Ankyra Sound Any wind means we're running

I found a guy down here, Ephraim was saying as he and his larger companion worked their way down the cliffs to the beach. he wanted to meet Heda. Tried to join. Made a total ass of himself. It wasn't really relevant to their mission—they'd decided to map out the cove beneath the cliffs to supplement Tux's scout training—but he still thought it was amusing nonetheless. It was nice to get out of the territory and chat with @Tux like this; he found it hard to shake the urge to wander after having traveled to Trigeda and back.

Said we were fools if we didn't take him. chuckled Ephraim as they reached the coarse sand, and he shook his fur, casting a quick look out at the heavy dark sky. The storm was close now and the entire air smelled so strongly of electricity that it gave the illusion of tasting like it. This mission was mostly for Tux, but it had a purpose for Ephraim as well: keeping busy helped keep him from panicking or feeling anxious about how heavy the air felt.

On some level, it was an excuse.  Though he was but a greenhorn, capricious Tux had crafted himself the watchdog of Ankyra Sound, especially after the black-masked stranger had tried to stake her claim and had apparently been attempting — and succeeding — to build her numbers.  The thought made him bristle, with someone so close to his home.  There was no room for the thought that perhaps this island might have belonged to someone else, once.  It was Drageda's now.  That's all that mattered.

He is not a very good traveling partner, but he does make a point after Eprhaim has finished his sentences to interject with the words that he was unable to identify in Trigedasleng — he'd punctuate the air with ass, and then again with fools, before he worked over a response in his mind.

It could be a trap, he finally says, nose half-buried under some bush or shrub that had been marked by something-or-other.  Haughtily, he raised a leg and covered it before turning back to his friend.  There have been others lingering in this territory.  Maybe he was with them.

Ass, he repeated, wrinkling his nose at the pronunciation. It bothered him when he didn't know a word, even though he'd grown adept at switching seamlessly between languages in order to supply common words for the ones he didn't know. He should have known them all. Ephraim had no way of knowing how impressive it was that he'd learned what he had in such a short time. That was just part of being in an environment where no one spoke your tongue, forcing you to adapt to theirs.

He listened to Tux's warning, dipping his snout to the rough sand and sniffing deeply. He was disheartened to learn that Tux was right—other scents crossed the sand now, ones not belonging to Eurycrates. First, he queried, lingering? because he didn't know the meaning of the Trigedasleng word, then shared, He was mad when Heda told him to get lost. Maybe he wants war. The scents in the sand weren't Eurycrates', but that didn't mean he hadn't organized this himself. He'd seemed covetous enough to pull such a stupid stunt.

Lifting his lips over a fang as he completed his inspection of the sand, Ephraim vowed, not many. They'll die if they stay. Lifting his head to scan the scenery, his eyes locked onto a dark depression in the cliff face some distance away and he asked, What do you think's over there?

He only supplied the words to help, but he didn't realize how much of a know-it-all he appeared to be and remained oblivious to it even still.  He nodded once at Ephraim's echo of the word, and he repeated it once more.  Ass.  Maybe if he were more of a normal young boy he'd be in a fit of giggles over the fact that they were just repeating the word "ass" over and over, but he was not, and he didn't find it anything other than a straightforward definition.

Lingering, he repeats, before furrowing his brow to search for an approximate common-tongue definition for the word.  Unlike Ephraim, he was not as fluent in the common tongue as he was Trigedasleng, and it took him a minute to come up with something.  Staying somewhere for a period of time.. unwelcome?  He turns to face the skayona and shakes it off with a shrug of his shoulders.  He does want to become better at speaking in the common tongue to communicate with outsiders as rauna, but he finds it less important than Ephraim learning Trigedasleng.

He nods once more to confirm Ephraim's statement.  Although the black-masked woman's numbers were growing, Drageda would crush them.  If it came down to war, they would have the numbers, even without Sangeda and Maungeda's backup.  His attention diverted as soon as Ephraim pointed out the depression, which reminded him of Hougeda's entrance.  He sniffs and takes a step closer, then narrows his eyes to focus on it.  It looks like Hougeda.  Like it leads somewhere.

Ah, he murmured, lingering. Got it. It was a word that might slip his mind later, a rare word that always escaped one's comprehension several hours after learning it, but for now it made sense. Unwelcome. For reasons he didn't understand, Ephraim felt that all non-Drageda wolves were unwelcome in Ankyra Sound. He didn't feel quite as possessive of the shattered coastline to the north or the fields to the east. There was just something about the beach that he couldn't put a paw on that made him covetous.

Setting off at a trot, the coywolf headed for the dark entryway, trying to ignore a snarl of thunder across the sky. A natural stone arch framed it and the rock at the base formed a natural step up to the cavern mouth, which was wide and curved away into darkness below. A cool draft carried the scents of fresh water and cool gravel up to his twitching nose. Seems cold, he opined, remembering the comfortable warmth of Hougeda. He hadn't been back to Drageda's rendezvous since returning, he realized. He would need to remedy that when they got home.

Wind, he noted, gesturing forward. It was faint, just enough of a breath to stir the tips of his whiskers. Must go somewhere else. Shall we, Rauna? The beach itself merited further exploration and where they went was Tux's call, but he figured a beach was a beach, and this was infinitely more interesting (to a geeky coywolf naturalist, anyway).

As Eprhaim scouted out the edge of the Hougeda-like structure, Tux's attention returned to the sky.  The storm had been approaching for days now, though it presently looked angrier than ever.  Seems cold, Ephraim says, and he pulls his attention back to the task at hand.  Cold? he says, leaning in closer.  He's reminded of the grotto in which the black-masked woman had disappeared, and belatedly he realizes this might be it.  Okay.  Something in his gut tells him, I think it gets dark down there, but perhaps he is wrong.

He takes a step or two in and then turns back around to look at Ephraim expectantly.

Sha, he said, a little apprehensively, as he squinted into the gloom. If it was too dark they'd just have to come back out the way they came. Without thinking much about it, Ephraim lifted his leg and sprayed the entryway. Smell our way back if we have to, he explained with a sheepish grin and then ducked down into the grotto with Tux. It didn't take very long for the darkness to close in and swallow them, but he was pleasantly surprised by a glow that seemed to emanate from within the cave itself.

Swinging around the bend, Ephraim found himself in a large cavern with a pool of water at its center that threw off an ethereal blue light. All at once Ephraim felt the air choked out of his lungs and he stopped dead in his tracks. His earliest memory was of a pool just like this... in the middle of a huge cavern... with a pair of silver arms ensuring that he didn't fall in while he stared into the depths...

Tux, hissed Ephraim, forgetting to bother with Trigedasleng as his eyes widened, I know this place.

Instinctively, he lifted his leg and released a stream of urine where Ephraim had marked, and as the coywolf moved into the darkness he had to stop and wonder why he did it.  Still, there is little time to linger on it as he loses Ephraim in the darkness.  He wastes no time in moving in after Ephraim, holding his breath as the grotto squeezes in around him and releasing it once it widens back out.  He soon realizes that once again he can see, but the light is unnatural and strange.

It's the color of lightning, vivid and blue.  He can't help but to stare at it, and how it effects the colour of everything else around them.  He can see the rough texture of the stone walls that surround them, and he takes in a breath, about to ask Ephraim a question before he blurts something of his own.

his friend drops the Trigedasleng he was accustomed to and slipped into the common tongue.  Although Tux is embarrassingly terrible at reading social cues, it is nearly impossible to miss the effect that this place, whatever it is, has some meaning to Ephraim.  Know this place?  he echoes, a wrinkle appearing between his brow.

If it were up to Tux, he'd like to forget that once upon a time Ephraim had been one of them (whoever they were; as it stood "they" was just another derogatory term for anyone not in Drageda).  His nose scrunches, and he draws his tongue across his lips.  How?

When Tux responded in Trigedasleng, it broke the spell on Ephraim, who blinked and looked around for his tuxedo'd friend. His white chest seemed instead to be a pale shade of blue in this light, his dark top coat disappearing into the shadows, and the yellow fringe on his throat had taken on the eerie hue of dried blood in the low light. Swallowing thickly, he swung back to the pool and fixed his gaze on its rippling surface. I'm not sure, he said, but that wasn't true. He knew deep down.

He took several steps into the heart of the grotto, his nails clicking on the stone and echoing around them. Somewhere nearby a bat dropped from the ceiling with a squeak and disappeared down a tunnel. He trailed it with his vision as it dodged a stalactite and fluttered out of view. Coming back to himself, he returned his attention to the water and felt a strong compulsion to swim over to the platform in the center, but he was stayed by his own confusion. What if it was dangerous? But no, it couldn't be, it was just water.

I remember this glow and this water, from when I was little, he breathed, approaching the water's edge and peering down into it. I think... this might have been my home a long time ago. He croaked the last bit out and bit back a swell of emotion that clogged his throat.

The only break in the silence on Tux's end was the silent interjection of glow, after which he keeps his eye on the glowing water and the island at its center.  He can't blame Ephraim — he wonders briefly what it would be like to lose the cliffs, and he immediately shuts the thought out.  Yet still he couldn't help but wonder since he had come to Drageda so young, why this place seemed to mean so much to him.  Drageda is your home, now.  It is meant to be reassuring but his flat tone likely comes off as condescending instead.  

If Ephraim was so attached to the grotto, he wondered what other things his friend was attached to.  He wondered if any of them would eventually become more important to him than Drageda, and he wondered if one day his friend would leave, too.  Tux took a step closer to the water and absently hovered a paw over it without touching the surface.  It was not hot, like he had been told the volcano's lava was, but neither was it cold.  I don't know about this stuff.

Truth be told, Ephraim remembered very little of his birthplace. The blue glow was cemented in his mind as something that stood out because he had never encountered it anywhere else, but the rest of the grotto was unremarkable, and he couldn't remember anything specific about the beach other. He'd been just old enough to get out and explore when they'd been snatched away by their parents after the bear made his way into the Sound, so his memories were hazy at best.

The best explanation he had for feeling the way he did about the grotto was misplaced sentiment. He'd long ago lost his family and by pledging himself to Drageda, and leaving with Heda for Trigeda, he had wholly forsaken them. Given a choice between returning to the family he'd lost and the family he had now, it was obvious what he would do. He could hardly remember the names of his relatives, let alone their faces, but here was something tangible that connected them to him without requiring that he turn his back on those who had taken him in... and what a wonder it was that it was so close to Drageda, he could visit whenever he wished.

It was warmer than he first thought it would be, though there was still a draft coming from several of the tunnels leading out of the room. Maybe that was his sentiment at play, too. Turning to Tux with bright eyes, Ephraim emphatically declared, I don't want anyone but Drageda being here. The scents in the sand above seemed hostile to him now, and the hair on his back bristled. This was his home and it was presided over by his pack. Especially now, he didn't like the thought of anyone else loitering in it.

Whatever cautious worry had been working its way into Tux's mind was washed away by Ephraim's next statement, delivered in Trigedasleng like a true member.  He almost feels guilty for doubting Ephraim, but after all he has been through with the woman who had birthed him turning natrona it should come as no surprise.  He offers a thin smile, barely perceptible in the low-light glow of the grotto. 

Let's claim it, then.  He lazily rubs himself against a standing rock towards the outer wall and turns over his shoulder to look at his friend.  I don't like them being so close anyway.

If there was one thing Ephraim appreciated about Tux—there were many things, but if he had to say one—it was the straightforward way he seemed to see the world in. Being oblivious to his friend's inner turmoil and doubts, Ephraim believed that Tux simply saw the world in a black and white way and didn't worry about all the variables that made Ephraim feel anxious when he considered them. Let's claim it then was such a simple solution that he wasn't sure it was even possible. Could it really be that easy?

Duh. Of course it was.

It felt silly to pee willy-nilly all over the place without any particular border to strengthen, but then Ephraim reasoned that borders and pack territories arose from nothing all the time. He made his way over to a particularly jagged stalagmite rising out of the ground, lifted a leg, and urinated on it. The grotto smelled like the cool water and something deep that lingered in his throat (the bacteria causing the glow), but soon enough it would smell strongly like them. That water is weird, he commented, extremely belatedly, with a narrow look at it. What do you think makes it glow... Er, glow like that?

Ephraim does not respond to him for a long time, but Tux doesn't linger on it.  The young skayona is correct in his observation of his friend; Tux indeed saw things as either black or white, yes or no.  There was no room for maybes or shades of gray in his world, so when Ephraim said that he wanted the grotto, Tux vowed internally to do everything in his power to make it happen.  His motivations were, ah, not always the most pure — mostly Tux was just sick of seeing the outsiders always showing up so close to home — but if it would achieve something that Ephraim also desired, so be it.  

He spends some time with his nose to the ground, trying to suss out any particular scent.  That black-masked stranger had passed through here but her claim — if she was staking one — was not (yet) strong.  It is belatedly that Ephraim speaks to him again, and he has to remember what they'd even been talking about, as he'd been quick to forget about the conversation altogether.  I don't know, he says, moving back again to the water's edge.  Do you think it's safe to touch?  To swim in?  To drink?  The last one he wasn't about to try, but without waiting for an answer he stuck the very tip of one of his extra toes (that he could afford to lose, if it came down to it) out to touch the water.  

It didn't burn his flesh off immediately, so he turned and gave a shrug of his shoulder.  Guess so.

The steady drip-drip of water somewhere in the cave was the only sound aside from their echoing voices; he could get used to the silence here, not that he didn't like the rustle of leaves or the clack of empty branches or the rush of the sea. Down here everything seemed muted so that even the water on the coastline was barely a hushed whisper. The longer he stayed down here and the longer he entertained his sentiment, the more ardent Ephraim felt about Drageda's right to defend the cove.

Tux bravely risked one of his toes—his fast toe? or maybe another toe—to touch the cold water, and Ephraim watched with bated breath. If the Rauna lost one of his digits over Ephraim's curiosity, he would feel like the shittiest wolf in the entire world. He almost called out for Tux to stop, to not bother, it wasn't worth it... but then his toe had broken the surface, and nothing happened.

He let his breath out in a low whoosh and stepped close so that his own petite toes nearly brushed the surface as they clutched the bowl-like edge of the pool. It seemed like normal water and it hadn't hurt Tux... and he desperately wanted to know what was making it glow like that. Okay. Go time. We should explore more. But... Friend, he quietly requested, if I die, bring my body home. Then without any warning whatsoever, he crouched forward and dunked his entire head in and tried to open his eyes.

Turns out opening your eyes underwater kind of sucks until you get used to it. It didn't hurt him but the sensation wasn't welcome and he hauled back his head with a gasp, blinking wildly. He hadn't seen what was causing the glow either, so that was disappointing.

There was no time for Tux to process anything, because Ephraim didn't segue into what he was about to do very well.  What did he mean, if he died — LKAJDKLFJSADJF

OH

He fought the urge to grab Ephraim by the scruff and drag him out of the water, but just as he had decided "well okay, I've got to do something" the skayona pulled his head from the water and Tux let out a steady exhale in relief.

He wasn't melting, but some of the glow-water was stuck to him (as water generally does) and Tux tilts his head to the side.  Did it hurt?  It hadn't hurt his toe, but one toe was different than a whole head.

No, he panted, licking excess droplets from his lips. It tasted a little different than the water from running streams that he was used to, but as far as he could tell, it was still just water. Can't see where the light comes from, he lamented, but he supposed it didn't matter. With Tux's decision to claim the Sound for Drageda, it wasn't like Ephraim needed to unravel every mystery of the place in one afternoon. They would have other days and he would have lots of time to consider what it was that made the grotto's watering hole shine like that.

Giving his head a shake to clear the water from streaming into his eyes, he stepped back and gave the cavern a wide, sweeping look. Where to? Lotsa ground to cover. This was Tux's exploration mission, and being in the dark cave had successfully taken all of Ephraim's anxiety about the storm away, so now all there was left to do was help the aspiring Rauna complete his mission.

No, Ephraim said as he licked the water from his lips, effectively answering a question that had been on Tux's mind but that he was not going to ask.  So you could drink the water.  Interesting.  Still close enough to being a child that he had an imagination, he wondered that if he took a bunch of it in his mouth and drank it all at once, if he could drink so much that he glowed from the inside out.  Even if he knew it was kind of dumb, it was a fun idea.  There was about a zero percent chance he was saying any of that, though.

Guess we head back up, he says, inclining his nose slightly to indicate that they were to move back to the surface.  He moved towards the cavern's mouth, not looking forward to the tight squeeze (for him, anyway, for Ephraim he considered it might be easier).  Come on.

While Tux wondered if the water could make him glow, Ephraim wondered if it could give him super powers. Wouldn't it be so nice to be able to see through walls, or read other wolves' minds, or shoot lasers out of his eyes? Like Tux, he would never give voice to such boyish fantasies, but maybe someday when he was alone he would test it out. Couldn't hurt, right?

Back up seemed like a good idea. Sha. With one last scrape of his paws to deposit his scent on the grotto floor, Ephraim jogged along in Tux's wake and emerged with his companion back onto the strand, where the sky's light dazzled him and made him screw his eyes into tight slits. The reminder of the snarling clouds in the sky and the sharp feel of the atmosphere made Ephraim's heart leap, and he resolutely doubled down on his focus while they explored the Sound, pausing now and again to mark another part of the beach.