-island hopper-

Deluge prowled the desolate shores of Emerald Island, her senses alert to the eerie stillness and scent of rotting eggs that hung heavy in the air. Here, on this forsaken scrap of land jutting defiantly from the surrounding sea, sparse trees stood like sentinels amidst the desolation, their twisted branches reaching towards the sky in a silent plea for mercy. Yet even they could not escape the relentless grasp of the copper-rich soil that stained the sandy shores a sickly green hue. Most of the trees were dead or dying, their withered forms standing out like an omen. Perhaps she shouldn't have come here.

Large rocks, remnants of a time when Emerald Island was perhaps part of the mainland, littered the landscape like ancient guardians. She skirted around them cautiously, her keen senses alert for any signs of danger lurking amidst the shadows.

The silence was deafening, broken only by the distant cry of seabirds wheeling overhead.

“Speech”

What an interesting place Morwenna thought to herself as the sharp scents overwhelmed her nose. The young girl let her purple eyes follow the peeling barks of one tree up to its darkened and leafless branches. Not even useful lichens and moss seemed to be growing on this strange island. The colors of this little fragment of land were fascinating and she wondered if special plants grew here and what their potential uses would be.

Looking around it seemed whatever had happened to this island happened somewhat recently, or these dead and dying trees wouldn't have sprouted here and grown this big in the first place. Her attention was caught by a gull calling overhead and as she looked around for it's source she noticed another young, albeit much taller than her, person. Could they be a local? Would they know what happened to this island to make it like this?

Hopefully, they were friendly, "Hello!" She called out to the marbled grey dire wolf. With an eagerly light gait, she cheerfully bounced closer to the stranger. "Could I ask you a few questions?" Morwenna said as she came closer, seemingly oblivious of the old adage beware of strangers that many pups taught their young.

Something about this place was off. Unsettling. The sickly greenish tinge that seemed to color everything it touched was more than enough to put Dread off. Fuck, he missed the Cathedral. Scald had dragged them away from their personal Eden, but it made sense. Dread couldn't hold it against him. Family defined them, even if they demanded sacrifice. Family. Thoughts of his eldest brother still echoed around between Dread's ears, the last sighting still burned into his mind. Right. Plenty of things that keep his head loud as they take in the Emerald Island in all its alleged glory.

Dread recognizes the copper by scent, though. Running his paw through a particularly green patch of sand with a light hum, brow lifting. Things Halo had to say about copper and copper sulfate both echoed around in his head. Still carrying bits of everyone he's ever loved around, right? Well, maybe Sakana or Jael would appreciate some, at least. The rest? Trade goods were trade goods. Not eager to let Deluge out of his sight for long, Dread is quick to fold some of the bright green sand away and tuck it within the borrowed bag for later.

Coming around the blind corner just in time to see the pale and golden creature bouncing towards Deluge, he closes the gap with a purpose. Keen sapphire gaze falling on the girl, allowing himself to rise to his full height. Though Dread isn't aggressive, he's assessing whether he needs to be. If she has questions, she can ask of both of them. Hovering at Deluge's shoulder, a half step behind her, openly eyeing the oddly shaped, sort-of wolf before them.

"speech"

Deluge's skin began to crawl at the implications of the green stained sand and her shriveled surrounds. She reached down to nose at a brittle bunch of grass and sneezed when it crumbled to dust at her touch. Something told her she didn't want to be breathing this stuff in. The sand felt... coarser than she was used to under her feet, and the wind blew with a desolate loneliness that told her she wouldn't find much to eat around here. Even if she did, she would probably be best off not eating it. Still... the urge to lick it was there... it didn't mean she'd have to swallow it right? No, no she wouldn't be doing that.

The Fallen girl even tried digging a shallow hole in the sand, knowing from her puphood days when she went exploring the Bifrost that the sand was often enough to filter the salt from the sand so she could get a drink in a pinch, but the copper blue-green staining seeped through as deep as she dug, and the water held the same smell of spoiled eggs. Her lip pulled back in distaste.

She was pulled from her musings by a golden-brown form bounding towards her. She lifted her head at the greeting and felt more than saw Dread slide up along her side. She allowed her shortened tail to wave at her back in friendly greeting, the bottled that rested tied over her hips clinking with the rhythm of her wag. "Does tha' one count?" She teased, winking with an easy smile on her face, sunshine to Dread's storm clouds.

"speech"

Morwenna

The girl lightly skipped over the green-tinged sand toward the towering dire. She paused as a dark male sidled up to the gray marble girl and scanned thier battle-hardened bodies with admiration. She was certainly no adversary to thier practised stance.

"My! Wouldn't want to cross you two!" She tittered as she continued to close the distance between her and the others, this time with a bit more cautious reverence. Morwenna caught the marbled girl's wink and muttered a remark and couldn't help but avert her gaze coyly. She didn't know what the other girl meant. Her own herbal scent was probably masked by the sulphuric and copper sting in thier noses but hoped they would discern that a little slip like her wasn't going to be any trouble by any means.

"I was just wondering if you knew what happened here? The way the trees seem to be wasting means this is a recent change!" Morwenna remarked and pointed her ear to a nearby leafless tree. "I've never seen anything like this!" She said and turned away from the pair to look again at the strange island around them.

She skipped. Dread felt an eyebrow creep upwards, muzzle hanging possessively over Deluge as he takes the stranger in. Ethereal, strange. Allowing his posture to loosen up to a degree, curious. Lithe, pretty, but small. Watching the way her gaze slips away. A little chuckle echoed from his chest as she spoke. No, he supposed she wouldn't. A toss of his dark head, allowing his crystalline quills to glimmer in the sunlight. The eerie green doesn't suit him.

Her questions are about the landscape, and Dread hums softly as he moves from Deluge's shoulder. Though his steps are long and ground eating in the stranger's direction, the young man's posture isn't threatening. He remains loose, stopping short from her, at another vein of particularly green sand. "If I had to guess," Dread scratched at it. Grumbling, he set the borrowed bag down, grabbing another palm envelope to scoop up the mineral-rich sand. "This is copper. As for why it happened?" He shrugged, looking to Deluge. He'd be the first to admit that she's the brains, after all. Gaze raking over what's his in a way that would scorch the walls, before reminding himself they're in public.
"speech"

When the girl mentioned she wouldn't cross the two of them, Deluge smirked suggestively knowing already that Dread would hardly take her response well, "Oh but yer could join us," she teased in a suggestive tone, feeling the way Dread's gaze raked across her. Discussion quickly moved to the trees and Deluge chuckled quietly, appreciating that not everyone wanted to play games with her.

She turned her attention to the surroundings, she wasn't wrong, one would expect the trees to be barren dried out hollows if the island had been like this for a long time. Her skin didn't like the atmosphere here and she felt she would have to take a long soak in clean ocean to be rid of the itch that came about when whatever made her fur glow got uncomfortable. Dread seemed to know what was making the soil green, as to when it occured? "Long before my time," She admitted, "An' I've never caught mention o' anythin' that coulda caused it, maybe it's jus' a real slow process? If its not always been 'ere, it woulda had'ter leach inter th' soil, right?" She questioned her companions, poking at another brittle grass that crumbled at her touch. "Maybe th' trees can access ground water deeper'n the leachin' an' they only get a big dose when it rains?" Given they were off the western coast and the mainland this far over was desert, she didn't imagine rain posed as much of a challenge as it would in the south.

"speech"

The way the marble woman spoke with a lilting accent was tantalizing and fun. Morwenna's cheeks grew warm at the teasing invitation and the low chuckle from the darker male. The healer's aubergine gaze caught the crystalline sparkle in the sunlight on the male, they would be a tremendous pair for a daring jaunt. The way the male gazed at his obvious prize sent the slender woman's chest fluttering. She only wanted to be owned for fun, she could never stay in one place or with the same folk for long. If it wasn't for the strange sharp smells of the island and the eerie green reflections of the sand casting a sickly pallor over them all, she might be truly tempted to see how the girl would keep that delightful invitation.

He spoke of copper as Morwenna watched him gather a particularly green patch of sand in a curious satchel. She really should find a way to carry things as her new acquaintances had. The marble woman sporting antlers between her ears spoke about how neither knew what happened but perhaps the copper was slowly leeching into the soil. Morwenna mimicked crumbling the brittle grass underneath her paw, it felt like tiny shards and not grass-like at all. She brought her delicate paw to her face to ensure no strange grass was causing a thorn. All she gathered was that it became a fine grain. When the trees came up Morwenna glanced at the subject curiously and nodded in agreement.
"I think you're right. It must rain here fairly frequently, so the fresh rain must be sustaining them, even a little." She remarked glancing up at the sky, then around at the surroundings again. There were no birds, no insects, no flowers, no snails, and most interesting of all... Even in the face of all this decay... no mushrooms. "Not a fungus in sight!" She exclaimed, again walking closer to a tree to see if perhaps tiny caps or slime molds would be more evident.
Nothing!

"I wonder if this copper keeps the mushrooms and insects at bay? Perhaps it keeps all decay away?" She wondered aloud, then turned to her companions again, "What are you - Oh! What are your names? My name is Morwenna, What are you gathering it for?" She nodded to the envelope now filled with the copper sulfate.

Speech

He's appreciative, if a bit lazy, in the way that he looks upon the woman. Deluge's stray comment leaves him bristling, hackles lifting along his spine. Barely stifling the possessive noise that builds in his throat, no. He's quick to finish packing his treasure for later, really so he can go back to standing uncomfortably close to Deluge and leering.

Deluge speculates as he folds the copper-rich soil into a tight packet, and tucks the packet away safely in the borrowed bag. They'd done a lot of travelling lately-- even though he was free of some of his older anxieties, he still found it tiring. Socializing too. At least he's been reminded that he's here for good reason, damn that woman needed supervision. Not that he'd have it any other way.

As he tunes back in, the girl is introducing herself. "I'm Dread, this is Deluge." He speaks for her, returning to his woman's side before continuing. Happy to show her off-- she's his, after all. Possessive. Right, he needed to come back down to earth, be social, try to keep himself in check. "If I bring our pack's healers gifts, they're less likely to poison me for being a shitty patient later." It's a joke, though Dread's delivery is dry. A smile tugging at the corner of his lips, a glint in his eye.

Ah, better to play it off than anything else, right? The look he slides to Deluge is curious enough, though he hangs possessively at her shoulder once more.
"speech"

Deluge nods when Dread introduces her and she offers the other woman a small roll of her eyes when he comes to hover again, a sidelong grin offered to try and put Dread at ease. She'd kind of... come to the opposite conclusion Deluge had, but she wasn't going to pull her up on it. The sooner they were off this island the sooner she could tease Dread for ruining her fun. She did very much love to taunt him, she couldn't wait until they went raiding together.

Snippets of lessons drifted back to her as she pondered over what Dread had mentioned the substance was. "I do think it can be used ter repel pests n fungus if yer inter keepin a garden, but I don' think it's recommended fer medicinal crops. Heard it makes a handy poison ina pinch, not that we're th' sort ter do somethin' so heinous..." Her calculating smirk and the heavy sarcasm that laced her latter statement left no question why she would be gathering it, but she couldn't speak for Dread. "I believe m' younger brother uses it fer pretty things too, trinkets n' the like. Mixes up ter a pretty colour, as long as yer not th' sort ter lick it." She'd very nearly done the same herself. If nothing else, the colour was quite appealing.

"speech"

Morwenna

Dread and Deluge, she wondered if they were born with those names or if they named themselves as such. Very heavy and hostile names that mirrored their physiques and style. She tilted her head at Dread's dry delivery, the joke flying over her, his fur nearly too dark for her to catch the faint upturn of his lip. "Oh no, I hope your healer doesn't poison their patients!" She replied worried, but she got the joke when Deluge sarcastically added her own joke,

"Oh! Oh, you two!" She tittered and threw her gaze to the ground and off to the right bashfully. It wasn't often she'd miss a joke so blatantly!

So the stuff was used as a fungicide, insecticide, poison, coloring agent, or dye. There were so many uses! How had they come across this information? They might have come here to this strange island just for this stuff and so had this knowledge to guide them, it made sense to Morwenna that way.

She also felt a little tired from the conversation, or was it perhaps the land affecting her? The copper sulfate might be in the air as they dig around and kick up the sands.

"Thank you so much for readily sharing your knowledge with me! I think this stuff is making my paws itch! I'll owe you a favor if we meet again Dread, Deluge." She dipped her head to Dread but offered a wink to Deluge, then she bounded off with a smirk, toward the mainland and hoped to wash off the copper-green sands during her brief swim back.