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Kaiah had never seen the ocean like this. The moonlight made the sand silver underfoot, and the water lit up neon blue with each ebb of the tide. It swirled at the edge of the world with its own alien light. Am I still dreaming? The thought came to her lazily as she stopped at the water's edge, trying to distinguish whether or not she could possibly be awake and the shore could possibly be so beautiful and so utterly quiet. She was so used to colors bursting in her mind—swirling and gliding and bubbling in constant motion—that the calm of night was almost eerie. Audits swiveled atop her head, but nothing came to them except the low hush of the waves, the noise nothing more than a faded blush of color behind her eyelids.

She rested her ivory tail over her paws as she sat back on her haunches. Everything about Kaiah was soft—her ears sported a few longer strands of fur that bent with gravity; her eyes gazed around with a gentle curiosity; even the way the wind blew ripples into her thick coat was with a purposeful softness. Beside her, the unnatural blue light of the ocean wavered and shimmered, and when Kaiah bent down to touch it, it kissed her nose with a thrill of cold.

Loneliness gnawed at her stomach like a festering plague. It had followed her here, like her shadow follows her in the light of the sun. She squeezed her heterochromia eyes shut, knowing their dual colors were one of the reasons she was this way. Why she was different.

Sorrow overflowed, and so did the moisture building in the corners of her eyes. A pair of tears, each identical to the other, flowed into the fur on opposite sides of her face. A whimper escaped her, and soon turned to a whine. The color of her pain was pink, flush and raw. And when she tilted her head back and let loose a howl, that color darkened until it bloomed purple in her mind. She was alone, but she could still sing, and she could still show the endless ocean before her what it was like to be alone.  

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ooc: Anyone is welcome!

The fire-kissed woman was filling slowly with a newfound sense of purpose. She knew in time the scar above her left eye would fade, but the memory of what it stood for would remain for a great deal longer. Freedom. The freedom to come and go as she pleased, to make of herself what she wished. It was for this reason that she walked away from The Hallows and the protection and care it offered her. She would forever love its Alphas, but her life was destined to go another direction. With the castle at her back, she was navigating under bowed trees with care. Her crystal horns had a habit of snagging on every wayward branch.

She was almost at the grassy land before the shore when a howl rang out through the cool night. The former slave tilted her head to the side and perked her ears. Listening to the song the stranger sang. She heard the loneliness in the call, and felt a connection to it. She had known loneliness far too many times in her life. Picking up the pace, she let her curiosity lead her, until it took her to the ocean, and to a pale stranger that stood out like starlight against it. “Are you alright?” She asked softly.


Speech

Lorem, ipsum, dolor.

Kaiah's cry tapered to a questioning lilt, and the purple blossom of color lightened in kind. As the eerie quiet of the shoreline settled across her once more, the lavender swirl lingered for a moment in her mind. Then, even that left her and she was alone with the bioluminescent waves once more.

But not... completely alone. Her ears swiveled at the sound of sand shifting under paw, and Kaiah turned to face the stranger approaching her.

It was another female, slimmer and taller than Kaiah and with a coat like licking flames. White splashes of fur framed the stranger's eyes and tips of her ears, while a brilliant russet streaked the rest of her dark coat. Even more striking was the set of shimmering horns sprouting from the crown of the female's head; they were colored like a shimmering autumn branch, and tined in multiple points.

"Are you alright?" The stranger was soft-spoken, her words the color of an inch worm in springtime. For a moment, Kaiah was struck by the juxtaposition of the female's words—the color of them so light and crisp—when compared to her dark appearance. But that was quickly overshadowed by the shame creeping up on her.

"Y—yes. I thought I was alone." Kaiah swallowed, hating how her voice wavered. She spoke again, stronger. Clearer. "I don't want any trouble."

---

Lia let her paws come to a holt, holding herself a steady distance from the stranger. Hearing the other wolf's words… a strangeness filled her. She realised in that moment that she was already holding herself differently. She stood a little taller, there was a steadiness and self assurance in her stance that hadn’t been there before she had faced her mother. The wolf who had sold her into slavery as a baby. She wasn’t accustomed to wolves seeing her as a potential threat, and she wasn’t entirely sure what she thought of this new experience. A little unwelcoming perhaps. At least from a wolf like this one.

She would never be a threat to those that didn’t prey on others. “No trouble, I promise. I didn’t mean to startle you” she apologised, regret in her tone. She let her eyes drift over to the shimmering shore, and tried to bottle away the new emotions that came from her realisation. Cramming them down before the stranger could see them. “I’m Adalia”


Speech

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The stranger reacted to Kaiah's words, stopping a respectable distance away to apologize. As she did, Kaiah let herself relax. It was clear this newcomer wasn't looking to threaten her. Her posture was even-kneeled, her scent different from the pack she had skirted near the river. Maybe... she was alone too? Two strangers meeting by the light of an alien shore, one cursed... the other tined like a stag. If she wasn't dreaming, this meeting was surely unique, even if Kaiah knew it couldn't last. Adalia... Kaiah tried the name in her mind before she tried it with her tongue.

"That's alright. I'm Kaiah." She lifted her head a fraction, ears forward. "Could you tell me— Why does the water glow here? It's like nothing I've ever seen before."

The chilly water kissed the pads of Kaiah's paws, the tide creeping up to devour the shore even as Kaiah sat by its edge. The blue luminescence continued to sway and lap at its edges, strange and etherial. And like nothing Kaiah had ever seen before. Grief still stained her mind, but it was hard to shake her curiosity.

---

The former slave watched the white wolf carefully, taking note of her reactions until she was satisfied that she was well received. When Kaiah - as the wolf was introduced to her as - settled down by the shoreline, Lia allowed herself to do the same.

Taking a seat on the sand, she leaned her head back so her horns were hanging behind her, and looked out over the ocean. There was something peaceful and relaxing about the night. It was quiet but for the lapping of the waves. “Honestly, I’m not sure” She admitted. Asking questions was still a new concept to her. She’d never considered that she could ask, and now it was too late. She wasn’t turning back to the Hallows, and to Artorias, just to ask him why the shore shimmered. She allowed herself a small, amused smile at the thought. He wouldn’t begrudge her the question, but she wasn’t going to pester the Aegis for simple curiosities sake. “Are you new to Auster?”

Speech

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"I..." Kaiah trailed off, uncertain, and realized she wasn't sure where she was. She had been alone for so long, letting her paws carry her anywhere she could, she wasn't even sure if she could find her way back home. Kaiah had slept beside gurgling streams and clambered up rocky craigs. She'd seen lizards with frills around their necks and chased rabbits through meadows of swaying poppies. She'd skirted clearly marked territories and avoided other wolves to the best of her ability. But her home wasn't Auster, and she was as far from home as she'd ever been when her parents were alive.

Home was the smell of her den, earthy and dark. Home was the bright red color of a seagull's cry or the deep blue of her mother's voice. It was the taste of crab after an hour of playfully stalking across the sand. Home was easy to remember here, at the edge of this new ocean. Though she was a world away, the smell of the salt air was exactly the same. "I'm not. I come from a forest by the ocean... but it's far from here, and I never had a name for it besides home."

Kaiah dipped a paw into the water as it creeped towards her, and the blue light swirled at her touch. The way it moved reminded her of the colors she saw. "But you're from Auster?" The question was an invitation, the biggest connection Kaiah had offered to anyone in the time she's been alone.

Don't be too curious. You can't make friends here.

---

Kaiah started to speak, and then trailed off. Lia didn’t comment, keeping her silence as her companion worked through whatever thoughts were rattling around in her pale head. It wasn’t long before she was speaking again, admitting she came from a place far from here.

As the question was turned back on her, Lia shook her head. “No, I was brought here some time ago.” She explained, looking absently out at the ocean without really seeing it. “But I’ve come to know Auster, or at least parts of it.” She raised her head, and pointed with her muzzle towards the castle. “A pack called the Hallows lives there, and I called that home for a little while.” She continued on. Skirting around so many truths in her life in that little telling.


Speech

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As Kaiah and Adalia spoke, something unraveled in Kaiah's chest. Like a rope unwinding its coils and splitting into threes, she felt herself becoming weak to the other female's company. All her time alone, and this is all it takes? One conversation. One name. One shared gaze out over a luminescent sea.

Brought here...? Something about Adalia's phrasing made Kaiah pause and chew the words over in her mind. The castle in the distance is one Kaiah remembered. It reeked of pack territory, and Kaiah had given it a wide birth. Something about the scent had been sinister to her, the entire area a warning. She had simply registered this and moved on.

Now, with Adalia's scent so close, Kaiah could smell a hint of that in her. None of the sinisterness was there, but a faint haze of the smell followed her like a shadow.

"Why did you leave?" Kaiah didn't want the other wolf to think she was prying—though that's what she was doing, wasn't she?—but couldn't help it. She had spent so much time walking without knowing where she was, without speaking to a single soul, that she suddenly felt herself wanting to know everything

---

She lifted her gaze off the sea and let it drift to Kaiah. Her expression was thoughtful, and she held it and her silence for a time. The wolf who was a stranger didn't know it, but it was a tough question and her answer was half formed and confusing, even to herself. She knew that she didn't have to answer - and that, too, was a new concept to her. But she found she wanted to and after an awkward pause she spoke at last. “They saved me. The alphas there are good and brave people.” and she would love them for the rest of her life for what had done for her.


She had started her explanation, and then hesitated again. Knowing where she was going with this likely made little sense to anyone but herself. “But I want to be more than the wolf they saved.”

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Kaiah half expected the other female to brush off her question, or even cuss her out for her boldness. But Adalia held her question—as fiery orange eyes met Kaiah's dual-colored ones. It didn't matter that Kaiah only understood the meaning behind half what the other wolf said. There was an earnestness there that Kaiah recognized.

The white wolf wished she could be friends with this new companion, but she liked her far too much for that. She knew without a doubt that anyone she cared for would only meet ruin.

This encounter by the sea was meant to be a fleeting encounter of two wolves trying to find their way. "What are you going to do now?" Her question was for Adalia as much as it was for herself. Is she going to continue wandering, like she was living in a daydream, or was she going to be more than she had set out to be?

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doc: omg I love Lia

It was a good question, but it was another one that had a difficult answer attached. She knew that she was still figuring out who she was. Not that she had the freedom to do so, she realised how little she knew about herself. “I keep hoping I'll find the answer before I have to actually do it.” She teased lightly. She had to kero her voice light, or she knew there would be far too much emotion to read in that. She realised she was doing all the answering, and turned her attention full to the white wolf beside her.


Appreciating the manner in which the shimmering shore could reflect in that pale coat. It glimmered, offering a halo-like glow about her companion. “What about you, Kaiah? What brought you here, and what do you plan to do now that you are?”