Welcome to Gaia! ::

The white-and-violet female had been travelling for over a moon. Steadily over the past fortnight she had turned south and east, hardly daring to pause for food or sleep before moving on again. Her eyes were as glazed as a zombie's, only seeing the slight possibility of refuse before her. Her ribs shown through her thick white pelt, and she panted heavily, but kept on.

Fear, after all, is an amazing incentive.

Finally she could keep on no longer. She darted into the Shaoilin woods (though, of course, she knew not the name of the area she found herself in), and it was with only a slight hesitation that she darted into a small hollow made by the roots of a confierous tree by the river.

There she slept, through the night and far into the next day, what was left of an ear twitching as disturbing thoughts, images, and memories flitted through her exhausted mind.

Her pelt was white as snow, so as to blend in with the snowy northlands from whence she had come. Violet markings flitted their way across her ivorn hide, creating "socks" on all four legs, a "mask" upon her face, and a "cape" laying across her shoulders.

She would have been beautiful, if not for the scars marring her face and body.

Late that afternoon she awoke, eyes blinking in the bright sun which had sunk low enough in the sky to shine directly in her face. Idly she lay there, too exhausted to move, the scents of the river and the clean woods comforting her.

The femme's eyes had closed again, but she was far from sleep; the sounds and scents of the forest were suddenly far too loud to lull her back to sleep again, and the nightmares she had whenever she slumbered were sharp, painful reminders of her past and what she had just spent the last month fleeing from.

But unfortunately, no one can escape their dreams.

A new scent came to her on the breeze and dimly she recognized the faint thump, thump, thump of pawsteps on the ground. Her eyes snapped open and she was on her feet and ready to run in an instant, terror and adrenaline making her blood run suddenly cold.

The newcomer was an earth-toned female, seemingly harmless, but the white wolf's eyes saw different. This was a potential threat, someone who could chase her out of her newfound sanctuary, someone who might recognize her or clue her persuers into her whereabouts.

She said nothing, but kept her ice-toned eyes on the stranger, her head low and ears back, her tail tucked firmly between her legs and grazing her belly.

Confusion etched itself across the white female's scarred features, and an ear flicked forward for an instant, only to return promptly to the frightened, laid-back position it had found itself in so often lately.

Who are you.

It was obviously a question, but the femme displayed it as a statement, her voice low and unnatural.

Either this was truly a harmless wolf, or she was very good at playacting. She moved like a puppy. The white femme gazed at the newcomer -- River -- for a few seconds before answering, in a voice wraught with pain at something no one but she could see.

I am So-leks, she told her quietly, as though hesitant to give her name. But I am no one.

She turned as if to leave, planning to find someplace else she could rest unhindered before continuing her trek south.