Stavanger Bay dreams fighting machines inside my head like adversaries

@Amatsu <3

The water washed up against his chest and urged him to step deeper, until he could no longer feel the sand beneath his paws. The winds had whipped against him during the storm, and had tore the limbs from the trees that stood along the sentinels edge. He had watched the beach as it was littered by the great booming tempest, and he had reveled in it. After all, the warhound had been stormblessed. It was the one act of nature that he found deserving of his reverence, and this did not seem as though it would ever change.

With a heavy sigh that released the tension within his shoulders, Ford moved away from the lapping waves and made his way back to the beach. Once there, the sea-bound wraith shook his coat, and the touch of winter clasped tightly to the coarse and jagged hairs along his frame. Turning his sights to the outskirts of their bay, the Mayfair-Cairn set out to patrol along the borders. His mind buzzed with the premise of what they were attempting to accomplish. He could feel that they were close, but he sought the promise of more bodies to fill his ranks. Winter would be challenging to them if they did not have the support that was needed.

oh, she loved the bay. a heavenly hound traverssed around the delicate edges of the shore, stepping lightly into the water as it ran itself over her paws. a saline wind bristled the shuck's fur as her salt-kissed coat took in the water that presented itself upon her. she moved deeper into the sound, sighing as a cloudy, humid sky and rough waves gave her the relaxing feeling of being home. she had known no other wolf to willingly subject themselves to the mercilessness of the ocean & it's storm ridden skies; not everyone was born of the thunder and lightning as she was.

a strong wind whipped against her silver pelt as she slowly pushed her body slightly deeper into the salty ravine. staring beneath her, watching as various sealife flocked about in the distance, wishing she could converse with them as she could in the past. amatsu finds herself unsurprisingly alone in the world once more, a raw sense of longing & homesickness bubbling up inside her chest as she tips her head back and lets out a sorrowful howl, hoping to attract the attention of a creature long since passed.

The call of a stranger was enough to cup his ears forward and turn the sharp peering of his mismatched gaze in the direction of it. Some ways from where he was, there was a charcoal and silver shape – someone he had not yet crossed paths with. The howl had been sorrowful enough to warrant the attention of any in the area, but it seemed that they were the only two in that moment. The titan stood stiffly, following her with his sights until he felt the need to move forward and close the distance that was stretched between them. His limbs moved with purpose, but without hurry; the stranger did not appear as though they were departing just yet.

Once he had made his way across the beach, the warhound drew his crown upward and released an answering call – low and smoky in its exit. Once he had returned the sound, Ford latched his gaze to her shape and waited to see if she would meet him there, or if she would turn and depart from the bay. The wind whisked against his dark frame with a powerful swing before dying off. The taste of winter was on the air.

an answer.
not just any answer, either; a similar answer. a response so similar, it might as well have been an echo.
glacial gaze turned on a titan, a wraith as dark as the night with brightly lit white marks splotched across the creature's body. mismatched eyes rested in his skull, gently and delicately carressed by the darker fur above and below them. a ghastly howl escaped the column of his throat as it echoed back to her with his steps closing the distance between them. his steps heavy but gentle in its nature despite his lumbering size, the wind whipping against his fur; she watched as it swayed against his stark coat, creating gradients whilist mixnig all his colors together. otherworldly. ghostly. she was completely enraptured.

the deity slowly made her way out of the waves as they lapped her coat still, beckoning her return. her steps dainty, the beach-combed shuck held herself not with pride, but with elegance. her smaller size made her vulnerable, having no idea how to fight, but she felt something special about this giant. almost a kinship, whatever vague idea of that she has. she closed the distance between the two further, dipping her head towards him in greeting.

The stranger moved out of the water and toward him. The titan followed her with a stern expression, but he did not seem to shift aggressively. Instead, he roamed her features without pause or restraint in an attempt to determine where her strengths would lie. Her shape was smaller than his own – marginally – but she walked with a peculiar sense of confidence that he could not have placed in her physical prowess alone. Instead, he searched her sights for signs of intelligence, hoping that the glint in her gaze would offer him some insight as to how she could emerge from the waters the way that she had, without the brute force of a titan in her bones.

“You come from the waters as if you were born to them,” Ford remarked in a smoky voice. His eyes lingered on the length of her muzzle for a moment before he turned them to the lapping waves. It was not common for him to happen upon one like her, so he did not take it lightly. His mother would have told him that there was a reason in all things that happened. What more could he have wished for from the bay that he was intended to claim?

her head lifted as this titan investigated her features. he nakedly eyed her, taking her in completely-- wholely-- without shame or restraint. normally, this would unsettle the fae, but these cirumstances were different. everything felt different right now, not only was she in an area over which she felt comfortable and in control, but this lumbering beast before her did not intmidate her, no; she was interested. flashing his gaze at her, she found herself staring into the eyes of what appeared to be a living embodiment of a stormy sky.

his physical form was beyond impressive, she had encountered many wolves in her time here but none as big as he. he could rip her apart in seconds, if the desire struck him: still she did not budge from her position, for she felt no danger around this stormblessed stranger. a baritone rumble from his throat lingered in the air as it fell, as all things do. as if you were born to them. he was close, the sea might not be her claim to fame but the roughness of the waves & the vastness of the trenches called to her just the same. ,,i am born of tempests,'' her voice is quiet & still, although not emotionless. ,,the rumble of thunder, the cracks of lightning-- they are my siblings, but the ocean-- the vastness, this is something i revere.'' her voice calm & unshaking, for one of the first times in such a long while she cannot recall. ,,i would give my life to the water if it beckoned so.''

It was peculiar how fate seemed to have toyed with him when he had stood firm in his belief against it. He had not encountered nearly as many creatures who appeared to belong beside him as he had in the wilds. The longer that he spent there, the more he understood how his father had been drawn to the place. As different as he was from his sire, the titan found it far more impressive that he was capable of rounding up those who spoke to a particular place in his bones – the marrow of what he had constructed himself out of. The woman of inky points spoke and claimed that she had been forged from the tempests.

To that, Ford afforded her the ghostly curling of his dark lips.

It seemed as though she spoke all the right words to appeal to him – as much as anyone could appeal to the nature of a stormy sky. The warhound furrowed his brows and turned his gaze to the lapping waters. It would have been a great disservice if he did not invite her into their fold; she was one of them who truly belonged and would have helped them strengthen their bond. So, with a sidelong glance from a ghostly optic, the brutal figure latched one eye to her features.

“You would do well with our brood – Stormrift. We seek the growth that can only be granted by overcoming our weaknesses, and by creating a bond with the storms.”

she was almost certain her words rang with mystery as they do to most-- but not to him. no, not to him; his gaze locked on her as she realized this encounter was, quite possibly, one of the only times she would ever meet another who understood. or she felt as if he did, anyway-- and that sense of comfort was one she would hold close. dark lips curled in her direction as the ghost observed her further, taking in her words, her origins. his eyes turn to the lapping waves, she could feel his heartbeat sync with them as they rolled amongst eachother.

while still locking his gaze with the waves-- one eye turned to her. his unbreaking bond with the ocean was obvious, and this, she respected. a rumble in his throat bubbled until he spoke, directly to her-- stormrift. he spoke of creating a bond with the storms, the title alone, this was enough for amatsu to know this was where she belonged, if he would have her.
at long last.
she dips her head in respect, ,,if you're offering me a place in your pack, i would be more than honored to follow you wherever you may go.''

Most of those who had gathered to follow beneath him, or beside him, were very unlike Ford. He had realized that it suited him far better to have a diverse group of wolves – they would all offer the pack something extraordinarily different when they had become what they were intended. There were times when the warhound felt as though he had surrounded himself with far too many differences to succeed. Surely, there would come a time when they would no longer wish to listen to the cold and hollow brute that had been made into their leader. It was the light of the woman's eyes that caused him to feel that change. Like the wind carries a storm, she had been blown in to him and was willing to walk beside his figure.

“Then you shall have a home in the bay. What am I to call you?” the looming titan inquired. For all of their shared moments, the delicate talking of kinship, he had never once gotten a moniker from the woman. By that same token, he had not yet shared his own calling with her. Perhaps it was best done the way that they had done it; to find similarities before ever speaking their names.

not long after the invitation, the wraith seemed to have accepted her into his pack; promising her a home.
a home.
a word almost foreign to amatsu at this point. a word she almost forgot the meaning of, a word she never thought she would be able to say again. home. ,,amatsumagatsuchi,'' for once, she was able to say her full name to someone without rushing it; without worrying that the meaning would be lost on them. ,,but you can call me amatsu.'' it had been so long since she was able to feel any sense of confidence but the unspoken kinship she felt with the ghost was almost overwhelming.
she had wished for so long that someone would understand. ,,what may i call you?'' she lifted her head towards him, adjusting her posture & lifting her shoulders.

The name that tumbled from her lips was one like he had never heard before in his life. Still, it did not phase him to hear it spoken the way that she had. She offered him a shortened version – a nickname by which to call her. Ford offered her a kind sort of smile and lowered his head. The hollow and lifeless searching of his eyes found the cerulean of her gaze for a moment. Amatsu of Stormrift, he thought to himself without feeling a stir of anything in the pit of his gut. Regardless of how he did not feel, the brute knew that she was a valuable member of their growing team. She would have done well for them and he could not have been displeased with that even if he had wanted to.
 
“I am Ford Lasher Mayfair-Cairn, but you may call me Ford,” the titan returned to her in an attempt at humor, though his voice retained much of the seriousness that it had held all along. His own name did not have the same ring as her moniker did. It seemed as though she had done well to carry the weight of it with her and to share it only when she felt it was prudent to do so. The savage warhound used his name when it suited him and only then. In spite of this, he could not have forgotten his name in a million years. The calling that he had received had been beaten into him by the vicious strikes of the ocean water with each day that he lived.