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 Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 7:58 am
Kevarian stood at the edge of pack’s borders, gazing out into the forest beyond. There was no discernable change. Everything out there looked the same as here. The only difference was that it felt different. There was an unspoken, unseen boundary here, one that he had never crossed. Aves was his home, and had been the only world he cared to know, even when things started getting rough.
Quin had been sympathetic to his plight, before and after the failed ceremony. He was his closest friend, his confidant. When Var made this decision, the decision to cross that unseen line, he didn’t do it lightly.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 7:59 am
A young doe, her deep violet pelt standing out against the brown and green and yellow around her, walked unhurriedly but determinedly north. She scanned the forest with her eyes, keeping watch for predators, as she moved. Verdandi doubted that Fate would guide her this far for so cruel a trick, but it wouldn’t make sense to be careless.
A bush covered in deep green leaves stood a bit to her right a few yards ahead, and Verdandi deviated slightly to go towards it.
The leaves of this bush were sweeter, and she took pleasure in a brief stop to taste them. She had never been this far north, and her usual fodder was slowly fading out. If she had to travel much farther, she’d be stripping bark from trees to supplement her diet! Where in Fate’s name was she going? Or where was It taking her?
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:00 am
The pack viewed him as defective. And he was, he couldn’t blame them, no. But it pressed on him, the weight of knowing they considered him broken, slow. His mother said nothing. No one said anything. In return for their silence, he continued as a warrior as if nothing was wrong. He pretended that when he sat outside the circle of the pack during meetings that he preferred it, rather than knowing it would be inappropriate to fully join them. He pretended not to notice the sidelong looks he still got, months after the ceremony. The newcomers hadn’t known at first, but they did now. The last time he had spoken to Shalise, he had seen the knowing there, although she was as silent on the topic as everyone else. Someone had told her. He wished that that had been kept in the pack.
Well, she is pack now, isn’t she? For as long as she and the other two decide they want to stay.
Somewhere out there, though, was an answer. He had to have a spirit companion. Not having one simply didn’t happen, did it?
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:03 am
Verdandi lifted her head from the bush, still chewing her mouthful of leaves. A small snack wouldn’t hurt her, and she didn’t know how much farther she had to travel. The pull was so strong now. Whatever it was must be close; the connection was ready to be made. Now that she was here she wished she hadn’t waited so long to go looking. But what was a fawn to do? Explain to her parents that she had to go now because some unseen force was demanding she wander from home?
A full doe now, in the flush of young adulthood, Verdandi could make that choice herself.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:05 am
Var knew he was stalling.
He stared at the trees, held his breath, and stepped over the boundary. As expected, nothing happened. The wind blew no differently than it had a moment before, the trees did not speak to him, and the world did not bend oddly, as it had on other occasions, when the strangeness was upon him, as if Fate were attempting to break through.
He shook his head at his own folly, and walked on.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:07 am
The trees were changing. The majority now were pines, or coniferous kinds Verdandi had no specific names for. She knew her own home, to the south, but this place was strange to her. What her parents would say if they knew that she was so far from their herd. Well, she was most likely not returning anyway. She felt that whatever trip this was, whatever was pulling her far from her family, it was permanent. The thought of being eaten intruded on her again and she sighed, silently asking Fate not to cut her life so short.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:08 am
He was miles further south, but there was little change in scenery. He had shifted to an easy run for a while, just for a change of pace, and found the scenery streaking him by. It was the sound of running water that made him slow back to a walk, and he turned in the direction of a nearby river. He wouldn’t cross—he didn’t want to, and the current was swift—but in the shallows he found a chance to drink, and search for signs of other moving creatures.
The pack had hunted only a night or two before, so he wouldn’t need to look for food yet. The wandering, though, was going to get to him. He knew already. Var didn’t mind sitting idly, with no purpose, to let his thoughts wander. He didn’t do it often, but there was a peace in his idleness. His mind always felt more calm, and more organized, afterwards. As if he had completed some kind of necessary task. It was like his father’s meditation, but not quite. Var focused more on sensing the world around him, meditation was primarily used to guide communication with a spirit companion or focus magical talent or a skill.
Var’s face hardened and he turned away from the river and jogged back into the forest.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:09 am
Verdandi heard the sound of a river, and turned her face towards it. Her steps hesitated, and then she made her way in that direction, passing by a thick copse of closely-clustered pines. She found the bank not much further off, and after a few minutes staring across for signs of movement, and then investigating her own side of the river, she cautiously crept forward, lowering her lips to the water but keeping her eyes on the world around her. This was strange territory, after all, and the recurring thought of death was throwing her off her game. Somehow, though, she doubted that was going to happen just now.
Crows flared up to her left and she tensed, her head flying up to look at their take off. They shouted nasty words back at some creature, and Verdandi immediately melted back into the forest, moving at a gentle run back into the safety of the trees.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:10 am
The scent of deer—a female, most likely—was rubbed against the tree Var was sniffing. She had passed through recently, and had probably been on her way to the river or warmer climes to the south.
He stopped moving entirely as the prey-beast, likely the very one he had smelled against the bark, pivoted towards him. Her pelt was even stranger than his own, proving that wolves were not the only ones with varying shades. How she had survived this long was a mystery to him, especially when the background faded around her the way it did and left her as the only creature in the forest. The eye was drawn to her, and then riveted on the rich purple-and-orange combination.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:17 am
Verdandi froze as the wind blew from behind her, carrying the scent of wolf. Her first instinct had been to run, and her muscles tensed in response, but she redirected that energy into pivoting powerfully around, her hooves crashing into the ground with a thump softened by leaves and pine needles.
The predator stared at her from a fair distance, but she knew the wolf could cross it in no time. She would fight and then flee, if he came towards her, but he was staring at her, unmoving. She didn’t dare move, didn’t dare draw some reaction from him that would end with her dying before she ever finished Fate’s demands for her.
They stood, staring, for long moments, and then Verdandi realized that her initial flight response aside, she hadn’t felt uncomfortable at all since she had turned to face him. He felt safe and familiar, and to the curiosity in his eyes she felt something in her click into place. The drive to go north was gone.
Oh.
“Oh, finally.” She breathed, just loud enough for her voice to reach the white wolf. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:17 am
Her words, quiet and yet clear, pierced him and he stood straighter. The doe was no longer afraid of him. Actually, she looked… relieved. Considering he knew he didn't know her, that was a strange response.
“I have never spoken with a deer before,” Kevarian replied, being the one to ripple the silence with his words. He didn’t say he killed them, since she should know that already, but the implication was there. “I know I would have remembered your pelt if we’d met. You must be confused.”
The whole idea of a deer searching for a wolf, actually, was unbelievable and strange. The south was going to prove a slew of oddities for him, if this was how his journey was going to go just on the first day.
But the doe shook her head, and although she didn’t draw closer, she didn’t seem to come to any change in her opinion.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:18 am
“You’re the pull. I’ve been searching for you for months. I’m only sorry I didn’t start sooner. Think. You’ll feel it too.” She was sure. He was the creature she was searching for. Any frenzy she had felt was gone and her natural calm returned, and with it her gift of finding the right words. “We are bonded souls. Fate determined we were meant to meet and spend our lives together. You can feel that you don’t want to kill me, that we’re comfortable together. It’s right.”
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:19 am
Kevarian blinked at her and his memory of a shadow, the shade that had led him on the chase his first time to the shrine, glanced across his mind. Realization rushed through him.
Oh.
Var took an involuntary step forward, but when the doe didn’t move away he continued forward until he was within a few feet. She continued to look down at him, and now that he was closer Var saw in her eyes his own completion. He could feel the bond already growing between them, filling in the gap that had been present at his adulthood ceremony.
“You’re my spirit companion,” he blurted in surprise, for a moment feeling like an adolescent again. Then he grinned and added, “No wonder I couldn’t find you.”
He looked back over his shoulder, towards Aves. It was a sign. Whichever deity was directing it, it was a sign that he was an adult, a complete wolf, and not broken or slow. He was meant to be as completed—more completed, it felt like—as any other wolf in his pack. “I can return to Aves. We can show them with more proof than anyone else that we complete each other.”
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:21 am
“I think we have bigger things to do,” Verdandi replied, meeting his eyes again when her words brought him back to the moment. It seemed neither of them could get enough of that thrilling buzz of connection in their gaze. “You can take me back to your home later, but I feel like we have something else. Something that we should be doing before you go home. We go home.”
She smiled slightly at the self-correction and then danced away from him slightly, expelling an unusual burst of energy. “I know who we can ask, as well. There’s a wise wolf further south. Older than any other being in the forest of Telk. I heard about him the last time we passed close to his tree, when the adults told stories of him. We should go to him and see if he can tell us what we’re meant to be doing. There must be a special purpose for me being alive at the same time you are. I just don’t understand all the meaning you place behind being bonded.”
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:22 am
Var smiled, feeling a swelling in his chest to match the enlightenment in his mind. So that was what everyone was so excited for. That was the awed look of obtaining your spirit companion.
“It’s a good idea. If there was any doubt that you were my companion…” He grinned at her, and received a pleased-as-punch smile in return, “It’s gone now. I’ll explain everything about us I can to you, and you can explain your beliefs in return, while you lead the way south. You’re already guiding my mind, and now you can guide my feet, too.”
He moved up beside her, and the two fell into step with one another, heading south slowly, but with purpose. Kevarian was still pulsing with the joy of discovery, and the completion of his being. Nothing, nothing, could ever be wrong again.
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