Wheeling Gull Isle lana i loko o ke kai sapira,

keeping it vague about who treated his injuries for now but if any caregivers would like a thread to treat his injuries then feel free to tag him.

His wounds were still much too fresh and he was still much too weak to be of much use but this did not mean that the wolfdog took to lazing about, using up resources when Aiolos had been  kind enough to give him refuge in the winter. He limped about the borders at times, leaving his own scent markers amongst those of the sea wolves he was beginning to familiarize himself with -- learning them by their faces even if the mute could not hear their names. The beachcomber was not quite up to the task of hunting just yet but he felt a need to do something with himself, find some way to repay the kindness of Yuelong even if it was only a small token of favor.

Such was how he wound up at the tide pools, the salt stinging at his wounds as he soon found himself drenched with the sea spray up to his chest. At low tide, he ventured out onto the silty sands, apple green gaze flitting over the miniature aquariums brimming with anemones, small fish, eels, even a tiny octopus in one. The shellfish were more abundant though -- mussels and oysters lining the rock walls like living stones amongst the coral. 

Holokai busied himself by gathering what he could -- and what he was sure was edible at least. He began prying the hard, black shells of the crustaceans from their rocky perches, having to yank and tug at them with force occasionally. He intended to save the fish for last, knowing he would become ungainly and awkward with his new injuries as he cornered and dispatched them before fishing them out of the waters -- even if they were confined to the small tide pools. 

the man fishing the waters was not entirely one of their own. there was enough wildness to him that ramesses saw why he had been given entry.
and yet it would not have been his decision.
nostrils flared. he watched the odd colors of the man blur before his eyes; pharaoh descended imperiously, flicking his eyes over the icewater pools that somehow still held the reek of fish.
"you are new to us."
his posture demanded obedience. with his promotion had ramesses gained a new emphasis to his arrogant mien, and jaws were smoothed with tongue while a pointed look leveled itself upon the cur.

The mute had not heard his approach, but the pale figure drew close enough to alert him visually as they perched imperiously over the opposite end of the tide pool that Holo currently fished from. The cur's venomous gaze of green flickered down from orbs of lapis lazuli to the male's lips as he spoke but he could not make out much more than it had something to do with the man Aiolos had named Drifter. The halfbreed leveled him with a cool, curious gaze -- his deaf ears not rising or flickering in the slightest, alerting the man to his inability to hear if he was keen enough. This was not one he had met, but his posturing and regality was lost on the simple Leviathan. A soft, questioning noise left his throat -- wondering exactly what the other wanted in his own strange way.

ramesses received nothing for his troubles. a black lip lifted, but he thought better of pressing the issue. instead he scanned the work of the odd animal. so he was more than some fellahin' this one had some skill with fishing, even if it was shellfish pried from stone. not above hard work, and performing labour while injured.
the estimation rose, though pharaoh's eyes still saw only a servant. the focus he was given soothed the balm of his posture being ignored, somewhat; ramesses lifted his head and stepped back somewhat. there was no recognition in the other's face. 
he frowned, clearing his throat to test the theory of sound. when it was concluded, he arched a brow to hide his own anger over having stumbled into conversation with an invalid.
he settled himself firmly nearby, lapis eyes lashing at the other like a whip. keep working. no beast made a fool of pharaoh; he would not allow it.

The other said nothing else and offered no visual cues, save for an arch of his brow and the cold snap of a sapphire gaze in the pale seadog's direction. Many underestimated the silent man but he was only incapable of communication -- not thought -- and prided himself on being particularly clever. One had to be to have some kind of understanding of the world in his silent existence. Holokai knew well the other man had no reason to be reprimanding him for the wolfdog had been minding his own business before the white wolf felt the need to enroach, plus he was working -- whilst injured no less -- while this freeloader sat and watched him. The Dogo didn't care what his rank was. He knew the man was not amongst the ones the red male had pointed out as leaders and the cur knew he was in the right.

So, he gave the white wolf a curl of his lip -- a sneer of amused disbelief that anyone could act the way he was without justifiable cause -- and a huffing breath of dismissal before bending back over the tidepool. He ignored the pharaoh's presence entirely, refocusing his verdant gaze and his attention solely on the task of fishing the mussels and other shellfish from the wells. If the man was riled enough to attack the mute, who was for once grateful he would not be able to hear the man's anger, then so be it. Drifter would answer with his fangs, healing or no.

the other could not hear and did not speak. ramesses could have no more sport here, and yet he passed his wandering gaze over the other again and again before dragging it in the direction of the sea. the ugly, roiling sea. he supposed it had become less so during his stay here, or perhaps he had only grown acquainted with it. 
foolish, foolish waters. across them hatshepsuun. he lifted his head, stared distantly off toward the unseen land with a hard air. he had forgotten the ushabti; he thought only of all the things that he had lost, and those he had not yet gained.
ramesses rose. he stared down his muzzle at the beast, wanting cruelly to antagonize him again, but swiftly understanding that this would be a loss.
"do not insult the empress," he said sourly, backing some steps though he knew no recognition would come.

The fisher kept his eyes trained on the shellfish he was gathering, the sapphire-eyed man almost forgotten if not for the pale silhouette in the Dogo's peripherals. His spruce gaze rose to Ramesses only when there was a flicker of movement, a ripple undulating across the muzzle of the cur as he glanced up -- ready to peel his lips back in warning if the other man had a mind for violence. Instead he caught the shape of a word: empress. He did not completely understand what was said but there was a warning in the other man's stern posture as he skulked away. Holokai snipped his teeth, clicking his fangs together softly, taking a step in the wolf's direction to hurry him along. He was tired of the pompous man disturbing his peaceful servitude. 

Only when the other had gone would he slowly relax his intimidating posture, snorting out a breath as his shoulders relaxed and he swung back in a slow arch towards the tidepool. Limping back to its edge, he would try his hand at securing a few of the harder to catch fish swimming about.

<3

ramesses wanted to slash his teeth across the other's muzzle, subdue him as was his right. but pharaoh did not engage in such mortal pettiness, and so he swallowed his anger, grinning mockingly at the turning peasant.
no reason to expend his energy over an injured creature who could not hear or speak.
unfortunately for the stranger, he had landed upon the bitterlist ramesses kept in his spirit at all time. even as pharaoh departed, the vow was renewed: that he should not be made a fool.