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 Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 4:31 pm
Time seemed to pass far too quickly as the two wolves walked in silence side-by-side. The scent of the packland was growing fainter with each breath, quickly being swallowed by the thick scents of foliage, unfamiliar animals, and breeze.
They did not speak, they did not look at one another...it seemed neither Myrl nor Mire quite knew what to say now that they had begun their journey together.
What that journey WAS, they were uncertain of....simply that Mire was somehow supposed to know when it was over.
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 4:34 pm
"Mire?" Myrl asked after a time, daring to break the pendulous silence between them. It was growing unbearably suffocating...the sooner the ice was broken, no matter how awkwardly, the better.
"Tell me what happened. Between you and Drik, I mean."
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 4:44 pm
Mire gave a low whimper, her ears flattening as she quickened her step just slightly -- an involuntary reaction to her fight-or-flight kicking in.
How much did he know, she wondered? How much had he seen?
"I don't know..." she said at last. It wasn't a lie -- she really didn't. She just wasn't sure that she was comfortable revealing details of that which she didn't understand.
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 4:47 pm
Myrl, likewise, quickened his step to match hers and remain at her side.
"Mire," he said earnestly "Mire, please....don't run from me. I would never hurt you. You know that." But did she, he wondered? She looked to him with the same sort of hunted fear she looked to everyone else in Risen Ashes...
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 5:14 pm
"I--I'm not running." she said quietly, squeezing her eyes closed as she forced herself to slow down, each step jaunty and brisk, as though she was about to jump out of her own skin.
"You...shouldn't have been watching." she added, her voice trembling with shame. She wished that he hadn't been...with all of her being, she wished that it had been anyone else watching the exchange between herself and Drik except for Myrl.
But then, that was her luck, wasn't it...?
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 7:48 pm
"Watching what?" he urged. He purposely didn't elude to how long he had been watching, despite the fact he'd seen most of it. It wouldn't do to give her the wrong impression after all...he was not a stalker, he was merely concerned. She had been acting very disjointed lately and...
"Mire, please talk to me..."
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 7:58 pm
The urge to bolt suddenly for the nearest tangle of shrubbery was growing by the minute.
running water. cool water. clear water. soothing water.
"I...saw something." she managed at last, cringing with her last word as though she expected him to burst out laughing or become violent. When he seemed to do neither, she drew in a deep breath and attempted to elaborate a bit. "When I looked at him I saw things....things that I should not have known."
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:04 pm
"What was it? What did you see?" he pressed, his ears perking a bit with interest as they walked. It was fortunate that Myrl was a patient sort who was used to sitting on pondbanks for hours on end waiting for ideas to come to him. Had it been anyone else attempting to wheedle information out of the small omega, they likely would have begun to grow irritated by now.
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:09 pm
At this, Mire stopped in mid-step, her head nearly ducked between her front legs it was hanging so low. Inhaling slowly, she vented a long, loud sigh that seemed to deflate her a bit with its sheer volume.
"Have you ever looked at someone and just...just suddenly KNOWN things about them?" she whispered. "Where they came from, what they've done, things they've never told you or anyone else?"
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:13 pm
He cocked his head slightly. "You mean looking directly into their minds?" he inquired "Seeing their thoughts and their memories like fish under the water's surface?"
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:16 pm
Mire felt her heart increase in tempo and her chest tighten with hope. "Yes...yes, that's it exactly...!" she said, lifting her head to study Myrl's eyes for a glimmer of comraderie. Something to tell her that he knew exactly what she was feeling. That he could guide her through this and be her anchor. That she was not alone.
That perhaps, she wasn't crazy after all...
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:19 pm
Myrl fell into ponderous silence, planting his haunches in the dirt as he lapsed into deep thought on the matter, mulling it over this way and that. It was possible to look at others and know things about them, he knew....One could look at a scarred old omega and know that he had likely once held a higher position before being ousted, for example. One could look at a cub with a bobbed tail and know he had probably lost it to one of the human's traps.
But...
"No." he said at last. "No, I'm afraid I have not."
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:23 pm
Mire shrank in on herself. Whatever spark of life that had been rekindled in her had gone out just as quickly has it had come.
"Oh..." she said brokenly. It was settled, then. In addition to being hideous, she was also a freak. The pack would be much better off without her muddling their thoughts and eavesdropping in on what she shouldn't know.
She wondered how long it would be until Myrl likewise reached this conclusion and abandoned her to her own in the wild.
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:14 pm
If there were thoughts of abandoning her, they were not foremost on Myrl's mind at the moment.
"But that isn't to say I don't believe you." he offered. "In the pack that my brothers and I came from -- before it disbanded, our eldest member used to claim that very thing...being able to see others' thoughts. Not only could he touch minds, but he seemed to have a knack for anticipating things."
He trailed off thoughtfully for a moment before resuming. "Some thought he was mad, others thought he was gifted. No one quite knew what to make of him. Our alpha, Badger, kept him close as an advisor because his visions were often right. He knew when we were going to have a long winter with little game. He saw fires in his dreams days before they happened."
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:35 pm
Mire listened with mixed feelings...she didn't want to be intrigued, but couldn't help herself. The idea that someone could see not only into minds but into the future...
"I would not be quick to call it a gift." she told him. "Ever since it manifested, I've not rested...I feel as though my thoughts are no longer my own...like my mind has been invaded."
Actually, her head felt clearer than it had in a long while now that they were away from the others...there were only her own thoughts and occasional visions of water from Myrl's direction.
It was soothing. And it made her aware of just how exhausted she'd become from sleeping poorly as her jaws parted in a long yawn.
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