Sea Lion Shores of the waves are skimming

for @Nyamh; sorry this took me a while to get up. <3

kjalarr rises early; before the sun to get a head start on his patrols. though the days grow warmer the mornings are still cool and he feels the chill in the ache in his hip. still, he persists, working out the stiffness and slight limp until it smooths out on his patrol.

though he thinks of the sentinels as their primary hunting grounds, he ventures over his borders to the sea lion shore to keep an eye on the sea lions. the neutral territory draws in enough of the creatures to share; and he keeps tabs on them all the same. a back up in case the herds move on from the sentinels, though he doubts that will be an issue.

still, he's yet to be steered wrong by contingency plans.

the sun peeks over the horizon, the sealions stirring slowly from their slumber, the chorus of their snores rising above the lull of the waves. kjalarr keeps his distance, reclining upon an outcropping of rock near the beachline to watch over them idly.

No worries! <3

True to her word, Nyamh had moved slowly southwest from the cape, coming along to these shores. Here, she had her first sight of a sea lion - she eyed it warily; it was very large. Then, in the distance, she spotted a man. Nyamh gave a quick rise of her tail, a dip of her head, if he could even see it. She didn't want to make any loud sounds, lest she startle the strange beasts before her.

it takes kjalarr a moment to notice the other wolf in the distance; his attention focused almost solely upon the slumbering sea lions. it was her movement that caught his eye and he turns his head to face her; despite that this left his blind eye to face the slumbering pile of sea-lions. it unsettles him for a moment but he assumes even if they did wake, he was far enough away that he would not be seen as a threat to them.

it is kjalarr that breaks the silence, letting out a low chuff of greeting to the woman. wolves have came and gone in these shores and the territories that bordered it: surely the sea lions were used to them by now.

He called a greeting to her, and Nyamh shrugged before starting to pick her way towards him. She would keep a careful distance - from him, and the creatures - before she queried, "Oi. What're those? An' who're you?" Perhaps another wolf would introduce themselves first, but Nyamh didn't think she was very conventional. So far, her time along the coast had proved interesting, to say the least.

kjalarr draws nearer, having to trust that the sea lions were too sleepy to bother with him. even so, he keeps his pace slow: casual, as if to tell them he is not a threat. not here and not now, at any rate; striving to meet her halfway so neither had to raise their voice and risk drawing the ire of the sea lions.

those are called sea lions, kjalarr offers the information them. their meet is fatty but tastes good. at least, that was his general opinion though despite being born a seafarer he preferred venison.

and i am called kjalarr, he offers his name and with a gesture of his muzzle towards the bay, and my clan is stavanger bay.

Sea lions. Now, Nyamh had never seen a lion, but she knew that were more or less giant cougars - these things looked nothing like them. She pondered how one - several, really - might hunt something of that size. It didn't look like it could move around that well, but she could see it flailing and easily hurting a hunter. Her gaze turned back to Kjalarr as he spoke of his clan. Nyamh raised her brows at him, asking, "Clan, eh? I left me own 'ome a while back."

is that so? kjalarr murmurs in quiet contemplation; tone curious in lieu of being condescending. seeking great adventures? he inquires lightly; opening up the invitation for more conversation but not prodding about it.

there is something about the cadence of this stranger's words that remind him of maud — of whom he has not thought of for quite some time. a soft pang of longing for those he had known so long ago lingers in his chest but he does not hold onto it: these wilds have changed and so, too, has he.

the sea of time was not always so merciful and he was grateful that has not had it so rough.

Nyamh nodded, debating what to tell him. She'd left home for a variety of reasons - the biggest being her family wanting her to settle down and marry. That wasn't the life she wanted for herself - nor did she ever see it happening. After a few moments, she told Kjalarr, "Aye. Ma an' Da wanted me ta get married, but all I'd ever wanted to do was explore. So I left, never looked back." There was much she'd never done, but at the moment, she just wasn't pulled in by anything other than the world.

Then, she looked back to the male. "Tell me about yer clan, then." Even if she wasn't interested in settling down, it would still be good to gather information. Then, she realized she'd not yet introduced herself, so she did now, telling him, "I'm Nyamh, by th' way. Nyamh Rose - ye can call me either, I don' care which."

kjalarr could not imagine what it was like being told that he had to get married; but then again he surmirses that his childhood culture — despite how scattered it'd been — was vastly different from her own. at the very least, he can understand the desire to explore. he'd been cursed with wandering paws in his youth. into his late adulthood, even.

it was only recently that he felt the pull to truly settle down; and he suspects it is only because his age is beginning to hinder him, loathe as he was to admit it.

so far, we are a small clan. there are no set religions or expectations. you contribute what you can: with little to limit where you can fall in the ranks. i like to think it's largely self driven. his days of being a dictator were long over; no longer feeling the desire to be pressuring to others.