Introductions (Sohvi)

[Lwena]

ooc: What a dull title >.< If Sohvi isn't at Anton's place at this point, let me know, and I'll fix this. :)

 

ic:

 

Like Anton, Leila had chosen to live some distance from the center of the Stedding, valuing both her privacy and the quiet that came with being so far away; for a girl who’d grown up in the hustle and bustle of Caemlyn, Leila had adapted well to the solitary life that she now preferred over a more social one. She put most of this down to how much she’d changed since meeting Owen, all those years back, and to the amount of time she spent alone as a Watcher, away from the Stedding. It was at times like those that, while she’d felt lonely, she’d also felt most comfortable with herself; while she wouldn’t ever have said no to a fellow Wolfbrother or sister, she hadn’t been especially at ease with most other people, at least not at first. She could deal with two-leggers easily enough, and pretend to be comfortable just as well as the next Watcher, but a sense of doubt always lingered in the back of her mind, continued to always linger back there – she didn’t trust those that were not her own kind without good reason, and most likely never would. Memories of her older brother threatening her with a knife came to mind all too readily, and if he, a relation, could make an attempt on her life, what was to say that someone who didn’t know her wouldn’t? However, she wasn’t willing to take caution too far. Not only would it have made it impossible for her to speak with… well, anyone, but it would have been a major hindrance to her job. She’d managed to strike a comfortable balance being cautious and not overly so, she thought, though sometimes even she had to admit she wasn’t cautious enough.

 

The affair in Chachin had proven that to her, though she wasn’t so sure that she could really have done anything to prevent her capture. In any case, it didn’t matter so much, since she’d managed to get out relatively unscathed with the aid of Owen, and life went on.

 

Unfortunately, Lei’s choice to live outside of the center of the Stedding meant that she already had to walk quite a distance to get to the Infirmary – and that wasn’t even her destination, in this case. No, she was heading to Anton’s hut, a place she’d been given directions to but never actually seen, mostly because it, too, was not in the center of the Stedding. No, it was on the opposite side from Leila’s house, which made it quite a walk to get from one place to another. It was a good thing that she was in shape, she decided, as she started from the Infirmary; she thought it best to speak with Miryana first, to see what she had to say about the newest Wanderer and the one Leila was to take under her wing. She was nervous about this, she had to admit, which was part of the reason she’d opted to speak with Miryana in the first place. Leila hadn’t generally spent most of her time in the Stedding before being made Watcher leader, and so she hadn’t mentored before, with the exception of one Wanderer. She had taught new Watchers the tricks of the trade, but this was different – Wanderers were in need of more than a teacher, but also someone they could trust, or so it seemed to her. Sohvi was staying with Anton, which suggested to Lei she’d already found someone to trust, but it didn’t hurt to know more of the Wolfkin. It actually made sense for Leila to spend time with her if she was so shy, simply because Leila was generally good at making people trust her and open up with her (she was a Watcher for a reason), but – this was different. Talking to two-leggers didn’t require her to trust them in return – but when it came to Wolfkin, who could tell when someone didn’t trust them or was lying to them, it was impossible to trick them into relaxing.

 

This wasn’t to say that Leila didn’t want to trust Sohvi, trust didn’t come easily to the woman – and she knew that if Sohvi knew she wasn’t trusted, she probably would not react well at all. If she was anything like what Leila remembered the Wanderers she knew and had known were like, she was feeling so uncomfortable in her own skin, so lost and confused, that she wouldn’t appreciate someone not trusting or believing her. Leila knew that if she’d thought Owen hadn’t believed her when she said all of these things were happening to her, and if he hadn’t provided her with the support she had needed, she probably would not have settled into Wolfkin life nearly as well as she had. She also knew that she’d had a mild Howling in comparison to most; no one tried to kill her until after she’d been found, and then it was only because she’d insisted on going back to see her family, to explain. If Sohvi had had worse experiences…

 

Shaking her head, Leila pulled herself out of her thoughts before she missed Anton’s house, though this was mostly because Shadow decided it was high time she began to pay attention to where she was going instead of what she was worried about. The large dark wolf had taken to following her lately, since Chachin, though she didn’t really associate the wolf with herself, but still with Owen. After getting under her feet, and making her think more of a cat than a wolf, Shadow simply flicked his tail and trotted into the brush – straight to Anton’s house, which she would probably have missed despite her good eyesight, otherwise. Shaking her head at herself, Leila made her way to the door and knocked firmly before stepping back, slightly awkwardly; she didn’t know Anton, and otherwise would probably have had no reason to call at his house, so this felt a little odd to her.

[silhouette]

The night’s discussions still lingered in Sohvi’s mind, even after breakfast. Even after Anton had left to get something. She was alone in his house now, sitting on his bed with her legs folded underneath her. Eyes High was out there somewhere, she could feel his presence. She was also quite sure he was ‘talking’ to her, but she didn’t quite catch it. Images in the back of her mind, but little more. She sighed, thinking of how adamant Anton had been about the ‘no wolves in this house’ rule. How he had used her own ‘fragile state of being’ as an excuse to cover up his own fear. She snorted. Eyes High felt amused again, probably by her human way of thinking of things. A human way. Anton had no reason to be afraid that she’d lose her humanity.

 

Not that she had that many reasons to want to keep it. After all, her first experience with her new kin were far better than the experiences she had with her old kin. She was willing to believe that it was just her family that was odd, and that humankind as a whole was better. Anton seemed to think so, and he’s met a lot of humans over the years. Eyes High couldn’t offer her much information, as she was one of the first humans he’d ever gotten close to.

 

Something changed in the young wolf. This was something Sohvi was used to by now, the wolf sending her images of those who came close to her. A wolf and a human this time, or so she thought. The wolf was a shadow, moving from tree to tree… the image of the human was less clear. It worried Sohvi. What if they’d come to call on Anton? What would she say? Suddenly all the confidence she had gained over the past few days bled from her. She looked around, eager to find a place to hide. Anton’s hut offered none.

 

Then there was a knock on the door, and Sohvi knew that she was too late. She squeaked, and slid off the bed, putting it between her and the door. “Enter.” She said, barely more than a whisper. She hoped it wasn’t the man-mountain she’d seen earlier, as she was quite sure she would die of shock if that were the case. Instead the door opened to reveal a woman with dark hair, and golden eyes. The woman seemed a little wary of her, but Sohvi was quite sure that wariness was a mere candle to the wildfire that was her own fright. “Anton isn’t here.” She said, sounding a little more confident than she felt.

 

~Sohvi Darwin

Shimmer

[Lwena]

Shadow didn’t follow Leila to the door, but instead vanished into the trees while she went up and knocked, not giving the Watcher a reason for his behaviour, though she did not ask one; she didn’t mind having wolves in her house, but could respect someone else’s wishes if that were the case, and guessed as much. Her reasoning, though, was that Anton’s house wasn’t really large enough for two people and at least one wolf to be remotely comfortable; she knew that her own was only just large enough. She knocked firmly, honestly not sure what she expected, but what she heard – well, alright, she might not have been sure what to expect, but that certainly hadn’t been it. Through the door, her sharp ears caught what sounded like a startled squeak followed by movement, and then, “Enter.” in a voice so quiet that she would have missed it if she hadn’t been listening for it, and if she hadn’t been Wolfkin. Leila made good use of her senses, and it was at times like these that she was grateful she was Wolfkin. She wouldn’t go back at this point anyway, but if someone had asked when she’d been a Wanderer, and even a Wolfcub, if she wanted to go back to being normal, her answer would have been an instant ‘yes’.

 

She pushed the door open slowly, so was not to startle whoever was in there – presumably Sohvi – and peered in to see a young woman about her height standing behind the bed, so that it was between her and the door. Well; that wasn’t a good sign. She looked more calm than she smelled, and when she spoke, she didn’t sound as afraid as her scent would have suggested. Leila knew to trust the scent first; while trained Wolfkin could generally mask their scent as most two-leggers could mask their true thoughts and emotions, it was highly unlikely that Sohvi even knew much about the scents assaulting her yet.

 

“Anton isn’t here.”

 

“I actually wasn’t looking for Anton,” Leila straightened up slightly and then leaned against the doorframe, her hand still resting lightly on the mostly ajar door. Since Anton wasn’t home, she wasn’t going to simply walk into his house, not unless Sohvi invited her in. Offering the girl a reassuring smile, Lei continued, “I was looking for Sohvi. Would that happen to be you? I’m Leila.” The poor girl looked like she was just about ready to bolt, to Leila, and for a few seconds she was almost glad that there was only one door that she could spot; that meant that she couldn’t run off. It worried her, that Sohvi was so nervous, but what could one do? The Howling was never an easy time, and after one’s own family attempted to harm you (as Lei assumed had happened to Sohvi, based on her own experiences), then it was hard to trust anyone again.

[silhouette]

Sohvi resisted the urge to back away even further in the little hut. Leila, that was her name, and she wasn’t there for Anton, but for Sohvi. If Sohvi remembered correctly, Miryana had said something about getting someone to teach her a thing or two about what it meant to be wolfkin. She supposed that that person could be Leila. Maybe. The other woman looked harmless enough, but Rita had always looked perfectly harmless too, until she opened her mouth and said something vile and low about Sohvi’s appearance.

 

It dawned on her that she hadn’t given Leila a proper answer yet. “Ehm… yes, I’m Sohvi…” she muttered, letting go of her dress the moment she realised she was clutching it. “So… what happens next?” she asked, staring at Leila, and feeling quite content with where she was right that moment. There was no need for her to come to the other side of the bed, right? She realised that Leila was still standing in the doorway. “I suppose you can come in. Anton doesn’t like it when there are wolves in his house, but I don’t think he’ll mind if you’re here. You’re not a wolf, after all.”

 

That just reminded her of the fact that she was being a terrible host. “You should take a seat.” She pointed at the only available chair in the house. “And would you like some tea? I can make some.” Without waiting for an answer she slipped past the bed, still keeping as big a distance as possible between her and the other woman. Within moments she had the fire stoked up again, and a pot of water set above it. While waiting for it to boil, she carefully inched closer to Leila, trying to find out if she could smell the woman’s moods the way she had been able to smell Anton’s.

 

~Sohvi Darwin

 

ooc: not really sure where to take this, but at least she’s away from the bed now :p

[Lwena]

At least she’d moved out from behind the bed, Leila thought as she entered the hut quietly, shutting the door behind her and moving to the chair that Sohvi had pointed to, taking a seat and settling down on it with a boneless grace. The younger woman busied herself making tea, probably for something to do with her hands, and Leila watched her wordlessly for a few seconds as she put the water on to boil, and began speaking as she noticed Sohvi inching towards her a few seconds later; it wasn’t hard to notice, she didn’t think, and she guessed that it was probably to see if she could catch Leila’s scent. Vaguely, the Watcher wondered if Sohvi realized she didn’t have to be close to smell it, but decided that she didn’t, and made a mental note to tell her that later; instead of saying anything about the girl’s behaviour, she let a bit of a her scent filter through. While there was no need to mask one’s scent in the Stedding, Leila had done so instinctively as soon as she’d become nervous. She did her best not to let Sohvi in on her discomfort now, either, because that would not make any of this any easier.

 

She smiled a bit at Sohvi as she pondered the answer to the Wanderer’s question, and spoke after a brief pause in a polite, calm tone, like she didn’t notice what Sohvi was doing or even notice the girl’s fear. It still carried a hint of reassurance, but right at this moment Leila thought that Sohvi needed to realize that she wasn’t going to treat her differently when she wasn’t trying to be reassuring, later in their lessons.

 

“Well, I’m not sure if the Sages told you or not, but while you’re a Wanderer in the Stedding there’s certain things that we – the ‘kin – would like to teach you, like we do for the other Wanderers, and that you have a mentor figure of sorts to help guide you through this. I’m the mentor figure, I suppose you could say. I just came by to see how you were doing, and to introduce myself; it’s never easy to be in a new place, and I remember from my own time as a Wanderer that a friendly face was more than welcome.” She gave Sohvi a bit of a grin, shifting on the chair so that she was more comfortable. She wasn’t going to start their little ‘lessons’ right yet, not until Sohvi was comfortable with her and trusted her, and she thought that the best way of going about that was to tell the Wanderer about herself, and let the Wanderer share her story in return. Nodding slightly, and deciding that this was the best course of action, she continued,

 

“So yes; I was hoping to be another friendly face, assuming you see me around the Stedding much – I live across the main center, in a house over in the trees, away from the hustle and bustle of everything. Generally I spend most of my time there, or talking with the Council. I’m a Watcher, you see – Watcher Leader. How much did Anton tell you about how the Wolfkin were organized?” That was always a start; she could get a feel for what Sohvi knew, and work in things about her past to put the Wanderer more at ease at the same time. Leila's life felt like it was composed solely of being a Watcher, these days, though she could hardly complain. She liked the feeling of having a purpose.

 

Leila

Snowbreeze

 

ooc: lol, one step at a time, I guess :P Sorry if I'm repeating things that Anton's told Sohvi already, by the way; I'm trying to work in natural conversation and it's not going so well ;) Tell me if I'm repeating things Sohvi already knows though

[silhouette]

Despite her earlier fears, Sohvi found herself growing interested in this new person. The scents coming from Leila were odd. Definitely not Anton. And it seemed like she was nervous as well. Strange enough that emotion was a comfort to her. She always disliked meeting new people too, and maybe Leila felt the same. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to come here to teach Sohvi, and yet here she was, ready to teach Sohvi the things that she thought all Wolfkin needed to know. It was still odd to think of herself as a person who was somehow mentally related to the wolves. She certainly hadn’t had any wolvish thoughts when she was younger, which was probably a good thing, because surely her father would have turned her out far sooner if she had.

 

At some point during Leila’s explanation of who she was and why she was there, Sohvi lost most of her initial fear. Not all of it, of course. Years of wariness didn’t just fade like snow did in the sun, but even so she felt some of the tension flee her body. When Leila asked her a question, she felt confident enough to answer it truthfully. “I… eh… don’t actually remember a lot of it… we talked a lot, you see… or rather, he talked and I listened, and… well, he said a lot, and I don’t remember half of it. Sometimes Eyes High talked as well, but I barely understood a thing of what he meant. So I guess a few lessons in that wouldn’t hurt. I mean, if I’m going to have a wolf in my head I should be able to understand what he’s saying, right?”

 

Still cautiously, Sohvi inched closer, offering Leila a cup of tea. She backed away a pace the second the other woman held the cup, but she didn’t back away as far as she had earlier. Instead she sat down on the floor, looking up at Leila. “So whatever you’re going to teach me now is going to sound new whether it really is or not.” She grinned at that. “But I don’t really remember what everyone does out here. I mean, I know that Anton’s a tracker, because he found me and that’s what trackers do… they find wanderers like me. And I think the Sages do… healing?” she glanced up at Leila, trying to read the other woman’s face to see if she had it right. “Miryana is a Sage, I think. Other than that I don’t know…”

 

~Sohvi Darwin

Shimmer

 

Ooc: I’m sooooo sorry for not posting sooner. I keep seeing this post on my list of posts to do, and somehow it never gets done. Which is a shame, because Sohvi is such an easy character to write :S

[Lwena]

ooc: 'tis fine :)

 

ic:

 

Leila couldn’t help but smile a bit mentally when she smelt the change in Sohvi’s scent as she relaxed, lost enough of her fear to make Lei relax and not worry about having to chase down a Wanderer who’d bolted from her; that would not only have been a horrible thing to have to explain, but a terrible start to any sort of mentor/mentee relationship, not the sort of thing she was sure she could deal with. Of course, Leila had quickly learned as a Watcher that one couldn’t really be taught how to deal with people, but rather they had to figure much of it out on their own; learning how to treat a certain Wanderer was just like feeling out a new contact, in a sense. She had to be careful, but not so careful that Sohvi noticed what she was doing and took offense, or worried about what Leila. She had relaxed, true, but Leila wasn’t going to trick herself into thinking she had Sohvi’s trust yet.

 

“Well, it’s more than just figuring out what the wolves are saying to us,” Leila remarked with a grin to Sohvi’s first comment, watching with what was almost-but-not-quite amusement as the girl inched towards her, tea in hand. She continued without pause. “We also have senses that are more akin to a wolf’s senses than a human’s senses; I’m sure you’ve noticed how you can hear things that you didn’t notice before, or see better in the dark than you ever thought you could. It might sound like common sense, but there’s more to using our senses now – we take advantage of our enhanced senses when we can, but it’s hard to do that if we can’t tell what we’re seeing, hearing, or smelling. We also can… dream with the wolves, I suppose is the best way to say it. It’s rather complicated,” She shrugged almost helplessly; Leila could talk for hours on the world of dreams, but that was mostly because she spent so much time there, talking to one person or another. She had good memories of the place, too – tag with Owen, for instance. That had been a learning experience in itself.

 

Accepting the tea with a nod of thanks, Leila took a sip from it as Sohvi spoke, noting that the girl had seated herself not across the room or as far from Leila as she could while still being polite, but on the floor close by. She couldn’t help but grin with the girl when she said that everything she heard would be new – she was probably so overwhelmed that half of this afternoon’s conversation would be mostly forgotten in a day, if that statement was any indication. Flicking her bangs away from her forehead, Leila took another sip of tea before answering Sohvi’s question.

 

“You’ve got both the Trackers and the Sages right,” She confirmed with a nod. “That leaves the Watchers and the Rangers. The Rangers are the protectors of the Stedding; they are the best in the Stedding when it comes to weapons work, and generally stay nearby in order to protect the ‘kin. This is really our safest place, and they work to keep it that way. The Watchers – that’s what I do – keep track of the outside world for the Stedding; we have a fairly extensive network of eyes and ears set up, and because of the Wolf Dream we can keep very up to date with anything important that’s happening out there. We also used to bring the Stedding supplies that are needed, since we’re generally outside of the Stedding more than Trackers, but the Stedding’s becoming so self-sufficient that that’s not really so necessary anymore.” Leila let out a breath, trying to decide if she’d forgotten anything, but couldn’t think of anything so instead looked down to Sovhi with a slightly breathless smile. “I know it sounds like a lot, but once you get the feel for things around here it’ll all seem normal. Did that all make sense?”

[silhouette]

Sohvi watched Leila as she spoke of the things that must seem so natural to the other woman. To her it was all a little odd. Trackers? Sages? Dreamworld? Where to begin? What to ask? There were thousands of questions spinning in her head, playing tag with her and yet she wasn’t able to pin one down. So instead of asking one when Leila asked if it all made sense, Sohvi merely nodded. “Uh huh…” She wrinkled her nose at an odd scent that drifted by. She hadn’t quite gotten used to having such strong senses yet.

 

“Is it always going to be like that?” she asked when she noticed Leila had seen her dislike of the scent. “I mean, before… all this, I couldn’t see or hear any better than anyone, and now… well, now I hear everything. If someone walked in the field a mile away, I could probably tell you what kind of shoes that person was wearing.” She was probably exaggerating a bit there, but it felt like that. Like… she had gone from being a normal person to being something odd.

 

She sighed, letting her shoulders slump a bit. “It is always going to be like this, isn’t it? I will always feel out of place.” She would never feel normal again. Despite growing up in Amadicia while she was obviously not Amadician, she had felt at home there, with her family. Nothing Rita had ever said or done could make her feel as strange as she felt now. What was worse was that she knew people would see this new strangeness on her. Just one look at her eyes, and they would react the way her ‘father’ had. They would chase her off and call her a demon.

 

Though she tried to focus on happier things, such as finding friendship with Eyes High, and even Anton, though they didn’t always agree on everything, it was hard for her to do so when the thought of never being accepted again loomed over her like a headman’s axe. “I don’t understand why this happened to me… I was always the odd one out, I was always different. Why did I have to be even more different? I never wanted this.” She looked up at Leila again, pleadingly this time, as if she was asking Leila to make her normal again.

 

~Sohvi Darwin

Shimmer

[Lwena]

Leila knew that Sohvi didn’t really understand what she was going on about but decided not to push the issue further when she caught the Wanderer’s nose wrinkling at some scent that she caught - an emotion, maybe, or something drifting through a window. There would be time for explanations later, and most of it would come with time. Anton would be able to explain the Trackers to Sovhi in more depth than Leila could, and Leila could explain the Watchers – assuming she managed to find the words. She supposed she could explain the Rangers as well, given how well she knew Owen, and the Sages… Were pretty straight forward. It was just so much information at once that was probably getting the girl, and she probably didn’t feel right in her own skin anymore, either.

 

In response to Sovhi’s discovery of her new senses – or rather, her more powerful senses – Leila couldn’t help but smile a bit, and shake her head a touch ruefully. Oh, yes, she could remember her first impressions of people’s scents and the sounds she starting hearing in the mornings. She had been lucky enough to have left her family before her hearing got as sharp as it would, otherwise she would have had headaches all of the time. She was curious as to if it had been the same for Sohvi but did not ask, not yet – she’d decided after seeing how shy the Wanderer was that it’d be easier to let the girl come to her with personal information like that than to try and coax it from her bit by bit. Perhaps when they were more comfortable with each other it would be worth a shot, but… then, maybe not. It wasn’t even necessary, really. Leila had needed to talk about her Howling in order to get over what had happened, but she knew it wasn’t the same with everyone. Some people just wanted to forget. With a bit of a smile still lingering on her face, she commented,

 

“Maybe not quite like that – you’ll get used to it.” She didn’t think Sohvi would have believed her (since she didn’t think she was entirely convincing), but she could hope. The smile which still hovered on her face vanished as Sohvi continued, to be replaced with a slightly concerned and sympathetic frown. She could smell the frustration and despair wafting off of the girl like a strongly scented perfume – slightly bitter, and close to nauseating, though not because of the reason or source but rather because of how she smelled the emotions. As the girl finished, she didn’t say anything for a few moments, and then set her tea down on the table before standing and offering Sohvi a hand to help her up.

 

“I don’t think anyone ever wanted it – but it’s not as bad as you’d think, not once you get used to it. Come, let’s go for a walk. I’ll show you the Stedding, and you can meet someone other than Anton and I.” She offered Sohvi an encouraging grin and made for the door as soon as the Wanderer was on her feet, expecting her to follow but not setting such a pace that she’d be forced to hurry in order to keep up. In fact, it was an unusually leisurely pace for Leila, but that was alright. She could be patient, and this was to be a tour. As she started to head down the path towards the center of the Stedding, Shadow joined her briefly, in order to inspect Sohvi for himself. “This is Shadow,” She introduced. As they meandered along, she pointed out certain landmarks (both for her own benefit and Sohvi’s, since she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to find Anton’s house again given how well her first attempt had gone), and finally commented, “The Stedding isn’t as small as I’m told it used to be – even after I arrived, there was already an Inn built, and there are actually a surprising number of us here, from all sorts of backgrounds. I’m from Andor – Caemlyn, actually. How about you?” So much for not prying into the Wanderer’s past. However, it was an innocent enough question, and they’d probably bump into someone before Leila started to find herself asking more personal questions.

 

-Leila Thatcher

[Andular]

Standing on top of a large rock over looking the lake Nightsfire breathed in the air deeply. His clothes were by a tree next to the lakes edge, jumping off the rock he dove head first into the cool water. Breaking the surface of the water he began to swim toward the spot he left his clothes. A tickling in the back of his head announced Quickening had arrived from her morning hunt and watched him.

 

~Nightsfire the lake is for fish not two legs~

 

Chuckling as he pulled himself out of the water he grabbed a towel and dried himself off as the big grey wolf looked on. He had promised to take her out with him on his ranging that afternoon but was surprised she was here so early.

 

Picking up his clothes Nights quickly dressed and ran his fingers through his wet hair to get it out of his eyes. Throwing his back pack over his shoulder he reached down and stroked Quickenings back.

 

Together the two walked past the inn and toward the ranger yards on the far side of the stedding. Whistling as they walked past the infirmary, Nights caught site of Leila and a slender girl with dark hair.

 

~It looks like we have a new wanderer in the stedding Quickening~

 

Walking toward them Nights put on his best smile as Quickening walked up and sniffed the new comer.

 

“Greetings Leila who do you have here?” Leila introduced Sohvi and Nights held out his hand. “I am John Dunbar and my curious friend there is Quickening. I am a ranger in the stedding and if there is anything I can do to help you please let me know and welcome to your new home sister.”