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 Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 4:52 pm
 The outside world was a strange place indeed, Kamiya had decided -- but it was fascinating, and the feeling of freedom was more than enough to make up for any discomfort. She wasn't sure why she continued to follow the trail of the prince, only that she had nothing better to do with herself, and so she carried on until something more pressing occurred to her to do.
Every so often she would pause, sniffing the air, before carrying on, head low to sniff at the path but ears alert to the world around her.
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 4:30 pm
 Kamiya may have counted herself as walking in the outside world, but the ground Marion was barreling over was absolutely old hat. Granted, she was less familiar with this parcel of woods - a spat of woodland that edged rather close to the Reign of Terror, that fantastic boogieman of her puphood, and too close to the open spaces her family abhorred - but it didn't feel new, just unfamiliar.
The burly wolf slowed her jog down to allow for an irritated shake of her flamboyant coat, plagued by the illusory midges of her weird, skulking family; with god as her witness, she would not tolerate another silent winter, would not listen to another word of rage and heartbreak from her sisters. An irritated snarl passed over her lips, and she spurred back into her powerful lope, vowing to keep moving until she finally found something new to look at.
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 4:37 pm
Kami paused, hearing rather loud footfalls, and her brow furrowed. What in the sea-mother's name was that? Was it a bear? She'd never seen a bear, mind, but she'd heard stories, and her thoughts immediately jumped to a horrifying image, a twenty-foot-tall beast with a mouth big enough to swallow her whole, and although Kamiya was generally a very brave wolf, her whole body give a shudder at the thought.
But...wait, that wasn't right. The orange wolf planted her paws and sniffed at the air, ears folding back. That was definitely a wolf-smell, and the sound wasn't loud enough to be that big of a creature...suddenly intrigued, the would-be explorer stood her ground and waited for the interloper to appear.
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 4:48 pm
Reliably oblivious, Marion emerged from the wilderness, less than twenty feet tall, but still big-pawed an menacing. The black V above her eyes enhanced her natural scowl, and she had a careless gait, even when moving quickly, that caused the bearskin fastened over her shoulder to flap its stiff, ratty edges. Crashing through a budding sprawl of brush, she was up in Kamiya's business before her nose clued her in to the situation, and she reared up, hackles raised, but clearly more startled than anything. What the hell kind of wolf looked like that?!
"Whoa, whoa!" She settled antsily back down onto four paws, bypassing speech for an eloquently disbelieving stare.
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 4:53 pm
Kamiya released a yip, falling back heavily to her haunches in surprise, her eyes folded so tightly to her skull that they seemed to disappear entirely. "What!" She barked, lips curling into a defensive snarl. She was nearly half the size of the other wolf, being quite small in stature to begin with and thoroughly dwarfed by the much burlier creature, and being come upon in such a way unleashed all matter of feisty aggravation. Her eyes narrowed. "What're you looking at?!"
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 5:00 pm
Marion lowered her head, the bright sparks of such a good startle fading down to wary curiosity. And, possibly, some light embarrassment. "Sorry," she allowed, thinking to take a few steps back to establish a more normal distance between them, "you are just...really bright. And I never run into anyone out here, pretty much ever." At that, she cocked her head to pin Kamiya with a hard brown eye, ears twisting with sudden suspicion. "You're not from a pack around here, are you?" Oh, gosh, orange coat! "Are you one of Wazaam's?"
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 5:04 pm
The snarl died from her lips but her eyes stayed narrowed as she rose back to her paws, not much liking being seated near the stranger. This was the second wolf she had come across here, and the second one to comment upon her pelt color...clearly, this was a defining difference between her kind and these inlanders. Ah well, at least she wasn't calling her 'sunspot' yet. "Wazzam? What the hell is a Wazzam?" Her nose wrinkled, clearly not impressed. "And no, no I'm not from around here."
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 8:38 pm
Marion's level of excitement flagged considerably as Kamiya gave her answer; this other wolf was clearly put off by her, and she wasn't quite sure what to do with that information. Shuffling a bit on her paws, she answered. "Oh, um. Wazaam is my uncle, and he's got a whole ton of kids and grandkids, and I always heard that any orange wolf is probably some relative of Wazaam." She almost went on to fill Kamiya in that she was the only orange pup in her family, and that she stuck out like a sore thumb, but caught herself and went on to what was more interesting. "So, you're not from any of the packs here? Where are you from?" Excitement bubbled again into the big wolf, and she fought back a dozen more questions to give a chance for this bright little jewel to answer.
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 9:44 pm
Her brows raised, not exactly impressed, but her reflexive dislike was abating a bit. She settled herself back to her haunches and scratched at an ear with a hindpaw, attempting to appear nonchalant. "Further down the coast," she said, nodding her head in the general direction she had come. "On the beach." She set her paw down, and regarded the other with the sort of curiosity of a scientist or an anthropologist -- which wasn't all that inaccurate, really. "My name's Kamiya. You don't get out much, do you?"
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 10:10 pm
Marion's tail took to waving lazily, encouraged by the notion of some shoreline pack of wolves as bright as songbirds. Kamiya, huh?
But she bristled slightly at the observation, her face hardening into a too-fierce scowl (those black V's were bound to get her into a higher than average number of fights). "I get out all the time, there's just nobody around here." She stared at Kamiya for a moment, clearly deciding whether to be angry about this, but once that moment passed she was quick to move on. "What are you doing up here, then? Did you know there's three big packs pretty close to here?" She seemed to be prancing, a little bit; it would have looked puppyish had the wolf not been at least the size of 40 puppies. "Oh! And I'm Marion, Kamiya." She nodded a little formally, fairly sure she had a good handle on the situation.
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 10:16 pm
"Clearly you're not getting out enough," Kamiya remarked, but mostly to herself. Well, this was some progress -- she wasn't calling her sunspot and wasn't trying to drown herself, so two points for her! Still, Kami was beginning to wonder if maybe the wolves back at Kapu'Moana had been less crazy than she thought when it came to outsiders... "Well, anyway, nice to meet you Marion. And no, I didn't know there were so many packs around here, though I could smell lots of wolves starting a half-mile or so back." Her brow furrowed. "Actually, I'm looking for somebody." Was she really? She wasn't even entirely sure. "But you say you haven't run across anybody lately?"
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 10:22 pm
Marion shook her head, somewhat troubled by the lack of friendship blossoming between them, but prepared to adapt and carry on. "No, I'm afraid not...most of the area this far west is kind of a dead zone between the packs." She cocked her head, considering Kamiya for a moment. "Who did you lose?"
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 10:36 pm
"Well, I didn't lose him exactly...." she sighed, glancing around, and apparently decided she was in no particular hurry. "The pack I'm from? The alpha's son got mad and stormed off into the night, and everybody back home is really worried about him so they sent out a search party. Between you and me, I think it's kind of stupid, because obviously he doesn't want to come home and that's why he left to begin with, but...." she trailed off and shrugged, eyeballing the large bearskin-adorned wolf with new interest. "I am kind of curious what became of him, is all."
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 10:49 pm
Marion's eyebrows arched as she considered this alpha's son, and tried to imagine a pack all chasing after someone trying to leave. "You really think he came this way?" The idea of trying to find a wolf in this haystack of territory made her lips stretch into a small grimace of distaste. "You know, I'm fairly sure nothing interesting could have happened to him, except maybe he got slaughtered by some Reign of Terror brute."
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 11:28 pm
"Reign of Terror?" Her head tilted, interests suddenly piqued. That certainly sounded more interesting than anything she'd come across back home! "What's that?"
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