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 Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 7:22 pm
 Sleep had not come easily to the pup last night, not with her sisters spirit constantly nattering in her ears. While she normally didn't care that her sister followed her everywhere and talked all the time, she highly disliked it when she was trying to sleep. Just because Arima didn't need sleep didn't mean that Oracle didn't need sleep as well. But no matter how many times she tried to explain it her ghost sister didn't seem to understand or care. And there was no escaping Arima, no place to hide from her unless she went to the extreme of placing those special herbs that her mother had told her about at the entrance of the den that warded off spirits. Oracle had tried that once, and it had worked to a certain extent, her sister was unable to follow her into the den, but the mournful and lonely howls that she heard the entire time made her quickly rethink that plan. That was the first and last time she blocked her sister from entering the den, so Oracle just accepted her constant companion.
Besides none of her other siblings had her gift, well Occult did to a certain extent but that was only with those things that died within the pack, their spirits didn't follow him about. Mother had told her on many occasions about father and how he was followed by the spirit of his dam. She wanted to meet him one day, to see if she too could see his ghostly follower or if it was only Arima that could be seen with her silver eyes. The silver eyed curse, she had received it from her father. Only her and Occult had the eyes. Only they understood the whispers of death, even if it was on different levels.
Mother was busy with the Queen at the moment which left Oracle to slip away from the den. Yakut had done a very good job of keeping her and her siblings away from the rest of the pack. Oracle wasn't entirely sure why that was, but more than likely it had to do with the silver eyed curse. That's fine, she had enough company with her siblings, both dead and alive, to keep her content and not want to seek the others out. Or usually that was the case. Today she wanted to stretch her legs, explore a bit and maybe just maybe get some rest without Arima bugging her too much.
Freeing herself from the confines of the family den, Oracle's silver eyes scanned the immediate area making sure her mother wasn't around before slinking off, the spirit of her sister following closely behind her. Chances are mother would know she had left the den since the stupid trees were likely whispering to her already, but there was still time to get away for a bit before Yakut came looking for her. "Where are we going?" Her sister asked, as she flitted about Oracle. "I am just going for a walk, now be quiet will you." Oracle flashed her sister an irritated look and then continued on into the trees.
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 1:19 am
 Chimera was taking the opportunity to laze about in the sunshine, laying sprawled in a patch of light and enjoying the last warmth of the season before the biting cold set in. Soon, it would be cold and hard. Soon, too, he would not have the luxury of lazing about in the sun. He would need to work for a living, to earn his keep within the pack, to toil until his muscles ached and his paws bled.
But right now, Chimera didn't know any of that, and so instead he lived life in the moment, and relished the warmth of the sun, and snoozed lightly, quite oblivious to the approach of a grey pup. He vaguely heard words, and his ear flicked in his sleep, but he never quite rose to waking.
"Isobel?" he asked, sleepily,still mostly snoozing. "Is that you?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 5:59 pm
The voice of another drew Oracle's attention away from her sisters spirit and she looked around for the owner of that voice. It was a male, she recognized that much within having to see the other pup. His voice was similar to that of her brothers, but not completely the same. Oracle knew that males were below her in status within the pack, it was one of the first things mother made sure that her and her siblings knew. She didn't hate males like some of the other females in the pack did, nor did she respect them. Right now she was neutral to them unless given a reason not to. Of course her only interactions with males so far had been her brothers and they always bugged her. Perhaps this one would be different, though she didn't keep her hopes up.
Spotting the pup laying in the sunshine Oracle crept a bit closer but stopped while there was still a good deal of distance between them. Who was this Isobel that he mentioned? The spirit of her sister flitted about her and then glided over to inspect the male. Oracle's eyes narrowed a bit at that, she could see the pup was half asleep and really didn't want to wake him or worse have Arima wake him, even though she knew she was the only one who could see her deceased sister. "Stop that!" She half whispered as her sisters spirit sniffed at the male. "I'm just looking." Arima's unfriendly voice rang out. Just looking, she was more than just looking. "You're going to get me in trouble again." This time she spoke a bit louder, wanting to drive the point home to her sister that she should be more careful.
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:20 pm
Chimera's ears flicked. No...not Isobel. And not Najara, either. Or mother.
Which meant...
He awoke with a start, jerking violently to his paws. His heart was racing, threatening to burst right out of his chest from the sudden shock of waking up too quickly. He yelped in alarm, falling back onto his rump and staring at the grey pup. She was...who was she?!
"Wh-who are you?" he asked. His limbs trembled in a way that was very much reminiscent of his father. Then, misinterpreting her words as being spoken to him -- as obviously he was unaware of anything else -- he blinked. "Get you in trouble again? How can I ever get you into trouble again if I've never even met you before?
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:44 pm
Oracle had been staring angrily at her sister so she had nearly missed how frantically the other pup got to his feet. Though now that her attention had turned to him she noted that he was quite a bit bigger than her, and by that likely a few months older as well. Well age didn't matter, she was still the higher ranking wolf among them. Arima bounced about the now standing male pup before returning to her sisters side. "He's got funny colors on him." Oracle's eyes ticked to her sister for a moment before returning to the other pup.
"I'm Oracle." She told him with a shrug. "And I wasn't talking to you." Her head tipped to the side as she inspected him more closely. He did indeed have funny colors to him, but that's not what she was concentrating on. She had not only picked up her fathers gift for talking to and seeing the dead but she also had a slight connection to the trees around her like her mother. Their whispers were faint compared to Arima's voice but ever now and then she heard them clear as day. Now was not one of those times however. "You might get me in trouble eventually." She pointed out, there was always a chance of it happening.
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:06 pm
He looked around himself, now extremely confused. "You weren't?" He blinked. "So, then...um...who were you talking to?"
He rose back to his paws, tried to quell the shaking in his legs, and did a full circle as though making sure he was completely alone with the girl. Then he looked back at her. Her eyes were a funny color. Then again, so were his. "Well...you might get me in trouble first. Did you think of that?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:17 pm
"Well I was talking to..." Telling him that she was talking to the spirit of her dead sister was not an option. Mother had warned her about such things, telling her that the wolves here would not understand and likely think her insane. Well she wasn't insane that was for sure, she saw her sister clear as day, much like her father saw his dam. "...forget about it. I wasn't talking to anyone." That made Arima flit about angrily. "So I'm nobody now? I thought we were sisters!"
Oracle shot her sister an irritated glare and then looked back at the male, silver eyes staring at him. "You didn't tell me your name." And that is quite rude, she added mentally. "How would I get you in trouble?" That seemed like a ridiculous thing, there was no way that she could get him in trouble. Males after all were the trouble makers.
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:54 pm
"Um. Okay." He was pretty sure she'd been talking to somebody. And was looking at somebody, who wasn't there. He'd never seen that happen before. Didn't seem natural.
Oh, was she talking to him now? "Oh. Sorry." He watched her uneasily. He wished that Isobel were here. She'd be able to make heads or tails of this pup and explain things to him. As it was, he was pretty much completely confused, and it made him a little cranky. "I'm Chimera."
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:45 pm
Did he say his name was Chimera? That was a bit of an odd name. Not that odd things bothered her in the slightest. Arima was muttering something in her ear but Oracle did her best to ignore her sister for the moment, though her ear flicked about a bit, slightly out of irritation and partially to tell her sister that she was listening. "Your name is odd." Oracle stated very matter of factly. Holding back such comments had not been taught to her yet, or at least she had never been told to hold things back when it came to the opposite gender, the sisters however it was best to keep some things to yourself.
"Do you live in the pack?" She questioned him. Mother had mentioned on a few occasions that there were other pups about of various ages but had still kept her and her siblings tucked away in their own den, they were not sent to the nanny like the other pups.
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:08 pm
"Well, I'm kind of odd," he said, tentatively. And he was. There was little denying that -- he was pretty darn funny looking, and he was fully aware of it. He knew what his siblings looked like, and what the Queen's pups looked like, and what Azalea and Nightshade looked like, and he didn't look like any of them.
So, by definition, he was pretty odd. "But you are, too," he said. One day he would learn -- the hard way, almost certainly -- that he could not get by with saying such things to females. But he meant nothing by it. "I mean, your eyes are a funny color. And you keep acting like there's somebody else here when there isn't." He shrugged. "But that's OK. I don't mind being a little odd, and you shouldn't either."
Oh, Chimera. One day, his youthful self-confidence would be shattered. But not today. He was a lucky pup, today.
"Yes. I live here. Don't you?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 8:16 am
Perhaps she should have been offended by him also calling her odd, or at the very least pointed out that he should not have said such a thing to her, but she did not. Of course when he brought up her eyes she could not hold back her response. "I have the silver eyed curse like my father." Oracle knew instantly that she shouldn't have said that, the silver eyed curse was the reason her mother had kept her away from the other, it was why she could see her dead sister while others could not. "You shouldn't have said that!" Arima's ghostly figured berated Oracle for that slip of the tongue. "I know that!" Oracle snapped at her sister, though her eyes remained on the other pup. She was at least trying to act like her sister wasn't there, especially now that Chimera had pointed out to her that she was acting weird.
"What if there was somebody else here?" She casually threw out the question hoping it might distract him from her previous outburst. "Of course I do, my mother is the Shamaness Yakut." There was a definite undertone of pride in her voice when she spoke of her mother. The role of Shamaness was nearly as important as the Queen so it was hard not to be a little proud of her mothers rank, and perhaps her eventual rank as well.
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Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:27 pm
"Silver-eyed -- " he started to ask, then winced as she snapped at...whoever she was talking to.
Yeah, this girl was pretty loony.
He really wished Isobel were here. Suddenly it seemed like a good idea to have a strong warrior around, to protect him in case the loony attacked him, and he knew his sister would do it. Najara would too, probably, but she might be too distracted to pay attention if the other pup...
...Oh, wait, she was talking again. "...But there isn't anybody here. So it doesn't matter." What kind of question was that, anyway?
Then, feeling not at all ashamed of his ignorance on the topic, "What's a sham-a-ness?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 8:20 pm
She cringed as he started to question her words about the silver eyed curse, but as luck would have it he got distracted, likely by her yelling than anything else. Once again it was a good thing to have Arima around, for the most part at least. Of course his next words made her pause, she knew well that she was the only one who could see her sister and yet Oracle was a bit appalled at his narrow mindedness. "Do you only believe in what your eyes can see?" It may have seemed like an odd question but she wanted to see what his answer was, to judge him by it.
His question made her smile a bit, how could he not know what a shamaness was? "A shamaness is the one who preforms all of our ceremonies and is a healer." And one day, she may fulfill that role when her mother no longer did, or perhaps one of her sisters would. It would all depend on how the training went and if the silver eyed curse interrupted that.
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 8:01 pm
"No," he replied, quickly, perhaps a bit sullenly. He sensed a trick question here, and he didn't like it. Chimera didn't enjoy being made to feel stupid, although it was something he would soon enough learn to accept. "I believe in what I can smell and taste, too." Then, as an afterthought, "and in what my parents tell me, because they know lots of stuff."
There. Surely that was a satisfactory answer!
He tilted his head, listening as she spoke. Well that sounded pretty cool. "Ceremonies?" He wasn't sure what those were, or why they needed somebody to perform them.
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 8:20 pm
She should have just left it at that, make him think his answer was satisfactory to her, but Oracle was not the type to hold things back even at such a young age. "Then you are a fool. What if there is a rabbit upwind of you, hiding in the bushes not moving, you cannot see, smell nor hear it, but that does not mean it doesn't exist." And to accentuate her point Oracle nodded her head in silent approval of her own statement. Arima laughed a bit in her ear that Oracle was unsure if it was directed at her or the other pup. It didn't matter, for Oracle had made her point.
His question about ceremonies made her pause for a moment. How was the best way to explain them to him. "Ceremonies are things done which are important to the pack. Like, the blessing of the hunt, mother does that to ensure a successful hunt for the pack." That example would have to do as she was certain the other pup would not know any of the other pack ceremonies as some were rarely used or did not include males at all.
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