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 Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:42 pm
"Perhaps we should stop for now." Myrl ventured. "The sun will be up soon and we don't want to be noticed." It was as good of an excuse as any...travelling by the heat of the day in plain sight of hunters was a bad idea. He also felt mentioning her clear haggardness was not the smartest of things to do. Mire had already established herself as being one who took things far too personally.
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:53 pm
"Here...?" she asked warily, casting a look about them. This was entirely unfamiliar territory. What might seem safe to them might very well be their undoing. And what if they were encroaching on someone else's packlands?
An inward battle raged on between her fatigue and her worry, both threatening to outdo the other. At last, she yawned again, despite the knots in her stomach.
Perhaps just for a little while...before they could be detected.
"Where?" she inquired.
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 12:30 am
Myrl guided her to a small undisturbed thicket of bushes not far to their left.
"It hasn't been marked." he said aloud to no one in particular as he scented the leaves. "I'd say its safe..." To further test this theory, he stepped among the thick tangle of bushes and circled twice before curling himself up and watching expectantly to see if she would do the same.
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 12:35 am
Mire lingered in the open a moment more, ears and nose both keening the wind for signs of danger. Ultimately, even she had to admit that the thicket appeared to be safe as she slunk in after him and curled up what she felt to be a respectable distance away.
Without the cacophany of voices and noise in her head, it was almost startling how easily sleep came in this strange place.
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 1:51 am
The two wolves slept well into the day, oblivious as the woods around them carried on with their normal routine. Squirrels bantered overhead, insects buzzed and crawled, and timid deer pranced silently behind the trees. All were just as oblivious to the strangers as the strangers were oblivious to them.
It was not until the sun had climbed to its highest point in the sky and had begun its descent beyond the mountains that one of them would wake...
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 2:14 am
Mire was the first to awaken, roused by a fresh breeze that tickled past her nose, carrying with it the scent of a clean brook nearby.
The brown-pelted omega remained where she was for a time, listening to the steady breathing of Myrl's sleeping form beside her and debating. Should she wait until he awoke? Should SHE wake him?
No...no there was no sense in disturbing him. She may have been jumpy, but she was not an invalid, and perfectly capable of getting a drink by herself. That's what she told herself, at least, as she carefully stood and padded out of the bushes.
When Myrl showed no signs of stirring, she continued on her way, following the direction of the wind and keeping her ears pricked for the sound of water.
The sunlight made her feel vulnerable and she felt her hackles raise along her spine at the slightest noise.
To make matters worse, her mind was no longer silent as it had been earlier that morning when she and Myrl had lain down. The voices were back now...not with quite as much fervor as they had been in the packland, though. There were faint drones that faded in and out of coherancy, some in languages she didn't understand.
The brief conversation with Myrl several hours before had calmed her a bit...at least she knew that she was not the only one this had happened to now, but all the same -- what did it mean? And why had it come to her, of all people?
She didn't feel she was deserving of any gifts...certainly not one as sensitive and intimate as mind-touching.
BLAM!!
The sound was like thunder inside the cage of her skull as a brief flare of yellow-orange light exploded behind her eyelids and her left haunch burst into phantom pain. Whining, she turned to examine the wound that was not there and felt her heart begin to pound urgently in her chest.
That had never happened before. Had it been a dream? It had certainly been too powerful to be her imagination...
The pain was already fading as she continued to stare in disbelief at the unbroken flesh, promising herself she'd heard something. FELT something.
stop it. this is exactly the reason choma wanted you gone her mind told her acidly, making her cringe in embarrassment.
Imagination, then, she scolded herself as she continued onward.
The mineral scent of water only accentuated the dryness of her throat and mouth as she quickened her step toward the now-visible brook and stopped at its side to drink.
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 2:40 am
Unknown to Mire, she was being watched -- not by a neighboring wolf pack as she'd feared, but by what many would consider to be much worse.
Downwind of the brook, three human boys watched the small lupine as she drank, whispering among themselves excitedly. Their families were unaware of their absense...or that one had brought his father's musket with him. Surely all three of them would catch holy hell if they were to be caught in the woods this way -- the same woods the natives had avoided due to the very fact it belonged to the wolves.
Being young, however, the boys had mistaken respect for cowardice. Obviously the natives must be scared of the wolves if they didn't even dare go into the woods....well THEY weren't scared of wolves, they had said. They were game to be hunted just like deer and fowl. The fact remained, of course, that none had actually -seen- a wolf before....perhaps that was why they had been foolish enough to attempt to go hunting for one during the day.
It was most unfortunate for Mire that she had happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But as she would tell you, it was just her luck.
More excited whispering and then one of them carefully raised the musket to his shoulder, taking aim.
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 2:43 am
Mire lifted her head suddenly, alerted by a sharp click from nearby. It had sounded almost like a tooth striking a bone...it had certainly not been a twig snapping, though.
Turning her head in the direction she'd come, she waited to see if Myrl would appear around the bend. When he didn't, she warily resumed her drink, still listening carefully for the telltale sound of something approaching.
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 4:20 am
"You'll never get it..." the eldest of the boys hissed through his teeth, watching the wolf already growing skittish. "It'll run away before you even figure out how to use that thing..."
"I'll get it..." the one with the gun whispered, hard-edged determination in his voice. "Stop distracting me."
It was obvious that he had never handled a gun before, and that made him all the more dangerous as he clutched the weapon tightly, squinting one eye shut as he aimed carefully for the area between Mire's shoulder and ribs. It was best, his father had always said, to get an animal right in its heart so that it went down quickly.
Had his father been there, he would have told him that this was a bad angle to be shooting from. Nevermind the fact he likely would have also clouted his son for trying to shoot a dangerous animal...
He squeezed the trigger, feeling the gun kick back with startling force against his shoulder as a cloud of powder stung his eyes.
There was a strangled yelp from up ahead. The 'hunter' had hit his mark.
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 4:40 am
It had happened just the way she had envisioned it only moments ago. The world-rattling explosion, the flash, and the pain in exactly the same place she'd felt it before...
The deadly ball of lead that could have sheared away her entire leg had passed harmlessly to her left, riddling her instead with chunks of poorly-packed powder and bits of shrapnel.
It was not, by any means, a fatal wound but, oh, it hurt...!! She yelped, feeling warm riverlets of blood streaming down her fur.
ow my ******** shoulder...!
...dad's gonna kill us...
is it alive?
look at the blood on it...
...shouldermySHOULDER! it hurts!
She did not understand what the snippets of mental cobweb were saying, but she knew where she'd heard tongue like it before. Back in those dark times she tried not to remember...back in the times that were over but never gone.
The angry man's voice. The stench of meat and sweat.
Panic overtook her as she turned blindly to flee from her unseen attackers, favoring her injured leg as she went.
Myrl -- where was he?? Had they gotten him already?
help me, myrl....myrl where are you? myrl please...!! she thought frantically, dodging through trees and bushes at a crippled pace. She had no idea what she was doing...or if her powers (if there even -were- any, for that matter) could be used to send as well as recieve.
oh help it hurts so badly helphelppleasehelp !!!HELP!!! it had become a mantra of gibberish in her mind, but it was something to focus on...something other than the pain or the clumsy breaking of foliage behind her as the humans pursued.
Her leg had become a white agony behind her and warm sticky blood had saturated the fur. She could not keep this up for much longer, she knew, but she could not go back. No, not back with the humans...anything but that...!!
One of her paws snagged a jutting tree root, and just like that, it all came to a crashing halt. She sprawled to the forest floor, knowing before she'd even fully landed that they'd won. She wouldn't be able to outrun them this way...
Turning toward the source of the racket as the boys shouted and trampled the brush, she hunched her back, baring her teeth in a meager attempt to look threatening.
So this is what being doomed felt like...perhaps it would make Choma proud to know that she had gone with some semblance of a fight, at least...
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 4:54 am
The shouts of excitement at tracking down their impending kill were to be shortlived as the boys were interrupted by a great rumbling bellow from somewhere dangerously closeby.
"What in the name of god...?" one of them was heard to have asked precisely two seconds before the massive bear crashed through the underbrush, roaring its agitation at the three young lads.
They responded in turn by eloquently turning and fleeing, the musket dropped and forgotten in their wake. The angry bruin shambled after them for a few steps, and then decided they weren't worth the bother.
They were not the reason he had come...there had been cries for help. Female cries. Judging by the tang of blood in the air, he just might have arrived a bit too late.
Grunting, he shambled in the direction of the coppery scent, his large head held low to the ground.
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 5:09 am
Mire, for her part, found herself petrified as the great beast approached. She had never seen a bear before and could only reason that one had arrived now simply to make her situation even worse than it already was.
The snarl that had been frozen on her face withered and died impotently as she goggled up at the bruin fearfully. Every ounce of her common sense was urging her to flee, and yet she found herself unable to move at all.
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 5:16 am
The bear drew in a great breath, sampling the scent of the wolf before him before puffing it out again in a great humid cloud that blew her brown fur back.
Wolves...yes. He knew these creatures. Uppity things that travelled in packs, identifying each other by their titles and advancements. When one had lived as long as he had, though, one knew most of the comings and goings of the woods. Wolves, rabbits, deer -- even those hairless two leggers that occasionally ventured in.
"You are far from home, little one." the bear rumbled in a voice that seemed to vibrate the very forest floor.
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 5:46 am
Much like Aboki's squirrel, Mire was startled to be able to understand the bear so clearly. His accent was odd, his voice sounded like the rumble of thunder itself, but she was able to understand him.
"Please..." she whimpered, trying to straighten herself only to crumple once more as her wounded leg sang out in pain. "....please...." she said again, this time in a more resigned voice. "...have mercy. Don't kill me...!"
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 5:50 am
"Kill you?" the bear scoffed. "I believe I just SAVED you." He blew another puff of muggy breath over her before rearing back on his hind legs to stand, making himself look even larger and even more horrifying.
"Which is more than 'Myrl' did, whoever that is." Looking to her blood-grimed leg he wrinkled his muzzle in distaste. It looked ugly, but she would live.
"Can you walk, wolf?"
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