Unbreakable Survivor

Paws carried the girl once again towards unfamiliar land. It had only been a day since the young girl had been tentatively welcomed into Ashen by the shadow-clad Empress. The interaction between them hadn’t been the most pleasant, yet the girl understood why. It was a shaky welcome at best, and the woman had assigned her the rank of Peasant, whatever that meant. Ciannait didn’t understand ranking systems, didn’t even know why wolves had to be ranked in the first place. Though the striped yearling supposed it was to keep some form of order with a group of wolves.

The only rank the yearling knew for sure was the rank of Alpha — the leader of the pack. Or in Venom’s case, Empress. The other positions were a mystery to her. After she had been led further into Ashen territory, the girl had found a temporary den to rest for the remainder of the night. It hadn’t been a long rest, as it had been near the height of the moon’s rise, however, the exhausted she-wolf had quickly succumbed to sleep. It felt odd to be able to sleep so deeply. The luxury of a good night’s rest was something the youth had rarely experience while in the wilds. Last night she had felt safe, and allowed herself to sleep deeply; to truly rest for once in her life.

As the slender youth continued her aimless wandering, Ciannait remembered the water outlet she had crossed to get to the isle she had ended up on. Now, the earthen toned yearling was upon its shores once again, the sun risen to about mid-morning, not fully reaching the center of the sky. The air still held a crispness to it that each morning brought, yet it was quickly fading. Still, the air was chilled due to the winter season.

After some investigation the young Adhil realized the outlet was part of a river. A large one at that. Turquoise optics focused on the moving water, wondering if the current up here was harsher than the one she had swam. Haunches lowered to the ground as the child continued to watch the flowing river. A splash caught her attention auds perking upwards at the sound. Then another. And another. Brows furrowed as the yearling searched for the source, vivid eyes soon catching sight of a few fish darting past the surface for the briefest of moments.

Her stomach rumbled then, reminding Cian that she had yet to eat. Sure, there were stores of food within the pack lands, but the girl had refused to take from them. She didn’t feel right taking from the food stores yet. First the girl felt the need to earn her right to take from them. She was no freeloader. Besides, she had managed to survive on her own this long, why not add a few more days of hunting for herself? Soon the girl had carefully entered the water, the tips of her fur upon her stomach touching the water. The youth’s tail was lifted just over the water, keeping it dry as she attempted to cause as little disturbance to the water as possible. There Ciannait stood as if a statue. Watching. Waiting.

OOC || Sorry this is long, I got into it lol. I’m also trying to up her hunting skill a tad, hope you don’t mind!
”Speaking”
Thinking

Kuroki had caught wind of Ashen's new face and made a point of trailing after her, seeing what she was made of. He wondered what it was about Ashen that had drawn them in, as in his eyes it had a weird, mismatched vibe after since his sire had wandered off to do his own thing. Kuroki's feelings had muted overtime, he'd never been all that attached to the man so he couldn't say he shared his sister's sense of betrayal. But he got it, sort of. As much as a guy like him could, the sort who didn't seem to be phased by much at all. Caring only just enough to get buy, to not be a complete and utter prick. He slowed to a walk as the Grande branched off in two directions. One left and the other right. From the weight of their paw prints it appeared the newcomer had hesitated a moment, wondered what direction she ought to take. Whether she was curious or concerned as to what would happen next, where life would take her. Completely not fussed by such lines of thoughts, Kuroki moved with an easy slouch, slow and confident as he made his way closer to the riverside. She sat still and patient, eyes glued to the water. Yet another fisher, lots of them in these parts. "Fishing huh?" He said as he flopped to the floor, a decent distance behind her as to not spook her potential prey with his looming shadow. If she wanted to fish he figured he'd keep her company, judge her attempts and overall make a pest of himself. As he did best. How else to get to know someone, other than poking and prodding to see what made them tick. Or snap. "We used to keep the nets on Inu island, dunno if they're still there." He reached up a hindlimb and kicked behind his ear, no tact and no manners. "Hey, what's the biggest fish you've caught?"

Unbreakable Survivor

There was another flash, and right as the girl was about the thrust a paw into the shifting river a voice sounded behind her, throughly distracting her. Her paw hit the water with a splash, missing her target, a fire rising in her chest, a quite rumble leaving her lips. Though the stranger behind her hadn’t spooked the fish, he had spooked Cian causing the miss. The earthen toned youth had been so focused on the fishes’ movements that she hadn’t realized she had been followed. Fishing was an art in all reality, especially for a wolf with inflexible paws. Bears, and cats had it easy with their ability to slightly rotate their wrists, it allowed them to flick their paws in certain ways to grab, or claw, at the slippery marine creatures. However, she didn’t have that ability.

Instead of flipping out on the one behind her who caused her focus to break, the yearling simply glanced at the monochrome boy an expression surfacing upon her usually blank features that read no shit. If her fishing wasn’t obvious, she didn’t know what was. His eyes seemed judgmental, but Ciannait could careless. Let him watch her, let him judge her. These were skills she had not been taught, but ones she was forced to learn on her own. If the striped youth looked clumsy it was for no other reason than being self-taught.

As the girl stood in the river she returned her attention to the river and any movement she could find. Ciannait remained motionless as the water flowed around her, tugging at her slender limbs. Silver caught her attention once again and as she aimed, a paw slowly lifting from the water, her target moving closer, his words sprung out from the silence that surrounded the girl — again. This time he mentioned something about a net, but she wouldn’t let him distract her again. Her paw darted forward, smacking the fish out of the river and onto the shore where it flopped helplessly. She rushed at the blue-silver fish and bit into it to end its misery with her jaws.

His words continued while she held the fish in her maw. Turquoise optics stared at him. Did he realized how much of an annoyance he was? Judging by his mannerisms, yes, he definitely did. Ciannait dropped the fish she had just caught, and all expression left her shadowed features. ”Do you know when to shut up?” She asked, her tone deadpan. She wasn’t the best at interacting with others, and her reaction to his chattering probably made that very obvious. However, she wasn’t about to apologize, unlike with her outbursts when talking to the Empress. ”I mean seriously, it was obvious that I was fishing,” Ciannait rolled her eyes at him. She then took the time to fully take in the boy in all his obnoxious glory. He was indeed monochromatic, but there were hints of crimson in his fur which she found interesting. He also had horns peeking from his shadowed crown — and she thought her appearance was odd. Still there was a certain amount of boyish charm to him, and Ciannait shook her head as she shrugged ”Not much bigger than this one,” she admitted. ”You?” Cian asked, now curious.

OOC || —
”Speaking”
Thinking