Barrow Fields Bramble shark

Lord, it's been a while. Apologies if this is not great. <3

Windswept and salt-flecked, Swordfish climbed the middling hill until he’d reached the top. The scent of sea upon the air soothed the young wolf.

It hadn’t been that long, truly. He’d left the sea just before he had stepped into his yearling form. The jutting rocks of the distant cliffside should not have left him with such a sense of yearning. Returning after his second birthday, he had anticipated familiarity striking first. Instead he was left to mull over the remnants of a complicated fear and the realization that there was nothing familiar about the ground beneath his feet.

Clenched muscles in his jaw, Swordfish set his paws into motion and began his descent. The pounding of the waves against the shore was his guidepost.

a lone figure broke the humpback silhouette of the distant barrows. sobeille tracked it with interest, at last deciding to move when the shape did.

she came upon him as he hit level ground, her gaze raking up and down him. something about his face and features was familiar — but she could not place it.

who you be? she asked, an ear turned to the distant drumbeat of waves sounding against the shore.

The approacher did not soften her steps. She drew her head up and regarded him with sharp eyes, searching the young man’s features for things that might be recognized.

When she spoke, the man felt his heart thump like a wild hammer in his chest. A slight tilt of his head suggested he was familiar with the accent. Her face did not conjure a known name. If he didn’t know any better, he would have guessed she was another pup belonging to…- Ah, their names escaped him. Had it really been so long that he had forgotten the names of his family?

Shardik, he answered, as though it was the name he’d used since the day of his birth. Used to live out this way. The deadpan brogue that hung on his tongue might have been a giveaway to anyone who knew Njord and Meerkat.

he spoke like maman, but he didn’t look like her. sobeille’s gaze hardened and she withdrew with a sharp hiss. shardik!

 a name only uttered to subdue rotten children or to call to mind the memory of those slain by his teeth. sobeille’s needlepoint eyes narrowed. when you say you lived out dis way, where do you mean, exzactly?

Shardik is dead. I wear the name of the bear now.

There was a flash of defiance in the young man’s silver-flecked eyes. Swordfish had won his name. He had chased the demon bear across the world and when he had finally tasted the blood of the beast, he had emerged victorious. Shardik was a trophy. Shardik lived on only as a reminder of the things that the boy had lost when he had been much too young.

Ya belong to the cliffs, then? Is it still called Sapphique?

Are my parents still alive? Is Stingray still well? These questions were swallowed as a lump in the back of his throat.

his reasoning for rebranding the curse-name as his own was deeply intriguing. i be wearin’ de name of de dead too. sobeille announced, turning sidelong to inspect this boy and his newly hardened eyes. sobeille. named for sobo, killed by de bear.

after being asked of her affiliation, sobeille wrestled with being honest or suspicious. in the end, she decided she had lkttle to fear - she was close to home, her voice carried far, and she was not afraid of boogeymen in the woods. yes an’ yes. who are you to saffique, exzactly?

The muscles in his jaw tightened upon hearing her name, hearing where it came from.

Sobeille certainly carried the wild flame of her family. It had been so long since he’d tasted of their spark, he had nearly forgotten. She did not frighten him, though he was quick to note the similarities she shared with the unforgiving sea. Swordfish did not know her. He felt that he did, but he knew this was only a nostalgic remnant of the family he’d known before.

To Sapphique? I’m no one.

The young man shrugged his shoulders. Heavy lidded eyes shifted away from her fierce features to the distant coast.

’Least… not anymore.

such an answer wasn't very satisfactory; sobeille studied the boy's features like a hawk, noting the streamlined shape of his gunmetal muzzle. as he looked to the coast, she took full advantage of it, staring with an openness that could only be described as hungry.

he looks a little like maman, sobeille finally decided. it was his ears, his face, and the contour of his eyes. the way he looked away and added not anymore suggested something unspoken to sobeille, who pounced upon it like a cat. why not? you can't 'ave done anything dat bad - i would 'ave 'eard aboudit. she edged, inching closer so the space between them was uncomfortably small. she could feel his body heat resonate; could hear the shifting of his fur with every movement.

The girl’s burning stare made him shift, uncomfortable. It was as though she might unearth his origins by looking into him, seeing the eye of the bear as it destroyed his life and his home. The marks he bore from the beast’s mighty claws - worn across his snout and ribs as a permanent reminder. 

Her coat mingled with his. Swordfish looked at the girl from the edges of his eyes. He didn’t dare turn to meet her gaze. When she asked what he did, the bear-hunter frowned. 

Never said I did anythin’. The curtness was a sharpened knife on his tongue. If I had- Quennel, Stingray, Njord, Meerkat flashed in his mind. Shame burned in his cheeks and he shifted his weight again, pressing his shoulder against her slim frame. 

I disappeared. That’s all. Don’t mean anythin’ to the cliffs now.

unearthing his origins, looking inside of him was exactly what sobeille had in mind. had she the power to reach into people and pull out their essence, she would do so — but for now, she simply studied and learned.

his tone was curt. she’d found a nerve. as he leaned into her, sobeille felt the slim jut of his shoulder and wondered how long the two could play chicken. this was the closest she’d been to a stranger without fang or talon involved — it exhilarated her.

he claimed to mean nothing to the cliffs now. sobeille imagined that her tante would say otherwise — but tante wasn’t here, was she?

okay den. we don’t talk about your past, grumpy. what you want to talk about, den?

Sobeille was unmoved by his answers. Her tone remained persistent, chipper. The bear-hunter didn’t understand what she sought to gain from their limited interaction. Already feeling that he had given her too much, Swordfish grunted. He had shared just enough that she might trace his origins and the disaster that had pushed him into the unknown. 

A long stretch of silence followed her prompt. 

Ah- I- I’m not good- 

Though he hadn’t intended for his words to cut short, there they sat. Teeth tightened, clenching until he found his tongue again. Swordfish cleared his throat before huffing an exasperated sigh from his nose. 

I’m not good at startin’ conversation. Why don’t ya tell me what yer after? Gotta be a reason- for this. The deep sea color of his eyes shifted down to where their figures touched.

this was the longest sobeille had tolerated a male in such close proximity. her fur stood on end, an electric interchange communicating between the warmth of swordfish’s body and the sudden awakening of her’s.

he struggled to collect his words. this was something that had never occurred to sobeille; as he glanced to the narrowing space between them, she cast her gaze to the horizon where the sea consumed the sky.

sobeille had been initially intrigued when he said he wasn’t good — but it turned out, he meant not good at conversation. the hopeful flame in her faltered a moment. she thought of athalia, that feral beast who wore her true-self boldly for the world to see. swordfish was a very different animal than that clever wildling — but no less interesting.

what was she after? no one had ever asked her that before. a knowing smile stole across her lips before it fled, replaced by guarded cunning. dat is for me to know, an’ de world to find out. trust like dat is not freely given, she had once said to a curious and patient @John; the stranger on the coast. had he ever eaten the fish she’d given him? she hoped so.

would this boy eat something she offered? sobeille decided to find out.

are you hungry?

Swordfish huffed a resigned sigh at her words.

She reminded him of Suzu. She was a bit bolder, that was certain. Sobeille had the same way of speaking, though. Their whole family was that way. The young wolf wondered if they were sisters but he could not find the courage to ask about his childhood friend. If he did not know better, he could imagine her living a peaceful life surrounded by those she loved. Asking would only bring truth, like a dark cloud to rain on his blissful delusion.

Feeling as though they had reached an impasse, there was a flash of relief on the young wolf’s face at the mention of food. Ears perked, Swordfish pointed his snout to the young woman and frowned, feigned thoughtfulness.

I could eat.

Swordfish wished to see if Sobeille could hunt.

sobeille had never seen someone frown when food was on the table. she got up, intentionally jostling him as she did so — not so hard to knock him off balance, but to signal ‘i have no quandaries violating your personal space’.

in her impulsiveness, she forgot the one rule she’d imposed upon herself. she paused, looking back at the boy who looked and spoke so much like her maman.

she couldn’t risk it.

good. sobeille swapped her direction seamlessly. ’ow you feel about seals?

Seals, she suggested.

Ya like a challenge.

Swordfish remembered hunting seals with his father and another man. The name escaped him so he shrugged it away. In his time hunting the bear, he had crossed paths with a few seal hunters. They were always proud and hardened. The seal was no easy prey and this gave the young man some insight into Sobeille.

Perhaps she was not like Suzu. Suzu who had cried over a slain seagull because it had been her friend. Shame still flooded his cheeks at this memory. She had been so hurt. Swordfish could feel himself spiral into nostalgic disassociation.

Let’s hunt some seals.

Swordfish nodded for her to lead the way.

seals for lunch was a big reach for two yearlings, but the success didn’t matter to sobeille. she was much more interested in seeing this boy’s mettle.

there were other little details to work out, like why he was so cagey about his past, and what — or who — he truly was to sapphique. sobeille suspected he was a relative of some kind; but he was male, so it made sense they didn’t expend much effort looking for him when he went missing.

she flicked her tail at his nose as she walked by, waltzing down towards the shore. come dis way, i know a place dey been sunning. breeding season had been underway for some time, but she still found some stragglers here and there that could make for an easy meal if they were exorbitantly lucky… and quick.

The flick of her tail against his nose surprised him. Swordfish shook his head, trailing after the girl with a dissatisfied glower. She seemed keen enough. He believed her when she said she knew a place where the seals would sunbathe. The large sea creatures had the same penchant for laziness as the hunter. Stretching out in the sand with the sun warming his bones - Swordfish could think of no better way to spend his time.

Who’s yer ma? In Sapphique. Er-Erzulie?

Were any of them still alive? Swordfish did not know much about what had happened to his home after the bear attack. He knew that the beast had taken lives but he had never known how many. When forced to confront his homesickness, the young wolf could only claw his way out of the dark chasm by assuming they had all died.

sobeille focused ahead, unaware of the glower darkening her compatriot's face.

she lead him to the mouth of ankyra, where barrow fields bled into red cliff and open sea.

her steps slowed as he asked something that betrayed how long he'd been gone. no. my maman is mireille. now he earned the full of her pinned stare. who be your maman, den?

Mireille was not a familiar name to the boy. He wondered if he’d met her, had only forgotten her name and her face and everything else that she was. It didn’t feel familiar, even in the lost sense of the feeling. It must have been long enough for new blood to give birth to their young. Something bittersweet bit at his tongue when he considered Sapphique’s success.

Sobeille did not hesitate to return the question to him. The young man stared at her for a long moment, his paws shifting, his heavy eyes burning with the shame he felt inside.

My mama’s dead, he snapped. That was enough questions.

sobeille examined the eyes that openly perceived her. they were dark cobalt blue; the color of pelagic sea. within them a nameless emotion boiled, alluding to another nerve being plucked.

his maman was dead. to any other wolf, that would have inspired a sympathetic murmur of apology. sobeille was invested now, but for different reasons.

de bear, den?

Yeah, Swordfish answered, tone dismal. Da bear.

A flash of pink from his mouth, tongue swiped across his whiskers. The tightening in his shoulders would reflect his issues speaking on the subject of his family. When he had followed the scent of the beast into the unknown, he had believed it would mean the end of his life. The further he’d gone, the less it felt like punishment.

The bear had paid its debt in its own blood. Swordfish had made sure of it. He had wore the animal’s crimson on his coat for days, until he’d reeked. Triumph had done little to ease the pain in his chest. The bear-hunter had come to realize that there would be no relief for such things.

sobeille would have liked to see the boy doused in bearblood, his fur matted while a rank stench emanated from him. it would have inspired her, piqued her interest — but instead, she knew only he boy did not wish to talk on these matters.

they came to the salt plain where rocks studded the beach. some shapes in the distance moved, their backs glistening from sun glare.

de seals. she announced, turning low to give him a cunning look that lacked reassurance. then she slunk off behind a rock, ears pinned and body close to the ground as she made towards their sunning figures.

Da seals.

As though she was their keeper, she announced them. Swordfish watched the blubbery animals lounging on the beach. They looked peaceful, were it not for the mass they lugged around and the dangers of catching their teeth. The young man would not be able to believe a wolf could fell a seal if they were forced to hunt in the water. The strange prey animals had been designed to glide through waves as though they were weightless.

See any that look… good? Tasty?

It sounded foolish before it had left his lips. The young man glanced to Sobeille in hopes that she would have already picked their target. His heavy-lidded stare shifted, looking behind her to where a particularly round adolescent seal was barking. The creature’s body was half-buried in sand, possibly where its wallowing had dug an indent in the ground.

dey are all tasty. all meat is. sobeille swiftly interjected, unaware that shardik felt embarrassed for his selection of words. like him, her gaze had fallen on the adolescent -- he was making an awful lot of noise.

and noise tended to attract predator attention.

sobeille made a break for it, hiding behind the vantage of another splintered sea rock. she was so focused on what was ahead, she wasn't really paying attention to shardik anymore. she assumed he would be behind her, at some point.

bit by bit, sobeille made progress closer to the herd. she used rocks as cover, peering over them with her ears flat to her skull like a hunting cat.

but it would be foolish to think that some eyes had not taken notice of a wolf in their midst.

She wasn’t wrong in her simplistic reply. Swordfish snorted a huff of air, trying to keep his smile slim and unnoticed. 

Sobeille did not wait for him. She darted forward in an eager prowl, eyes glinting as she took a hunter’s watchful stare. The young man did not falter in his chance. Swordfish moved into a position that would keep his blue-grey topcoat perfectly concealed by the boulders of similar color. The steadiness of his step suggested that he had taken this stance numerous times. Though he considered himself a talented hunter, he was willing to take the backseat to the girl. She could lead their efforts and he would act in her command. 

Swordfish waited, watchful of both the dark-headed girl and their intended prey. His lean muscular frame was primed and ready for their next step.