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 Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 11:42 am
The north wind was once again blowing, slowly urging autumn more into the winter months. It made her nose cold, but she was beginning to adapt to the feeling.
It had been two weeks now since the dark sky blue child had wandered upon these strange woods, after escaping her strange realm of ghosts and ancient stories. They still controlled her being, but she was now beginning to learn how to live as a 'ghost wolf'. For surely, she had to be one of them by now...
Nausicaa wobbled, slowly moving down the edge of a narrow slope. It was rough against her paws, but she knew well that in all of the stories she had heard, the hero had to prevail over harsh conditions. And even if she was a ghost- she could still be the hero of this story. It made her feel much better about being alone, although she'd many imaginary friends to keep her company. She hadn't seen Friend-Kiba in a while, and sometimes, wondered if he had been imaginary as well.
With another hop, she landed on the stone earth, and took a deep breath of the cool air. As she took another step, pondering with her uniquely precocious child's mind, she felt a deep growl echo from her ribs. "Sivikitchuq." She told her stomach quietly. It will be a short time. For a moment, her dark blue eyes flecked about, observing the situation carefully. She faced now a small ditch, with her backside facing the rocky alcove she had spent the night in, and a bit of tangled thorn bushes to the east. It'd be time for some hunting, and it took a lot of small insects to keep her in satisfactory condition. She'd found some squirrel babies a few days before, and she'd eaten the few that she could reach. This was obviously a sign of something, but she wasn't sure of what. She did not believe it was bad..., for she had followed Raven to find it. But; perhaps this was more trickery then she imagined. But she'd wonder about this tonight, when she had her ritual reflections. In her family, you were supposed to tell your thoughts of the day to one another...but she'd taken to telling her thoughts to trees. They were surprisingly good listeners.
With a swallow, the tiny tangled blue pup bumbled towards the bushes carefully. Her eyes focused upon the brushes, and listening for any tiny chirps that would alert her to some sort of food- or some sort of story.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 12:08 pm
Nausicaa would possibly be greatly disappointed if she found that a wolf was hidden in the bushes instead of some prey. But with this wolf would be food, a dead, plump rabbit to be exact. Perhaps it was meant for their paths to cross.. or maybe Kalia just had good timing; bad timing?
In a brisk walk she came out from behind the bushes, her kill trapped between her powerful jaws. Suddenly she stopped, thought, upon seeing the pup in front of her. The first thoughts to drift through the older wolf's head were: Blue and due to grow into a beautiful she-wolf. No real reason for why that particular phrase popped into her head, but it did nonetheless.
Tilting her head and also turning it to get a better look at the small wolf, Kal blinked at the other. What was she doing out here all alone with winter no doubt on its way?
Placing her food down between her paws slowly, she blinked again. "Hello, little one," the gray she-wolf spoke softly, feeling much like a mother bringing food back to her own puppies, but along the way finding an abandoned one.
"Are you hungry?" She certainly wasn't. It was just out of pure boredom that she had gone hunting.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 12:32 pm
A sudden crack alerted the small child that there might in fact be food in these bushes after all. It was good then! She had awoken from a funny dream, and she'd felt it had foretold of food. But, she wasn't a shaman, so she couldn't correctly interpret the dream...in her clan, there was always a dream telling time, in which the clansmen would surround the old shaman, and she would tell them their dreams. But without her, she'd have to do the best she could on her own.
But what she certainly wasn't expecting, was another wolf to suddenly blow by her, stepping carefully through the bushes and running face to face with the small child. Or rather, face to paw, to dead rabbit. The dead creature's swaying and limp neck caught her most direct vision, and for a moment, she was sure it was a kind of ghost- this one, perhaps more terrible then she'd ever seen. She gave a quick shriek and fell on her back in surprise, her mouth widening and paws flailing for a few quick moments. The silhouette of the ghost rabbit changed, and this time, reformed into an adult creature, with the small lupine crushed between its jaws. It was a grey-white female, she could tell as she slowly calmed her breathing. She looked pale, and oddly spectral, but she did not often believe adult creatures to be bad spirits as quickly as she did children. Children were strange to find walking around, but big things did travel. Still, she took her precautions, rolled over, and slowly pulled herself back towards the alcove. Through the movement, she did not once turn her back to the pale wolf.
Blinking, Nausicaa listened as the creature addressed her as 'little one' and offered her some food. Her stomach betrayed her before she could even think about turning the offer down. It churned carefully, and she shivered. She did not like to be so overwhelmed with temptation. This was surely a bad sign, but, she'd let it play out. Perhaps, if anything, this could be a good spirit. "He-hello, aatauraba." She uttered, deciding quickly in her formal manner of speaking to address her as 'sister', rather then 'aunt'. It offended some older women of her old clan, and she would suspect that likewise it would offend ghost wolves.
Her sky blue head shifted, eyes fluttering as she tried to disapprove of her offer for food. But with another glance at the wolf and the rabbit in her mouth, and a few drops of blood plopping to the sandy earth, she gave in. She wriggled on the ground, getting slightly dusty, and turned her head upwards (while still fixated to the ground), and licked at the dirt. She didn't know how to phrase an acceptance to these people. Or even spirits. How did you take an offering like this? "I-..." she stumbled, thinking. "I would very much like it, please."
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 12:46 pm
Whoa! This definitely wasn't what the older wolf was expecting. Falling over then calling her some strange name? Were all children so... strange... nowadays? First there was Ran, who talked in third person and believed that there were butterflies who could talk to her. She had a strange family who casted her out and believed her useless. Now here was this pretty little blue pup who cringed at the sight of, she thought, older wolves and called them silly names. How odd..
"Aata... aatur... aa what?" Kalia tried to repeat the strange word Nausicaa had said, but it was quite hard. She wondered if it was some sort of foreign language or simply a word she had come up with by putting different sounding letters together. An ear cocked to the side as she tilted her head, confused in the strange ways of this pup.
What confused her even more was how silly the blue wolf seemed to crawl forward. Then she... licked the dirt?! How odd! She narrowed her eyes in question.
Finally the other female spoke again, this time in a language Kal could understand! "Well then," she began smoothly, using a soft voice in case the pup was at all scared of her, "...You can go ahead and take this plump rabbit here. I won't eat it." A friendly smile crossed her maw as she pushed the hare closer to the other with her nose, but slowly.
There was no reason to get the poor pup worked up over sudden movements.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 1:30 pm
Nausicaa twitched, watching the limp and heavy body of the rabbit drop to the earth, and slowly nosed towards her by the grey wolf who apparently didn't know what 'aatauraba'. These were such strange, and bewildering creatures- spirits or wolves regardless. She couldn't be a spirit though, Nausicaa decided. If she had been, she would have known what an aatauraba was.
Carefully, she slinked towards the body of the animal, a little confused as to why this older creature would give up her food to her. Perhaps she was on a 'good quest', and had offended some great spirit. This was possible, so Nausicaa felt obliged to eat it if only to appease the grey wolf's karma. And her own ravenous stomach.
But she was hesitant at first to just feast upon it, so she decided it'd be best to be a little more proper. She straightened out her posture, and tilted her scrawny neck up towards the large She. Her eyes quickly shot downwards again in slight embarrassment, as she tried to figure out how to explain a word she had known since she suckled. "It means...well, it's like..." She shifted her ears. "It's a title you say to older wolves. It means 'older sister'. But it doesn't mean you're my sister or anything." She glanced away, and raised her paw with a slight flinch of her nose. "But, you don't call people you don't know the age of 'old aunt.' Most people...like to be young...." She stretched, slightly flicking the end of her thin tail.
Her eyes glittered carefully, and she tilted her head upwards, looking at this female with interest. She liked to think she was a good judge of character, although she had limited experience in the matter. She didn't seem to be a bad ghost, anyways. "I'm Nausicaa." She spoke, even though she had not been asked for her name.
Nausicaa looked downwards at the sprawled hare, and felt her stomach gurgle again. But she'd not eat it until she was very sure that this was what the grey female wanted to do, and that it wasn't a ghost trick.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 1:52 pm
Kalia listened intently upon the other wolf's explanation. She didn't even notice that the other wasn't eating the hare just yet as she tried to understand the strange word that was seemingly hard to grasp for her tongue, yet for the other it was like saying 'mom' or 'dad'... oh-so-simple.
"So... it's a respectable term, one you use to show that you have manners and know you're place?" Simple enough, now that it was spelled out for her. And she didn't mind that she was called 'older'.. she knew that she was older than probably most of the wolves that occupied this new forest.
"I understand... is there any term for me to call you?" She was truly fascinated, as if she was some human scientist of some sort who was discovering something new and exciting, never seen or heard of before.
Upon hearing the blue pup's name, she smiled down at the little one. It would be nice to address her with a real name rather than just 'little one'. "Nausicaa," the gray she-wolf echoed, playing with the name in her head. "It's a pretty name."
That same friendly smile stayed on her face, and she glanced to the kill as if wondering why the other hadn't taken a bite yet. Surely she couldn't catch all the necessary food for herself..? Then again, pups could sometimes be greatly underestimated.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:21 pm
"Uh...." The small wolf echoed, as if she was searching for a word in a foreign tongue. "There is no calling for me, aatauraba. Little ones don't get callings, unless we've done good things." She spoke, her ears twitching. "Although...my family would call me... piifixaaq...amabuq." Ghost wolf.
She shook her head, not wishing to refer to herself with such a title. She stopped a moment, and considered that the female might not understand that word either. "It's a bad term." She explained, and shook her head with her ears pressed to her head. She firmly decided not to reveal what it meant. She didn't want this Aatauraba to believe she was one of those bad spirits. Precariously, she smiled, small tiny teeth poking from the edges of a black lip. "But yes, you say it right." She spoke, a funny mixture of phrases and a strange accent.
Her tail wriggled as she complimented her name. "Thank-you, I like my name, but it doesn't mean 'nothing. Like, it's not magic. But it's not like nausea though. My brother used to call me that." She spoke softly, her pale blue brow furrowing. "That's not a good term much." She continued, her voice spilling off her lips and fluttering in a mass of jumbled words- although they were still, oddly articulate for a child. "Do you have a name?"
Nausicaa shivered, noticing the hare once more at her feet. Her throat was almost burning with the thought of eating it, so shyly, she flicked her tongue against one of the bite wounds, where some blood had collected before the animal died. She swallowed it and pivoted her ears, before pulling away as not to appear all that rude.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 6:39 am
Hm.. it seemed the child wouldn't eat the meat. Perhaps she thought it poisoned and that the only reason Kal was here was to harm her? Hopefully that thought would change over time, but for now she just nodded understanding to the little wolf.
At first she was going to call Nausicaa one of those terms she had specified that her family used. They sounded nice... for the most part. Of course, she had no idea what on earth they meant. It was just assumed in her mind that they were loving terms, having come from her family. But when the blue pup revealed that they were bad terms, a sort of shocked look came over the gray wolf's features. Another family that didn't seem to like one of its members
Wolves were surely odd nowadays. Things used to be so simple back when she was... ah, enough of that. Kalia wasn't that old...
"Oh," was all she could say. Just a noncommittal 'oh'.
Yet upon hearing that she had said that pup's name right, a smile came over her face. "Good, it wouldn't do to call the wrong name for the right wolf." Did that make sense? Was it supposed to make sense?
"Of course it has meaning! You are its meaning. Some names have two meanings... perhaps yours only has one. That just makes it special." Okay, what sort of kiddy nonsense had gotten into her head?
"Do I have a name?" the She echoed. Of course she did, and hers had two meanings. (*gigglegiggle* o.o) "Yes, my name is Kalia." She wasn't about to reveal that it had any particular meaning. Perhaps hers having something to say would make the little female feel left out? Kal didn't want to risk it.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 9:53 am
It had never occurred to Nausicaa that her name could mean something special. Maybe- maybe one day people would tell their children they were named after the great ghost warrior Nausicaa. It made her wriggle. She liked the kenning of 'great'. Of course, it'd be capital.
"Kalia is a pretty name." Nausicaa admitted, tilting her head to the side to get a better look at the big She. Her face pulled back in a small smile, nodding pleasantly. "It sounds like it means something. I can tell- when they do." Her paws idled. "They sound a certain way-" She attempted to explain. But it was not all too disappointing to her that the grey wolf's name did mean something- Nausicaa had found most names did in fact mean something. Her own was quite a bit of an oddity, but for the moment, this did not bother her. "In my family, they say that people who's name means something sometimes take on the attribute of that name. It's good luck."
Shyly, she looked down at the dead creature, and wriggled again. She was terribly hungry, and had never had very good patience. "...do you....really want me to have this?" She questioned.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:37 pm
As the small pup mentioned something about names having meanings and her being able to tell when they did, the gray she-wolf sort of... frowned. She had hoped the fact that her name actually had a meaning would be hidden to protect the little one. But, it seemed, Nausicaa was neither bothered nor relatively pleased about 'Kalia' possibly having a meaning. A sigh escaped her lips. That was good, at least she wouldn't... well, it wasn't lying, as she didn't say it didn't have a meaning...
"Hm... actually, it does have a meaning. Let's see.. my mother.. she said something.." Gosh it sucked being old! Her darn memory was dying on her. Poo.
"Oh, yes... I believe she said it meant something like beautiful." A nod came after that sentence as more of a confirmation for the older wolf than the younger one. But.. was she really as her name stated? She was a brute, that was for sure. Never had she been like those feminine butterflies back home. Perhaps that was why no wolves really took to her? It seemed aggression didn't much help out in life anymore. Well, that couldn't be changed in the old girl... to bad she was stuck with that certain trait.
Maybe she should have been named something that meant 'aggression' or 'blunt one'... that might have been more suitable than 'beautiful'.
A moment later Kal was lost in her thoughts. But the sound of Nausicaa's voice brought her back. "Hm?" It took a moment for the words to register completely in her brain. "Of course, I ate recently and only hunted for fun. Well, I was going to eat it, but you can have it. Don't worry.. I don't need it as much as you do."
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:52 pm
Nausicaa felt a smile come across her mouth as she nodded her head quietly. "Yes, ieugiksuq." She reiterated, using her family's word for beautiful. "It's a good name. You will have much luck."
The elder creature responded to her request for food, and once more the small night blue creature turned her eyes upon the limp body of the rabbit. She shivered and licked her lips softly, her pale blue eyes dancing as she attempted to figure out why the older wolf would give her food up. It must have been wonderful not to be kaaktuq. Hungry.
For a moment, she quivered, peering at the brown fur of the fallen creature. She was so terribly hungry- perhaps it was her own good fortune that had brought this creature to her. And after another few moments of thought, she found no reason to not go ahead and eat.
What might have been a clumsy task for a young pup was pulled off in a rather efficient, but ravenous manner. She'd developed sharp puppy teeth from having to eat and chew food herself. Carefully, with a peculiar amount of respect for the dead rabbit, she carried it a couple of feet away form Kalia, and sat it down in front of her. Her head dipped down, and she made a couple of slow biting motions, removing the thin layer of fur and fascia from the animal's abdomen.
Although she'd been for the most part reverent, the sudden urge to eat over came her, and before long she was gulping down rabbit insides, her ears pressed flat to her head, and the end of her pale blue snout dyeing a slight pink.
It didnt take much longer for her to be finished, although the rabbit still had some pieces of fur, bone, and less desirable muscle matter left upon it. She figured it was rude, but before she could overcome herself, she picked up the scattered remains, and dragged them over, and started to dig a tiny hole. Her mother had once said, 'The fox hides his food and goes without so he may feast in winter.' Well, rabbits didnt keep till winter, but they'd last atleast until midafternoon, when she could eat the tiny bones, and most of the fur to fill her belly.
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 7:14 pm
There was another one of those words. Did this blue puppy come from some sort of 'religious' pack where they seemed to have a strange name for everything that existed? At first she was skeptical, but then Nausicaa explained that it was good. Hm, well, at least she 'liked' Kal enough to not call her names in a foreign language. Unless she was lying... naaah.
"Luck..." Hm, yeah, luck. It wasn't exactly her best friend at the moment, nor has it been ever in her life. The events in her life had lead her to come to the crazy conclusion that whoever was controlling her fate was some freak who loved to torture females like her. Hopefully in time that would change, though.
Blinking at the smaller wolf, the gray she tilted her head slightly. Nausicaa was really the strangest creature she had ever seen behavior-wise. And yet it didn't seem wholly unfamiliar. There had been a pack that acted a little like this blue pup in front of her, and she had been fascinated enough to learn some of their ways. They ate like this one, eating carefully yet fast enough so that it wouldn't be able to be easily stolen away. Hm...
Feeling it was rude to just sit there and watch, though, Kalia sank down to her belly and took her attention away from the pup, instead focusing it on her 'dirty' paws. Despite being aggressive and for the most part not-feminine, the thing she hated almost as much as Koro and Shetani was an unnecessary filthy coat.
Once the pup was done, however, she politely flicked an ear in her direction, that simple action followed by the movement of the rest of her head.
"Was it good?" she asked in a smooth voice.
A smart pup this one was. She burried her food so that it may be kept until a later date when she could finish it off. Of course, there wasn't much left, so it might have only been used for a snack. Nonetheless, it was an intelligent thing to do, store food until it was needed at a later date...
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 4:27 am
After finishing the small animal's makeshift burial, she rolled a small stone with her nose over the spot where she had buried it. It would make as a double purpose; keeping foxes temporarily deterred, and remind her where she had entombed the hare.
She sat in front of the rock for a long moment before tottering back to Kalia. As she sat there, she mumbled something quietly, as she had been taught was customary to thank the good ghosts for being able to eat, and to consider letting her do it another time. When this mini ceremony was complete, she turned, and trotted back over.
It was a funny sensation being full, and Nausicaa found herself being distracted by the blood on her muzzle. Her tongue flicked over it, ears pressed to her skull and fumbling quietly with the sticky blood and fur. "It was very good. It was a good...rabbit!" She grinned, having had to stop herself from saying one of her more native words. People of these woods didn't seem to speak her language well, if at all. That was a peculiar sort. As it was, her own spoken (English) words were a bit peculiar in themselves, as if she often had a hard time placing the correct word down.
Finished with tiding herself up, she rose two paws, pressing them to her chest. She'd been rather good at balancing in her younger life, but it felt as though her legs would soon be to awkward and long to do this silly position. "Friend-Kalia- " Nausicaa addressed, her head tilting to the side, and blue eyes flecking about. "Did you catch the rabbit?" She questioned, wondering if there was a great and adventurous story to this.
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 9:30 pm
Kalia continued to smile at the younger wolf. She was glad that the other liked the meat. So much so, it seemed, that she wanted to bury it and save it for another meal... though it looked as if it would serve a better snack than a meal.
"Good... at least it went down someone's throat fresh rather than rotted. I probably wouldn't have eaten it if you didn't want it." Indeed, it sounded like a waste, but she had been bored and 'accidentally' killed the rabbit during their games. And it had been so fun too, before the rabbit slid and the large wolf topple onto it. Hm, how sad.
Then, when she was asked if she had caught it herself, the gray female nodded and her smile widened. "Of course. I was taught that it was better to catch one's own food if it was possible. And it was bad, I think, to scavenge. Supposedly the meat was poisoned after a certain amount of time... so much so that it was bad for all creatures except a select few--like Crow and Raven--to eat it." Kal paused a moment. Then she continued on, "That was fresh, though, so there is no need to worry."
Another nod confirmed this. She didn't want Nausicaa to think that she was some horrible older she who like to kill the young. Sheesh.. Kal was old.
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 4:13 am
"Oh..." Nausicaa peeped, her ears swinging forward. "Bad spirits to that to meat, they make it rot faster and look appealing. Raven can eat it because he tricked them into telling their secret about the poison. That's why they have black feather's that sometimes shine green." The dark blue wolf continued, nodding her head in a slow fashion. She was greatly pleased though, to hear someone other then herself speak about Crow and Raven as though they were singular entities. It pleased them when people did that, and sometimes they'd bring food to those who reserved them.
She was also deeply intrigued about the story- she was a grand story-teller herself, and it made her feel flitty and light to hear someone else relay a story. She idled herself about and scurried in careful circles around her, looking for the continuation of the rabbit story. "But how?" She asked, coming to a shambling stop in front of her. Her own scrawny neck slowly shifted to the side, and her tongue lolled. "How did you catch the rabbit, Friend-Kalia? Was it hard? I can't catch them. They're too fast, because their prince gave them fast feet."
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