Coconut Grove Clown Gamble

@Cry 

For a person, who did not spend much time, learning about plants, Wraen spent a considerable amount of inspecting the odd looking trees in a patch of land near the coast. They were tall with a scaly bark, all of the foliage was concentrated at the very top and just below them clustered round, greenish-brown bulbs. Few feet down the road she happened to find one that had fallen to the ground and after a careful examination that involved pawing and pushing it with her muzzle, sniffing it and tasting it (for Eljay's sake), she decided to bring it back to kids at home. 

But she was not about to leave the place yet - she walked down to the shore and lied down in the shallow water, enjoying the cool against her skin. And inspired by the waves that brushed gently against her body, she got up and went in deeper to have a swim. It had been a while.

He needed a breather. There was alot going on where he would need to take a step back from the situations and analyze them for what they were. What was happening to the boundaries, the rules, the limitations and such he had set for this pack? Where was his need to find the true balance between public image and allowing secrets to remain where they lie? And most of all, where would this train of disaster take him? His kids? His legacy? 

Or would he be forgotten? Perhaps he hadn't made much of an impact on this world- and frankly, he mused, he was fine with this. His deeds were not good, and his efforts pooled into much more than a single mind could comprehend. Sometimes, it hurt to be broken. 
And others?

Well...he wouldn't touch upon it. 
For right now, was a time to relax, and enjoy the solace while he had it. 

Walking free from the linked fence of the Keep, he ventured to the coast, and found himself in the Grove of Coconuts. He wasn't too keen on the hard round orbs, but they were nice to play with with children, he assumed. He hadn't seen either of his kids in what...months?

Another was here, and it was almost a backwash into the past. With the whoosh of the far away sea, he could catch the light dance of perfume that was this girl, and he recognized immediately who it was. He hadn't spoken to her now, but being in the step of a leader, he would have found his voice long ago because of it. 

"Hello" he greeted only loud enough for her to hear. 
Cry never forgot a face, nor a signature.

Wraen on the other hand could not boast with the same acuteness of memory as Cry did. The older she got, the more selective it becames. It worked superb, when it dealt with stories and funny anecdotes, but it rather quickly discarded files, which were associated with people she had met briefly or only once in her life. So, while tha dark man on the shore was probably reliving their somewhat strange and peculiar meeting in autumn, Wraen was oblivious to his presence for a long time, playing in the waves and enjoying the cool. 

It was good thing that she was nearer to the coast to hear Cry's greeting. She walked out of the water, looked at him curiously for a moment and then asked: "How can I help you?"

There was a succinct taste of formality in the air within her words. It was much more bitter than what he’d expect from someone whom he had a romping with not so long ago- in fact, he wasn’t even willing to pursue it. It more more worked in his favor for him to relish the fond memory himself than to taint it with an unrelived upbringing. 

“No,” he responded with a somewhat boyishly slight grin. “Just because I don’t need any help.” He didn’t. Well, he did, but she couldn’t help him; the rank of other lupine on him that he couldn’t recognize brought his intentions with newcomers to a much more narrow whittle. “Really nice day out. Just trying to enjoy it, too.” Auds leveled with the uproars of a yawning sea, the gentle rolls of it in its lazy tantrum. 

Wraen retreated a little from the dark pelted wolf and shook her coat, droplets of watter spattered everywhere, but without the additional weight of water in her fur, she felt immediately better. She looked the man up and down, decided that he was not that scary (yet, anyway) and hoped that his idea of having a good time was not attacking and eating mermaids like herself, she lied down in the sand to dry. 

"My best guess is that you are from that pack, of which I do not know anything about," she told him, glancing up briefly, while she groomed her paws. It was a clever, open-ended question. He could agree or deny. "I myself reside a bit further inland with a group that runs by name "Firebirds". You?" she asked.

"Probably" he rolled his shoulders with a non-caring shrug. Whether she knew them or ot was less of a care to him. In fact, it was better that he kept his band much more secret than what he had already fucked up and revealed. "Firebirds, you say? Somewhat a decent comrade of Colt, there; might give him a hello sooner or later" A paw at the overturned shell of a clam placed it back ommitedly proper in the rustled sands of the grove. Atlantic blues only briefly touched her face before he finally let the words flow out. 

"I'm the Keepwatcher of Shadewood, literally right behind you all. We keep to ourselves." Which is why you've never heard of us, you silly little girl', his chaste and bitter humor berated her silently from within. A polite dip of his head gave way to none of the sardonic reaper within, and a rise of his crown showed nothing but the mask of gentlemanly habits. "Pleasure meeting another Firebird; think it would be nice for use to have maybe a little meet up between our packs."

"That does contradict the "we tend to keep to ourselves" mantra, doesn't it?" Wraen pointed out to the man, when he had suggested that a meeting were to be arranged between the two packs. With a chuckle and a smirk, she resumed the grooming session, freeing the space between her fingers from a sharp shard of, what had been a clam once. There was no inury luckily. 

"So, what does your fancy title mean? You are a guardian?" she asked then. "Or have I met the king himself and insulted him gravely by my ignorance?"

She spoke with the man for a while, but did not feel entirely comfortable in his company and found an excuse to leave soon after.