Gyrfalcon's Keep Don't sneak up on a danger noodle

@Priest
Dated afternoon of July 3rd
Sorry about the wait! 

She'd woken up hours before Shigetoshi, unable to sleep any longer when her dreams had become so haunted. Essie rose and wandered away, hoping to return before he woke and worried for her but not...thinking, especially, of how he might feel as she did so. Her mind was in turmoil, and she needed a distraction.

The shrieking falcons were distraction enough. The hill they roosted on was loud, drowning out her thoughts as easily as the sound of her paws against the stone. It was peaceful in its own way, but nothing that she'd ever experienced before. Often she found herself looking up, watching as the birds winged overhead, careful to keep an eye on where they landed so she could avoid their nests. The last thing she needed was to be attacked from above.

By necessity, this meant she wasn't exactly watching where she was stepping, and so she didn't notice the slender form splayed across the path until she stepped on it. The creature's offended hiss was too quiet for her to pick up on, and she looked down, pulling her paws back in surprise but leaning close to get a look at this strange animal that reared up, mouth opening to display impressive fangs. She was ready to try and dodge the bite.

She wasn't ready for an acrid liquid to be sprayed directly in her eyes. Saoirse's howl of pain cut through even the most incessant calls of the falcons around her, and she stumbled back a few steps, whining pathetically as she tried to wipe her paw over her face.

---

Luckily,  he had ventured far enough with his little band of Sahiras to happen across this land. Taking a momentary rest among the Keep was good enough for them since they had travelled so far from the Strath. While @Novae and @Alula went to forage and @Akuji went to hunt, he wondered what @Krynn was busy doing since she hadn't tangoed with him again. Of course he wondered whether she might be thinking of him too, but the hood prince knew she wasn't actively searching for him. Some dreams just took time to come true. Regardless, he, the medic of the group now that their surgical priestess @Hum was gone with probably @Vehem to blame, went to scour this rocked hill mount for any kind of herbs, most namely, poppy. Of course there was ginseng, and lavender and oak bark he wanted to search for, but pain meds were essential in this line of work. He even thought of teaching either Novae of Alula to garden. It would help tremendously for him to have an assistant, as he doubted Krynn would raise her paw for the work. More than likely Alula would take the job. 

Obsidian paws etched with auburn and timber whirls of slurred lines and curls trailed up the limbs and eventual body of the deeply thinking Priest, his mind aloft in the same winds that blew through his coarse and eye-catching coat. Sahiras typically born of Dibella's broad had an outward beauty, even if they were mentally hideous. While Priest wasn't too fond of caring for his looks, his Mother's affinity still kept him looking somewhat charming, despite his cultish lifestyle. And even now, the winds could almost seem to shift to blow his fur in a somewhat attractive angle as he dug for tubers and roots in this snagged dirt/sand/rock mix. Was there an easy way to go about this? Like what the fuck. 

The same winds that crisply higlighted his softer edges of masculinity brought to his nares the tell-tale sign of snakes, more prevalent bit further north than what he was currently. Hum had made it so she was less susceptible to venom with constant injections of the stuff. She knew the way to safely accompish it was beheading the snake and keeping it to dose herself when she felt healthy enough to. The witch knew to keep him on this mantra ritual as well, and while it was a painful thing, he knew she knew what she was doing. Perhaps she could have even been here? 

Taking up the few tubers in his maws, he made sure to not crush them with a gentle grip. He used what lead he could get with his senses to follow the snake trail, and only when he had gotten close did he catch the perfume of another wolf here. However, within seconds of catching it, a yelp-howl flew up, and he was off. Tubers still in maw, he lept agile and swift over meters until he happened upon the scene; a fleeing snake and a pained ash-blond girl. It was clear whatever snake that was, some darker brown one with god and copper highlights? It spat. And thanks to this chick's naivity, he knew exactly which ones to stay away from. Well, all of them really, but now he knew THIS one did THAT. Dropping the tubers, he decided to speak.

"Sso ankasio j'us dary nenx itik kutji." He chuckled lightly at the blinded girl while introducing his cologne to the area. "Follow my voice, and we can get some water to rinse your eyes out. Gonna sting, but you'll still be able to use 'em." Priest could lead her, scoping the smaller nooks and crannies for more hidden assailants. hopefully he woudn't run into a different kind of snake and end up bitten, and not blinded. But which were the worse of two evils? 

The burning was the worst part. Her home had been hit by frequent winter storms, and so there was a requirement for at least a rudimentary ability not to trip all over themselves if they had to move blind. Considering her position in the pack and how hard her parents had worked to render her reliant on them or her future mate, that was about the extent of what she was actually capable of. Between her attempts to clear her eyes and back away from her assailant, she thought something along the lines of, At least I won't fall down the hill.

That was about as far as her thought process went before the scent of another wolf caught her attention. She'd been too upwind to notice that she wasn't alone before, but now that he'd come close she turned her attention toward him. There was a mild tension in her shoulders as she tried to identify him, but he was entirely unknown to her.

Unfamiliar words reached her ears, yet another stranger who spoke a new language, and it invoked a contrary response to relax her—not one of those she was running from, someone new. Fortunately also someone she could communicate with, as he continued on with instructions that belied an intent to help. Saoirse grinned in response, ears perking forward while her posture slumped in relief. She dropped her head respectfully, tail swishing behind her as she did her best to turn toward him. I appreciate it. You're certain it won't be permanent? I've never seen one of...those things.

There were a lot of things that felt new and exciting this far from home, but she was constantly reminded of the new dangers, too.

---

The ashen blonde stiffened at his approach but once she had come to see he wasn’t here to take advantage of her, she chilled out. Good. Patients performed much better when they were either calm, or dead. “Yea, no biggie. It’s just a snake. And so long as you didn’t get bit, you’ll be alright.“ He was much less formal in regular wolfspeak than Tsis, mainly because that’s how his Family’s language was structured. It was a powerful tongue, and he wouldn’t trade it for shit. 

He began the trek towards the only other source of water he knew of, following the wet in the air as much as he could. “What’s up? Got anything going for yourself? He wasn’t a friend of small talk, but she needed to know where he was walking. He also wasn’t a friend of asking idiot questions. But he could try his paw at being friendly, somewhat, atleast. 

Saoirse made sure to get a lungful of the wolf's scent as they started moving, half of her focus on navigating without falling over and half concentrating on his voice. She mouthed the unfamiliar word, snake, and took his advice to heart, for future reference. That's great, then.

She was content to try and follow whether he spoke or not, but doing so definitely made the journey easier. Coming up with an answer to his question, though, well. That was more complicated. What could she possibly say? The only thing she had going for her at the moment was a flight of terror she still couldn't see the end of, and telling someone that...yeah, no. Essie did her best to keep the hesitation from her voice, affecting something cheerful and bubbly when she replied, Just exploring, really. My family lives much farther north, and animals can be scarce there. We're in the middle of relocating. She didn't even lie, really, which made her feel better—she would just avoid mentioning who 'we' was.

---

The coast narrowed up a bit around the bend as he headed over a slight cliff, and to ensure she got the best chance possible of not falling off and adding 'broken neck' to her ailments list, he slowed and stayed closer to her. Allowing the very tip of his tail to just waft before her and occasionally skirt over the ridge of her snout. Careful steps. His voice kept on. "That's what's up. Got my own Family heading towards some colder area too but less for more, I guess." Maybe it was a 'meant to be' kinda thing, his Family falling apart and disappearing like how they were. Alula, chosen for innocence, was a whole mystery to him because she'd already killed two Sahirians. Typically she would have been retrialed for her Affinity, but he could only surmise that the Sahirians perished due to them trying to take away her innocence. He hadn't ever met Mars, and Alula was a cousin to an Aunt he hadn't met either. So he didn't really know shit about their side. And the father, well...

"Name's Priest. Pretty new to this part of Teekon, so maybe don't be so hard on my ignorance, yea?" he asked with a slight grin that he realized only after he did it that it went unnoticed visually. 

Walking across rocks was a lot different from walking across snow, but the actions were at least familiar, nose-to-tail with her eyes closed. Granted, the way he kept swishing his tail over her snout threatened to make her sneeze a few times, but that fostered sense of familiarity meant she didn't mind as much as she might have if her eyes were able to open. It wasn't a mocking gesture, just a helpful one.

Small world, She murmured, her smile faltering just a bit. Essie sort of wished she could stay farther north, closer to the cold; she missed her home. Worse, she wouldn't have a home anytime soon either way—better to put it out of her mind. She picked up her pace just a few steps until she was close enough that she could feel more of the other wolf's tail brushing by her, a more concrete reminder of the here and now.

The smile came back full-force with the introduction, a wry little twist. She almost forgot herself to look at him, half-peeling an eye open only to close it again very quickly against the burn. No judgment here, I haven't got a leg to stand on anyway. You can call me Essie—I'm glad to meet you, Priest.

---

As they walked, the Sahirian snatched up a few stems of celadine, which would help her with the watering of her eyes. It would happen either way, but first he wanted to sanitize them with the salt water. Luckily the grass began to transform into sparsing little sprigs before eventurally losing it's loam composite- they were getting close. "Nice to meet you too; guessin' Essie is like a nickname or is it your real name[font]?" He spoke trying not to chew up the celadine on account of him carrying it. He wasn't wanting his eyes to start watering. Or an upset stomach, considering he was starting to get a bit hungry at the moment. "[/font]It's cute." Reminded him of a kid's name, so of course he thought this was a younger girl he was offering help to. Either that, or a spy not wanting her actual name known, feigning a covet to him in a cover up. Nothing hostile about either option, nor did he care either way. 

The sea sounded close...but he didn't really want to arrive so soon. They had finished up their ascent over the mound, and the descent was a slower and less inclined slope, so she would be able to get to the waves just by sound, really. "Heading to the water to rinser your eyes out, then gonna have you chew on some plant to keep em rinsed out and help prevent loss of ability to use em." Her rinsing her eyes out would sting, no doubt, but once the salt binded with the saline in her eyes and they got used to it, depending on whether her eyes still burned or not would judge whether she needed to eat the plant or not.

She could hear the sounds of him moving more than just walking forward; multi-tasking, she assumed, ears twitching a little with curiosity. Or maybe she was mistaken? His comment about her name was met with an absent-minded nod, though she froze briefly a moment later. That wasn't really an issue, though, she reassured herself. Being literally blind to just who she was following was a little nerve-wracking, but there were few among those searching for her who actually knew her nickname, so it was only a moment before she was following him.

And then tripping over her feet a little when he called it 'cute.' No one had ever called her cute before, or at least not since she'd grown into her paws. Not that she looked like she had at the moment, righting herself easily enough but imagining the whole thing with a lot more of the mental flailing she felt. It wasn't that weird, though, right? Right. This whole situation was totally normal.

She knew she was really out of sorts when she didn't even notice the sound of waves until Priest started instructing her. She perked up and nodded, turning toward the sound and stepping slowly and carefully toward it until she felt her paws get wet. She could feel the waves against her forelegs, and ducked her head down until it was submerged. She wasn't precisely familiar with the process of rinsing her eyes, but shaking her head beneath the water seemed a simple enough method. She didn't open them until she'd pulled her head up, and the burn immediately started up again before the water actually started dripping into her eyes, and she stuck her head back into the ocean.

She came up again blinking her eyes to clear them, and let out a low whine. I really should have expected it to hurt. And, lower under her breath, Get a grip, Essie. She was fine.

Everything was fine.