Welcome to Gaia! ::

A stinging pain over Helios' right eye was what had ended the fight. The pain was horrendous, his eyelids swollen tight over an eye that he'd never see from again. A stupid accident in a fight for dominance. He had been the bigger of the pair but Nova was strong and experienced. Nova, that son-of-a-b***h! Helios didn't think he had so much fight left in him - he was, afterall, a lot older than the golden coated, large young male and generally a placid old coot. Helios had thought it was time the mantle of alpha was handed over - especially when the coal-black male had allowed the pack to split - a lot of the younger ones moving away to establish a new territory under Gaea. Some had even gone off to find their way to new groups - tired of the large kin network that had bound them.

Helios had never thought of trying to take the place of Gaea. The new pack, as it fissioned off, had no tradition or a full territory yet. No. He had wanted the prestige of the old pack, the true one. He wanted to be the top of the ladder which he had looked up from birth. His mother was an alpha and he the oldest of her pups - surely that meant he was in the best position to have learned truly what it meant to be an alpha. Of course, it was about time mother retired too, the old hag, and let a younger wolf, a nice pretty mate for Helios, take over.

That wasn't the usual way in the pack. Usually one leader was taken from one family lineage, the other from the other side. Whomever 'proved themselves worthy' his mother had explained to him as a child. Well! He was worthy wasn't he?

His mother, of course, had sided with Nova. b***h! Hag! The whole argument had sparked off when he told her his intentions and she had replied that he would never be a leader. Too pushy? Too arrogant? HAH Helios, thought. She's just jealous that I'm younger, stronger and more intelligent than she.

Nova hadn't even challenged him - he wasn't wolf enough for that! Helios had to make the challenge, though the old male had surely known it was coming. He was too quick, his nips and scratches well placed until that last one, the one which had hurt his eye. It was all over then, really. Helios couldn't see enough to even get back at Nova, his depth perception lost and unable to see down one side.

He was alone, now. He hadn't been thrown out, no, that old male didn't have the guts! Helios had left, swearing he'd start his own pack and a better one at that ! They'd come back and take over this territory, yes they would! And Helios would be a stronger alpha than Nova ever was - stupid, old, crafy git!

His thoughts were cut off by another stabbing pain in his eye. It had been hours since the fight but his wound was still leaking blood and would be lucky not to become infected at this rate. A twig snapped nearby and Helios froze. He hadn't noticed the young female following him - he had been too blinded by rage and muttering curses to himself to notice much of anything - especially the very noticable tracks he was leaving. He knew her scent, knew who she was. "Come to gloat, Erin" he said, nastily, his voice harsh with pain and dripping with distaste. She was a small, unpretty, omega female, who he had barely talked to before and had sometimes picked on when he was really bored.

He felt a warm, wet tongue on his sore eye and he hissed, moving back. "Got to clean it, got to stop it going green..." she said, her voice barely audible, a whisper on the wind. She was doing him a service. Well, she had always been the sort to do what others needed - a servant, unnoticed but vaguely useful. He allowed her to apprach again and clean his wound, feeling the seeping stop and the blood which matted the fur of his face loosen.

When she was done she wandered off again, just as silent as before and, maybe an hour later, brought back a winter rabbit - it's fur turned white from what Helios could see with one tired green eye. He was famished. "Took you long enough" he snapped at her, wolfing down the whole of it while she sat off to one side, head down, ears flattened, tail curled wound her legs. "Sorry.."

She slipped away again before morning had come and Helios wasn't sure if she'd come back. He didn't need her of course but it'd be nice to have someone to do those little things for him - he didn't often hunt for himself and felt it was a bit beneath him. Sure enough, though, just when he was getting hungry, she appeared with another small morsel she had caught, leaving it for him and then dissappearing into the forest again.




Helios had always been proud of his looks and now, as he stared into the pond he had come across, he despaired. The skin around his eyes had torn, the fur now gone to leave a pink, deep scar. Erin's attentions had meant it didn't become infected and leave him with a mass of bloated tissue or worse, but the golden wolf didn't much appreciate it when his face still seemed so mared. As his eyelids had unswollen, too, he realised his vision in it was very blurred and allowed him only to make out vague shadowy shapes. He couldn't focus at all with it and it left him feeling slightly disoriented and vulnerable. This feeling of weakness, however, was expressed consciously as anger. And the only one to rail against was Erin. "Stupid, cowering, ugly b***h!" he growled, as she came back with a vole for him "How is this supposed to feed me! I'm not mangy and small like you." His voice was pure venom, his tone rough.

The small female took it in her stride. She had been picked on by everyone all of her life - if not as vociferously as Helios was doing now. That global disdain had given her a very quiet personality but also a great deal of equanimity if not confidence. She ignored the comments, doing what she needed to do, understanding Helios better than he himself did why he was shouting at her. A while later, when she slipped back, he was more morose than angry. "How will I ever lead a pack with a.. a lame eye! and I'm so ugly, too, no female would have me for a mate." His anger at rejection had finally turned into despair at his lonliness and percieved hard future.

The small female dithered for a moment. She didn't like to see him like this but his other side was none to great either... Still... "Helios" she never really used his name, it was a personal thing and they didn't talked wolf to wolf as equals. It got his attention, though, as required, and he stopped his self-pitying monologue a moment to listen to the small, dappled brown female. "It looks... rugged, handsome.." was all she said, quietly, before slipping off, leaving him to think on that.

By the time she came back he was in full Helios mode. "Thank you, Erin!" It was his first tacit approval of her since she had started following him. She didn't really know why she had except that she had felt slightly sorry for him... Though she'd never let him know that. She had thought vaguely about leaving before but felt she would never be accepted anywhere else if she was barely accepted in her own pack and, well, it had just been easier to do what she was told. Helios appeared to be back on form as she lay down in the slightly sheltered lee of a rock, curling up tightly against the cool late autumn wind and tucking her nose under her tail.

She felt she had a purpose with Helios, something which was her personal responsibility, something she'd never before had, and so she put up with his insults and having to feed him as if he were a pup and his mood swings because through all of it she might find herself, her true purpose in life. She never thoughts she'd really become more than a lowly omega but she did believe, in some small, deep part of herself, that she could be happier than she was now.

The next morning Helios set out again and casually, Erin guided him away from the territories of the wolf packs she had scouted out whilst hunting, silently keeping him safe, never impinging upon his self-aggrandised vision of himself as a strong, youthful, powerful and now ruggedly handsome! male.

Quin was out scouting again, reaching farther into the territory surrounding the wolf pack who had taken him in. He had taken to venturing further afield each time he took one of these jaunts, hoping that, someday, he'd eventually come across a familiar landmark, scent or anything which might indicate he was closer to his original home.

Even though he had been treated well by the Outriders pack, Quin was still skinny and small. After being washed up on the beach on the cusp of adolescence he hadn't grown a great deal though he was getting a little bit more wiry, losing his puppyish round features. His pale blue eyes scanned the forest, a flicker of hope alive deep down inside. Of course he knew it was unlikely he'd find his home. He seemed to have come from so much farther afield, carried by the ocean currents, that none of the wolves he had spoken to knew any of the lands which he recalled as home.

With a light sigh he decided he'd best turn back. He'd been gone several days now and felt the need for company. Quin had never liked to be alone and as much as he enjoyed his jaunts, and thought of them as a neccessity if he was to know the area in which he now lived, he hungered for company. Even just the presence of others nearby.

Quin, searching the landscape, wasn't really expecting to come across any others out here. He hadn't caught the scent of another for a while now and thought he might have passed out of any single pack's territory. He turned, heading back towards his new home in a slightly different direction so that he could cover yet another section of land whilst he returned.


A lone whimper escaped her maw and seemed to echo throughout the woods themselves. Nadia was hurt, she was hurt and it was all her fault. She had been careless when hunting for her last meal. She had picked on wounded fawn thinking that everything would be okay. It wasn't. The parents were close by. Nadia was just a teen, how would she ever match against the like. So she ran as fast as the wind would carry her, but just like she was careless with the fawn she was also absent minded in where she was going. One of her paws became intangled on a clump of thick roots and she tricked, head over tail, twisting her footpaw in an angle it wasn't supposed to be in.

The deers left, but now here she was. Wounded and alone. She managed to worm her way out, but now she was limping, her whimpers still calling unto the still air. Fleetingly she wondered if there was even someone around to her angusih, but that was only fleeting for soon her curiousity was replaced by more cries of pain.



Quintus' ears pricked as he caught an odd sound on the wind. It sounded a little ways away, not out of his way. Deciding that the sound might be of something whose deminse could mean his dinner he wandered at a fast trot to investigate. It didnt do to let something else find it first.

As he came a little closer, his nose began to pick up the first hints that this odd noise was issuing from something other than dinner. It seemed as though... yes! Wolf! His pace picked up, concern pulling his features into a light frown. The sound had seemed to him as if it might be from a dying creature and he certainly hoped that was not true if it was another wolf...

He finally came upon the source of the whimpering. Laying on the ground in front of him was a young female, fawny with splashes of red and white. It was obvious even from this distance what the problem was and if he could have Quintus would have gone paler than his already snowy white. Feet were not supposed to bend that way! Quin was no seer or shaman, he had only encountered bad injury once before and that had caused the death of the wolf.

Unsure of what to he paced forward, looking down at the injured femme. "Hello? Hurt? Quin can help?" he damned his lack of articulation in the language of this place, wishing again that he was better at picking up how the words were supposed to run together...


Another whimper issued from her snout and she suddenly felt very puppish in this state of weakness. Rolling her eyes heavenwards she could make out the shape of something approaching her, and seemingly at a fast pace. Her heart rate quickened and she knew, she just knew that this must be her fate of a devil coming to take her to whatever lay in wait when life parted. But when the thing came into complete view she realized it was...another wolf! But this could be good or bad, she had heard of tails where some wolves finished off those that were dying.

But was she dying? She certainly didn't feel like she was. But then again she didn't feel anything other then this deep pain. She squeezed her eyes shut once he was upon her, but slowly opened them once she heard his words.

"Hurt...yes hurt," she managed in a series of whimpers and pants. "Quin....?" again fear was in her eyes. Who was this Quin person? and what if he was too far away to come in time to help her. "Can't....you help me instead?" she cried, her body beginning to shake.


Curse this horusbedamned language! Quin could understand a lot more than he could speak. He had picked up a lot of words but found it hard to put them in the right place when he was actually trying to talk in this odd, gutteral language.

"Quin me. Quin.. I? I Quin?" he stumbled, not wanting to worry about semantics when this young female was obviously in such pain. It hadn't occured to him not to help her once seen - he just wasn't that kind of wolf. To be strong we must help one another was one of his Father's favourite phrases. Quin felt a pang of sadness stab at him when he thought that he might never see his father again. The large, dark male would have known what to do in this situation. As much as Quin could keep a cool head and try to analyse what was here it didn't help one bit that he knew no healing of any kind.

"How help?" he eventually tried, wondering if perhaps the female had relations nearby who would be able to come. His pale eyes could never be described as piecing but they were intent on her, watching how she shivered, shook and how the pain seemed to be coursing through her. She needed help soon...


"Oh...okay," was all that she could think to say in response. Everything was really so clouded. So he was Quin, and he had been speaking in third person. She hadn't known. She tried to shift her position, to get up and at least pad on all threes if she could not do it on fours. But as soon as she did she fell down onto her belly, crying out once more. He asked how to help her. Her mind race, trying to come up with a thought, any action that he could do to help ease this situation. But the truth was she didn't even know where she was.

Nadia had run away from home a few days ago. After her half sister Cayenne told her the truth about their family, the dirty dark secrets that her mother had brought upon them. The young fem was tired of all the lies and deciet, so she ran, and never looked back. And this is what she had to show for all her troubles. Had she known where she was maybe she could get some kind of help. Her father would have surely known what to do. Or maybe even her brother. But they were all just a speck in her memory now.

"Help me to stand," she whimpered, getting back into threes again. Her forepaw was already beginning to swell. But maybe, maybe after time it would heal. Yes, it would heal. She was sure of it! Or at least, that's what she told herself.

"I need to be someplace safe," she panted, "But...but I don't know...where I am."


Quin admired her will as she tried to stand despite the pain and cringed when she fell back down. He could help her stay up, he thought, as she voiced the same thing. He nodded, sharply. "Yes. Help stand." he said, with an affirmative tone, trying his best to be clear.

As Nadia got to her feet once more the young male nudged slightly against her side, propping her up so that she need not rest her weight on the sore foot. He felt better now, actually doing something. His mind began to pick out a course of action as the fawny female spoke again. Safe? The night before he'd stopped in a small den - possibly one which used to be a badgers den - and that had been clean, warm, out of harms way. But she'd never be able to haul herself down that small, cramped space. No... They needed somewhere warm, sheltered, but easy to get into. Had he not seen a large rocky overhang? Yes. Surrounded by trees. It'd do. This all took him a second to think through, his mind whirring at the crisis.

As bad as Quin was at remembering sentence structure and suchlike, his memory of palces, his surroundings, was almost photographic. "Place, warm, near." he tried to triangulate the position in his mind. "South, south-east" He nodded his head in vaguely the right direction, trying not to move too much whilst he was supporting her. "Lean, follow?"

It'd take them a while with her injured but it was better than staying out here in the open. His eyes flicked once more to the swollen, disjointed paw, his stomach churning as he hoped the mangled limb could heal.


The more he talked the more she could understand the mangled and misplaced words. It was actually soothing, the way he talked. It wasn't complex or overdone and in this moment, that was what she needed. She could see him inwardly debating with himself as to where to take her and she clamped her jaw down hard, as to night continue to cry out. She didn't want to appear like a little lost femme who couldn't handle herself, even though that's exactly what she was.

As he finally told her there was a warm place nearby and then gave the directions on how to get there she breathed a weary sigh of relief, nodding her head some. "Yes...yes follow," she muttered, leaning into him and trying her best to hold at least some of her own weight with her good legs. It would be a long hard walk to whereever he was taking her, but she felt that with this kind soul then she would indeed get there.

And that surely was something.


The pied adolescent found he gained a much different picture of the terrain around here when he had to support and lead another who was injured. He, of course, had trotted over it quite happily, barely noticing logs, bumps and large outcrops of rock which now hampered their every move. By the time the pair of them had gotten anywhere near the place he had remembered he was panting hard. It wasn't that she was heavy or that he was particularly weak, just that with all the obstacles and worry he was starting to overheat slightly.

It was almost nice - to be overwarm again rather than freezing cold. Where he came from the sun shone brightly in the sky most of the year. There were rains, of course, but none of the strange cold ice-rain or powdery freezing flakes which seemed to decend on this land. Quin was also glad for the fact that the snow which had covered most of the ground for the past few weeks seemed to have given up for a few days. The ground was clear, if cold, and he prayed that it'd sty that way. Snow would certainly not help the female's paw.

"How hurt?" he asked, only as they were almost there. He had avoided talking for fear of tiring her but thought that now the advantage of taking her mind off the pain might outweigh any strength she might still need to reserve.


It was a hard walk, just like she thought it would be. With every single step she cringed, and occasionally whimpered. It wasn't because it was too excruciating, but it was more then fear that it would be. If she turned the paw a certain way or even had anything touch it more then a light graze then it would cause Nadia to yowl with pain. But the more then she walked, the more she became tired. Thankfully also the more she walked the more time passed and the pain was lessoning into a steady throb which was not as bad, but it still hurt.

"Food...I was trying to find food..." she said, her breaths labored as she tried to talk and walk at the same time. She sensed that they were close, by the way he was acting and by her own inner instinct and that was surely promising. "but I was chased...by a deer...and my paw...I didn't see...." she whimpered again, as if reliving the whole ordeal. "Some roots..my paw got tangled...."

And that was it, she couldn't say more as her breathing wouldn't allow her vocals the strength to speak. Instead she stayed closed and let a silent pray run through her head that she would get there, and get there soon.


The pair finally came across the spot he had remembered. It was a rocky overhang, dark grey slate-ish stone which kept the leaf-strewn ground below it dry. To one side was a thick tangle of trees, to the others the slightly looser knit forest the pair had just come through. It looked as though, at some time in the far past, a large piece of the rock wall had fallen off, leaving tall boulders strewn about. They were what Quin had most remembered - they would be a good windbreak - his first priority was currently to make the female comfortable then they could sort out her foot.

A hunting accident. How many wolves had died because of prey being a litle too fiesty, a chase going slightly wrong? The thought saddened Quin a little as he helped the young female negotiate the rocky ground, coming to a place where there was a reasonable amount of both cover and clear ground where she might be able to sit. "Sit here?" Quin asked her not wanting her to simply fall to the ground. She sounded as though her strength was almost gone, her reserves depleted. She had been hunting so she must have been hungry. He'd go get her some food - that might help. But first he should probably have a closer inspection of her foot.

Dribs and drabs were coming back to him as the pair had walked. Simple things such as checking if there was any bleeding or if the skin had been peirced, keeping it clean. Nothing beyond the basic, unfortunately, but it was the best he could do.


Nadia didn't have much time to look and take in the area she was now in. Normally she would have, it was in her nature to get a bearing on her surrounding but for this time she was just too weak. When he told her to sit she did just that. Though her movements were slow and she lowered herself as if she was twice her age, fragil and weak. But she didn't want to further injur her paw. Once she did sit she let her paw lift up before lowering herself in a laying position. She too got a good look at it, this wretched thing that was causing her so much pain.

There was no blood, just a few littered scratches where the gnarly roots tickled her flesh with their points. Other then that the paw was swollen and the skin shown through the fur was now a darker color then the rest of her. It was twisted at an angle and once more she found herself hoping upon hope that it would heal quickly.

"Thank you," she murmured when she felt her voicebox lighten some, the dead weight of her breathing a little less prominent.


He didn't need thanks and was slightly embarrassed to recieve them. He hadn't done anything and in fact felt that he was being somewhat hopeless in his endeavour to help her.

Whilst the red and white smattered female was taking the time to examine her paw, Quin did too. It wasn't pierced, perforated or punctured in any way, didn't seem to be bleeding, mostly it appeared to be swollen and discoloured. He wondered wether she had split the bones inside or wether perhaps one had come lose, out of place. When you were a preadatory animal you learned enough about anatomy to understand these simple things if not with any level of understanding about them.

Maybe it was just that she had bruised it? Quin's brother had fallen once, twisted his back leg painfully... it had hurt for days, he said, but if Quin remembered correctly, it had not swollen or discoloured so. His nose came close to the paw, sniffing. Nothing. He couldn't tell at all from looking at the outside of this wound what had happened. All he could do was things which were practical. "Rest. Quin hunt food. Bring food. Yes?" he asked, not wanting to abandon her here if she felt she needed either company or further help. Perhaps she knew a way to treat her limb but she needed to be in a more sheltered spot.

His milky blue eyes peered into hers questioningly.


Emerald eyes looked up to match his and she gave one short, brief nod of her head. "Yes, that would be nice...." she honestly did not want him to leave her. Quin had been so kind and he was the only around these lands that held a kind eye to her. She would never admit that was frightened with being alone, but if he had put her in this place, this new found shelter, then she must be alright here. So yes, him hunting would be most appreciated.

She drifted her eyes back down to her wounded paw, studying it once again. She didn't think anything was broken, at least no bones were sticking out so that was promising. It appeared that maybe she had just brusied and twisted it, in a kind of large sprain. But it...yes, she believed it would heal. She leaned forward, moving it ever so softly against herself as she licked at it. The warmth of her tongue calming her some.


He nodded and, with a glance over his shoulder as he entered the dark brush of the thicker forest, set off in search of small prey. He was used to seeking out rabbits, leverets, voles, mice, even things such as fruit for himself. He'd never tried to take on anything larger than himself - not even a gangly young deer - but had spent plenty time practicing on the tiny critters who inhabited the forsts both here and in his original homeland. Thus he was a rather proficient hunter of small mammals.

Three quarters of an hour to an hour passed before the two toned male reappeared. He had been lucky - an easy catch. The young leveret, inexperienced and downwind had almost given itself to him. He thanked the falcon god once again for his good luck as he wandered back to where the female lay, concern showing in his eyes. He had almost expected to find a carcass when he came back, had dreaded it. Now he could see the young female was at least alive he was somewhat relieved.

The large young hare wasn't a big meal but it would hopefully suffice. Quin himself had eaten earlier in the day so had no need of this small bounty. He dropped the furry long eared critter in front of Nadia, trying to see wether she was faring worse or better.


After he left she went back to staring at her paw, but soon she drifted off to a quiet sleep, her breathing finally able to wane out into the heaviness that came with slumber. Her form was but a small fleck against the landscape and with how peaceful she looked others might have mistaken her for dead. Perhaps that was why no one chanced by to bother her. Finally her senstive ears picked up the sounds of someone moving close by coupled with her nose taking in a strong scent, his.

Her head instantly raised and she managed a smile, though it was still clear that she was weary from what had just happened. She saw the leveret, the dead hare that he had caught for her and the smile widened. When he dropped it in front of her, she looked up at him quizically, wondering why he did not want to eat as well. She didn't want to be a burden on a wolf she had just met and it wasn't in her nature to be one at all, but soon the familar hunger pain stung in her belly and all of that was forgotten.

"Thank yo-" she started again, but words were not finished before she latched onto the dead thing,eager for this warm meal.



She registered what he had said and then smiled into her food, happily eating her feel. The blood warmed her and oozed from the sides of her maw as she chewed and bit down hungrily. After a few passing minutes she swalloed the last bite and licked her snout clean. A deep sigh resonated out of her maw, a tell tale sign that she would be just fine. Her wounded paw might take many moons to heal, and there was a chance she would walk with a limp, but it was better then the alternative. The one where she began merely dust to the wind.

"Yes, yes," to his first question, shifting her body some as if to show him that she was less heady and dizzy then she once was. The food certainly had helped and she had Quin to thank for that.

Her name! Yes he had told her his in a roundabout way, but she had failed to say her own back. "Nadia," she said quietly.


The young male was glad to see that the young female was feeling better now. With some warm, fresh food in her she seems to be more alive than before, less like a piece of flotsam blown and broken against the harsh realities of the forest. He smiled for the first time since he'd met her, a wolfish, friendly grin.

"Nah dee ahh" he said slowly, pondering. The sound of the name felt 'wrong' to him - soft and flowing, but at the same time it had a rightness to it. Maybe the ah sound at the end - like other females he had known: Julia, Claudia. "Name remembers home" he said, explaining his pause over her name. "Nadia home close?" he asked, wondering yet again if she had kin who would be able to help her, feed her until her paw had healed.

He rather hoped she did have kin. As much as he was a reasonably confidant wolf he didn't know if he had the capacity to make sure her paw didn't get worse. Still, he wouldn't leave her on her own if she did need help. He couldn't. Afterall, he could have been left stranded on a beach to die of cold, exhaustion and hunger but he had been picked up, rescued, given a second chance at life.


At his smile she felt her heart do a flipflop. It was nice, especially since she hadn't known kindness as of late. A far cry for sure. As he pronounced her name she inwardly giggled, liking the way it was slow to roll of his tongue. But her smile drifted away as the other words came.

"I...I left my home," she said softly, quietly as if even saying the words were sealing her fate. But that was self inflicted. She left because she wanted to, and didn't want to go back. She had a fire in her, last remnants of her mother, so maybe, yes maybe she could manage on her own. Wounded paw or not she was a fighter through and through.


Quin nodded a little, wondering why Nadia left home. It certainly wasn't any of his business but it did seem she had left somewhat unprepared if her current state were taken into account. He, personally, would probably have left his pack at her age if he'd been with them still - boredom and a wish to explore seemed to make a lot of young males do that - but having been torn from them he ached to go back. It was different, when you didn't have a choice...

"Quin not home too" he said. He couldn't really explain the circumstances to her in detail what with not being able to speak properly but he wanted her to know she wasn't alone in, well, being alone. In keeping with his earlier thoughts he added "Quin help Nadia hurt." Agh this language was so frustrating. He tried again. "Quin help Nadia while hurt?" had he gotten it right? he thought he remembered the word correctly but he might have just asked her to act like a small rabbit for all he knew with this odd, twisted language. She could, probably, manage on her own but that didn't mean she should have to.


Oh so Quin had gone from his home as well? That was a promising thought. It made her feel less foolish for having done it herself. But like him the curious mantra of thought flow entered her brain. Had he left or was he forced out? Why did he look so healthy now? Oh had he made it out in the wild only hisself to fend for? Or did he have a new home now? So many thoughts churned around inside her head.

When he first said the next words she was rather confused, but then he repeated it correctly. She had only known him a short time, but already she was proud that he had managed to get his words out in the way he wanted them to. This made her beam and her tail wag. But the wagging stopped once it moved her paw by the smallest shift in her body.

"Yes, yes....I would be...so greatful, " she said humbily, but then a thought occurred to her. "I don't want to burden you though. There's nothing I can offer you."


Good! he had gotten it right. Finally he was maybe beginning to get a handle on these stupid sentence structures. His sense of glee was fleeting though.

"No burden. No want." he said, his expression flashing once again to concerned. He really just wanted to help her and if that meant helping her about, getting food for her and suchlike then that was hardly a service which needed any 'payment'. He was not doing anything right at this moment, only searching, and he had his whole life to do that. Current needs should be taken care of before larger goals could be accomplished.

"Quin happy help Nadia while hurt" he said, repeating a little of his earlier phrasing. "Not hard thing." He had rather grown to like this tawny young female, too. She seemed to be steely, had an inner fire which kept her going despite her pain, and yet she also acted humbly and quietly. An odd but fine mix, Quin thought to himself. She seemed like she would be good company and perhaps he could practice his speaking to her while she mended!


"Yes," she whispered, happy that he didn't seem to think she was a burden. "Quin help Nadia...." With that she lowered ahead again, but not before giving him another soft smile. Once her head was rested on her good paw, while the bad was still oustretched she fell into a dreamless sleep.

((Renamed Julius to Mercury))

Instinct did a lot of things for a young wolf. Instinct would tell you to stay next to mother's warmth, to search for a warm n****e for food, then to ravenously compete with your siblings for that first regurgitated, bloody meal.

Instinct did not help you a jot, though, when you were trying to catch a damn cricket. The small insect had been tormenting Mercury all afternoon as he made playful pounces, leaps and almost artful dives after the wily, dark brown critter. His first proper hunt! It would prove he was a man! or so he thought. And here was his prey being rather ungrateful and not staying the least bit still whilst he went after it.

He had expected some sort of chase, a bitter duel and then the final heart-thumping crescendo where he would hold aloft his mighty prize! But the cricket was ruining all that. His tiny maw frowned in concentration, rear end and tail up in the air, a slight impatient wriggle and he made ready for another leap.

Jump! Dive! CATCH! GOTIT! YES!.. DAMN. Once again the little bugger seemed to have slipped through his paws or magically disappeared under them. He wondered if maybe this cricket was some otherworldly insect come to torment him or, perhaps, test him in this first hunt. His small paws thudded heavily against the ground as he stormed around like an upset toddler having a tantrum. He was the best hunter there ever was, yes he was! So his mother said! but here he was unable to catch the mighty foe: Cricket.

Tired, angry, the pup turned tail and stormed back to his mother, promises of milk and meat making his mouth water. Another day, cricket, he thought. Another day.

Kalain was rather different to most of the wolves of this region, indeed most of the wolves of his own region. For a start he was smaller than most males and even many females, with a slim, slight frame on which there was a little lithe muscle but no extra mass. His legs seemed a large proportion of him, long and thin as they were, despite his overall diminutive figure. From a distance, indeed, most wolves would have had a hard time telling whether this sleek wolf was male or female, so ambiguous was his form.

His scent was not strong, either, in the way of many males - perhaps as he had no need to mark or defend any territory. As for other external clues, all was wrapped up in a rather thick pelt, one definitely northern in flavour which coated him like a fluffy fur blanket and covered all but his legs and face. It wasn't that he was effeminate simply… ambiguous.
When he spoke his voice, too, had a cadence to it which was strong, but rich and with a slight, soft accent to it that neither imparted a sense of masculinity of femininity.

All of this had aggrieved him somewhat when he was younger as he had been quite the full blooded male then and had not taken kindly to untoward, confused gestures from other young males. Now things were different. He was generally happy to let others assume what they would though if they asked he would freely tell. He really did not want to be seen as female but he'd grown to accept his looks and the odd power they had and still did sometimes impart on him in the course of his 'duties'.

None of this was on his mind, though. Right at this moment his mind was in a deep turmoil, a roiling mass of churning pain, agony, insufferable hell. His mind was full of the blood, as he had termed it - a time where coherent thought was simply not possible, a time when all of the pain of the past came afresh to the mind in the present and a time where he could no more control his actions than he could sprout wings and fly. This was a particularly bad episode, too, and had been going on for more than an hour now.

It had started, as always, with the flashes of light in his vision. Bright dots and saturated tones seemed to flicker at the edge of his vision, something like bright sunlight seen through squinting eyes on a sunny day. He had grimaced, then, knowing what would happen, and tried to find somewhere he could rest. The headache began, then eventually oblivion, blackness. It was like losing consciousness for he did not remember anything past the point except that something unpleasant had happened and often he had a strange, metallic taste in his mouth - like iron, dried blood. He had not always been alone when these episodes occurred, though, and others had told him what they brought with them. The stories they repeated back to him had frightened him as a youngster, when it had all begun. That was why he had gone after the old shaman… He had been known for his powers, and feared.

All that was irrelevant, though, in the face of the blind dark which descended. He knew he might not wake up where he had last been, might have done something he should have not or gone some place he shouldn't he and he was always terrified he'd walk off a cliff or into a bear's den or some such thing. They had told him, when he was that young wolf, of his odd words, sometimes strange tongues and the menace which he exuded when he was in such a state. To the normally relatively docile male the thought of himself as some ravening monster was more than a little disconcerting.

He had learned much, though, from the shaman he had been sent to. His tutor and mentor, now gone to the spirits to be reborn. He had learned how to soothe their onset, sometimes stopping them altogether, or reducing them to merely a few minutes in which he could do much less damage to himself or others.

This one, though, this one wasn't to be calmed. He had been staying these last few days in a dug out badger den and at the onset of this attack had ensconced himself in the largest chamber, curling his large fluffy tail around himself as if to stave off the outside world.

Blood filled his mind, red and vibrant and tangy. With is flowed memories of pain. Memories of others, one a soft brown female, the other a puppy, a tiny scrap of fur not even clean from birth yet. Death surrounded them, in his eyes. The exhausted female, the tiny new life. She had given the puppy a name, then, before the twitching, convulsing attack took her, drew from her the last breath of life. She would not have shown any sign of illness, he knew.

He had seen this happen once before and learned that when it came the only hope was that the pup or pups would come before the mother went, then at least those little lives might be spared in a good pack. This female had no pack and the sad fact was that this horrible fate was more likely to happen to such a friendless , pregnant female. The only way to know, sometimes, was that the scent of their water changed. That was how he had known she was here, was in trouble.

When he had found her she had been writhing in pain. It was already after the birth but her head was swilling from the pain and the pup had hardly the time to grasp a n****e and snatch a first meal before his mother rolled away from him. It broke Kalain's heart to know he could do naught but be a calming presence until she was gone… He was further torn by the small scrap at his feet, this barely living creature. A lone male could do little for a pup who was too young to even take the half-digested scraps given to those a little older. This little one needed a mother, someone to feed him milk until his belly was good for meat. It was in Kalain's mind to give the pup to the blood, too. To let the small life wink out in an instant rather than let it suffer. This was too close to that other time. The other time… Blood, pain, frenzy… Too close!

He had been able to do nothing for her. She had go to the blood. To the blood which would swallow him up one day. A serpentine voice spoke to him, drawing his attention away from the blood and the pain and the suffering. The slithering hiss was pulling him back to the present, like a memory dawning on him, pricking at his consciousness.

His violet eyes opened wearily and he found himself standing in a place he did not know. He sighed and began to pick his way back to the den, nose to the ground, following his own scent.