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 Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 4:19 pm
 So it seemed as though her life was beginning to take a different direction so quickly from her beginnings in the mountains. It was pure luck that her status as an exile from The Snow-Capped Clan and its plagued had only last several days at most, ending with the afternoon she had happened across Pok and Chivosi, the latter of which became her travelling companion. And from there Si attracted (in more ways than one, she now believed) another male to their small group, the rather optimistic Menelaus whom she had deemed - and rather annoyedly so, until a better moniker was found - "Mene-Pup". And now, after several days of travelling together, it seems as though her two companions had now gotten it into their heads that they could become alphas for a sheltered orphanage pack they would create, even asking Merrill to be their closest counselor.
Spirits knew they needed it, with childish minds that could come up with something like "You May Come Always". Honestly. These were going to be alphas. Thus she had accepted their offer, not only because she longed to be the proud beta of a pack once more, but also because she was sure that without her, Menelaus and Chivosi's pack would probably crumble from within.
But there was a loose end to tie up before they could really work towards that goal. Beyond finding a good settlement for the pack's territory and gathering members, there was a presence Merrill had been aware of for at least a pawful of days now. Never had the source come too close, wavering behind them like a ghost, then disappearing for a day, then returning closer or farther, always wavering on her senses. It was waking p one day and smelling something akin to rancid meat that made the decision for the mountain-born beta: time to see what was up.
Apparantly this one was a thief, having stolen one of their pieces of meat - and from right under their noses to boot! Growling lowly (never being quite the morning wolf), Merrill put herself to the trail and left before her friends woke up, determined to n** the problem in the butt before things escalated further. Spirits, but it was a rancid scent, though!
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:22 pm
 Even as he gnawed on meat he had pilfered Edgar asked himself the age-old question: why did he eat? His body cried out for food, yes, but why did he obey it? So fickle, so filthy, so broken a thing, unnatural and flea-bitten and bare. It demanded sustenance to function, and he asked himself why he provided again and again for it. Perhaps it was to avoid the pangs that came with hunger, the pain of starvation. He had no love for pain, yet he had endured it before and could do so again if he desired to be free of his mottled flesh. But did he desire it? Pain? No. Death? He had yet to be sure. And so he fed, musing that this answer - or lack thereof - was good enough for now. After all, death came for all beasts in the end. Why should he hurry into her arms now? All of this he mused over as he lay near the bank of the river, sunning himself in a patch of light that filtered through the treetops.
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:32 pm
The stench from more fetid the closer she grew to the river until Merrill was quite sure she was tracking some animated corpse; spirits, but what living creature would stoop themselves in something like rotting flesh? A desparate creature is what, she answered herself. Half-starved or maybe even half-eaten himself. Still, meat is meat, and we can't be letting a thief stick around here without consequence. Thus she strode through without fear until the trees gave way to the riverbank and, barely breathing her nose now than she was through her open mouth, the beta came across her quarry simply lying there, the meat cleaved by his teeth.
Could she call this poetic justice - a thief who looks very much like a rat? "You there. What d'you think you're doing with our meat?" Merrill asked him, stopping what she considered a small distance before him. The stranger looked quite bedraggled, perhaps even sick.
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:53 pm
Our meat? Ah, the owner of the voice that was so vivid purple seemed to have been the victim of his theft. If he was at all concerned, the male made no show of it as he looked dolefully up at the femme and answered quite simply in a voice that seemed as marred as his pelt, "Eating it." before going back to his meal.
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:05 pm
"Great. Smartaleck. Well, Ratrace, in case you forgot in the last few minutes of happy smacking, the deer belongs to me and my comrades," Merrill stated. "Not that I'm sure we want it back now, with your chops all over it with spirits know what . . . Oy, you stink up a storm, d'you realize that? You look like you've been to The Final Cave and back."
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:27 pm
Edgar judiciously ignored her, chomping away as if she were not even there. In fact, he had all but forgotten she was in his single-minded ways. Right now, his attention was on food and food only. The loud female would have to wait until he was done before he would engage in conversation again.
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:38 pm
Merrill was quite happy to keep chatting until he finished, (un)fortunately for him. "Mind telling me when you're finished what you're doing here following us? I got the food portion into my understanding, yes, but there's better ways to go about it than stalking a trio of no particular liking, Ratrace. Figure if you have the skills to steal, you can put them to use to hunt on your own or somemaht, no? Know you look like an overgrown rat and all, but you could do yourself with some manners beyond those nosy beasties."
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:48 pm
Merril's voice blurred into a steady hum of background noise in Edgar's ears. He was rather preoccupied with the task of eating and took to it with a steady rhythm. Munch munch munch munch munch munch munch munch . . . swallow. And again. Finally he finished his meal and perceived that the female was still chattering. He lifted his head from the bones that remained and blinked at her before asking slowly, "Were you speaking?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:58 pm
"Why yes I was," Merrill continued without skipping a beat, not seeming to notice that she had almost been in essence ignored. "But enough about me musing over those tidbits. What am I to do with you, thief?" She cocked an invisible brow at him. "You've had your meal. What now, Ratrace? Is that the onyl reason you've been following us, because of the deer meat? You ate the last of it, mind you."
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 4:43 pm
Her words zoomed past Edgar as he leisurely picked out which ones he should answer to before speaking in that monotone, raspy voice, "I have been following you for food, yes, but first because death lingers with you." Edgar stared at Merrill, unabashed, whiskers twitching idly as he contemplated the oddly hued female. "Yes, it lingers very much with you.
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:54 pm
Death? The very word docked her ears back and had the femme's eyes narrowing. "Why say that, Ratrace?" she queried with some hints of suspicion. "I'm thinking we've all got a touch of death on us from the moment we're born, but there's no reason to go on thinking about it. Unless you happen to like that miasma on your shoulders." Then again, this one looked right on the edge of that eternal sleep, and smelled appropriately so!
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:46 pm
"But death is all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present," The way he spoke of it was almost as one would a lover or a god, a soft tone full of reverence and fear. Edgar's strangely blank silver eyes stared through Merrill to something in the foreground, a possibly disconcerting effect when one eye seemed to be bulging from the socket. "To not think of it is to deny the inevitable, to deny a very part of yourself."
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:36 am
"Thought death was more of an absence of self than an actual part," Merrill retorted, hackles stiffening the more they delved into the subject. "But enough about that. D'you plan to keep following us or not? Because you might as well be part of our happy little group if you plan to stick around." Though his appearance was rather . . . disturbing.
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:44 pm
"What group is this?" Were they speaking of a pack? He had never remained in a pack for very long . . . usually death would trail after him wherever he chose to take up residence. No-one wanted to keep a wolf who seemed to call upon death, but did they not understand that he merely was drawn to death and the dying? He thought himself no curse or ill omen, just a creature so fascinated by death and its strange ways.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:20 am
"The, ah . . ." She paused to remember the strange name Menelaus and Chivosi had decided upon and its acronym, hoping to the spirits her faith had grown upon that they would see at least a little sense in such a silly name and change it posthaste. "Officially so far, it's You May Come Always. Or the YMCA," Merrill answered, allowing herself a quiet snort at the uttering. "A forming pack based on acting as a shelter for lost pups or younglings whom their parents can no longer take care of, letting them grow in a healthy and safe environment until they are old enough to make their own decisions."
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