THE BEST AROUND ☆ joining

[ARVID R.]

Arvid's life up to this point had been... harrowing. Where he had initially been born was a mystery to pretty much everyone, including himself. He didn't remember his parents or any other past family, nor did he remember what his first home had been like. Instead, all he could remember was being taken away from it, and passed from place to place without any real sense of independence. At one point, he had even been taken in by a family, who thought him to simply be a domestic canine. But when he had started growing at a rather rapid rate... they had become frightened of him. Worried about what he would grow into once he was an adult. He was tossed to the metaphorical wolves at that point, poked and prodded and tested by scientists until eventually they decided to just... send him away again. He could remember the sharp sting of anesthesia being injected into him, and then... he was here. On the island. Or, well, the main island. It seemed as though there were several smaller ones, at least from what he had learned.

Thus far, his experiences on the island hadn't been overwhelmingly positive. He had been sent over when he was only 5 months old, and it had been 2 months since then. In that time, he had... tried his best to find out about his new home. Really, he only ended up gathering bits and pieces. The island was full of animals – something he had figured out quite quickly upon stumbling into the territory of a loner group – and some of them had created groups. Rather large groups, if the stories were to be believed. That sounded pretty good to him, in all honesty. With numbers came safety, and he could use a feeling of safety once again. He no longer had a foster family to watch over him, and while he was glad to not have to deal with tests or prodding, he still didn't feel as though the island was truly home. Having a proper group to call his own, though, would give him that sense of home and community, hopefully.

So, the young dire wolf had started asking around. He bothered pretty much anyone who would listen – and who wouldn't attack him – and asked them to point him in the direction of one of the larger groups. It had taken a while before someone actually knew exactly where one was, but once he had found them, they pointed him in the direction of the mountains. The snowy and distant lands didn't exactly seem all that appealing to him, but... beggars couldn't be choosers. He had started the long trek without much protest, eventually noticing as he grew closer and closer, that the mountains weren't the only major landmark. In fact, the place seemed to be split up into even smaller islands. It was almost overwhelming, at least when one took it in from a distance. Still... he was unwilling to turn back at this point, and his curiosity was piqued. It wasn't long before dark – well, all except one yellow one – paws were carrying him in the direction of the Coalition's territory, multicolored eyes gleaming.

It was a couple more days before the canine properly arrived, but he knew it when he did. Although the scent of the Coalition wasn't familiar to him yet, it certainly was strong. Strong enough to let him know that he had stumbled upon a border marker, anyways. That was enough to make him pause, Arvid not wanting to trespass and get off on the wrong foot quite so early. With his paws pressing against the wet – and slightly muddy? – snowy ground, he began to glance around for any signs of life nearby. He called out a bit hesitantly, his tail wagging back and forth behind him, "Hello? Is anybody out there? I heard that some kind of group lived on this territory, and... this seems to be the border." If it wasn't, he really had to wonder why somebody was marking it so strongly. Either way, he would then sit and wait to see if he got some sort of response, momentarily wincing. He hadn't expected his voice to be so weak and hoarse, but he supposed it made sense. It had been a while since he had exchanged more than two sentences with anyone.

i wanna be the sand inside that hourglass