Jade Fern Grove the gods envy us

for @Arbiter. temperament: melancholic

arinbjorn does not like being so far from the sea. the cairns were infamous seafarers and on the coast is where he belongs. all this land around him, absent to seducing roar of the ocean and the arid calls of gulls, the smell of saltbrine makes him feel as if he is caged; claustrophobic despite how the land yawns as endlessly as the sea. the nasty sea squall, however, had chased him inland to avoid to ferocious wrath of the sea as she raged and the chilling winds. a seafarer he was, masochistic he was not.

while he is forced inland until the pass of the storm he takes the opportunity to explore for a lack of anything better to do; not even bothering to feign interest. too much land. too much rock. how wolves lived so far from the bountiful coast, kraken would never understand. though the jade fern grove might be considered serene and beautiful to some he was, predictably, not impressed.

The markings he had were interesting, albeit not familiar to her. She never went close to the sea, and thus wouldn't have met his predecessors. She had been an inland wolf all her life, but now she wondered if she did have to travel. Terance was still gone, Pike was still gone, and she was left wondering where they had gone let alone how they could still be gone. It made her antsy.

So, again she had roamed. Once Arbiter had spotted him, she turned her paws towards him. Finding wolves that weren't the ones she was looking for to a point was somewhat tiring. And yet, if she didn't talk to them, then how would she find wolves to replace the ones she lost? At what point did she give up on what might be dreams and just be practical? She stepped forward, musing, So who are you?

it was the sound of her footfalls the clued arinbjorn in on her approach. the silence of inland — though not necessarily silent silent — was near deafening, absent the ever-present roar of the unquiet sea as it crashes relentlessly upon sandy shores and against rockcliffs. so who are you? she asks, as if who he was mattered ...except, it did matter. to him, at least and to those who knew of the cairns. he acknowledges her question with a studious sweep of his mercurial gaze but does not answer right away.

the melancholic temperament left him a quiet mood where, more oft than not he was content not to speak; but if there was one thing he's learned about the wolves of these wilds so far, it was that they were both talkative and relentless. ...or at least, his current experience leaves him with such an impression right or wrong as it may've been. kraken. kraken cairn. not explicitly true but it is, nevertheless, true enough. arinbjorn is the name for his family to call him but all else should call him 'kraken' and know that he is called such for good reason.

Arbiter Dokuga. Not that her last name probably would be familiar to anyone outside her pack. Maybe some day, but not this one. It made her for a moment briefly wish that she actually did have some of her brothers or sisters here. Perhaps they'd be loyal.  Nah. Probably would end up wandering off when they weren't given preferential treatment.

She knew that her last few times she'd run into someone, she had been pretty demanding about it. And so Arbiter at least attempted to be not quite so blunt. To at least round the sharp edges, even if it wasn't her nature, What brings you here, Kraken? At least for now she was reasonably sure nobody was here trying to claim the lands next to her own territory... Maybe.

arbiter dokuga; as expected her last name does not ring any bells of recognition within kraken's mind. a small noncommittal noise is made in his throat, some unspoken, kraken-exclusive version of 'it's a pleasure'. though he will and can talk for long intervals of time if needed, he tends to find such as a necessary evil. perhaps he had not always been that way — he can no longer remember — but since the drop he was not the same careless boy he might've been prior.

at her next inquiry, his ears flicker casually. a storm, he says, with a small twitch of his lips. and the raging sea. he adds, subtly letting on that once he is sure the storm has passed he will be returning to the coast.

Kraken apparently was a wolf a long ways from wherever his home was. Arbiter gained a thoughtful expression, Then it must be bad. I don't know how far it is exactly, but I know the sea isn't exactly close. She was pretty sure it wasn't just a day trip -- a multi day trip. But if whatever storm it was that had ripped through there -- and perhaps was just not too far beyond the average winter storm by the time it got here -- perhaps she needed to keep an eye out for further refugees.

Though another thought occurred to her. Perhaps the world itself was still hurting from whatever issues had caused the quakes at the beginning of the colder months. Or has the land out there not healed from months ago? Were you here for the quakes? It was entirely possible he didn't have a damn clue what she might be talking about, but that fact in itself might be telling.