Ankyra Sound time's the thief of memory

@Firefly

it was almost painful to find himself at the seaside again, in the same home that he had known when he had only been a young boy. the scent of bear had long since faded and left the sound with a feeling of loneliness. if they had stayed, would his life have changed so very much? illidan tried to remind himself that their group had been small and they would not have survived an uprising against the massive creature that had uprooted them. it was a difficult thing to come to terms with.

he roamed the outside of the territory, near the mouth, and away from the saline waters. he felt as though traveling too close to the sandy beaches and the network of caves would provide him with memories that he had tried to bury and had only scarcely covered with a thin veil of dirt. the length of his limbs allowed him to move swiftly along the edges of the opening. the young man paused to turn his attention inward, hesitation holding him back.

He kept away from concealed spaces as he traveled. The sight of dark forests along his route made him quicken his step as much as possible, making that limp all the more pronounced. The wolf could not explain his immediate desire for avoidance — but at the very least it kept his path easy. By keeping to the coast he could avoid the deep snow found inland, and that cut time from his path as well, although he had nowhere specific in mind as he slunk along.

Eventually there came the rising of another forest, and this time it blocked his path and would force him down along the cliffside until only sand welcomed his arrival. This wasn't so bad; he was protected by the sheer cliffs rising on one side of him, and the roaring ocean on the other. With a few quick glances at his surroundings Firefly delved along the path, and while it took him longer than the average wolf of perfect health, he reached the stretch of sand eventually and felt himself relax.

gathering what he could of his mental fortitude, the boy turned himself inward and trekked toward the shore. though his mind seemed to burst with the thoughts of the past, he had done well to limit his emotions on the matter; they didn't do him any good, in the long run. the loss of his father would not have been changed by his return home. the place of his birth could not rectify all that had been stolen from him.

but, it did bring a promise of a new future with it.

hawkish yellow eyes fell on a dark figure who had been touched by yellow light of the sun. on a cloudy day, illidan thought it almost mesmerizing that his coat would appear that way. closing some of the distance between them, the wildling lifted his crown upward and released a bark to signal the other man down. then, he approached with a prowl and waited to see if his call would have been returned.

He had been stalking along for a while but, when a stranger's call sounded across the airway, he stopped short and staggered, trying to keep his balance now that his momentum had been curtailed. His forequarter gave a slight quake, he felt weakness in one of his knees - but he did not want to appear weak to the oncoming presence, and ignored the aches of his poorly healed body.

The stranger that approached seemed sure-footed, or at least confident in himself. There was a wildness to them that Firefly found appealing (and a little intimidating) and he could not help but keep a sharp eye upon them, the golden array along his guard-hairs lifting as apprehension flit through him. Gone were the days where Firefly was cocky and self-assured; this could've been a threat, and he was in no mood (nor body) to deal with a fight.

appearances were not everything. for as surefooted as his approach was, the boy was riddled with his own measure of self-doubt and grief. the stretch of beach was not his home, and it hadn't been for some time, but he knew that he would have to learn to adapt and make it so. the sound had once birthed him. even though less than a year had passed since then, illidan felt as though it had taken place long ago.

when the stranger drew his skull upward to look at the wildling, illidan's features shifted to interest and some confusion. there had been no words spoken, but that wasn't an issue for the dark-hooded young man. instead, he took a few steps closer to the sun-touched wolf with his head held level. “your scars...” he rumbled in a voice that had aged considerably, “they're amazing.”

it was a touch foolish of him to openly comment on the battering of another body, but he could not pull his sights away from the marks along the other's flesh.

He might have compared a body such as his to a mountain ridge equipped with crevices and chasms, eroded by the tumult of bad weather and entropy; perhaps he would have been impressed if he had been healthy and staring at someone else of equal damage. As it sat, Firefly was not aware of just how damaged his body was to those that looked upon it. He knew that his wounds had mostly healed in to a patchwork of scars; he knew that he couldn't walk in a straight line without hitching a few steps; he knew he was almost blind in one eye, and that his fear of the dark had grown immensely in the past few weeks.

He was not impressive. But the stranger looked upon him like he could've been a mighty warrior, or like he was a soldier having survived a war. In a way that was accurate, but Firefly did not see any reason for such interest to dominate anyone's mind in conjunction to his ruin. He was frowning, flashed his teeth with a brief lift of his lips, and muttered, You think? Not worth the fight, not that he remembered.

the curling of the stranger's lip was something that caused the dark-hooded young man to stiffen where he stood. the tightness of his muscles was a sign that he had understood his own foolishness in the comment, but he had been honest in the delivery. there was no harm that was intended to the sun-touched male; only that illidan had never seen such brutal markings against the frame of another wolf. even his father had not been as badly battered as the wolf who stood before him; that was remarkable to the young wildling.

lowering his skull a few inches, illidan frowned and shook his head slowly. “i, uh, didn't mean that to come off the way it did,” he tried to excuse in a grumbled voice. mentally, he reprimanded himself to the point of burning with embarrassment. still, his curiosity ate against that shame and forced him to return his sights to the stranger's figure. “how'd you get them?” illidan then asked in a tone that was gruff but quiet in its delivery.

He expected questions, but not overt ones such as these. Nettle had tried to keep him from wandering too far east and had warned him of the dangers; beyond the questions, they had mentioned the delicacy of his mind following the trauma. Anything could set him off. Anything could trigger the memories of that fateful day, and without knowing what had unfolded in the forest meant that Firefly was in as much danger to himself as he was to others.

But, that meant he was prepared to some degree. It was not the first time he'd been interrogated about the event and certainly wouldn't be the last. He took a sharp breath in, filling his lungs with cold air that pealed out of him with a slow and steady exhalation. Somethin' tried to gut me, but I escaped, that much was true by the state of his ruined body and it was beyond miraculous that Firefly had managed to keep his innards, y'know, in.

That was Willow for you; paired with her brother, the two were quite the pair of apothecaries. They'd saved him and he knew he owed them a debt. The man didn't mention either of these wolves as he stood there thinking, but he did tack on for good measure - Got pretty close though.

the premise of another creature attempting to gut a wolf had flashed across the boy's mind some vivid images of the bear that had taken their home from them and destroyed his family. he wondered, only for a moment, if the same burly beast had been the one to terrorize the wolves of the plateau. then, as his eyes roamed the scars of the male before him, illidan wondered what it was like to possess such strength that wounds of that magnitude could have been caused. even more than this, the wildling was impressed with the sun-touched wolf's ability to have escaped such a foul feat.

“impressive,” illidan muttered under his breath.

then, the dark-hooded savage realized that they were talking on the beach of his mother's intended claim. with that in mind, he straightened himself up and offered a ghostly smile that did not reach the hawkish yellow of his eyes. surely, caiaphas would have wanted someone like this brute with them; he was capable of having clawed his way out of horrific tragedy with the scars to show for it. “did caia-” he caught himself quickly and nearly bit into his tongue to prevent the name from tumbling past his lips.

“did my mother recruit you?”

He anticipated more poking and prodding, but instead he got a little bit of adulation (in the form of the boy gawking at him), and then a shift in the conversation that made a bunch of question marks spin around his head; his face already looked pretty grim so the addition of a dull frown wasn't too different.

No, he denied, idly shifting his weight off of his crooked hind limb since it had started to ache. He wasn't usually one to travel large distances since the assault and coming this far east had been difficult, leading to some strain. He needed a rest — but likely wouldn't be able to do that here, not if it was someone's claim. He looked around with anticipation, as if someone might pop out of the sand and chase him off, before he added, You live here?

It was quite a spacious area, which he appreciated, but it didn't seem like home to Firefly.

his brows rose upward at the response to his question. that made things a little more difficult, he supposed. a quick glance was made over the shoulder of the male toward the cave system, wondering if the woman would appear to chase off the warrior wolf. when it seemed that caiaphas would not appear, illidan returned his sights to his company and nodded his head curtly at the question that was presented to him.

“i suppose so, yes,” the wildling then answered verbally. there was a longer story attached to that, but it was already made evident that illidan wasn't the best at navigating his way around difficult conversations. he at least had enough mind to know that his long-winded life story wasn't going to be welcome by the scarred brute. so, he opted to keep things as simple as he could until he had found a better hold on their interaction. “we lived her at the beginning of the year and it seems as though we're aiming to return; looking for some more to add to the fold,” illidan elaborated with a ghostly smile and a nod to the male.

It wasn't too much of a stretch to imagine wolves living on the beach, or among the towering trees that bordered it along the hills. He entertained the thought for himself as the stranger led him towards a cave (or, seemed to, but might very well have been ambling about for no real reason at all). Although the forest brought a fresh wave of invisible anxiety to the ruined man, he did find it calming to think of the open spaces of the beach and its soothing, dully crashing waves.

And, it was impossible to miss the look on the stranger's face when he spoke of adding to the fold. The thought of living here intrigued him. But what use could a small band of wolves have for someone in his - ah, condition? He did not hide the fact that he was thinking about it; looking out at the jagged hills leading down towards a seaward path, glancing with his half-able vision at the trees.

I can hunt, and I have some knowledge of medicine which... I gleaned from my caretakers. What else do you require? Loyalty? A sworn fealty, never to be broken? He wondered what he was getting himself in to - but nothing compared to the struggles he'd already been through.

before they had been uprooted, illidan could remember a few fond moments along the shore and near the trees. there was something perfectly safe about the sound; the towering cliffs provided them with an ideal gate to keep unwanted people out. he wasn't sure how he had ever felt as comfortable as he did on the plateau. with enough insight, he imagined that it might have been due to the company that had found him. kavik and liri had made the territory their very own, and even though the bear had threatened their group... illidan had never truly imagined that he would have faced as much danger as he had when he'd been younger.

the hooded wildling did not mind taking a slower pace with the scarred wolf. the limping pace allowed them to move at a leisurely stroll without having to worry about touching on every square inch of the terrain. when they had slowed near the mouth of the cave system, the sun-touched wolf mentioned that he was a good hunter and he had learned several things about medicinal remedies from those who had taken care of him. illidan didn't see how he hadn't already found himself a place to settle. there was just the matter of what was required of him.

the wildling had never been placed in a position in which he had to act much like a leader. he had selfishly found his place as the middle man of the plateau pack, and even then he had not contributed enough. still, he liked to think that his mother would be proud of him for having found this solar wolf. everyone had their issues, he realized as his eyes roamed the scars of the stranger once more – it was how he had coped with that. “just that you would protect this territory and your fellow members the same way you would yourself,” illidan finally returned with a slight nod. “you'll be treated as family, so you will have the support you need from us no matter the situation.”

that seemed like a good way to end his explanation. then, the boy's hawkish gaze roamed to the long muzzle of his companion and he waited to see what the sun-touched man would have to say next.

If he could recall his days with the Redhawks, eager to prove himself and win the many childish bets granted to him by his brother, he would have seen a similarity here and been charmed. Firefly had no kin; or if he did, they had been knocked out of his mind by his assailant. The concept of a family seemed strange to the lone wolf now — but he thought of the sibling duo that had aided him, and how he could continue their work here on the beach. Give back to the universe that saw fit to keep him alive. It was worth a shot.

Alright, he agreed, and side-stepped in his awkward way so that he didn't bump the boy as he passed him, heading deeper in to the cave. I'm.. I call myself Firefly, he murmured as a means of introduction; that word was one of the few things he could recall after being rescued by Nettle, and it had stuck. What came before that was a mystery but for the lone wolf, it didn't matter much.

firefly.

for the first time in a long while, illidan fixed the man – no longer a stranger – with a genuine smile. his dark lips curled upward, but did not quite reach his eyes, before he bowed his head a bit and offered a soft wavering at the tip of his tail. “i like fireflies,” the wildling admitted in a gruff voice that did not quite suit the sentence that had been uttered. he wondered if he would ever actually get to see the glittering bugs again, or if he had left that behind with his abandonment of the plateau pack.

“my name is illidan,” the wildling offered to the man after a second of thought for the wolves who had rescued him – the wolves he had turned his back on to fulfill some unspoken loyalty to his blood. for all of the things he had cursed grezig for, the dark-hooded boy had turned to the same action. that was behind him, he tried to remind himself. he had moved on to a place that he was needed – a place where he belonged.