Shay had, remarkably, recovered completely from his face-slide down the side of a canyon during the earthquake. Sure he was minus an eye and his face had seen better days but he had survived, somehow managed to avoid a serious infection and the wounds were nearly healed over so that was good, right? He certainly had nothing he wanted to complain about there. The fractures too, had mostly healed though the leg was still tender and he made it a point to be careful with it. The whole process was fascinating, really. The right treatment applied in the correct way at the proper time, and the body could heal from such remarkable things. It hadn't been long ago that he'd decided himself healed enough not to need someone's help, so he'd just left and begun working his way northward. He'd decided, after his injury, that his long-term survival would be best served by joining a pack so that in the event of another catastrophic injury he'd have a plan already in place for a healer. He'd been lucky to find someone from another pack willing to take care of him, and it would be foolish to depend on luck. The pack he'd been healed by was, however, fairly full and tended toward the lighter alignments - not a bad thing of course, but Shay couldn't see that being the most logical choice to make for himself. His second thought had been for the only other pack he'd encountered, back when the pack was still on Mt. Volkan... the pack was called Tortuga, if he remembered correctly, and they had appeared to be fairly adept. Perhaps there. The pack had moved since then, of course, but a few polite questions to rogues who had paid more attention than he was soon able to point him in the right direction and he set off that way. The journey made his leg ache so he was careful to hold it up as much as possible, but it went fairly quickly, and he soon found himself at the borders. Curiously, he cocked his head to the side to better take in the view with his only remaining eye. The scent had changed a little, with a new alpha and new members, but it seemed relatively unchanged other than that. He nearly walked past the scent markers, but reconsidered and instead sent a polite, querying howl for the pack's alpha, then settled in to wait, which seemed like the socially acceptable thing to be doing in that situation. "Speech"

Her mind had been preoccupied as of late, with the concerns of the world on her shoulders. Tortuga's needs. Her father's illness. Faust. Nearly dying. So many things had made their home in her head. She couldn't deny that her most recent brush with death had terrified her. She had come so very close to dying, falling into the chasm of the gorge and being found by only God knows who in the pack- or perhaps a stranger. She'd been having nightmares of the cliff, hanging of the edge. In some she was saved, much like she had been by Faust- in others- monstrous wolves helped send her plummeting to her death. The nightmares had made sleep her enemy- so she kept herself as busy as possible patrolling the borders.

In the present moment, this lack of sleep found her yawning as she walked slowly along the borders- her head down, tail trailing the ground. She was exhausted. That, of course, was until she scented a stranger. Her head raised slowly, and her ears pricked, her tail left the dust of the earth, and she moved towards it a little less slowly. Her eyes came to rest on a gray stranger, and she approached moving in from the left of him. "Greetings." She spoke, her voice firm, though not unfriendly. "I am Roman Armada, Queen of Tortuga. Can I help you?" She questioned, the words she spoke so often as of late rolling from her tongue nearly as a mantra. Politely, she would sit, her muscles groaning with relief and wait for the stranger to speak and make his case for why he was here.

The wait did not bother Shay, though he could have told you the length of time down to the second had you asked. Patience was easy for the male. He could sit for a day at a rabbit hole waiting for the prey to peek it's nose out, crouch quietly for hours waiting for pheasants to venture closer to a seemingly inanimate object. Anything less than patience was an illogical waste of energy. Finally his single good ear twitched as it was filled with the sound of approaching pawsteps. The sound was coming from the left, where he couldn't see, so Shay twisted his head almost comically to bring his gaze into focus. "Oh, hello Roman Armada," he spoke in reply to her own introduction, his voice as always a quick near-monotone jumble, deprived of the emotional cues that give vocal inflections. "I am Shay Bearkiller. I've met your pack once before, though I don't believe you were present at the time. Oh, and also I'm here to join your pack." His single silver eye blinked at her guilelessly. He wasn't sure if there was some strange social ritual that was required by this situation - if there was he hadn't yet had the opportunity to observe the phenomena, so he could only hope that she wouldn't be somehow offended by him putting it out there so bluntly. "Speech"

She didn't miss the scars that marred the face of the wolf before her. Though she didn't speak of them- she was raised far better than that, and though every scar had a story... perhaps his was a heroic one. She'd learned long ago to believe her own fantasy, as it often made a better story. A smile tugged at her jaws as he twisted his head around, to look at her before greeting her. He introduced himself as Shay Bearkiller, and she nodded slightly, remembering the name. She noted the oddness of his last name, but again- she wouldn't comment on it. He spoke bluntly, something she actually appreciated, stating that he was there to join her pack, after all he had met Tortuga before. She blinked before speaking again, already she admired his to the point attitude. "Well, Shay Bearkiller.. what skills can you bring to Tortuga?" Of course she was asking about his skills, curious about the stranger before her. What story did he have to tell? Though she wasn't hasty to turn anyone away... she couldn't make it too easy.

The woman watched him in a way that Shay would describe as... amused? Mildly interested? Well he wasn't entirely certain how to interpret it. He had always had something of an issue with leader-types, who often seemed inordinately good at hiding their true emotional state behind a facade. She asked him what skills he offered... a refreshingly straightforward approach that actually made perfect sense to him for once. What would he bring to the pack that would be worth the space and food he would take up?

He considered a moment. "I do best in hunting, though I am also highly motivated currently to learn the healing profession." That interest had only been building since his injury... he was in fact more fascinated by it than he had ever been by anything. "I do not have much of an interest in fighting though I would likely do well if it came down to it." Which was to say, he simply could summon the ferocity that came so easily to career fighters - he would do it to defend himself but could not fathom why anyone would do it for recreation.





talk, think

The ivory queen regarded the male carefully, he seemed honest- true to his words. God, knew that Tortuga needed more hunters, with winter coming. He also had an interest in healing, god knew the more healers the pack had the better. Now, if the pack just had a trained healer to teach them- things would be easier. She nodded, taking in his words. While he didn't want to fight, she believed when he said that he could if it was needed. Nodding slowly, she would speak, "Shay, I cannot deny that the pack needs more hunters, and your interests in healing are so useful. I would be a fool to turn you away." She paused for a minute, letting her words fade into silence. "Welcome to Tortuga." She spoke with a warm smile, standing and stepping aside to allow him entrance into the lands.