Ever since her father had called her to his attention, Mak had felt cowed into trying just a little bit harder. All of the hustle and bustle of moving - and then claiming a new territory - had finally slowed down. The girl was easily excited and distractible. It wasn't her fault that she'd let her training fall by the wayside during all of the commotion! But she was determined to impress her father, if only to get him off of her back just a little bit. She'd brought along a sack of materials which banged uncomfortably against her side as she went.

Makara slid her goggles into place and jogged along the shore of their soon-to-be new home. The view through the glass obscured the sparkle of the sand some. She grumbled to herself about keeping the lenses clean while she dragged her paws a bit in the sand just to enjoy the feeling of a different groundcover. The best part about moving north - in her opinion - was the general lack of grass. Her allergies had cleared up nicely and the goggles came in handy for protecting her sensitive red eyes from the glare of sun on snow. Once she felt like she'd gotten a good feel for the sand beneath her paws, she stopped and shouldered off her pouch on to the sand. Some heavy sticks and metal shrapnel wrapped with sturdy fabric at the ends rolled out. Sighing softly, she settled down and spread out her materials and set to sharpening some sticks.

"Hello!"

Wren chirped easily enough, bringing her own materials and such to the location. She dragged a leather bag full of shit she had acquired and now was eager to get started. Her leg was wrapped in moss and bandage, keeping it free from infection. Her words slightly muffled by the bag, she huffed a final time and placed it down.

"Hope you don't mind the company" she added to the Armada wolf, a girl she hadn't seen before "I'm Wren, and... I was going to craft some training dummies" she flashed an awkward but friendly grin to the white-red wolf "if you don't mind sharing the space..." She didn't know. Couldn't know. That's why she asked.

"If not, I can move back out." She offered this kindly enough to the girl.

"Speech"

"WEUAH@!!@@" Makara garbled as a stranger loped up beside her. The girl was the sort who got fully and entirely engrossed in her work when it began. She was made of simple stuff: a one track mind and a lot of words. "Omigosh I'm sorry for spazzing out, I just wanted to scope out this new spot since everyone's all crazy excited about it and it's okay I guess - well, who I am kidding - look at the sand! The sunset! The atmosphere!" she blabbed, her tail wagging aimlessly while she talked. Makara was known to run her mouth and even a stern look from her dad didn't always shut her up. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Beach is big enough for two! I'm Mak, nice to meet ya!" she added, thinking alongside in embarrassment: oh crap I've been dodging responsibility for so long that whole entire new breathing, heart-beating wolves showed up? Shit, shit, shit... Okay, okay, okay. Maybe her father was right, she was slacking. Majorly slacking.

"I've just been sharpening these sticks to take along on hunts, or to stockpile as extra weapons for raids. Just... y'know, lots of sharp sticks. Very sharp. Good to keep around. For things that that require sharpness." Oh, her mouth was like a runaway antelope. On and on it went, over the horizon and through the fields. Makara grabbed one of the sharpened pieces of metal around the hilt and began to scrape away the end of the thick stick, working it towards a point.

Mak, the, ah... what? Rank? She didn't have time to ask before the girl blabbed on and on about sticks and other things. Wren couldn't help but grin. "I used to live near a cove, so I get it" she replied when Mak finished talking about the location "it's a nice change from mountains, right?" Unaware she was speaking to a Princess, she continued cheerfully and as normally as possible. When Mercury called her a Queen-to-be, Wren sure as hell didn't feel like one.

"You could also make barriers with those sharpened sticks" she recalled the conversation about stockpiling and storage when they expanded to the Cove "keep out bad folks from raiding our inventory, yanno?" Or at least giving them a hard time "but you got a good grasp of ideas there, Mak" she added "for stick sharpness." Wolves could overlook simple things at times. She pulled out the straw and empty sacks from her bag.

Beginning to shove the straw into it, she tried to make the training dummies thick and durable.

"Speech"
1/3 - craft training dummies for fight practice

Makara never dwelled on her rank. In fact, the fact that Azure was her father rarely even crossed her mind, aside from the general feelings she had about him: he was grumpy and far removed from her daily life until he came around and made her feel guilty for not trying hard enough. And how did that work!? What right did he have? Probably had something to do with him being her parent, maybe. Plus, it was rare she encountered anyone she hadn't known since birth. Her allergies were so severe in their original lands that it had kept her mostly confined to the territories. Here in the north - well! It was a whole new game! Now she could scamper around freely without worries of itchy, bleeding feet or a runny nose (except when it got cold and her nose ran, of course).

She chipped away further and further at her stick. Although the work was simple, it was hard. It wasn't long before her jaw began to ache. Each stick was thick enough, about the width of her forelegs. "Mmm, yeah. I kind of hated where we lived before. My feet swell up in the grass, get real itchy... here I don't even have to wear my paw coverings! Except when the snow gets real bad, then they kind of come in handy for keeping stuff out from between my toes," she stuck a paw out and wriggled all of her toes. It was rare to see her feet not swollen and red. "This place is LEAGUES better! Best thing to ever, ever happen in my entire life!" she chirped. The talking break was what she needed for her jaw to feel a little bit better. "Oh oh oh yeah! Maybe dig a pit, hide these at the bottom... but I'd hate for someone to y'know, accidentally fall in. That would be bad.' Whittle, whittle, whittle. Ugh, this was going to take forever.

"That probably sucked hard."

Wren frowned at Mak's admission she had allergies. She never really met a wolf who did but was glad that the north was doing so well for her. The idea of a pit filled with spikes at the bottom caused her to second-guess, but Mak seemed to voice that before her. She chuckled, agreeing with the assessment. It would be bad for someone to fall in.

"Yeah, they'd probably chew you out for that... And me, for giving you the idea." Wren continued to make the training dummies. Once she finished with them, she'd prop them up using her own sticks. Maybe if she found paint or something, she could draw some scary faces on them? That'd be amusing, and it'd egg others on.

"Speech"
2/3 - craft training dummies for fight practice

"When did you get here, Wren? Did you come from far away? Have you seen lots of different lands? I've heard of some places that look, like, completely different," Makara babbled on autoplay. continuing to whittle down her sticks. She had about two good ones finished now and had planned to leave with at least eight. "Oh my goshh this is going to take foreeveerr," she groaned, dropping the sharpened knife for a moment to stretch her jaw and gab some more. "I haven't really been a ton of places? But I really want to?" She added, each sentence tilting up at the end with a questioning lilt. "My parents are like, super strict. Very boring. Very serious," she deepened her voice at the end in a very bad pantomime of her father. Makara sighed and picked up the knife again and restarted her sharpening. Truthfully, if she stopped talking for just a little while, she'd make much more progress.

"I'm not sure how big a stretch it was from Boreas and Auster to my old home" Wren admitted softly "all I know is I ran, really really far" The destruction of her adopted home, but the land she had been born into... she was sure was still there "my old home was destroyed. My birth land? I'm not sure. I haven't been there since I left as a yearling." There hadn't been a name for it, really.

She looked as Mak proclaimed it'd take forever to sharpen the sticks. Wren smiled. "Here, I can help you" she pushed the dummy to the side "I'm done with this guy; he won't become any uglier" Maybe she could paint a face on it, or an arrow "but I only came here at the cusp of winter, like the beginning of it" She added to Mak "if you want to walk around outside Armada, I can show you a few places."

She added this kindly, wondering if her parents would even allow it. "Who are your parents? Are you Fatalis too?" Wren gently prodded for information but didn't really care if Mak refused.

"Speech"