Addled Arrival [Valdis]

[Karahkwa]

Determinedly Karahwka swam, tired legs gliding furiously through the water. Her muscles, though toned from all the time spent hunting in her homeland, were tired and burning, and her wide yellow eyes desperately swept the horizon for sign of land. The water crashed around her, causing her to go under several times. No matter how many times Karah coughed up water, more and more just seemed to enter back into her body.

Finally, with a rush of hope, Karah spotted forms in the distance. Rocks? Yes, boulders. Her paddling quickened and frantically she drew gasping breaths as she powered her way through the waves. Finally, she heaved herself onto a boulder and draped her body across it, clinging on with the remainder of her strength to gather her breath. She coughed up water violently for several minutes, then closed her eyes; shallow breaths were the only motion from her small body.

It may have been minutes or hours, but eventually Karah lifted her head and straightened her body, pushing herself up onto her legs to stand precariously on the boulder. She scanned the line of boulders that led to land and planned a path across them. As the natural hunter she was, it wasn't too difficult for her to use her quick reflexes and proprioception to bound across the boulders to solid ground. She collapsed across the ground, overcome with relief and exhaustion at finally being out of immediate danger.

She had no idea where she was. In all of her relatively short life, she had never before seen such a massive expanse of water. She had never been away from her home in the forest; her solitary life of trees and brush. Being under the vast open sky made her feel vulnerable and even more alone than she'd always felt before.

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Tags: Valdís

[Valdís]

Anikira seemed to be a beacon of misfortune, and today the truth that statement unfolded when a strange, metallic object fell from the sky.

It was huge, bigger than anything of natural origin, and it hurtled down from a vacant, cloudless sky. There was nowhere it could have come from, and no way it could have been suspended there of its own accord. It was, to Valdis, an enigma, and she watched curiously at the water’s edge as the flaming object burst into hundreds of fragments of silver, and assaulted the ocean. The collision was distant enough that she knew the island would be in no danger of debris, but still it struck a strange feeling within her. Something akin to fear, and veneration, and excitement. The sound the remainder of its body hitting the water was deafening; a huge crash that carried waves all the way to Valdis’s paws at the coast.

The spectacle was over almost as soon as it had begun, the only proof that it had happened at all was the small shards of metal that were not heavy enough to sink below the waves. Had there been any life on the strange vessel? If so, had it, too, been dragged down beneath the waves to Hvalris’ awaiting form.

Apparently not. No sooner was had the alpha begun to turn away, to tell the tale and decide what was to be done about it, a small figure caught her attention. A lone swimmer – a wolf, one that had survived the almighty event. It defied belief, and yet there it was, swimming toward her island for dear life. Valdis began to move immediately, calculating where it would land if it remained on course, and lurking a little way away from its landed spot.

When it finally reached the coast and hauled itself ashore, Valdís noted that it was an it, but a she. The female was tiny, as small as her pups had been at one point, but Valdís refrained from laughing at her, at least for the moment. After several moments of doing nothing except heaving air into her lungs and choking water out, the female shakily began to stand. It was then that the Hilmir started toward her, wasting no more time observing the whelp.

“You are either extremely lucky, little wolf,” Valdís began, not needing to raise her powerful voice in order to be heard, “Or extremely unlucky.” A sickly smile crossed her face, looming over the pathetic, drenched creature. This wolf was tiny, amusingly so, but she had been strong enough to survive both the crash and the swim that brought her to the island, so perhaps she had the strength to be a part of her pack. If not, Valdís would take her anyway, and force the title of Thrall upon her whether she wished it or not. “Which is it?” Bowing her head, the alpha peered at the female with odd, unsympathetic eyes. Fenris had delivered this creature to her, cast her down to Valdís’s feet to be judged accordingly by the mighty alpha. Whether she was worthy or not, Valdís would soon find out. The pack needed members sorely, perhaps a new one stood before her.

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Word count: 536
Notes: This isn't my best, sorry, but I didn't wanna keep you waiting!
Tags: Karahkwa