Visiter beyond the wall

She, too, remained observant, noting as his own gaze followed her movements how his demeanor seemed to change at her question. A natural response, to be sure, coming from someone else whom had come here from another place; she wasn't even entirely sure what she'd do in his position, with such curiosity thrown her way. His brow creased, and for a moment he appeared to ponder what to do with it, but eventually he relaxed again, a small smile crossing his features. No harm in speaking of what was lost, right? Not if there was no chance of getting it back.

Roughened vocals let slip a name, Enterra, a similar title to what the wolves she used to know had called their home--her home--but one that was still unfamiliar. Karine sat there quietly while he maneuvered his thoughts, blinking once, her gaze soft with attention as he revealed to her the circumstances of his change of path. Drachen hadn't chosen to come here; the fates had forced him, ripped him away from what was comfortable to him. Lip twitched upward in a small, fleeting smile of gratitude for what he was willing to tell her, though she received his short story with an empathetic, "I'm sorry that happened to you."

He asked her, then, about her own origins, to which she responded with a deep inhalation and a thoughtful shift of weight between her forelimbs. When she was finally able to bring herself to relive the idea of her old home, the name rolled warmly, fondly, off her tongue. "Ethereal." She let it hang there in the air for a moment, the nostalgia giving her strength to continue onto memories both sweet and bitter. "It gave me everything--not without its trials, of course, but...I had a home, a crown, a family. Until a plague ripped through the continent and forced every known pack and healthy creature to scatter." Of course, that hadn't been how she'd gotten her scars--she'd have gone mad with sickness if she'd allowed any of the rogues to touch her--but it had hurt her in other ways. The chaos had taken everything from her that she'd held dear, much in the same way Enterra's great storm had done to Drachen. Her world had been upturned, forcing her to learn how to navigate it all over again. And she would, but she wasn't prepared for how long that might take.

"I've yet to find where else I belong since then," she went on after a moment, "but I must say, it's comforting meeting someone else who has." Or at least seemed to have done. Drachen surely seemed comfortable here. Karine was eager for the day she felt the same.

"