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 Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 3:23 am
 The smell of blood attracted her to the site.
Lungaia had tried her best, in the time since joining Antianeira, to control her baser instincts, her more violent urges. It had worked, more or less. Varia ran a hard training regimen, and Lungaia relished the pain it caused. Every aching joint, every sore paw, brought a feeling of satisfaction to the warrior wolf.
Still, something slept inside of her, some monster that breathed fear and supped on blood. It coiled in her heart and looked out from behind her eyes and whispered things into her ears.
And so, when it became the worst, she slipped away from her pack and sought out solitude. No violence, yet. She understood that she could get by just fine by snuffing out the life of some hapless male caught on the territory's border, but she didn't do it. The pack had neighbors nearby, allies. Some of the members were male. Some of them were related to her pack. She didn't want to risk it.
Still, when the scent of blood caught her nostrils, she couldn't resist exploring it.
The sight that caught her eyes was exhilarating: blood, everywhere, long sprays of it, and fine droplets, and trails. And, in the midst of it, the bloodied and beaten corpse of a wild boar, his own tusks stained with blood that was not his own.
This was no usual hunt, Lungaia thought as she examined the kill. This was the product of rage, and desperation.
A second scent caught her, then, lurking beneath the smell of blood and death. A puppy scent. Brow furrowing, she turned a slow circle on the spot, the tattered remnants of her ears piqued forward listening for the sounds of life. "Come out," she said, calmly, addressing the empty clearing.
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Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:20 am
 Between the scent of blood and the scent of screams- they did have a scent... An acrid, agonizing scent that dug into her tender, newborn nostrils and clung viciously- there was nothing that enticed her out. She did, however, slither forward in the bloody mud, eyes gleaming out from the shadows beneath the rock.
...what was THAT?
A... It looked something like the one who had whelped and abandoned her. Stranger, though, and with an underlying scent that burned her nose. It was like her and not. Female, and adult, with a haze of aggression that was at once frightening and soothing. She saw no reason to emerge. While this... this other creature had made no move that her instincts declared a threat, there was also nothing about the other wolf that bespoke safety.
Matted with the blood of her siblings, the pup crouched lower, burrowing into the horrific mud, and coated herself with it before scooting to the far edge of her hiding spot. If she had to, she would run. How far or how fast was still an academic question- she hadn't fully tested her body as of yet- but it was one she was willing to seek an answer to if the wolf made any move she felt was a threat.
Beneath the fog left by birth, deathmarch and terror, part of her tried to forget there had ever been something like a mother who washed her, nuzzled her, fed her and cuddled her into comfortable warmth. It had to be forgotten, and crying wouldn't help anything.
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Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 1:12 pm
"I won't hurt you," Lungaia said, shifting her attention. Ah -- there. A small lean-to of rocks, a tiny hole in the ground. The abandoned burrow of owls, perhaps, or simply a lucky accident of stone.
She crept toward the opening, lowering herself to her belly. Though Lungaia had never had pups of her own, or young packmates, or even a young sibling, she had always felt a certain softness and fondness in her heart for pups. If Lungaia were capable of being gentle, she would be gentle toward little ones. "Are you hurt?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 12:35 am
Flattening further back against the rock, she tried to crouch as low as possible, watching the sudden shadow that had blocked her exit intently. The scent was... calm. There was none of the exhaustion she associated with her mother, none of the depression that came from the brief sniff she'd had of her father.
It was difficult to respond at all. Part of her mind still screamed that the scent of death and fear was too strong to ignore, and it perhaps was the reason she snarled quietly, even as she slunk further into view. Head down, she sniffed cautiously at the wolf blocking her escape.
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 12:52 am
"If you'd rather, I can leave you here," Lungaia said, now crouched down on her belly, her tattered ears swept forward. "But you'll be cold, and hungry, and you'll make a delicious snack for someone. There's wolves in these parts who eat pups, you know."
She stated this as a bald fact, not as a fairytale meant to frighten the pup. There were wolves who are pups. The shadowclan, for one. And her own cannibal sister. Although Kaeerah's taste tended toward more exotic fruits.
"You don't belong here." This, too, was a bald fact. "Someone left you here, did they not?" Her brow furrowed. She wasn't certain of what had happened, but she had a good guess: her parents had told her to hide from the approaching threat, been heavily gored, then wandered off to die. She suspected the parents would not be returning anytime soon.
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:09 am
It wasn't as though she needed be told that the world was out to get her. She'd already seen plenty of that, thank you very much. It wasn't the words, however, that she focused on, but more the tone in which they were spoken. There was no underlying whine of self-pity or despair. It was a firm tone, one that was alive, strong and even.
Silent, Honoria crept a bit further from her hiding spot, moving her muzzle and eyes into view as she looked up at the wolf. Left her... Yes, they had. Left and kept their attention on the weak ones who had either died or simply done nothing. A paw twitched, and she eased a bit further out, watching the large wolf warily. One sharp gesture, and she'd burrow back so far as to make it impossible to get her out.
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:14 am
Lungaia didn't move. Her eyes fixed on the other. Well, she didn't look familiar, anyway. Considering how thick the bloodlines were around these parts, Lungaia had half expected her to be one of those wild dogs in Varia's family line. But she clearly wasn't.
No, she thought, with slightly detached amusement. This pup looked more likely to be related to herself than anything. What an amusing twist of fate.
And besides. Pack wolves had better things to do than lose their pups and be killed by boars. They were usually busy slumming around with other pack wolves.
Well, anyway. "Do you talk yet?" Lungaia asked, in the same matter-of-fact tone. She wasn't sure how old the pup was, or how big pups were when they started communicating. Again, her total lack of experience around younglings seemed quite clear.
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:22 am
She could. She knew she could, even if the words that were used took a moment of puzzlement to figure out. There was still much she didn't have words for, but... What good did talking do, anyway? Had talking saved her dead sibling? Brought her parents back to care for her? Stopped the creature from ripping into her useless mother?
There was nothing familiar about the wolf now peering at her, but there was nothing overtly frightening either. Emboldened and taking a great risk, Honoria squirmed herself out from beneath the rock. It was only so bold, and she remained plastered against the boulder, watching Lungaia anxiously as she dropped her head and attempted a warning growl.
...it sounded like a burping cough.
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:28 am
"Well, no matter," Lungaia said. "My mother didn't speak, either. It never seemed to bother her. Certainly didn't bother me a bit. I figure plenty of wolves would be much easier to get along with if they didn't talk."
She didn't know why she said that. Lungaia never talked about her family. Still, there was something about the pup that intrigued her. Something that seemed familiar. Did she remind her of herself, somehow? Or was it...something else? That strange feeling of deja vu, the feeling that had attracted her to Tui, the feeling that had driven her life?
Her brows raised as the pup growled. She tried to restrain her smile.
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:42 am
...well... That had failed miserably.
If she'd been willing to admit it, she was humiliated by that. It was, however, a success in one way: the wolf wasn't a threat, and was, in fact, of the same gender as the now-absent and nearly forgotten mother.
For all her cold instinct, determination and cunning in managing to hide, she was still very, very young. With great care, Honoria padded a bit closer, wobbling with exhaustion on her aching paws, and took a careful sniff of Lungaia's forepaw.
Weariness and fear pressed for her to curl up underneath the large wolf. Pride and survival kept her upright, despite the way she had to spraddle her paws to remain standing. No words, but she gazed up at Lungaia, trying to keep a nonchalant expression on her blood and mud caked muzzle.
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 2:11 am
"You're brave, little one," Lungaia said, smiling slightly -- a smile with her eyes more than her maw. "Braver perhaps than you know."
She glanced over her shoulder, at the mound of dead pig, then back to the pup. "Are you hungry?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 10:06 pm
Weary olive eyes shifted to the mound of shredded flesh that still stank of her family's blood.
Stiffly, slowly, the pup walked to the boar that had torn her sister apart, gored her mother and ensured that she would be abandoned. Bracing her paws, she looked the boar over, examining the wounds for a long, silent moment. Flattening her ears to her head, Honoria began rooting into the corpse, squirming past shattered bone, digging small paws into wet muscle as she grunted quietly with the effort. Half-vanishing into the boar's corpse, her hindquarters worked as she fought her way further into the body. Her small jaws found what they sought, and it took every iota of strength she still possessed to pull herself out.
Tumbling head over tail, her jaws clamped firmly into her prize, the pup came to a sliding halt, caked with gore and mud. Without a word, she dropped the boar's heart between her feet, pinned it with a forepaw and dug her milk teeth into the muscle, pulling and tearing tiredly to rip off bites small enough for her to swallow. There was no look for approval from the wolf watching her.
It took her family. She ate its' heart. There was a balance in that.
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 10:25 pm
"They say that the blood of your enemies will give you strength," Lungaia said, watching as the pup crept forward with such grim determination. This was not a normal pup, she decided. She had an old soul.
She knew how that felt.
"Well, anyway. Some say that. I don't know if it's true of all enemies, but boar's meat is what it is." The pup emerged, grimy and determined, with a mouthful of heart, and Lungaia smiled with a bitter sort of satisfaction.
She waited until the pup was finished before rising to her paws. "Now, come. We'll attract more predators sitting here amid all this blood."
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:57 pm
Licking the boar's blood from her muzzle, the pup looked wearily about the clearing as she forced the last lump of gristle down her throat. Swallowing hard, Honoria forced herself onto her aching paws, wove in place for a moment before settling her weight. With a full-body shake to get off the worst of the mud, she walked with slow, careful precision after the large, oddly-patterned wolf. Each paw was put into one of the bigger prints, ensuring that she left little to no trail.
Even if she did have to half-jump each distance to reach the prints.
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:04 am
She walked in silence, wondering just what type of wolf this was, and how she had come to be alone. Why was she bringing home a pup? Why did she always find the wayward and the lost, the lonely wanderers and helpless pups? She wondered vaguely if it had parents that would miss her. Well, it didn't matter now. She was, Lungaia decided, hers -- to do with as she will.
And what she was doing...was bringing her back to Antianeira, for better or worse.
((wheeeee I am somewhat inebriated))
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