The cold air weighed heavily against Irin's dainty body. Vigorous shivers wracked her frame as she padded along, lifting her paws high to get them clear of the snow. She was not a wolf built for the frozen expanses of this land, despite her white fur. And yet, after discovering the stark beauty that this place possessed, she had come to like it, and was quite willing to explore it further, despite the fact that she did not quite belong there. Once again, it seemed that Irin had stumbled across one of the many wonders that the northern parts of this continent hid. The frigid weather of winter had ensured that most running water was frozen solid. It made finding drinkable water that was not in the form of snow rather difficult, but it did mean that the river that Irin had stumbled across was frozen with a thick enough band across the surface that Irin felt comfortable stepping forward, putting one dainty paw on the ice to see if it would light up like the frozen lake had. She was almost disappointed to see that it didn't. And then her gaze focused on the tree tops, just reaching above the ice. What had happened here? Irin let her imagination wander, eyes widening as she thought about the many possibilities. Maybe there had been a great flood, drowning the forest in one fell swoop, trapping creatures of all sorts beneath the ice as the creeping cold froze it solid. A shiver, this time related to the thought of drowning in such a place instead of the temperature, wracked Irin's frame, and she slipped back a few steps, unwilling to leave her paws lingering for too long on the ice. For all she knew, the exact same thing could happen to her. But that fear was not enough to make the white female retreat too far. Instead, she remained in place, head tilted slightly as she examined the tree tops curiously. Once, these trees had surely been massive structures, stretching towards the sky. Now, they barely reached above the surface of this frozen river. There wasn't much of the sense of majesty that there had surely once been remaining in these trees. But maybe beneath them was a mystical, magical world, one where wolves with fish tails played, oblivious to the fact there was a whole world above them. "speech"

Welcoming the freezing air, Balgrath was growing weary of travel. Slowly wandering with no intent or purpose, he wondered why exactly he felt about this place as he did. For him, the north had always given a place of solitude, somewhere he could get away from the world and just be surrounded by his thoughts alone. Being quite fond of the north was quite a predicament though, his raven fur stood out quite harshly, and he would be easily spotted.
As he aimlessly wander, he spots what may appear to be another wolf standing on the ice in the open. Approaching slowly, but calmly, he could see that the petite white wolf appeared to be in a train of thought. From his first observation, he could tell that the wolf was a quite young female. "What would such a small wolf possibly be out here by themselves for?" "The north can be a wondrous, mystifying place can it not?" alerting the young wolf to his watchful presence.

The voice that came distracted Irin from her thoughts with ease. The female jumped slightly, ears twisting back in the direction that the voice had come from and slowly, Irin took a deep breath. The wolf didn't sound threatening, did he? The voice was definitely masculine, Irin noted absently, but she couldn't detect anything other than that. The wolf sounded neither happy nor mad, so with another deep breath, Irin responded lightly, voice quiet in the air. "There are a lot of strange things here." Irin fought to keep the anxiety out of her voice. She wasn't exactly good with strangers. "It's certainly mystifying." and with that, Irin turned carefully to face the other wolf. He was a very large wolf, compared to Irin. But that wasn't anything new to the female. She wasn't the largest wolf around, to say the least. It was rare for there to be wolves even close to her own size. He was black, a sharp contrast with his icy surroundings, and had interesting red markings, with orange-y eyes that, if Irin were entirely honest, looked pretty creepy. Hmm. What could explain that appearance? Maybe he was a night wanderer, something other than a pure wolf. Maybe he was born of the night, with no family to call his own, forever cursed to haunt the snowy expanses until he managed to find another wolf, one that he could pass his curse onto, forcing them to wander while he finally had a chance to live, to join a pack and maybe find a mate, while the other wolf (maybe even Irin herself) was forced to wander like he had been. Irin shuddered, stepping back quickly from the black wolf. She didn't want to be forced to wander the world for the rest of her life! Of course, there were other possibilities too. Like maybe he was just an ordinary wolf. But that was boring. Still, the thought of that was enough to make Irin relax, the tension melting from her frame as she cocked her head, examining the wolf. "Have you ever seen anything like this before...?" Irin asked, glancing thoughtfully over her shoulder at the trees. Maybe this river and the world that it hid was something that had been repeated a thousand times over, criscrossing this continent and hiding a sprawling world of creatures who moved far beneath the ice. "speech"

Balgrath's sudden appearance startled the young petite wolf. She seemed to be quite uneasy with his presence, and she replied very quietly. Her voice almost being lost on the wind before he could hear it. As the young wolf turns around, Balgrath notices that she young, and her entire body is white, the darkest part of her being her black nose. She was quite the amazing contrast to him, her with her white fur and blue eyes, and him with his Black fur and orange eyes. "No I can't say I have, it's quite an amazing sight, and one I won't soon forget." "What's such a small young wolf doing out here alone?" He asked with a hint of concern, had she been abandoned? or was her story a little more interesting?

Irin found herself nodding at the the other wolf's words, flicking her ears as she considered her response for a long moment. "It is an amazing sight. I wonder what's under it..." She trailed off, pawing at the ice thoughtfully. However, she was disappointed to realize that the ice was too thick to simply dig through. It would have been far too easy to do so, anyways. Some questions didn't need to be answered. Reality was far less interesting than the world that Irin had created to lurk beneath the ice. As long as she didn't know what was truly there, she could say truthfully that there might be something living under the ice. Maybe even an entire society. But once she knew the truth, well, then, the truth was non-negotiable. It was concrete and solid, unlike the flowing daydreams that Irin filled her world with. So maybe it was good that she couldn't simply see beneath the ice. The other wolf's next words drew Irin from her thoughts, making her twitch her tail slightly. "Oh, I've just been exploring since I left my pack." Irin spoke carelessly, shrugging slightly. "This place is so much more interesting than the place I came from." Irin didn't even notice that she didn't call it 'home,' but in fact it never really had been. She had loved her family, yes, but this was so much better than tying herself to one place. "What about you?" Irin asked curiously, eager to hear this wolf's story. Maybe it really was about creature of the night, doomed to wander these lands. The thought was exciting! "speech"

"No one may ever know what lurks beneath the ice, though many will certainly have ideas about it." Balgrath knew that under the ice it was simply the ground, but he saw wonderment in the small females eyes, and he didn't want to crush that. She was easily lost in though, and it seemed everything little thing fascinated her.

Her next response was shocking, she was so willing to divulge information to him easily! "Is there any particular reason you left?" He was genuinely curious about the dainty female, and he worried that out here alone, something potentially bad could happen to her. "What lands would be where you come from?"

"Myself, I just wander, I have no home, so I go where I please and whenever I like." Though he did crave somewhere can could lay his head at night in peace, he realized many wolves enjoyed the freedom that he had. "It's dangerous for such a small young female to be out here alone you know." He surprised himself with this, because he heard a pained sense of care in his voice, for some reason unknown to him, he felt that this young wolf needed to be protected. He had been wrong before, but the innocence that seeped from her aura seemed to suggest otherwise.

A slight flick of her tail was Irin's first reaction to the words of the male. "I bet there's a whole race of wolves down there, but they have fish tails instead of hind legs and they hunt great fish instead of deer." Practically bouncing in place, Irin wagged her tail joyously as she examined the ice again. The mysterious wolves that lived beneath the ice were far more interesting than the wolves that lived aboveground, herself included. But maybe this wolf was just as interesting. Hmm. She'd have to give him a chance to prove that though. So with that, the female lifted her head, focusing on the male once more. "A reason? Not really. I just wanted to see a little bit of the world," Irin glanced around thoughtfully, "So far it's lived up to my expectations. There's so much more out here!" Here she paused for a moment, twitching her ears, "I lived in a very boring place." Irin snorted softly, "Warm in the summer, cool in the winter. No extremes. It was all very uniform and drab and I doubt my family missed me very much when I left." Shrugging slightly, Irin eagerly leaped at the subject change when it was offered. Dangerous? Irin tilted her head slightly, confusion evident on her features. "I've never really noticed anything dangerous before. What makes you say that?" The female looked curious as she glanced at the male. Had he seen more evils than she? Maybe he would tell her about them! She wanted to know. They would be interesting, of course. They would give her a reason to dream a little bigger, to wonder a little more. Would she start to see evil in every shadow? Ooh this was going to be interesting! Fear? What was that? Irin was happily locked in a world that she had designed that involved black and white with no shades of gray. Good would always win. That was how things worked, right? "speech"

"Haha I don't know about that. But who knows, they very well may have something along those lines." "This land is definitely interesting, so I can see your point" He said with a caring tone, he couldn't help but be enthralled with how amazed she was at everything. It's unlike anything else he's ever seen, even as a pup, Balgrath did not take this much interest in the world surrounding him. Though that was likely because he was thrust into it without a care.

How could this young wolf not know the dangers of the world? Was she truly that sheltered?! "The dangers aren't necessarily the wild, it's other wolves you may come across in your travels." "Some wolves are very dark, and will hurt others simply because they can, they have no care at all." This brought him to the thought of when he was a pup, the scar on his left eye had been an attempt to get away from a male wolf, that attacked him from nothing. "Just be careful" He said with a grim look.

Irin ignored the slightly skeptical note to the male's words and turned a beam upon him, her white tail wagging easily in the air behind her. "I bet you've wandered a lot. Have you ever seen anything like that? Any wolves with fish tails? Or, ooh, what about fish with wolves' tails?" It was a little unlikely, to be sure, but Irin was curious. Oh, she was terribly curious. She wanted to know, but she didn't in the same thought. She wanted to not know enough that there was still some mystery. Answering every question was boring. But this was one worth asking. Because even if he hadn't seen such things, they might still exist in places like this, lurking far beneath the thick ice.

Interesting. Yes, that much was true. Irin nodded her head slightly, swishing her tail easily. "I've never seen anything like it." She responded with a twitch of her ears, tilting her head as she examined the scarred wolf before her. "There's just so much to see." Even in her short time wandering these lands, she had discovered so many new things. Like this river and the ice that glowed like stars were trapped beneath it and the pretty lake that she had stopped at when she first arrived here.

Here, a frown crossed her features, and Irin looked curiously at the other wolf. "But why would they hurt me? I've never done anything to them." Glancing around, turned a soft blue gaze back upon the other wolf, looking almost nervous. "I mean... That's just wrong." Even in the worlds that she spun for herself, there was always a happy ending, always good wolves triumphing over evil and no one got hurt. It was a sharp reminder that the real world was, in fact, the real world, that wolves did get hurt. "You be careful too." Irin spoke softly, shaking her head slightly as she examined the other wolf. If there was evil out there, he had to be careful too!