okay, Maia, no time to get cold feet now.  She was an adventurer, boldly researching new finds in an uncharted cliff.  Cautiously, she began to pick her way down.

That's it? Just thank her and be on her way? Raleska slowblinked a few times, watching in silence as Maia began her descent down the cliff.

Was she mad? Had she hit her head? Raleska's mother would have tittered at the prospect of sending a stranger into a shark's jaws, but Raleska felt a latent lull of dread. She considered her options for a few seconds more before she too was picking her way down the slope after Maia.

"Hold up." Raleska said gruffly, trying her best to catch up despite the headstart. "You're.. you're not thinking of trying to catch one are you? Do you even know what a shark is?"

There was one momentary fright where she biffed it and tottered, but she managed to catch herself and tried to play it off.  Glancing up, she saw Raleska following, and blew out a breath.

She pricked her ears at the question.  I mean... you just said, it's a big fish, yeah?  Figure if I catch one it might feed me and a couple others.  Or if not I can get a couple maybe.  She hopped down to a wider ledge and eyed the slope.  Here she was luckily on the lower end of the cliffs, and it wasn't much farther to get to the edge of the reef below.  What would it be like to jump? She wondered, but then shivered and dismissed it.  She got the feeling she was higher up than it looked, and her legs got a little wobbly thinking about it.

"Okay, first of all --" Raleska slid down the incline, nearly losing her footing in the same place Maia had. "You don't catch a shark." She took in a deep breath, ignoring the thoughts of her losing her balance. While Maia was standing on ledge eyeballing the slope, Raleska took the opportunity to close the gap and survey this fuckin' lunatic who had decided she was just going to catch a shark and feed people with it.

"Who are you trying to feed?" Raleska tried to hide the derisive smirk that kept creeping to her face, imagining someone just coming along to snare a shark. It defied logic, but it was funny to think about. "You'd more likely feed the shark.  Are you even from around here?"

My sister and her... friend!  Maia offered this information easily and freely, as was her way.  There was only a slight hesitation on defining what Arcturus was to Wraen.  She appreciated this wolf's help and her conversation... and now that she was coming down here, her company too! As she listened, Maia waited, and she sat back on her haunches on the ledge as Raleska caught up.

I mean, no.  Her ears did tilt back a little, finally feeling a slight stir of embarrassment as Raleska arrived and her tone changed.  So they're fish that, like, eat wolves?  That's messed up.  She thought for a second, clearly disappointed by this turn of events.  She had some stuff to pick up on the way back, but it would be disappointing to head home empty handed.

A sister, and a friend. Were all inland wolves this soft? Unhardened by a life at large? Raleska observed Maia slyly with the faintest hint of suspicious jealousy. Oh, to live a life where you offered information freely, and trust even more so.

"I take it you haven't been around the ocean long." Raleska remarked, beginning to forge her own path to the shore. If sharks were an alien concept to Maia, what would she think of seals, whales, crabs? "There's lots of things in the ocean that'd be happy to eat a wolf or two."

I've been around here a few times.  I used to visit a lot more, but I kinda stopped.  Maia replied, a little defensively in response to Raleska's obviously superior knowledge.  She wasn't a complete idiot.  Well... she was, but she didn't have to acknowledge it to this other woman.

And there's plenty of things outside it that will eat a wolf, but c'mon, a fish?  You gotta be joking.  Maia picked her way after, letting Raleska take the lead she'd lost by hesitating.  Unless it's some kind of sea monster.  Or a siren.  Do they sing at all?  She was only half joking with the question, because if a siren was going to live anywhere, it would absoLUTELY be beneath these terrifying cliffs.

Raleska had hit a nerve. Ooops. She grinned unapologetically, tucking away the expression just in time that Maia did not see it.

She forgot, not everyone lived like her. Not everyone fought and clawed for a life at the beach. There were some wolves who had never seen the ocean at all. That seemed strange to Raleska, who had lived her entire life at arm's length to the waters.

Maia couldn't be faulted for her lack of experience, but Raleska was already judgmentally tallying up the ways she was better than this soft naive girl already (little did she know, that most people like the soft, naive girls better -- they're usually way less condescending). "You haven't seen a shark then." Raleska confirmed, more to get a word in edgewise (she's insufferable omg). "I guess you could call them sea monsters. I've seen some really weird things on the shore. They die out in the water and the waves bring them to the sands." One time she had seen something massive and made entirely of flesh -- but not a bone to be found among its putrescent skin. Her nose had told her it was edible, and she had eaten it willingly enough, but she would never forget the sheer size of the leviathan, or the seemingly hundreds of tangled legs that stirred lifelessly every time the water lapped it. "Some of them sing. Some of them look like fish but maybe aren't. I don't think you want to see a shark, though. If they're in the shallows its because they're hungry. Seal or wolf, it doesn't matter to them."

Her embarrassment faded as intrigue set in.  Real life sea monsters then?  That made her tales with Arcturus take on new form, if it was true.  There was more to contend with in the water than she'd even thought possible.

You haven't seen me fight, Maia replied, but there was laughter behind it as though she herself didn't believe it.  She had no interest in taking on a true sea monster, not if this other woman wouldn't try it.  She looked... intimidatingly capable.  Maia felt practically green and alien by comparison.

Have you always lived here then, on the coast? Maia paused, paying careful attention on a particularly tricky spot.  Her paws weren't used to this.  I had a f- she started, about to mention Illidan, when her claws suddenly slipped.  They'd come down a ways, so the fall wasn't particularly awful now, but she was certainly seconds from plummeting out into open space.

rolled a 5 and off she goes!

Raleska, in a rare moment of self-control, bit her tongue. Let Maia think the things that lingered beneath the water were benign as fishes, and easy to fend off. Maybe it was better she was a land-lubber. Raleska didn't think she had the chops to live life at sea.

That could be flipped right around into her face, though - because Raleska didn't have the chops to live landlocked.

She was about to interrupt to tell Maia to watch her step when suddenly, the girl slipped and vanished. "The fuck--" Raleska carefully tried to follow, but her going was slow. "Hey! HEY! Are you okay?!"

Maia was lucky in two regards. One, the area they'd been climbing butted right against a shore (that was why they chose it).  Two, she'd managed to fall into the water instead.  It was a long enough one to sting a tidge when she broke the surface, but happily she could swim.

She's never swam in anything remotely like this before.  She didn't hear Raleska's yells, but she did call back up.  Oh my go- She was cut off as a wave surged and doused her, pushing her towards the cliff.

Instead she started swimming the other way, towards the little cove.  As she did she kept an eye on the cliff, trying to find where her new friend was and where she'd fallen from.  That was crazy!

WC: 128

A splash was infinitely better than a splat - Raleska had been waiting for the sickening noise ever since Maia disappeared from view. When at last she braved herself to look down, she saw Maia's head instantly get dunked by a heavy wave.

If she hadn't been sure Maia had almost died, she might have laughed unkindly. "Hold on," Raleska called, tail arcing back and forth for balance as she leapt from ledge to ledge, eventually coming close to a cove where the water seemed shallow and the waves calmer. From her estimate Maia's four legs worked, her spine was functional -- she was lucky she hadn't ended up a pancake at the bottom of the cliff.

Brrrrrrr!!!  Maia shook voilently, trying to rid her thick fur of the water.  She didn't really pay attention to if Raleska was in the splash zone by the time she was on the sand.  But she sat down and immediately began to fluff up her pelt.  The water was freezing this time of year.  Exhilerating!!  But COLD!

So maybe no fishing, then.  Anything that's in that water right now is crazy.  She shuddered as a shiver or two ran down her spine.  Maia was a baby when it came to the cold and wet only made that ten times worse.  Then she finally put eyes around the cove they'd discovered.  This is a neat little place though.  What is it, some kind of secret bandit hideaway?  It certainly fit the look.  Tucked in the cliffs, no entry but the water and... a cave?  Maybe?

Ohhhhhh my gosh she was so exploring that.

WC: 152

Raleska narrowly missed getting doused by Maia's shake; she angled her shoulders away and sat down outside of the splash-zone with a nonplussed expression adorning her face.

Still, she assumed this woman didn't have much experience with the sea. It was hard for her not to be judgmental -- she had to remind herself that many wolves had not lived the same life she had, and were clearly lucky for it.

"They're used to the cold. It's always like that." Raleska supplied back, thinking of how she'd noticed in the plateau that the landlocked bodies of water were almost always several degrees warmer. Prompted to think about the area they were in, Raleska angled her slim muzzle upwards and studied the familiar-and-yet-unfamiliar faces of the cliff. A lot of memories in this place -- very few of them positive.

"It's called Dragoncrest Cliffs." Raleska imparted with slight distaste. More for the history of this place than its presence. "There used to be wolves here. I think that was their home base."

sets this gently here - for you

Oh.  Again, a little self consciousness at Raleska's way of supplying things so matter-of-fact.  Maia was prone to projecting annoyance on things anyway, so wolves like this girl were a bit of a nightmare for her self-esteem.  At the news of a pack, though, Maia chose to one hundred percent ignore the tone behind Raleska's naming of the place.  Because something else popped into her mind instead.

I wonder if this was Illidan's home.  She had almost been tempted to say 'kingdom', but somehow that designation sounded childish.  She wasn't a fan of tossing around those types of feelings with her worldly companion here, even if she had made the comment mostly to herself.  Not that he's here anymore.  She'd looked for her friend a good many times as she'd traveled, but never managed to track him down.  Now it was an idle game, one that hurt less as time passed and she continued to imagine him happily settled in some distant place.

GASP

Raleska had been busy studying the cave when Maia spoke. At first, Raleska simply continued mapping the many shadows of the entrance distractedly, about to supply a quiet mmhmm of indifference when --

Wait, what?!

"Did you say Illidan?!" Raleska spun on Maia with surprising speed, scowling gaze darkening to one of deep suspicion. Electricity rippled across her fur as she peered intently at Maia, waiting for an explanation with savagely impatient lashes of her tail.

Maia opened her mouth to respond, but shut it when she saw the charged look about Raleska and the way she was scowling.  Taken aback a little, she swallowed.  Uh, yeah.  He's this friend I used to have?  I haven't seen him in a long time though.  Friend she thought with a touch of something else; there'd been a long time she'd longed for it to mean more than that, and she still felt that, at times.  Other things had dulled it, but like they said; did you ever really get over a first crush?

Do you know him?  She asked, hoping she hadn't offended her.  Then because she couldn't help herself, Do you know where he is!?  She'd wondered for months, off and on, though she also wondered if maybe she didn't want to know.  No; she definitely did.  She wanted to know her friend was happy and well.

It's unclear if she'd find out their relationship or get the brush off, but either way, Maia would stay and remain (aggressively) cheerful until she'd pushed Raleska into chasing her off or explored the cliffs to her heart's content.