the w r e t c h e d ones

[Knight]

Excalibur and Lume were an interesting duo. The prince of fire and the fox warrior were an intimidating combination, even to those that hadn't heard of them. After all, Lume was huge, towering over a good many wolves, and Excalibur was, well, a fox. That had a mask that hid his face from the world. Beneath that mask was heavily scarred, however, marked heavily by an attack from a mountain lion that he had only barely survived. It had been Lume who found him, Lume who chased off the creature with the flames that he controlled, and Lume who got Excalibur to a healer, a young female named Windsinger.

When Excalibur was stitched back up, he and Lume went on an adventure. They wanted to explore the world, to see where the sun set, where the sky ended. They wanted to know, to learn.

Excalibur was the more cautious of the two, however, always on high alert. He was more guarded and quieter, more likely to keep to himself than his companion. But he was a kind creature, not one to harm another on purpose. And he was more accepting than most, seeing as he was far from the typical fox. His family, it was said, was descending from the interbreeding of the predator and the prey; the fox and the bird. Not that that was actually true. But no one had any better reason for why every member of Excalibur's family shared a resemblance to a bird. His father had looked like a parrot, and his mother a simple sparrow. And then there had been Excalibur.

Lume's beginnings were no less . . . normal, to say the least. Well, the very beginning was normal enough. But he lived in a land touched by mythology; the pheonix, the lord of all the flames, visited his forest on a regular basis. No one knew why. But when a young pup was separated from her litter and left alone, Lume rescued her, and the phoenix lord was so impressed by his bravery and kindness that he brushed his wings over the wolf as he raced against the flames, and left him touched by fire. Orange-y red markings danced across his pelt, and with the fire that he controlled, he feared no wolf. A bit cocky, to say the least, and very outgoing and friendly, Lume was a social creature. And he was curious. He wanted to know everything.

Currently, the duo had found themselves near a beach. Well, the beach. This was as far West as they would ever be able to travel. One point of the compass down; three to go. "They say that this is where the sun drowns every night," Lume whispered, lowering his head so that his nose brushed the fur of Excalibur's ear, "And it's reborn every morning somewhere over there, Cali." Here the wolf gestured to the east with his head, grinning a lopsided grin down at the fox.

Excalibur snorted, shaking his head slightly as he butted lightly against the wolf's leg. "They say a great many things. It remains to be seen whether these things are correct." Excalibur spoke coolly, but in truth, he was curious too, his ears, which were supported by the metal mask he wore, twitching a little as they came to a dainty stop. "Look at the water, Lume." Excalibur sniffed at it curiously, leaping back with a slight yip when chilly water touched his muzzle.

"Wuss," Lume teased, leaning down over the water to flick his tongue out, tasting the water curiously.

Only to leap back, a loud yelp escaping him. "Stars above, that was the single most disgusting thing I've ever tasted!" Lume cried out, glowering at Excalibur as if the fox should have stopped him.

"It was salt water, Lume. What did you expect?" Excalibur countered, shaking his head as he settled back on his haunches, carefully arranging his three tails behind him.

"...I just wanted to try it." Pouting slightly, Lume flopped down next to Excalibur, rolling over to grin at the fox, who simply shook his head.

[Matsi]

An interesting pair watched the male fox and wolf with locked eyes. One pair, the smallest pair, of eyes were violet and bright. Energy and life reflected behind the gaze, yet black danced in the form of fur around them. The small creature was no more than a multitailed fox, with a pelt that initially black. That is, until an emotion reached her heart, then the fur at the bottom of her feet started to take a different color, then, a wonderful swirl of spots, from her forehead to her tail tips and paws, all lit up in a dance of color that reflected her mood. At the moment, the colors danced with teals and yellows and blues of Curiosity, caution and excitement. She looked as if the stars were swirling and dancing on her back, or as if the Aurora Borialis had come down to play. Her name was Astren, a name that her parents thought was the name for the stars.

Astren's companion was quite a bit taller, but not actually that much larger. With a pelt that started dark at her feet and nose, then lightened to a nebula of orange and gold in the middle of her back, Misska also looked as if she had been touched by the stars. Besides the nebula on her back, light gold dusted the back of her neck, her mane and the top of her tail, then light flecks of silver, which looked like stars, danced in her darker areas. Yet, it was her eyes that were locked on the two males that was really eyecatching. With a base of golden-orange, her pupil seemed to not be there. Until one would look close that is. Like her father before her, her pupil was colored, and it was a light golden-green that faded seamlessly into her iris.

"Misska, should we say hello?" Astren asked as she stood up from her seated position. She was the more bold of the two, and was always ready to charge head first into adventures, even if it meant trouble.

Misska's dragonic paws scratched at the ground with a slight nervous tick. Her black nose twitched, has her paws dug deeper into the sandy soil on the edge of the beach. Her bright peachy-orange pawpads were soon a muddy gold color from the moist earth.

Astren looked at Misska when she didn't answer.
"Some hellhound you are," the fox said in a sarcastic, yet slightly encouraging voice. She knew how to encourage the young wolf.
Misska snorted and the two looked back at the duo on the waters edge. The moment the male wolf tried to drink the waves, Astren snorted and looked at Miss with an eyeroll.
"I am so sorry your kind are idiots..." She snorted again. These two clearly were not from the area, so she was going to investigate, with or without Misska.

Astren flicked her tails, then padded off of the inland hill, and onto the sandy dunes that marked the beach. Misska watched the fox for a few moments, then slowly started to follow.
"You don't drink the waves, you know," Ren called as she got closer. She stopped a few bounds away from the males, with Misska a few bounds behind her.

"Not from around here, are you?" Astren then asked, skipping the small talk. She was curious as to what idiots decided to try to drink the tears of the planet.

Misska stood back a few feet, her ears pricked as she looked at them, observing them. They seemed friendly, so far at least. Her mind was hard at work as she tried to establish how friendly and what type of mood these two were in. She really didn't want to have a skiff.