The illness, this plague sent by the gods to punish them for... what? Katja was sure it was to punish the non-believers of this land for their blasphemous ways, but she had grown quite fond of Raisa and her children and had no wish to see them struck down in such a way, so she had spent long hours fasting and preparing herself. She wished to offer herself to Raisa as a sacrifice to the gods for the life of her sick child, but Raisa had been hard to find lately, her time worn thin in trying to lead the pack through this hard time, so Katja had made the sacrifice on her own.
Tracking just beyond their borders she had come across the scent of a big, vicious boar, and brought him to bay. They would battle, she and the boar, until one or the other were dead - or both. The gods would take what they wished as sacrifice, and if it were her life that would be lost so be it. But in the end she had prevailed, though barely and with many wounds inflicted by the dangerous animal's tusks. Surely the gods had found the wily old creature to be an acceptable sacrifice?
Despite her wounds she had taken it upon herself to drag the hefty beast back into Ebony's territory. The pack had been growing lean and hungry of late, the healthy members of the pack wearing themselves to the bone in an attempt to both care for and feed the ill members, and the large amount of meat on the boar would be a welcome feast. It took her a good amount of time, though, with many rests. Blood loss made her light-headed and unusually giddy.
She'd gotten the boar quite close now, over the lake's border and approaching the main pack territory at the rock garden. That was when she heard the call, a howl summoning Raisa in her official capacity as alpha. Immediately Katja dropped her hold on the boar. It was her duty to see to Raisa's safety, and though she swayed on her feet from exhaustion and was covered in mud and blood - both hers and the boar's - she would answer that call.
But as she approached, her sharp eyes detected no sign of Raisa - only the two strangers waiting on the border. Not a good ambassador would she make in the shape she was in, so stopping out of sight Katja rolled around in the reeds to remove the worst of the gore marring her silver-ticked coat. Without a dip in the lake she would not be fully cleansed, and the wounds sustained in her fight were still leaking blood... it offended her dignity to be seen in a state of such disrepair, but it was better than leaving them to cool their heels until Raisa was able to pull herself away from her daughter, and who knew what trouble the pair could get up to in the meantime.
Standing and starting forward once more, she made her slow - because she was still swaying on her feet and feared simply tumbling to the ground if she attempted a faster pace - way toward the pair.
"Heil," she greeted. "The empire of Ebony receives you. Katja Finnvi, a high lady of Ebony, am I. Something you wish, is there?" The title of high lady rolled strangely off her tongue, the first time she'd claimed it and she would have felt much more comfortable claiming her previous rank of ebon knight had she not felt her current one would appease these visitors more. Despite her dizziness and the discomfort of her wounds, despite the gore that had not been completely scrubbed away, she held herself with dignity and authority as she regarded them both with her mercury gaze.
"Speech"
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