Blackwater Islands And you’ll still be by my side

Set around sunset. For anyone who wants a thread with edgy, grumpy boy.

The executioner lumbers along the beach, keeping mostly to himself as often as possible. Mostly he spends his time meditating, exploring the islands, or patrolling along the coast. Today, he’s in a mood. And it’s not a good one. 

Banesteppe jokingly insists he go to the taiga and try out that ‘healing ritual’ that @Kukutux suggested. All because he assumes it won’t work. 

Go ahead my young, cursed boy. Try her ritual, but I think we both know it won’t work. He teases with a smile on his alien face, showcasing flat teeth on that handsome mug.

The entity himself is also in a mood — an annoying one. He’s been on Alduin’s ass all day. So much so, Alduin has actually been partaking in conversation with him, but to anyone else he’d look batshit insane just talking to himself like that. 

So he lingers in the shallow water, it freezes his paws and ankles, but he trudged through it anyway. Banesteppe walks beside him closer to the beach with a large hand settled on the hellhound’s shoulders like he usually does, absentmindedly petting him.

Alduin, you are quite a lot of work. I sure hope you become more accepting of your situation soon. He hums in that rumbling octave. You’re going to be stuck with me until you die and then some. 

A malicious chuckle falls from his lips after that and Alduin side eyes him with a challenging glare. His lips wrinkle some as he shows a pinch of teeth to the entity.

“How unfortunate.” The dark furred beast growls. “I can hardly stand you now.” He doesn’t want to think about how long he’ll have to do this for.

We’ll get used to it. He purrs condescendingly to the wolf. And remember, not even death can free your from the chain around your neck.

At that Alduin’s snapping over at the image of the man beside him, jostling the water below. Of course his teeth grab onto nothing and he only gets a bark of laughter from the spirit. 

Fuck. Alduin can’t stand him.

Not really calming down at all, he growls low in his throat before he’s trudging along once more. Trying his damndest to ignore him, but failing miserably. He needs a distraction.

Tags for reference <3

Mireille had been returned happily to her family, but she'd left Bridget with a gift - an idea of how to, occasionally, feed herself. She was balanced carefully on two legs and digging with the third, but the clam she tried to uncover kept burrowing deeper.

Bridget let out a soft hiss of breath and tried to switch her stance so that she could use both paws to dig in order to catch it. She wasn't used to it yet and forgot to sit down completely first. Overbalanced, she fell over, and her shoulder hit the sand with a heavy thump.

Oh, fucking hell. She twisted to try and get her legs back under her, then caught sight of an approaching Alduin. Great. Her shoulder smarted, but she managed to unsteadily stand (at least). You look like a wolf who can dig. Maybe he could finish it. Better that than watching her fall on her ass again.

The hellhound spots one of their other members — a woman he knows the face of but not the name of. A shewolf of golden yellows, fiery orange, and soft creams. His eyes watch her from the distance between them. He can see her struggling, but she has one less leg than she’s supposed to what does he expect. It seems she’s determined at least, he can see it in her face. 

Until she falls flat on her face. Which makes a very slight amused expression cross his face. It’s hardly different from his usual scouting face, but his brows raise a touch and his eyes become a touch lighter. He even gives her a tilt of his his massive head when she’s cursing out to everything high and mighty around her. 

Shit, even Banesteppe sees it. Which makes the entity rumble out his own laugh. Clumsy — oh so very clumsy, but cute I have to say. Hums the entity. Which despite their earlier bickering, makes the hellhound huff out a breath of air from his nose. A noise that could even be considered a laugh.

“She has three legs.” Alduin whispers quietly — indifferently — to the deity. “What do you expect?”

Aren’t you fucking rude. I can see that, boy. The entity spits back.

Alduin rolls his eyes but continues towards her with a rumbling, and very threatening, “Shut it.” to his ghostly companion.

It’s then she’s looking straight at him and he meets her eyes with his own blood red pair. His head is level with his shoulders as he lumbers down the beach and his scowl is back in place when it looks like she’s about to talk to him.

And she does.

You look like a wolf who can dig.

He tilts his head slightly to her. “I can.” He drawls.

When he stops to stand near her he looks down at what she’s trying to dig up and finds it unsatisfactory. All this over a clam? They’re not even that tasty. Still, he shifts his gaze back to her and before she can request for him to dig it up he’s rumbling out a neutral sounding sigh and positioning himself over the hole.

Dark claws dig into the ground and his muscles ripple beneath his brindle coat as he works on digging it out for her. Maybe there is a nice bone in his body after all, but also maybe not because he even contemplates eating it when he gets it just to fuck with her. Ultimately he decides not to.

So when he finally is able to snatch the muscle up with his jaws he does. Leaning over, he drops it at her paws, practically towering over her as he does.

“Happy?” He asks, the scratch and rumble to his voice drawls with the tintiest bit of amusement in his bloody eyes.

He had an interesting personality to the way he responded, but most of what Bridget cared about was that he was willing. Look - she didn't exactly like asking others to do a job for her. But pride wasn't going to keep her from a meal, not when she had plenty of other things to offer this pack in return.

Thrilled, she replied, smiling back with an obviously playful sincerity. Everything about this guy read 'challenge'. He was bigger than she was (something that didn't happen often) and stood in a way that indicated he was clearly used to towering over others. If things were different, she'd have challenged him to a spar in an instant. Fuck. Soon. She'd already fallen on her ass once today.

I get the feeling I'm the only one, though. What, did someone take a shit in your den last night? Bridget snorted out a laugh. Despite her humor, she was looking at him with genuine curiosity.

When he drops the clam at her paws, stares at her, and asks if she’s happy a smile forms on her face. It’s playful, but Alduin watches her with muted interest because of it wondering what will come out of her mouth next.

Thrilled. She says then and Alduin hums back in response. A noise that almost sarcastic, but ultimately just shows that he heard her. Only, she doesn’t stop there…

I get the feeling I'm the only one, though. What, did someone take a shit in your den last night?

At that his brows would raise some and he’d let out a very, deep, and rumbling (and absolutely, disgustingly sarcastic), “Haha.”

He knows despite her joke that she’s genuinely curious on his ever present mood. He only has a few moods after all: grumpy, pissed off, and sarcastic. If he has enough humor inside of him to be sarcastic that usually means he’s in a decent enough mood not to eat someone. But all that can change very quickly.

“No,” He’d say then. “this is just how I am.” But a look of dark amusement catches in his eyes enough to make one corner of his mouth tense in what could be a smirk. “Childhood trauma does wonders for the personality.” 

Honest answer. Self-aware too. It was rare for a wolf to own up to their shit, usually because they couldn't even recognize what that shit was.

Crap parents? Or something else? Either way, Bridget couldn't relate. She'd had a pretty normal upbringing, all things considered.

Still feels a little like an excuse. But if you like it, who am I to judge? Was that shitty to say? Probably. She didn't jive with the idea that a wolf had to be miserable just because their life had been a miss so far. Gave the crap people who happened to cross their paths a little too much credit.

She wasn't optimistic that he'd elaborate, but she paused to give him the chance just in case.

Honest answer. She says then and Alduin huffs out a breath through his nose at it. Yeah, it was. He knows what’s wrong he just can’t do much to help it. Banesteppe will be will him forever as well as flashes of images of that bitch Sasha and that river. Occasionally he still has nightmares, but he obviously won’t be telling her that.

Only when she opens her mouth again, she says something silly. Something that may or may not have struck a nerve within the dark prince. He is a slave to his anger and often times being petty is one step away for him too. 

So, his brows furrow for a second and he offers her an unimpressed look that leans closer to a glare. Only then one of his brows would raise as he stares at her emotionlessly.

“Then, tell me, what’s the excuse for your leg then?” He rumbles with a pinch of deathly serious sarcasm. His low, rasping voice only makes it sound meaner.

His question brought a laugh from her. Not mean or taunting, just surprised and open. She appreciated that he was at least upfront about it.

What excuse? There isn't one. She wasn't sure what his aim was with that statement, but she wasn't bothered. It's gone, and now I get to figure out how to deal. She was, too. Slowly but surely.

Are you?. Fuck, she wanted to open her mouth and ask it. But she waited, casually, to see what he'd say next. She didn't have many friends in this pack (a first for her) and as competitive as she could get, running her mouth here might kill whatever chance she had of getting in good.

He’s immediately surprised when she offers him a laugh right after his not-so-nice question. He was trying to strike a nerve by asking that. He was trying to piss her off — trying to get a reaction. Rather he gets the opposite in what he wants, she doesn’t seem mad at all. Especially if he’s going by her next words. 

She speaks of dealing with it because there’s no excuse. She seems to have accepted her fate in whatever happened. She seems like she doesn’t linger on it like Alduin does with his trauma — with his ghosts. Her acceptance actually earns her a pinch of respect from him, as well as her forward ness. 

So he tilts his chin up slightly and hums. “Looks like you’re one step ahead of me.” He rumbles with a roll of his eyes. 

He’ll admit it. He’s bad at dealing with the spirit that follows him. He’s bad at dealing with his past trauma. He’s accepted it in some ways, but others he refuses to accept, especially when it regards Banesteppe. The spirit has been following him for months and Alduin is still practically fighting him every inch of the way.

Only then he stares back to her. “What happened to it?” He means her leg. What happened to her leg? 

It was probably gruesome and he wonders how she even survived. He would think getting one’s leg ripped off would bleed them out, but perhaps he doesn’t know as much about medical practices and anatomy to assume such a thing.

He just asked outright. It left Bridget wondering if anyone back in Brecheliant would have done similar - probably a few. But the wolves here were different. They didn't spare feelings the way she felt Eljay and the rest of the forest did. She appreciated the hell out of it, much as she missed home.

Some nasty fuck took a bite out of it. I knew that he was a fucking cesspool, but I couldn't clean it well enough. I probably - nah, definitely would have kicked it if someone here hadn't taken the entire thing off. She wasn't sure how she'd survived either. They'd had to be incredibly precise, and had to stop the bleeding aggressively in a number of ways no doubt. She couldn't do the same. And as much as she'd love to learn, she wasn't interested in delving in just yet. A little too soon even for her.

I got a piece of him back, but I guess it's optimistic to think I might have killed him. I keep it too clean. She grinned and ran her tongue over her teeth, glancing at him sideways playfully. He wasn't so bad when he wasn't trying to shit on her. In fact, this was probably the closest thing she'd had to actual conversation since coming here. Since Maegi, at least.