Blackwater Islands reflections off a broken mirror

Something prodded into his waterlogged flank. Small and dull, yet firm. It felt as though it would break through one of his ribs at any moment. Perhaps it was the already existent pain that tingles throughout his body that exaggerated this bone-shattering feeling.
He felt that more than he felt anything in that moment. Yet he barely shifted. Orochi screwed his eyes more tightly than they had before, curled in slightly, and groaned. It’s nothing but an alarm waking him for another unwanted day.
A long period of silence drifted by. Then a single thought put an end to it.
Another day.
Orochi held in one deep breath. There wasn’t supposed to be another day.
Suddenly he rose. Cracked open his long sealed eyes to see the blackbird that’d picked at him. Startled, it took to the sky with a shriek that pierced through Orochi’s skull. He collapsed to the ground again, his breath rapid.
No, he rasped quietly. He began to dig into the shore. As the realization slowly hit him — that this was real, that he could feel, that he was alive — his paws moved at a rapid pace.
No, no, no. No! Please, no!

Nyra, as usual, was patrolling when she came across the man digging at the shore, throwing some sort of tantrum.

Hackles bristling, the pale behemoth prowled towards Orochi, stopping a pace or there from him.

"Problem?" She rumbled with a purr, keeping an ear out for the arrival of any other Druids, like @Ingram or @Morgana.

He continued to dig faster and faster until his paws were no more than an indecipherable blur. Everything faded into a mess of color through built up tears. Little noises grew louder an louder. Then —
Problem?
Everything returned to the normalcy and silence he’d grown to despise. 
Orochi blankly stared up at the giant for quite awhile.  His chest heaved up and down. He swayed awkwardly in the breeze.
Why… His brows knit together tightly as he snaps his head towards the ground. I thought… His legs trembled beneath him.

Nyra watched the younger wolf with a steady gaze as he heaved and stammered, teared up and confused.
I thought...
"Thought you were dead?" She guessed, though by her tone it likely sounded like more of a statement.
She took a few steps forward and smiled softly.

"This is the home of the Druids. What may we call you?" Nyra asked, assuming the role of a guardian while waiting for Ingram or maybe even @The Listener to arrive...or was she to handle this herself???

She said what he could not say aloud. Something in the pit of his stomach churned. It made him sick. Looking up at the woman, seeing she was real, that all of this was real. Feeling the gritty sand between his toes, the cold wind nip at his even colder skin. Hearing the sea smack against stone. It’s all real. And it makes him so sick.
No. He stood on unsteady feet. His whole body shook now. This isn’t right. I… fuck. Fuck-
His breath grew rapid as he stared at the woman. Larger than him. Scared from head to toe. A fighter, he deduced quickly. A killer, he wildly assumed. She could -
A snarl ripped from his throat, and he forced himself to lunge at her.

The Warmaiden watched as the man, no, boy, started breathing rapidly and looking sick to his stomach.

She watched him size her up, watched him as he lunged towards her.

It was slow motion to her from here. Quickly, Nyra sidestepped and whirled, aiming her teeth for the base of his skull in an effort to take and pin him to the ground. 

If she succeeded, she would hold him there. If not, she would continue trying to pin him down, try to force him to stabilize.

the sound of fighting drew the listener away from her task; she had been arranging a new altar around her skyrock, her feathered companion ever-watchful as she worked. the keeper was near, as he always was.

@Ingram, the prophet beckoned him, already pursuing the source.

she found the glisterqueen, locked in conflict with a stranger. her gaze turned cold upon the pair, lingering even as she gave a command to her keeper.

keeper. help her.

ingram keeps close to the listener; falling into step by her side as she beckons him to follow to where nyra's howl had arisen. sea-glass gaze takes in the scene with a quick sweep: nyra, appearing to be in conflict with a stranger. said stranger looking unwell — water-logged and like the sea had not been kind in it's battering.

it rarely was, he was quickly learning.

at the listener's command, ingram moves towards nyra and the stranger, attempting to help keep the stranger restrained.

i've subscribed to this thread to keep an eye on it, but ingram is skippable unless needed! <3

Rather than colliding into the woman, Orochi’s body flew right past her. His teeth gnashed together with a loud, piercing click.
Without a moment’s notice, he was grabbed from behind. Her teeth dug into the skin atop his skull. So close to his neck. What’s a second in reality is a lifetime to him. He was still in that moment, with eyes shut and ready to embrace what he’d hoped would come next.
That did not come. Instead he got mouthful of sand.
Orochi’s eyes snapped open. He stares up at the woman, then at a boy he’d yet to see. They held him down tightly even as he thrashed wildly beneath them.

Nyra connected, slamming the boy into the sands just as the Listener and Ingram came to the scene. 

Orochi thrashed wildly beneath her, but Nyra, mindful of Ingram's help, aimed to place herself over the top of their guest, her intention, to restrain him further.

"Cease." She growled to Orochi from around the grip she had on him with her teeth. 
She wouldn't harm him further unless she was told to, or needed to. But for now, that wasn't the case. Simply, restraint.