Ankyra Sound for these changes we will confront

AW, set between Ankyra Sound and Sequoia Coast. prefer another LW but really, anyone is fine :D

in an effort to restore the emptiness that was her winter cache, caiaphas set out along the coast. it was a surprisingly balmy day -- the wind whipped but it had little bite to it, and the sun was out in a restorative flourish. perhaps this was the last bid of autumn before the claws of winter set in -- in any event, caiaphas intended to enjoy it.

she had traversed quite a distance from her haven in the grotto, so measurable was the mile that she was about to turn back when something further down the strand caught her eye. she paused, her mule-length ears swiveling -- it was black and caught in the tide, but she wasn't really sure what it was. emboldened by hunger, caiaphas stole forward towards the hunched mass.

as she got closer it was apparent the thing was very much alive, but stranded. caiaphas' hackles rose -- it was neither seal nor porpoise -- and from the gleam of its gnashing teeth, caiaphas suspected it was equally unfriendly. she hung back, reclining into a patient crouch. she would watch it awhile and decide if it was worth risking a limb for -- for now, she would amuse herself by watching the torrent of seagulls that flurried excitedly overhead.

No wolf chose the life of a scavenger willingly, not unless they were young and idiotic, and Njal was neither of these things. Yet he found himself here of all places; befriending (if you could call it that,) a band of rogues with their reedy leader, and trying to survive through the winter. It drew him far from his comfort zone (but with his bum leg, he really had no comfort zone left).

The sea was as interesting to him as the loners of the band - curious in so far as the danger presented if he got too close, but otherwise an easily dismissed force within his life. He found that the feeling of sand in his pelt, between his toes, and effectively collecting everywhere was a very unsettling sensation, while the terrain itself was difficult and painful for his injury. 

So, it goes without saying that Njal isn't the happiest creature on the beach. But he was privy to the collection of sea birds eagerly gathered upon the shore, their calls drawing him ever closer, and surmised, someone always had it worse.

so i'm thinking the fishy is some type of shark or maybe even an armored/toothy fish like a coelacanth or angler? if you have suggestions lmk!!

the waif hung back, keeping a distance from the flail of prehistoric teeth. she had never seen the likes of such a creature before, nor the slick coil of its scales. but most of all she was mesmerized by the wicked curve of its needle teeth -- teeth in which she had no intent on experiencing.

while she hung back she fancied she saw a speck on the shoreline -- and as she peered into the glaring sand the speck drew closer until at last it was unmistakable -- a wolf. and specifically, njal. while the two of them hadn't exchanged more than pleasantries, there was something about the older male that had caiaphas curious -- how had he ended up with a nefarious and rowdy fellow such as vlad?

"mornin'." the siren offered, though it wasn't really morning at all and she just felt like saying it. "got any idea what that is?" besides dinner, of course.

Maaaybe... albacore tuna, lmao. But that'd be huge. I like coelacanth if you're game!

As he got closer, he noticed the pale silhouette of a wiry wolf - but he saw no head initially, as the tones of the vagrant's face looked to merge with the dark ocean behind. Once she spoke, he took note of the sharp angle of her cheekbones and the spear of her snout. It was the strange woman from the cave.

Prompted by her question, Njal wordlessly drifted closer to the pile of flesh - scaring off a few birds with his presence, a few more with a lazy snap of his teeth - but he saw nothing familiar. His answer showed as much: "Sea beast," it didn't look like any fish he'd ever seen, nor did it resemble a seal. "Perhaps native to this shore? Or rare." 

He cast a brief look to Caiaphas to witness her reaction - she lived here longer, so she'd know better.

sea beast. caiaphas cast him a bland gaze -- eyeing him the doleful way a tutor may eye its newest degenerate. it was like saying a thing with wings was a bird. she scowled, swallowing the urge to say something sarcastic in reply. the wolves in her cove, they were strangers -- and while they shared beds and meals they were no coven -- caiaphas was not willing to split the amicable agreement between them.

"never seen it before." she frowned, rounding on the thrashing beast. eventually the tide would all but leave it and it would die choking on the strand. "not a dogfish -- those are seals. they look like dogs and yell like dogs. not an orca." she paused and looked at him, wondering he even knew what that was. she'd elaborate, just cause he was vlad's friend and all. "orca -- they're not-fishes. they're smart. sharp teeth. don't go in the water when you see them. they'll trick you." the siren spun upon the thing, casting sand towards its gill before leaping back in a feat of agility.

"it's definitely fish. want the first bite?" caiaphas wasn't offering the fish to be generous -- she was offering it because she operated on a general skepticism of the world and many things within the pelagic depths just happened to be extremely poisonous.

She had interesting commentary to accompany the names of things, outlining what could be sitting before them and rotting. The smell of it was foul. In all his days fishing along the banks of the Swiftcurrent, he had never smelled something this rancid. It was so unappealing that when Caiaphas invited him for a bite, he sneered and side-stepped, giving her a wide berth to dive in.

He snapped at a few of the more curious birds which had returned, boldly attempting to steal more tidbits of fish flesh. Njal was slow, half-tempted to let them have their way, but he kept the birds away while Caiaphas did her thing. It wasn't like he wanted to watch her slurp down whatever the heck they had found.

as curious as the wretched coywolf was, she wasn't inclined to risk her life to savor the flesh of some alien fish. she retracted slowly, disappointed njal had too much self-preservation intact to fall for her lure. "eech." the waif spat into the sand, giving the fish a once over -- "you're smart." she conceded, not even bothering to hide her disappointment.

for now she would leave the coalblack fish -- she would wait for the seagulls to drop dead before she dared touch its flesh. instead, she made her way up the winnowed path where the weathered rocks hid a low-tide pools. "do you know what a crab is?" she ventured as she walked, casting a sly glance to her comrade.. if he didn't -- well.. let's just say he'd be in for a surprise.

Had they been playing a game with the fish this whole time? Njal's disinterest roused some form of disappointment in the black-faced woman; the old man felt a bit suspicious of her motives, not realizing that it was standard behavior from her. That, and he knew somewhere in his mind that he should grow accustomed to trickery with these wolves - none could be trusted, especially with winter on its way.

"Small creatures, like beetles, but with clawed arms." He muttered a hasty description of a crab, flashing the witch a snide smile. Yes, he knew what a crab was. But he wasn't about to let her testing of his intelligence get to his head. This was the way of things now - he had to be smart to survive here.

"Have you ever seen a Wolfdeer?" He parried her questions with one of his own, testing her knowledge - but it was a trick of his own, for he spoke of a strange species rumored to inhabit the land of his birth. Njal could recall his uncles speaking of deer with the teeth of a wolf; they were prized as trophies by most of the elders back home.

njal revealed he knew what crabs were, and caiaphas couldn't help to feel a little crestfallen. one of her favorite ploys with newcomers to the strand was to introduce them to the 'harmless' creatures. she never warned her comrades of their waving pincers, and never once had she regretted it -- often the sharp learning curve of a new inhabitor was so hilarious that she was usually crippled by roaring laughter.

njal she couldn't prank.. her ears swept along her skull, thinking. maybe he'd never seen a jellyfish before?

but before she could ask, he said the most ridiculous thing -- her attention snapped to him sharply and she visibly sized him up and down. was he jesting? did he know she was trying to deceive him? her brow furrowed as she admitted ignorance to such a beast. "no. are you tricking me?"

The old man shook his head when he heard her response, stifling the urge to chuckle; but unable to hide his smirking. The expression held a place upon his face for the briefest of moments before falling away.

"Dunno what they're really called, but we always called them Wolfdeer back home." Well, volkenya, but close enough. Maybe Vlad had seen them before? Njal made a mental note to ask the thrifty rogue before continuing the explanation, licking his lips. "They look like any usual deer from around here, if a bit smaller, and they have fangs hanging out of their mouth like a wolf's head." He'd never seen one himself - but relatives and travelers from the steppes had often told stories to him as a child. The beast of the steppes, it would end the lives of poor hunters, or haunt them all the way home from a hunting trip - only to steal away their children. They were only Siberian musk deer; but all the same, a myth had surfaced around them in the winterlands.

the waif pulled back, sitting on her trim haunches with a look of speculation. she didn't know njal well enough to deduct any sort of scheme from him, and all the same, issued a lengthy squint in his general direction that told well of her skepticism.

it wouldn't have been the first time she heard of armored prey, though never once had she conceived the idea of a fanged deer. her ears plumetted to air-plane mode as she entertained their existence, imaging the red deer of the cliffs adorned with walrus-like tusks. her brow visibly creased. "with antlers too?" she wiped a paw across her needly snout. "there's a fish -- well, it's not a fish -- scaleless and smooth as a seal. it has a single tooth on its nose, kind of like a horn. never seen one though. tales of themiscyra, and all that."

He shook his head at the mention of antlers, but remained quiet. She did not appear to believe him, or had the worlds best poker face; either way, it didn't matter so much. The fanged deer did not live in this area of the world as far as he could tell. He often doubted they lived in the far north of his homeland, simply because he'd been told stories and been given zero proof.

The fish she described sounded ridiculous, but believable. The ocean held many strange creatures that a wolf would never have seen before. Although the narwhal that Caiaphas described would have made its home in the frigid waters outside of Russia, he would never know that. What piqued his interest now was the name she flippantly gave - themiscyra - because it reminded him of the strange names of the Nereids back in the Seahawk valley; and he turned a careful, scrutinous gaze upon her now.

"Odd that a Nereid woman would be alone," but maybe that had been her plan. Find worthy consorts along the shore. There had been talk among the wolves of Kindred, briefly, of the group living along the shores and collecting men, but the collection that Caiaphas now boasted wasn't ideal for that purpose. "Odder still that one would choose the strange rat-dogs as company." He meant Vlad and Rat specifically, but didn't care to name them.

her remark of the homeland had been in passing, but it was clear she had stirred an interest in the older agouti. even she herself felt a faint feeling of comradely ambition aroused -- it was often she felt the last of a dying breed, isolated to some forgotten strand. was njal a consort -- had he served some purpose to the nereides in the past?

her ears pulled forward and their movement seemed to articulate every question and speculation that crossed her mind. she cast him a leveled gaze, a hint of reservation riddling her tourmaline eyes. "what do you know of the nereides?"

"Just that they have a fondness for the seaside." Anyone living by the sea would know of them. And while Njal had never spent any time among the women, he had heard many things while living in the Seahawk Valley. Most of his knowledge was second hand, or forgotten, simply because he wasn't interested in keeping up with such distant creatures. "I'd heard that a Nereid believes the sea is alive, or some such thing. And that they did not look favorably upon men." There was no malice in his voice as he said this - just a dull tone, as he was stating facts. But he did level a curious eye upon her, as if to verify his knowledge with the slightest twitch from her.

her bright gaze befell the peppered elder, a curiosity to them that rivaled his own. what he had spoken of was true, and the female made no haste to hide it -- the length of her ears were pulled forward as if to capture any last statement njal was willing to make regarding her kind. yet none else came -- and she had tried, in fair vain, to draw forth from the ambigous tone of his words his alignment regarding the nereides.

"i am not nereides born." she said at length, noting his attentiveness to her words. "they conquered this strand and i was but a lone wolf here - an acolyte. but soon i was more than that. the siren queen." it was a rare feat for any nereides to become worthy of leadership, and rarer still for one whelped outside of the highborn clade. she fell silent then, unwilling to expose much more for fear of dredging to memory the inexplicable loss of kevlyn. "but their days are done now."

Something prompted her to explain further, although it was not Njal's wish to pry. To think of this woman as any kind of leader was laughable to him; she was deathly thin and rangy, trying hard to survive and not much else. What had she been like in her prime? Had the beaches been swarming with consorts and priestesses at some point?

"But their days are done now." She ended her tale, swift as it was. "But maybe.. Not forever." He remarked casually. Caiaphas had wrangled together a strange collection of followers if she wanted to resurrect the sea-witches. "Though I doubt Vlad is the ideal candidate to be a consort."

"Why cling to the seaside?" It was a good question - knowing that it would be an easy life through the winter was one thing, but she had already struggled and failed to live a successful life in this place. Inland was safe and filled with the resources required for survival. "Do you think your sea gods will grant you something for your devotion?" Or maybe she just didn't know what else to do, and Vlad had fallen in to her path by accident.

a wryness filled her visage as she entertained the idea of vlad as a consort. indeed, it was a laughable thing -- he possessed not the stoicism, nor the servility -- he was too merry and gregarious and lethal for such a humble deportment. she thought back on those that had embodied the noble calling of being a consort -- spyridon. kevlyn.

her gaze fell as she was sharply reminded of kevlyn and what she had lost that day. she had not expected the memory to revisit her during her idle chat with the old russian -- and the alacrity of it stormed her.

and yet, it was not the mention of vlad as a consort that was most absurd that day -- it was the mention of faith. caiaphas' expression contorted into a sneer and she cast a disparaging look to the sea. she laughed then, a wide-mouthed, toothy thing -- the cackling sound punctuating the whip of the wind. "the sea is plentiful and so, gives life and takes life away." she felt the breeze as it stirred along her cheek and flank and brought with it the cusp of salt and brine. "there are no gods --" in a past life, she would have said there are no gods, only goddesses and yet she let that quip fall unspoken. "there is only death, and the order that which death puts there."

Fade this, have new one? :D

Evidently her faith had been shaken, perhaps dismantled. It was right of her to be fearful of the sea, but this woman sounded resentful of it; she sounded as if her losses were great. For a moment, Njal felt the stirrings of kinship with this strange waif. He did not like the feeling - nor did he wish for it - but there it was, that small spark of understanding. Caiaphas likely loathed the seaside in the same manner he loathed the mountains; wanting desperately to have them back, but pained by their proximity whenever the opportunity arose. Neither of them could be redeemed.

yes please! sorry for the wait..

her gaze fell on the elder male, whose wintery ruffs of salt and age peppered his once winsome features. weary. haggard. the sunken eyes of a wolf who had witnessed the world. and at what terrible cost?

she too felt the stirring, though markedly her own grief -- it did not occur to him that their kinship extended beyond the walls which harbored them. she smiled faintly. paperthin. gaunt.

"ave." she said at length. her voice quiet and hushed, as if silenced by the vigorous slap of the tide. what she had said had made her uncomfortable and she bid her leave, picking towards the edge of the strand in favor of solace.