Brackish

 If Dreadnought believed in gods, she would think them angry. 

 The land roiled, frosted fog snagging sharpened points of fur as she skulked through the tar-black forest. Towards the mountains, it was snowing, but this close to the teeming sea the wind whet the water to needles. 

 Impossibly, she heard the distinct roll of thunder, then a crack of fizzed electricity in the air as the shadow world was set alight, instantaneous and terrible. 

 The woman was a storm, and she brought the weather with her.

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It had been some time since Vendrussel saw the rage of the sky — the static felt in the air and the clouds booming ahead. Her ears flickered to the washing of the waves, angry in tides that a challenge to be made to even find back home. Though so many advantages came from a home of the island, there was always the drawback of on and off, for days were safe and otherwise not.. But she couldn't truly see if ocean was not as angry as it sounded, for the mist continued to roam through this beach, neverending in it's quest.

But another sought to the shadows, a dark figure glooming into the land.. Wary, that Vendrussel was — she wished for a time to greet visitors with a smile and an offer, and yet now they must take hold firmly, of this land. Her hair standed in a bristle, guarded and proud and moved forward ; keen blue eyes looking at this figure who smelled not of an enemy, but of air she did not know.

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 A wolf greeted her in the pitch, her pelt a mixture of the sea's navy depths and the ivory foam that crested the harshest waves. She bristled, and so Dreadnought bristled back. The hair along her spine rose towards the electric, threatening sky like a leaf rises towards the sun. 

 “Only the desperate or the brave venture out in weather like this. Which are you?”

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"I cannot say i'm either, when this land is part of my ford." A thunder boomed within the background, granting the foggy world a better lighting to the one before her. A better glimpse, to who she was facing. Both on guard with a bristle through their back, and even Vendrussel held her tail and head up high, a gaze of an ocean that squinted in a wary questioning. For what purpose was she at this very beach, asking her such questions?

Darkened within the background, to their marking and their eyes.. Like a walker through the night, and yet but a shadow within this very fog, "and what of you?"

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 Her scoff was muffled by the growling tear through the sky, bruised clouds shocked with lightning as the sea roiled off the coast. 

 “I came through this land when I first came ashore.” Purged by the very ocean that crashed so close now. “I did not know someone had claimed it.” Straightening, she assessed what she could see of the woman in the dark. 

 Dreadnought stepped closer, her voice rasping over the gale. “What makes you deserving of such land?”

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"Many months have me and my wolves claim the land, and the land within the sea," did she know, of the isle that was within these rocks? A hidden sanctuary that was hard to discover for those not aware of the pathway through the spikes, or the lowering of the tides to give way of rocky trial. Her tail lightly moved within the background, as she narrowed a look upon this woman, who smelled of storms.

A smile was brought to her face, ever so lightly, "the ancients have guided me here, but within my own strength do I claim for my ford. But who are you, to deem if I am worthy?" Yet, her smile was full of chill and blocked by the foggy and rainy days. Hostility, continued to emanate through her core as she felt as if they too, were judging her.

It had been many moons since she foresaw that vision. Where the sky itself was moving, a constellation within a reality running through the land — and Vendrussel, chasing it only for it to disappear. Within a dream though would she be told, where the dragon underneath the sea slumbers, and it's scales breaching to the surface itself. And unknown tugging, pulling her somewhere to the west.. At least she had been confirmed, the coast was around.

Some may call her crazy, but even if those dreams and fantasies were nothing but an imagination — she still brought her claim, with her own claws and with the help of others. She vows to keep it that way, and protect as an Alpha of the pack.

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 “My name is Dreadnought. I was born of salt and spray and know well the strength it takes to hold a land so wild.” 

 The thunder pounded like a hammer in the sky, reverberating down to shake the earth beneath their paws. “There were others who sought this stretch, but they were too fickle.” She could only assume the land had got the better of them. 

 The stranger's time here proved tenacity, the will to spit and rage and hurl all that was dealt back to these unforgiving relics of water and stone. “What is your name? What pack do you preside over?”

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"I am Vendrussel, Alpha of the Dragonford, as you said you were born of salt and sea, I hailed from northern waters, where we embraced the ocean chills." Yet it couldn't be say she was completely immune to such ways. Many had fallen into frostbite if not careful, especially within the winter-time season. Relatively safe otherwise, so she thought. Others would disagree and prefer not to live within those siberian like-climates. 

Her tail moved lightly behind, thinking of who those wolves who tried to claim it.. "I am aware of those wolves, their greed knows no bounds." Her assumption automatically came to thought of the Northfall ones. A thunder, rose from the background and flashing the two darkened figured. Standing before each other, in a first hostility, but now seemed to settle a general neutrality.

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 Though they spoke of different beasts, neither was aware. “Hunger without the strength to finish the job is hollow greed.” Dreadnought concurred, her hackles smoothing until her wet fur clung slick to her powerful shoulders.

 “Are you in need of wolves?” She asked, making her curiosity plain.

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"Depends on whose asking," her own fur smoothed as the rain poured on. Her hostile form ceased and simply stood tall, and proud — as she should, while representing the ford itself. Her neck stretched lightly after the tensity that came, a rather relief it wasn't an enemy she so was wondering arrived at this beach.. Vendrussel could feel the strain it weighed on her body and mind.

"a scout, or a recruit?" she said, the corner of her lips lifting slightly up.

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 “The latter.” She replied simply. 

 “I've spent months scouting the land but the merciless sea has called me home.” The wolves that claimed this place must have strength, but only time would tell if they had the hardiness to hold it.

 “I would join your ranks if you have the need to fill them.”

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"The ford always welcomes new dragons to our midst." And though they were in need of others, especially a medic.. She would never turn down someone who looked like a warrior, for the general consensus that the ford altogether needed new members. As war loomed within their range she was never knew when some got caught in a battle, and others rush to an aid.. She was even out for quite some time due to an injury caused by those of the mountains. Yet, Vendrussel knew it was the price to pay for blood itself. 

"We have a trial to take, to test those who wish to join," as the thunder crackled, the wind whipping around them with each word she spoke ; the rain seemed never ending, "do you dare during this weather?" Vendrussel looked over to the ocean, covered in a thick fog and a torrent of rain.. Before was a large peak where the gate lay, and where the dive takes place.

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 The sky opened overhead, the claws of some slashing God flaying the atmosphere open to a torrential downpour. 

 Dreadnought grounded herself, her answer matched with a clap of thunder. “I dare. I will take your trial.” 

 Having been subject to vigorous trials in her birth pack, the she-wolf was accustomed to challenge, but even she had never been tested in such a fit of raging weather. “Tell me what I have to do.”

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"Then follow into the storms waves." With a grin upon her face, did she turn to the direction of the sea. The thunder booming in the background, and the fog endlessly rolling.. Yet not in the sea, it remained wild and black, an abyss of unknown. Her paws felt the tides of such waters, her claws into the sand itself..

And she leapt to the stormy waves.

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