With the wind and snow whipping around him visibility was nearly nonexistent. Grimly aware of his situation Aku pressed on. A blizzard had cropped up suddenly which wouldn’t have mattered much if there was shelter to take refuge in, but the landscape around him was barren. If he didn’t find something soon he would settle for digging a den in the snow and hunkering down in there until the worst of the storm passed, but it wasn’t idle as it left him open to cave ins and other snow mishaps.

A spot of grey high overhead gave him pause and he turned stinging, snow bleary eyes upwards. Something was definitely there. Something tall and sturdy looking. Whatever it was, it was his best chance at a shelter so Aku changed course and made a run for it. The snow was deep and travel difficult, but soon enough he found himself standing under some sort of archway. Tall spires at his sides offered shelter from the wind, but not much.

Hoping there was more to the structure Aku continued on between the spires in search of cover. Surely there was some fallen spire, some deep crevice or structure, that he could shelter in.

Now stuck deep in the depths of winter, Kiela was finding herself with some unexpected leisure time. Tracking the sizable caribou herd she'd come to consider her own had taken up much of her attention during autumn and early winter, but now that they were hunkered down - further in the southern reaches of the north than usual, thanks to the strangely intense winter they were experience. The herd was faring well but needed little in the way of protection, at least as far as she was concerned, at least during the coming weeks. With a bit of free time on her paws it was no surprise Kiela took to exploring even further north than she'd gone previously, to where land - or ice, rather - met the sea.

Trekking through a blizzard wasn't something new to her, and though part of her felt quite at home here, with the wind whipping flurries of snow all around her, another part of her - one that she likely would never admit out loud - wished for some reprieve from winter's grasp. The season seemed to be stretching on endlessly, though she could only hope it would make the herd stronger for it in the spring. Such extremes had a tendency to cull the weaker members and ensure the group would grow stronger for it in the future.

Somewhere in the distance she'd seen a massive tower, one seemingly made of ice, though it was hard to tell with the heavy snowfall that had started to intensify suddenly. Plowing through it was one thing, but the limited visibility it offered was the most difficult obstacle of them all. Already Kiela felt her face aching from having to brace it against the icy wind, and her legs similarly began to feel fatigued from the depths of snow she was trudging through. The thought of shelter was becoming more and more appealing the closer she got to it. She was so focused on her journey that she hardly noticed another wolf lingered nearby until she was nearly upon him. Well - he was still a good distance away, but closer than she expected. Kiela let out a loud bark, her often-preferred greeting, letting the sound ring loudly over the wailing winds that circled their heads.

The further in he ventured the clearer it became that a suitable shelter was somewhere to be found. Through the snow suddenly loomed walls and arches, and yes, more ice spires. Aku had never seen anything like it. It was an amazing, breathtaking structure and he couldn't help but wonder how it had come to be. Surely it hadn't grown like a tree, spewed forth from a volcano, or been whipped into that shape by the wind, so how then? All he could do was marvel as he skirted the outside.

A bark rang across the spires and sent them humming with an ethereal vibrato. The sound caused Aku to jump and look up first at the spires in wonderment and then around in search of the origin. His eyes fell on the tall, dark figure of a woman. She reminded him strongly of the wolves back home, but he'd come along way so he dismissed her similarities as mere coincidence. "Hello!" he called back before casting a significant look at the spires. "With the storm it's near impossible to scent boundaries. I'm not trespassing, am I?"

This world was beautiful and strange, far stranger then her homelands. Kiela felt constantly awed by the sights all around her, and this place was no exception, though it was hard to really make out her surroundings with the storm brewing all around them. Pillars of ice shot straight up toward the sky, like nothing she'd ever seen before. Perhaps this was a siedi, and this place offered a direct link to the spiritual plane. Kiela had never been as finely in tune with the spirits as some of her kin had been but she knew immediately this place was sacred, and she immediately felt humbled in its presence. She was lucky to be here, no matter the circumstances, and anyone should feel the same.

It was hard to make out Aku's features at first. He blended in with the falling snow, but she focused on the darker grey markings of his face as she drew a bit closer. It seemed he'd found minor shelter between the spires of ice and she was content to take advantage of his discovery. Even allowing herself a brief moment of recovery here would let her endure the rest of the storm more easily. "No," she answered back quickly. "I do not think so." Kiela corrected herself. A place like this was not meant to be claimed, as far as she was concerned - but she did not control other wolves, as much as she wished they all followed the Jarvela way. "Though if you are, me too," she added, offering a rare, short laugh. She'd take the risk at least. So much of the northern lands seemed uninhabited though and she thought it more likely that no wolves lay claim to this place.

His ears detected a strange tinkling sound and it took him a moment to figure out what was making it. Aku happened to notice snow hitting one of the spires behind the woman. That was it. The snow was striking them and causing the ice to sing. This place just got stranger and stranger, and Aku was reminded of a hallowed cave back home. It had a similar ambiance; a distinctly ethereal feel just slightly out of tune with its surroundings. That was the mark of sacred ground.

The woman was quick to put him at ease and despite the frigid, howling conditions Aku was quick to smile at her words. "Good, I wasn't looking forward to going back out there," he joked back. Knowing she had to be there for the same reason he stepped back to invite her into the cluster of spires. It wasn't much and she could still expect to get wind whipped, but if she was careful with where she stood she could avoid the worst of it.

"My name is Aku," he said as he stepped to the nearest spire and placed a paw on its icy side. It was frosty and caked with loose snow that brushed away at his touch to reveal a smooth surface below. Interesting. "I'm just passing through. Might have missed this place if not for the storm. It sure is something else." He couldn't begin to guess at its purpose or significance, only marvel at the strangeness of it. Hopefully nothing nefarious lived here as he really would hate to go back out in the elements.

There was something decidedly spiritual about this place and Kiela decided there was little, if anything, that could convince her otherwise. The sudden sound that echoed around them only proved her opinion further; the sound was ethereal, entirely unlike the ambient noise that accompanied a storm. Those noises were familiar to her while these were not. For a moment she was distracted by the noise, head tilting up to the sky and eyes squinting against the falling snow to try to see the source of the sound. It became apparent to her that it was caused by the snow against the structure at least that was her best guess without seeing it happening directly.

She was glad this place seemed uninhabited. All the better to share it in peace, even in their current circumstances. "Me neither," she admitted lightly, voice lifting over the howling winds that echoed in the distance. Carefully she veered closer to Aku and the slight structure he'd found himself. It was minimal cover at best - the structure in the distance seemed encased in thick ice and entirely impenetrable, at least from what she could see from this distance and through the thick falling snow - but it was better than nothing. "I am Kiela," she introduced herself once she moved closer and gave her coat a quick, hard shake.

"I - do the same." Her accent hadn't quite faded since leaving her homelands and her slightly uneven lilt was evidence enough that this was not her native tongue. "Just passing through. It's quite the winter, is it not?" It was significantly more merciless than the last she'd spent in Boreas, and though it was strange it wasn't all that strange. The seasons moved in cycles, rising and falling like the tides of the sea, often in ways she could not begin to grasp.T here was no doubt some type of pattern to if even if she could not decipher it herself.