Stavanger Bay thorwald's cross

@Doe

When she had first laid eyes upon the secluded shoals of Stavanger Bay it was not from the cliffs but high above on the craggy reaches of Gyrefalcon Keep. But that was more than a year ago now; two if she had hazarded a more accurate guess. But time was irrelevant to the she-wolf; it was simply a measure of day to night and back again. How the heavens moved and quarreled amongst themselves was not an arguement she was beholden to observe. It simply was as it should be.

Today, however, a certain fascination with the ocean and the faintest recollection of the tattered gray-faced stranger spurred her to seek out the borders of the pack that sequestered itself there in her absence. It could be, perhaps, the need to kindle a connection with those of her species once more. Something new. Her home, Broddr's Rise, was gone and the pack dispersed. Winter was near, and she was not yet willing to seek the limits of her own mortality just yet.

The sun-kissed female halted a half-mile from the true border and looked up to an overcast sky. A wind off the sea raked sharply through her fur with the occasional gust. This was no place for the faint-hearted.

Voices had been calling Doe past the borders. She spent little time within the territory unless she was spending it with her family or improving upon the stone den. A pensive mood had struck her, made her legs wander independantly of her eyes. In her mind, she saw the red, sweeping plains of her homeland, surrounded by distant bluffs on every side. A painful aching had taken up residence in her heart, and the woman was more homesick than she had ever been before. Perhaps she thought the lands beyond Blackrock would provide her with familiar faces, but they did not.

Most often, she saw strangers.

A shiver chased down the dusky woman's spine as the wind raked cool fingers through the fur of her back. It was not from the cold, but from the swirling scent of an unfamiliar wolf. Doe hesitated where she was, a few yards past the ring back black rocks, and waited for something to happen.

For a moment she could have sworn she scented someone on the air, but the muddling from the border markers and the briny salt of the sea made it impossible to tell. Were she a foolish beast, her feet would have taken her far into the territory, past what was reasonable and far beyond sanity. Her heart wished to explore the cliffs and look down upon the roaring sea and the murky depths below.

But she did not find herself ever lacking self-preservation so, instead, she angled her muzzle upward and howled a long, haunting note of desire to the wolves within that they might come meet with her. It was a risk, she knew. The pack within could possibly take great offense to strangers seeking to steal their time. She had no gifts to offer them; even her tongue lacked the stories and tales that could pass as currency in parts of the world.

Instead she simply stood as herself. Bold and bright against the backdrop of a dingy gray sky.

Batlike ears flickered as the howl reached her ears. At once, Doe raised her head to response. I hear you, she said, and, Fear not. For she came not with wrath or fury (this time, thought the beta), but with little more purpose than a curious heart and restless paws that picked their way quickly and carefully across the land.

Soon enough, she came upon the pale stranger.

Although Doe was a strong believer in the power of gifts and the importance of bearing them, it rarely offended her not to be offered the same. She'd been born into a lowly position, and though she'd never been treated badly or with disregard, neither had she been presented with many gifts. She'd grown knowing not to expect them, and the mentality remained with her still. Only time would tell if her position would corrupt this faucet of the dusky shewolf.

"Hail," she said when she was near enough to smell the aloneness of the shewolf. She asked no questions; there was little she needed to know.

The call that rose up in the air was reassuring. It did not hold the threat of violence nor irritation; she was asked to wait paitently, so she continued to do so until the beast that it belonged to trotted up from the hidden depths of the territory. Solveig watched her with a keen eye; were all the she-wolves of the Teekon's so small? The pack female was garbed in colors of earth and soot. She bore an ear that did not quite stand so straight though they were both remarkably large. But most notable of all was the roundness she presented between her flanks. 

A pregnant female had come to greet her, and risked her unborn children to do so. That took courage. 

"Heil," she replied warmly. "Thank you for meeting me. I am Solveig, from the north, and I seek a home." It was very much in her personality to be so blunt, but her tone suggested she had not done this before. In short: she was nervous.

Doe was not surprised by this revelation. Part of her had guessed the woman's purpose, though she was not a shewolf that worried much about such things until they were waved directly under her nose. Now, though, her ears perked, and her eyes narrowed in as they took in all that the shewolf had to offer. She was large and well-tuned creature with a sandy pelt that Doe thought would fit nicely in the bay - but there was also a warmth to her voice and a kindness in her eyes that the beta was not sure her master would appreciate.

"I am the beta of this pack - there's room enough for you," said Doe as she moved a few yards closer, nose twitching as she attempted to get a better whiff of the woman's scent. "Our goddess, the Sea, has given us this shore to take as our own. If you will defend it with us, we will also defend you."

Solveig stood fast as the smaller she-wolf approached to glean a better understanding while she revealed that she was, indeed, the Beta (which explained her pregnancy). She went on, speaking of the Sea as if she was a living thing, which immediately ignited a queer feeling of familiarity in the Northern woman. Though it was impossible for any of them to know, Solveig oft had dreams of the sea, and of a ghostly white raven...

She turned both ears forward and set her gaze upon Doe once more, but careful to keep their eyes from meeting. "If it is my blood and bone ægir requires, it is what She shall recieve until my body fails to give anymore." Solveig responded confidently. She had little issue pledging herself to the Goddess, though there was a thread of curiousity that lain upon the path of her thoughts. Chiefly, what were their rules; their laws; their rituals. All would be explained, she hoped, in time.

"I am at your disposal."

Doe's ears flicker, but little else displays her confusion as she listens to the woman's words. Much of it comes out garbled to the little woman, who has always heard her mother's tongue the best, but she knows enough to recognize a pledge when she hears one - and in the end, that's enough for Doe.

"The Jaw of the Sea is glad for your teeth," she replied, tail wagging happily as she paced a few steps nearer to the other woman, attempting to rub her scent upon the other's fur even as she took deeper breaths of her own foreign scent. Doe found the shewolf pleasing to the eye and to the nose, and already, she felt fond toward the stranger. Perhaps it was because she was reminded of another warlike woman - one who'd gone her own way, in the end. Nevertheless, the diminutive shewolf found no reason to continue to bar the woman from home.

"Enter in, Sol," she offered, eyes warm as she regarded the golden woman. "I'm here if you have questions or want help or company."

Can do a fade since we have the new thread! :D

Though it was not entirely evident, Solveig felt a weight lift from her shoulders, and the tension bleed from her muscles. Doe approached to properly induct her into the pack and cast the scent of pack upon her, which she readily accepted. She whisked her tail a few times to express her elation and nosed the Beta female's cheek to transfer her own foreign scent upon the smaller she-wolf. Together they were Blackrock.

"You have my thanks. Shall I hunt for us?" 

Doe's eyes brightened at the thought of food. They had meat in the caches, but the Blackrock beta was pleased that she would so readily begin to provide for the pack. It was not necessary, at the moment, but Doe still dipped her head in assent, not wanting to refused the kind offer or discourage futher hunting trips. They needed all the teeth they could get before winter, especially while Doe herself was unable to provide with the same effciency that she'd had before her pregnancy. Especially with pups on the way. Especially when the food in the woods belonged to someone else.

"Thank you," she said instead, following after the woman. She would not interfere with the hunt, but felt need to see her in action. Surely she would be good; surely she had been sent as a boon and a blessing.