Before he left with Deluge, their father had one request of him. Help with the pack's expansion. Not that Scald should be caring about it, but it was the least he could do considering he had done poorly the last few raids. So the lanky boy made his way out across the archipelago toward the mainland of Boreas. Once upon the all-too-familiar black sands of Obsidian Beach, he paused to ensure the rest of the group had made it. "Aight ya lot, explore, have fun, report ta me what ya see," Scald calls out as he shoots them a tight-lipped grin and lifts a paw to shoo them off. Turning back around, he faces the beach and off in the distance, he spies the cavern. How many parties had they held on this beach? How many fights had he gotten into here? If he looked hard enough, he thought he could see some leftover blood still hiding in the sand. That was truly unlikely, but Scald liked to believe they had left an impression on this place. S C A L D

After heading back here with Gilgamesh and some others to deal with the polar bear that tried to make the caverns its home, Rivin had decided to up and follow Scald when he took his turn to go do some additional checks on the territory. After the fight she had decided not to linger, mainly to make sure no one overdid it or had any injuries that they needed to tend to. Fuck, she’d be glad when she could start collecting herbs again. She just hoped that they would make it through winter. Rivin let out a soft sigh as she trailed after Scald. It should be fine, they dealt with what should have been the only real threat… so the beach should be safe.

Once more her paws hit the black sand, and, as Scald gave them to go ahead to scope it out, Rivin took her path by the water. She felt a mix of emotions as she saw the sand darkened by the waves, and found shells buried in the sands. The very first day she had been allowed out of the caverns down onto the beach had been with her family. Her whole family. Her mother had given her a shell… one that she had tossed into the ocean when the woman and her brother disappeared. She… hated her for it. Hated them both. To leave them. To pull away their father’s attention to look for her brother. She had started the divide in their family… though perhaps it was always destined to splinter.

Rivin’s ears flicked back as she stopped, lifting her gaze to the waves.

She had met Pyralis’ ghost here too… spoke with the pirate woman after her death and gazed out over the ocean just like this. Only this time the ocean was more gray, churning with winter waters. How long had it been since she allowed herself to face those emotions? Had she ever even allowed herself to properly grieve? Ever? Was it worth grieving? Rivin frowned, watching a fish splash in the water. The good and the bad were here… they were part of her. Part of this beach. Maybe… maybe she’d feel better when she stood here with Calico Jack again…

"Speech," 'Thought.'

Sparrow had taken a step back and avoided everyone almost entirely. She knew Gil wanted to expand the pack, however, and he deserved the help. Sparrow walked along the sandy shores, looking out to the water. Somewhere, Recluse was out there - or what was left of her anyway. Sparrow knew the path she was on was a dangerous one, she just hoped at the end, she could be tossed in the ocean like Recluse and Pyralis.

Coming up on two of the members she couldn't help but to still see as pups, Sparrow nodded a short greeting. She turned her eyes to the lands around them, signifying she wasn't up for a talk. Her maw formed a thin, straight line. This was home, but it almost didn't feel like she belonged here anymore.

Inferno hardly knew the lands her new home consisted of, though she had been putting forth a concerted effort to do so, but the pack had needed to expand and it was partly because she had joined, so she felt duty bound to assist their efforts. Following along behind the others who were there she got the distinct impression that they all had emotional baggage tied to this place. Watching them impassively, with her head cocked to the side, she wondered why they even wanted this land at all of it was so emotional for them. She was happy enough to leave the group to explore on her own when dismissed. She dug her toes into black sand, fascinated by the odd feel to it. Clearly it wasn't normal sand, even aside from the color. A scent barely noticeable beneath the salt-tang of the ocean told her that there was a freshwater source somewhere near, and she set out to find it.

For a moment, Scald stood there and looked at the ones who had come. Would he miss them? Well, Sparrow might be tagging along with Deluge so he wouldn't miss her much and that Inferno girl was new, hardly knew her. But Rivin? Eh, he doubted she would miss him when he was gone. The realization almost put a sour note in his expression, but he hid it well. Instead, he looked around. Why come back here? The sand was interesting, but there wasn't much outside of that. They could use the shore to fish, sure, but they had the isle and archipelago for that as well. What did this place bring? A bridge perhaps? Did his father have larger plans? Plans he wasn't telling anyone else? Kicking at the sand, Scald continued to wander away from the water and toward the dry, yellow grass that whistled and waved from the top of the dunes.

Sparrow had always liked this beach. It was the type of beach you could die on. The type of beach that would absorb sin and blood and a passerby would be none the wiser. Sparrow wondered if her body would make it here when she died. From a pack standpoint, it didn't offer much of an advantage. Sure, you weren't likely to get raided from the ocean, but they'd only been raided like once ever and for what even? You could still get raided on the other edges of the land anyways, so it wasn't a safe zone, nor did it offer a tactical advantage. The whole and only reason Sparrow had claimed it was because she simply liked it.

The more she stood there, staring at the water, the more Rivin began to go over the memories of the beach. She thought about the meeting with Gil, Flurry, and Jael too. Realistically the beach, pretty as the black sands were, offered little difference compared to the islands that they now called home. Access to the waters gave them plenty of chances to catch ocean fish, but surely not everyone in the pack cared for such game… and that was the best food source if they came back here. The waves crept up the sand, toward her paws as Rivin stepped back and furrowed her brow. If they could alter the terrain and build a bridge, rather than relying on the boat to ferry resources across, perhaps it would be better. A more stable choice.

The beach gave them access to neighboring lands that were more worth it in her eyes. Fern Gully, a plethora of herbs lay one way. Time’s Cavern, a place to store things and keep them away from the elements… or serve as additional dens. But as she let her gaze flick up the shore, spying the sparse “greens” up where the sand gave way to some more promising land, she frowned. She could see Scald too, looking around. She trotted over to him, her voice quiet. “Not as promising as the land in Auster we visited, eh?” She frowned. “...though I could see some of us favoring it all the same… the memories that come with this beach.” Her gaze flicked back down the shoreline.

…but would nostalgia be enough of a reason to turn the beach into a promising third land?

"Speech," 'Thought.'

Inferno deliberately ignored the emoting of her packmates - something she'd a good deal of experience doing, given the melodramatic nature of much of her family members - and followed the scent of fresh water across the dark sands until she came across a trickle of a stream coming down from the dunes to terminate in the salty water of the bay, mixing into a brackish mess before washing away. It wasn't much, but she turned to follow the trickle up into the dunes. While much of the vegetation was the sparce grasses typical of sand beaches, around the trickle of fresh water there was a wider and less sparce variety, and when she finally came to the source of the trickle it was like an oasis of vegetation. She dipped her muzzle down to examine it - a natural cold spring bubbled up in the tiny pool, hardly anything but it was there. The spring could be dug out easily, lined with stone and clay to keep most of the water from soaking away into the sand and the overflow either allowed to continue in a bigger creek to the ocean or redirected somewhere more useful, maybe another pool or further along to water useful trees and shrubbery they could grow behind the dunes. She nodded sharply to herself and flagged the spring with a bright orange strip of fur taken from a fox fur so it would be easy to find again, then headed back down onto the beach itself to continue to explore.

Rivin's comment leaves him chuckling. Yeah, definitely not as exciting as the aspen grove had been, but... he could see it on her face as well. The memories here, both good and bad, were there. And it wouldn't go past him that Inferno was purposefully ignoring the way he, Rivin, and Sparrow milled around on the beach. At least one of them was actually exploring the area. Which honestly made Scald realize that he hadn't really and truly explored the beach before. Typically he hung around the shores to look for crustaceans or the strip in front of Time's Cavern, but there was the section farther north that had small water ways that led to other areas.

Making his way toward the north, he moves up the dunes where the sand slowly fades from black to the standard yellow-white. Hidden among the grasses, he can scent a faint smell of eggs. Turtles? He had never noticed before. Lowering his head toward the ground, he began nosing around through the beach grass that itched at his face. Digging slightly into the mounding sand, he does end up finding a nest, but tries his best not to disturb it.

Lifting his head now, he gives the beach a good look around. There was more of a complete ecosystem here than he had realized.

Scald chuckles, but there is no further comment about the beach. Not yet. As he draws away Rivin turns away from the shoreline to go investigate where the beach starts to meet the greenery of the lands outside of them. The sand mixes with soil, and small green shoots are fighting to make their way into the sunlight. A pass of these plants with her paw reveals that they are dry - possibly useful as binds in a pinch if she used the longer ones? They seemed hardy enough. At this edge of the beach you could find rock alongside shells as it led up toward the caves where there would be shelter from the wind and a place to store goods.

As for the beach itself… The main stretch of it gave an open area, both good and bad. It could potentially be a working space if you were careful, maybe good for drying hides in mass quantities since there was no shade? She began to trail back to the shoreline, breathing in the heavy salty air. Already the waters were beginning to recede, and as the waves fell back Rivin could see the dips in the land that made the tide pools. Those could be useful - they trapped fish and sometimes random bits and bobs from the ocean within. At least some difference from the islands… and of course being connected to the mainland would only open up more opportunity to other lands down the line.

"Speech," 'Thought.'

Sparrow kept picking at the shoreline, flipping a disgruntled crab and watching as it skittered off just to get tumbled and sucked into the ocean by the rising tide. Sparrow wondered if you could use the water as a weapon like you used fire. It didn't seem to play around as much as fire, but in large amounts it was no less deadly. Far off, Riven searched the edge of the beach. Sparrow liked that you could pretty much see the whole beach from the beach due to its flat nature. Not really a tactile move, but hey, you'd see threats coming long before they reached you.

Inferno had made her way off the dunes back onto the beach proper, and stopped at the high-tide line. This was where the waters tended to deposit their finds when the tides retreated, and here the debris stayed until the next time the tide reached so far. She stepped over a big twisted driftwood piece that she thought could be useful, but it wasn't what held her gaze. Rather, it was the clumps of kelp that lay twisted about here and there - now dried out from being out of the water so long, but the tide was creeping up and would deposit a new batch by the time it reached here. Kelp was good to eat for the minerals it contained, she knew, but she also knew that it could be used along with other compost to enrich the sandy soil by the fresh water in the dunes to help more things grow there. The ashes from burning it would make lye for soaps and such as well, though she only had a vague idea from her travels how to do that. Maybe someone else knew more about it than she did and could utilize it. Either way, it was a valuable resource, though one the pack already had in abundance on their multitudes of other beaches. Inferno turned back to return to the group with her findings, then paused thoughtfully as the sand shushed beneath her paws. Hm - wasn't glass made from sand? This sand would make some pretty unique glass, wouldn't it? That could be a good trade item if anyone was interested in making it. Well then. Time to return to the group.