strike for love and strike for fear

Since her waking, she had stayed in the mountainous region she had woken in, straying in different directions as she considered what to do next.

For starters, her sisters. They weren’t here. She’d never been especially close to them, but she still did worry for them. Her hope was they were safe, but she was ever unsure about that. Perhaps it was some sort of cosmic test. If so, she would succeed. She would win this proverbial bout, and she would do it with finesse befitting her birthright. Chiharu breathed out a soft breath, fog curling around her ankles as she followed the trail set out before her, assembled by a thing she would never hope to try and figure out. Above her, spots of color twisted and twined in the wind, faded perhaps, but bright enough to catch her eye even through the weak morning light beginning to peer around the mountain she walked upon. The ice woman lowered her skull as a blast of chilled wind swept her fur in the wrong direction, barely holding in an unseemly grunt at the unexpected cold.

Perhaps she should find a place to shelter, at least until the sun had come up and burned away the cold. Yes, perfect. With that in mind, Chiharu ducked into the first cave she saw, sitting just out of reach of the wind, tail curled neatly around one back leg.
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Ragnar had rose early that morning. Far before the rising sun itself. In the darkness the northern lands were far colder, even here where it was just but the cusp of northern mountain region before opening into bitter cold open tundra. The golden and cream wolf strode the length of plains between his home and his ally, who he admitted he didn't see as often as he might of originally thought. She was a pretty girl to miss, that @Riannon, after all.


Though this early morning he went below her claim of Cloudrest and to the mountainous region below it. Here, he caught the sight of a different pretty girl- @Izumi. Or, who Ragnar had thought to be Izumi.

Following her trail upwards within the cold and foggy winds, Ragnar woofs lowly to her, icy pale eyes narrowing as they attempted to ward off the winds. “Izumi, fancy meeting you again...” He speaks with a playful smirk. A wanderlust heart she must of had. But, with a fee good sniffs, Ragnar soon realizes that this is not who he thought it was. Though the same structure, same markings (though he realized now that this woman's was grey and lacked the saddle color), she was completely new all together.

“Oops.”
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Slowly, the voice rolled over her ears, and Chiharu swept her ears to the side to catch the tones of another, twisting her head a second later to find the man coming her way. She raised a prim brow at the mix up, flashing a placid smile.

“You have met my sister.” She filed that away. No need for this man to know she did not know where Izumi was, nor did he need to know what, exactly, separated them.

“I am known as Chiharu. Not Izumi. Though it is flattering, perhaps, that you would mistake us so.” Mint watched cooly.
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The woman, curled into a tight ball within the cave opening, perks her head up to look at him, brow rose. Yeah. Definitely not Izumi but she did have quite a familiar resemblance and it only took Ragnar but seconds to informed as to why.

“I have and now the pieces are coming together...” Sisters. That much made since to him. He settles then, golden and blonde furs whipping in the winds. Soon, he hoped, the rising sun would break through the cover of cloud and fog. For now he sat outside the woman's enclosure.

“Your light fur and darker points had me mistaken...” Surely, she'd understand. His icy blue eyes meet her mint, different from her sister's flowered purple. “I promise, your lovely all your own.” He says, a smile as she mentions being flattered, mistaken from what he guessed was her sister's beauty.
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She knew she was lovely, the words had been spoken to her quite often by suitors she had summarily denied. But, it always caught her off guard, and she lowered her head a bit in flustered embarrassment.

“I thank you.” She said, idly pressing her paws together. She raised her head again, tipping her head to the side to indicate the cave she sat in.

“Come, you do not have to be in the wind if you do not wish it. There is enough room for both of us to shelter for the time.” Chiharu shuffled over, just to ensure there was enough room. Without a claim or her family, being polite was her easy go to for information, even shelter if it came to that. She knew how dangerous it was to be alone when winter came.

“You seem to know my sister, but I do not know you. Can I perhaps have a name?”
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The sun-kissed northerner couldn't help the toothy grin which took over him as her head lowered with a shyness and gave her thanks and by the time she lifted her head he would drop the grin and side glance to the free space at her side as she mentioned it.

“My thanks...” He spoke, dipping his head down low as he eased into the cavern opening and rounded the back so that he could lay down side-to-side she with the territory at the opening out before them.

“I am Ragnar Stormborn, of Northfall.” He spoke with a pride, for although he held far from the empire which his blood Archers commanded, he was proud of what he had accomplished with his little family thus far. “I had met your sister within the tundra not long ago. My home rests along side it and the coast, just past the open plains west of here.”

He shifts, hips falling to the side and his front legs outstretched in front of him. Icy eyes looked outward though snuck to look at her from the corner of his gaze every so often. “I had come here in hopes to find an easy route for crossing to the east.” Instead of going south and around or though the tundra itself and down into the everfrost forest.
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Chiharu let a little smile split her face, dipping her head to acknowledge the name she had been given.

“I extend my greetings to you, Ragnar Stormborn.” Her voice was formal, polite, even as he spoke on. She nodded after a moment.

“I would help you in that endeavor, but I’m afraid I do not know this area very well. I am fairly new to it.” Izumi was in the tundra. Ragnar had met her in the north. Thus, her next move was plotted, her course charted on an internal map. It was about time they spoke at length.
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“And to you, Chiharu.” A returned smile and dip of his muzzle as he glances her way and then back outside the cave opening. She was new then to the region, which was the case for mostly everyone he had come across. Ragnar had yet to learn any born here, family settled here for years... nothing. This land was truly an all new and extraordinary one.

“Maybe when the sun breaks through, we can explore it together?” He spoke, icy eyes training on the snowy slopes. Out there, colors danced in the wind. Unknowingly they were colored ribbons on rope. “What do you think those are?”
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Chiharu twisted her gaze up to look at the sun paled fabric, before giving a soft amused noise.

“I’m not sure to be entirely honest with you.” She said, the small bit of wind that managed to trickle around the corner of the cave wall making her cheek fur sway idly.

“I would not mind exploring, especially with company.” She said, flashing a little smile.
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The colors reminded him of wildflowers, though he knew them not to be. The shapes were odd to him and he yearned for a better look. “We'll go together then, ” He spoke, lifting from his placement beside her and shakes out his coat.

“Race you there?” He wondered how playful Chiharu could be and if she were as swift and as well with endurance as her sister claimed to be.

Padding just out of the den opening, to drink up the rays of new sun, he lowers and readies himself for the race.
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Chiharu’s face was graced by something she would say until the day she died wasn’t a smirk, but sat upon her features anyway.

“As long as you are prepared to lose Ragnar, and badly at that.” The dragon’s heart beat a competitive rhythm, lowering her skull as she lifted her body gracefully to its feet. Balancing her weight on light feet, Chiharu lowered herself, ready for the call to action.
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“Oohhh?” The smirk danced on Ragnar's lips. He did not hold any false proper and reserved upbringing about him.

“To the colors!” He barks out then, dashing forward in a full blown gallop though the frosty terrain and words the wind whipped ribbons in the distance.
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