Totoka River I'm a troubled man

In some ways it felt as if he'd escaped. Sent on the rescue mission for Minerva alongside the Neredies, he became separated from the team. Or rather, most of them had been separated, it seemed. The chaos that struck this land had done its part to tear apart their mission. And in some ways, Pollux was happy. 

Was he finally free? Those women had beat him (and brother Philo,) ripped them away from the homes of their youth. Stripped them of their identities and turned them into slave boys- destined to give their life for the women, and to serve as sperm banks if needed. It was all too much for him. The women were cruel and unforgiving, and his timid personality only earned him harsher treatment. He was weary with this lifestyle. 

So when he finds himself laying beside the river, he makes no effort to move or explore. What a lucky boy he'd be if he never saw his masters again. He refused to acknowledge the fact that he had no ties beyond the women and no home which he could return to.

she's gone fairly far this time, spurred on my a mercurial mood that the past few days had demanded she head north-west. she's grown somewhat near the beach, but it's certainly not what she would have imagined. dawned trees, pools of murky, stinking water thrown here and there, bones of what she thinks are water-dwelling creatures thrown a curiously far distance from the sea. 

there's much to see here, to investigate, oddities she's seen nowhere else. she seems to have amassed more questions than answers, however, and so when she notices the wolf at the banks of the river, she adjusts her course accordingly. 

moony chuffs a greeting, coming to a pause a fair distance away. she doesn't know these territories, or the type of wolves that might live in as odd a place as this, and as such proceeds cautiously. "are you from here?" she considers him, a slight and sun-touched yearling that appears entirely unmotivated as he slumps at the river's edge.

Distracted from reality, sunny head whips towards the voice which shatters silence. A female- younger than himself, a little- but a female all the same. And even as he knows that the women here are different than the Neredies, he instinctively shrinks in his skin. Eyes dart back and forth for escape routes and perhaps he trembles a bit under her gaze. 

Breathing a deep breath, he calms himself. Assuring himself that she thinks she's his equal, that he's more than his genitals. "No, I'm not from here." he answers simply, the common language feeling strange upon a toungue that has spoken the language of the women for so long.

he shrinks back, the upset plain. her tail lowers, wags, as does her muzzle. "it's ok. I'm not gonna hurt you or anything." she's curious, is all, and even that remains when he explains that he isn't in fact, from around here. 

"something big happened, I think. it's—weird around here." she tries to prompt some sort of conversation, hoping to put him at ease while satisfying her own questions about the place.

The girl seems nearly apologetic- it's strange to him. Never had he seen a woman act in such a way. It was pleasant, not fearing the strike of claws, the flash of pearly teeth threatening to punish him, to set him straight. Remind him of his place. "Okay," he hums, still a tad nervous. 

Her next statement is vague, but he can understand her meaning. Champagne eyes flicker to the wreckage of the beach. "Yeah. That- the destruction. It separated me from the people I came here with." And thank god. Free at last, free to go where he pleased. He only hoped brother Philo was separated from them too- he couldn't bear seeing him taking those beatings for him, and nor could he imagine the boy still receiving them, without companion Pollux by his side, suffering the same discrimination.