The sky had fallen. It wasn't the best of times, it wasn't the worst of times... it was the end of times. Over. All of it was game over, and she was not feeling all that well with it. She is a ghost of a different time and a different place, a different time. Salem feels strange as her graceful paws curse the ground, shivering to herself. Shivering, despite the height of summer. Not cold. No, not cold, just weird. Everything about the ghost is weird. Pale eyes, leaving her looking like some sort of zombie, as she looks out across the Steppee. She'd only just arrived in the east, touching down, curious. There was some sort of pack here, some sort of... well. Yeah, she supposed that even here, there were packs. So far away from the shores Salem had turned her back on, this one looks... not so different. It's by no means different, and she finds herself pining for it. Spirane had risen from the ground with rocky spires, the slate ground, all of it... looked like this. The breath leaves Salem's lungs as she stands on the edge, looking off, shivering. An absolute ghost. salem my name is blue canary

Chaos was patrolling the border. He'd been surprised to find it an entirely different proposition than when he'd just been a warrior in Raba's ranks. For one thing, the pride of calling it HIS pack hadn't worn off, so every step along the borders felt like a strut, and every time he stopped to refresh scent markers that pride boiled over into a stupid grin. Ok so the shiny hadn't worn off the whole thing yet - he was sure it would, eventually, after the days turned into months and the months turned into years of trying to hold the pack together and keep them moving and fed, and dealing with idiots both in and outside the pack, dealing with stupid alphas and what have you. He had a pretty good idea of what to expect from it all having watched his father handling Imperium's issues. But he wasn't going to court trouble before it came to him; he was going to enjoy the shiny while it lasted.

It was less likely that a loner would try to intrude on the forbidding peaks of the Maw, especially since he kept his den on one of the few safe passes into the territory, so while he still patrolled that border assiduously it was on the more welcoming steppe that the bulk of the patrolling was needed. That's why he found himself there when a scent reached him, a stranger's scent, and he picked up the pace to investigate. Long limbs carried him quickly and surely to the particular spot on the border, and he didn't know if he was more disappointed or relieved to see the loner safely on the other side of the border. It would have been fun to send an intruder running with its tail between its legs, but the pack was quite small yet and he couldn't afford to indulge himself when the opportunity to add to their ranks presented itself so conveniently.

So his demeanor was friendly and open as he approached the much-smaller female. Purely white, with weirdly pale eyes that made him blink and peer more closely at her. Were he a more superstitious wolf he might have thought her a ghost of some sort, but being Chaos he simply eyed the anomaly with curiosity as he came to a stop on his side of the border. "Hello there," he greeted without a trace of suspicion or caution. He could afford to be fearless around other wolves, not that he'd ever been anything but fearless in his life. Protective yes, and more than a little possessive but cautious? Not much. The other wolf hadn't called him, hadn't been looking for the alpha, but she'd gotten him anyway. Lucky girl.

"Looks like you managed to find my Crew. I'm Chaos, I'm the bossman here. Any particular reason you're sitting on my borders or are you just admiring the view?" His smile was every bit as much of an oddity as her weird eyes, though he never thought about how disconcerting it might be for others. A towering, work-hardened male baring fangs that went down past his chin, and it was supposed to be friendly.

Salem sees the man only when he stops to speak to her. Until that point, it would have been as if she was looking through him, watching something far in the distance. She's... sad? Melancholy maybe, is the better word. A young widow waiting for her husband to return from sea. Though she's flesh and bone, Salem's insides are less than warm. Things are strange. She's strange, and she always will be. "Oh, hello," she greets, a small lilt to her speech. Sounds much different, a hint of somewhere far away. He had... tusks? That's what it appeared, at least. Salem's head cocks to the side, interest painted clearly across her face. "Salem, nice to meet you." She smiles back, but it's... faraway. Like all of her, at the moment. Even her smile is sad. Only a ghost in the wind, but sad. A sigh curses through her system, it's visible in the way her ribs rise and fall. "I've just... just landed, just pulled out of the sea. This place looks like the one I've come from." Her pale eyes dance across Chaos's face, taking in the sights. If everyone looked like him, the pale creature would be... well, she would stand out like a sore thumb. Granted, she'd been a strange sight at home. Strange creatures in a strange land, Salem is openly studying him. Her tail wags, and she's friendly. "I'm sorry if I've intruded, I'm just... I didn't know where I was going when I left, so I can't even be lost." Her tone is gentle, the words metered, but they hang as if sad. Maybe she is a ghost after all. salem my name is blue canary

Yeah, she definitely came across as weird and not all there, but Chaos was unphased by weird. Hell he'd grown up around weirdos like Hati and Mercy, and his mom was probably not normal by anyone's standards either. Her airy not-there ghostliness was pretty mild comparatively. He smiled crookedly at her. "You're not intruding on anything. See, you're on your side of the markers and I'm on mine. No harm, no foul." He gave a proud glance over his shoulder to the steppe. Distantly, a herd of steppe horses grazed quietly in the lee of one of the ruins. The summer grass waved, softly lush. Definitely picturesque. "I guess if you don't know where you're going this isn't so bad a place to find yourself. Better than most." He makes modesty sound somehow more arrogant than most kings wear their pride. "So what are your plans from here, if you don't mind me asking? Going exploring? Finding yourself a pack?" It wasn't really his business, but curiosity was one of his besetting sins, passed along from his mother. It wasn't really small talk - if they'd been reduced to small talk he'd have just walked away. He wasn't really too concerned with being polite, in general. No, he was actually interested.

Dully, she aches for Spirane. They'd had mountain goats, and she'd learned how to climb among them. Strong, fast, surefooted, agile-- there was nothing that she couldn't do. The ghost was an unstoppable force when it came to where she would go. There was no holding her back. There never was. She gazes at Chaos, listening to his words, tucked among the lisp. A bashful smile creeps over Salem's face unsure of exactly what lies beyond. He's got questions, and she doesn't blame him. Not like she knows the answer either. "Pack protection is... important, if I happen upon one without too many restrictions, I'd not be opposed to joining one. I was the head messenger back home, the fastest in all the lands, so I knew it so immensely well. I'll need to get back to exploring if I want to do the same here." Her tail wags softly, eyes dancing with the not so far off memory. Everyone had known the ghost of a girl with the fast feet and weird eyes. As small as she is, Salem's whole build screams fast. Still, she quirks that smile at Chaos, shy. Meeting new people is hard. salem my name is blue canary

He smiled at her, cocky and knowing. "A pack without too many restrictions huh? Well, you don't have to look any further. Most of the packs here are uptight and proper, looking all sideways at anyone doesn't fit their idea of an upstanding citizen, and not one of them as capable a fighter as you can find in my Crew either. But here now, my Crew, we accept wolves for who they are, not try to stuff them into a mold of the Perfect Wolf. We just ask you pull your weight and it definitely sounds like you plan to with your talk of exploring and being the fastest messenger and all. You'd be more than welcome to stay here."

He tilted his head to regard her through eyes narrowed, not in threat, but in thoughtfulness. "I won't push you if you'd rather get to know the other packs before you make a major decision like that." His muzzle quirked into another half-smile. "Though I guarantee you won't find one like my Crew no matter where you go, here or Auster either."