skill: ??

How long did it take to traverse the lands of Mythris by the average well-bodied, able beings? Not nearly as long as it had taken Vidarr Asulf.

Months had shifted from his displacement to the other side of the continent and then his subsequent entrapment under a burning beam during a wildfire. He had injured his shoulder to a level that he could barely move once he had been freed from the fire - all thanks to Svajone. She'd helped him heal afterwards, which took weeks. Was it just weeks? Was it months? Vidarr wasn't even sure now. But when he'd parted from Svajone he'd done so feeling like he owed her his life. Or that the debt he'd paid her for taking on the polar bear and helping her heal up had been paid. They'd given to one another, and she had other thoughts than returning to the Alpines, and he'd wished her well and promised her if their paths crossed again that they would do so as lifelong friends.

Every step still ached deep down, but Vidarr had been away from his home and his friends for so long he didn't care. He'd pushed on. Step by step. Aching mile upon mile on his shoulder and back. But he'd carried on until he'd seen the familiar rise of Frostfang Vale. He almost wept at the sight of it, rising up against the cold tundra - it was beautiful and welcoming as it was imposing and fierce. And it was his home. He had to stop himself at the borders, his thick skull (which his siblings never missed a chance to tell him he had) lifted up so that he could call out to his packmates.

They probably thought he was dead with as long as he had been gone - and he would have understood entirely.

[she doesn't know that the world is turning just for her]

On a rare day that Euphemia left her hovel, she often foraged for flowers and herbs. A few hours in the sunlight always did herself good, she reckoned, and it always gave her a little serotonin boost to look at her stores of herbs overflowing with plenty. One day, she also reckoned, she should put her mind towards the use and application of such plants.

What was the point of cultivating them, if they only dried and withered upon her clay shelves? and of course, that reference was a thinly-veiled metaphor for her own intelligent mind, which she was woefully neglecting by simply passing through the motions of everyday life.

Euphemia sniffed her way to the border, surprise dawning on her face when she saw the darkened form of a near-stranger at their doorstep. Vidarr! she called out, surging forward, smile a-blazing. Then she stopped short, wondering where he had been – and why? Did Vidarr not think that Dawnbreak needed him? Seeing as he wasn’t dead, what could have possibly prevented him from being at the Shakti Sisters’ side?

If Euphemia had possessed a less-deeply-feeling and less-dramatic soul, she might have been struck with concern, and an easily made assumption that something awful had befallen him. Perhaps he had even died.

But instead, Euphemia sounded almost frustrated, unable to contain her consternation that someone else dare disappear, and then reappear – herself, very much included as a recipient of such annoyance. Where on earth have you been? the maiden quipped, the wagging of her tail serving as an intentional conveyance of how happy and relieved she was to see him.

skill: [none]

skill: ??

There was a nagging sense of dread in him - when he had last been on the doorsteps of their pack Tiberius had returned. Olive had been lost, but the family had not been left alone to weather those storms. He had no idea what had befallen them since then, and it felt shameful to the Viking to consider that he had not been there in their time of need. Thankfully there wasn't that much time between when he'd called and someone found him - and from the far off distance he could tell it was a Shakti-Vaes, his mind flipping between Aurelia and Euphemia until she was closer and he could read her body language better.

The bright smile and the way that she said his name told him it was Euphemia and his smile was genuine - touched that she looked happy to see him, that she seemed to be doing well. Her tone, even with frustrated with him, was still welcome - he would take all their ire if it meant that he was home. Euphemia, He breathered her name out like a breath he'd held for entirely to long, his body sagging a bit in relief. Why he worried the Vale might not be there, that he might return to find a blank expanse of snow and nother else, no mountain, no nothing. But here was proof. Here they were, and here he was, and he wanted to make sure that she knew it wasn't from lack of desire to be home.

She asked what had taken him so long and he turned his body, the heavy scarring on his left shoulder visible to her. I woke up far from home, caught in one of the fires - I was under a tree and could not free myself. He explained. The tree of course had been a fallen beam from an old farming structure but he had no words for such things and no real knowledge. What he did know was that it was too heavy for him to handle alone, he'd forgotten to do his push ups apparently.

It took much longer to recover, and longer still to make my way home. It still gives me pain. Vidarr explained, gesturing to the deep scarring that now covered that shoulder and even part of his back. At least I'm still pretty, right? A teasing smile - he'd managed to escape Tiberius' scarred visage, hadn't he? How...how has everyone been? There was a bit of fear in him wondering just what might have happened while he was gone - but he still had to ask.

[she doesn't know that the world is turning just for her]

skill: [none]

Mythris was a strange and challenging land. Euphemia had puzzled long and hard about the how’s and the why’s of how folks were ripped from their lives (and only sometimes were restored). She thought about her own experience with it, and how strange it was that her previous life, and then the one that replaced it, and then the rebirth into this one all seemed so irrelevant and separate from one another. There was no overlap. There was only fracturing and pain at whatever had occurred in her untimely absence, a grief that never seemed to remedy itself.

So which was the more painful, to have died – or to have been resurrected?

With this thought on her mind, Euphemia easily found it within herself to swallow the eternal frustration that her abandonment issues had left her with, and she beamed towards Vidarr, despite him detailing the traumas that had befallen him. He clearly hadn’t died, and he hadn’t left per se, but he at least had been dead to them – and she did not have this feeling in a negative manner. It was simply the fact of this reality, that when people were here, they were here. When they weren’t…

Well, did it matter where else they were?

Finally, the truth of Vidarr’s journey settled into her psyche, her eyes widened with concern. You got burned? she questioned, an astounded tone on her tongue. She had caught wind of more strange happenings these past months, astral occurrences and caves made of nightmares and such, and assumed Vidarr had been made victim of similar circumstances. The maiden glanced at him, lips pressed into a thin line, now feeling proud that he had made it back in the face of such dire circumstances. Yes, somehow, she had made an emotional 180 in how she regarded his ‘time away.’

Her eyes looked at his face, which seemed to be mostly the same as it always was, but when his body language directed her attention to his dorsal area, her eyes widened once more. Gosh, you look like Da! Euphemia gasped, stepping forward, amazed at seeing flesh so raw and new. Euphemia suddenly didn’t want to press the man for more information, she truly just wished to usher him across the borders and give him back his den to rest in and feed him updates on the sisters and those who existed around them, but two questions of her own could not contain themselves.

But, where did you recover? and... I assumed someone healed you? she tried to ask delicately.

---

skill: ??

It didn't matter that she had such a blinding smile as he recounted what had kept him away. All that mattered was that she was okay, that he had found his way back to the Vale, that they could go from there. He'd find the other girls, but could he even really call them girls anymore? They were so grown. He'd known them in those awkward stages, and knowing them now would be knowing them as adults. Ótrúlegt (Amazing) He exclaimed when her careful gaze caught sight of the burn scars he had and then said that he looked like Tiberius. Oh, come now Euphemia, I'm still way cuter than him. He teased, grinning at her. His tail wagged behind him, body relaxing slowly. It was obvious that just being home made him feel better.

Her question about who had tended to him was also expected. Svajone took care of me until I could manage the journey. Vidarr explained. He'd been under her care, and considering that his own medical knowledge was fairly limited, he hadn't argued with her a bit. She was the one to help me get out of the fire originally. Vidarr would give her all the credit, without her he would have been a crispy-charred lump. I do not know the name where I was - but it was kjaftæði (bullshit). I did not care for how long it took me. The man could admit that much, and he'd do so freely, there was nothing in him that felt it was worth hiding the truth from his pack.

Is everyone well? He had to ask it again - and while it was kind of her to worry about him he was fine. Well, as much as he could have been. What he needed, though, was to know the state of the family he'd come to call his own. The boys were grown now too, and he would no longer be looking down at them as the puppies they had been. It would be considerably different - everything would be. But Vidarr Asulf had never been one to shirk away from a responsibility, and it felt like he was duty bound still just as he always had been. This was his home. These were his people.

[she doesn't know that the world is turning just for her]

skill: [none]

It was always an interesting relationship, being known from birth. Usually, that was a right and role allotted to the parents – to care, at least emotionally, for this living thing for the rest of their lives – and in closer families, the aunts and the uncles and the grandparents had this opportunity too. Euphemia thought of Vidarr as some sort of uncle, and she supposed it was rather normal for uncles to drift in and out, as they indeed lived their own lives and did need to be caring for children that he didn’t himself create.

But mother was dead. Da hadn’t been seen for some while. The sisters had Genghis, but there was no doubt that there was a need for an additional mature presence. Aurelia and Tiberii, thought accomplished, were young; just as young as she, and Euphemia couldn’t imagine leading a pack and making tough decisions like they did. She had no idea how her sisters did it – but they couldn’t do it alone forever.

Not when Vidarr stood at their doorstep, ready to take his place amongst the pillars of Dawnbreak once more.

Well, considering that Da isn’t cute at all – he’s a tattered mess she squealed, a peal of laughter rolling on her tongue at the thought, now flushed with endorphins at the happiness of the return of a family member. – you have him beat automatically. Euphemia stared at him, unblinkly, as if observing art in a museum. At least it missed your face. she said bluntly, succinctly, and sat down to hear the recount of his recovery.

She didn’t know what else she could have expected, but she felt a strange feeling wash over her when he mentioned that yes, someone had been caring for him. Yes, he depended on another when he was supposed to be depending on his family. Oh, she muttered, looking downward for a moment, then realizing that he had asked this question for a second time and now she had to answer it.

As always, it was difficult for Euphemia to shield her emotions from view. Yeah, everyone's good. It’s been tough since mother… it was still difficult to say. There was an audible silence where words were supposed to be, and instead of speaking, the maiden could only swallow thickly. Kuhn was kicked out. He said that Tiberii and Aurelia were… usurping the pack… or… something. Honestly, it was hard to remember the details, all Euphemia clearly remembered was the hurt she had felt when the cat left hurled insults and burned bridges in his wake. But yeah, he left. He just… left.

Her voice, which was normally soft, was quieter than normal. Not wishing to spoil the mood with such sobriety, she rolled her shoulders and looked askance. There’s a lot of new faces. It’s weird. It wasn’t the upbeat type of comment she had hoped to make, but it was her truth.

---

skill: ??

Although he had considered Tiberius his brother and cared deeply for Olive, he could not say he'd spent as much time with the children as he should have. There were moments that stood out - learning from Cassius he didn't like to hunt or take lives, knowing that Isaiah liked to collect his little treasures, seeing Tiberii really find her footing after her trip, seeing Aurelia find herself in her roles, watching tender Dalamtia as she faced the hardships they had experienced, and seeing that Euphemia had made her way home too - it felt good to know that he had been present to see these things, these gifts. Thinking of their Druid, surely wherever she rested she surely was watching her brood with pride.

His booming laugh joined the peal of her giggles, hearing her say her father wasn't cute at all. He'd never known Tiberius unmarred, but he could imagine the man in his youth. Surely as headstrong as he'd always been, perhaps too rash in a lot of ways. He could see the way that Olive tempered him, and they'd built something together that had resulted in eight beautiful children. Each had their own personalities, their own struggles, and what Vidarr felt the biggest was his own responsibility to be there for those children now. He'd only had the goal of coming back to them, to the only place that he'd felt was his home since being taken from Kaldrvegr. Hmm, aye - I would have been heartbroken if I lost my good looks. He added with a wink. But it at least gives me a good story.

Euphemia's face fell and he winced - not knowing exactly what ran through her head but he saw the way that her face fell. Considering that it had been a year since Olive had passed, it sobered Vidarr to think of their lost Druid. She was not lost, exactly - she had joined the countless others across the veil. But she was lost to them, in the way that they'd always had access to her. Gently he reached out to touch his maw to her temple, holding the contact for a moment in solidarity. It was a loss to them all, but the children felt that the strongest, no doubt. But what she told him next floored him. His ears shifted forward, as if somehow he'd heard wrong. Kuhn had been ejected? He had insulted the family that had come to love him too in the process, and for a brief second Vidarr's fangs showed as his lips curled before he got himself under control again.

New faces can bring new potential. Vidarr offered gently, because once he had been a new face after all. They had the potential to become dedicated family even, and that was something beautiful. Potential meant endless possibilities. Hopefully they haven't taken all the best napping spots. He tried to bring a touch more levity, even though he still wondered about his own siblings and where they'd gotten off too.

[she doesn't know that the world is turning just for her]

skill: [none]

What was this light airiness in her heart, which seemed to take flight at the exact moment Vidarr winked at her? Her young heart had never been the recipient of a wink before, and the maiden found it an interesting experience. Euphemia wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by the gesture, especially when paired with the constant mention of his good looks – of course he was handsome, he was a giant viking northerner, what else was there for him to be?! The young shewolf felt the breath catch in her throat, and she nervously pawed at the dirt beneath her front toes, feeling as if the earth could (and should) swallow her whole all because he closed one of those golden eyes at her.

Why’d he have to do that????

Thank god the conversation had shifted to something far more somber. It was almost somber enough that a younger Euphemia might not have noticed the gentle temple-touch he offered her, but this Euphemia was awakened. She glanced up at him from her downcast expression, and offered a small, shy smile. It was all she could do, stuck between the gentleness of another living, breathing creature and the harshness of the unfeeling, objective reality.

He did offer a good, albeit simple perspective on the shift in the Vale’s residents. For all intents and purposes, Dawnbreak has always been replete with souls she considered family. Now, their numbers were certainly bigger, and Euphemia never felt quite comfortable with the fact that there were members she hadn’t yet spoken to, or only had a handful of conversations with. With mother gone and father removed, Euphemia had reasoned (long ago) that it was an impossible thing she wanted; for life never to change, and for people to never die or disappear.

At least the silvered maiden had trust in her sisters, and would follow them until the end. Even blindly, even through changes she (perhaps foolishly, but almost certainly) would have hoped against. If they trusted these other pack members, then so did she... even if she didn't want to. She had to.

Good point, she admitted, knowing that her feelings regarding… everyone in Dawnbreak, except her sisters, was childish at best. But was that entirely a bad thing? For someone whose mind excelled in learning and memorizing and inquiring, she found respite in a healthy dose of youthful joie de vivre. It was the only sort of balance she felt she maintained well in this life. As such, Euphemia chuffed and narrowed her eyes playfully at his little joke. Well then, I have some bad news for you. They did. she jested with her voice held flat, as if quite serious.

Newcomers now have to go sleep on the rocks, she said with a flick of her nose towards a rocky outcrop, not-so-subtly hinting that he was expected to do as such. But to ever consider Vidarr a stranger was the true core of the joke, for it would be blasphemous to ever think of him as such.

---

Skill: warrior

Vidarr was completely unaware of what had resulted in his simple, careless wink. He'd been joking right back with her - distracted in a way that made it easy for him to miss the signs of his affect on Euphemia. Which meant that his well-meaning touch to her temple might have been the worst thing to do in the moment. No one, himself included, had ever suggested that Vidarr was perfect. Her shy smile was returned with a touch bigger smile, after all, Vidarr had long since forgotten how to be shy.

Once upon a time, I was a new face....hopefully they all bring good things to Dawnbreak. If the Pillars had thought they had potential, who was he to argue to fact? He'd soon enough meet some of their newer recruits, find out what was what. Vidarr would have admitted to missing his clan just as much back in Kaldrvegr, and he'd tried to fill his time with the wolves of Duskguard so he didn't think so much of his losses. But being alone it became impossible not to think of losing them both, and as he had trekked back to the Vale he'd kept to his thoughts about how good it would feel in comparison to be back.

He made a 'tsk-tsk' sound when she clued him in that the best napping places had been taken. He'd have to see about that! There was a particular little clearing that he loved, nestled between the canopy of the older trees in the Vale's embrace. Hopefully no one else had found it. To the rocks! He mocked a look of sorrow, body sinking before her to play his part properly. I will take my pittance and your mercy, Kind One!

[she doesn't know that the world is turning just for her]

skill: [none]

Vidarr smiled a big smile back at her, and Euphemia beamed.

I, personally, think you’re being way too positive about it, she responded again to his suggestion that non-family members had value. but I know Aurelia and Tiberii will appreciate your sentiments. she jested, but it was (once again) her thinly-veiled truth. There was a very small, very silent part of her that understood what Kuhn had been speaking about when he castigated Dawnbreak. She, too, knew what it felt like to see strangers in their midst, beside her sisters, becoming closer with them than she was herself. Kuhn was too harsh in his surmis, but the stark lack of an election… Every time she thought about it, her stomach gripped like a vice –

– but then again, was there any other way forward? There were those that led, and those that followed. Within the Shakti-Vaes family, the former and the latter had been clearly denoted. She followed. Aurelia and Tiberii led. That’s just how it was.

Euphemia managed to hide her inner workings well, for once. Now that there was an audience she wished to impress, that is. So Euphemia left the topic with her last little sprinkling of sarcasm, and eagerly moved onto the silly display before him. She walked closer, surveying the display, and then placed a single paw on his shoulder and hoisted herself up, nose to the wind, as if he were a large promontory rock or something of the sort.

Didn’t know so much had changed around here, did yah? she suggested to the winds, allowing her words to fall down to Vidarr below. Euphemia glanced down sporting a sheepish smile, as if suddenly becoming aware of how silly this all was, and hopped down. The maiden trotted away from him several paces, but turned around and wrinkled her nose.

We’ve also implemented a series of tasks that anyone who seeks to join must complete, she made up, on the spot, unable to give up the gig entirely. and they’re tough. real tough.

---