Modesty had been ripped from her sleep by the sound of cracking timber. A quick check of the treehouses let her know it wasn't within the relatively sheltered ravine, its steep slopes providing a natural buffer to the violent winds, but that only heightened her anxiety. If it hadn't been here, then where was it?

The storm bore down upon the ocean with a fury matched only by the wrath of ancient gods. Waves rose like monstrous beasts, their crests crowned with frothy white fury as they crashed against one another in a cacophony of chaos. Lightning lanced across the brooding sky, illuminating the churning waters below with its jagged brilliance. The wind screamed through the air, tearing at trees and whipping the sea into a frenzy. Amidst the tumult, there was a sense of raw power, untamed and unyielding, as if the very elements themselves were engaged in a primal dance of destruction. In the heart of the tempest, there was a beauty too, a wild and untamed allure that beckoned with a siren's call, drawing the fearless and the foolish alike into its perilous embrace.

Perhaps it was that call that had the heavily pregnant leader pacing along the beach, eyes squinting against the onslaught of frigid rain, the weight of it cutting visibility across the passage towards the Hallows, the castle obscured by a heavy haze of grey. As if in answer to the unyielding thunder overhead, the small lives in her belly stretched and kicked. She could hardly discern their fluttering from the butterflies that danced in her belly at each thunderous boom.

Just as she was about to give up, and retreat back to the warmth of her treehouse fireplace and Jael, the first of the flotsam appeared. Lips tight, she lengthened her stride, taking in the planks and ropes, bits of broken timber washing toward the Fjord. Distant baying... Had Kenway been out in this weather? She wouldn't put it past him... And that certainly sounded like his dogs barking further down the beach.

Heart in her throat, Modesty did her best to hurry towards where the cattle dogs barked. Out there, being tossed by the storm stoked waters, floated a wolf, visibility too poor to tell who it was. Memories of her last labour, or almost drowning washed over her as she launched into the frigid water, not yet, there was still a bit of time yet, it wouldn't happen again. She'd be fine, they'd all be fine, as long as whoever was floating out there made it to land before they smashed against the rocks that lined the Fjord.

"speech"

He woke to a hazy world of black and white. The world moved beneath him, a sensation as familiar as land. But it was wrong, as well. He would barely feel his body, soaked in frigid water and stiff with salt. He remembered… a flash of a storm, the cry of hurrying wolves. His brothers… he tried to sit up, to look about him. But it hurt so much. All he managed was a slight lift of his head and then it fell back to the board that sheltered him.

Shipwrecked He remembered it now, the furious battle for his life, floating in the vastness of the sea. Waiting for death to take him, but just a little too stubborn to help it along. He licked his cracked lips, but his throat was so dry he felt everything sticking together. He swallowed once, painfully. All he could taste was salt and blood.

Why hadn’t the ocean taken him yet? He knew they were far from land, in uncharted territory. There was nothing else for him here. It would be so easy to just… let go. To slide off the board, and find his brothers along the rocky ocean floor. He blinked slowly, finding the temptation in the idea, but realising his body was so stiff he wasn’t sure he could manage even that much.

A flash of colour amongst the dark stormy sea, vivid and bright. The more colourful a thing was, the more deadly. A poisonous octopus, come to wrap it him in its meany arms? At least the blue ringed would be a quick death. Quicker than this slow waste-away as the salt and sun leached all life from him. He reached out a paw slowly to the colourful death, and smiled in the face of it. “Beautiful” He whispered on cracked lips.

"Speech"

It seemed her movement was all that was needed to prompt Kenway's girls to do what they were born to do. The waves were brutal, but the winds were easing and as the stranger reached towards her, Modesty paddled to the back of the scrap of timber. She braced her front paws against the board to push from the middle, a cattle dog on each side to nose punch the corners of the makeshift raft for steering. She hadn't even thought to call for help before diving in, she could have had more help than the two small dogs, but as always, they seemed to have energy to spare, the red one snapping at the caps of waves when she wasn't needed for steering.

Finally her paws touched sand and it became easier to push the little raft up onto the sand. The dogs bounded from the water barely pausing to shake before a rare, silent look was shared between them and they were careening towards the Moor. Ah shit, the goats must have been spooked by the storm.

A stitch in her side, cough tearing from her lungs with the icy water that had permeated her coat, she finally got a look at the wolf on the raft. Too large for her to drag him back to land in her state, but alive. She kept a paw on the raft to make sure a wave didn't drag it back to sea while she tried to catch her breath. "Don't tell me I put in all that effort to fish out a corpse," She tried to joke as she poked at the waterlogged wolves shoulder. "If you can stand, we should really get out of this weather..." If he couldn't, well, she was sure she could call for Sakana and Deluge to help her move him.

"speech"

The colourful octopus reaching for him shifted and changed in the haze of the stormy rain. The many forms of it converged into the shape of one as a wolf formed in its centre. He realised now that it had always been a wolf, as she pushed her paws down on the centre of the board and pushed it.

He knew he should start to have questions about now. Where this wolf appeared from, and how they came to be here. Instead, he put his head back down again, and lost a few moments. The wind sounded a little different now, and the ocean felt as if it was beating against something. Shore, they had found shore. How close had he been to salvation, and for how long? He’d been on the verge of giving up when the woman saved him. Where was… He remembered to open his eyes, and he found her once more. She was breathing rapidly, worn out from her rescue.

“Alive.” He croaked as she pushed at his shoulder. “Goo… good idea” He agreed weakly, letting himself fall off the raft now, and found sand beneath them. She had pushed his raft up to shore. He tried to stand, and fell back with a soft cry. Something was wrong with one of his paws. He tried again, keeping his weight off the front right one. He staggered like a drunken shoulder. “Where…” He tried to ask her, too parched and hurt to be more coherent.


"Speech"

When the man moved and spoke, she huffed a small laugh, sidling alongside to offer her shoulder for support. "Not far, just to the trees." Not that they could be easily made out in the gloom, but it wasn't far. She was grateful for the recent move, to the ground level den, that Kenway's dogs had expanded the space so there would be room for more bodies if needed.

"There's food, drink, and a fire at the end of it, so do your best, and if you can't make it, I can call for help and we can carry you. You're lucky I was out, I was worried one of the treehouses had fallen." She was prattling, to give him something to help him cling to consciousness. "You've washed up on the borders of Raider's Hollow, we're not normally so welcoming but under the circumstances..." She offered what she hoped was a reassuring grin, but it may have come out closer to a grimace as a cramp rippled down her flank. She breathed through her nose and willed whichever child was trying to reach the stranger at her side to settle. It wasn't time to meet the world yet.

"speech"

When the bright toned wolf offered a shoulder, he wasn’t too proud to take it. He knew he wouldn’t get too far staggering alone. He wouldn’t have gotten anywhere at all, in fact. She had saved his life, and spared him the fate of his brothers. A wave of sadness and ‘what ifs’ pushed through him, but he was too tired for it to linger for long. He knew what his mother would say concentrate on the living and right now, that meant himself.

As he moved along, his saviour spoke, mentioning fire, food and drink which made his stomach grumble and his dry throat burn. Soon, soon. He kept his focus forward, trying not to lean too hard on the taller wolf as they staggered together along the beach. She continued to speak, her words that of treehouses - an odd concept to him - and the name of what he must assume was a pack. A Raiders Hallow, had he fallen in with pirates?

It took a shameful amount of time before he realised the state the as of yet unnamed stranger was in. He gleaned over at her, and then did a double take. “Your fit to burst” he grunted, which wasn’t the most diplomatic approach to the wolf that had saved his life. But words were incredibly hard right now, and the pounding in his head didn’t leave much room for thinking.


"Speech"

A snicker left her lips at his statement, "We've recently moved here from islands, that was barely a paddle, and there's a little while before this lot will join us." Never mind she had almost drowned with her last litter, he didn't need to know that. "My name is Modesty, I'm the Raid Queen, and my mate Gilgamesh is the Raid King," She wasn't sure Gil would be up for introductions, "he's currently recovering from an injury, and our healers are quite in demand at the moment. We will get you seen to, but I can take care of the basics until they are free." She tipped her head towards the base of the tree where light flickered deeper inside the den. She sent a bark of warning to Jael and Gilgamesh, in case they happened to be up as well.

"The smaller woman is Jael, she's quite handy with injuries too, but first, we should probably get you some water before we hit the heavier stuff," She gave herself another shake before ducking into the den, sighing contentedly at the warmth within.

"speech"

His rescuer was able to fill in the silence a lot better than he could right now. She kept up a light conversation, even if it was mostly one sided. Good banter, and good at a rescue? It was almost a shame her next words pronounced her taken. Or perhaps not, he knew what he had just lost hadn’t had a chance to sink it yet.

“I’m only alive because of you… what's a little patience?” The joke fell a little flat considering how much effort it was to push it out of his parched throat. He was starting to shiver too. Cold, and shock bringing him back to life now that he was no longer dying. He was a little worried how much his leg would start to hurt once the cold wore off.

A long groan escaped him as he moved into the den and the warmth touched his brittle coat. He reached as far as the firepit and then sank slowly to the ground. He put his head on his uninjured paw and let the heat wash over him. He and Modesty would need to have a talk soon. He knew that, but there would be time for it. Assuming he woke up again, there would be time for it.


"Speech"

Modesty shuffled about within the den, gathering up a worn clay bowl and filling it with water, placing it within reach of the man (imagine being surrounded by water and unable to drink what was on offer? Some new sort of hell, she was sure). She pulled out some basic herbs to take the edge off his hurts, bitter willow bark and honey with chamomile, blended into a tea, alongside a bottle of rum that would warm his belly as well. Strips of dried fish and goat joined the spread before she shifted to settle herself at his back, lending her own heat to that of the fire. Shock could kill as quickly as any weapon, and it didn't take a healer to see he was shaking.

She draped her neck across his shoulder, a pointed look to her rabbit sending him out to brave the storm to get one of their healers to check in when they were free. The spikes along the back of his neck dug into her throat, but it wasn't any more uncomfortable than the crystals along Gilgamesh's spine. "Drink, eat, rest. Someone will be along soon," She offered in a surprisingly maternal tone. There would be time to figure out just who he was if he made it through the night.

"speech"

When the bowl was placed in front of him, Kes’ attention honed in on it like a hawk on its prey. He didn’t go for it immediately, but the urge to lunge at it was there. He forced himself to wait a few moments, until he had himself under control. When he leaned down to the bowl, he shuddered once and lapped quickly at its contents. He swallowed repeatedly, wetting his parched throat. The rest he drank until the bowl was dry.

When she began to add herbs and food to the pile, he looked up at her. He knew very little about her so far, but she had jumped in to rescue him seemingly without a second thought, and in a compromised position. Now, she was tending to his needs, watering and feeding him when he had nothing to offer in return. Nothing that she did not already unknowingly own.

His shivering grew more intense now that he could feel his body a little better. But he didn’t take the food just yet. He felt her settle in behind him, offering her heat to his own. “My name is Kestrel Snowcrest, and I owe you my life.” he said, those words loaded with so much meaning. He reached over and took the fish, chewing slowly. Knowing his stomach was empty, and wouldn’t be able to handle too much.

"Speech"