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 Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 3:57 pm
When Sashta was younger, her brother would wonder off quite a bit. She was always the one to find him whenever he would do so. The second he went missing, her mother would come gather her and take her out hunting for him.
So, it made sense she would think to do the same. Sure, a few things were differnet. For one, it was Ran who was lost, and she had not just one brother but two, along with a sister. However, while it wasn't the best parenting, the alpha did infact play favorites. And which of them could you love more?
So, Ahnius it was. Into the freelands the mother-son duo went. Currently, they moved about the end of the river. Sashta lifted her head and nodded to her right. "Go look over there, Ahnius."
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 2:24 pm
Ahnius had frankly been more interested in playing in the shallow edges of the river. Alas, mom's word was sort of law -- the only kind he really could recognize at his age. The black and white pup raised his head, nose dripping with cold water. Ankle deep among the little rocks and sluggish water, Ahnius peered after Sashta a long moment.
"Alright, momma," he yipped, crawling to the dry bank of the river. Personally, he didn't know why they were looking for Ran. She was mostly annoying, and Ahnius would really rather leave her out here. Better than having the stupid head running around the group chasing crickets. Besides, she'd probably be happy out here. He'd seen lots of butterflies on the way.
But he obeyed Sashta's order: floundering through the underbrush and taill grass off to the right of where they had been. His nose wrinkled slightly at the foreign smells here. Ran, Ran -- where was she?
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:40 pm
Sashta appreciated the courtesy her son showed. There was a reason other than his looks he was her favorite. Another thing was she could trust him not to get into to trouble. For now, anyway. Who knew what the future would bring. Hopefully not females. God help the wolf dumb enough to try and sway any of Sashta's offspring. Pondering such thoughts over, she wandered a bit farther. Her scent wasn't too far.
Little did Sashta know how correct her senses were. Barely out of hearing distance, the alpha, when her daughter suddenly sprang from a bush and pounced her sibling with a happy yip. "Brother! Ran is so happy to see you!" Even if it had been like that the other way around, it wouldn't have lasted for long.
The force of the sudden mauling sent the two pups tumbling back. The end of such was, just their luck, the river. Luckily the waters weren't too harsh today, but certainly fast enough to sweep them past Sashta before she could blink twice.
Whining, Ran managed to cling to a clump of grass half-way into the water, hauling herself up and barking toward her sibling. "Pull yourself up, Brother!"
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:47 pm
"Danged Ran, what an idiot. Getting lost and stuff. You'd think she'd be--" Ahnius' irritable mutterings were abruptly cut off by the sudden impact, replaced with a surprised yelp. Scrabbling momentarily against the momentum his sister was carrying, he very nearly had rebalanced. Unfortunately, his short little nails didn't do half as well gripping at the dirt and the two were sent flopping away.
Wet. Getting dumped into puddles, rivers, and who knows what else was beginning to seem like a habit...
With Ran's weight off him, the black and white pup quickly began floundering toward the bank of the river. Even with the current as meandering as it was that afternoon, it took a bit of time for his short legs to propel him to a place where he could reach and drag himself up out of the water.
Looking more like a half-drowned rat than a wolf puppy, Ahnius flopped belly down and panting on the turf, ears plastered back against his skull. That was decidedly less pleasant than playing in the shallows had been.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:02 pm
"Ran thinks you're a bad swimmer," she informed him sourly. And they said SHE was useless! Ha! He looked like a rat flailing around like that! ...Rat. Hehehe. With a giggle she no doubt got from the fathers side of the family, the pup span around once before taking the time to look around. "We're far away from Momma now!"
What a shame, but never fear! "Butterfly will lead us back!" Ran lowered as if preparing to pounce something, her tail wagging rapidly. Her eyes focused on...nothing, shining michveously. "Follow Ran, Brother! Ran will follow Butterfly, Brother will follow Ran!"
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:08 pm
Ran stood, shaking himself out as best as he could. Follow...Ran? He shot her a long suffering sidelong glance, ears still pinned backward (half with annoyance, half weighted down with excess water from the river). "What do you think I am? Stupid?" He snapped, lifting a leg and shaking it soundly, a few specs of water flicking out of his coat. He repeated this with his other three legs. "'M not following you. You were lost for like..." He didn't really have a concept of time. It got dark and light and dark again, and there was food between then and... "--a long time. Why should we go your way?"
Besides, he'd rather eat 'Mr. Butterfly' than follow him, thank you very much. Hair slicked back over his body, Ahnius began moving back up the bank of the river. If they'd come down this way, they should...go up that way, right? His nose was so water logged he was having a hard time smelling anything but 'fish.'
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:13 pm
"Ran really thinks you should go this way!" The female whined loudly, glancing back and forth between the direction she was so sure was proper and the way her brother was going. "Ran really, REALLY thinks this is the right way! Butterfly says there are bad things up that way!" And, she got nothing.
Whining again, her ears flat, she hesitated only a second later before bounding after her sibling. Well, if he insisted. Her brothers and her sister were always right over her. At least Momma had said so. Butterfly must be wrong, too...
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:18 pm
Ahnius nodded, ears twitching forward slightly, apparently a bit pleased with himself. He may be wet, cold, and look like a completely idiot, but at least he...had control over his younger, stupider sibling? Which, granted, wasn't saying much, but he wasn't arguing. He'd take what he could get. Besides, it was alot better than chasing butterflies or crickets or whatever it was Ran had been planning for them to do. Besides, how bad could it be? They couldn't have been carried down river that far.
Ahnius wrinkled his nose, trying to clear the smell of river from his nose. Momma's scent was familiar enough, though. When he got 'in range,' he'd probably smell her no problem. If not...--well, the whole yapping thing would probably work to draw their mother over. The bigger wolves seemed to have some sort of feel for that: yelping puppies.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:25 pm
"This way is wrong," she insisted, despite following him every step of the way. It was hard to place her concern, rather it was for herself or him. After all, Brother was much stronger! But...he wasn't that strong, and he shouldn't be off by himself! Still...
Her eyes flickered in random directions rapidly, suggesting the 'butterfly' she claimed to always see was fluttering wildly around. It only made the wolf insist louder, and much more annoying, this was 'bad', 'the wrong way', 'not good', and so on and so forth.
Soon enough, there was another scent, but not that of Sashta's...
"Ah! I knew I'd find you out here!" Phantom grinned as he slid from the shadows, almost like....well, a phantom. When he noticed the second pup, he at first seemed surprised, and then amused. Very amused. "Well, what is this the greater powers have brought to me? YOU must be the son of that wretched alpha!"
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:33 pm
"Ran, stop being stupid. We're perfectly sa--"
Or maybe not.
Ahnius stopped dead in his tracks as the pale wolf surfaced from out of the trees. He smelled...weird. The pack smelled familiar and, thought Ahnius hadn't exactly met anyone outside the pack, this one smelled somehow wrong. Like...like he'd been eating something momma wouldn't approve of.
With a high pitched, keening puppy 'growl,' Ahnius nipped sharply at Ran's nose, driving her slightly back the way they'd come, and a few paces away from the stranger wolf. As much as Ran irritated him, he'd rather not let this wolf do something to her (mostly because that meant the the wolf would probably do something to him too). "Ran, go back that way," Ahnius growled sharply, hackles standing on end, head dropping just slightly between his shoulders. He'd seen Reicher do this: stand threateningly with head slightly higher than his shoulders but still, somehow, ready to lunge forward. Reicher was quite a bit bigger than Ahnius, but...--whatever.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:43 pm
Poor memory or not, Phantom was not so easily forgotten, even by one like Ran. Had it been a stranger, perhaps she'd have fled. Brother was in over his head with this one, though. He didn't know him, she guessed, but Ran and Butterfly did! Surprisingly, she growled a bit as she stepped back a few paces to avoid having her nose bitten off. "Ran will not run away! Ran thinks blue wolf is a bully!" Like Papa, only without all his 'lackeys' as Momma called them.
"Now, now, little Ran," Phantom whined fakely, reaching one paw out and smacking Ahnius to the side lightly. "I'm so much more than just that!" His eyes flared dangerously before flickering toward the male of the two. Suddenly, all his teeth were bared in a twisted grin. "I wasn't going to eat you, but since there's two I think I just might. You'll at least be enough to keep me filled until I kill that horrid mother of yours."
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:47 pm
Ahnius made an idignant noise as he was batted aside, stumbling slightly. Hackles standing absolutely on end, he shook himself for a moment to recover his bearings-- Eat them?! No wonder the wolf smelled odd! But he wasn't going to let some wolf just eat the two of them. Or, at least, Ahnius would much rather go down fighting a bit. With puppy teeth bared, and a majority of Phantom's attention on Ran, Ahnius rolled back on to his feet and lumbered with all the grace of a young wolf (i.e. next to none) toward Phantom's leg.
His teeth wrapped soundly around the thick bone and sinew of the blue wolf's foreleg, digging in as hard as Ahnius could manage. Which...wasn't hard at all, really, considering the only 'fighting' the puppy had done was the play-wars with his siblings.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:56 pm
Ran squeaked at the sudden attack. "Ran should do what?!" She asked frantically of her invisible butterfly friend, and judging by her whine either didn't get an answer or wasn't fond of the answer she got.
"You rat!" Phantom snarled, backing up a step. When the realization set in he was infact being bitten, he slung his leg to the side again. Unfortunately, the pup didn't hit a tree as he'd hoped, but no matter. Head lowered, teeth bared in a MUCH more threatening way, he hurried toward the pup and towered over him. "You'll be first, then." He sprang forward only to be knocked to the side a second later.
"Ladies first," snarled Sashta, now standing beside him. Phantom rushed to his feet, growling louder than before. Unwanted company always did pick the worst times to show up. Though her eyes never left the other adult, she was clearly speaking to the puppies. "Are you alright?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 4:03 pm
Well, that hadn't gone as planned. It had gone as he'd suspected, but he'd rather been hoping...-- Oh well. Rolling to a stop in a path of grass, Ahnius squirmed: rolling on to his stomach rather than his side, glancing up to find the pale wolf looming threateningly over him. Ears plastered to his skull, teeth bared and hackles raised, Ahnius made a last attempt to look threatening and--
Momma!
Ahnius promptly stopped with the teeth thing, scrunching himself down slightly into the grass as if trying to look as small as possible. He wasn't an idiot. With mom here, it was time to stay nondescript as she kicked the crud out of the other wolf.
"'M alright, momma," he squeaked, shoulders hunching forward. Hastily, deciding that Sashta had the situation quite under control, Ahnius rose slightly off his stomach and skittered hastily toward where Ran was, nipping at her ear. "We're finding a hole while momma hits him."
Ahnius didn't have any delusions of granduer, thank you. He knew very well his size. And if something unfortunate happened to momma --...well, it would be far better for he and Ran to be hidden in some tree trunk rather than just sitting there like fish in a pond.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 4:12 pm
Ran nodded in agreement and followed him yet again...for about four feet. Stupid, yes. Perhaps her lack of brains was made up in loyalty. Or, maybe, she really was just THAT big a dumbass. Whatever the reason, she found a nice little bush to huddle under, keeping the two fighting in fairly good view. "Ran wants to make sure Momma is okay," she whispered to her sibling, stretching her claws out and planting them firmly in the ground.
Like almost all wolves, Sashta had been in her share of fights in her youth. Once she was older, after she met Reicher, the only fights she got in were because of him. Somehow, this had to be ironic, fighting over the pups that belonged to the both of them. This had to be his fault. Thump!
Phantom had pinned down the alpha, but a sudden jolt upward knocked him back into the tree behind him. Wasting no time, Sashta bolted forward and dug her teeth into the others leg, yanking him forward violently.
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