Sit By The Hearth and Thaw Your Bones [Audra]
Ardyn
Master Fighter (250)
Master Hunter (240)
Knight
Bloodletter
6 Years
Male
1056
BrienaSkysong
| Ardyn Cadeyrn Aodhán Phoenix Adravendi |
Ardyn padded ahead of the older wolf, keeping his pace at a level so that the much smaller wolf wouldn’t have to scamper or scuttle to keep up with him and his long legs. Now and then he checked back with a grin. Soon enough, the moorlands and their shrouds of mist faded behind and the plains with their grasses that grew taller than even himself in places.
Well-worn paths and trails, some paved here and there in patterns as if different methods had been tested out for pathways. The plains were vast, mostly flat, but at their heart rose a single notable hill, and the only heavily wooded area in the land.
He deviated from the path onto a narrower trail, passing into the trees, mostly deciduous, riddled with bushes and shrubs. It was full dark and he was a beacon in the night as he led the way, then cut left into the hill, down a ravine that rose higher on each side, the ground soft under paw, especially as the walls widened out abruptly after a time, leaving the ravine almost open, a latticework of vines that were dormant, waiting for spring, crisscrossing the soft, sandy spot. A trickle of clear, cold spring water fed into a pool at the base of the stone ravine wall to the right, and ahead three natural steps led up into a cave.
“This is the Seat. Most of my family have alcoves here, but there’s so many the rest are open to mothers who wish to birth here, and healers. My great, great grandmother Erani found this place when she was about to birth her own litter and it became her place in the pack. She was the Lead Healer to that Valhalla, and so it also acted as an infirmary for the injured or ill.”
He stepped up into the cave’s main chamber, fiery glow glinting off the veins of gold and silver in the black marble walls, touching on the white of the polar bear fur that hung over the alcove he’d been born in that his mother still shared with his father, and occasionally one of his siblings or himself if they felt the need for closeness.
He gestured at the openings to alcoves that lined the chamber, and the darker entry at the back that led deeper into the hill. “Most of the ones on the left are open. Take your pick.”
He grinned at Audra, stepping back and taking a seat on a bearskin rug, reaching to a stack of writing supplies as he let her decide on her own, though he was watching to see if she needed any help as he scratched out a passage of script on the parchment.
Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think |
Ardyn at first glance is as black as can be imagined with a raven sheen.
Closer inspection proves that he shimmers in fire tones in every hair on his hide right down to his lashes.
More obviously, he glows like a bed of coals and flames with every movement and brush of fur. His tail is usually wagging, so blazes like a torch.
His adult teeth are in and his saber canines have grown to their full length (see profile). His mane and tail hair have grown to full length, as well as being lightweight and easily buffeted by breezes.
A look at his front paws will give the impression of hands, with his dew claw dropped low and lengthened into a functioning thumb, and his toes elongated into fingers. He has retractable, solid black cat-like claws on every paw.
Ardyn has developed a glowing mast of intricate markings in fire and ice colors over his face, symmetrical over the last seasons of Year 17 (see profile for details). During hunts or raids/sieges, he will smudge them out with black soot to cover the glow, otherwise, they are bright enough to note at first direct glance at his face. Not all his artwork currently portrays the mask markings.
He is also often bedecked in beads, small bells, feathers in blues, ribbons and braids thanks to the Ooze Event of Halloween 2021, and the Coathanger item that he got. The accessories generally are seen most in his mane and tail hair. He removes the brighter items and bells for hunts or battle.