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 Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:53 pm
Winter waned like the cherished moon, ebbing away with the coming of warm sunlight to melt its' cold weather and even colder snow. It turned to slush, which turned to water, while still cold, sought the streams and was beginning to leave buds and grass shoots in its' wake. The same had happened to him. Over the course of the winter Brook had begun to settle into the Sanctity Pack more, though was still far from a social butterfly. But his self-confidence had improved, enough for him to take a daring trip outside of pack lands.
It was a stupid, dangerous move but he didn't seem to be able to resist it. Last time he had met up with Vera, and perhaps he would be able to see her again? Now that he thought about it, the pup wasn't too aware of how wolves went about meeting one another. Maybe if he just thought hard(like he did praying to Cerridwen) she would appear, though the schematics of such an act were lost on him.
But she did work in mysterious ways, right? That was what Alpha Yasou had said....
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Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:32 am
 Aaah, at last she was able to get away from that stupid squirrel! Yue would have been the perfect partner in crime if she wasn't such a darn stickler for rules. "You can't do this, Li Ming, you'll get your fur wet. You can't do that, Li Ming, you'll hurt yourself. What on Telk are we going to do when your parents find out you went to a human settlement and nearly was killed?"
"They'll skin you alive," the puppy replied happily at the time.
Well, sooner or later the squirrel would bend to her rules, Li was sure. After all, she hardly knew anyone else, which meant Yue could easily become prey if she didn't stick close. And this time the squirrel had rightly decided to stay behind in the pack while she went off exploring as usal, the pendant swinging with her movements as she padded down from the mountain. The lowlands were far more accessible during the warmer months, with the snow melting away and the weather being more pleasant than Li Ming ever remembered in her young life. Spring was . . . gentle.
And "gentle" wasn't something Li Ming was accustomed to. With one criminally-questionable brother and the other a piss-poor scardey cat, and parents that were never around, all within the confines of the mountains? It just didn't make for a delicate flower of a girl. No, she had had to tough it out since she could walk, pack or not, and dangit Li was proud of her accomplishments thus far!
"What do I care about them anyway?" she asked herself aloud, pausing before the river to gaze at her reflection - or rather, more at the large, jade tear drop hanging from her silver-chain necklace. "None of them cared that I left for half a day just to get you, precious . . ." Though of course, being a pup, she had to depend on them for shelter and food for now; and deep down, Li knew that she did actually care for her family. But it was a loose sort of affection, easily equated more towards friendship than love. She wasn't sure what to make of that and simply shrugged it off. "At least we're both clean. No Toran in sight!"
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Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 10:06 pm
"No danger in sight."
The pup knew it was a foolish notion that he would be safer peering out from behind a slim tree's trunk with his rear end exposed to whatever else was behind him. But it was a small security and besides. "I-I'm full of fool. Foolishness." His tone was quiet, in a way that Brook wasn't sure he'd ever heard himself speak much louder. But he was sure he had once, but the voice didn't sound there when he opened his mouth. And he heard certainly everything else just fine.
This thought bothered him a moment, drawing a straight line to crease his maw. But nothing longer than that. Things that were quiet weren't at as much risk. They didn't make noise so they couldn't be easily found. Had he ever heard a rabbit scream or deer holler? Certainly not! And that was why there still were deer and rabbits, regardless of course of what he ate with the pack.
The wood-coloured pup had been traveling however long, and he was certain he was a ways from the pack. At such a young age the small male was certain of a lot of things. And yet at the same time so confused. Childhood was a conundrum. So many questions and never the heart to ask. Ducking out from behind the tree he mimicked a fox's small-stepped but quick pace, large turquoise eyes flickering over the woods.
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:49 pm
It struck Li Ming that, gazing at her reflection and that of the necklace, that it might be a good time to consider preening. Oh it was such a lovely time to just sit down and rest weary paws to clean herself while chatting away with the thing as if it could reply if it only wanted to. Certainly it was a great way to vent about the day's happenings. Problem was . . . "It was boring today, Jade," Li told the jewels between licks, loving when her flur was smooth and flat. "Nothing to talk about, nothing since the heist at the human place thingie. Guess I should've saved it for later if I'd know it'd be so dull afterwards."
For a few moments she thought she heard leaves rustling, grass crunched. Or perhaps that was her imagination? "That better not be Toran out there!" she barked to the trees as a pre-emptive strike - hah, see if he could sneak up on her now! She turned about with her back now to the river, peering into the forest suspiciously with her nostrils flared for any traces of that stupid boy on the loose. "Come on out!" She had no self-conscious shame to speak of; after all, if no-one was actually there, no harm right?
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 6:10 pm
At least he thought there was nothing dangerous out.
It was a dumb thing to ever think you were truly alone in the woods. On a physical level there were things everywhere. The trees and plants around your feet were alive, as were the birds and little worms and ants and leaves and he was certain even the sky was alive. At night it contained Cerridwen in her curled, white ball, shining down like a blind eye on him. There must be something to keep her place during the day up there, while she hunted and watched on him and the pack.
A soft, chopped noise reached his over-sized ears and for a moment he dismissed it as his own mind. But if it was his he would hear it. Leaning towards the noise, eyes fluttering cautiously across his line of sight in case something tried to catch him unaware. Just because he hadn't seen any danger didn't mean it wasn't skulking about waiting to do bad things to pups.
But there was nothing but the soft noise, pausing between sentences at times that wolves did when they spoke and Brook got a little jump of excitement. Vera? He hadn't been out too often, and the only other he'd met was the strange-coloured little female. He hadn't even fathomed the idea there were others.
And so with eager paws he padded forwards, slipping through whatever hedge or little grassy patch to come and find her again. She said she'd hoped to see him again, and with Cerridwen what was hoped came true. He would have to ask if she was hoping about him before she turned up there near him. The call grew again and his muzzle twisted in confusion. Not only had he never heard Vera yell, when he imagined it now....it didn't sound at all like that. But her order to reveal himself together with his curiosity on it was enough for the scrawny pup to slip into view and.....
Wait. Who....or what was that?
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Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 11:53 am
There, good boys came running when she called~ Although if he had resisted, maybe she could've pulled a small fight out of him - best remedy for boredom sometimes, seeing as you can't really fight with yourself or an inanimate object. "That's better," Li said with a sigh of relief. "Whew, thought you were someone else completely, chump. Sorry 'bout that. But no seriously, you nto being Toran has just made my day right there." The mere thought of that annoying voice calling her "poop" insults made her fur bristle.
Now Li Ming was in a pack that was mostly dominated by unnatural wolves, and of them she was actually one of the most normal-looking. It was a fact she prided herself upon, for that way her appearances could not draw attention like her flashy brothers with their insane tribal markings and outrageous green pelts; it made stealing easier, being as plain as she was. But this was the first time she had seen someone who was both natural looking and yet . . . with stripey marks you wouldn't norammly see on naturals. She eyed his legs curiously. "Took you away from something?" Li asked when he did not speak. "Or are you as bored as I am?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:13 pm
Brook's expression was like that of a fish's(wide-eyed and staring) as he watched the bright orange and black ball in front of him, hardly catching a thing she had said. Yes. That was definitely not Vera. Yet whatever disappointment he may have had was immediately dissipated for the fact that it wasn't her. But another pup.
As simple as the concept was to understand Brook was still a severely sheltered pup. His life before, though tragic and horrible, seemed after being found and brought to the Sanctity Pack a strange dream. Nothing existed in his life but there. Vera was now part of there, on the outskirts where he was just growing old and bold enough to explore. But only so many things could exist outside of Sanctity, right? Like a child who hasn't grasped an idea of the world Brook expected to wander out one day to the edge of everything. He wasn't certain what it looked like, but he imagined nothing but darkness there.
There were several questions that darted through his head at the moment as he gawked at the other (and noisier) pup. What was a toran? Where did you come from? Where is Vera? Most important to him seemed to be, How are you so colourful? This stranger, like Vera, was so strange a pelt he had only seen flowers the same colour. But none of the questions seemed right to ask at the moment, and he had no real answers to her questions. Because the pup hadn't removed him from anywhere, and frankly Brook didn't understand the concept of boredom. He was sure he had once, or at least knew the depressing feel of it by memory, but nothing seemed not to catch his interest now. He was forever in a state of watching.
So he just sort of stared at the pup, as if doing so in silence would bring him answers.
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Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 3:37 pm
And silence was fine with her when she was the one who wanted to talk. Li was a strangely chatty pup for a would-be thief, but then her specialty wasn't information but rather tangible objects. Frankly it got her in more trouble than it was worth, but sometimes Li Ming liked trouble every once in a while. Spiced things up, you know? "Fine, don't talk," she sniffled. "Saw-ree if I try to be polite to strangers."
Really, he was just staring at her! So she stared right back. "I'm Li Ming, no-speaky," she addressed him squarely. "From the mountains. So you could say I'm a visitor and don't know my way around. Feel like giving a gal a tour, or are you just going to look at me like I'm sort of freak?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 10:46 pm
Apparently they did, but provided no answer as to why she was so bright. Not even Vera had been able to explain that to him, though he wasn't certain whether she even knew how off she was. Two for two would've just been ridiculous.
"You're not a freak." He replied after a moment, in a tone that was neither sarcastic or pitying but a simple statement. Odd, yes. Freak? He reserved the term for what he had heard a pack-member call strange weather. 'It's a freak of nature, this wind.' When pressed they'd said that it meant something unexpected that happened to them. Brook hadn't quite understood what they meant. Nothing in nature happened unexpectedly, especially weather conditions. Even if at a faster-than-normal rate the clouds would drop in, or gusts would start or the sky would sprinkle its drops.
Perhaps she was a freak. He certainly hadn't expected her.
There was a pause before he spoke again, this time moving his eyes around her highly contrasting coat. Bright then dark then bright again. Before they caught on the thing hanging around her neck so prettily and so out of place against the orange and black. "I don't feel like giving a gal a tour. I'm not sure what it feels like, a-actually." It was the honest truth, though he still felt a little shamed at his trembling end. He had been trying so hard not to stutter, too!
"I don't know this area." The pup offered, feeling the need to explain himself. It wasn't horribly far from his own lands, but none-the-less he wasn't as courageous as her to go so far away. From the forest he now stood in, the male wasn't certain where the mountains were.
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Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 11:36 am
"Well, nice to know someone thinks so," she said simply, though had he called her as much Li would have been just as unphased. You take what wolves say with a grain of salt these days, especially ones outside the pack and who had the business of being suspiciously nice enough to come out when asked by someone equally strange to them - and then take the liberty of staring at you for while, not talking 'till you prompted them hard enough. Maybe he was the freak. But the word implied something a bit more . . . active than this guy.
Still his words revealed he might be an odd specimen, and the pup cocked her head slightly. "You don't, huh? Well it's pretty easy. We kinda just walk around and point out important or neat stuff, though . . . Okay, you don't know the area either. Well!" She stood up. "Guess I'll have to look around myself. You can come with if you want since you need to know too. Always a good idea to know the area in case something happens."
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Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:57 pm
Without even a 'yes' in response, Brook took to following her. She had an air of authority he enjoyed. Those in authority, who knew what they were doing all the time (even though she didn't know where she was, she still had an idea, it seemed) were the alphas and betas that kept him safe within the pack. So he fell into step beside her, expecting her to just lead him on.
It still hadn't quite occurred to him that he should ask her name. He sort of just took things as they came.
"What things happen?" He wobbled out in reply, dipping his head down a bit. Something was always happening, at least things did when he was there. He wasn't sure if it just stayed the same when he was gone, but they changed in his presence. But if it was a good idea, it might be for something bad! Brook wouldn't like that at all.
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Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 10:15 am
Pssssh. "What things happen?"
"Well, what do you think?" Li prompted as they walked. "There's kinda a reason why we say 'a lone wolf is a dead wolf'. Which's why you're smart to stick with me~" Also it implied they were both rather dumb before meeting, but whatever. Li wasn't dumb! Li was just adventurous. Besides, puppies weren't supposed to be smart - that was the adults' job. And if the adults didn't catch either of them getting away, well, they're the stupid ones! Simple as that.
This was of course assuming the guy had adults to go back to.
"I heard some loners actually eat already long-dead things," she continued in an uuuuber spooky tone. "And that if they eat them enough, they become zombies - looking just like the things they eat." In actuality she'd love to meet one of those things: zombies sounded so interesting! She wondered if they smelled like dead things too, or like a living wolf?
"But don't be scared!" Li Ming assured him just in case. "I'm tough enough for the both of us. Plus nothing scary ever comes out when it's all pretty like this. Beasties don't like pretty things."
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Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 8:47 pm
It was a good thing he had fur covering his face....because Brook was certain all the blood had drained from it. Dead was never a word he liked to use, or hear. Or think about. As they walked he found himself subconsciously scooting closer and closer to Li Ming, to the point where he was pressed against her fur.
They shouldn't have any trouble, right? They weren't by themselves (though they hardly amounted to one full wolf even standing on one another). And they weren't dead. Not long-dead. Not anywhere near. But what about when they left? What if they did meet one of these wolves. Would it know if they were dead? Brook figured if it ate anything as horrible as she described it, they wouldn't be in the right mind anyway. He shuddered a bit to think of that wolf he'd met once. Before Sanctity...
No! Stop thinking about it!
"S-S-Stop thinking about it..." He muttered shakily, trying to take her words to heart. With an anxious gaze to her he didn't seem certain.
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