A single paw placed before the next, her bodice swung from side to side, golden eyes transfixed on the world around her, missing nothing. Caution and bitterness lingered within the very depths of her soul, blood oozed from the infected wound on her back leg, she limped, but just barely. Her gait was fluid, languid, loose. She glided across the Earth even with the limp. She wasn't glaring, but an air of caution encompassed her. She trusted no one nor anything. Abused, she had been all her life, because of a betrayal she had not been a part of, her body bore the consequences. Her innocence, taken by any who sought a good fuck, her body broken down by tooth and fang. Scars littered her like a macabre painting and yet, she stood strong. Armed like a sentinel soldier against anyone and anything that might brush the surface of what she called her emotions. It had taken a few years and a near crippling injury to set her straight. Her pseudo-father had come at her with the intent to rip the leg off his teeth had torn through muscle, tendon, and God only knew what else, her best and only friend, Glinda had stopped him and Elphaba had finally grown the courage to leave. She would not be some monsters puppet, she would not be an instrument to be used for the frustration of others, she was stronger than that... she was better than that. She would not be some weak soul who cowered in the face of advisory. She was strong, in spirit, body and mind, and she would overcome her past. No one, would bring her down again. She had avoided the packs of this foreign place like the plague, at least for the time being, she had clung to the darkness and her own solitude, her odd coat coloring. Ebony and gray save for the white collar that wrapped around her neck and dipped between her eyes, had made her an outcast, a monster, and she had no desire to be sucked back into a life of hatred and betrayal, but avoided the packs... it was another form of running and she was tired of running. She stopped just shy of the Seracian border. She didn't howl. She never was a vocal creature, and eventually someone would notice her. She would start at the beginning and work her way about Alacritis. She would know each and every pack, potentially finding a new home, if one suited her. She would not allow her father to make her a phantom. She would be somebody, someday, she would be important, and he would rue the day he ever out casted her. This she swore upon. "Speech"

ooc; dated after his divorce and realization that Adette attempted killing herself.

Everything about him felt desolate, empty. He was not sure he'd ever get over this. How did one go about getting over leaving their love, the love they had purposely severed and then subsequently almost lost to a river? Still, Gerhardt knew every day he was stronger. He had been taken to the place where she'd tried to kill herself, only to find her gone. No wolf would move a dead body, there was no reason to, she must've been alive and taken in by someone, but Gerhardt knew not who. He almost wished he could pay his respects to her, to see that she was alright and safe wherever she was, but he felt as if he owed her, and would stay away if that's what she wanted. She needed her space, as did he. Not to mention he wasn't certain he could ever look upon her face again after knowing what he now knew.

He was safely back in his home, the man Rum was gone, and things would finally start getting back to normal. Normal, what was that, anyway? Gerhardt was sure things would be far from normal for a while, but he had planning to do all the same. Ludicael would be storming the borders in a few days for the makings of an alliance, and Gerhardt had little time to waste thinking about his own problems. Besides, there was another problem he needed to focus upon. Someone was at his borders. Not a call had been given, which meant the wolf was either mute, insolent, or foolish. Either one of the three was not a good thing to be labeled, but one or two were better than the others. The King pivoted and moved toward the scent drifting toward him, finding it to be feminine. A pang hit him in the chest, but he pressed on, he could not think of Adette every time a woman's scent crossed him. He would go mad if he did.

"Ah hello, I am King Gerhardt of Seracia - on whose borders you stand. What brings you here, my lady?" Words took on more of their charm and eloquence than they had in the past few days, he was getting back to his old self, or what was left of it.

"Speech"

Image by Ruelle.

Golden eyes flickered about the kingdom that lay open before her. The concept of territory had always made her curious, an invisible line that marked the land as belonging to someone, something. There were no barriers, no traps or ambushes set upon the lines... the entire concept was based upon the simple concept of respect. If a wolf did not respect such a border, such an acquisition, what was to stop them from crossing it? Granted they would probably be met with extreme hostility... but ah well. Her pseudo-father annhilated trespassers on sight. her injury was beginning to throb, the infection spreading. She grinded her teeth, face morphing to unreadable stone. She needed to treat it, a good long soak in the river perhaps, after she was done here of course. She couldn't leave, she had been resting here too long, her scent would be to prevalent and she had no desire to be hunted. Not again anyway.

Her eyes locked upon the massive brute that sauntered towards her, his purple eyes catching her attention before anything else. the first thing to enter her mind was how badly he would have been tortured for such an oddity... well that was easy, they would have been ripped from his skull. She spoke nothing as he approached, speech was not always her forte and he splayed his jaws before her slightly distracted brain could storm up anything halfway intelligent. Charm dripped from his maw like disease from a whores taint. She found herself amused and slightly caught off guard. Kindness, was not something she was oft accustomed too.

"Curiosity? Intrigue? Desire for truth? Pick one. I have heard many things from many tongues about the packs of these lands, I do not indulge in gossip I was curious about your rulings, from what I understand you are the only leader with any sense of honor and decorum, I came to see for myself if such was true." Blunt and to the point her words came with curiosity and little else. Too much emotion was weakness and weaknesses were prayed upon.

Speech!

She was black as night, and ten times as mysterious. He eyed her almost skeptically, but then quieted his gaze. He had no reason to question her, at least not yet. So far she had shown no hostility, nothing except her oddity of not calling out for someone. He presumed that perhaps she had not been here long, and had not had time to call out just yet. He would give her that benefit of the doubt, for now. The King reclined, seating himself on his side of the border, the invisible line that marked his land from that of the freewalkers. A smile painted his features as gentle and kind, and yet a fire burned just on the other side of his mask, a fire that had not been there before the events of a few days ago.

Tail flickered behind him as she spoke, giving off lyrics that were both eloquent and mysterious, leaving a lot to question. Ah, so rumors continued to spread about Seracia, and more specifically, its King. Gerhardt never ceased to be amused by these rumors, and was always intrigued by them. So, he had honor and decorum, he supposed the rumors could have been worse. "Thirsting for truth, well I can scarcely say there's any better place to find out about my nature than right here. What you have heard is true. In the Kingdom of Seracia, we regard respect and a sense of honor in our members." He wasn't quite sure how much information to offer to her. She seemed as if she were merely interested in the pack, but not necessarily intent upon joining it. Gerhardt did not mind answering her questions, but would only go so far in volunteering information. What still perplexed him is that she had yet to give her name.

"Speech"

Image by Ruelle.

Her tail would flicker behind her, just the tip. Twitching this way and that as if it possessed a mind of its own. Her golden gaze never left the burning purple. Her posture wasn't meant to be challenging or intimidating, she simply wasn't afraid of the king. Submission was not something she displayed easily, and while she did not wish to start an unnecessary confrontation, but she would not roll over for him either. Curiosity, or so it seemed, would be her downfall. She shifted slightly, redistributing her wait from her injured appendage. Half of her wished to gnaw the damn thing off. Surely one limb wasn't worth such a throbbing pain. She may have been cynical but she wasn't quite that bad. She displayed no sign of her discomfort except for the change of her stance. She cocked her head slightly to the right as he answered her, mimicking a curious bird. Her audits swiveled forward, eyes intent upon her target, she gave him her full attention, listening perfectly as he answered her. "I thirst for nothing but truth. Vagabonds who thrive on the nuances of gossip and ride upon the coat tails of embellished stories have a naivety that I have no desire to possess." She answered him swiftly. her face hiding more than she revealed. His words were inspired, she had thought he would drown her in soliloquy's of how magnificent his pack was, its workings, its laws.... humility, yet another rare trait. She found herself intrigued. "Respect and honor? Two things my past lacks entirely, I am... besotted at the concept of society being built upon such notions, would you elaborate please?" her posture remained gilded and guarded but her eyes flickered in insatiable curiosity. "Speech"

He wondered, as she shifted her weight, if something was making her uncomfortable, ailing her in some way. Still, it wasn't his place to question her movements, and so he let the idea drop from his mind. Violet eyes drifting back to her own golden orbs, Gerhardt would find it quite refreshing how much interest she seemed to be showing in Seracia. Not many came simply seeking answers, and even fewer came seeking answers about why Seracia behaved the way they did. The King would listen as she spoke on, her words only serving to further impress the man. She was a well spoken woman, surprisingly so, and the King respected that. She asked him to elaborate, and Gerhardt would be happy to oblige her with a nod of his head and the unhinging of his jaws. "It's rather simple, actually. We are a Kingdom based pack, meaning I stand as the King, and we have contessas and the like. Ranks are very important in Seracia, and they often become part of one's identity. This plays into the respect idea, because one's rank can gain them respect, or cause them to lose it. We pride ourselves on respect, and do what we can to treat everyone as we wish to be treated. Of course it's no utopia, and things do go wrong, but problems are handled swiftly and punishments are given justly. Everyone here strives to act honorably and to bring honor upon themselves, thus receiving respect in return. The two very truthfully go hand in hand." Not wanting to overwhelm the lass with too many words - as he was so prone to doing - the King digressed for the time being, waiting to see if her curiosity was satiated, or if she had further questions for the monarch.

"Speech"

Image by Ruelle.

She would show him no discourtesy, he had shown her naught but respect and ample grace and she would return the prospect whole heartedly. She was not a beast so uncouth and bitter that she could not control herself... no she had not expected kindness nor a calm demeanor and she had half expected to be chased from the borders before two words could slither from her jaws, but his honesty and his bluntness impressed her. She had never been one to beat around the bush or cut corners. She was blunt, perhaps, on occasion to the point of being rude, but she would never lie. She spoke only truth, such was her nature, or at least the nature that had been wrought upon her.

Her speech, perhaps was a touch eloquent and while she may have been a bastard child, she was still raised among royalty, intelligence and a good solid base knowledge was what she had poured herself into. She would never receive love and affection, so she dismissed such follies and turned her attention elsewhere. Her appearance was an abomination, her curse, one that she now bore silently. Beauty, forever more, would belong only to the ivory dame she called her best friend, Glinda. But she was far away and long gone and such ridiculous notions were put out of her head.

She became an immoveable stone as he answered her. She made not a sound, audits swiveling this and that, catching every pitch, every rise, every fall in his tones. She made sure to miss nothing and she committed his speech to memory. For a moment she was silent, the gears in her head spinning wildly as she thought over his words. She rose to stand, the structure was so unlike her pseudo-fathers pack... perhaps such a thing was what she needed, a brand new start, a new change. She contemplated her words carefully, mulling them over in her head.

"You have created such a concept yourself? A reigning king and his subjects? I have never heard of such an arrangement of wolves. A blood fueled tyrant is the only ruler I have ever known. Thriving on the death of innocence, the blood of youth and the heads of elders. Any weakness was seen as a reason for termination." She paused for a moment, eyes never leaving the amethysts before her. "You do not seem so unjust or cruel... that is strange but I don't mean it to be derogatory, simply not what I had anticipated." Truthful, she was always. She sucked in a large breath, wondering how best to make such a request. "If you will admit such a request, I would like the chance to prove my worth. Fighting for a cause of respect and honor... it tis a banner I would much enjoy wielding."



Speech!

"I believe I'm not the first to come up with such a concept, but I daresay it's not widely spread either. I'd supposed it's moderately used. I grew up in a pack much like this, but it was far more rigid and self serving than I allow Seracia to be. It was a decent home, but every pack needs improvement in some way or another." He would leave out the part where he'd been scorned from his home, cast out with his wife - ex wife - and had been forced to make a life for himself, for them. He would not fail, however, to include humility in his tone. Gerhardt did not pretend to know all the answers, or the right ways of doing things, he only knew what he knew and hoped that it would work out. So far, as Seracia continued to grow and prosper, he supposed his plan was succeeding. Now that he had successfully initiated a tie between Seracia and one of the largest packs he'd ever known, he had significantly less reason to worry about the future wellbeing of his home and family. She would go on to explain what he only deemed must have been part of her past, perhaps where she had grown up? It sounded horrid, and as she worded it.. unjust and cruel. "I am sorry to hear you have come from such a hardened place. You'll find things quite different here in the Kingdom." He may not know of her past, but he could promise it would never be her future, at least not in Seracia.

She went on to ask permission to join Seracia, to hoist her banner among the others and pledge her loyalty and honor to the Kingdom. A smile would creep across the King's face. He saw no reason to deny her, she had shown consistent restraint and pleasantries. "I would be honored to have you join the Kingdom, but I don't believe I ever caught your name?" He very well would need to put a name to his subject, and determine in what regimen she would like to serve. He'd recently redistributed the ranks into a whole new system altogether, and doing so had brought forth many new ways for members to be productive. He wondered what skills she might possess.

"Speech"

Image by Ruelle.

Again, he surprised her, admitting even his own kingdom had its flaws, such words would have never fell from her pseudo-fathers jowls. For all intents and purposes he may as well have been a God, never wrong, never inhibited, every word that fell from his mouth was law, the wounds upon her flesh, she should feel honored that he inflicted him... the urge to snarl caught her suddenly, she suppressed it. For a brief moment she wished she had killed him before she had vanished... but the thought was foolish, if she had done so, she would never have survived the journey here, they would have torn her to pieces. No it was better this way, they could curse and damn her to her heart's content, her visage would never appear again on their horizon. She nodded at his words, accepting them with grace, they brokered no response. "You need not apologize for actions you had no cause in. My past is riddled with deplorable creatures whose souls will rot in the lowest pits of Hades for the agony they have caused. I do not believe the word Banishment has ever been met with more exuberance than when I took my leave." Blunt, as always, she gave him a snippet of her past. Nothing substantial, but enough to sate some of his curiosity... if he had any. She did not expect him to linger on her past life, she sure as hell didn't. She couldn't change it, nor could he, looking to the future was the only logical thing to be done. A smile crawled across his face a look of...anticipation? Excitement? Curiosity? She stopped trying to read the purple orbs. They were distracting her, she focused instead on his words. He accepted her, as simple as that, yet another curiosity. She was nary more than a stranger. He knew nothing of her skills, habits, mannerisms... and he accepted her with such ease. Och. Such a strange land she had stumbled upon. Her ears careened forward as he asked of her, her name and for a moment she was hesitant to tell him. The title had brought her nothing but trouble throughout her kingdom. It was a term of ridicule and embarrassment... but she could do nothing about it, the title was hers and with a soft sigh, she offered it to him. "Elphaba and thank you. I had not anticipated to be glanced at twice, is there anything you wish to know of me?" If he was king, he had rights to her. Any knowledge she maintained was now his, she understood this completely, better to get all of one's demons out of the way in one shot, she preferred him to know where she stood. She remained outside the border, respectfully, he had not yet invited her into his home and she was not so foolish to assume an acceptance meant such a privilege. "Speech"

"Dear lady, why on earth would anyone seek to banish you from their presence?" Of course, the question was more rhetorical than anything else. Gerhardt was everything but prying, and would not snoop in her business unless she offered it up for examination. It seemed that she would not, so the King did not migrate further. Instead, he allowed his violet optics to grace the land behind her, noting how often he had seen it, but never really looked at it. The terrain did not shift dramatically to mark the King's land from that of the vagabonds, not as one would suspect, anyway. There was a gradual slope, one that the wanderer would not notice easily, and a slight shift in the substance that made up the terrain, but overall.. it looked very much like the land claimed by the Kingdom. He wondered, out of vague curiosity, what had led him to mark his borders here. He supposed it had just been second nature, perhaps something had led him to believe he could hold only so much land, and thus he had drawn his line. Whatever the reason, the land he stared at now was not his, but very much hers. He would ponder over it for a while, before her words brought him back to the reality that was Kingship.

"Elphaba." He would recite rhythmically. It was foreign upon his tongue, but would not be for long. She inquired if there was anything he needed to know about her, and the King pondered for a moment. "I usually ask this, but I fear it can be a difficult decision at first. You may think on it if need be, and let me know in a few days time. I believe the most important information I would need from you is any special skills or passions you have that would serve to enhance or otherwise improve the Kingdom?" The King sought diversity and cohesion, two things that supposedly might not go together well, but he had a means by which they could. Whatever her skills, whatever her chosen task or regimen, the King had a place for the newest Clergy Elphaba.

"Speech"

Image by Ruelle.

His question fell upon her ears like a death sentence, her ears pinned against her cranium, and her face steeled into an expressionless mask of indifference. Not... that she had expressed much before but the choice of topic was not her favorite and clearly this was so. Whether it was aggression or sadness she felt on such a subject could not be read. never the less, she had pledged her loyalties and he had asked, so she would answer. Tones hollow and devoid of emotion. "My mother was the Arkhos wife. Our version of a King. She was an easy woman, manipulated by lies and false accusations, she was besotted by a rogue with a clever tongue, during her heat she bred him twice. She was the color of fresh snowfall as was her mate. Their clan prided themselves on a pure bloodline, untarnished by color. As you can see I am no ivory beauty. From the day I crawled from my mothers womb I was a slave. A toy to be tinkered and played with whenever they saw fit. I snapped back with tongue and recieved my banishment." She would not speak of how many times they raped her, how many times they destroyed her body to the brink of death. She had spoken enough.

Her name would fall from his maw as he tested the weight of the foreign word. Her name was not of this land, nor was the accent that most carried with it. It was a strange name, bizarre. But she made no further comment. When he answered her question asking what skills she harnessed she answered swiftly, still not put off by the direction their conversation had turned. "I poured myself into knowledge. Minimal skills at best with herbs. Endurance of pain. Strength. Stamina, and I have been in more fights than I rightly care to admit. Any number of these skills I could bring to your kingdom, but I will conform to whatever you wish of me."

Speech!

He hadn't truthfully expected an answer, but when one came he listened with perked ears. The King was not one to question heavily, but if information was given he would certainly retain it. She was the product of an Arkhos' wife. They prided themselves on snowy white creatures, of which Elphaba was certainly not. Gerhardt was appalled by this notion. How could anyone discriminate by coat color alone? Still, he would hone in on her next set of words which followed his line of questioning. The King shifted his weight slightly, listening intently to her skills, talents, and passions. It seemed she was a jack of all trades. Funny, how many things she claimed to know or be good at. "I'm sure any number of your skills will be useful, but we need not worry about that right now. You'll need time to settle in, and get to know Seracia's members. You'll find we'll be holding a pack meeting in a few days, and in about a week we'll have a joint event with another pack - Ludicael - in celebration of a new alliance." He paused, standing to his paws and pivoting toward the territory, tossing his head in her direction to lay his eyes upon her once more. "Feel free to enter your new home, and have a look around. You'll want to choose a place to sleep. Many in the pack sleep in the middle of the territory, near where the delta widens into a pool, but you're welcome to make your bed wherever you like within our bounds." He would offer her this last piece of wisdom before drawing himself further into his territory, slowly in case she had any further questions.

Exit unless stopped.

"Speech"

Image by Ruelle.

Her eyes would darken, gold fading to a shimmering topaz as he beckoned her into his home. She would move instantaneously. The dame would not have to be told twice. His words rung through her skull. A jack of all trades she had been forced to become, wounds had been allowed to fester, she treated them, she dug the debris from gaping wounds, she defended herself, she survived. Her lips would part, words just as detached as before spilling from her maw. "Do not mistake my words for mastery of any skill. I fought to survive, I sought herbs and poultices to keep my wounds from festering, I hunted to nourish my body. I am a survivor, I do what is required to be done nothing more. There is always room for improvement." She was not perfect, she was not pristine, nor did she claim to be. She was what she was and nothing would ever change that. Golden oculars would dip in appreciation at his kind words. For a split second, she paused, the limp had returned but she ignored it, her attention solely on the wolf she would now call King. Something burning with fierce determination and an unbridled passion churned like lava within the depths of her eyes. "I will do nothing to make you question this judgement. You have my loyalty, tooth, nail, and body should you ever require it." With her peace spoken the dame would slink away, limping only slightly on her damaged leg. Determined to memorize her new home. -Exit Elphaba unless stopped- "Speech"