Aurielle Adravendi

She sat at one side of the northern Plain’s passage in the wall, gazing outward and letting her mind wander as she watched, taking her turn at sentry duty. It was after midnight, and the moon sat high and full in the sky above, glazing the land below in silvery light. She might have stood out like a beacon with her bright white-based coat, but as it was, she was a pale shadow within the hide tent, using it as an advantage to catch troublemakers unaware should they try crossing the border through her pass. She wasn’t immediately noticeable in her present spot. Her long tail hair lay tumbled at her paws, tail flicked to tuck about her hips and feet, and Ayodele had allowed her mane to fall free and unfettered by the lemur’s almost compulsive braiding. Gradated blue eyes scanned slowly over the waves of grasses and the distant red shadows of the rocks to the north where she and Amos had fought a tiger together. She felt a clench in her breast and sighed softly, wondering if that would ever stop. She wasn’t even certain why it happened. Surely Amos was fine out there. Maybe he’d just… gotten lost? She frowned slightly as the tread of paws caught her ears and she spotted a moon-struck form out in the grass far off, though moving nearer, she thought. It was wolf-shaped, but she made no sound, choosing to watch from the corner of her eyeas she continued scanning the horizon and nearly lands. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Red was wandering without any particular plan when the scent of a pack touched his nose. He was set to turn away and find a way around it - he certainly didn't want to make the pack's warriors nervous at a rogue's presence when he could just as easily make a wide berth around the lands - but he paused when a long, winding structure caught his attention. Well now, what was this? He hesitated, but his curiosity got the better of him and he continued in the same direction he'd been heading, wanting to get a better look at the structure.

Luckily the structure was on the border rather than further on the other side of it. His stance and pricked ears spoke of intense curiosity as he moved up to the moonlit stones, and he didn't immediately notice the hide nearby, nor the pale form within it. No, his attention was entirely focused on the stacked stones. He was enchanted with the structure, stretching on as far as the eye could see along the border. It didn't look quite like most of the human structures he'd seen - the humans had seemed to prefer their stones to be precisely shaped and held together with some strange substance like sandstone itself, while this one was uncut stacked stones. There were places where it seemed the mysterious wall-builder had started experimenting with different ways of sticking the stones together, and Red's mind immediately kicked into overdrive, ideas for improvements tumbling over each other. He reared up to press his forepaws against the wall, quietly mumbling under his breath, a nonsensical litany of calculations and corrections and ideas laid forth and rejected.

Aurielle Adravendi

Her head tipped slightly to keep the stranger in her peripheral, not quite focusing on the male until he drifted closer. There was no hail from the large stranger, and eventually, she turned her head more, subtly watching him as he went right up to the wall. Well, he was an interesting looking fellow, and her eyes dropped immediately to the sabers he bore, ears perking slightly. His coloring she didn’t really remark upon in her mind—after all, she’d seen far more impressively marked and colored creatures, and one of them would have lit up like a gentle torch in this lighting. There was no skulking, furtive behavior—in fact, he seemed enthralled by the structure he father and the pack had founded and she had continued with help from the pack and her companions. As he came closer – and then even rose to his hind paws to get a better look at the wall – she perked her ears slightly as the flow of mumbling reached them. Far from being annoyed at the frank contact with the visual border of the packlands, she had to bite back a grin as she noted that he was so utterly focused on the wall and its construction that he’d thoroughly missed her presence on top of it. Of course, within the hide shelter, it was harder to spot a sentry. She let him continue his inspection for several minutes before she leaned forward and cleared her throat loudly enough that he couldn’t have missed it unless he was deaf. “Welcome to the border of Valhalla. I am Aurielle Adravendi, Spirit of Valhalla – or alpha, if you will—can I help you?” Her words were, as ever, lilted with a mixed accent, added inflection brought by her canines making it all the more fluid. She’d had the momentary urge to pounce down beside the stranger, but she’d resisted it in favor of a more professional first impression, though amusement lingered in her eyes. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Red blinked at the sound of a voice, and shifted his weight to turn to face the speaker. Her appearance was unusual for wolves here, but not particularly for where he came from so he gave her mutations no more than the same cursory glance he might have a perfectly ordinary gray wolf, then gave her a wide, boyish grin. "Good evening, Bantiarna Aurielle. My name is Aodh Ruaidhrí, though I am called Red." He gave her a brief but respectful bow of the head before meeting her gaze again. "I apologize if I have intruded too closely to your border, but I couldn't help myself." He glanced back to the wall with the sort of fond glance an uncle might give their favorite nephew, and gave it a pat with one heavy paw. "Would you mind telling me about this? I am something of a crafter, you see, and your wall here caught my attention. I've made a bit of a study of old human things, trying to recreate their techniques and the like, but these don't seem to be human ruins... did your pack build it?"

Aurielle Adravendi

The male blinked as her voice brought him out of his fascinated examination of the wall, and she smiled easily as he turned to face her. The cursory glance over her unique attributes, without any of the usual reactions – raised brow-points, confusion, fascination, or even in some cases, disdain or perhaps distaste – was rather refreshing. Given his own traits, perhaps he came from a place where it was perfectly natural. Her smile widened to a grin as he spoke, not missing the glance he gave the stone wall. His accent and name brought her ears up with interest. Names of the Old Tongue. Is second name sparked a memory, but this was definitely not her cousin out of Faite. "Is cúis áthais dom bualadh leat, Red.", she greeted, falling easily into the tongue her father had drilled into her and her brother’s minds from the very start, just to satisfy her curiosity about this fellow before her. His next question was one she was happy to answer, and she straightened to her paws, leaping lithely to the ground beside him and turning to gaze up at the wall. She had aspirations to build it higher, for better vantage points and protection against wolves that were even larger than her Da. “This wall was indeed built by my pack. It was founded before my birth by my father during his reign, as a simple line of stones around the border of both our lands, as a visual marker and something to teach our pups about pack borders with—they’re taught about purely scent-based boundaries as well, of course.” She nodded to each direction down the wall, a paw lifting to gesture as she said, “It was around the time of a raid by Talis on our pack that he decided that it should be built higher as a defensive measure against trespassers. And to keep young pups from going beyond the wall, not that it’s worked well on that front—they tend to slip out anyway…. “I’d like to build it taller, though, both for a better vantage point over the land, and to make it so even the tallest of wolves in these lands cannot merely hop over. The openings for prey to pass through would be the only places of entry if I can manage it, and those are guarded. Took a while to convince the prey that it was safe to pass by the sentries, but they ignore us as long as we’re on the wall and don’t move.” Ever the opportunist, she turned to the much taller wolf and grinned inquiringly as she added, “We’ve been trying better ways to stack the stones to keep them more stable, but I don’t think we’ve quite hit upon the secret yet—you said you study the human remnants and techniques… have you seen anything that might say how to do this? My primate companion and my cousins both said something about shaping.” Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

She responded to him in his own first tongue, capturing his attention completely. He raised his brows and grinned toothily at her. "is é an onóir an onóir," he returned in the same language, with a simple bow of his head. The honor is mine.

He listened as she began to speak of the wall's origins. He had to smile st her plaint of pups still finding ways out. "They so often do," he said with a rumbling chuckle, though his mind was distant, caught up in the architecture once more. "My father could rarely keep my siblings and I in pack bounds when we had a mind to get up to mischief, king or no."

"Hm, yes," he mused. "Human dwellings seem to have rarely been made of dry stacked stone, and even with something to hold it together they seemed to shape them first. I have had some success replicating more primitive human methods of joining the stone, but I'm afraid I havent tried to replicate their methods of shaping. Paws, after all." He smiled, spreading his large forepaws in demonstration. Even with sturdy, pronounced dewclaws he could never have the ability to use human tools, and so his studies had always been slowed by that lack of dexterity. "Thicker walls, perhaps, in addition to joining materials could allow you to go higher." He ran his forepaws thoughtfully over the rough surface. "I suspect that you will never be able to completely stop wolves from climbing these walls. They will always be much rougher than human masonry, and a determined canine could probably find the pawholds to climb it..." He trailed off, lost in thought.

Aurielle Adravendi

A wide smile settled on her face at Red’s response, pleased at encountering someone who spoke the same tongue as herself and her family, and her muzzle dipped in response. A soft chuckle escaped as he remarked on the ease of pups’ escape arts, and privately filed the small tidbit of information regarding his lineage away, wondering if he possibly hailed from her great grandmother’s original homeland. Probably not, but it was always nice to imagine venturing to that place someday, perhaps when she had retired and stepped down, leaving the pack in her heir’s paws. That brief glimmer of future gave her pause, and his rumbling voice brought her back as she turned her eyes back to the wall, nodding thoughtfully as he mused. “In the end, once we find a solid way to build this, I could foresee tearing the original down, leaving a line of stones to commemorate what my father founded, and building a new wall that would stand for generations and beyond. It would probably take a few generations to do it, though.” A laugh filtered through on the last comment, her eyes flicking to the male before she turned, gesturing her invitation for him to walk with her as she padded across the moonstruck ground. “What brings you to the West, if you don’t mind my asking?” Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

He grinned at her, caught up in the enthusiasm of recreationist scholarship. "There are many ways ancient humans had to build walls long before they had the technology of recent history. The ancient Romans, for example, built stone cities and monuments that lasted throughout human history. Why, if we could find Rome I imagine they may have survived humanity's extinction. You may not need to tear down your father's wall at all, and might save a generation of labor if you use it as the core of your wall and simply add to it. I would be willing to consult on it with you if you wish," he offered. "Human techniques were my scholarly area of expertise when I was learning."


Her more personal question, however, dimmed his enthusiastic grin into a bittersweet smile. "Oh, simply wandering. I had a yen to make the world a better place, and when my twin became king after my father I felt it politic to make myself scarce. Not that he would be a bad king, mind you," he added. "And the spirits know I'd have made a poor one, always more interested in crafting and learning than ruling. But he is far better off ruling there without having the people have a constant reminder every time he makes an unpopular decision that they could as easily have a different king if they deposed him and raise me in his place."

Aurielle Adravendi

Aurielle smiled as she listened to Red’s response, head cocking with interest at his small lesson of a human pack, and is mention of a place she’s never heard of—Rome? It sounded interesting and, if Red was right about it still standing today, a place flush with a wealth of knowledge on human-made structures. It heartened her to think that there might be a way to save her pack a generation’s worth of labor to build a fresher, taller, wider wall, and she filed the thought away as she listened to his story. So, he was a twin as well? She hummed thoughtfully as she considered her own twin. He was rousing from the funk, but he was most certainly not one to lead. “My brother is more of a healer than I am. Although, were I born second, I think I might have been a healer, as well as a fighter. Our mother… was a healer. She’s the kindest wolf you could ever have known, and Aramis has inherited her nature to the utmost. He and I are twins, as well, though not identical. He’s the dark to my light, but we both have the same effect in our hair.” She pondered for a moment, considering the customs of her pack to what Red had spoken of, curiosity kindling readily in her breast as she asked, “May I ask about the customs of your origin?” Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Red inclined his head in assent, but added, "Ask whatever you wish, Bantiarna, but truly my homeland's customs are not so different from many here except that we were almost all more like you and I than the sort of wolves who live here. I grew up in a kingdom of many packs - the packs all led by a different noble family though there was quite a bit of intermarriage for the politics of it, so they were more closely related than most. We had no law against marrying outside the nobility, though, and it was the more common way to produce heirs and keep the bloodlines strong and healthy. My home pack was the largest, the king's pack. It ruled over the smaller packs in the kingdom, kept the peace, kept the lands healthy and saw justice served to all equally." He smiled faintly. "It was a good life, but my brother and I were identical and while we are fairly certain that my brother was the eldest there is no way to be certain that we were not mixed up several times as pups. Perhaps he is actually the pup they named Aodh and I should be king - you see why I felt it only fair to leave and spare my brother those sorts of rumors. Besides," he added lightly, "If I had not, I would not have had the pleasure of meeting you, and your wall." He gave a rumbling chuckle.

Aurielle Adravendi

As they walked and Red told her of his homeland’s customs, Aurielle listened intently, interest obvious in every elegant line of her body and the spark in her eyes. A brief grin answered his last remark, a chuckle echoing his as she tipped her head. “I think their may be a few more differences than you think. None of the packs upon Borealis or Auster really rule or one or the other. It’s insular, unless your fellow alpha is family that split off to create their own pack. The packs generally keep to themselves unless someone really goes out of their way to make contact and maintain relations. It’s something I’d like to achieve, though. Having the packs interact more closely, intermate, and the like.” Her head shook lightly as she went on, “Families come and go. I’m not technically an Adravendi by blood, however, their founder gave my great grandmother his name and a confession of love a day before his death, and the name’s followed us down to myself, even if my grandmother mated to an Armada—he took the name Adravendi as a final rebellion against his father.” A shrug followed the information. A grin fell upon her features as she asked, “Did you and your brother ever play tricks on others, since you were identical?” Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think