Fox's Glade Happy, lucky electric grid

@Ike

After a brief stop at the Sleeping dragon, where Dwin had spent two days sleeping and recharging her batteries, she felt good enough to continue her journey. There was a choice to continue in either of four directions. North was out, because the girl never took the same path twice, if she could avoid it. East welcomed with a line of thick forest and there was a river to cross on the West. Therefore it left South with open fields and surprisingly thin blanket of snow. For a while there she ran as fast as she could, until like all not experienced long-distance runners she was out of steam and was forced to choose a slower pace. 

The strong wind soon became an other issue - it was difficult to move forward, when the masses of air pushed you in the opposite direction, not to mention that it wasn't easy to keep your eyes open to see, where exactly were you going. Therefore, once she spotted the first clump of forest ahead of her, she turned eastwards to have at least some sort of cover. Another river-crossing - this time safer than the previous one - and she was finally in an area, where the rogue element was reined. Not eager to spend another night in an open field, she sought out shelter in a small forest.

She did caught smell of a pack nearby - there were trails leading in every direction in the vicinity, but for now she was too tired to make an acquaintaince with the settlement. Dwin would do that tomorrow. Today she settled down to groom herself first and than catch up on sleep. She crawled in and made herself comfortable and nearly invisible under a thick bush. There she curled up in a ball and fell asleep.

Set before 18th January.

Ike was out hunting, a bit outside of Kvarsheim borders, when he caught the scent of another wolf. Intrigued, he followed the scent to where he spotted a young girl, nearly a year younger than himself even, and he was young still, curled up under a bush. She looked to be older than Skald but still younger than a year old. He didn't want to wake her, so he sat there, in the freezing wind and snow, waiting for her to wake. He had caught 2 weasels, so he would offer one to her when she did.

If during her first stints out in the wilderness Dwin had stuck to all the important rules of survival, then the longer she spent time outside, the hungier and more tired she was, the less she cared about all of the possible risk factors that may lead to an untimely termination of her life. What will be, will be - she told to herself and up until now the fate had been graceful and the fortune had smiled on her. 

This, however, did not mean that she did not feel a sense of alarm and embarrassment, when she happened to wake up and realize that she was not quite on her own there. Dwin sensed that she was being watched first and only then did she open her eyes to stare back at the pale wolf. For now she did not move or say anything, assessing the situation and giving the other chance to make the first go.

"Uh, hi." Ike said awkwardly, realizing he did not think through what he would say when she awoke. "My, my names Ike" He said, introducing himself. "I'm a wolf of Kvarsheim, the pack right over there." He added. "I have 2 weasels here, want one?" He asked

Ike - that was the man's name - did not appear to be dangerous, therefore Dwin made the decision to cautiously unroll and slide out of her hiding place, stretching her stiff limbs and spine in the process. Though she was very hungry, she did not oblige on the offer to take the food right away. Mom had taught not only to not follow strangers to strange places, but also be careful, when accepting food gifts from people she did not know. There were wild legends about people being fed cursed stuff and being turned into various beings. Not of their choice - let's be clear of that.

"Nice to meet you, Ike of Kvarsheim," she dipped her muzzle politley. "I am Dwin from Bercheliant. That's not near here," perhaps, it was not wise to tell that she was all on her own and far away from home, but still. "Food does not come for free. What do you want in exchange?" she asked, testing the waters for any possible vile tricks.

"Nothing, you seem nice, Dwin, and maybe lonely, and since my sister disappeared I've been kinda lonely too, so I thought we could maybe be friends. So here." He said, pushing a weasel towards her. He sat down, well, more like layed down, as he was down with his belly on the ground, his front paws in front of him, and his back legs tucked to his sides.

Depending on the day Dwin could be either super-social and think less about the potential dangers that could ensue by engaging with unknown people or she could feel that she would not be able to trust anyone. Today - while still in need of good hours of sleep and therefore a little grumpy too (within acceptabel levels) - she listened to Ike's offer with a grain of suspicion. Nevertheless, she pulled the gift to her, deciding to cross-examine it for poisons and drugs at a later time and when far away from here. 

"What happened - why did she get lost?" Dwin decided to keep the conversation focussed on the loss of the man's sister. 

"I dunno. It was a while ago, like before the cold season even, when one day she was talking with our dad, and she just didn't come back after that. No ones seen her since. But we grew up together, lived together when our dad left, and then lived together in his pack for a bit before she disappeared. I still live in his pack with him. But I miss Mya." Ike said, taking a bite of his weasel.

Dwin had considered once about sneaking away from Brecheliant in the darkness of the night and then reappear just as mysteriously, but, while listening to Ike's story, she felt relieved that she had told about her plans. For whatever reason then it had seemed thrilling, now she realized that going away without a word would have caused great pain to all of them. "Not knowing is very bad, I guess," she said in a sympathetic voice. "She sounds like she was a very good sister. I believe that she still is too and that all is well. But - did you go looking for her? Did you ask around?" 

"We asked everyone. Searched everywhere. But her scent wasn't anywhere. It was like she never existed. She was just.. gone." Ike said, genuinely confused now about Mya's disappearance

Dwin was about to suggest that Ike's sister could have gone to a different dimension, but this kind of explanation sufficed for a hypothetical situation and not a real one, where people involved were hurt. She did not know, what to say after that and this was a very rare situation for her to be in. Eventually she decided to inquire about simpler things. Such as: "What is Kvarsheim like?"

this thread is gonna have to be backdated or dropped for realisticality bc in a thread dated to the 18th Ike and Ethan left Kvarsheim, joining Epoch on the 29th. So he'd be a loner when this is placed

"I've only lived there for a bit, but it's like most packs. But our old leader, and her family members, speak a different language than the rest of us, so its interesting trying to communicate with them." Ike said

I think that it is only logical to backdate your thread, because your toon mentions in his introduction that he is from Kvarsheim. So thread is taking place at a time, when your toon still is in the pack. :)

"There is another language besides the common tongue?" that was news to Dwin, who had not travelled much beyond Brecheliant before setting out on her first big journey of her life. There had also been little exposure to wolves that did not belong to her immediate family circle. "Is it similar to the one we are talking in now or it is entirely different and hard to understand? What is your favourite word in that Kvarsheim language?" she asked.

cool could you edit the main post to state that then? any date before the 18th is fine

"the only common word is 'hello', which in the language of kvarsheim, icelandic, is 'hallo'. Everything else has little to no similarity. I only know a handful of words, but a cool-sounding one I remember is 'Íkorna', which means squirrel." Ike said. "The only other animals I know are 'Kanína', rabbit, and 'Dádýr', deer. I know how to say how are you as well, which is 'Hvernig hefurðu það', but other than that, my knowledge is limited to basic words like, who, what, when, why, where, no, yes, ok, hunt, hurt, etc" Ike told her.

Though Ike claimed that he knew very little of the foreign tongue, Dwin thought that it was quite a lot. -Hallo- and -Eeeekoorna-  and -Kaneena- and -Dadeer- she repeated each new word under her breath, while listening attentively to, what her companion was telling her. The last sentence was too complicated for her to repeat and she sighed. "Well, how much words do you need to live anyway?" she suggested playfully. "Saying - Hunt! - is way more straightforward and concise than me wrapping this in more layers of politeness and emotions." 

"Could you share more? Single words, please," she asked, fully immersed in the subject of learning a new language. 

Ike chuckled, but he knew he was this way too when Gunnar was first teaching him these words. "Sure, I'll share each of the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I'll try to piece together a basic sentence with you too, like 'hunt the deer', when we're done. Because like you said, short, concise sentences are actually probably better. They do go straight to the point." He said.

"In order, the following are, who, what, when, why, where, no, yes, hunt, hurt, play, fight, meet, talk, are, you, wolf, other, kind, mean, sad, try, dead, live. So here they are in Icelandic: hver, hvað, hvenær, hvers vegna, hvar, nei, já, veiða, meiða, leika, berjast, hittast, tala, ert, þú, úlfur, annar, góður, vondur, sorglegur, reyndu, dauður, lifandi." Ike said.

you can just pretend he said each word in english after he said it in icelandic, it was just too hard to copy for me

Dwin listened carefully to Ike revealing her the basic vocabulary of the tongue spoken in Kvarsheim and knew right away that she would not remember most of the words, if any at all. It was a pity that there was no way of having a wolf-equivalent of writing things down to return to them later. In that case she would read and learn the words by heart gladly. The thought of joining Ike's pack for the sole purpose of learning to speak a different language did not occur to her. Besides she had left Brecheliant to be free of any obligations and responsibilities. 

"What is Iceland?" she asked, when the man mentioned "Icelandic" as the origin of the language. 

“I’m not sure. All i know is the leader of the pack, and the past leader, both spoke it as their native language so they probably originated there, whether it was them or their parents, etc.” Ike said. “But i’ve only ever been here.” He added, though he had no real idea where “here” was.

"Ah, oh well..." Dwin sighed, feeling a little disappointed. "Life wouldn't be as interesting, if we knew answers to all of the questions, would it?" she suggested and yawned. "So, I assume that before Kvarsheim you lived somewhere else? Wait... or born somewhere else? Did your family speak a different language as well?" she asked, because she had got an impression that Ike was a well-integrated non-native. Maybe he had been a simple "John" in his previous life and he had received a new name, when he had joined the current pack. 

"Yes, I was born in the wild, where I lived with my father and sister till I was 1. Then our dad left us and found a pack, soon coming back to find us and invite us to join him in it. I wasn't born in a family speaking another language, but I am named in the language of Hebrew, as thats where my dads family gets their names from. I'm named after my dads brother Issac." Ike told her. "My dad is named Ethan, and my sister, Mya, all of which are Hebrew names."

"So Hebrew is another language?" Dwin asked in a surprised voice. It had been a discovery that the common tongue was not the only one spoken here. There was not only one more. But two! "Soooo... you come from a Hebrewland?" 'cause in her mind the name of the language was tied to the land of origin. So - if icelandic came from Iceland, then she had to be absolutely correct on her assumption too. "Is your dad kind of a king of Hebrewland? Are there more of you there?"

"I'm not sure where the language comes from, or what the land it comes from is. My dad has dog blood, which are canines like us, just, different, so perhaps it came from the land where dogs come from?" Ike said, not really knowing.

When Dwin asked if his dad was the king of that land Ike chuckled. "No, he was born here, his dad was born here, and I think even his dads dad was born here. Not sure though, some where along the line of his fathers, one of them is a dog. I think the one after that was a dog. So like his great great grandfather was a dog." Ike told her.

Ike was a goldmine of information. Or a geyser. He erupted new tidbits of stuff Dwin had absolutely no idea of every time it was his turn to speak. Iceland. Hebrew. And now dogs. "What are dogs? Kind of serfs or slaves?" she had heard about packs, who practiced this kind of thing, but it had always seemed to her as an ancient and barbaric pracitce that no longer was done. Perhaps, she was wrong. 

"Or are they kind of an alien? Does this mean that you are one part alien? What does it feel like?" she shot next three questions like a machine gun. 

"Dogs... dogs look like us, but different. Some look nearly exactly the same, a breed called Huskies, which the the one running in my family, but others are as small as rabbits and its crazy to me that they're relatives. They're canines like us, but different. More passive. Weaker. Different fur, different scent. But I'm only like, 6.25% dog because my dads only 12.5% dog, so we're pretty much wolves." Ike said.

Dwin regarded Ike with exactly the same expression one would, if their companion revealed that they played bingo with aliens on Saturday evenings, not to mention movie nights and barbecuing beasts from another planet. She had no reason not to believe him, but he was giving her so much facts of stuff she was not familiar to and had no references to turn to that she began to doubt him a bit. Talking nonesense in a smart way required skill and craft. Doing it with a straight and earnest face was even more of a feat. 

She hesitated to challenge him on the subject though. Because - as she had told Reverie, sometimes a colourful lie was better than boring, grayscale truth. Besides - lies were bad only, when they harmed people, but she did not see, how Iceland, Hebrewland, dogs, huskies, percents and whatnot could cause any trouble. So - she decided to play along. "What are percents? And those number thingies you mentioned. Are they kind of ranks?" she asked one question this time.