"Speak"

Tara had landed on these lands only a few days ago, her paws hitting the shore thankfully, she had managed to get quite separated from her siblings and somehow found herself paddling in the ocean... which was scary for a wolf who'd hardly ever had much chance to swim. Luckily the horizon hadn't been water, water everywhere, there had in fact been a form on the horizon for her to swim towards. And after what had felt like two lifetimes, but couldn't have been more than a couple of hours she'd pulled herself onto the beach and nearly collapsed right then and there... if she wasn't afraid of the tide carrying her back out. She'd managed to drag herself into the hulking metal form that had helped to guide her. It proved to be spacious inside, though not every space she found helped to cut the wind coming from off the sea, the structure was in disrepair and though she had no words for it she could tell that the large panes of glass she found were not meant to be broken. But eventually, she'd found a dark cozy corner to curl up in and slept off her swim. Since she'd woken up a day later she'd spent time trying to find her way out of the maze, and struggled to catch her dinner. It had been some time since her last meal and while she wasn't starving yet Tara was worried about her own lack of hunting skill. Being separated from her siblings meant having to rely on herself and the poor woman had never had to do that before... It was exhilarating... and terrifying.

Once she'd managed that Tara had found herself much more comfortable exploring the island she'd found herself on. Thank whatever forces there were in the world that she'd landed here in summer. The structure that had acted as her beacon it turned out was quite small compared to the rest of the island and for the first day, she'd been conscious on the island she'd explored the thick forest behind her strange temporary den. The vegetation was probably thick normally but as it was now it was practically claustrophobic. The trees stretched to the sky, straining to absorb the sun's light, and were so full and lush they practically blocked out the sun to anything under their canopy, she'd been particularly confused how the shrub was so thick, but it also meant that prey was plentiful... which was probably a good thing for the inexperienced woman.

But today, today she was taking a better look at the strange unknown structures she'd been taking shelter in. She'd leave the building she was denning in for last, she'd already explored much of its interior already and she was eager to explore the stone structures outside of it. A tiled hole in the ground had caught her eye at first, it was filled with water, still and stale. She already knew it wasn't much good for drinking, the green growth on the walls of the hole should have told her that... It wasn't all seawater though... which told her it had once held water, though she had no idea if it was built to hold water... not that she could understand why it would when it was only a short jog from the beach. Rising above the water hole was a large sheet of an unknown substance, it stood on four cylindrical legs and she had to admit the hole made for a nice swimming place, sheltered from the sun as it was the water managed to be pretty cool, even in the summer heat. The roof over the hole was connected to another stone den, from the outside it looked similar to her temporary den but unlike where she'd found herself it was a much smaller building, diving into two branches at the entrance, she checked both and was disappointed to find both paths led to nearly identical rooms, large tiled rooms with strange items poking from the walls and beyond that tight rooms full of strange metal nooks, she wondered idly what animals had once nested in those metal boxes. The rooms had converged on a bigger room, but she'd found herself unable to access half of it, a strange flexible but strong material above a rise from the floor keeping her on one side of the room. Which ended up being fine by her, the other side didn't exactly look interesting.

So she would turn her attention to the strange form that rose out from the beach and into the ocean... wooden planks suspending her just inches above the waves and Tara quickly grew bored of this seemingly useless structure. She was struggling to understand some of what she was looking at, what things could have made these structures... and for what purpose? That was especially hard to discern as the vegetation had taken over the island and she felt was likely more vicious this summer than before.

So finally she'd turn her attention to the structure she'd taken up residence in. The main room was mostly empty, natural filtering in through the holes in the structure. But as you progressed it became more contained and a few of the rooms were quite dark, coverings over the strange glass pains, blankets, and other soft materials strewn about, though most of those she'd harvested for her impromptu nest. A few wooden structures with strange pillow-like rectangles sitting in their frames had drawn her eyes at the start but she'd found them too small for comfort and disliked how she felt laying off the ground, she'd left them mostly as they were, but had stripped them of coverings. After moving past a few very similar rooms she came to the bigger room she'd taken as her den, it was much like the others, a bit bigger, the wooden frames pushed off to the side to make room for her nest. There was a smaller attatched room but she'd found it much too cramped to amount to much.

As the sun started its descent down the sky she returned to the beach, digging out a bit of a divet in the sand and settling herself to sun herself in the slowly lowering light. It wouldn't be much but the sand would help to keep the summer heat for some time, and she might as well enjoy the peace of her private paradise.

Art by Ulfeid3

Esther did not know what drew him through the sea. He knew how to swim, but it wasn't something he did often. Yet the siren song of the long forgotten guided his tentative pawsteps, which soon turned to paddling, toward the skeleton of something strange. The journey had been... alright. He didn't look forward to doing it again, salt clinging to his shrimpy form. The sand stuck to his sodden paws and wriggled between his toes, annoying the boy to no end. Why had he come here again?

His question was shortly answered without a word spoken: The monoliths he had observed from afar were stranger and more mystifying up close. he marveled at the angular blocks of stone and broken glass, like a corpse of a once massive and magnificent creature. It seemed it had even decomposed like one, the structure had clearly shrunken with age, stiff and brittle whilst weeds took root within it's concrete ribcage. Proof perhaps, that while we all return to the earth, some deaths are grander than others. And such a grand body deserved to be explored, yes?

But another form upon the sand regretfully drew his attention away from the giant, another canid appearing to soak in the last rays of sunlight. He couldn't smell pack on her, but he was some ways away, she could still rip his throat out the moment he got close... He stopped his train of thought there. Packs and packdogs aren't all the same, he had the fellows in the springs to prove it. He'd be ok. With luck, the beast that had attacked him and his ma was long gone now. He hoped so at least.

He moved to introduce himself, though he didn't really want to. Conversation wasn't, and may never be his forte. He much preferred talking to animals or rocks, they didn't tend to talk back or judge you for your clumsy wording. "Hello." He tested, voice still as hoarse as ever. It'd be a miracle that the lady'd even heard it.