|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 8:37 pm
 Being in the pack was all well and good. Wolves flocked around you, tails waving, and waited in turn to show you something of themselves: first came the wolves who lied to themselves, who wanted Jonsi to know that they were brave, or clever, or capable of anything. They repeated their lie so fervently that it made an opaque shell around them, which could be cracked open to show the small, sensitive thing that curled within. That was fun sometimes, to lie along with them, all the while running the tip of a nail along that crease, to see them try to lie and lie when confronted with who they really were.
Behind them would circle the honest wolves, the shy ones; they wanted to meet this stranger one-on-one, to hold his eyes as they showed him what they believed was special: some strange, quiet insight that they hoped he might share. And he liked that too. To fan those flames. To feel earnest. To leave a fellow artist behind knowing what they now knew was possible. He liked that kind especially.
But nothing felt as good as leaving, as being alone. No wolf would ever compare to a ten-hour thunderstorm, great wolves fighting in the sky, landing blows with snarls and cracks at a ferocity that left lesser beings cowering in their dens. No wolf could make him feel as he did crawling out the next morning, the ground littered with new green leaves torn from the stem, blue sky gleaming through the dripping branches in glorious denial of the brawl that raged the night before. No wolf made him feel so small and surrounded by magic.
So it was a good day. A day to walk through sodden leaf litter and listen to the birds and squirrels repair their territory, to hum to himself and feel good about his life. Whatever he or anyone else did, they were lashed to something larger, and that made things easier to bear.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 9:30 pm
 There were a few things about pack life that Senka missed - the warm huddle of bodies on a cold night; the constant thread of an endless story weaving all around, with its loops and whorls and unexpected tangles - but the lure of the world was still too brilliant for it to truly beckon her. Here in the wilds, in lands strange and new and enticingly different, there were countless tapestries woven through infinite tales. The threads we so much more complex than those of one little, isolated pack. She could get lost in those threads. Sometimes, she thought that she might never return to her isolated world with its insular patterns. Instead, she could simply wander the world until time unmade itself, collecting tapestries until there was nothing left to be learned. That would, she thought, be a very long time from now. It was a fanciful notion, perhaps, and not one that was liable to come true, but she enjoyed the idea of it, liked to tease herself with it, and sometimes she wondered...what if? But this was not a day of what ifs. The giddy exhilaration of the night before the storm had made way for the cleansing rebirth of an earth scoured clean of detritus. It was a good day. A refreshing day. A day to find new threads and see where they might lead.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 1:30 pm
Jonsi hummed to himself in between measured, appreciative sniffs of the air. Scent did not especially interest him except after a rain, when all of nature seemed to rouse and bloom. He could smell roots growing, stems stretching slowly upward to unfurl baby-green new leaves. He could smell the rotten wood that littered the earth going soft, surrendering itself to the spores and weevils that now swarmed it. He was in an enchanted forest, not a predator but a small, soft creature in an animate place.
His nose wiggled. And the trees settled and went quiet. Another wolf, whose scent had the unfortunate effect of making plants still and insects small again. Pausing, he tasted the air, determining her age, her gender and her approximate distance, determining that the light breeze was likely to swing back and forth between them, had possibly wafted his delightful scent toward her far earlier than this. With a blink, a twitch of whiskers, he altered his course, sliding loudly down a hill for his own amusement. Who knows? Maybe something interesting was about to happen.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 8:21 pm
Senka was just getting into the rhythm of a ground-eating lope, the muscles of her long legs warming, ready to carry her tirelessly through the forest and into new lands. She was just getting into the rhythm, that is, until the wind shifted and carried the unmistakable scent of another wolf to her keen nose.
Well, now. Perhaps her journey this day would not be so long after all.
Nimble paws shifted to carry her closer to this unknown male. Who was he? Whence came he? What stories could she prize from his jaws? She could only hope that he proved half as entertaining as some of the other wolves she had met on this journey.
It was not so very much longer, in the grand scheme of things, before scent gave way to sound and sound gave way to sight. Well, now. Wasn't he an interesting creature. Perhaps not traditionally handsome, but he held his own sort of charm in his bearing and darkly spotted coat. She could admit that if she had a fondness for any marking above others, it was spots.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 9:12 pm
Now, look at that: a sight right out of his adolescence. Jonsi tilted his head at the gray wolf heading towards him, tickled at the resemblance she had to the wolves of the pack where he had been born. Not the eyes, though, he realized as he got closer; her eyes were very red.
The rangy wolf's tail had flagged casually upward upon seeing her, a friendly hello to tide them over until they were within range of speaking. When they both arrived, he dipped his head politely, a smile waiting in the wings to appear. "I thought I was the only soul left in creation," he began, and there came the smile, all crooked teeth and confidence. "But now I see I am lucky. My name is Jonsi, and who are you?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 3:55 pm
She grinned, her eyes warming with her amusement. A charmer, was he? "Jonsi, hmm? It's a pleasure, I'm sure. My name is Senka."
She cocked her head ever so slightly, studying him. He seemed friendly enough, and not at all adverse to a little company. He also looked old enough to have at least one or two interesting stories to share. Oh, yes. This meeting looked most promising indeed.
Prickly wolves could be very entertaining, it was true, but there was something to be said for those whose secrets she did not have to pry from unwilling jaws. Hopefully her instincts would prove correct and this Jonsi would be willing to share.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 6:26 pm
"Senka," he said with some relish, taking a moment to appreciate and tuck the name away into memory. "What a delight." He peered inquisitively down his aquiline nose at the smiling wolf before him and already felt charmed. "Senka, you don't have the look of a community wolf about you. May I ask, are you a lone wolf or merely traveling?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 6:49 pm
Did she not? Well, it had been some time since she had begun her journey, and she had to admit, a loner's life suited her surprisingly well. Perhaps it was not so surprising that she did not look like the integral part of a pack that she truly was.
"There is a pack that waits for me, when I feel inclined to return," she admitted. "Though I do not think that will be for some time yet."
Her wanderlust had done nothing to abate, and there were months still before she was really expected back. She was free for the time being to wander where she would.
"And you?" she queried. "You look less the part than I." It was true, and there were no packs especially close to here - at least none in the direction she had come from.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 7:10 pm
He took in this information with a look of restrained but acute curiosity, his head tilting, long ears slowly flopping sideways to accommodate to gravity: first one, then the other. His eyes, which were very bright against the dark mask of his face, seemed to light up with amused interest as she spoke.
"A very long time ago, I was expected to return," he replied, and seemed to take a moment to ponder his words. "There was a pack that thought I was theirs. But they were mistaken." The thoughtful look broke apart to unveil another charismatic smile - the kind that suggested he was delighted by this conversation. "No part of me is a pack wolf. I am a Stranger for them to meet." He looked out at the forest, in the direction he guessed she must have been traveling. "If we are both en route to somewhere, perhaps we should acquaint ourselves while walking."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 7:42 pm
She considered that, and wondered how easy it would be for her to do the very same. Keep on walking. Never return. But she remembered Bryanni, too. She could not betray the memory of the wolf who had saved her from herself. The path may be long, but it would inevitably lead back to the mountain.
She shook the mood off with a casual flick of an ear and grinned. "I'm going anywhere I've never been," she said, which was not precisely the same as being en route somewhere, but was certainly good enough for her. "I am not averse to a companion." It was just as good to walk and talk as it was to lay about in one place. Perhaps he had somewhere to be. Or perhaps his paws were simply restless.
"Was the pack so unappealing?" she wondered. "Or was the draw of a wanderer's life that much stronger?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 8:17 pm
"Let's try this direction, then." He began to walk, curbing his long strides to keep an inviting pace for his new companion; a self-amused grin broke again across his long snout. "If I do not keep walking all the time, I'll grow fat."
He paused for a moment to ponder her question; he was a wolf who took many pauses in conversation, mostly to find the right words to speak but occasionally purely for dramatic effect. "You know the feeling of being a stranger. You can be comfortable among wolves without being of them. Where I was born, all wolves were a certain way, and I was not." His eyes were on the path before them. This was not a familiar story for him to tell: he had, on a whim, begun with the truth, and he now had to decide where to take it.
"They looked very much like you. And so did I. It was a pack with none of the hothouse colors that populate so much of Telk. Ten other wolves lived there when I was born, and each one of them believed, without a doubt, that Men were Gods."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 8:52 pm
Senka snorted, very much doubting that. He hardly looked the sort to grow fat with sloth. Still, she could not deny that it felt good to let her legs stretch out again. She had energy enough.
When he spoke, however, her stride faltered briefly and she stared at him. In all her travels, with all the wolves - even the half-mad or utterly delusional - that she had met, she had never heard of such a thing. Men as Gods? It was utterly bizarre. And coming from her, that was saying something. Of course, her own pack believed in the sacred properties of the flame, but they would never think to deify creatures like Men.
"Did they really?" It sounded too strange to be made up, though it was difficult to give credence to.
Another thought occurred to her. He had said that his birth pack was made of shadowed wolves. Could her own parents have come from there? The female rarely gave a passing thought to wonder over her origins, but a pack full of wolves that looked like her - however strange they may be - was enough to make the thought cross her mind.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 6:18 pm
"A hard life can press wolves into strange shapes," he responded, although inside he was feeling that best of feelings - a bite on the line, a captive audience. "They had taken everything from us, generations ago. We hunted in swathes of forest between their fields, and crept back to the rocky hills that were left to us with hares and rats." The spotted wolf stared forward as he spoke, his town carefully reserved. "Whatever we were before they came...all that was gone." He directed a sudden, sharpish look in Senka's direction, checking perhaps to see her level of interest, or her recognition.
"On every full moon my father and his brothers would crawl to their doors. They each would bring an eviscerated rabbit, all the best parts on display. And on some moons one would return to us with blessings: strange foods and trinkets, artifacts that brought us closer to God. And he and my uncles would wear them, would eat the strange food." A little smile was teasing at the corner of his mouth. "All in the hopes of transformation."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 1:58 pm
Though she listened to his story with the rapt attention of a collector, Senka could scarcely believe what she heard. It was not impossible, she supposed, that a pack could worship men, even slink up to them on their bellies with gifts, hoping for scraps or praise. This she could believe, however unlikely it seemed, but transformation? She suspected she knew what he meant, but she had to ask, anyway, if only to make certain.
"What transformation?"
Regardless of his answer, the she-wolf decided that she would not want her unknown parents to have hailed from this pack. It sounded far too distasteful - this from a wolf who had flagrantly traipsed into territories as fierce as Reign of Terror and as unbalanced as Antianeria. There was very little in this world that could phase her, but Senka found that her pride drew the line at the worship of humans. She might almost pity the wolves of this pack, if they truly were as Jonsi said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 7:16 pm
The spotted wolf gave another sidelong smile, the clear sunlight-green of his eyes gleaming at her taken-abackness. He allowed for another pause. "You are aghast at the idea, perhaps. But things are different here. When the wilderness shrinks, a smart wolf looks at what is left and wonders how to change so that he prospers. He grows to appreciate the power it must take to change the forest into fields of wheat."
Jonsi paused again, to watch the blue jay making high drama out of his and Senka's passage. He waited until the bird had said its piece before he continued. "To understand my uncles you must know that their father had become a man." His level gaze held Senka's, an engaged but ambiguous expression veiling whether or not it was expected that she believe this. "So they went in good faith. 'I will come back for you,' they said to their mates. Their brothers they promised to feed. There were females from generations past who had done the same, and their children lived in the village. But perhaps times were not bountiful when I was a child, because those wolves were vicious to my kin."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
