The Sentinels I had a dream last night,

This place brought memories, whether unpleasant or pleasant, she could say neutrality. It was where Umbra recovered from her broken leg, and it was also the place she met new faces. Though her plans for Dragoncrest Cliff were no on a halt, and now loyalties to the bay of Ironclan. She wondered how far their strength would go, and how many would enter.

Scouting the borders and refreshing, the kraken found herself wandering a bit too far into these dead trees.

into char-black trees a dark shape drifted; bijou watched curiously.

a woman -- dark and stormy as an unquiet sea.

her interest piqued, the stormbird followed after.

Further did she go, the more another followed. Stormy eyes glanced backwards as they dwelved further into the trees, but she did not act just yet. Hiding or not, the smell could never disappear, nor' the sound of the autumn ground crunching beneath. Only when, Umbra assumed was the middle of the dead forest, did she turn around and commanded,

"Who are you to follow me?"

was this a game?

bijou slunk after the kraken, intrigued. it was not until they crested the heart of a forest did she turn, whirling with such feral magnificence it set bijou's heart aflutter.

a smile, crooked as ever, played her features. "bijou." her voice was rough and coarse as her expression -- yet her eyes were alight with glimmering amusement. "who are you, to be so interesting?"

Ah.

A fucking witch.

They had a playful smile and eyes that gleamed with amusement- like a siren luring their victims to the bottom of the sea. Her fur but bristled to such thoughts, finding the sea-wenches that most wicked out of all. They were annoying and whimsical, and she would rather avoid this wolf so.

"It's polite to introduce yourself first." Voice full of malice and command, she held a high head while speaking to them like a lesser foe.

possessed fully by the feral iniquity umbra boasted, bijou's mouth parted in a nimble o of interest.

"but i did, my lionne; the name is bijou." bijou bowed in a grandoise gesture, turning her shardglass gaze back to the lioness whose frame was haloed by unbroken gravitas. bijou found herself fascinated. "your name, lionne?"

Perhaps she was so caught up by the witch's presence, Umbra did not even realize she gave a name. It sounded like one, someone like the tides would hiss in disdain as she curses upon them. It gave a ripple of nerve to the kraken, but she had to stand firm while a glare to her eye.

"I am Umbra, Sealord of Ironclan," though in the future, much was to be changed. She had no desire to get closer to the sea-hag, but only thought for a moment, something smelled familiar. She dare not step any further to seek that thought out.

bijou's lips would have curled in a delighted smile to be referred to as a sea-hag. she imagined she earned many epithets; very few were flattering.

but this woman... was fucking delightful.

the lioness fixed bijou with a wicked stare; it was cold and terribly alone, like ice glaciers moving across a dark bay. it stirred something commanding in the sojourner, who often saw very few women of her own ilk. "do you have a king, umbra of house ironclan?" bijou's voice was hushed and almost respectful, but a glitter of mischief shone in her eyes. "or are you queen of house ironclam?"

Their voice akin to a siren, sounded beautiful and luring to a sailor, but she could deduct the mischevious underneath the tones. Wariness, Umbra was not to be brought down by this wickedness. She wondered what was their game- she couldn't tell.

"There is the Saltking, but we are equal." There was only a flicker of her tail by the 'clam,' for the name was not.. Pleasant. Nonetheless she didn't hold truly tight to said name. It wasn't hers, but.. It also was now hers, for the kraken pledged to it. She had a moment of silent to now say anything about it, and bitterly said, "It's Ironclan."

She should know, she said it right firstly.

"What is it to you? You looking to join?"

bijou's eyes flickered as umbra implied a man, of all things, had the self-same standing. bijou did not hide the way her gaze pointedly traveled from umbra's weathered paws to her solemn face, savoring every detail with the faintest edge of a grin. 

there is no such thing. the battle axe inferred. your saltlord's first mistake was believing you had an equal. men and their piggish egos! bijou would like to meet this saltlord -- if only to show him his importance in umbra's world had an expiration. no; no man is worth my loyalty, therefore i do not give it. the sailor gave a roll of her rough shoulders, one eyebrow lifted. are there many of you?

She felt like this womans words were all but temptation that would lead to an eventual downfall. How Umbra saw the seahag, she was using but sweet-words to lure herself into an war against the Saltking, mentioning they were not equal. At the moment, they surely were, and she knew she did not have the prowess that man also possessed.. It was stifling, but something the kraken simply had to accept.

There would be a day however, she would rule properly.

"There is enough," not admitting the number was only but a handful, "then if not us, who do you pledge for?"

there is enough. a vague answer, but one supposed in a court of strangers no half-answer was too safe.

"i find the concept of pledging strange. i promise myself to no one; i am not a bone to be passed around and chewed to another soul's content." she thought of her home, of her brothers -- of the stern face of her father. "but, if i had to choose a thing to assign myself to, it would be the sea." bijou's saltwater eyes panned to the ocean, which roiled and frothed like a restrained beast. "she is magnificent, no?"

"Respectable." She couldn't deny it can be rather odd to pledge onself to another, with not much to give back. While packs can gain safety for winter and the likeness, if you had a keen way to hunt or a small group, you would be set. However, Umbra was rather greedy, she wanted more power to her name to become a true Sealord, and while she did not imagine to become this early..

It was something.

"The sea will always be a home," she nodded in agreement, "though some are rather greedy with it." A slight jab toward those wolves who tried for the cliffs.

a shared connection between them then, this rolling sea. bijou regarded the cold waves fondly.

if ever something was to hold her heart, it was the ocean.

she turned to umbra, detecting bitterness under the kraken's tongue. "who?" bijou could be greedy herself: for knowledge, for curiosity, sometimes for plain vengeance.

"There is a cyclops further toward the cliffs alongside with her man. The two despite no marks, decide that I cannot go there, and in the end I took her eye, and she broke my leg." However clearly now her leg was now no longer broken and healed nicely. She had to give thinks to protection from many, and healing from a mysterious healer, as well as a place to stay with the help of Maia. It was quite a hassle to stay still for the few months, and eventually, finally, did the kraken heal.

Umbra did not mind sharing the part that would cause an embarrassment, because she can proudly claim to take the others eye as revenge. However there was clear bitterness hidden within her voice, as in the end, even if she did take a few parts, the Sealord never did gain her cliff.

a cyclops. bijou overturned this piece of information in thirsty delight -- what manner of monsters waited for her beyond the horizon?

and were they like her, or driven by something else? territorialism, perhaps?

"a leg for an eye." bijou mused delightfully. "a good barter on your end. legs heal, and we can hunt again after being hurt. take an eye, and that wolf will never return to the glory of its former self. take an eye, and that wolf lives in fear for the rest of its life." bijou decided then that this woman, treasure as she was, was something to be admired. that alone stayed any impulse she had to revisit umbra on darker terms at a later date. "what did you do with the eye? ate it, i hope."

"I threw it on the ground in front her." At the time she did not think of the factor to eat it in front of her foe, but she noted that for any future reference. At the time when the woman was chopping down her leg, she was simply desperate to take anything along, and surprisingly so, an eye to the matter. A malicious grin to the dame's face, remembering the screams. If only she could've enjoyed the moment more, but she too gained a loss with her own pain and could not enjoy it more.

"You do not seem much of a fighter, are you skilled elsewhere?" Curiously enough about the sea witch, Umbra asked questioningly.

bijou peered unabashedly at umbra as she caught the tell-tale signs of remembrance on the kraken's face. no eating had happened, but apparently the eye had been left somewhere here... she looked about them as if expecting to see a shriveled little marble blotted by sand.

alas, nothing.

tickled by umbra's assessment of her, bijou canted her head to the side with a grin. "you could say i am skilled in many things. what makes you think i am not a fighter?" rangy as bijou was, she was not all muscle -- that could certainly create the appearance of something disarming and harmless.

an advantage when it came to bijou's line of work.