Ravensblood Forest feel the ocean as it breathes, shivering teeth

WC: 538

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As the curtain of darkness fell slowly across the land, so the sea-lover found herself wandering along the banks of a stream, beyond where the water faded from brine to brackish and finally to fresh, leaving the crash of waves behind her in favour for a wooded shelter. She had decided to trace the stream back to its origin which lay somewhere in the mountains which stood in a line, splitting the South from the North. Where Nike had come from, it was the opposite- the mountains had shielded the coastal West from the wooded East, keeping her kind along the shore where they belonged, and keeping the non-believers away, so that their skepticism and outlandish beliefs of equality or worse- their feelings of patriarchy at bay. Perhaps this was why the Caiaphas woman felt that the Nereides’ beliefs had no place here...Because it was a land plagued by the belief that the genders were equal, or that males were superior.

She wished the mountains would rove and move, and separate her and her sisters from the heathens as they had to the North...Though she did not feel as though mountains necessarily were the key. There had to be some other reason that the Nereides had failed to strike a stronghold here. Perhaps they had not been pure believers, and perhaps they had been susceptible to persuasion and corruption. She had initially had a good feeling about Caiaphas, but ended up believing her to be a turncoat, even though she might not have shown it. She could not take in such weak non-believers.

She was making her way along through the woodlands at a decent pace, a swift walk with a long, flowing stride, when she heard another wolf in the area. Silently, she pressed herself into the wilderness, blending her pale coat in with the snow that had managed to fall past the branches of the trees and pushing her frame up against the alabaster bark of an alder, peering through the split in its trunk where it cast out a thick frame in two directions. The woman she saw was not so much unlike she was in build, though perhaps a bit more silver than white in colour. Her eyes were darker, but full of water and originally, Nike took this as a good sign. The female had the salty liquid of tears streaming down her cheeks- a liquid not at all unlike the waters of the ocean. But aside from that, sadness also made wolves make decisions quickly- and Nike knew that this might be the best time to persuade the female to join into a much more beneficial, fulfilling life.

”My dear,” She spoke in the common tongue, tone reassuring and gentle as she stepped out of the darkness and into the light where a bit of moonlight seeped down through the trees. ”What causes you such despair?” She asked. For where Nike came from, there were few to no boundaries, and al Nereides shared their feelings and thoughts openly with one another. It might have seemed somewhat of a personal issue, to the distraught female, but in Nike’s voice there was no air of judgement, only empathy.

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