|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 11:35 am
 Mahuika was bored.
Not that this was anything particularly new or ground-breaking, as Mahui was nearly always bored. But today she was doubly bored, and it was making her restless and uneasy, and she hated that feeling because it always made her want to do things that would get her into trouble.
She'd crept away from the den and through the network of caves quietly, so as not to disturb the others. She didn't want anybody following her. Not necessarily because she didn't like her siblings, but things never worked out right when she was with them, she didn't think. She was too exuberant. Played too rough. Teased too mercilessly. Pushed too far. Whatever the thing in her head was, that said, "that's enough, stop"...that thing was broken. And Mahuika realized that, was painfully aware of it, but had no idea how to fix it.
So until then, best to keep her nose clean and stay out of trouble and find a different way to occupy herself.
With that in mind -- a vague urge to rouse some rabble or find an adventure -- the little blue-and-orange dappled pup made her way through the territory in the early morning, sniffing curiously for anything that might brighten up her morning.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 9:32 pm
 Now you've done it. Good job, Reggie.
The adolescent was on her rump nursing a forepaw that had a thick splinter wedged deep into her paw pad. The pain was more agonizing than she imagined possible, and small tears were forced out as she tried to maneuver the horrid thing out. So many days she had spent training with that one tree, and not once had she been forced to deal with such a nuisance as a splinter, but . . . Gods above and below, she didn't think it possible that one splinter could make her whole leg feel like it was on fire.
Worse, it didn't want to come out so easily.
On and off Regnad had bent to try and reason it with her teeth, to slowly pull it out - but every motion good or bad caused a spasm of pain to rack her. She whimpered softly, hating her position, hating that today she had picked the same tree, that she had trained so mindlessly she hadn't paid attention to where she had been aiming.
If she so much as scented Raz coming, though, Regnad would be out of there faster than a wind could blow fallen leaves. She had been very good at avoiding the guy's affection for quite some time, and the more time she spent away from him, maybe the faster his infatuation would go away.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 10:29 pm
Her ears flicked; she thought she'd caught a hint of a whimper or a voice or maybe just the wind, and she froze in place trying to decide which it had been. Her brow furrowed and she sniffed, experimentally, at the air, and decided it was almost assuredly a wolf-smell.
Well, that was more interesting than anything she'd done all morning, she thought.
Veering in the general direction, the pup sped up her pawsteps as she neared the other. Once she came into sight, Mahui paused, one paw in the air, and tilted her head at the other. She was older, for sure, but seemed rather...vulnerable? just now. She also seemed to be in pain.
If Mahuika were the kind of wolf to have heart strings, they might have been tugged. But she didn't. As it was, she merely watched the other wolf for a moment with vaguely curious teal eyes. "...You hurt?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:34 pm
Regnad froze at the sound of pawsteps and stifled her whining, cursing. Was it Raz as she feared? Or her sister, however low of a chance that was of happening? Or her mentor? Oh gods, if Iyaroak saw this pointless sight . . . But no, the growing scent wasn't one she recognized, or only half-did. Something like Wraith's but -
Ah. It took seeing orange for her to recognize. Not that Wraith was "orange" exactly, but the hues were similar, and she had seen the deep blues of the second alpha. The shame was lessened some, and Reggie recomposed herself to something of a sitting position, the affected paw jutting out on its own. "A splinter," she responded, "from not being too careful."
Maybe she could ask for some help . . . But at the same time, maybe someone else would make it worse. "You're one of the alphas' children, aren't you. I don't know of your mother, but I know something of your dad."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 12:00 am
Mahuika stopped a few feet from the other, looking her over with those teal eyes -- her expression simultaneously bored and strangely intrigued, like the look someone gives to dirt beneath a fingernail. "I am," she said, in response to the question. "My name is Mahuika."
She wondered how anybody could not know her mother. But, then, she supposed that mother was still quite new here, by comparison. The world was bigger, when you were grown. A valuable lesson to bear in mind.
Her eyes drifted back to the other wolf's paw. "Never gotten a splinter," she said, then. "Cut my paw on a rock one time, though, by the river. It hurt."
It didn't occur to her to offer to help.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 4:52 pm
"That's what wounds do: they hurt."
This was a very dull conversation by most wolves' standards, but Regnad wasn't one to normally talk about something so mundane - or talk at all. Even engaging on her own like this was something new for the adolescent. Most likely she was okay to chatting with someone in the pack she hadn't met yet; meeting the same faces over and over again cemented certain behaviors. A new one would let her grow . . . possibly.
"I've cut my paw many times while your uncle's trained me. Cut other parts too. Bruised, pulled, fell asleep, sprained . . ." It hadn't seemed like so much to her until she started to list them up; Reggie thought it sounded more impressive than it actually was. "You get used to it after a while. There's worse than breaking a leg."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:28 pm
Her head tilted as she considered this. It hadn't occurred to her that training would be so...dangerous. Being too young to start training for real, she'd only ever played at it...but this seemed much more interesting. Danger made everything fascinating. "What's the worst thing you've ever had?" She asked, moving her eyes over the older wolf, suddenly thoroughly interested and perhaps a bit repulsed all at once.
Her tail gave a little thump. Suddenly this tail-less wolf had begun to garner her respect, without even meaning to. This...this wolf meant business. And she had something Mahuika herself was clearly lacking: experience. Real, live world knowledge.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 6:51 pm
The worst? She made a small face as she thought, reviewing the trees about them idly. "The worst . . . I can't say there has been one yet," she answered lamely. And quite suddenly, she wanted to fix that lameness. Here, for once, was a younger one who knew nothing of her family (or so she hoped; had rumors died down yet in Tomkin?). No prior prejudices, no solid opinion of her yet . . .
There was a thought about lying, stretching her accomplishments so that the pup continued to be impressed with her. It was tempting.
But eventually Regnad's mind recollected a particular training session that would suffice with its truthiness. "There was that time I fought your uncle on a slab of rock with nothing but even rockier ground and a river beneath us . . . That time, I wore many cuts - from the land itself and from Feather's attacks. He is very well-versed against others taking advantage of his bad side," she added with approval, even admiration in her voice. "Nothing seems to move him . . ." Regnad trailed off, blinked, then continued. "It was a hard fight, but we never finished it. We were heralded by your father's howl when strangers were found on the land, and we were called to help investigate."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 11:59 pm
Mahuika slumped a little, clearly disappointed when Regnad said there wasn't one. She'd been hoping for a story!
Truth be told, Mahui was quite fascinated by pain and violence. She understood that was part of an assassin's job, although she was still far too young and sheltered to really understand about death and killing. She thought about it a lot, though, and every time it gave her a little shiver of excitement to consider.
But then she realized Regnad was talking again, and she focused her attentions back on her. Cuts and scrapes and Iayorak being, as always, a badass. She couldn't wait to start training with him for real! Especially because she sensed that, maybe, he might understand about her -- that he might understand how hard it was for her to feel some things.
She might have made a comment about her uncle, but the last thing Regnad said intrigued her even more. "...Strangers?" She asked, leaning forward despite herself. "How did they find us? I thought our location was a secret! What did they want?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 4:07 pm
"I don't honestly know," Regnad answered, and wished it were not so. It did something to her sense of well-being, knowing that in spite of all of Tomkin's secrecy, two. two wolves had found their way to the borders. And then, suddenly, her face furrowed into a small snarl as she remembered one possible reason. "Raz . . . Damned idiot must have been so loud he attracted attention to himself like the whore he is."
Such language before a child didn't seem to concern her. In the few times she spent with her sister and mother, Reggie had learned a variety of different words, none of which had been declared "bad".
"They say they want a home and that's all, but I doubt it still," she went on, her snarl lessening as her mind moved past the fool of a male. "The female is open enough, but the male . . . I don't like the look of him. 'Ware the one with the amber eyes, I say. He keeps to himself too much to be part of this pack so far."
Woe behold anyone who mentioned how often Regnad kept to herself. It had gotten better with age at least; she did spend time with Iyaroak after all, for training purposes. And sometimes the alpha's first daughter, if she was not around with . . . with . . .
Her eyes narrowed again. Raz.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 12:59 am
Her ears swept back, brow furrowing. Raz...Raz...oh! Yeah! She grinned. "You don't get along?" She asked, tilting her head, not judging the statement -- but simply curious. She liked it when others could admit that they didn't like things, or break other rules of social etiquette. It made her feel more at ease with her own feelings.
"Are they still here?" She asked, then, aghast. Why hadn't they been ripped apart? What were they now, a sanctuary, a rest stop? Send her at 'em, she'd rip them apart!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 9:27 pm
"No," she said flatly in response to the Raz question, and her expression almost demanded that the pup not ask after him again. It wasn't so much against Mahuika's curiosity as it was Regnad's own inability to continue thinking of the incidents with the male. Just another corpse to shove under the ground of her mind.
She did nod at her second question at least. "They are. No trouble yet, but I'm suspicious." The female again wasn't her primary concern, but the brown male as aforementioned. "I can't do anything about it since Wraith let them in, but if so much as a toe gets put out of line . . ." Well, she honestly didn't know what she'd do then, but she knew she'd do something.
And then Reggie had to pause and wonder at how much she had been talking, and in such a short time! The wonders of speaking with someone who for once was younger than her.
"Sorry . . . I've been stealing the conversation too much."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 11:30 pm
She filed away this little tidbit about Raz in her mind and thought no more of it. Mahuika was not a wolf particularly interested in or adept with subtext, and the notion that there might be more to it than a simple, baseless dislike was quite beyond her powers of comprehension.
Instead, she turned her thoughts toward the more interesting topic at hand. She would just have to go investigate for herself, then. That's all there was for it. Maybe she'd bring Yakone along. That could be fun! Then she could use her sister as a distraction so she could really figure out what they were up to.
"I don't mind," she said, cocking her head up at the older wolf. "I like it when I don't have to talk much. I never have anything to say."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:18 pm
"Neither do I . . ." Or so she thought. The she-wolf shifted idly, prodding her mind for other possible conversation starters. Her mouth was dry from so much use in such a short period, and it didn't help that the sun now freely beat down upon the land.
Come to think of it, a drink really sounded good right about now.
But how did one exit a conversation? Did they just up and leave? Did they make an excuse? But she shouldn't have to make an excuse to get a drink of water, much less make an excuse to a pup.
Well, the obvious route sounded best then. "I've run out of conversation topics for now. Anything from you you want to say?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:41 pm
Regnad was uncomfortable, and somehow that made Mahuika feel much better. The realization that someone else was awkward and uneasy made her smile.
She considered her question, recognizing that she was being dismissed, and shook her head. "No. No...but thank you, for telling me about the strangers." Something flickered in her eyes, excited, intrigued, and she herself was itching to get away and investigate for herself.
Investigating shady strangers was apt to be way more interesting than making conversation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
