Big Salmon Lake cut my teeth on wedding rings

All welcome, but attention Katrina. :)

It was dark, though the sun kissed the eastern horizon. It would soon rise and shed its golden light across the land, but at the moment the soft golden glow that haunted the east was the only visible light. Skyfall stood by a big lake, where the mouths of fish disturbed the water, catching unsuspecting skating bugs in their snares. The frog's croaks were fading in the morning light, leaving a strange semi-silence in their wake.

The ashen male lay on the cool sand surrounding the lake, having spent the night in a hollow tree not far from there. He enjoyed his solitude, but there was no denying that as a wolf, he was a social creature by nature. Because of his past, he did not trust easily. He gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, however, and let them make their own impressions without allowing his prejudgment to color his thoughts. In that, at least, he thought he was doing alright.

Skyfall let his head fall to his paws and closed his eyes, enjoying the sound of the fading frogs and crickets around him, the gentle flow of water from the river into the lake, and the lapping of the small waves on the shore not two yards from where he lay.

The time that she had thus far spent here seemed tedious, uneventful. She had met only one other wolf, merely passing others by, so she really didn't have any idea as to what the land was. The strange boy that she had met (known by the name of Styx, though no names were shared) was an aloof sort of creature. He hadn't not shared many details of himself while she shared very little. Her shy, more reserved personality usually bowing out and away from the constant eye of another. She was submissive, though this would be a good trait to have within a pack if it were a normal situation, this wasn't normal for her. Being in a new place was intimidating especially when she could feel the constant eye of another beating down on her.

Cautiously she stepped along the rounded edges of the Lake, following its juts and rugged corners like a maze. The water would push itself against the shore, occasionally patting the coarse contours of her paws but with the weather being as hot as it was she paid no mind. Swimming seemed a likely task but she didn't know if it was safe to tread. The depth was unknown, the creatures unknowable and the temperature slightly cold. With no one around to show her any different, she didn't want to risk the chance of any danger.

Skyfall had almost fallen into a light slumber when he heard pawfalls in the water, the mucky noise causing his ears to flick forward. He opened one eye to stare out toward the lake, and found a dark figure walking along the shoreline, her feet in the water. The other eye opened and he lifted his head to study her more closely, though he didn't yet make a sound to alert her to his presence. She walked quietly, though the water didn't muffle her paws in the shallows. Her stance was timid, as if she were afraid of her own shadow, but he saw a bit of curiosity there, too.

After a few moments of stretched silence, he whispered, "Water can be beautiful, yet deadly. You'll want to watch out." He sat up onto his haunches, shook out his fur, and watched her with a slightly titled head. He didn't move any further than that, but waited for her to make the next move. Skyfall wasn't one to scare anyone away, but some found his serious nature intimidating or unpleasant. His uncle, alpha of Völundr, often called him stoic, which fit Skyfall perfectly. That didn't mean he was unfeeling, but he kept himself under pretty tight control, especially around strangers.

Whether the guy she had run into had realized it or not, he had set a fire in Katrina's present. As they had talked just days earlier and then separated, she remembered him asking her about why she was looking for her brother and if they were close. Truth? She wasn't sure why she had followed him nor did she believe that she was as close as one might think. From an outsider's point of view it was simply Aquilo's annoying little sister that followed him because she wanted to hang out with him. Kat was in no way considered a 'cool' cat, but she hoped she could learn as if it were a trainable art. As she walked she contemplated the reasons as to why she was tracking him down and what she would even do once she did. Would she follow him wherever he was, would he accept her or would she just be guided in the direction back home because it wasn't safe for her out here? Katrina didn't know but the water that delicately lapped at her paws taught her to be calm. No need to be frightened... though a stranger told her differently. A stranger that she hadn't even seen just a little walk away from her and nearly caused her fur to bristle and her stomach to hug the ground. As the wolf suggested she moved her paws away from the water, fearing that maybe it would suddenly sprout tentacles and grasp her around the torso, thus reeling her into the water to drown. The image played out in her mind as she stared wide-eyed, traveling from the water back to the stranger at hand. "Why is it d-deadly?" she managed a subtle tilt of her head as she regarded the young boy, revelling in the fact that he looked similar to her brother in almost every detail of his being except that she knew it wasn't. Not at all.

The girl's eyes widened suddenly, as if she were imagining some horrible yet totally impossible event happening right there by the lake's edge. Maybe a monster coming to eat her? Skyfall had never had much imagination as a child, though he had played a fair amount of chase the squirrel with his siblings (he was always the squirrel, it seemed, to protect Eir from Valig's unnecessary harshness). So it was slightly amusing, in a sad way, to almost see the girl's nightmares take shape in her mind.

"I was born during the harshest autumn storm my pack had ever experienced. My mother caught a cold and nearly didn't recover." He watched her carefully. He didn't want to scare her witless, but he wasn't one to sugar coat the truth. "Two of my infant siblings drowned as the birthing den flooded. My sister caught the same cold my mother did, and barely escaped with her life. She was very sick as a child because of it."

Skyfall paused to study her further, to see what her reaction might be to his story. "Water is very dangerous, especially when it's not contained. This lake is contained, so you should be okay. But I wouldn't risk wading in too far."

If there was something to fear here than fear would surely follow her. Katrina was an easily read teenager who certainly fell into the category of slightly gullible. To imagine something as fearful as a tentacle-bearing monster was enough to cause Kat to believe in such a story. Her imagination was more imaginative than she would have liked but when someone said danger, she was quick to assume the worst. Any sort of game that she had played prior to now seemed fairly unlikely to be of any use now. There were play fights when she was little but as they got older, they drifted slightly apart. However, what she had not thought possible was possible to him. He, a complete stranger in her midst that she had never seen, or talked to for that matter, told her a rather personal story. Her question to him wasn't meant to stir up memories nor even put in his mind for him to talk to her (actually, she was pleasantly surprised that this wolf was a heavy talker as opposed to the strange guy she had met prior). The story that he spoken of seemed depressing and rather horrific, but Katrina knew that bad things happened and sometimes they couldn't be fixed. With that being said she wasn't sure if he was looking for pity, sympathy or a 'cool story, bro' so she ushered herself to simply put on a little frown. Nodding in notion that she understood that water could be dangerous but this lake was contained so it was likely at least somewhat safe. Perhaps she should just not take the chance to go swimming for pleasure. Then she realized that she should probably at least say something to him other than act like an emotionless drone. I'm sorry for what happened to your siblings and for the sickness that plagued your sister and mother, would that be good enough? Or was just as bad of a conversationalist as Styx was? All the while grinning and chatting with the woman she could not help but feel that her time here was unnecessary for the time being. There were places that she needed to get to before sundown and by simply chatting about a plague seemed interesting, she knew where her deeds lie. “It was a pleasure to meet you,” she answered and lowered her head in farewell before scampering off in the direction of the forest. Nearly halfway there she realized that she had not even caught the woman’s name nor had she given her own. Well, hopefully another time would call them together so that they could be properly introduced.