Stavanger Bay shark bait

The territories were a mess, and Charon hadn't even taken in all the damage yet -- what else was ruined? He hoped there hadn't been any gigantic fires, but so far he'd only found small patches of burnt forest. He supposed they were lucky that it had also rained and stormed much, so most fires hadn't been allowed to rage for long before they were blown or rained to bits. Still, it was saddening to see such a beautiful territory sort of ripped in half; part of it looked like it'd take a long time to recover, if ever.

There were upsides, however: the storms had brought him what he and Atreyu had talked about some time ago... A thrall, a slave of his own. He had saved her life, and in return she had given it to him. She had freedom, of course, but ultimately, she was in his service. She'd sworn it on her life, after all. The Gods took some and gave some, Charon guessed, although he had never considered the Gods Ragnar and Thistle beckoned to much before, as they were immaterial and all that.

When Charon heard Atreyu's voice, his ears shot up and he stood still, erect, for a moment, as he heard his name being called. The second time he heard his name Charon broke into a gallop. He could be imagining things, but he needed to be sure. When he saw Atreyu in the distance -- gruesomely torn off leg and all that (while he'd told Thistle all about the bear attack, he'd decided to leave the tearing off of legs out for her sake) -- Charon could hardly believe himself. His ears flew against his skull and his tail started to wag in unbridled excitement as he galloped towards Atreyu. The two might not have started off as friends when Atreyu first got (back) to the Bay, and were often like fire and ice, but Atreyu was part of the Stavanger Bay family, and Charon had missed him as a friend.

Charon nuzzled Atreyu's shoulder (on the whole-legged side) affectionately and a bright smile broke onto his face. "I can't believe you're still alive!" he said, which he didn't mean as blunt as it came out (it was mostly just that Charon had heard the sickening crack of bones and had seen the leg get torn off, and had believed Atreyu to be dead shortly thereafter); it was evident from Charon's body language, however, that he was very happy about the fact.