Stone Circle the sky is bruised purple like wine

please let @Noma reply first! :D

The pair reach the borders of Easthollow and though he does not draw attention to it Wardruna’s noticed that Noma has grown more agitated and flustered the closer they got. The northerner assumes that it is simply because she fears that she will not win the bet they’ve struck with one another. Wardruna’s nerves are fraying, too. It’s evident in the anxious twitch of his blind eye, the contraction of muscles beneath the marred flesh around it. If this goes wrong, if she gives any clue of what has transpired between them, of the accord struck he does not doubt that he will lose everything he is trying to build. Sure, he could spin his habit off of ignorance: for their cultures are starkly different and where he is from there is nothing wrong with taking a thrall. It’s expected. It’s a rite of passage. Still, he needs Easthollow. He needs them much more than he even cares to admit and in a way …he needs Noma too.

He stops her, stepping smoothly in front of her to block off her path before they approach any closer. His muzzle finds the cusp of her ear. “If you break this for me, if you give her any clue that something is wrong besides your poor condition I can promise you that nothing in this world or the next will stop me from hunting you down. I will never stop haunting you.” He promises her harshly, his breath low, nearly a whisper into her ear. Surely, she does not wish to be stuck with him for eternity and he hopes to use that to his advantage. Wardruna moves then, urging her to go the rest of the way. “I do not know if they have a healer but you should be fed and checked over.” Wardruna deduces, his concern genuine in his own twisted way. Thralls were just property in Jötunn Spine but that did not mean that they could not be well taken care of, occasionally one or two would be elevated to freedom if they did well. The decision of their deal hangs in the air still undecided teetering on the edge of going her way or his; it rests upon what will happen now… but that does not mean that she cannot influence it to go her way.

He tips back his head and lets out an urgent call for @Valette because Wardruna is worried that Noma might just perish from hunger or thirst or a lack of desire to live ( or something, he doesn’t really know ) before anything can be settled.

It is not until they leave the hollow that she realizes where she is. The last few days have been a haze and she’d forgotten where she’d been. When they get closer to Easthollow, she is struck with familiarity as the pieces fall in place. She tenses, staggering a few forced steps of only because she is being pushed by the invisible force field of Wardruna. If they are here, then Morningside is not far away—something pricks at the back of her mind but does not succeed in her remembrance.

As it becomes evident it is Easthollow he is directing her, she comes to a stop, mumbling quietly under her breath. No, no, no. The words are too soft to reach audible ears but he takes note of her sudden agitation. Fear grips her throat but it is not necessarily sparked by her newest companion but the fact she realizes she could very much lose. If it is Valette that still resides here, if she recognizes her, she is likely doomed. The last time she’d been here had been awful, feeling a shutter run down her spine again as she thinks about Steady and their loss and her head lowers in devastation.

It has been so long since she’d felt much of anything that she barely noticed Wardruna getting close until he whispers his threatening words into her ear. Her ears fall back against her head as she realizes the predicament she is in, catching a glimpse of his expression only briefly. Her mouth is still dry but she tries to swallow the lump in her throat anyway, shrinking back to show she submits. She does not stand a chance against him and she can only hope for the best: that Valette does not even recognize her, her appearance and scent drastically different in her ailments, and she’ll be shunned from those healthy enough to survive.

Valette was surprised by another howl coming from the borders. Yet, today it didn't sound like a stranger. The howl seemed serious enough to make her respond with haste to the call. She wondered what this was all about. Normally Easthollow was fairly quiet. Valette hoped it was nothing too bad.

Maybe it was something related to the pupnapping of Cyron. It had been a dire case. She let Cebra and Mawk go look for him but it could be dangerous. Valette hoped they would make it all back to Easthollow safely. It made her worry about her own pups. Though, Valette thought she didn't have many enemies. None, actually.

When she reached the border she noticed Wardruna right away there was another wolf with him. As she came closer she noticed it was a female. Valette's eyes were drawn to her. She looked familiar. She wrecked her brain around it. Her hazel green eyes stared the female down, unintentionally, she knew her from somewhere.

Her nose tried to pick up any scent that might make her recognize her. It was her eyes that she recognized her. "Addie? Adeline?," she asked, sounding uncertain. She looked like her but also not. This female looked thin and sickly. Valette glanced at Wardruna. "Where did you found her? I think I know this female."

If it messes with your plot that Valette recognizes Noma then let me know. I will change it.

Addie? Adeline? Wardruna’s ears perked forth as Valette came upon the scene with haste but he looked with sharpened surprise to his chosen, the one whom had told him that she bore no name. He does not bother to hide his surprise using it to mask the sudden swell of annoyance he feels seething like lava beneath his skin in his chest. It doesn’t necessarily bother him that she’s potentially lied to him but he does not like the withholding of information. It makes sense, suddenly, her fidgety nature the closer they got to Easthollow. Perhaps she was nervous that she would lose, perhaps, Wardruna thinks it was because she knew she might lose. She could have told him, but he takes a deep breath to remind himself that it doesn’t matter. This might just work in his overall advantage and his anger that had so violently bubbled to linger just beneath the surface of his skin ebbs away to calmness once more. Perhaps even a subtle and underlining sense of smugness though the northerner is careful to keep his expression under his meticulous control. They would be discussing this later, he and her, though he supposes he should be thanking her for not speaking up, for letting him guide her forth in his ignorance of her potential connections to Easthollow. Yet, he’s not out of the danger zone yet. Her potential connection could help it but it could also doom him. Wardruna could only hope that Noma does not tattle on him. He’ll have to keep a close eye on her, if Valette takes her into their fold because though he wants to trust their deal he doesn’t. Not truly.

“In the surrounding territory,” Wardruna gestures in Lost Creek Hollow’s general direction with his muzzle. “I was watching a herd when I ah…ran? into her.” His translation is a bit off, he notes with a sour taste in his mouth but there’s little to be done about it. It’s true that she wasn’t exactly what he’d intended to bring back to Easthollow when he’d set out earlier that day but he figures he’s gotten a boon from his gods and who is he to complain? It was simply poor luck for Noma that she happened to be lovely and weakened: ideal in thralls. Wardruna has done a lot of speaking in common and his tongue feels heavy. He scrapes it against the roof of his mouth wishing that he could stumble across someone who spoke his mother tongue so he did not have to force out the ugly and heavy words of the common language. “She told me she has no name so I call her Noma,” Wardruna explains and steps forward, tail lowered and head bowed in submission to his leader. “She needs care. Food and water and maybe a heilari, ah a...healer? I will nurse her back to health.” Wardruna promises though is not sure how much his word is worth given his newness to the pack. Still, he tries.

He does not say anything else to her and the silence remains between them. She doesn’t exactly know what she’s gotten in to but the chill of his threat seems through thin skin into the depths of her bones. She closes her green eyes and tries to muster an ounce of strength to do... anything but all she wants is to run. If she ran, he’d chase her down, and she wouldn’t get far before his words come true. The last thing she wants is for what little of her family (are they still her family, after all?) she has left to see her dead, though nor does she want them to see her like this.

Bound between a rock and a hard place, she slowly slinks down to the ground and caves in on herself. The scent of another is not far now and she stares at the ground. It’s familiar and feminine and she thinks of Valette but a level of uncertainty remains until she looks up and sees the form materialize. It had been so long since she’d seen the woman that she forced her gaze to the ground and stared hard even as she spoke. All she could hear was her saying Steady had passed away and nothing else. She’d been upset, and displeased with Grayday, that she lumped it all together that she’d been displeased with her too and hadn’t wanted to see her.

Perhaps if she’d known he would bring her here, she would have done things differently. Wardruna speaks as if she cannot speak for herself and her tongue slides roughly over her lips and she’s unable to lodge the knot in her throat that keeps her from speaking. Dull green eyes look up at Wardruna briefly as he explains what happens, shedding the lizard skin of the man that threatened her to please Valette and defend his reasoning for taking her in but when she glances at the alpha, she isn’t fully sure of who she is. She is but a faint resemblance of Adeline but the dead girl is living inside the hollow, skeletal wolf she has become.

Valette watched the female again. She looked in a really bad shape. Wardruna explained how he found her with his heavily accented tone. He also spoke about the fact that the female said she didn't have a name. Valette looked at her again while she stayed quiet. It was clear that whatever her name was she needed care first. "Perhaps I am mistaken," she spoke then, as she wasn't entirely sure. The female hadn't confirmed anything.

"She needs care first. Krypton, our healer, left for unknown reasons. But you can call my daughter Keoni for help if you need a healer," she spoke to Wardruna. It would be good for Keoni to have a wolf which she could expand her knowledge on. Valette looked at Wardruna. "You don't need to do that alone. We are a pack. We will all help." Valette nodded firmly. It was no question that the female needed help.

"Let's get her inside the territory. Why don't you bring her to the river for a drink while I fetch a meal for her," she suggested, instantly eager to help this poor female.

Wardruna offers a stiff nod to Valette as she speaks that their healer is mysterious gone but that her daughter Keoni will be able to assist. Wardruna feels the pinprick of what he believes to be his thrall’s gaze upon him but as she is situated on his blindside he cannot subtly slide his gaze to her without physically turning his head thus he keeps his undivided attention upon Valette, lips pulling into a small, terse smile when she firmly tells him that he doesn’t have to do it alone. It’s falsely appreciated by the Northerner. He doesn’t really want their help and hopes that aside from this Keoni and occasionally Valette none will really bother them too much but he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place because to deny the pack’s help will be to, no doubt, elevate suspicion. He’s not sure that any of them would be able to place the northerner title of thrall to anything specific but he doesn’t want questions, either. “Thank you.” He offers Valette, turning his head now so that he can look at Noma with his functioning eye. “Come on.” He croons to her encouragingly, like someone speaking to a wounded, frightened and feral animal that has a history of lashing out.

Valette backtracks her recognition and Noma stares at the ground. Noma. Her ears twitch at the thought but she does not speak against it. If she sticks to the name, she can’t have something to hold on, but it isn’t going to do her much good. The alpha is much too kind to send her away and it sinks all hope that everything will be fine. At least here, she is safe and she doesn’t have to worry about the outside world but what did Wardruna have planned? If she can keep everything straight in her head, it’ll eventually fall to her advantage but she plays along as he sick puppy anyway now that she’s playing on the level of uncertainty.

The woman offers to retrieve food for her which both strives her forward and nauseates her. She’d been scavenging for a long time and avoid any excess energy loss that she doesn’t know if she can handle a real meal.

He speaks to her again and slowly she stands, her legs shaking until she’s on all four feet. Valette instructs him to take her to the river and she glances in the direction they’ll be going but she doesn’t make the first move. She isn’t supposed to know where it is.

Noma closes her eyes briefly and when she opens them, it is just them and she follows along obediently behind Wardruna.