when a stranger calls

He was worried. Lia hadn’t come to the festival, despite showing a lot of interest in it. He thought perhaps her duties as Reaper had kept her at home, but Sirius hadn’t come, either, nor had Mortis, and he’d have thought Mortis would be really interested in the spectacle and fun of it all. But as the time drew on after the festival, he began to wonder if something had happened to his friend on her way home from visiting him.

He was a Dauntless of Valhalla now, and his duties had ramped up. His was among the strongest scents aside from Aurielle and Justice and Domari’s that lined the border just outside of the pack built wall, a scent warning that said the wall was indeed the border of the pack Valhalla. It stretched far into the west, on into the plains, and circled around the outer edge of the moorland, a shrouded dark line in the forever present mist and fog.

He padded silently through that mist now, well hidden from outside eyes. Up ahead a sing-song howl called for Valhalla, though he’d been hearing distant complaints and whines growing closer. Same individual, most likely. He nodded to Chrystal – awake with him despite the late hour of the day – and the owl launched, flying low and silent like a pale ghost, a swirl of mist accompanying her as she swept to land on the wall above the stranger.

Silver eyes studied the three coolly. Cairo circled around – well out in the misty lands and out of sight – to come in from the opposite direction the owl had come from, downwind of the trio. The scent of the Armada, primarily Sirius, mingled with a yearling’s scent, but it wasn’t anyone he recalled smelling. A newer wolf to the pack?

While Valhalla wasn’t Allied to the Armada, it had yet to give them trouble directly. That didn’t mean they weren’t next on the list to be raided after Aerie.

What worried him most, though, was that Lia’s scent wasn’t fresh in the Armadan yearling’s pack scent.

Finally, he strode forward on silent paws, doing his best to emulate the ethereal way Aurielle had of appearing before a visitor. He’d been practicing – and helping – with Ardyn, being a test subject for the fiery boy, and had been roped into doing the same at Ardyn’s behest.

He was fully armored, as ever when he was on patrol, a comfortable second skin. You never knew when you’d have to fight, and it was best to be prepared. He’d have probably been way worse off when he and Caelia had faced off with the lion.

He stepped into sight, deep sapphire blue eyes resting on the girl. He had little doubt that Aurielle would be along soon enough. His tail flowed at half-mast, level with his hips, a mark of station, but not full authority, and while he wasn’t boundlessly welcoming and bouncy, there was no hostility in his manner or posture, merely curiosity as he looked her and her friends over with a cock of the head as he remarked, “What brings an Armadan wolf to Valhalla’s borders?” Especially one Valhalla wasn’t familiar with.

He had seen this girl at the Festival, though, with who he guessed was Azure, with how similar the boy was to Mortis, sans wings and with thicker forelegs and spikes in odd places. The boy had either learned better manners or had been read the riot act about behaving while representing the Armada while at the Festival. That didn’t change the fact that he’d insulted – intentionally – the Valhallan Spirit upon first meeting her.

Her sunburn he noted, and he nodded to Chrystal, adding, "Chrystal, could you find one of the healers? Tell them it's for sunburn." The barn owl clicked her beak softly, taking off with a haunting screech and winging toward the packlands.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think