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 Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:53 pm
((This is intended to be a summation of events which have happened whilst the pack has been inactive - a small pile of character pieces should follow, too.)) 1. This Post! smile 2. Calliope
3. Aoede / Venus / Constantine
4. Gaias / Neptune5. Ouranos 6. Erin ---oOo---
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:29 am
Calliope stood at the entrance to the den, her home, her comfort. These days, she didn't wander out as often as she used to - although she still took joy in her growing family, she had never totally recovered from the attack just a few seasons ago. She had always worried, her worrying was almost legendary amongst her kin, but after that horrible event, that attack, in which she had imagined seeing her family gone, in which her mate had been hurt and one precious child ripped from her side she had gained a permanent niggle in the back of her head.
She hadn't noticed at first. The litter which she had carried through the fighting had come early and it was four! Thank goodness that had not been her first litter, that she had learned motherhood with a smaller brood! Taking care of four bundles of energy who were all intent on exploring just how far they could worry their mother into a stroke had taken her mind off worrying about bigger things.
Now, though, those little bundles of fluff and mewling milk-fiends had begun to grow, much as her first litter had before them, and were taking their first steps out into the world. It introduced new worries and, doubly, left her with more time to ponder possible calamities.
The future of herself, her pack, her kin. As an alpha she was their protector but there could come a time when she wasn't able to, she knew. She wondered if her worrying made her worse as a leader - she didn't rule so strongly as her old alpha had, but she thought that she cared more, knew more than he had. Her pack. Hers to care for, hers to worry about…
Raising her head, she called in her deep, throaty tones for her kin and heard the answering calls. All safe, for now.
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Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:23 am
Aoede sat, miserably, in the rain. It thumped down around her, drowning her thick outer fur and even trickling down underneath, ticklish and cold against her skin. Once she would have been horrified at the thought of looking so bedraggled, but now she was too hurt to care. Abandoned, chastised, not trusted. Unloved. She knew she had done wrong, been an idiot, been deceived by Helios in more ways than one - but she couldn't let go of the feeling that it was still so unfair!
I mean, it wasn't her fault that she had been captivated by his daring good looks, or that she had unwittingly helped his evil schemes - he was an evil mastermind of sorts, after all! Really, no, not her fault at all. But… she could see the glances of her pack mates, her so-called friends, her mother even. It wasn't so much angry as… disappointed. That was annoying as she would have much preferred to have come back as the dashing heroine, stolen away by the wicked wolf, only to realise the error of her ways and return to her joyous family. Where were the adulations, the happy greetings, the tearful reunions?
Her mother had been tearful, she guessed. In fact, when she first came back her mother had been so happy… Now, though, she was out here on her own and her mother had sent her out here with no explanation. Maybe this was to be her life now, on the outside, the pack's lowest of the low member. Her life was over!
A sharp whelp from behind her startled her out of her self-pitying reverie. Her mother, in pain? Was Helios and his gang of thugs back? She leapt to her feet, skittering towards the den.
--oOo--
She had heard many secrets that night, learned many things from her mother. She had grown up a little, and then a lot thereafter. She had witnessed the birth of her siblings with awe. The only other pups born to the pack at that point had been those born so close that they were like brothers and sisters to her. She had not seen nor understood their birth as something different or special, she'd been too young. At that time, on the cusp of adulthood, she now understood.
Three brothers and a sister. All the males were little miniatures of her parents, with mostly dark brown and black coats - one almost identical to mother with his chocolate and tan pelt. It was her sister who had brought a gasp from her then, though. A soft, creamy brown with darker patches of a fawny colour on her ruff and back. She had the patterning of mother but as if she had been held under a waterfall and some of the colour had washed out!
She was beautiful. Aoede had at first felt a little jealous, but jealousy of a pup was silly and, after all, this was her sister. Her sister! She could help her and teach her and make sure she didn't fall for silly male wolves who looked pretty. She had promised her mother that, later, quietly.
Finally, she had been given a kind look, a loving look. She treasured it.
--oOo--
Aoede heard her mother's howl and smiled. She looked to the young, pale wolf at her side and, together, they called into the cool, spring air.
--~oOo~-- The sun was sneaking over the mountain, sending long, deep shadows alongside thin streaks of light through the forest. The light broke up through the trees, leaving a light dappled pattern on the coat of the pale toned wolf below. Constantine padded through the forest quietly, looking this way and that, alert and searching. He was happy to see the first buds of leaf on the trees, couldn't wait for the spring freshness and summer warmth they promised, but knew it was still a little way off - his breath still misted in front of him!
A twig snap touched at his senses. Despite daydreaming about the warmer months he had been out searching... His quarry was nearby. A flash of dark brown, and pale cream. He slouched down, tail coming to a stop ears flattening further, even more than their normal flopped-over state. He almost never hunted by himself - usually the pack ran prey down together but todays hunt was very different. He certainly didn't want his father following alongside him today!
Another flash of brown, close. He leapt, pouncing onto a tail in front of him, and heard a shriek.
"Gotcha" he grinned, ducking away from a headbutt aimed in his direction.
Aoede had seemed a mystery to Constantine when they were young, as they grew. She was aloof, and self-centred and was often running off with the other female pups, leaving him with his father. Not that he had disliked spending time with his father but those hadn't been the best of times - the days where his father had been slightly distant, quiet, sad but caring in a soft way.
Then Aoede had gone, she was with the pack's enemy, she was... someone he didn't understand. Despite her tendencies before he could not comprehend why she had done it, it was against his very being to think of betraying the pack.
The Aoede who had come back, though, had been different. Well, not at first. At first she had been sullen, apart, like a stranger in the pack. Then, one night, he had found her sobbing softly. He had been worried, then - Calliope had been birthing and he thought she might have lost one pup or all with the trauma of the fighting.
they had spoken, then, she had poured out her heart, he had seen the inner Aoede - where she hurt and what she had come to know. The morning after she had closed up against him again - as if ashamed at her outburst, of showing her weakness. It had taken him time after that to get her to trust him more fully, to let her understand that he did not judge but did want to come close to her again, as a friend.
Their friendship was new, fresh, and exciting. His father had always loved pups - he had come to feel the same way and so, when Aoede told him she wanted to look after Venus, he had coached her in how she might relate to the pup, help her, and teach her things which would make her grow strong.
The sun was cresting the mountains behind Aoede as he looked up into her deep golden-yellow eye, tail wagging.
"Hmph!" she said, feigning anger but not managing to keep the smile off of her face for long. "You were supposed to be helping us!" she exclaimed finally, holding her tail imperiously, and away from its recent attacker."Helping! helping!" piped up a small voice at their feet.The three moved further into the forest, laughing and giggling together.
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Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 9:22 pm
Corn blue eyes stared at soft blue flowers. In front of the eyes (and behind the flowers) was a large, damp nose and behind the lot was a rather large, shaggy, chocolate and caramel male wolf. Still half a pup, really, with legs too long for his body and an air of puppyish innocence about him. His legs were wrapped up underneath him now, though, and he was concentrating on the current subject of his interest: flowers.
He had been a summer pup - born when the world was dripping with flowers, warm and full of life! Now, with temperatures rising, he had been impatiently awaiting his second summer. Spring would do for now, though, he figured - the vast carpet of bluebells was wondrous to behold, especially when the sunlight hit it in brilliant shards, as though lighting up actors on a stage.
In contrast to the dark-toned male he watched, Neptune looked entirely out of place in the spring landscape - like a remnant of the winter gone past his pale, off-white coat contrasted sharply with the earth green and brown of the spring forest. He had been born in autumn, the last of the heat leaking from the land and the sharp smell of ice in the air already.
He waited, watching, not ready to disturb his friend, his almost-brother, quite yet. Gaias, the pale wolf thought, was soft, gentle, kind, loving and always willing to help. Everyone loved Gaias - the son of the alpha pair - but Neptune could hardly say the same for himself. The pack had always seemed... reticent around him, as if embarassed sometimes. Even his own mother had seemed a little distant compared to what he saw of the other pack females and their young.
It wasn't until he was a little older that he had learned about his father, had begun to understand why the other wolves had an odd look in their eyes. It wasn't reticence, it was pity. He hated that - he was not his father's son and would never be and didn't care where he had come from - only where he would go.
His introspective thoughts were interrupted by a nudge in the ribs.
"Daydreaming?" Gaias grinned.
"Hmph - like you were, you mean?" Neptune retorted, pushing against his darker companion playfully, with mock anger. "Your mother called, I didn't hear you answer so I figured I'd best come tell you before she came looking and you got bundled back into the cave for the spring!" Calliope, Gaias' mother, was a tad overprotective in Neptune's mind, but given the rumours he had heard, he could understand.
Gaias grinned. "I guess I'd better get back anyway, I said I'd go with Ouranos this afternoon..." Gaias was supposed to be learning to hunt but, in truth, he wasn't very good at it and didn't really enjoy bringing down the beautiful forest creatures. His 'uncle' Ouranos had tried to tell him about how the animals they killed for food all went back into the ground and became food for the flowers Gaias loved but the soft-hearted wolf still didn't really have it in him.
Neptune had never had trouble hunting - he enjoyed it and was the right mix of weight and power to help with running down bigger prey - he was large - even at his relatively youthful age - like his alpha Zagreus and 'Uncle' Ouranos and was gaining in stamina.
His only hindrance was his pale eyes - they hurt when hunting in daytime - especially when snow was on the ground and the glare was high. When he had begun learning with the pack on bigger prey, this past winter, it had given him such a terrible headache that he had been made to sit it out and watch the kill from afar.
"Come on then, we'd better go."
"I'll come with you this afternoon and keep you company if you want." he added, as they began to pad home.
"Oh, yes please!". It would be so much less horrid to bear if he could have his friend alongside.
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Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 5:28 pm
He stood, silently, looking out over the glen. His thick coat had started to shed for the summer, wisps of fur floating off on the warming summer breeze. Up here, on the cliffs above the pack's lands, he was alone and, for once, he was not glad of it. These last few years had been hard on the once optimistic wolf - he had the joy of a mate and then the loss...
He had withdrawn so far from his pack that they seemed strangers to him now - they barely knew who he was except as the quiet wolf who haunted the dens, at the back of the hunts...
It was time to change, he felt it within - a healing, a warmth that crept back into his soul. He wasn't sure if it was the new year, the burst of pups in the pack or something else but an awakening was near.
He took a deep breath, savouring the earthen summer tones which had begun to flow in it and started to head back down towards the packlands at a light canter. He went over, in his mind, the pack's coterie of pups - his pupils and charges.
The 'next generation', as he thought of them - Gaias, Apollo, Mithras, Venus, Neptune, Hermes, Odd, Octavia. The litters of Calliope and Persephone had been born at the same time and he had, thus, only helped to train a number of them - with the other wolves of the pack taking others under their wing.
Gaias and Neptune were his 'special' charges - especially Neptune who had grown up with no father of his own. They were both intelligent young males but Gaias seemed to lack the drive Neptune possessed.
There were also, of course, the two pups. He barely knew them as they stayed, for the most part, in the southern en with their parents. He knew Erin was proud of her young but wary of her alpha's attitude towards their unusual markings and, as such, kept them out of the way. Ovid, like Gaias, seemed to be a little dreamy in nature and Ouranos wondered if the pair might benefit from knowing one another better - Gaias gaining a focus which did not require hunting and Ovid a rolemodel with whom to explore a little further afield than his mother might otherwise like. He made a mental note to suggest this to Gaias this afternoon.
Thinking of which, if he didn't pick up the pace he was going to be late…
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