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 Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:07 pm
 Getting used to his newly sized body was akin to a human babe slipping into a blanket - there was so much room underneath that coat, he felt that if he stretched his furthest he might never make it past the boundary. Yet there Adam was, standing tall in the open field wearing his good ol' coat of shifting pelts and shivering; he was not aware that he was small by most male standards of equal age - but then, he was already used to that, being the runt of six pups and nearly having died for it minutes after birth. Stuff like that tended to make a guy grateful he was alive to appreciate the body at all, he thought with an inner shrug. Adam had recently eaten and was now with his head tilted to the skies, observing their gray uniformity and smelling distant rains approaching.
Earlier he had been romping in the snow, this technically having been his first time, and a clear-cut trail had been left behind in his wake as he leapt and skipped and otherwise made a fool of himself. For a few moments, he felt so alive that he might have sprouted wings right then and there - although mind you, Adam would not have known what to do with such inappropriate appendages, especialyl considering his strange half-sight. Maybe hit trees in his various glides or something, get a mouth full of bark and dirt. But needless to say, his mood had been particularly higher than normal, and that was exhilirating and enjoyable.
Well, until he realized that it looked ready to rain. Then, instead of what sane wolves who wanted to stay warm might do, Adam promptly carved his way through the snow to the nearest and tallest hill, hoping to get a good view of the sky. Now he stood there, a youthful figure who could barely see the heavily clouded heavens yet had the tenacity to sit it out if he could. Dangit, he was having fun, and rain wasn't giong to ruin his first snow day for him!
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:35 pm
 'Arina, you're not a puppy anymore. You can't go and dirty yourself up. Look at your sister, she's kept herself clean.'
Ear back, head down and legs pumping, the leggy teen shoved her way through the knee deep snow like a determined locomotive. Nothing seemed to get in her path, and good for it too, because the female decided that she just would've pushed her way through it. Luckily she'd chosen a field to let her anger out on, dark nose twitching back sniffles that weren't only from the frosty air. Besides, if she hit something she'd get hurt. Hurts left scars. Scars made you ugly. I can't get any uglier now anyway, Arina fumed silently, dark-brown head pulled back into her neck fur, forehead wrinkled in embarrassment against the state of her own fur.
It'd been early morning, and every day as she and her sister Shagufta grew, there seemed to be less and less room in the family's small sleeping quarters.. So instead of waking everyone else up and getting them cross with her -again- she squeezed out of the den. What could she have made of the snow? It took all she could not to squeal with surprise of the floating white flakes that were cold and wet on her nose and tongue, and of course she had to show her parents! Wouldn't they be proud, for her, the great explorer, to come upon such a wonder! Shagufta and Arina had run off to explore around the den-site, and obviously, the latter had taken advantage of snow + mud. She thought they'd be proud. What a hoot she was! A party-animal, such a healthy, youthful, athletic curiosity! But no. Look at Shagufta. She kept clean. Her and her stupid, bright, pretty colours! How much she is like her father!
It made the female downright sick. If wolves had cheeks her own would be a bright red against the brown of her coat and pure white of the snow, to match teary eyes. She just wasn't good enough to match up to her perfect older sister.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:01 pm
Maybe if I stay up here, the rain won't come down, Adam thought confidently. Then the water wouldn't come take the snow away and he could play in it all day long, until night found him half-frozen and flushed with happiness! Take that! He didn't understand that snow and rain were the very same material but in different form at this point in time; heck, he didn't even know what snow was, other than it was white and cold and wet to the touch and really fun to run around in! The teen made the motions of barking at the sky and imagined the sound for himself and, had he known what a lion was, it would have been similar to that: loud, sonorous, deep, strong. Run away, rain! Adam's watching this field.
Speaking of . . . Colored movement caught his eye, and for a moment he stopped his vigil over the gray skies to watch. Curiously, stripes were racing from the left corner of his vision, pinkish-yellow and mossy green bouncing with movement against a darker silhouette (well, darker than the snow for sure). Two hot pink circles were slitted in that shadowy bulk, the pair themselves shining. Adam tilted his head, reminded almost instantly of his mother - of the night her eyes had shined like that, and rain fell from her face. She had been very sad then he came to learn; was this one sad too?
Well, he couldn't just leave and go back to his playing knowing someone was about to rain sadness in the near vicinity! Adam was one who felt compelled to help everyone he came by, and this was no exception. Retracing his steps carved through the snow, he followed the strange colored markings using his half-sight which, thank God, had been improving in clarity in the color department, though browns, greys, and whites were still hard to distinguish. 'Something wrong?' Adam called after the girl, having to take quicker and longer lopes to catch up due to his small size.
He was a mute, yes, but he was beginning to learn to use his seer's mind-speaking power as a faux-voice, projecting it in tandem with mouth movements to make it appear as if he was normally speaking. Being a seer wouldn't be easy; after all, half the culture of wolves thought them freaks, including his own mother. The longer he hid it while he trained the power, the better. The only problem was that, not knowing what his own voice sounded like since he had been born without one, Adam had to "borrow" voices. In this case, it was somewhere between Oathkeeper's naturally gentle tone and an actual male's - hopefully his adolescence could mask most of the effeminate traits. 'Please, wait up!'
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:06 pm
Arina could very well feel the freezing snow against her paw pads, attaching themselves to her leg fur in large clumps. Soon it would be enough to weigh her down. But right now the biting cold was just a hurtful reminder, enough to fuel her fury. Self-deprecation was a long road, and even worse for those who didn't have enough gas to make the journey.
The call startled her, and the teen screeched to a halt, though it took her a bewildered moment to figure where the sound had actually come from. It was like a thought, no direction on the wind or difference in sound denoting it's origin. Had Adam been following her trudged and broken path through the snow he wouldn't have had much trouble catching up to her.
Turning around, bright pink eyes blinking furiously the tears welled up behind them, Arina scrunched her face tight as she looked at the male loping up to her. What did he want from her? Her gaze took quick revenue of the wolf, and with a pang of jealousy at that. Bright red and almost an orange, white and bright in a strange mask on his face. The stripes on his legs, so much like those that littered her backside, but concentrated somehow. Oh god, he was pretty too!
How did she manage to be the only one out of her entire family, now apparently the entire world that didn't get lucky? Amaury was no Lite Bright, but even she was special, she was loved. As he got closer one ear twisted forwards of it's own accord, tricked into listening for the words that were technically never spoken. Screwing up her bottom lip to keep from quivering so noticeably, Arina gave a quick sniff.
"No! Of course not. Nothing's wrong. I'm fine. . . . . .Why? What do you care?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 3:46 pm
God, she could run fast! By the time Adam found himself even closeby, he was huffing and panting - man, he was out of shape! Guess not even wandering automatically meant being athletic. Or maybe his little muscles just hadn't grown into larger ones to suit his new body? Or maybe it was due to those crappy meals he'd been having lately . . . Well hey, a hunt could be foregoed for some fun, right? Although chasing after a girl wasn't his definition of fun - not yet at least.
Adam in the least had an excuse not to answer just yet, taking a bit of time to catch his breath as he slowed to a stop near her, sides heaving with gulps of air. Just as Arina took him in, he too, rather loving to observe others despite the half-sight, scanned her quickly - this time in mood rather than in mere appearance. Clumps of snow clung to her underbelly too, so she had been running for quite some time, enoug hto get numbed by the cold; yet somehow she radiated more "heat" than even he did, and he hadn't been just sitting around either! not just the physical heat, like in her breath and the nautral occurance radiating from her body, but from . . . The guy didn't know how to explain it. But her very demeanor was like smoldering fire: hidden sparks beneath the coals, waiting to strike out if they are disturbed.
And of course there was the tone she used to address him. Adam wasn't the brightest of bulbs sometimes, but even he could tell something was up. 'You look like you're running away from something. A monster?' he asked quite curiously, dark eyes owlishly wide. "'Cause if there is, I wanna run too. I'm a little slow, and I don't wanna get eaten . . .'
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Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:08 pm
As the male looked her over with his unsettlingly black eyes the female became aware of how foolish she looking. Just standing there in the middle of the snow, half of it clinging to her legs and stomach with a good solid chunk of mud clumping against her chest and splattered across her hindquarters and tail. And wouldn't she be a queer girl if now she didn't find herself quite embarrassed, especially in front of a boy.
She'd never live this one down. And it wasn't like her family was that social either. Arina hadn't seen hide or hair of another wolf for weeks now, perhaps even longer. Running away? As if his even just looking at her in this state hadn't hurt her pride already!
With nary a moment of hesitation, the teen blurted out. "Of course not! Why....there was. But I'm not running from it. I...scared it away, in fact." Inside the girl could feel herself clamming up, pushing all her negative thoughts into a tight, tiny ball in her chest. She stepped a bit closer to Adam, raising her head while discretely trying to wipe some of the mess off her front legs. "The only reason I'm coming this way is....is because there were so many people that tried to come after me! They wanted to make me their queen." A dignified response. Even if it was a bigger stretch than the gulch to the west of her parent's den.
She was special too.
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Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:22 pm
It was interesting to watch all of that happening: the mental cleanup and the subsequent sweeping under the rug of all things bothering her, the subtle cleanup to make herself prim again from the snow, the insistence and almost eager (blabby?) words falling right out of her mouth, the step forward she took while speaking. That last one was what took him more than the rest and, being hte boy he was, Adam returned the action with a raising of his head, stretching his limbs to reach the full height that he could - just in case she thought to intimidate him!
Nevermind that Adam could technically check to see if she was lying or not, he just wanted to hear what she wanted to say. Stories were always interesting, even if all of it wasn't true!
'Queen?' he repeated with some awe, surprised but not backing down otherwise. He still didn't have a very good grasp of politeness. 'Just because you scared away a monster? I wonder if I could've been queen if I got there. Bet it'd be scared of my new growl . . .' Wait, that was supposed to be a thought in his own head! Curse this seer power sometimes! It mixed him up. Adam quickly went on, his flushed face mostly hidden by his already red face but the slip-up evident in his hurried tone, 'So why would you run away from that? Not every wolf gets to be ruler.'
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Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:45 pm
Not that wholeheartedly dominant by nature, Arina almost took a step back in just surprise that she was challenged in the fact. When her father did it, that was the end to the argument. Right there. But, aha! He was shorter than her! With just that Arina felt another burst of....confidence? Pride? Whatever it was, she liked it. That was one thing she had against her sister. Shagufta was older. She developed quicker. She was taller, almost to her mother's size by now, it seemed. But Arina was still in that awkward, leggy stage. It was a small victory, but one none-the-less.
"You couldn't have been queen! Not even if you had scared it. Everybody knows queens are only girls, anyway. Plus, you have to be skilled at that. I'm really good. A lot of other stuff too. Cool stuff." The female gave another quick sniff, and pricked her head towards him. 'New growl?' Not the smoothest thing to say.
"Well...." She shook her head. "I mean, maybe I don't wanna be a ruler. Not right now at least. And I didn't run away! I just...moved."
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Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 5:04 pm
Oh fine, Ms. Picky, be gender-strict. What if he felt like being a queen for a day to break the monotony of being an average male with not-so-average powers? Adam sniffed with a bit of pride of his own. How many males were so confident in their manliness to admit that, huh? Pssh. Girls. Always so picky about being right and being better. He was aware of the subtle smugness behind the girl's mood and concluded it indeed have something to do with his size (this assumption half-helped by the vague peek into her mind he had initiated on accident; it did that sometimes), and thus his fur bristled.
'Mmmf. Size doesn't matter,' he said, again accidentally letting slip his own thoughts into the conversation. 'And neither does gender and appearance. I bet if I was covered with snow right now and went and beat that monster, they would've let me be queen too. Then tomorrow I'd be king. That takes skill: being able to be both and still be worshipped.' So witty! He grinned at her. 'So, moving not-really-queen, what're you good at? Running, obviously. What kinda cool stuff're you known for? What'd you scare the monster with?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 7:29 pm
Arina was a little taken aback at his statement, and for a second hesitated and looked dumbly at the male. Did I say that out loud? There seemed to be a first time for everything. But she wouldn't get to the top by just gabbing out whatever she felt. Though in reality it was the most primary way that she had mimicked Shagufta. Her parents said the bright-green pup had 'no mind-to-mouth filter'. Arina had of course picked up the habit.
Nor did she take too kindly to her state of disarray being called out. But she was quick to change the subject from it. "That's foolish, you can't be queen one day and king the next. That's why they have different titles of queen and king. Girls and boys. And I could've been queen if I wanted to." With a decisive nod of the head, Arina looked at him. He was...happy. See! She could make people happy too. Her sister practically radiated sunshine, but it was a start. She could take that sunshine. I'll be just like the clouds. I can take that sunshine and the flowers will only open for me.
"So many questions!" She barked, though still enjoying the attention. "Well, my papa started to take me out hunting. He says I'm a natural, which means I'm really, really good. Some people can't be as good as I am. But I'm not as good as my mom is, but she's kind of really old, so you get exp....experience! And when I have enough I'll be able to hunt food for my own family. I plan on having a lot of pups. Because I know I'll be a good mom." It took a moment afterwords for the teen to catch her breath, gabbing straight on whatever she had just thought was a lot harder than normal, though she had been plowing through that snow.
"And I don't know if I should tell you exactly how I scared away the monster, because if you go try it you won't even know whether or not to be queen or king. You know, you sure talk a lot, you know that? You're just like..."My sister.... The words finally clenched her muzzle shut and for a moment bright eyes darted away, blinking back tears of frustration suddenly welled up in them. Behind her, her tail swished quickly back and forth, trying to divert the sudden anger. Stupid Shagufta. Can't I even have a good time without her ruining it?
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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:58 pm
Oh, so now he was foolish, huh? He bet she was just saying that because he was right and she didn't want to admit it. Fine. He'd let it slide this time just because she kept on talking and Adam wanted to listen, because listening to someone is very polite and got you friends in general. And a few friends would be nice right now, even ones that semi-lied and were a little mood swingy and were girls. Though mind you, slowly the guy was starting to notice that girls were actually a little pretty - this process was severely hampered by the fact that he didn't really meet girls in his travels yet, or the ones he did were kinda old. Like Kalama. God only knew how old she was.
The wolf shook shook his head a bit to bring himself back to the conversation, finding that his eyes had wandered curiously to the colored pattern she wore (which, ironically, happened to be mostly around her hind) and thus pulling them back up to her eyes. 'Well, fine. King then,' he conceded with the air of one who would not think himself wrong, though teasingly so. Apparantly this girl's mom was old too! Maybe all mothers were. His mom had been, and so was Kalama (he thought; but was Kalama a momma? Hey, it rhymed!). Maybe it was a trend of some sort, that you could only be mother if you were old? But it'd be a shame if all girls had to be old first . . .
. . . Wait, what was he thinking? Oy. Adam nodded once, having heard about half of what she had said and hitting himself mentally for not being polite. Hadn't he just told himself he would listen? Now when he looked at her, she seemed suddenly sad about something. Crud, crud! Had she noticed he had been elsewh- Oh. The guy wasn't a purposeful eavesdropper, but sometimes it was like his mindreading ability just activated itself on its own to save his hide. He heard a strange name i nthe brief peek: Shagufta? Apparantly it was causing her some distress, and her most recent words echoed in his ears: "You're just like . . ." This Shagufta wolf? Did that mean he was being too talkative? Maybe girls liked talking more and not when guys did. His ears tilted down with some consternation.
'Sorry. If you don't want me to talk, I'll keep quiet then.' He didn't say it meanly, in fact almost apologetically. So far, it didn't sound like he wanted to be like this Shagufta wolf, and after all his mission for chasing her was to make her feel better, not make it worse.
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:42 pm
It took a second for Arina to get her emotions back under control, but when she turned back she was already shaking her head furiously to him. "No! I didn't mean like you talk a lot just that like you talk a lot! Not really a bad way unless you really don't like people who talk, which is not me because if I didn't like you I wouldn't talk to you and I wouldn't be talking." After a few sentences even the girl herself got tongue-tied and mind-jumbled. What was meant as an apology was just another mess. She just couldn't think fast enough to find words to say. So right back to Shagufta. She always had something to talk about.
But Arina just wouldn't let herself say everything in her head. Even if she was going to be chatty, she couldn't scare away her own audience and she was sure she'd run out of breath first. Her ears pricked forwards in a moment of realization when she stared at Adam, tilting her head just perceptively as she did. "Why are you out here, anyway? It's freezing." Her mind distracted her feet had plenty of time to complain about the conditions. By now little bits of ice and snow were packed between her toes.
In the middle of nowhere? Well, he could ask the same question of her, she supposed. But she had a good reason! And it involved not going and attacking her sister.
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:10 pm
. . . Whoooooa. That almost made his head hurt to wrap his mind around those first two sentences, and it showed in the owlish blinks. What was he supposed to make of that? Did she not like that he did not like to talk, or like that he talked a lot but didn't talk now, or was she just talking a lot to get whatever out of her isystem and he happened to be listening, or what? Girls probably had their own special language that even his mindreading powers would have problems deducing. But . . . she stayed, didn't she? So that was some plus points if nothing else made sense coming out of her. He was standable if not understandable as it was.
But, back to the more simple questions! 'I'm out here because I want to be,' Adam answered with a bright smile. 'This snow stuff is so great! I've never seen it before today too. But the sky looked like it was gonna cry, so I growled at it so it wouldn't cry and melt the snow. Then I saw you, and you looked ready to rain too, so that's why I followed you. I don't like it when both skies or wolves rain and cry, because that means something's wrong. Momma told me that I need to be a . . . a Good Samaritan to everyone.' Simple and to the point; Adam had been taught well in the not-lying area.
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:02 pm
It seemed like a vague answer to her. Wolves didn't normally do stuff just because they wanted to, there had to be some underlying reason! Her parents guarded the den to keep them safe, hunted because they needed to eat, running because they needed to get somewhere. Or away from somewhere, quick. He could've seen the snow other places, surely. Unless he lived in a cave. Which struck her as crazy. Nobody else lived in caves. There would be no company there.
"Oh." Swallowing, Arina struggled to dredge up something else to say. But nothing really came to her. Though it did embarrass and frustrate her that he'd seen her crying. Girls didn't cry. Not even guys cried. Crying was stupid and baby-like. Why did anyone even make crying in the first place? Though she couldn't quite grasp how growling at the sky would make it calm. It certainly would've had the opposite effect on her.
Her head tipped up to the sky, the teen waited out an awkward silence. At least on her part. Even if she was aware of 'mind powers' she wouldn't have understood the extent of being able to tap into her head. "Well....I'm fine now. See? No need to worry." And with that the female turned on her paw and started off in the opposite direction, though at a walk rather than a run. He was fine now and so would she. I'll be fine, I'll be fine, I'll be fine... The teen chanted the words to herself slowly, unsure whether or not to be ashamed or furious at the display. He certainly hadn't done anything against her, other than just trying to find out what was wrong, but if everything was right, there would be nothing wrong.
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:30 pm
It was weird knowing that she was flat out lying and not able to call her out on it point blank. Momma had always said lying was like making up fake stories that you had to keep up with all your life and that each one weighed like a pebble. The more you lied, the heavier the load got - that's how wolves went to hell sometimes, she said, and frightened her little boy into never ever ever lying again if he could help it. Weirder was knowing that the girl was only denying help through lying, so it was twice as bad! Why would anyone do that? For a moment Adam felt a twinge of resentment for his outstretched paw to be denied so spuriously. He was only trying to help . . .
It left him with an unresolved knot in his stomach to just watch her go like that, unable to stop her mind's whisper from reaching his ears; the mantra, if possible, cemented that bad feeling. But how to reach out to a girl who pretended things were okay? Adam screwed his face up in thought, taking a few steps forward. 'If you're fine, then . . . then come play with me!' he called to her. 'I don't have a lot of friends, and it gets boring when you're alone. Plus I've never played with a not-a-queen before. It'll be fun, promise!'
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