Unbowed, unbent, unbroken but almost drowned

Unbowed, unbent, unbroken but almost drowned

---

The waves had tossed him around, battered him, churned and shaken him in every direction like a poor rag doll. Fragile he had been, powerless in the face of the imminent death that lurked and out of breath before the overwhelming force of the torrents. Taurenis had seen himself leaving, disappearing, his flame submerged by the raging waves.

But he was spat out, rejected by the swell onto the stony shore. The capricious river had threatened to reclaim him, tickling the trembling sides of the brown wolf before retreating.
He was there, he had survived; The fierce fire of Brûle-roche would still burn as long as he remained. From his lungs he had to expel the unwanted water: He was coughing again and again, then finally he could breath again.

 “Where the-...” He could talk, he could see, he was alive. “ Where am I ?” Could he even catch his breath, as speaking had been so difficult for him? But he was strong and the flame kept burning, fed by the hope and the will of his children. After staggering, Taurenis tried once more to rise but his trembling legs, threatened to give way under his weight. Never had he felt so heavy after being so weightless under the river's wrath.
the staff team luvs u

She had not explored much, but what she had seen left her wanting, yearning for the sights it had yet to offer. She'd seen the rushing falls, and it took everything in the acolyte to tear herself away. If Runar allowed it, the woman might think to never leave, but the family she'd acquired was a desperate need she wasn't ready to part with. She needed them.

The thought of them gave her boundaries, and if she hadn't seen him, she might've fled back to her home like she'd done every day since finding the beautiful place. But Twyla pulled her compassion from her Star Mother and it was with fervency that she swept over the terrain towards them—rationality forgotten.

“Hello?” She called to them hesitantly. Her head fell between her shoulders as she advanced, but her eyes swept across his frame. Had he risen from the water? Was he a gift from the land? A gift to the land? Or a gift for her, for Vanderfell? The woman practically buzzed with unkempt curiosity, questions abuzz within her mind. She was no healer, but she could answer his questions the best she could.

the staff team luvs u

Thanks for welcoming Taurenis and for joining me in this RP. I'm very excited to write with you ;u; !

---

"Hello?" A noise that shattered through his skull with the same brutal impact the waves had used to break him. For now, he could offer no clearer response than a low growl, a sign of the discomfort her words had caused. Taurenis was still dazed, barely managing to regain his bearings now that the ground no longer swayed beneath his heavy paws.

He finally lifted his head, abandoning the exhausting task of fully getting up. Before him stood another wolf—or so it seemed. The stranger bore the dark fur of his region, and at that moment, Taurenis felt relief; the tide hadn't carried him too far and probably still was in the foreign lands of Brûle-roche.

“Where are we?...” he murmured through clenched, weary jaws. “The mountain. How many days?” Days of walking—because he expected to be able to return home, to Brûle-roche. It couldn't be this far, and that rougeoise — The inhabitant of Brûle-Roche for whom Taurenis mistakes Twyla. would help him, for that was the way of the wolves of Brûle-roche.
the staff team luvs u

Of course! I'm excited to see you around Canis! <3

---

His growl urged her ears to fall but she didn't relent any. He needed help, did he not? Even Twyla could see that. What happened to him, where he came from, what he was meant to do; Twyla didn't know any of that. But he was here, wavering where he stood, wondering of where he was, and she sought to help him.

And then...he spoke common, and she, well, was not as versed. Swallowing thickly, she began slowly. “No name yet.” She should probably work on that lest she shed a tear and leave the place in the hands of another. It needed something worthwhile, something true to its sights. Maybe he could help her with that once he gathered his bearings.

“Mountain? Two mountains. Twyla comes Fate's Summit. @Medvjed comes...” Her brows furrowed as she attempted to remember the name he'd spoken of. “Empyrean. You come from them?” She did not think he came from Vanderfell, but perhaps he did, and perhaps she was simply too absent to notice. Her faith tended to consume her.

the staff team luvs u

He understood nothing, and it sent a sharp pain through his head. Wasn't she a Rougeoise? What was this language? It bore no resemblance to the ancient Rougeois, nor did it echo any of the dialects he had once heard from the lips of travelers in his childhood. Bewildered, and now gripped by panic, the tall brunet dug deep within himself, summoning a growl that came from somewhere deep, like the rumblings of Brûle-roche's volcano.

“Je suis rougeois, tu ne me comprends pas?!” — I am rougeois, don't you understand me?! He growled, frustration thick in his voice. It felt like a nightmare, one that would end the moment she stopped playing the role of the wild foreigner, and with a knowing smirk, would confess that she had been mocking him all along, switching to the language of their homeland, and to soothe him, would say warmly; "You are still home, Taurenis."

Around him, mountains and rocky terrain began to emerge, but nothing like the land he knew. The flame that had once burned with hope now blazed with anger, fear, and uncertainty. He was lost, far from his people, far from home. Or was he? He would not accept it. He would deny it to the very end.;

“Où est la Montagne?!” — Where is the Mountain?! He was beginning to show aggression, like a wounded animal, drawing closer to the stranger in a desperate attempt to force words from her—an answer he longed for, desperately.
the staff team luvs u

for the sake of ease/confusion, any foreign dialogue will be translated via hover code. any words appearing as english are assumed to be common tongue <3

---

It would seem that he did not understand her, or rather, her words upset him enough to cause such a negative reaction. There were not many situations mirroring this one that Twyla found herself in, not even when she was within her own home. This—this was new and unruly, and Twyla didn't know what to make of it.

She didn't know he did not speak her home language and perhaps it was her mistake for assuming, for rambling so heavily in a tongue not shared across the terrain. But that did not give him any right to throw his frustration out like a whipping lash. “Growl at Twyla not!”

No, she did not deserve his disrespect. She was just trying to help, could he not see that? Could he not assume? The woman scrambled backward at the first sight of his haste approach before she'd stumbled upon roots and jagged stones. Who did he think he was?

She was a woman of the stars, burning bright with a fierceness she'd momentarily forgotten in the face of surprise, but she would not fall to anyone she did not wish. Twyla staggered to her feet, a glare settling on the stranger. “Two mountains. One is home?” His home? A question. Her teeth would bare if he grew closer than she liked, but her common words, however separated, were a makeshift olive branch extended to him. She did not wish to taint the pretty place with violence so soon.

the staff team luvs u

Oops, my bad! Noted!

---

“Growl at Twyla not!” He had responded with an internal growl, a murmur meant only for himself. She wasn’t a rougeoise. He had to face this truth, though it was far more bitter than the gallons of water that had nearly claimed his life.

“Sorry.” He had finally whispered, exhausted, his head lowered before the one who had unjustly endured his wrath. She was not to blame, but she was the only one there, the only one against whom he could vent his frustration. Yet, she was not to blame and he knew it.
The tall, brown man had finally stepped back, or rather, forced himself to shift his tired body as best he could, groaning from exhaustion and discomfort.

"Two mountains. One is home?" At these words, Taurenis had painfully lifted his gaze once more, searching for the mountains he had already scoured earlier. Perhaps he had missed something. One last hope.

“None is home.” He rasped, as if desperately holding onto a faint glimmer of hope. “Brûle-roche. This is my home. You know the place?” His burning gaze pleaded for solace, for a glimmer of hope. Taurenis knew deep down he was lost, yet he still refused to accept it until the truth was spoken aloud. A rougeois will always find his way home as long as the flame within him still burns. But hadn’t that flame been weakened by the torrents that had torn it from his home? A flame on the edge of extinguishing. He was on the edge of extinguishing.
the staff team luvs u

That's okay, it was my bad!

---

Twyla sighed.

Oh, she could not truly be fussed with him when his defeat was so profound. She could remember a time when she harbored such a distraught feeling. When she thought her faith to be gone. Her brother, her family. When she was betrayed by her own father. Yes, she could remember many times.

“It is alright. You are...sad, no? A lost man?” Lost in the sense that she could not seem to provide his home, that she could not give him something to hold onto. He did not have faith like she, did not have the means of comfort that accompanied one in lonesome times. She supposed she could never understand how he truly felt, so alone and so lost, but she could sympathize. Offer him even a semblance of makeshift comfort.

Brûle-roche. Her ears fell. “No..Twyla does not know this.” Oh how she wished to provide him this. How eager she would've been to show him—yes, yes, i know the place! But she did not, she only knew the two mountain ranges. Only truly knew her home.

“I am sorry.” She would murmur as she deflated, her posture betraying her feelings as it slumped before him. “Tell Twyla more of this. Your home.”

the staff team luvs u

Of course not, she did not know.
Taurenis had curled in on himself, seeking solace as a wolf cub might, cocooned in his own embrace while he rekindled the embers of his spirit. He exhaled softly, and for a fleeting moment, closed his eyes—as if mourning the last flicker of his hope. Lamentation was a thing of the past now—he could not afford to linger in sorrow anymore anymore though the pain was still teeming.

At last, he lifted his weary gaze toward his interlocutor, ears standing tall.
“Yes I am sad and I carry the flame within me so I am not lost.” He paused briefly before murmuring on. “But my flame, it lights no path.” Thus, he was lost. He would find his way again—it was only a matter of time. But for now, he needed to gather his strength, to grant himself respite.

“Twyla. Your name is Twyla?” he asked before continuing. “Brule-Roche is a mountain with no end, no summit. I never seen it, the summit. She is... Choleric. She spits fire when she is very angry. Yet she can be merciful, she is a guardian to her children. I am one of them.”

At the mention of his homeland, Taurenis' eyes glowed with a passion already steeped in nostalgia. These mountains here were nothing like Brule-Roche. It were lusher, steeped in green. Wetter, too. The air here was crisper, gentler, he would have said.

“Is this your home?” he inquired, his gaze once more tracing the contours of the landscape. Despite the thunderous roar of the waterfalls, a strange serenity lingered in this place. Or perhaps, it was Twyla's presence —calm, yet soothing in its own way. A stranger she was, her purpose unknown to him, and yet she had stopped. She had listened. He, a castaway, had been heard.
Would he have done the same in her place? Would he have halted his ascent for a weary, wandering soul? ...
the staff team luvs u

Twyla brightened at his words. So he did harbor the faith! Perhaps it did not mirror her own and, misguided as he was, he would need guidance she likely could not provide in his journey home. But! The light of it, the grasp on something worthwhile in the midst of everything unsure, would lead his way. His true home was not here, neither was hers, but her faith had made a new one.

She considered offering the option to him, presenting him to Runar, and introducing him to her new home. But even she knew it to be too soon, not when he still felt fresh sorrow. Truth be told, Twyla wished to hear of this home, just as much as she wished to share the details of her own. The one forgotten. The one lost.

“The flame...” She offered him a soft smile. “it will burn big again.” It would just take him some time, some healing. His flame would light the best path for him when it called for it. She was sure.

At his first question, Twyla nodded but it was not their brief introduction that caught and held her attention. No, he spoke of his home like a living, breathing thing. A woman—a goddess. That was how she spoke of the land, how she felt the land to be beneath her pawsteps. And thus, Twyla was enraptured, ears perked as she listened to the details of his home. Awestruck, she replied, “Beautiful.” but even that was not an adequate enough description.

“Twyla's home?” She asked with a soft giggle and a shake of her head. “No, Twyla's escape.” Her chin lifted in a soft movement to gesture to the mountain range lying southeast of them. “That's Twyla's home. Fate's Summit. She dances with the stars.” If not a wolf in her next life, Twyla wished to become something so grand if only so that she might spend the rest of her life touching the skies. Whispering to the stars.

Her gaze fell to the stranger. “I am Twyla. Name?”

the staff team luvs u

Tao is a poor exhausted man, he's falling asleep xD
I loved this RP, especially Twyla she's a cutie ;u; !

---

Twyla wasn’t a Rougeoise, and yet, at times, she seemed to speak like one. Wherever she might have come from, she understood the castaway’s words—she grasped their meaning.

"The flame...it will burn big again" In response, he graced her with a faint smile, the only one his weary body could still conjure.

She had listened intently as he spoke of his homeland, and it had seemed to him that she harbored a quiet curiosity for the place—or at least for the story it carried. Small gestures, one after another, weaving together a fragile thread of comfort for the weary traveler.
And so, as their quiet conversation continued, he learned more—not just about the place, but especially about her. Enough, perhaps foolishly, to feel no sense of danger.

She, too, came from the mountains. She must have known the taste of ascent, the love of great heights. But with such small paws—where could it possibly have carried her? The thought crossed his mind. The Fate's Summit... A name that stirred in him a longing he thought lost, an ember of ambition glowing once more beneath his fatigue.

"I am Twyla. Name?” Her voice pulled him away from his reverie.

A name? For one born at the feet of the peaks, in the clash of rock and fire, now cast adrift by the torrents. A name that could be spoken in this land. A name that, from this moment on, would be his.

“Taurenis. That is my name.” He had murmured before letting his heavy head sink against the earth. “Twyla... thank you,” He had further added, voice fragile. “I am exhausted. But when I am better, I will go and meet her. To know what Fate she holds for me: I might speak with the stars themselves or maybe dance with them.” He smiled.

With that, he buried his head between his calloused paws, his eyelids falling shut, drawing him into the depths of sleep—deep, unyielding, and, he hoped, restorative.
the staff team luvs u

closing out here, i loved this! i'm excited to see how they meet again <3

---

Twyla could only thank the Star Mother. She was given the gift of companionship, of camaraderie, in the face of exploration. And though she knew it to be too good to be true, perhaps Taurenis might find the Fate's Summit to his liking enough to stay. A stranger with the face of a friend.

She did not bother with convincing him to follow her home so soon, not when exhaustion plagued and confusion had barely ebbed. She needed no thanks, needed no appreciation. He'd offered her more than she could've asked for in their brief interaction, whisking her away with tales of his home. All she could offer him was her protection in his time of need.

A sentinel, she sat guarding alongside him, leaving only when the sun crested again and before he'd woke. Whether he remembered her or associated her with a dazed stupor, an exhaustive measure to keep himself sane, she wasn't privy to. She would simply return home with the news of a new territory on her tongue, a nuetral and fruitful piece of land Runar may wish to use.

the staff team luvs u