Horizon Ridge i do like to be beside the seaside

Had to change her origins to someplace a bit further south, otherwise there wouldn't be any trees or packs! :)

Bazi nodded, and for the first time took notice of the intricacy of Björn's scarring. There were curves and details that looked purposefully done. She had never known a wolf pack to purposefully inflict damage - the risk of infection was too great - but a number of their more secretive and distant neighbours displayed what her own family dismissed as 'strange behaviour'. Ritual gatherings, the need to speak strange words over every kill, intricate burials - Bazi had only heard tell of it from her older brothers, who were expected to venture much further than the 'practice packs'. Such things weren't the way of Nanum-Akkads, who were to practical to the point where thanking the sun for shining was scoffed at: the sun had risen every day for generations; what would make you think that it wouldn't?

"We had an ocean," she told him, meaning the Beufort Sea north of the Ivvavik National Park. "But it was much, much colder, even in the summer. Swimming there was just short of torturous." The Ridge warden guided her to a cache of fish, half-buried under clean, salted sand and protected by boulders. Bazi thanked him with a furious wag of her tail (and made to touch is uninjured shoulder, but thought better of it at the last minute), picked one of the smaller fish up, and dunked it in a pool of water to remove the sand. The flesh was oily and succulent, just as promised.

As she worried at the morsel, Björn finally offered a quietly spoken fact about his origins. Bazi looked up, cocking her head to the side - ocean bath had bunched her fur into thick spikes. He clearly wasn't the type to share when asked, and she felt privileged to be on the receiving end of freely given information. "My father taught me, too," she responded, trying to keep her voice casual. "We watched the bears and caught salmon in the rivers." There was a pause as Bazi debated whether or not to probe further. "Where ..? No, I'm sorry. It's just that we look so similar, I thought.. maybe we have a very, very distant relative." The yearling gave a barking laugh. "But it's probably just coincidence. We're both from the North, I'm sure it's just that."