Blackbeak Bluff wind chaser

she had strayed, further than intended.

rounded the sound and found herself along a sharp coast. the land vanished underfoot and dropped down into dark waters. it was a sight that was not entirely foreign to her now having lived along the coast for a moon.

still she was entranced by it. especially as she looked down the coast, towards sapphique. then out to the sea where a dotting of islands laid.

perhaps now was truly the time to become a proper scout. a ranger. to search the coast and be an extended set of eyes for sapphique.

it seemed as if she wasn't the only one tied down, after all.

The hawkish girl peers over the edge of a cliff at the talus slope just beneath it. She feels a hollowness in her heart and tears at the grass beneath her with restless hands.

She remembers the moribund events that had brought her here but their gravity escapes her comprehension. Many miles away her sister is turning hypothermic as she tries and fails to keep her head above the icy water - but of course Charna has no way of knowing this.

A stranger crests the hill. She looks at her with wild, empty eyes.

and jorunn finds herself entranced by something new all together.

a dark figure, striking against the pale grey skies. moons for eyes. and she cannot make out the details from here but something mars the woman's face. an injury that jorunn cannot read the story to.

she wondered if this was one of the ones who wished to take the sound, but surely she would be closer to sapphique if that was the case, no?

when she is certain that she is close enough to be heard over the crashing waves below, she spoke in a simple way.

you are a stranger,

and strange she is. jorunn unable to look away.

Two possibilities shuffle over one another in her mind with increasing speed. To run or to speak. To run or to speak.

I'm Charna, she responds, the set of her mouth reticent and almost unfriendly. There. Now I'm not a stranger.

She examines the woman, whose fur is windswept and coarsened by the briny wind, and approaches her with a slow gait, the walk of a child who is being steered against its own will. Her head hangs low and wary between her shoulders. The overcast sky eliminates all sharp shadows - the ceaseless pewter light fills her with an uneasiness.

jorunn cannot help but smile faintly at the directness.

charna, no longer a stranger. it was only fair that the pearl of sapphique returned the favor.

and i am jorunn. strangers no more. she returned with warmth in her soft voice. she welcomed the low hanging figure of charna. charmed and aware of some looming danger. it's always there with strangers — even strangers who declared themselves no more.

where do you go, charna?

Jorunn responds with a certain measure of affection that serves to confound her further.

Away from home, her voice breaks. A gull careens above her, down to the scree below. To an island where I can live all on my own. On anyone else's mouth, such a statement might've been fanciful, but on Charna's it was just a flat token that conveyed nothing but pure volition.

She turns to take it in - the sea just beyond, grass carded by the wind, the stone gone rough and scalloped with bird droppings and moss. Maybe that one.

the woman was rough.

her personality just as marred as her face, but not in a way that dissuades jorunn from interaction. instead she is intrigued. curious of such a stranger who made such strong declarations.

the sea is not kind all alone, less warning and more simple knowledge.

that one out there? you will not be all alone.

She has never known the sea before. This is only her second winter. By all accounts Charna's trajectory seemed to rise and fall in a slow arc that ended in a trivial death brought about by her own stubborn recklessness. She faces all situations with the same obstinacy that keeps men sweating under the covers, their bodies lit by an infection they refuse to take medicine for.

It'll heal on its own, they assure themselves.

I'll live where no one can find me, she often thinks to herself before she sleeps.

Who else lives out here? She flicks an ear backwards, as if shaking off rain.

she was not so inclined to spill all the secrets of the sea, especially not those of sapphique.

but —

the land, across from the island. it has seen visitors lately.

and she is certain now, that this scarred woman is not one of the ones who treads too close to sapphique, if she does not know of this place’s homes.

i live on the coast, but not with them. she declared softly, copper eyes further soaking in the bony frame.

You don't like them? The island wolves? The isles sit squat and dark against an anemic horizon. The land that faces them is shaded by a thick forest; she squints but sees no movement other than the branches that shiver in a brief wind.

She envisons men, women, and children, sinewy and silent as they weave through the undergrowth. A procession taken from a dream.

it is a bold assumption, but she takes in stride as best as she can.

i do not know enough to say. a soft shrug of bony, muscle toned shoulders. sapphique tolerated them so far and so jorunn did the same. wary but not hostile.

why do you wish for an island alone?

a shame of an existence. perhaps there is a reason for it that makes it easier to understand.

'Cause then I'll only have myself to deal with, she says, as if stating the obvious.

I can't take care of others. I tried and I— she pauses, overcome by an unbidden emotion, her lips pressed together and brows furrowed tight. —It's too hard.

She was aware of her vulnerability, her shortcomings. Her personal failures dripped from her mouth and pooled beneath her like antifreeze from a car.

it is an odd thing, how her heart broke for the young woman’s words.

you do not need to care for others to live with others. her brow furrowed softly, painted with concern on her features.

sometimes yourself is enough. she offered. further encouragement for charna to not banish herself forever, for reasons that still felt beyond jorunn. as if there was more to be seen than she was understanding.

Thank you for the thread! If it's ok, we can fade here?

Her lip curled, flashing a bright strip of gum and teeth. Why did she have to be so reasonable? Charna looks at the sympathy offered to her like she has just been handed a knife, blade-first.

No, she seethes. It isn't. Not for me, it isn't.

There is one last look - soured by frustration and burning resentment - before she breaks away suddenly, running down the slope further inland.

that’s fine with me! thank you <3

her kindness was once again tossed aside.

rewarded with nothing more than jaded words, bitterness running through the air like electricity. it sharpens her form.

not heated enough to give chase, not angry enough to do anything.

if the woman wished to cast aside kindness, jorunn would let her. unwilling to waste herself to some angsty woman. there were more pressing matters to be tended to.

but she would keep an eye on the woman’s waning form, keen to make sure she did not head towards sapphique.