Heavy paws crushed the swaying grasses beneath their step. She left a wide swath through the grass, her bulk forcing a path before her. The giant of a woman was all muscle. Well honed and well used. The woman's form made her look like a man from afar, but up close there was no mistaking that she was female. If one caught her from her good side, she might have been considered beautiful in her own way. From her left side, however...  Scars littered the left side of the giantess's face. The eye that had once rested within her skull was long gone. Her left front side was riddled with thick, bluish scarring. It was obvious that the woman was battle hardened and had lived through many ordeals.

A scent upon the breeze had drawn her in this direction. A familiar scent. A scent similar to her own. Her daughter. The woman's only living child. Mixed emotions ran through the great grey femme. Iolaire had obviously made her way in the world. She was alive and her scent was healthy. The older wolf was torn. She didn't wish to intrude upon a life that she had no business being in, having been absent for so much of it. She did, however, wish to inquire about Iolaire's well being.

Coming upon a patch of trampled grass, the beasts dusty blue nose lowered. She inhaled lightly, testing the scent. Iolaire had definitely been here. Recently, too. A soft growl rumbled in the woman's chest. Perhaps she could find someone nearby that knew of the girl. Resin had some news to share. She didn't wish to see her daughter face to face. Not just yet. She doubted either of them were ready for that now.

"Talking" & Thinking

It wasn’t too often strangers came near the borders, so when his border patrol took by and he caught the scent, he paused, looking for its source to assess if the wolf was a threat, or simply passing by. The familiarity in the scent struck him at the same time as his caution. His hackles rose, and a snarl slipped free from his lips, and then he found her. His first thought had been the father, despite Io’s assurance that the man never left his homeland. She had told him her siblings, her mother, were dead.

“A ghost, at the borders of my Armada?” he asked the watching eyes as he found them. Eye he amended, seeing the scars that ran through one side of her features. He scrambled to remember what he had been told about this woman, this ghost who had died before he ever met Io. Or so his sister had believed. “The tales of your death were greatly exaggerated, it seems. Did you know your daughter believes you dead?” His voice held a hint of curiosity. He hadn’t yet decided if he should be angry on Io’s behalf, or estact. A selfish part of him wearied at this tie away from him. Would it be stronger than the one she had so recently created with him?

It didn't take long for a man to approach. A great beast only a few inches take than herself. He called her a ghost as so many had before.  It was a title that the scarred woman had always been proud to wear. Low, rich vocals,  accented just as her daughters tones were, slipped free. "Ghost indeed." She noted that he had said 'My Armada.' Interesting. 


Black backed ears swiveled forward as the brute spoke. Iolaire believed that she was dead,  eh? The woman gave her thick neck a shake,  the obsidian ruff swaying after the movement had ceased.  "It's no surprise." She had been absent from the girls life and for good reason. She was never meant to be a mother,  but had done the best that she believed she was able.  Iolaire was all alive,  afterall. The same couldn't be said for her son's. 

"Is she well?" Resin inquired after her offspring.  Surely this man would know.  She could practically smell the tension on him. "Say so and I'll be on my way." She'd only tracked the small female to deliver news.  She would not intrude upon the life that she had built.

That was all she had to say at the emotional tourmal she had left her daughter? His eyes were quiet, muted as he watched her. He let nothing slip through them, certainly not the intensity of which he surveyed this woman. She had given birth to a wolf he had come to love, but that did not give her an immediate path into the reclusive friendship of the Warlord.

That was all she wished to know, and then she would leave? Hmm, he wondered if perhaps he should keep her from doing so. She looked like she was no stranger to battle, but Sirius judged himself capable of taking down this warrior. But then, he had always had a swollen sense of his own strength. “ Well is a subjective term,” he would tell her, voice mild, despite the intensity of his thoughts.

His muscles tightened, just a little, but he made no move against the Mother of his sister. ”I will tell you that she has, in some ways, flourished in my care, If you wish to know more, you’ll have to ask her yourself.” He thought of her restless sleep, and whatever it was that kept her up. How some days she looked ragged and unwell, and at others full of life and joy. She was a wolf capable of love, and one who deserved it in return. His eyes narrowed upon the wolf, torn between the desire to keep away a tie that might take her from him, and the desire to bring her the news, to see for herself, that her mother lived.

There was no way that she could know may how much Iolaire had told this man of her past.  Even if she had known,  his opinion meant little.  He was a stranger.  An unknown. Nothing so far had swayed the woman to give him respect or time.  He hadn't proven that he was worthy of it. That didn't mean that she was writing him off.  She was simply an odd breed. Everyone started out on the same tier. The low tier. Then their actions and character would shift them to being worthy or not worthy. 

His words brought the ashen woman's brows together,  the action pulling upon the old scars.  Subjective, was it? Iolaire was either well, or she wasn't.  The brute claimed that the small wolf was thriving under his care and suggested that she call upon her daughter if she wished to know more.  "No," was the simple reply. "I'll not intrude upon the life that she's built." Resin had faith in the strength of her child.  She knew that Iolaire would succeed,  despite her puny stature.  She had been the most intelligent of her brood by far.

A gentle breeze stirred the grass around the pair of hulking canines.  A bluish tongue flicked once over serrated  fangs before she continued.  "I wished to get word to her. Her father is dead. She has nothing left to fear." That single,  sulfur orb rested upon the man's striped face.  "If you could let her know,  I would be in her debt. It will be her choice to seek me out if she wishes."

The giantess turned and gestured into the distance.  "There is a land of birds nearby. I will wait there for a fortnight. If she hasn't come to me by then,  I'll be gone." With a nod to the Saber toothed brute, the ghost began to leave.

Why had she come if she had no desire to see her daughter? Was it simply to sate her desire to know, and nothing more? Did it cross her mind that Io might wish for the same opportunity in turn? He was getting the feeling, rather swiftly, that this wolf would leave shortly. It left him in a difficult position. Did he let her go, easy as that? Did he stop her, and force her to remain, so that Io might get a chance to speak to the mother she thought dead? He had a feeling neither situation would go down well with his sister. He could keep her in the dark, there was a chance she might never know, and their lives could go on as they had before, but did he want to do that to Io? She deserved more, better.

“I regret I couldn’t rid her of this demon myself.” He said, a touch of bitterness in his tone. From the first moment she had told him, he knew he had wanted to kill her father. Should he be grateful that he was dead? Perhaps. But then, dead didn’t seem to mean the same to this family as it did to him.

Ah so she didn’t wish to vanish entirely. She was giving her daughter space to learn this news, and seek her if she wished. He surveyed her for a few moments longer, before he decided he could accept her request. “Very well, I will tell her all of which you’ve shared with” He would leave the rest to Io. if she wished to speak to her mother or not, if she wished her mother to stay or leave with or against her desires. Sirius would fulfil the wishes of his sister.

The animosity in his tone told her that Io had filled him in on her father.  He was dead.  It had taken three years,  but he was dead. The beast had been slippery as an eel, but his luck had eventually run out. This toothy man may have heard of the demon that was the father of her daughter,  but he didn't have a clue just what sort of monster Kage had been. 

Agreement to her request meet the woman's ears and she nodded again. "Thank you, " gruff tones rumbled forth. She stopped, shooting a glance over her shoulder to look in him with that lone eye. "I am called Resin, should we ever meet again." And with that,  she was gone.